Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Dividing and Planting Rhubarb 
I have an old bed of rhubarb plauts 
which seem to be very much run out. I 
would like to change the location of the 
bed. and would appreciate any informa¬ 
tion as to the best time to do this; how 
to divide the roots and the proper prepa- 
ation of the soil. C. w. D. 
Springport, N. Y. 
Khubarb may be readily propagated 
by division of the old roots, each eye or 
bud when divided or broken apart with 
a root attached forming a plant. This 
work may be done either in the Fall or 
Spring; latter part of September is a 
good time, as the sets will make more or 
less new root growth before Winter sets 
in and be ready for an early and vigorous 
start the following Spring. The first 
season after separating and planting no 
stalks should be pulled, but the following 
year the crop may be harvested without 
Injury to the roots. The most suitable 
soil is a deep, sandy loam, which should 
be plowed at least 10 inches deep, and 
when the plants are set each one should 
be given three or four shovelfuls of well- 
rotted stable manure, well mixed with the 
soil. This, together with good cultivation, 
will produce a good crop. K. 
Discouraging Hen Trespass 
In answer to S. H. B., page 1396, will 
say that I saw a case like his that was 
corrected at once by taking several hairs 
out of a horse’s trail and carefully mak¬ 
ing holes through kernels of Dent corn, 
then tying this end of the horsehair 
through each one, and scattering them 
in the garden where the neighbors’ hens 
frequented, at night, and the next morn¬ 
ing there was some fun in the henyard, 
and the owner concluded at once to shut 
up his hens. Thread about a foot long, 
instead of the horsehair, can be used by 
tying pieces of burned matches an inch 
long to loose end. c. P. c. 
This referred to a case where the 
neighbor's hens came over and “culti¬ 
vated” the garden. We have heard of 
this horsehair treatment before. It is 
rough on the hens, but helps keep the 
garden smooth. 
Henhouse ‘‘Bedbugs” 
I have a chicken house that is literally 
alive with what seem to be bedbugs. I 
have tried several things to get rid of 
them, and have written to the Agricul¬ 
tural Department for a bulletin on vari¬ 
ous vermin, and I received word that the 
supply was exhausted. I could close my 
coop reasonably tight for fumigating or 
I could spray. Could you tell me of 
something that will exterminate them 
without injury to the chickens or destroy¬ 
ing the coop? C. A. 
Chester, Pa. 
There is a species of poultry parasite 
known as the dovecote bug that resembles 
the bedbug, and this may be the one in¬ 
festing your building. Persistent use of 
the same applications that are efficacious 
in destroying red mites should rid your 
premises of this bug. The building should 
be cleared of loose boards and unnecessary 
fittings and made broom clean. It should 
then be thoroughly snrayed with the 
liquid used, flooding all the cracks and 
crevices in which the bugs hide. A mix¬ 
ture of three parts kerosene with one of 
crude carbolic acid is comparatively in¬ 
expensive and efficacious. Carbolineum 
is another good preparation, and crude 
carbolic acid alone might be used if suf¬ 
ficient care in handling it was exercised. 
These stronger applications will necessi¬ 
tate somewhat prolonged airing of the 
building before the fowls are returned to 
it in order to avoid irritation of their eyes 
from the fumes. Any application will 
very likely need to be repeated after sev¬ 
eral days to get newly hatched parasites 
and those escaping the first spraying. 
_ M. B. D. 
Influence of the Male and Other Poultry 
Matters 
The time of year is at hand when care¬ 
ful poultry breeders are looking around 
for male birds for their next year’s breed¬ 
ing pens, and here is one of the places 
where “economy” does not pay. It is 
tar cheaper in the end to pay a good price 
tor a first-class male bird, bred from gen¬ 
erations of high-producing females, than 
Jo buy an equally good-looking, or even 
better-looking male, whose ancestry is 
unknown. It is true that “the male is 
halt the flock.” so. if a man has a dozen 
good liens that he considers worth at 
least $5 each—that is. $60 for the flock— 
it is not an extravagance to pay $20 for 
ii male bird to mate with them. If he 
raises a hundred pullets and they lay a 
uozen eggs each more than they would if 
. imt by a cheap male—and that is a very 
'"derate estimate—the extra hundred 
t n ,i! «ft e?s ? at cents a dozen amounts 
i ‘v’’" foi'o paying for the male and 
.mg you $30 ahead, and you still have 
’'male bird for further breeding. 
mnw? thl,1 3 wU1 rmi flown a flock of fowls 
• sui 'ely than a mating of brothers and 
h. , rs ; ar *fl that is very commonly prac- 
,-L formers and ordinary poultr.v- 
they select the most beautiful 
iiim out °f the bunch, aud mate 
ln „.J vl l h tke pullets, and this course, fol- 
, r Several years, will deteriorate 
oek. It is much better, if the sire 
is a good one, to breed him back to his 
own pullets aud the best cockerels to the 
hens. 
