1424 
Jbt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Hens and Wet Earth 
F EW amateur poultrymen know that hens will 
eat quite a quantity of earth if it is moistened. 
1 noticed that where the water had sloshed over 
when the pails were set down in the coops the hens 
had eaten quite a hole in the ground. .So when tak¬ 
ing the pails out to get fresh water, if there was a 
little still in the pails, I kicked away the litter and 
threw the water on the ground. Instantly the hens 
would run and drink the dirty water and pick at 
the wet ground and, eat it. I think they need the 
finer grit of the soil as well as the coarse grit 
usually furnished them. A friend of mine, who has 
my old Tom Barron stock of White Leghorns, 
hatched his first chicks this year March 17. On 
July 13 the first pullet laid, and by the first of 
September they were laying 73 per cent. By the 
first of November most of them had stopped laying, 
and started to molt around the neck. But fortu¬ 
nately he has a wife who is a good poultrywoman; 
she took her baby in one arm, a water pail in the 
other, and went into the orchard, where there was 
some short green grass growing. She filled her pail 
with this short grass; sometimes the grass would 
come up by the roots, but she put earth and all into 
the pail, and every worm she could find, and fed it 
to those shut-in pullets. In about 10 days she had 
started them all to lay ? ng again. Sire told me: 
“They would eat every bit of that earth." When 
hens are at liberty they can get all the earth they 
want, and if they ate a pound a day we would not 
notice it. 
I think a board floor, or a cement fioor. in a hen¬ 
house, is an innovation. I kept poultry for many 
years before I knew that hens would eat earth at 
all, and the eagerness with which my liens would 
run for and eat that wet earth was a revelation to 
me. They had an abundance of grit and ground 
oyster shells, also ground charcoal, in a compart¬ 
ment box where they could help themselves at any 
time, so it was not for lack of any of these things 
that they were so greedy for the earthy matter. 
Little chicks will droop and die if kept on a board 
fioor; they must be put on the bare earth as soon 
us possible to thrive. 
My practice for years was to put sifted loam every 
Fall into each poultry house, 6 in. deep. This was 
equal in effect to moving the houses to a new loca¬ 
tion. Once a week the whole surface was scraped 
over with a shovel and the collection—largely drop¬ 
pings—was thrown on the droppings boards, cover¬ 
ing them an inch deep with the dry material. The 
absorptive power of dry earth is wonderful. If a 
board or concrete floor is ever used in a poultry 
house, it should be covered at least 6 in. deep with 
dry earth. 
In the days I am writing about I had a scratching 
shed attached to each house, with all the litter kept 
out in the shed. The whole floor was used for a 
dust hath by the liens, and they greatly enjoyed it. 
Dust? Yes; but 1 ne\er noticed that it hurt the 
hens any. Lice don't like dust: they breathe 
through their pores, and dust smothers them. But. 
he is a poor poultryman who lets lice bother him 
nowadays; there is not the slightest need of it. 
GEORGE A. COSGROVE. 
Dam for an Ice Pond 
I NOTICED in a recent issue an article in regard 
to a cement dam for an ice pond, telling liow to 
build the wall. A dam wall built in the manner 
noted needs finishing. It must be strong. A face of 
dirt hatter, like the picture (B) is better, as a wall 
built that way, with the water pressing down on the 
dirt hatter, is far stronger than a cement wall built 
A B 
Concrete Dam M'ith Earth Batter. Fig. 613 
up straight and with a short slant. We have an 
acre pond built this way, and it is 7% or 8 ft. deep 
inside of the dam retaining wall. We built across 
the creek a floor wall down onto hardpan, 0 in. thick, 
and reaching both inside of pond dam wall and out¬ 
side several feet. This keeps out muskrats, as they 
are persistent diggers, digging dirt and gnawing 
lumber to get into a pond, especially when ice covers 
pond 12 in. or more thick. An ice pond built sub¬ 
stantially is good property, but must be built strong 
to hold an acre of water 3 to S ft. deep. I know of 
a pond built with a nearly perpendicular wall inside, 
and it leaks more or less all the time, as the pressure 
of water seeps through. Built with a dirt batter 
inside, and the longer the better, it will help to hold 
instead of pushing away, as the water on a long dirt 
batter holds down instead of pushing away. It is 
not an easy matter to hold an acre of water without 
using common sense. f. M, p. 
Now York. 
More About Sprouted Oats 
I USE sprouted oats all Winter after my cabbages 
and other green food are gone, and believe there 
is nothing can equal it. especially for chicks. The 
general rule is to feed about a square inch per bird, 
but for chicks the sprouts are pulled off and fed to 
them, and the remainder is fed to mature birds. If 
anyone has ever seen a bunch of hens fly for their 
sprouted oats they will understand with what relish 
hens eat this form of green food. I use a commer¬ 
cial sprouter, but any ingenious person can make 
one as satisfactory; just a series of trays about 2 ft. 
square and 2 in. deep, with a bottom of fine wire 
mesh, or the whole tray may be made of zinc, with 
holes punched in the bottom for the water to drip 
out. Trays should be at least 4 in. apart, and <5 in. 
is better. The bottom tray is watertight, and 
catches the drip from the pans above and prevents 
the water from putting out the lamp. 
