690 
IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Market for Butterflies 
Eggs by Accident 
While walking through a sheltered 
little village in the Patskills one vaca¬ 
tion day in inidsuininer, I suddenly came 
to a quaint, comfortable little farm, 
which was one huge mass of lettuce 
hefis in many different stages of develop¬ 
ment; some just peeping up, some al- 
I'eady transplant«“d, and many ready for 
cutting. I am fond of lettuce, and was 
ple.nsed when the kindly old farmer 
greeted me with his pleasant “good 
morning,” and I hesitated a few minutes 
to talk to him about the i)roduct of liis 
labor. 
He told me that he sui)plied .a fashion¬ 
able Now York hotel with lettuce all 
year, and he gav’e me m.any i»oints on 
lettuce raising which T had never heard 
of before. We concluded our little talk 
with his giving me some seed, which I 
was to send home to f^onnecticiit and 
have planted at once, so that it should 
be ready for transj>!anting when I should 
come in September. Hy so doing I was 
to have lettuce as late as November, T 
followed my friend’s instructions min¬ 
utely, and <piite ])rond I was of my let- 
A Business in Meat Canning 
I wrote once, a year ago or jjerhaps 
longer, about the large business done by 
Coi'nelius Canfield in canning, and espe¬ 
cially the large amount of meat canned. 
Since .Tan. 1, 1t>17, to March Ut>, they 
canned 70(12 c.-ins of meat, mainly beef, 
(bough they c.nn all kinds of meat. I’er- 
hajis their early Fall and Winter can¬ 
ning was more, but I have not the fig¬ 
ures. Theirs is mostly custom work. 
They charge from 7.o to S.'T cents a dozen 
cans, but think they will have to charge 
more, .as the jtrice of cans has gone up 
so much. They cjin corn, peas, tomatoes, 
squashes, punii)kins, beets and api)les for 
others at about the same rates. Mr. 
Canfield kills a few beeves to can and 
sell; for which he charges .'((.‘1.7.’) a dozen 
cans; chicken, .$.').10 a dozen, etc. He 
formerly cooked in a cooker in hot wa¬ 
ter, but this Winter has put in a steam 
cooker that cooks as thoroughly in one 
hour as the hot water diil in four hours, 
making a great saving in time and fuel. 
Their work is greatly appreciated. They 
can hardly keep ui> with their canning, 
often having 2 to 25 quarters of beef on 
hand. They can 2(»0 cans at a time by 
using both retorts. 
So mu<-h is written nowadays as.sert- 
ing that farmers’ wives should do their 
own meat canning, etc. Where such an 
Scene in a New York Dairy Country.—Electric Power from a Stream Lights the House and Runs 
Small Machinery 
T enclose an order blank from .Tames 
Sinclair, entomologist, who offers to buy 
butterflies from iTc. up to .$7 each, but 
wants me first to send .$2 for imstruc- 
tions and illustrations of rare species, 
etc. Do you think he will buy butter¬ 
flies, or does he only want the .$2'f 
Pennsylvania. N. oooD. 
The circulars from .Tames Sinclair 
seem too good to be true. They are writ¬ 
ten evidently with the idea of making 
people think there is a great business 
in collecting butterflies. For instance, 
he says that some rich men si)end mil¬ 
lions on their favorite hobby ; that Ttoth- 
child’s collection is worth fi(10,(K)(),(M)0. 
You read along through this circular, 
thinking you have struck a great bene¬ 
volent citizen at last, but finally you 
come to the following: • 
Owing to the considerable expense of 
advertising, i)ublisbing, prej)aring, cost 
of the pictures and (iescrii)tLon, and my 
time K|)ent in writing these instructions, 
compels me to charge .$2 for them. 
Passing over the grammar of this, we 
have the same old game of requesting .a 
small sum of money before any business 
can be done, and we cannot advise any 
reader to send either .$2 or 2c. to this 
party under such conditions. Our ad¬ 
vice is to l(d. him alone. We have in¬ 
vestigated this butterfly business care¬ 
fully with some of tin* most rejuifiible 
dealers in the country, and they tell us 
there is nothing in it excejit for cerfain 
skillful people who may manage to catch 
insects of certain desirable varieties. 
Keep your .$2 and put it in the bank, or 
buy a useful present for mother or oue 
of the childi'en. 
Experience With Turkeys 
One year ago last .Tanuary T wrot(> to 
Tiik II. N.-Y. asking you to juiblish an 
exhaustive article on rai.sing turkeys, and 
telling you that we were back-to-the- 
landers, and wished to experiment with 
them, both for i)rofit iind pleasure. For 
a time it seemed to be all exi)erimental 
and no profit or pleasure. We purchased 
a trio of turkeys and in two weeks the 
tom died. A few weeks later one of the 
hens had to be killed; then we secured 
a nice Bourbon Red tom, and lafer in 
the Spring we drove miles through the 
mud to attend a farm sale wher4! they 
had advertised a trio of turkeys for sale. 
