243 
February 12. 1021 
Wv RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Feed 
is wasted on 
Sick Hen 
a 
Good poultry houses cost real 
money nowadays. Good stock and 
breeders aren’t cheap. But the 
modern farmer is counting results, 
not simply investment and he knows 
that barrels for coops and barnyard 
scrubs don’t pay profits at the end 
of the season. 1 ** 1 Your kitchen range 
should show just as true profits. It 
can if you consider it from the view¬ 
point of service instead of initial 
cost as we have in building the 
Sterling Rang e 
The few extra dollars a Sterling costs, 
like chickens, will come back to roost 
in fuel and food saved. 
Let us tell you about it. A postal will bring 
you full information. 
SILL STOVE WORKS 
ROCHESTER, Y. 
HOLDEN s 
Lime and Fertilizer 
Saves time, labor, money. Handle fertilizer once. Haul direct from cars to 
field. Force Feed— attache* to any wagon—no hole* to bore Spreads evenly 16)4 
feet wide.on hilly or level land. Spreads 75 to 10.000 pounds per acre— no 
clogging or caking. Built strong. Low in price. SPREADS 16)4 FEET. 
Doe* all that is claimed or 
money refunded. Thousand* in 
use. WRITE TODAY for 
FULL PARTICULARS. 
Dealers wanted. 
GUARANTEED to Handle Wet. Dry or 
Lumpy Lime (in any form). Commercial 
Fertilizer. Phosphate. Gypsum. Wood 
Ashes and Nitrate of Soda. 
The HOLDEN CO., Inc. 
Dept. 4 Peoria, III. 
SPREADS 
Virginia Farms and Homes 
FREE CATALOGUE OF SPLENDID BARGAINS 
K. B. CHAFFIN & CO., Inc., Richmond, Ya. 
Virginia Farms g? v a e n r d n lu 
and at moderate prices. Stock and tools included on 
many of them. Descriptive list on application. 
6. It. ltOOKF.ll. - Sunny Side, Virginia 
New York State FARMS 
making farms for sale. We have a size, location arid 
price to please you. Stock and tools included on many of 
them. MftNDEVILLE REAL ESTATE AGENCL Inc.. 0*pt. I. Olein. N Y. 
F ARMS AND HOMES in Delaware where the climate is pleas¬ 
ant, the lands productive and prices reasonable. For in¬ 
formation write STATE BOARD 0E AGRICULTURE, 0»*«r. Dtltwatc 
P RINTING 200 letterheads and Envs. with name and ud_ 
nllll lllll drc96, delivered, for *2. Write for sample. 
MILLER PRIMT SHOP, P. O. 80 * 2364, PHIL A., P*| 
The Farmer His 
Own Builder 
By H. Armstrong Roberts 
A practical and 
handy book of all 
kinds of building 
information from 
concrete to carpen¬ 
try. Price . -50. 
For sale by 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YOR’T.R 
333 W. 30th St.. N. ¥. 
The GRIMM MAPLE SUGAR 
MAKING UTENSILS 
May we send you our booklet which describes our com¬ 
plete line of sugar making utensils! Are you ready for 
the sugar season that is nearly here? Tell us how many 
bur ketS you use and let us quote you prices. 
C. H. GRIMM ESTATE, RUTLAND. VT. 
TIN PLATE 
has many uses on the farm. Sell 
it in 50 sheet lots—your profit 5c 
a »heet. Surplus stock at car 
load prices. Big opportunity. Write for sample. 
THE SKAT COMPANY. Hartford. Conn. 
£1 
ctric Whet 
FARM WAGONS 
High or low wheels— 
steel or wood—wide 
or narrow tires. 
Wagon parts of all 
•rinds.* Wheel9 to 6t 
.. <y running gear. 
Citeiuj illiinreted in eotera free. 
Co., 48 El® SI..Qolney,tll, 
Natural History Notes 
Do Mice Climb Iron Pipe? 
Have you any record of mice climbing 
a perpendicular iron pipe? I built a 
small crib this Fall, and set it on four 
iron posts made of 2%-in. pipe ; the crib 
is 3 ft. from the ground. Today when I 
opened it several mice were scurrying 
around. Of course there are no steps lip 
to the crib, and nothing has leaned 
against it. If it is natural for mice to 
climb iron pipe I would like to know it, 
and will try some other way to keep them 
out. c. Q. E. 
Connecticut. 
In our farmhouse the rats make .1 
common practice of running up and down 
an iron water pipe in the kitchen. Itow 
they bold on to it with their feet is a 
mystery to us, but we have seen them 
perform this act many times. 
