557 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Keeping the Dinner Warm 
I was noticing in a November number 
one woman’s way of giving her men folks 
a warm dinner w .ilc working in the 
woods. They must go with a rig. or they 
would not he able to carry tin* wooden box 
with the soapstone, especially if one had 
to go far. For the past year and a half 
my husband lias been working inside, so 
lie does not have to eat his dinners in the 
open, but takes his cocoa dry in the bottom 
of his pail, and as he has plenty of hot 
water and milk makes it when he is ready 
to drink it, so has hot cocoa with his cold 
lunch, and cocoa is a food, too. Before 
we came here he spent a part of the cold 
months in the woods cutting mine props, 
and as he had quite a distance to go. work 
urst in one piece of woods, then another, 
und had to walk, the box and soapstone 
well before last july, were be asked 
lo follow it. All the other machines that 
followed took th(' same twisty course, 
.,n(I they were not a few, as practically 
lill (lie new machines going into the Phil¬ 
adelphia territory from the factory during 
the last month have gone past here over 
this highway. The freight traffic by 
tmek would support a good-sized railroad 
organization every day in the year; oft- 
times on Sundays, too . 
Xt rather looks as though it were es¬ 
sential for some organization to keep 
roads like this one open for traffic 
throughout the entire year. We have 
had a longer period of conditions for 
sleighing this Winter than we usually 
have, and have seen fewer sleighs than 
in any former season. It. looks as though 
in a few years they will be a curiosity in 
this county. Even if it is Winter, and 
the roads none too good, the farmer gen¬ 
erally. T imagine, looks upon the horse as 
too slow a method of getting from place 
to place, and they say statistics show 
more autos among farmers here than 
anywhere else in the country. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. e. j. weaver. 
Notes from a Snow-bound Farm 
We were really and truly snowbound 
the forepart of the week. The storm 
began early Sunday, February 15. Our 
milk started on its way to the city, hut 
never got any farther than the stand on 
the trolley line, for no oars went into 
Syracuse until Thursday. We were for¬ 
tunate to have been prepared for emer¬ 
gencies like this from past experiences 
with milk strikes and tricky distributers, 
who have tried to scare us into lower 
prices for our milk by notifying us not 
to ship any more at present as they had 
a surplus. We put tin* belt back on the 
separator and watched the gas engine do 
the work, and the pigs and yearling heif¬ 
ers enjoy the skim-milk. 
Monday the wind blew a gale, and we 
did little but chores. Tuesday the boy 
and I harked back to the days of our 
grandfathers. We got out the flails and 
thrashed barley by hand, just as they did 
60 years ago on small farms. It made 
us think of the picture in Dr. Herrick’s 
Almanac, where the men are pounding 
out the grain on the barn floor, while 
everything outside is buried with snow. 
There was no school, and it was an ex¬ 
cellent opportunity for our boy to take 
his physical training at home. I being 
the instructor, I’ll admit I did some quick 
dodging, and the time wc kept was a lit¬ 
tle uneven .but we were warm and com¬ 
fortable while the wind howled and piled 
the snow banks higher. At noon we had 
thrashed and cleaned nearly two bushels 
of seed barley. This barley is the off¬ 
spring of some plots sown in different 
parts of the State by the plant-breeding 
department at Cornell. Two years ago 
we had a plot where hundreds of short 
rows were sown, the seed from a single 
head being sown in each row. This year 
we had two plots of the best two va- 
rities, one of two-row and one of six- 
row; the yield was about the same. Next 
year we expect to sow an acre of each 
of those, and then we can decide which 
we will continue to sow. 
These plans bring to mind again the 
things concerning next season’s produc¬ 
tion. and whether we shall decrease it. 
Well, I think we will. Our farm con¬ 
tains over 150 acres in a good state of 
cultivations, and well equipped .but who 
will do the work? Our boy is in high 
school. We have quite a dairy, and 
shudder at. the thought of the daylight 
saving plan being again imposed upon 
us. Wo are often tempted to dispose of 
the cows, or about half of them, at least. 
There will be but two pigs here next 
year, for home use only. I firmly believe 
the only way to put agriculture on the 
Same footing with other industries is to 
cut production by working shorter hours 
and employing no help on the farm when 
it ran be avoided. Suppose some of our 
land does lie idle. I shall plow only 
about. 20 acres. We will raise enough 
potatoes for our own use ; sow about 10 
aeres of oats and barley and plant the 
rest 1 to corn; will have about 00 aeres 
of hay to cut. and let the rest go to pas¬ 
ture. With the corn for silage and plenty 
of Alfalfa hay. with ground barley and 
oats, we shall have to purchase very lit¬ 
tle feed except something high in protein, 
to form a balanced ration. It would not 
be hard for us who came into existence 
40 or 50 years ago to go back to the 
same methods of living as then, when our 
grandsires lived almost entirely upon 
their own products. e. e. w. 
Onondaga Co.. N. Y. 
were out of the question, so put string 
beans, peas, salsify or soup (cooked, of 
course) in a tin pail which he carried 
aside from his lunch pail for coffee, bread 
and butter or sometimes crackers. On 
reaching the woods be always made a 
small fire in some sheltered place, which 
would keep his lunch from freezing as well 
as keeping the vegetables warm. On out- 
of-school days the boys would tease to go 
with “Daddy.” and pockets would be filled 
with potatoes and onions to roast in the 
ashes. Sometimes they would put their 
bread or a piece of meat on a long stick 
and hold it over the fire to toast. These 
were picnic days for the boys, and I guess 
“daddy” enjoyed them as well, for there 
are times now when he wishes he was still 
working in the woods. MRS. A. G. C. 