Oats to be sprouted are soaked for 24 hours, then 
rinsed off and put in the trays, care being taken not 
to have them too deep, preferably 1 in. Turn the 
trays end for end each day and stir the oats till the 
sprouts just begin to show. This will insure an 
even stand and do away with tall sprouts at the 
side. New trays are put in at the bottom and moved 
up away from the heat as the top trays are fed out. 
Avoid too much heat. This will rot the oats. In 
the Spring, as the days get warm, I use no artificial 
heat, and although the oats sprout slower, yet they 
seem to be better. In removing the sprouted oats 
from the trays cut around the edges with a knife, 
and the whole can be rolled out like a mat. 
Massachusetts. a. b. chase, jk. 
The Flying Machine for Orchard Work 
O N page 1295 we made some statements regard¬ 
ing the use of flying machines for dusting 
orchards. The experiment there reported seems to 
have been a success. The dust was applied very 
rapidly, and certainly was effective. 'The question 
comes up, if there are really any possibilities in this 
method of handling dust. Is it likely that a flying 
machine for this purpose can be practically applied? 
Prof. II. A. Gossard of the Ohio Experiment. Station 
witnessed the experiment tried on page 1295, and 
he has written us the following statement about it : 
It is always impossible to forecast the applications 
that may be made of such a process as aeroplane dust¬ 
ing. I think it will be conceded at once that there are 
very obvious limitations to its general use. An aero¬ 
plane is a costly pieee of apparatus, and a skilled 
operator must be at the pilot wheel. The poison is 
much less in the control of the operator than in ordi¬ 
nary spraying, and wind currents may take it where it 
is not wanted. Pasture fields adjoining orchards 
December 10, 1021 
where it is used are endangered from the dust drifting 
over the grass. The proper direction for the dust can 
only be learned by the operator after more or less 
experience in the air. he will probably always be 
obliged to make a few trial puffs to observe where the 
dust is carried, and will need to supplement this by a 
considerable educational experience that will enable him 
properly to judge how to modify his height above the 
trees, and distance from them, strength of wind cur¬ 
rents, etc., to secure anything like satisfactory scatter¬ 
ing of the poison. However, there may in time come 
considerable co-operative use of such machines for large 
cotton plantations and for field crops where the* Farm 
Bureaus of more than one county can own a machine 
and do the work rapidly where considerable-sized fields 
are involved. It is quite possible that large orchards 
of nut trees, such as pecan or English walnut, which 
sometimes are very difficult to spray on account of 
their size, may be benefited by this method of applica¬ 
tion. I am quite sure that no one who observed this 
experiment will doubt the practicability of distributing 
poison over large areas of forest which cannot well be 
treated with a liquid spray. I feel <|uite sure some 
areas infested with Gypsy moth and Brown-tail moth 
can be more expeditiously and effectively treated by 
this plan than by any other. 
lie also says it has been reported that the flying 
machines were used in France in fighting grass¬ 
hoppers. The places where the grasshoppers con¬ 
gregate are hunted out by men in these machines, 
and where found, quantities of poisoned bait may 
be distributed from the air. It is not impossible that 
something of this sort can be used to advantage in 
lighting the grasshopper outbreaks on the Western 
plains. Prof. Gossard also thinks it is quite prob¬ 
able that the flying machine will be at some time 
tested for the control of the corn ear-worm. This 
will probably first be tried out in sweet corn fields, 
as tbe present prices for field corn would hardly 
warrant the expense. 
Using the Dry Bordeaux Mixture 
E experimented this year with a method which 
is new to us. and inexpensive in labor as well 
as material, of applying dry Bordeaux mixture. Top¬ 
per sulphate Iblue vitriol) was dissolved in water 
by suspension, then poured over hydrated lime, about 
5 lbs. copper to 50 lbs. lime. This mixture was 
spread on a cement floor to dry. which took about 
one week, after which we pulverized it with a trowel. 
IThe method of pulverizing could undoubtedly be im¬ 
proved upon.) The above quantity easily covered 
one acre of potatoes when the tops were large enough 
to cover the ground completely. Tost of the material 
was about 75 cents. We had previously used the 
commercial mixture at a cost of 30 cents per pound. 
A leading druggist told me this contained only a 
trace of copper. 
As shown in the picture, Fig. 017. a 12-year-old boy 
can.apply this powder with the gun, which costs about 
$25. We found the best time to apply it is in the 
evening, when the air is still, or early in the morn¬ 
ing, when there is a heavy dew. m. h. p. 
Elba. N. Y. 
The Red Rome Beauty Apple 
T HE apple shown at Fig. 015 is known as Bed 
Rome Beauty. L. .T. Clifton of Memphis, N. Y., 
sent us samples of this fruit, the picture representing 
one of average size. This apple lias a bright red 
lied Rome Beauty Apple. Fig. 613 
color and is, to our taste, rather superior to the 
ordinary Rome Beauty in flavor. Mr. Clifton says 
bis original trees came from Missouri. He also says: 
“Three years ago. w hen it was hard work to get $3.50 
per barrel in Syracuse for Wageners, I sent a barrel to 
my dealer of the Red Rome. As he was opening the 
barrel I went in. His greeting was: ‘Clifton, if you 
had put these in three boxes I could have got you $10 50 
for them. I think I can ger $0 or $8 now.’ lie sold 
them to a fruit stand for $7 before I left The crop 
colors the most uniform of any variety I raise, almost 
no green ones. One eight-year-old tree last year gave 
me SO.” 
