RURAL NEW-YORKER 
109 
Garden and Poultry 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
It seems rather hard to write about 
j-ardeii matters when tlie whole arctic re¬ 
gion seems to have dropped d<iwn on us. 
Coming the night of r)ec(>mb(M' 29, and 
still with us, is a cold wave never e(inailed 
here since weather rejiorts have been 
made. ^ly thermometer marked zero on 
Sunday morning for the lii'st time iti my 
10 years in this city. Others noted lower 
temperatures. Our water i)eople. never 
(‘XI)ecting such weather, juit the water 
pipes too shallow in the streets, and they 
are frozen in many places. The wat('r 
comi)any has a man daily carrying water 
to me from a near-h.v drixen well. I al¬ 
ways i»ut my little greenhouse boiler to 
keep at bedtime. On Saturday night this 
was deferred till 11 o’clock, and on Sun¬ 
day morning, instead of the usual r).") to 
00 derees, the little house had dropped to 
-10, not surprising when it was zero out¬ 
side. But with a good shaking out and 
a full dr.aft on it soon gathered heat in 
th(' pipes, and the danger was over, and 
not even the 1‘oinsettias in bloom seemed 
to he hurt by the temporary chill. 
Frame lettuc-e is damagerl considerahl.v. 
hut will come otit of it where not headed. 
The headed lettuce is gone beyond remedy, 
as all of this size I have is tin(h>r single- 
glazed sashes, and not anticipating such 
a blast from the north the glass was not 
covered. The double-glazed sashes did not 
get much frost inside. The worst of it is 
the continuance of tin' cold. Onr C(dd 
waves usually last three days. This has 
already been with us five days and shows 
no sign of leaving. For the first time in 
10 year.s, and how much longer T do not 
know, our river is solidl.v frozen. T have 
seen little i»atches of floating ice in other 
AVinters, hut it is closed tight now, and 
looks like a snow plain. 
An officer at the camp at Anniston. 
Ala., said that his toothbrush froze while 
he was cleiining his teeth. It is a good 
test of man.v things. The hedges of the 
California jxrivet around me .-irc' all leaf¬ 
less. I\Iy hedge of tin* Amoor Biver privet 
is still green, hut I rather expect that it 
will shed sonu' wln'ii thi' w(‘ather moder¬ 
ates. The most i)erfectly evergreen jxrivt 
I have is one called Lucidum. hut T can¬ 
not see any dilTerence in it and .Taponi- 
ciim. Both are as evergre('n as a holly. 
I think this would make a far hett«'r orna- 
nn'iital hedge than tin* common California 
or Ovalifolium. It is a dwaif character 
and will need far h'ss shearing than Oval¬ 
ifolium. A plant of Lucidum which I had 
in North Carolina did not get over six ft'et 
high in 10 years totally iinslieaia'd. The 
rank growth of the Amoor River and the 
Califoi'iiia make the kec'ping of the lu'dge 
a serious expense to the town residenter. 
Then in spite of all the shearing they will 
get too large in Ji few years, and the only 
remedy is to cut them down to the ground 
and start again. For small town Ijiwns 
1 consider any privet hedge a nuisance. 
'I’lie tremendous growth of the roots spoils 
the grass for 10 or more feet, and it would 
he far better and prettier to abolish the 
hedge and have good grass to the sidewalk. 
I am gradually eliminating mine. The 
old-fashioned box edging is far better than 
the hedges of privet, for that is green and 
cheerful in AVinter, while the ordinary 
privet is ugly at that time. 
AA'e can usuall.v get p.-irsnips and salsify 
out of the ground most of the time, but just 
now with the soil frozen a foot deep the 
I)arsnii)s are locked up and the leeks not 
comeatable. In fact, we are living in the 
Arctic region for a time. AA’'e never 
know when to expect a railroad train, for 
they are seldom less than two hours late 
and often far more. 
1 generally get my early peas and sweet 
peas planted in .Tanuary, but it does not 
look like planting anything for a good 
whih' yet. It is stated that many of the 
leading trvickers near Norfolk will g-ow 
corn and cotton this year, because of the 
scarcity of seed. On the eastern shore 
of A'irginia and Maryland there will prob¬ 
ably be heavy planting of both sweet and 
Irish potatoes iind tomatoes, and as melon 
seed is probably plentiful the usual area 
will he i)lanted. It is repoi'ted. I notice, 
by Air. De Baun that one .Terse.vman made 
a great success with the Honey Dew 
melon. Here the largest crop of this va- 
lie'y v.-is k.^if an acre, and I heard of no 
boasting as to the result, and am of the 
o})inion that our growers will mainly stick 
to the Netted Gem varieties. The week 
before the freeze the Norfolk growers were 
getting ifT.oO a barrel for spinach. It is 
all scorched off now. and ju-ohably killed. 
Those who get their garden seeds this 
month will he lucky. Late orders will 
he stinted or not filled. w. F. it.vs.SF.Y. 
