688 
Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Raising Canary Birds 
I have mated a pair of canaries. Fe¬ 
male is sitting on four eggs. Will you 
give advice about raising young canaries? 
New Britain, Conn. mrs. d. j. 
Since the inquirer has mated her birds 
and the female is now sitting on four 
eggs, we will take up the story of what 
to do after that. The eggs ou^ht to hatch 
in 14 davs, this being the usual period 
of incubation. During this time the fe¬ 
male should be kept as quiet as possible. 
Some even recommend throwing a thin 
dark cloth over the side of the breeding 
cage nearest the window. Watch the male 
and take him away if he troubles Mrs. 
Canary too much. She can be trusted to 
scold him soundly if he makes too much 
noise to suit, her, though. Except for 
the absolutely necessary daily care, like 
changing the sand tray at least every 
other day, the giving of food, water and 
chance for bathing, the birds should be 
left alone. 
When the birds hatch, watch the father 
carefully at first. Most males make 
good fathers and help feed and care for 
the baby birds, but some may even at¬ 
tempt to injure the young. The young 
birds should stay in the nest from three 
to four weeks'. Leave them with the 
parents as long as they have to be fed. 
lie sure that each one can and does crack 
seed for itself before you take them away. 
If the female starts to prepare for a sec¬ 
ond brood, she may pull out feathers from 
the young mirds. In that case you can 
put the baby birds in another cage and 
hang it so close to the breeding cage that 
the babies can be fed by father and 
mother through the wires. Don’t put 
baby birds with older birds that are 
strong enough to fight them. Young 
males will fight among themselves almost 
constantly if left too long in a cage to¬ 
gether. Baby birds taken out from the 
breeding cage must be watched very care¬ 
fully indeed at first. If one of them does 
not feed itself, it must be put back with 
the parents right off. Use every precau¬ 
tion to avoid vermin, and scrupulous care 
in food and cleanliness. Most of the 
losses among baby canaries come after the 
young birds are put into their own sep¬ 
arate cages, but there ought to be no 
trouble at this time. 
Don’t let the mother bathe for three 
or four days after the eggs hatch. The 
babies might get damp and catch cold if 
she did. The usual food for canaries is 
a supply of canary seed, a little rape and 
maybe a few hemp seed. Canaries are 
apt to be very fond of hemp, but it is 
too fattening. Better use it only occa¬ 
sionally, as the well-brought-up child gets 
candy. Lettuce, chickweed or apple may 
be put in the cage occasionally. A grower 
of 29 years’ experience says a bit of let¬ 
tuce the size of a silver half-dollar once 
a week will supply all the green food a 
bird actually needs. Yet a bird will eat 
all W can get. Too much will cause in¬ 
testinal trouble, but a rusty nail put in 
the drinking water for a day or two al¬ 
ways cures “Sunny Jim.” who is a little 
glutton for green food. Bread dipped in 
scalding milk, then cooled, is also a good 
food. Moist foods should be given in 
special dishes or holders, and not made 
too wet. Neither must any more be fed 
than the birds will eat up clean. Other¬ 
wise it might sour and cause no end of 
trouble. Once a week egg food may be 
given. To make this, chop fine a hard- 
boiled egg and add an equal quantity of 
unsalted bread or cracker crumbs. These 
are the direction for feeding birds the 
year round: 
The egg food can only be used when 
fresh. During the breeding season egg 
food should be given daily as soon as the 
birds are mated. While the female is 
sitting, it may be given every three or 
four days. After the babies hatch they 
should have only the yolk of a hard- 
boiled egg the first day. Then add bread 
crumbs gradually until, on the third day, 
they are taking the ordinary egg food. 
The parents should have the usual seed 
supply, no matter what other food you 
give. When the babies are four or five 
days old. begin giving bits of green food. 
The egg food must be used until the 
babies can crack for themselves all the 
canary seed they will need. No one can 
tell you how much food a young bird will 
eat. Their appetites vary as much as 
people’s do. Y’ou can help Mr. and Mrs. 
Canary in their labors by feeding a few 
cracked hemp seeds once in a while. Meal 
worms make a toothsome tidbit, too. if 
the parents have a large family to feed 
or a young bird does not seem to be flour¬ 
ishing. If any baby seems especially 
delicate, you can soak some rape seed 
over night, then drain until dry. These 
will be easy for the baby bird to crack 
for himself. EDNA s. KNAPP. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—Still higher prices for 
gasoline are foreshadowed in a report on 
tbe oil situation in the United States 
made public March 18 by the Bureau of 
Mines. In 1919 the number of automo¬ 
biles in the United States increased 25 
per cent, while the production of gasoline 
increased but 10 per cent. In 10 years 
tbe number of automobiles increased 1.700 
per cent, while the amount of gasoline 
increased 560 per cent. There were ap¬ 
proximately 7.500.000 automobiles in the 
United States on January 1. 1920. an in¬ 
crease of almost 1.500.000 in 1919. In¬ 
dications are that by the end of the pres¬ 
ent year there will be between 9.000.000 
and 10.000.000 motor cars. 