We s(*cured the luuis, wallowed home 
through the mud, hai)i)y in the thought, 
that we were getting the upper hand of 
])lain common “b.ad luck,” little realiz¬ 
ing that one of our hens would ju’ove 
to be a good lusty gobbler, which “she” 
did. 
So we linally commenced our Sum¬ 
mer work of raising turkeys with two 
hens which w<‘r(! hatched in August .and 
two toms. Wxj followed clos^ily the 
planted directions on “Experience in 
Turkey Raising” by Mrs. Niles Drover, 
whch Thk R. N.-Y. so kindly iniblished 
for our Own esjiecial benefit, only that 
we fed johnny cake .and Dutch cheese, 
instead of wheat br.an, raw egg and sour 
milk for the first two weeks as she sug¬ 
gested. I shall use more chif-k feed and 
cracked grains this year on account of 
the high cost of cornmeal. The result 
of our Summer’s work with tnrkey.s 
stands like this: One tom and six hen 
turkeys left for breeding stock. Hold 
$0.'! worth and ate one for our Thanks¬ 
giving dinner. 
The two hens laid 00 eggs and d.*! 
turkeys were raised to maturity. No 
account was kept of the grain that was 
fed. I wish to add one suggestion to 
Mrs. (Trover’s otherwise' complete and 
comprehensive article, and that is, to 
make pills of , turpentine and bread 
crumbs the size of marrowfat p<‘as, and 
give several doses if need be to the ail¬ 
ing turkeys. Wo cured three large tui’- 
keys last Fall. We put turpentine in 
the drinking water once in two weeks, 
or oftener if necessary, for chickens as 
well as turkeys. We wish to extend our 
profuse thanks to TitK R. N.-Y., also to 
Mrs. Drover, for the prominent part they 
have taken in making our exiieriment in 
raising turkeys both profitable and i>leas- 
ant. MKS. F. B. KK.N.XKDY. 
, Michigan. 
tuce bed when October came, and it was 
beginning to head up nicedy, but, alas, 
tbinking one day only of our Summer 
gardens gone, and that it was a long 
time since I luid found any eggs in the 
in'sts, I left our dozen hens out for a 
stroll around the yard. 
Imagine, if you can, my chagrin an 
hour hater when I discovered every single 
hen (h'vouring my priz<> lettuc<*. The 
rascals, to undo in one short hour what 
Nature and I took about three months 
to do! Discouraged, I let them keep on 
—I even let tluun out daily now, for the 
lettuce was us«'less after their first visit. 
Three days went by. Behold, two eggs 
in the nests, four days three eggs, and so 
on until my snp))ly was simply suri)ris- 
ing, and .as egg were (TO cents a dozen, 
I no longer lamented my lettuce. I be¬ 
gan feeding it regularly to the hens 
while it lasted, giving it to (hem .as des¬ 
sert .after their regular feeding. Aft<‘r 
frost time I fixed a bed in the cellar and 
planted some especially for them. 
The results were, indeed, jdeasing all 
Winter, phaity of lettuce meant plenty 
of eggs. I raised quite a *|uantity in¬ 
doors with very little ti’ouble, and need¬ 
less to say, I jdanted some as early iu 
the Sinang as the ground would allow, 
and many times I have tuily regretted 
not having more hens. iiici.K.N j’AOXAM. 
establishment has all the facilities for 
canning, should we swe.at over a cook 
stove'? When farmers think they can do 
their blacksmithing, carj)cnter work, and 
everything pertaining to tln'ir farm 
work, then f.armers’ wives should add 
gardening, canning, et<‘., to their al¬ 
ready too heavy burdens. 
K. A. BAR.NARD. 
(’attarangus Co., N. Y. 
Keep Receipts for Payments 
I am very much interested in R. 
N.-Y., esjjccially the dairying. How long 
must a person keej) the receipt of a bill 
which has been paid'/ A certain party 
has tried to collect bills from several 
persons which have been paid years ago, 
but fortunately most of us had a re¬ 
ceipt. Must we keep the receipt all of 
our life, or if it got lost would we he 
compelled to pay such bills over again'/ 
K. w. R. 
You .should keep the rec<‘ipted bill as 
long as you live. It is the only evidence 
you have that the bill has heen paid. If 
you pay a bill by writing out a ch<‘ck, 
the endorsement on the back of that 
check would be considered as a receipt, 
but if you pay in cash, without good 
witnesses who saw the payment, it is al¬ 
ways possible that some dishonest per.son 
will lake advantage of you. The follow¬ 
ing case was sent to us not long ago. 