Contest Ration; Ventilation; Concrete 
Floors 
1. Could you tell me how. what and 
how much the hens at one of the egg-lay¬ 
ing contests are fed? 2. Also, how rnueh 
glass and how much muslin for a hen¬ 
house 10x40, S ft. in front and 5 ft. in 
rear? 3. What, is the right way to make 
a cement floor in a henhouse so it will not 
be damp and the litter get damp so 
quickly? A. B. T. 
New York. 
I. The hens at the Vineland contest are 
fed a dry mash composed of equal parts 
by weight of cornmeal. wheat bran, mid¬ 
dlings. ground oats and beef scrap, this 
being kept constantly before them in open 
hoppers. The scratch grain is composed 
of equal parts of cracked corn, oats and 
wheat in the Summer, with the quantity 
of corn doubled in the Winter. This is 
fed lightly in the morning and at 11 a. 
m., with a full feed at night. In the first 
year of the contest, about equal amounts 
of grain and mash were consumed by the 
birds; in the second year, about twice as 
much mash as whole grain was eaten, and 
in the third year, the amount of mash 
consumed exceeded that of whole grain by 
about one-half. About S to 10 quarts of 
whole grain per 100 fowls are usually fed 
in the litter by poultrymen, the amount 
being varied from time to time to induce 
the eating of an equal weight of dry mash. 
The greater the amount of whole grain 
fed the less the quantity of dry mash the 
birds will consume. 
2. I should not use muslin in windows 
for ventilating puri>oses; it is a failure 
there. Sufficient window space should be 
taken to flood the interior of the house 
with sunlight, perhaps one-third of the 
front, and these should be kept open by 
being dropped back at the top a few inches 
or more, according to the severity of the 
weather, in the Winter, and by being en¬ 
tirely removed in warm weather. If win¬ 
dows are not arranged to open as sug¬ 
gested above, an open space of about one- 
third of the front two feet above the floor 
should be provided for ventilation, and 
this may be protected from driving storms 
by muslin curtains upon hinged frames. 
3. A concrete floor should be well un¬ 
derdrained by being raised a few inches 
above the surrounding surface of the 
ground and by being underlaid with field 
stones to a sufficient depth to prevent sur¬ 
face water from standing beneath it. The 
concrete itself should be properly propor¬ 
tioned and should not be too wet when 
put in place. Enough water should be 
added to give the mixture a quaky con¬ 
sistency, not enough to make a soupy 
mass. M. B. D. 
Potatoes for Hens; Bone Meal for Pigs 
Does it do laying hens any harm, or 
stop egg production, to feed them cooked 
potatoes and peelings with the mash? 
Does it do any harm to feed a three- 
months-old pig a good handful of ground 
bone with his feed? Does it do him any' 
good ? E. g. 
Grand Haven, Mich. 
1. Cooked potatoes, fed in too great 
quantity and to the exclusion of "ther 
foods better adapted to egg production, 
harm the fowls in any other way. Pota¬ 
toes are a fattening food of limited value 
to a laying flock. The parings and raw 
would check egg laying, but it would not 
potatoes in moderate quantity may be 
given a home flock in addition to their 
grain as a succulent vegetable food. 
2. Ground bone would be of benefit to 
a growing pig that did not have enough 
mineral matter in his ration to make good 
strong bones. With wheat bran, mid¬ 
dlings, oil meal and other foods contain¬ 
ing considerable mineral matter in the 
ration, or with clover or Alfalfa pasture 
or hay, the addition of ground bone or 
of tankage would probably not be needed, 
though in small quantity it would do no 
harm, and where the ration was composed 
almost entirely of such foods lacking in 
mineral matter as corn and barley the 
addition of ground bone would he of dis¬ 
tinct benefit. M. b. d. 
Poultry Lose Feathers 
Can you tell me what ails one of my 
R. I. Rpd roosters? The feathers have 
come off of his neck. New feathers start 
out. but they soon disappear. I notice 
some of the pullets are beginning to lose 
some of their feathers, too. G. F. s. 
Delaware. 
This is quite likely to be the work of 
the depluming mite, which lives at the 
base of the feathers, causing them to be¬ 
come ’broken off over the affected areas 
and to leave patches of bared skin.. The 
denuded areas are likely to appear first 
upon the rump and to spread from there 
over the body, but are often found upon 
the neck also. As the mites are spread 
by the male bird in the flock if he is 
affected, the trouble is apt to spread 
quickly and affect many of the other 
birds running with him. It does not 
appear to do seriou6 damage in the flock, 
bur causes a ragged, unkempt appear¬ 
ance that is not desired, if nothing more. 
An ointment recommended for use in 
treatment of this affection may be made 
by mixing two drams of fldwers of sul¬ 
phur. 40 grains of carbonate of potash 
and one ounce of vaseline thoroughly to¬ 
gether. This is to he rubbed into the 
skin over the bare spots and repeated 
after some days if necessary. M. b. d. 
Honey Beats the Sugar Trust 
(Continued from page 555) * 
frames should be evenly spaced in each 
body above the excluder instead of 10, 
and some beekeepers only allow eight to 
the body. This allows more cappings to 
be removed when extracting, as the combs 
are built much thicker than with the 10 
spacing. Be sure always lo have 10 
frames in the brood chamber with the 
queen. E. j. w. 
LeeUnioirAUs 
that’s the name that signifies the best- 
made, most popular work garment in America. 
Farmers who nave tested it’s comfort and wearing 
quality will use nothing else. But be sure you get 
a genuine LEE UNION-ALL. Look for the full 
name engraved on the buttons and remember it 
can’t be a UNION-ALL if it isn’t a LEE. 
The H. D. Lee Mercantile Co. 
Minneapolis, Minn. * Sooth Bend, Ind. Trenton, N. J. 
Dept. No. 4663 
City,*Mo. 