Survivors of the crew of the submarine 
H-l arrived at Los Angeles March 18 
aboard the motor ship Mazatian. The 
H-l went ashore March 11 off the coast 
of Lower C lifornia. in Magdalena Bay. 
The commanding officer. Lieut. Com. 
James R. Webb, and three enlisted men 
lost their lives in attempting to leave the 
vessel. 
One nun is dead and nine other resi¬ 
dents of the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., House 
of the Order of Mercy were burned or 
otherwise injured March 21. when fire 
destroved the convent. The loss is $150,- 
000 . 
Accused of selling fraudulent stock. 
Abraham White. 55 years old, who said 
be is a promoter, and who the police say 
cleaned up $100,000 several years ago 
with a capital consisting of a two-cent 
stamp, was arrested in New York March 
22 on complaint of Mrs. A. M. TTavner, 
who alleged that on November 11, 1919, 
he sold her worthless stock, for which 
she paid $1,800. He was taken to police 
headquarters by Detective Higgins of the 
District. Attorney’s office, and was later 
i*eleased on bail. 
Fire, starting from an explosion, swept 
over the plant of the Constantin Refining 
Company at Tulsa, Okla.. March 23, cans-' 
ing damage estimated at $500,000. Nearly 
eight thousand barrels of crude oil and 
eight 3,000-barrel tanks of refined oil 
were destroyed. 
Ratification of the proposed suffrage 
amendment to the Federal Constitution 
was completed by the Washington Legis¬ 
lature March 22, when the Senate unani¬ 
mously passed a resolution ratifying the 
amendment. The resolution previously 
had been passed by the House. Wash¬ 
ington was the thirty-fifth State to ratify.: 
Only one more State is now necessary for 
ratification. 
The open shop was upheld by the full 
bench of the Supreme Court at Boston 
March 22, when it ordered a permanent 
injunction to issue against photo engrav¬ 
ers’ local and international unions, re¬ 
straining them from interfering with the 
business of Wright & Co. and tbe Folsom 
Engraving Company. Refusal of the 
companies to comply with a union de¬ 
mand to conduct their shops on a closed 
basis had resulted in a strike declaration. 
FARM AND GARDEN. — American 
Land Service is now enrolling seasonal 
workers from the cities to meet the acute 
farm-labor shortage. Its investigators 
have found that the chief cause for the 
influx of young people to the cities is the 
lack of social life in the country. The 
bureau, which has the support of Gov¬ 
ernor Smith and other prominent men, 
has already received requests from farm¬ 
ers for 8,000 workers during the emer¬ 
gency periods. The workers will be 
taken to the country in units and housed 
in camps in the center of an agricultural 
community. They will be taken to the 
farms in motor trucks and gathered up 
the same way in the evening. The office 
and headquarters are in the Lexington 
Theater, 571 Lexington avenue, New 
York. 
A special meeting of the New Jersey 
Beekeepers’ Association will be held in 
Edward C. Sharp’s apiary, near White 
Horse, Mercer County, N. .T., on Satur¬ 
day, April 10, at 2 o’clock P. M. to dem¬ 
onstrate the results of ample Winter 
packing. Colonies of bees which have 
been packed according to Government 
specifications will be unpacked and exam¬ 
ined. R. D, Barclay. Riverton, N. J., 
is president of the association. 
The Eekberg Company, manufacturers 
of milk flour, of Cortland, N. Y., filed 
an involuntary petition in bankruptcy in 
the Federal District Court at Utica, 
March 22, with nominal assets of $785,- 
000. Judge Ray appointed George M. 
Champlin of Cortland receiver, and au¬ 
thorized him to continue the business 
tinder bond for $250,000. 
A total of 17,340,000 tons of wild hay 
was harvested in 1919 from prairie and 
marsh lands throughout the United States. 
At least a few thousand tons were pro¬ 
duced in every State. South Dakota led 
with 3.728.000 tons, with Nebraska. Min¬ 
nesota and South Dakota following, with 
over 2.000,000 tons each, according to 
the Bureau of Crop Estimates of the 
United States Department of Agriculture. 
