1470 
same time as the vines of Lima beans. The roots of 
our plants are everywhere all through the field, and 
we have every belief that they will live through the 
Winter and be even more productive next season. 
The plant is a legume, and we know from this year’s 
experience that it will thrive without lime on a soil 
mildly acid. 
That is the extent of our actual knowledge of the 
behavior of kudzu in the North. There can be no 
question about its value at the South, and while we 
believe it will pay in the more Northern latitudes, 
we advise our readers not to plunge with it. but to 
limit their investments to small quantities—not to 
exceed 200 rots to begin with. That is the safe 
way to try such novelties. Do not. plant the roots in 
gardens or in cultivated fields near the house. It 
will run over such places and make trouble. It is 
not impossible that kudzu may be used on Northern 
dairy farms for “perpendicular pastures,” like that 
shown in the picture. A field near the barn might 
be used for such a purpose and kept going year after 
year. That is a possibility, but we do not advise 
the experiment until one has had a couple of years’ 
experience with the plant. Mr. Leach says that 
kudzu will, after being well established, smother out 
quack grass. That seems incredible to us. but we 
know better than to claim that anything is impos¬ 
sible in farming. Our 
advice is to try 100 or 
more roots next Spring, 
and plant, them in well- 
prepared land in some 
old pasture or back 
field. Give them a fair 
chance. They will not 
thrive so well on light 
land with an open sub¬ 
soil. Give the roots a 
fair chance, and do not 
expect too much from 
them. The experiment 
stations ought to have 
done this very thing for 
us years ago. They are 
slow to get going. This 
is evidently one of the 
things we must do for 
ourselves. Our advice 
is to try kudzu in a 
small way and watch it 
carefully. Do not say 
that we are “booming" 
the plant, or that we 
advised you t<> plunge 
on it. We are not doing 
either. All we do is 
to say that the kudzu 
looks promising to us. 
and we think a fair ex¬ 
periment with it will 
pay. We hope those 
who have the roots for 
sale will refuse to sell 
over 200 to any one person. That is enough to give 
you a fair chance to study its growth. 
Tht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
refers to local conditions, but is true largely else¬ 
where. Meat is being bought and eaten, of course, 
and will, no doubt, continue to be. but probably not 
on a former scale, and certainly not used largely 
until retail prices are revised in line with prices paid 
for live stock. 
I have not owned any cattle for over a year, so 
have not had the losses suffered by most live-stock 
owners during the past 14 months, but I have been 
in close touch with men who have suffered finan¬ 
cially from the slump. One man had gathered up 
about 7b feeders which he sold to a feeder who had 
iots of corn. He got 8c for the cattle and agreed 
to buy them, after being fed, at 11c. At that time 
the market was bad. so he ran them on pasture 
awhile, but the market got worse, so he shipped them 
and got about Sy 2 c on the market. I did not learn as 
to the profit on the first sale of these cattle, but as 
they weighed around 1.200 lbs. when shipped, with a 
pasture bill and a slump of 2 1 / 4c per lb., we can 
readily see what his loss on the final transaction 
amounted to. The pasture should be counted at 5c 
per day per head for perhaps 30 days. Manufac¬ 
turers claim they have suffered great losses, too. in 
the readjustment, which we must believe, I sup¬ 
pose, but when we must buy needed articles we find 
prices entirely too high, so we conclude that every- 
Beef Cattle for Ohio Pastures 
A FTER a rather disastrous year we are getting 
back into the beef cattle game: also we are 
trying to play safe, so are buying calves and light 
stuff. The calves shown in Fig. (140 are Western 
Herefords. They cost me $21 per head at (he local 
stock yard, which price included the dealer's com¬ 
mission and freight of $1 per head from St. Louis 
in double-deck loads. The calves probably averaged 
300 lbs. each, so they cost about 7c per lb. There 
have been several eariots shipped in and distributed 
from our local stock yards this Fall. Some bought 
direct from dealers at Kansas City or St. Louis, and 
others in smaller bunches from local dealers, who 
sorted up the calves to suit the buyers. Considering 
the high freights, high commissions and yardage 
costs, it would be interesting to know what the man 
who raised the calves got for them. Not all the 
calves are Herefords, a large proportion being 
Shorthorns, and a few were Angus. We would 
prefer native calves of even lesser quality, but they 
are not to be had in even sufficient numbers for the 
This is due 
dairying locally, and the 
cream finds most profit 
tail price of beef is too 
that milk, butter, 
pwn with handlers' 
rnish healthful 
meats at the 
of 'course. 
Kudzu in Cut-over Land. Fig. 636. 
tiling has slumped except retail prices and freights. 
