626 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
keep everlastingly at it. But it pays to 
fight them, since it costs as much food 
pbr day to keep a rat as to keep a hen. 
F. D. C. 
Horse Meat for Fox Feeding 
I notice considerable discussion in The 
R. N.-Y. about horse meat. It seems to 
be used mostly for pig feed. Here, on 
Prince Edward Island, horse meat is in 
big demand for fox feed. There is a bi" 
trade in this island new for old horses. 
There are probably very few horses over 
20 years old now on the island, so great 
is the demand for old horses to feed the 
foxes. Foxes must have meat of some 
kind, and cow beef is too expensive. The 
fox men even import horse meat from the 
adjoining provinces of Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick and Quebec. An old horse 
fetches an average of .$20. a very fat one 
might bring $25 to $80. There are about 
5,000 silver foxes under domestication 
(ranched) on the island, and it takes 
quite a number of old horses to feed all 
those. An ordinary fox-ranch uses about 
two horses a week. As a result of this 
demand for old and worn-out horses the 
price of good young horses is keeping 
up well, notwithstanding the increase in 
the use of automobiles. The hides fetch 
six to seven cents a pound and the meat 
four cents. There is a little more beef 
(meat) on a horse than on a cow. 
Prince Edward Island. J. A. M. 
license fees to such pension fund under 
the laws existing prior to the taking ef¬ 
fect of this act shall be deducted there¬ 
from and be paid into such police pension 
fund.” 
You will see that while it is a fact that 
in certain instances a portion of the dog 
license money may go into the police pen¬ 
sion fund, it does not increase the amount 
of the license fee. o." L. inlanders, 
Counsel. 
Destroying Rats 
Food for Wild Ducks 
I live in the neighborhood of a small 
swamp of about 15 acres, partly covered 
by trees, in the western part of this State. 
In the Spring ducks lay their eggs in this 
swamp and come back in the Fall or 
middle of the Summer. Would wild cel¬ 
ery, wild rice or other wild duck foods, 
grow in this vicinity, and, if so, which 
one would be preferred to give food to the 
ducks in the Fall? What time of year 
should this be planted? h. j. r. 
New York. 
Most of the common foods of wild ducks 
grow well within a few miles of H. J. P., 
but it is impossible without a trial to say 
whether they will grow in the swamp in 
which he is interested. There are many 
swamps in this part of the State in which 
none of these plants will grow, appar¬ 
ently because they are peat bogs, in 
which the water is too acid. If the swamp 
is suited to the growth of wild duck foods 
and the water is deep enough, it is prob¬ 
able that some of them are there now. 
This seems likely because the ducks are 
said to breed there. 
Mr. W. L. McAtee of the United States 
Biological Survey has made a careful 
study of wild duck foods for many years 
and has written many articles on the sub¬ 
ject which may be secured from the Bi¬ 
ological Survey, or from the Superintend¬ 
ent of Documents, Washington. D. C. 
There are many firms offering these food 
plants for sale'for the purpose of plant¬ 
ing. They can also be transplanted from 
the places where they grow wild. The 
young plants of wild rice can be trans¬ 
planted in early Summer. Wild rice seed 
which was kept out of doors and covered 
with water which was changed every day 
except when frozen is said to have grown 
well. If the seed is kept in this way 
there is less danger of loss by the seed 
being eaten by fish and ducks. It may be 
gathered in the Fall and sown at once. 
It should have no time to dry out after it 
gets ripe. The wild celery plants can be 
transplanted almost any time, or the seeds 
can be sown in the late Summer or Fall. 
The seed pods are broken up in small 
pieces in water and sown where they are 
wanted. The various pond weeds are 
propagated by scattering pieces of the 
plants in Summer or by sowing the W in¬ 
ter buds or tubers. These tubers and the 
Winter buds of wile celery are raked up 
from the bottom in late Fall or early 
Spring before growth starts, and scat¬ 
tered in the pond where they are wanted. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. Alfred c. weed. 