Buyers from all parts of North Amer¬ 
ica and Europe assembled at Montreal 
March 22, at Canada’s first big fur auc¬ 
tion since the days of the old Hudson 
Bay Company. Skins valued at more 
than $5,000,000 were offered. Thirty 
April 3, 1920 
buffalo hides from the Dominion’s buffalo 
ranch at Wainwright, Alberta, were listed 
for auction. These were accompanied by 
mounted buffalo heads. Musk ox skins 
brought there from arctic exploration 
trips and a collection of silver fox pelts 
from Prince Edward Island also were fea¬ 
tured . 
WASHINGTON. —The naval appro¬ 
priation bill, carrying approximately 
$425,000,000. passed the House March 23 
without a roll call, and now goes to the 
Senate. It includes provisions aggregat¬ 
ing $104,000,000 to carry on construction 
of new ships authorized in the 1916 three- 
year program and for an enlisted person¬ 
nel averaging 125.000 in the navy and 
20.000 in the Marine Corps. There was 
no provision for new construction in ad¬ 
dition to vessels already authorized and 
contracts for which have been awarded. 
Permission has been granted the Pull¬ 
man Company by the Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission to file special tariffs in¬ 
creasing berth rates approximately 20 
per cent. The company is seeking an in¬ 
crease on standard lower berths to a 
minimum of $2 and on seats to a mini¬ 
mum of 50 cents. 
President Wilson, by an executive or¬ 
der. lifted all Government control March 
23 over the price of bituminous coal, to 
become effective on April 1. This is to 
pave the way for putting into effect a 
new wage scale for miners, estimated at 
27 per cent increase, and amounting to 
$200,000,000. as a final settlement of the 
coal strike of last Autumn. It means, of 
course, that the price of bituminous coal 
will go up, and that the consumers will 
have to pay the price of the wage in¬ 
creases. In view of the advance that is 
certain to come, President Wilson issued 
a warning to coal operators against un¬ 
reasonably high prices that mean profiteer¬ 
ing. 
Dishevelled and weary, the stout su¬ 
burbanite sank gasping on a seat in the 
railway station, and glared at the rear 
end of a train he had just missed. To 
him came the funny station master. 
“Were you trying to catch that train, 
sir?” he asked pompously. The panting 
would-be passenger eyed him balefully for 
a second before he hissed in reply: “Oh 
no; I merely wished to chase it out of 
the station.”—Credit Lost. 
more than 
your claims 
mendations 
concerning 
before I purchased. 
Albert G. Wade. 
Mr. Wade supplies water to 
100 head of stock. 
Omaha, Nebraska 
I am able to have the rain 
water from my cistern 
both hot and cold in 
laundry, kitchen and 
bathroom. Also have 
fresh water in barn, 
poultry house, gardens, 
etc. I cannot see how 
your system can be im¬ 
proved upon. 
John W. Welch. 
Elma Center, N. Y. 
A very strong feature 
about your system is the 
fact that we are getting 
fresh, even-tem pera tu red 
water from the well all 
the time and not tank or 
stored water, which is a 
very different thing in¬ 
deed. 
Oliver Cabana, Jr. 
Mr. Cabana is the owner of 
Rag Apple Korndyke, the 
great Holstein bull. 
id!I Thought\bu Wfere 
Milking More Cows- 
, AIRYMAN after dairyman has told us that when he gave 
his cows water the National way—pure, fresh, even tern- 
peratured, right from the depths of the well, that his milk 
yield increased from two to ten pounds per cow. 
V 
Some dairymen overlook the neces¬ 
sity of fresh, not stored, water— 
a 'milk maker that costs almost 
nothing. 
Milk is 87% water. A cow needs 
three pounds of water for each 
pound of milk. Few cows drink 
enough water because all too often 
the water offered is stale, water 
that has been stored in a metal or 
wooden tank that soon becomes 
slimy. 
The herds of the Agricultural Col¬ 
leges, many of the champions and 
national record holders, are sup¬ 
plied with water the National way. 
Let us tell you more about the National non-storage water system. Write for illustrated booklet today. 
NATIONAL UTILITIES CORPORATION. 328 Belleview Place, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Pure fresh water is the cheapest 
of feed. Adds weight to beef and in¬ 
creases the growth of calves its 
well as increasing the butter fat 
yield. The National non-storage 
fresh water systems are not expen¬ 
sive. They often increase the earn¬ 
ings $25.00 per cow, paying for the 
complete installation the first year. 
They do away with the carrying of 
water. A turn of the faucet brings 
fresh, not stored water, to the barn, 
the bathroom, the bedroom, the 
kitchen or anywhere you wish it, 
and remember*—your herd will pas 
for these comforts in increased 
earning power the first year. 
7 
NATIONAL 
NO N-STOP? AG E 
FRESH WATER 
SYSTEM 