Though we had foreseen a change to dairying 
and a larger use of dairy products, we were not ex¬ 
pecting it so soon, but the present unusual condi¬ 
tions have greatly hastened the transition. We are 
confronted with a changed condition, and we must 
adapt our practices to suit, or quit. Therefore we 
do not argue with our dairying friends about pro¬ 
ducing beef calves, nor are we raising many beef 
calves ourselves, but those of us who have lots of 
1 nature and feed, and do not want to milk cows or 
raise sheep, must buy Western cattle. We must 
c mtend with high freights and other costs, but, on 
the other hand, we get a uniform lot of well-bred 
cattle of better quality than the usual run of native 
stock. w. E. DUCKWALL. 
Ohio. 
December 24, 1921 
these birds to his friends at West Point, and al¬ 
though they had never been kept pure, the type was 
so strong that for generations it has come out 
through all kinds of crosses. I had naked necks that 
were Rhode Island Reds in every respect excepting 
the neck and head, also Barred Rocks, and. in fact, 
all sorts of mixtures, but with the naked necks. 
This idea of the bird being a hybrid is all pure 
nonsense. Having sent some of these birds to the 
Poultry Department at Cornell, I think the proof of 
my statements can be most easily verified. 
As far as the table qualities of these birds are con¬ 
cerned, they were most unusual, the breast meat be¬ 
ing very much more in proportion to the weight of 
the bird than of any other bird, and they are largely 
used abroad as squab chickens; in fact. I have eaten 
them abroad. Weighing a pound, they were as 
plump as any pigeon ever dressed. 
New York. w. m. pattesox. 
T 
That “Turkey-Chicken” Hybrid 
HE article on turkey-chicken hybrid, page 1348, 
of your November 10 issue, is interesting and to 
me very amusing. 
Eight or 10 years ago. while in a small village in 
Virginia—West Point—about 30 miles east of Rich¬ 
mond. I noticed these "Naked Necks" among the com¬ 
mon barnyard fowl in that town. I succeeded in get¬ 
ting a few of the stock and bred them for several 
years, finally turning over all the stock to Mr. 
George Urban of Buffalo. Would say that he had 
also secured some stock from a source other than my 
stock. The history of these birds at West Point was 
that a Hungarian had been entertained in that local¬ 
ity and in appreciation of the courtesies shown him. 
upon his return to Hungary, had shipped some of 
A 1 : 
Rat Diseases and Cats 
FEW weeks ago I saw an article in The R. N.-Y. 
about rats and mice killed by science. 1 live 
about half a mile from a poultry plant, where they 
have used either this or something like it. 1 am not 
saying how many rats it destroyed, but it would be 
no trick at all to count 
the live cats. The cats 
have died off all around 
us by wholesale. A 
neighbor who lives near¬ 
er than we do has lost 
12. and all the reason 
the rest did not lose 
that many is because 
we did not have them. 
It has been a wonder to 
people what was the 
matter with the cats: it 
is impossible to have as 
much as one kitten. Is 
this sort of rat poison 
responsible for it ? Ha ve 
other localities had the 
same experience, and is 
it reasonable to suppose 
that there is anything 
that will spread a high¬ 
ly contagious disease 
among rats and mice 
and that cats can eat 
those rats and be per¬ 
fectly well and happy? 
There have not been 
any happy cats in this 
village in the last few 
months, for some rea¬ 
son as yet unexplained. 
E. L. T. 
Sullivan Co.. N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We do not 
believe the cats con¬ 
tracted the disease from the rats and mice. We 
have used one of these preparations right in the 
house where the cats had constant access to the 
“bait.” It certainly killed many of the rats, while 
the cats were remarkably healthy. The theory upon 
which this material is used is that the “bait'’ con¬ 
tains the germs of a contagious disease which is 
fatal to rats and mice. A few of the animals eat 
the food and contract the disease. It spreads to 
others and like a plague kills them off. Sometimes 
there seem to be certain individuals or strains that 
are immune to the disease and thus are not killed, 
but most of them will be cleaned out. Then after > 
time some new colony will come in from the outside 
and the work must lie done all over. We have never 
•heard of a case where the disease was contracted by 
cats, and we doubt if such a thing would be possible. 
One of our readers lost his -hogs with cholera. A 
short time after a horse died with colic, and that 
farmer feels sure that the horse had hog cholera. 
Just because the cats in the neighborhood died at 
about the same time this material was used does not 
prove that it killed the cats. We think they died 
from some contagious disease which was entirely 
different from that of the rats. 
Winter Hardships of School Children 
I have seen in The R. N.-Y. at different times ref¬ 
erences to rural schools. Could you help me our a 
little <m school matters? I am living about 2% miles 
from town and about 70 or 80 rods from a schoolhouse 
which has been closed for about 15 years. The people 
meet at this schoolhouse every Spring and elect their 
trustee and collector, and raise money to transport the 
children from this district to one in another town. Last 
year it was voted to go to the houses after these chil- 