A woman who did not undestand busi- 
April gl, 1017. 
ness borrowed some moiu'y of a man 
who was a local money-lender. He made 
out a note for the amount of the money 
and she signed it. When the note was 
due, she went alone to this mom>y-lender 
and paid him the c:ish, which she had 
saved u)) after considerable of a strag¬ 
gle. Not being a business wonuin, she 
forgot to ask for the note, and no receipt 
was given her for the money. Later, to 
her suiqirise, this money-lender demanded 
payment on that note, stilting that she 
had not jiiiid him, and challenging her 
to give a receipt for what she chiimed 
to have given him. I.egiilly this nm.i 
could have compelled her to pay that 
money twice, but luipjiily some honest 
men in that neighborluiod who knew the 
circumst!inc(>s comjielled the money¬ 
lender to give up the note iind destroy 
it through thrciit of public exposure. We 
have heard of a number of ciise.s where 
poor jieople, through their ignoriince of 
business affairs, have either lost their 
receipt or fiave neglected to demand the 
r4*tnrn of note when they were paid. 
Dishonest peojile took advantage of them 
and demanded double jiayment on the 
notes or of a debt for goods. 
It is alwaj's wise to keep the receipted 
bills on file or else to jtiiy such bilks by 
check. It does not make any difference 
bow many years jiiiss by after the pay¬ 
ment of a debt; you must have your 
receipt or some similiir evidence to show 
that you j)aid your money. 
A Business in Apron Making 
There has been on my mind for two 
or three years past an idea that kimono 
aprons woubl si'll to farmers’ wives and 
daughters direct to them by mail from 
the maker, giving them a good article 
w»‘ll mad<*. I have ji man ami his wife 
who are (|ui(e anxious to begin, the wife 
in jiarticular, knowing how to make 
aiu'oiis and with yt'ars of exja'rience in 
running power sewing mar-bines. They 
have .-) little building on their jiroja'ity 
which at a small <‘xpt*use would jvnswr'r 
to begin w’ith. Electric ))ower lines run 
by their house. We have taken Tiik R. 
N.-'i . for the last four or five years ami 
h.-ive never notir-ed a thing of that kind 
advertised. W’e m!ed not give uj) our 
positions until we see how it starts off 
after a few- weeks advertising. Will you 
consider the matter and give me your 
opinion'/ w. L. 
.\ thing of this sort could only he set¬ 
tled by fair trial. Y<*ars ago fhert; were 
many such little enterprises started in 
New England, 'riiey did well for a time, 
but, as they became lu-ofit.-ible, tin; large 
clothing manufactun'i-s absorbed them 
since they were able to make garments 
clieaiier. Most farmers’ wives ju-efer to 
make their own a))rons. A sujterior .-ir- 
ticle might si'll to fair .-idvantage. but it 
would have to be very good and .jiei.-ii- 
liarly adapted to f.-irm w-ork. Building 
a dii-ect trade would bi' somewhiit exiien- 
sive, as it must be ibuie l.-irgely by ad¬ 
vertising or by direct sale from house to 
house. I’nless you could make the aprons 
at ii very low ju-ice it would taki' some 
time to establish ji reputation for su- 
lierior work. .Vs soon as the manufac¬ 
turers saw there was any profit in such 
business they would enter it. On the 
other hiind, farmers’ wives ought to pa¬ 
tronize one of their own numbej- who 
tried to start a business. Every business 
hope for the future lies in an encourage¬ 
ment of these smaller entei-iu-ises in the 
country. Would farmers’ wives feel that 
way about it or would they go after the 
best “bargain” or lowest price? This 
could only he decidiul by a fair trial in 
trying to .sell the aprons through adver¬ 
tising. We think a persistent manager 
with fair capital could make it go. 
Making Potato Chips 
I have quite a <|uantity of rather 
small potatoes (seconds?) which will 
soon begin to sprout. I wi.sh to make 
these up into iiotato chips to -save them 
for later Summei- use. (’’ould you tell me 
how this is to be done? What .should 
be used to fry fhem? How to slice them 
most easily? What thickness of slices? 
How to regulate heat? The most im¬ 
portant part is the way to pack (Tiem for 
keeping. I have empty cracker boxes. 
(’i)uld the.se be u.sed? Class cans I do 
think could be made of u.se. How to 
manage it? FAIRFAX. 
Various iilans have been suggested for 
.saving such potatoes, but the following 
metbod has been tried successfully: 
Feel, slice very tbin, and throw into 
ice water for an houi-. Dry between two 
towi'ls, and i-ook in boiling lard’ or 
cottolene. Drain perfectly dry. Keep 
in a cool place to avoid becoming rancid. 
Heat before using to make them cri.sp. 
'I'hey ai-e alwaJ^s bettor fresh made. 