The “Table Scrap” Proposition 
“It is a well-known fact that the .small 
hack.vard i)oultr.v plant is more profitable 
than the jdant wh('r(' birds are raised in 
a cf)mmercial way and hamlled in large 
numbers. All agree that the reason for 
this fact lies chiefly in the difference in 
fhe food sui>i)ly. Tin* small hack.vard out¬ 
fit is fed with the scraps fiom the fjimily 
tahh'. The hens floui'ish on this diet, lay 
eggs plentifully, and yield a handsome 
retni'ii to their owners at ixractically no 
extni expenditure for food.” 
AA’hat (lo you thiid< of the above article 
))rint('d in the I'rei'miin. Kingston. N. Y. 
I wonder if most backyard poultry keepers 
are :is indignant as I am alxmt siich stuff. 
My 20 chickens cost m<' for feed bought 
especiall.v for them fi’om the f('ed store at 
least, .$() a month, and I have difficult.v in 
getting this moiH'y hack in eggs, to sa.v 
nothing of table scraps, shelter and hours 
of work (certainly none a pleasure at this 
time of the year at least) thi-own in, all 
for nothing. 'Table .scrajis, any sane i)er- 
son who knows only the A. B. G. of chick- 
('iidom knows wouldn’t lx* enough to keep 
them :ilive. and certainly a little more is 
needed to produce eggs. And furthermor'. 
we are not sui)|)osed to have nutritions 
table scraps juiyway to throw out. Mighty 
little do I have that I don’t work over for 
the family; perhaps tlu'se would be some 
of the Freeman’s scraps. I think when 
people are absolutely ignorant on a sub¬ 
ject the.v do worse to tr.x" to influence 
f)thers into tlu'ir way of thinking, i). l. 
This “table scraj)” business leads to 
man.v a “sera]).” One set of authoritit's 
t('lls us that hens oi'. jiigs will liv(' on such 
xvaste, while the m'.xt one scolds ns he- 
cau.se we iiermit any scra|»s to he .scraped 
off’ the plates. The truth is that no one 
ever fe('d.s a flock of hens on such scraps 
unh'ss he waste's mor(' than the lu'ns an' 
worth. AV(' estiui:it(' that with the av('r- 
age family Hie tahh' wastes will feed 
about three hens. All above that must 
he fed on grain. ’^Tluis the jirolit in keeji- 
ing six or eight hens in this way might hi' 
worth considering, hut it would make 
little difl'erence in the cost of keeping 20. 
Another thing—ai-e your 20 birds inil- 
h'fs or old' hens? Tin' latter would nat- 
urall.x' h(' vi'rv short on egg-production 
now. while the juilh'ts ought to he paying. 
AA'(' have .‘!0 Red luillets that lay enough 
to give a good profit, while 20 hens are 
hoarders. AVe would not have them 
around except for hreedi'rs. 'There is no 
limit to the “advice” given to po Itry 
kei'jK'i's. Onr expi'rienci' shows that a 
flock of 10 or 12 good imlh'ts well housed 
and f('d will pa.x- in almost an.v hack.vard. 
'TIh'.v will give a betti'r account of tlu' 
scrajis ’ than an.v other jx't or si'i'vant 
Ave know of. Of course tln're will h(' 
times when the.v do not i)ay. Take the 
season through and let them have garden 
waste in addition to the “scraiis.” and 
then' is usuall.v ii fair j)rofit. AVhen .vou 
ti'.v to ke('p too many or AVinter the okh'r 
hens they will not pay for their hoard. 
If people would use reason about such 
things poultry-keeping in backyards would 
l)a.v. '1 he trouble is that the.y make six 
hens pay jind then conclude that (50 will 
jiay 10 time.s its much. 
Monitor Henhouse 
I am planning to build a house large 
enough for .^00 hens, and had in mind the 
monitor type, 2L\r>0. 'I'here is a great 
deal of dampness hen', and I have been 
told that the monitor t.vi)e henhouse Avould 
not ventilate a.s well as the shed-roof 
f.vpe. ^ I should lik(' to have' fui'ther oixin- 
ions in regard to this, and also Avhere I 
can obtain plans and specifications for a 
henhouse of this size. m. .m. av. 
AA’'ashington. 
\ou may he able to get ))oultry house 
plans adai)ted to .A'our particul.-ir "climate 
trom your Rtate Agricultural Station at 
1 ullman ; if not. a n'lpiest directed to the 
Department of Agriculture. Washington." 
i,!- .'-oil Farmer's Bulletin 
No. .>;)(. This contains a description of 
huildings and fixtures used at the Maine 
Station, and should he helpful to you. 
1 h(' shed-roof t.Ajie of house is in much 
more common ii.se than the monitor type, 
particularly wlu're oiien-front ventilation 
IS desired. Your jiropo.sed house is hardlv 
large enough for .AdO fowls. The.v should 
have at h'ast three sipiare feet of floor 
space each ; four is better. m. n. p 
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]5 
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1 
Name 
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