More About thj Porcupine 
One day last September, while picking 
apples, Mrs. Orth saw a porcupine in an 
apple tree and called me. By a little 
“persuasion” I succeeded in getting the 
porcupine on the ground, and then with a 
soft pine board about three feet long I 
tried the “throwing quill” stunt. tie 
would hit the board a hard slap with his 
tail and drive the quills in so far that 
they would pull out of the tail and re¬ 
main in the board. P»ut when hit on the 
back the quills would not penetrate the 
board ; probably it would have required a 
hard blow to do so. A rap on the nose 
would cause him to draw back his head 
and legs and cover them with the folds 
of the skin, and then there would be no 
advantage point of attack, and upon being 
poked with the board he would slap with 
weasel when the cattle trampled upon 
her nest. She would attack one after an¬ 
other. biting at their feet just above the 
hoof and. after several had been attacked, 
the whole herd was in flight. The weasel 
is the most bloodthirsty little wretch on 
the face of the earth, and I have known 
of half a dozen youug lambs being killed 
in a single night. I have seen a good- 
sized flock of ducks that were killed 
withiu a few minutes. And I have seen 
a weasel sucking the blood from a four- 
weeks-old pig which it hi\d killed. It is 
absolutely without fear, and will attack 
any animal, no matter how large, and the 
animals most successful in fighting it are 
those whose method of fighting is to jump 
above an enemy and strike it with the 
front feet. Even a jackrabbit can whip a 
weasel by this method. Nevertheless. I 
am fully of the opinion that the good 
which the weasel does in its capacity as a 
rat-catcher more than overbalances any 
and all depredations that the animals may 
perpetrate. c. o. ormsree. 
Parrot Picks Out Feathers 
A friend of mine has a parrot that 
picks himself bare all the tinie. Can you 
tell me the cause of his doing so? 
W. A. Y. 
Apparently there may be four general 
causes for a parrot pulling out its feath¬ 
ers. There may be irritation from ver¬ 
min. or the bird may be kept in too warm 
•a place. He may be improperly fed: that 
produces an irritation leading him to pick 
at his feathers. It may be a habit formed 
originally from one of these other causes, 
and continued because lie has nothing else 
to occupy his attention. Parrots have 
lots more sense than many people sup¬ 
pose. and like toys as well as children. I 
A Sociable Goose 
“Silly Goose” would not in the least 
apply to this specimen of the tribe shown 
in the picture, which exhibits a marked 
degree of sense and training. She has a 
long list of regular day to day activities, 
including a refreshing bath in the washtub 
and a never-satisfied desire to follow her 
master everywhere regardless of whether 
it be day or night. So bent is she on 
following him that he often permits her 
to accompany him around on his nocturnal 
trips, and invariably she is close in line. 
“Buster” takes her chance in a crowd 
even, and will follow her master up tic* 
street on.a busy day with all the import¬ 
ance that only a goose properly domest¬ 
icated can show. a. ii. rui.vkk. 
his tail, but only when he thought he 
could hit the object. I tried to turn him 
over, but at this I failed. I drove him 
out of the orchard to the road and across 
to some bushes and left him. as 1 think 
they do but little harm. In 191)1 one got 
into a sweet apple tree which stood close 
to my bedroom window and knocked of!' 
a bushel or two of apples, but I could not 
find an apple that he had bitten. It was 
a bright moonlight night and I could 
easily see him climbing about in the tree. 
I see one or more every Summer, and 
know that the Rocky Mountain porcupine 
can no more throw his quills than a cow 
can her horns. I know of no serious dam¬ 
age that they do; however, the Federal 
hunters class them with the coyotes and 
wolves as “mischievous, predatory ani¬ 
mals” and kill them on sight. 
TTtall. PHIL ORTH. 
“A Friend ti the Weasel” 
On page 1859 a v liter alludes to me 
by this name and criticizes an article 
which I wrote some little time ago. rela¬ 
tive to the weasel, and says that, if I had 
passed through the experiences which he 
passed through when a child. I would 
wish to change my name. Now that is 
not my name, hut simply one that the 
editor applied. But I have passed 
through more strenuous experiences in 
connection with weasels than any which 
lie describes. I bear scars upon my legs, 
today, which result from wounds made 
more than 40 years ago. by a mother 
weasel when I inadvertently plowed out 
her nest, and I ba /r seen a herd of cat¬ 
tle stampeded on tin- prairie by a mother 
have recently read of one intelligent bird. 
Koko, that has three cherished toys—a. 
ball, a shovel that he drags about on the 
floor of his cage, and a tiny china doll. 
This doll has its face washed every morn¬ 
ing with a scrap of newspaper wet in his 
drinking cup. and is put to bed every 
night between layers of the paper covering 
the floor of Koko’s cage. 
It looks as if the inquirer would have 
to be his own physician. Watch the bird 
closely, and make sure there is no trouble 
with vermin. Then make sure the - bird 
is not uncomfortable from being kept too 
warm. Pet. parrots will eat a great, many 
kinds of food. Of course their natural 
food in a wild state is mostly vegetable, 
but it does not follow that all we serve 
on our tables is good for the birds. I am 
told that sweet corn and bananas, for 
example, are bad for parrots, though some 
birds are very fond of these two things. 
Finally, give the bird some playthings. 
An old spool is very good, something to 
roll and pick at. It would he a good plan 
to get. some inexpensive book on how to 
care for pets and carefully follow out the 
advice given for daily care. 
EDNA S. KNAPP. 
“A lawyer in our town.” said Smith, 
"gave a present of $5 t<' a client the other 
dav.” “1 low was that?” asked his friend. 
“Wei!, explained Smith, “it was* like 
this: His client got hurt in a railway 
accident, and he employed the lawyer 2“ 
sue the railway company. He got A...*!' 
damage, but the lawyer’s bill came t" 
8355. and he kindly agreed to say nothing 
about the balance.”—f’redit Lost. 
