304 
March C, 1020 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Back-to-the-Landers 
A very large share of our questions come from people who meditate moving 
to the country, or who have already made such a move. They have a story to 
tell, or they ask for advice. This department will be a sort of clearing-house 
for the back-to-the-lander. where he may obtain information and swap troubles 
and triumphs, failures, fads and fancies. 
A Working War Garden 
I am 6G this year, and two years ago 
last September moved to this city, to quit 
active work, but the war coming on. as 
there was 16 acres of poor land near me. 
not rented. T took on myself to take the 
working of this. As it was then late 
(March) I hastily put out such a crop as 
I could, and took off about $900. The 
war continuing. I took the tract for an¬ 
other season, and sold as follows : 
Cucumbers .. 
Beans and peas. 
Summer squash. 
Sweet corn. 
Tomatoes . 
Sweet peppers. 
Apples . 
Crapes. 
Grapes, wild . 
Cabbage . 
Pumpkins. 
Turnips . 
Beets. 
Salsify . 
Carrots. 
Winter squash. 
Field corn. 
Onions . 
Plowing gardens. 
Strawberries . 
Strawberry plants. 
Topcorn . 
Milk one cow. 
Potatoes . 
Jesey calf . 
Chickens (raised, bought 
sold) the profit . 
_$180.00 
_ 13.00 
_ 13.00 
_261.00 
_ 151.40 
_ 12.10 
.... 20 30 
_ 2.00 
_ 2.00 
_ 250 00 
. . . . 42 80 
. .. . 4 25 
_ 11.15 
2.75 
_ S.GO 
_ 28.00 
_ 230.25 
_ 15.00 
_ 30.00 
_ 35.00 
_ G0.00 
_ 76.00 
_ 185.00 
_ 35.00 
_ 40.00 
and 
_ 510.00 
Grand total .82.21GG0 
Besides the above we used all we 
wanted, kept a horse out of what was 
raised, paid out very little for help (not 
over $40 > and during vacation my boy. 12 
years.' helped to gather vegetables, and 
Mrs. Turner helped some occasionally. 
Chickens bold were purebred Rhode Is¬ 
land Reds, and produce was nearly all 
sold to the consumer, thus gettiug nearly 
100 per cent of retail prices. 
The above was at the low prices of 1913 
and we also had low prices to pay out, 
and the dollar bought full value in what¬ 
ever we wanted to purchase. 
Illinois. z. t. turner. 
• 
R. X.Y.—Some of our readers will 
blame us for printing this report, because 
they will say it cannot be true, and that 
such figures make the back-to-the-lander 
believe it is all so easy. Mr. Turner has 
what we call proof that his statements 
are correct. It would seem as if no one 
outside of an insane asylum would think 
he can do such a thing without long ex¬ 
perience and a special gift for such work. 
There are many practical gardeners who 
would double this output on 1G acres. 
Fine Poultry in the Back Yard 
On page 50 we had a note from Dr. I,. 
M. Herrington of Pennsylvania telling of 
his superior prize-winning poultry raised 
in a backyard. There have been several 
question about this backyard poultry, and 
so Dr. Herrington lias sent us the follow¬ 
ing notes: 
There is one real exhibition strain of S. 
C. White Leghorns. Get it. Ilow? You 
can buy flue birds that are on different 
lines; breed them, and get worse than 
culls. I got my start by buying from a 
United State post office inspector’s stock, 
from eggs he bought of to make a test. 
The best incubation (hens), the best 
brooding, the best rearing, may produce 
culls, but it is not likely, but the best 
eggs can be neglected in all these respects 
and you get culls, and blame the eggs in¬ 
stead of your carelessness. My space is 
small—2()0 square feet. I could raise but 
75 chicks at most, and got too small a 
number of exhibition birds. I send to the 
country 75 settings of eggs each year to be 
raised on shares. In October I selected 
from the flocks one bird for every setting 
of eggs sent that breeder. It was the 
fault of my judgment if I did not get the 
best birds. The raiser had my best blood 
left for. if I did not send out my best 
eggs I could not expect the best stock 
back. Yes, I’ll admit I was at the mercy 
of all those securing eggs in this way. I 
was deceived by some of these people, but 
I am pleased to know the average man 
can be trusted. I gained in raising larger 
numbers of birds with better vitality, 
though I mated the birds and produced 
the eggs at home, and raised 30 to 75 at 
home. The best cockerel I raised this 
year I raised in my backyard. I watch 
my flock. If a bird does not eat I take it 
in my special charge at once and treat 
him as carefully and vigorously as I do 
my patients. I have an open-front coop. 
It is much colder than the muslin-covered 
(doors and windows) coops. Maybe a 
notion, but I have had more frozen combs 
in open front coops. I mate 10 to 12 fe¬ 
males to a male. Have neither bought 
nor sold an egg or chick in years. 
I feed warm, wet mash in the morn¬ 
ing, chop, to which I add meat crisps. 
Too many hulls in most prepared 
“mashes.” Feed wheat, oats and a very 
small amount of corn. It sometimes takes 
three months to bleach the yellow corn 
out of the plumage of the chick reared in 
the country. 
I sprout oats for green food, and give 
grit, shell, charcoal, etc. Raising poultry 
is my recreation. I would quit practice 
and go on a farm, but the little woman 
that owns, operates and directs me when 
she listelh says: ‘T did not marry a 
farmer and T am not. going to live with 
one.” She has rights as well as I have, 
but an erroneous view. While I am 63 
years young, a former county superin¬ 
tendent of schools and a former United 
States internal revenue deputy, I may be 
too old for the hard work of a farm, but 
“Who’s afraid?" to quote Maude Adams. 
L. M. IIERRIXGTOX. 
Grafting Pear on Apple; Two Eggs a Day 
1. Last November I set an apple tree 
(Wealthy) and a pear tree (Bartlett) 
which are supposed to bear this year. 
The apple tree I set in my mother’s yard 
and the pear in my own. I would like to 
graft a limb from the apple tree on the 
pear and vice versa. Can this be done 
this Spring? If so. please tell me which 
branches to graft, when best to do it. and 
how. Tell me how to take care of them 
afterwards. Both trees stand in very rich 
soil. I would like to get best possible re¬ 
sults from the trees. In the instructions 
sent me with the trees I am told to cut 
back one-half of the limb growth about 
March 15. Does that mean one-half of 
every branch, including the middle stem? 
2. One hears much about hens that have 
laid two eggs a day or more than seven 
eggs a week, or 39 a month. Can you tell 
me if the experiment stations have any 
records of any hen at their stations that 
have laid more than seven eggs a week? 
I had a Leghorn hen that frequently laid 
two eggs in a day, but her monthly aver¬ 
age was very poor as against the other 
hens. Do you think that in time we shall 
breed hens that lay more than one egg a 
day? n. J. 
New York City. 
1. You will not succeed in grafting the 
apple on the pear. Now and then you 
hear reports of this being done, but so far 
as we know there are no records of a per¬ 
manently successful union. You will have 
to use judgment in pruning these trees. 
The general advice to cut back half the 
new growth may be sound, but in order to 
shape the tree properly you must let some 
of the limbs go. 
2. There are records at the egg-laying 
contests of hens that laid two eggs inside 
of 24 hours, but as a rule we think these 
freaks are not remarkable as yearly per¬ 
formers. 
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