Police Pension Fund and Dog License 
In Oneida Co., N. Y., we are taxed 
$2.25 for each male dog and are told that 
the 25 cents is to go to a police fund in 
the city of Rome, N. Y. Is such a tax 
legal? c. e.p. 
Section 182 of the Agricultural Law 
provides that: 
“A person who owns, harbors or keeps 
a dog shall obtain a license therefor, as 
provided herein, and shall pay the follow¬ 
ing fees: (1) $2 for each male dog and 
spayed female dog.” 
The same section provides that: 
“There shall be paid to the town or 
city clerk in addition to this license fee 
the sum of 25 cents as a registration fee 
for the services of such clerk.” 
Thus vou will see that C. E. I’, is cor¬ 
rect in stating that the license fee for a 
male dog is $2.25. It is not a tax, but a 
fee paid for a license to keep a dog. 
Section 139-H of the Agricultural Law 
provides that: 
“On or before the fifth day of each 
month the town • - city clerk shall remit 
to the Department of Farms and Markets 
the amount of all license fees received by 
such clerk during the preceding calendar 
month, except that in a city or village 
where under the laws existing at the time 
of the taking effect of this act. any por¬ 
tion of the license fees for licensing dogs 
is paid into the police pension fund in 
such city or village, in which case an 
amount equal to the amount payable from 
What chemical or other substance is 
used for exterminating rats so that the 
bodies will be petrified? Is there any¬ 
thing more useful than formalin ? j. L. B. 
As a starter, get the Department of 
Agriculture bulletin on the subject, only 
be sure to send them your address, which 
you left off in your letter to us. We never 
heard of formalin as a rat cure; it might 
drive them away, but it would not kill 
unless you got * - rat in a hole with 
only one opening, and rats, like squirrels, 
do not fancy that kind of a hole. And 
we don’t know anything that will petrify 
them, though they are said to dry up when 
phosphorus poisons are used. The writer 
has recently had a lot of trouble with 
rats, and has found the best scheme to be 
feeding with flour or something else they 
like for a day or so, and then mixing 
about one-tliird barium carbonate with 
the flour. They clean that up and go out¬ 
side, if they can, and do not return. But 
if any do not get in on the feast it is hope¬ 
less to try them with the flour, even the 
straight stuff, for a few days. Brown 
bx-ead will carry quite a little arsenic 
without exciting their suspicions; one of 
the widely advertised cures is that mix¬ 
ture. The rat disease spread rnong them 
by “rat virus” is no doubt fatal and 
harmless to other animals, but the treat¬ 
ment is rather expensive. Most people 
do not idealize that rat destruction is a 
community affair ; unless your neighbors 
will fight them, too, lyou will constantly 
get fresh supplies. So you will have to 
Curing a Rearing Horse 
An answer to A. B. C., page 890; about 
20 years ago I got a three-year-old colt. 
It had been broken single in the Spring 
and then been turned out to pasture. In 
late Summer I traded a work horse for 
the colt to drive to my work, two miles. 
I could not stop two seconds before said 
colt would throw up her head, and if l 
did not. let hei' go, would rear up on her 
hind feet, and many was the time I would 
think she was going to fall backwards. I 
drove a two-wheeled cart or sulky, and I 
would step out on the axle so I could 
jump, and wait for her to come down, one 
way or the other, and only wished she 
would break her neck and be done with it, 
as nobody wanted her. My wife would 
hold her while I hitched flic last tug and 
jumped on the seat;,then she would jump 
one side to keep fi*om being run over. I 
was doing carpenter work for a grocery- 
man, and he helped me hitch up at night 
and gave me advice as to how to handle 
the horse, which advice I did not take at 
all, as I Avas brought up on a farm and 
thought I knew more about horses than 
he did. I also thought he had never seen 
his remedy tried, was just imagination; 
it was so simple it was foolish to try it. 
It was to Avhirl her around, make her 
dizzy. Well, I thought it was bad enough 
going ahead without a whirl-around hoi’se. 