Picking Out the Best Layer. —Often 
one wants to reduce the flock of hens 
in the Fall, but does not know how to 
select the poorest layers to sell to the 
butcher. If the poultry bouse has three 
or four roosts on the same level and 
enough fowls are kept nearly to fill them, 
a very quick and easy way to select the 
poor layers is to take all the hens on the 
back roost. I presume somebody will 
laugh at that, but if the doubter has a 
place where he can put for a few days the 
hens on the back roost, then notes how 
many less eggs he gets each day from the 
remaining birds, lie will be astonished to 
find how little difference the removal has 
made. The reason is that the birds which 
are not laying require less food, go to 
roost earlier and generally seek the back 
roost. The best layers, as a rule, are 
those down first in the morning and up 
on the roost last at night. Another way 
is to feel of their crops at night. The 
laying hen will usually have a hard, full 
crop; the non-layer a soft, half-filled crop. 
The expansion of the pubic bones is still 
another way of picking out the laying bird. 
If the bones on each side of the vent ai*e 
close together, so that only one finger 
can be placed between them, then it’s a 
sure thing that that hen is not laying; 
but if they are wide apart, so that three 
fingers can be placed between the bones, 
that hen is almost sure to be a layer. Of 
course, all experienced pbultrymen know 
these things, but there are always new 
beginners to whom this information may 
be of value. 
How a Natural Tendency May Be 
Changed by Selective Breeding.— 
Rhode Island Reds have been known for 
years as most persistent sitters. Many 
have given up keeping the breed solely 
on that account-. What has been accom¬ 
plished by the Massachusetts Experiment 
Station to overcome this tendency to ex¬ 
cessive broodiness is worth noting. I 
quote: “Starting with foundation stock 
that was extremely broody, a strain of 
R. I. Reds has been established that is 
almost as free from broodiness as White 
Leghorns. In the original flock 87 per 
cent became broody, with, an average of 
4.9 broody periods for each broody hen. 
In the non-broody line of Reds 19.8 per 
cent became broody, with an average of 
1.9 times broody. Corresponding figures 
for White Leghorns at Storrs Contest— 
fifth report—show 13.6 per cent broody, 
with an average of 1.3 broody periods 
per broody bird.” The great advantage 
of this less tendency for broodinees is 
the greatly increased egg production. The 
report states that the production of the 
high lines is nearly three dozen eggs each 
more than the average production in 1915- 
1916. When a hen goes broody she is a 
laying hen. Kill her, and the yolks in 
her ovaries will be found of varying sizes, 
some nearly large enough to be shed into 
the oviduct. Take another hen that has 
been sitting three weeks, and the yolks 
will all be .shrunken down so that the 
total mass of the ovaries is less than a 
quarter of what the mass was when she 
first became broody. The yolks are ab¬ 
sorbed back into the system in some way, 
and it takes time for these. yolks to de¬ 
velop again. 
The report states that 200-egg pullets 
have become very common, and they have 
run up to 269. One of the important re¬ 
sults of last Winter’s work was a demon¬ 
stration that high Winter production, in 
R. I. Reds, at least, descends directly 
1575 
from mother to daughter. That natural 
tendencies can be so changed by selective 
breeding is one of nature’s wonders. 
GEORGE A. COSGROVE. 
Preparing Fowls for Exhibition 
I would like to take my S. C. Black 
Minorcas to the fair. Would you please 
tell me how to make their feathers shine? 
What do they use for this purpose? 
Prattsburg, N. Y. w. n. 
_ The feeding of oilmeal in the ration will 
give added lustre to a fowl’s plumage if 
sufficiently long continued. I do not know 
of any application to the feathers that 
would prove of use, though, of course, 
these should be clean. Fowls are washed 
for exhibition purposes in a tub of warm 
water and with the use of a mild, white 
soap. They are then carefully rinsed in 
clear, warm water, aud their plumage 
allowed to become dry in a warm room, 
where they can be kept clean. Bluing is 
used in the rinsing water of white fowls, 
as it is used by the housewife to give a 
blue-white appearauee to her linens. Care 
not to break the plumage should be used 
when washing a fowl, aud the work 
should be done in a warm place, that 
colds may not ensue. 
M. B. D. 
A little girl walked into a confection¬ 
ery. placed a nickel on the counter, and 
called for an ice cream cone. “Ice cream 
cones are seven cents, little girl,” the fizz 
clerk announced. “Well, then, give me a 
soda pop.” Six cents.” “Got any root 
beer?” “Yep; six cents, too.” The little 
girl sighed disappointedly and started out, 
leaving her nickel on the counter. “Here, 
little girl, you’re leaving your nickel.” the 
clerk called to her. “Oh, that’s all right,” 
the child shouted back. “It’s no good to 
me—it won’t buy anything.”—New York 
Globe. 
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