I finally finished his work and Avent to 
work in another part of the city, and I 
could get no one to help hitch up. I cer¬ 
tainly did have a circus hitching up alone. 
After about four weeks I met the grocery- 
man one evening as I started for home. 
I stopped, and it was no time till she was 
standing on her hind feet. He said. 
“Have you Avhirled her around any?” I 
said no. He said. “Don’t baby that colt 
any longer; put the bud to her and Avhirl 
her around till she will stand; that is the 
way they break running horses.” By that 
time I Avas out of hearing, but it flashed 
through my mind I had never seen a run¬ 
ning race but that some of the horses 
couldn’t be kept from making a dash only 
by keeping them circling around back of 
the starting line. When within one-half 
• April o, IP.a 
mile of home T stopped, and at first sign 
of rearing up I gave the word to go, 
pulled hard on left line and laid on the 
whip on her right side just once. She 
went around so quick two or three or four 
times it made me dizzy, and she stood 
with her front feet spread out as though 
afraid of falling down. ^Before I got home 
she Avould stand till I told her to go, but 
the next morning she tried once as I got 
on the sulky an 1 would not let. her go to 
rear up, but as I pulled the left line and 
put the whip on her and whirled her 
around she stood for me to get off and on 
the cart as many times as I had a inind 
to .and the fight was over. I kept her tAVo 
and a half years, and never knew her to 
rear up again, no matter hoAV long I 
wanted her to stand. F. J. L. 
Ilornell, N. Y. 
Shoe Boil 
Regarding shoe boils, page 504, I am 
obliged to disagree in part Avith your cor¬ 
respondent and also the paper. My 29- 
yea l’-old mare developed a large one about 
tAvo years ago, in a box stall Avith no 
flooi*, and no shoes. I did not give it 
sufficient treatment, so that the sac and a 
small portion of the boil remained. This 
Winter in the same stall, and still bai’e- 
footed, another large one came in the same 
place. This I treated regularly by apply¬ 
ing my favorite liniment with the result 
that the boil and sac both disappeared, 
leaving the parts perfectly smooth. 
North Carolina. j. c. F. 
Egg-eating Pup 
We have a hound puppy dog. and he 
has started eating eggs. Will you tell me 
how to inake him quit? c. B. 
Delaware. 
BIoav out a fi - esh egg or two and fill 
with mustard paste. Let the pup experi¬ 
ment with one of these now and then un¬ 
til the sight of a hen egg makes him burn 
with shame to think that he ever indulged 
iii such a hot proposition. 
Willis : “They used to say that the 
packers wasted nothing of a pig except 
the squeal.” Gillis: “I understand now 
that they are even canning the squeal and 
putting it on the market in the form of 
a gx-and opera phonograph i-ecord.”—Life. 
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ilil! ill! 11 JirW^ N^OW tW«AP 
Rut Riding, and 
the Goodrich Sidewall 
B ETWEEN your farm and town is at least one stretch 
where you either drive in the groove of wagon tracks— 
or ride the bumps beside them. Without arguing which you 
do—or which is better for your tires—it is enough to say the 
ruts grow deeper day by day—and their sides of sand and 
gravel bits grind busily away at the sidewalls of your tires. 
Turn now to Goodrich Tires, and see how the interlocking 
safety bars of Goodrich’s thick, practical safety tread spread 
beyond the ball of the tire to the sides of it. And examine 
how the extra wide tread carries on up the sides beneath the 
side strips, and fortifies the inside of the tire with an extra 
shield of tough tread rubber. 
That’s the Goodrich answer to rut riding. It is one reason 
why Goodrich Tires meet the demands of farm service as if 
they were designed expressly for it. 
For a Ford Car, Goodrich’s “Three Seventy-five” Tire— 
a bigger Ford size—makes a super-Ford out of your car. 
For a high power car, Goodrich Silvertown Cord Tires de¬ 
liver a special high power service. Remember that whether 
you need pneumatic tires or truck tires, a farm on a Good¬ 
rich basis is saving money on its tires. 
Buy Goodrich Tires from a Dealer 
