February 10, 1924 
256 
sure cure for all turkey ills. It looked good 
to. me, and I used over $25 worth of the medi¬ 
cine and I do not believh I received 25 ceut-s worth 
of good from the investment. Another big advantage 
of having your turkeys on small range is that'they, 
are not in danger from dogs, hawks, foxes, auto¬ 
mobiles and other varmints. I have a neighbor who 
raised 32 beautiful turkeys this year and six of them 
were killed by automobiles, but not a single one of 
my flock met that kind of a death. We would not 
advise anyone to try to raise a flock of 1000 turkeys 
the first year. There are many things to learn, but 
it is perfectly feasible after you have the experience 
of a year or so. 
COST OF TURKEY RAISING.—You have all 
heard the saying that a turkey will eat more than 
a hog. Well, that is not correct; a turkey is not 
a hog. I buy all my feed, pay 70 cents to $1.00 for 
corn, oats cost me 00 cents a bushel, and my records 
show that it cost me to feed a mature turkey for the 
year 1023 $1.00. Try that on your hog and see what 
you will have. We have less than $50 invested in 
buildings for our flock. Winter and Summer the 
sky is the covering for the perches. A house does 
not enter into the scheme of life of a turkey, and 
in this section of Indiana we have zero weather often 
during December and January, and at times as 
cold as is below. harry a. axtell. 
Indiana. 
Is the Certificate Good? 
In The R. N.-Y. I see all sorts of questions asked 
and answered, so 1 am also coming to you for informa¬ 
tion. In June. 1913, 1 graduated from a high school in 
Hamilton Co.. X. Y. The following August 15, 1 was 
granted a teacher's academic certificate. This was good 
for four terms of school. That I all I taught. As I 
was married the following February I did not teach any 
more. Now 1 am wondering if that certificate could be 
renewed, or would I have to have more training if I 
should desire to teach again? Could 1 get a permit 
from the district superintendent now, and if so, would I 
be entitled to a school if some other teacher with a reg¬ 
ular certificate desired it? We are living in a small 
town when we would prefer a home on a farm. My 
husband is an excellent man with poultry, but most 
farmers seem to prefer a single man, or one without 
children. We were obliged to give up a job of that kind, 
as there were no school advantages for our little girl. 
MRS. \v. B. 
S to the certification of Mrs. W. R., she is not 
entitled to teach on that certificate, and no 
more academic teacher’s certificates are to be issued. 
As to a permit, so-called, the district superintendent 
is not supposed to ask for oue unless all the duly 
licensed teachers are engaged. The lady might take 
the examination for a rural school teacher's renew¬ 
able certificate. The examination is given in June, 
1924. If she should think of doing this, she should 
send a letter to Dr. Robert T. Hill, chief of teacher 
certification, State Department of Education, Al¬ 
bany, N. Y., asking him to give her a statement of 
what she will have to pass at this examination. She 
should give her maiden name and the date of her 
graduation from high school, and the school. She is 
exempt in all the academic subjects that she passed 
after her sixteenth birthday. f. v. lester. 
A New Labor Problem 
| Here is a new side of the labor question—new to 
most of our readers. The scene is a little seaport town 
on the New England coast. There are ‘old family 
residents and some newcomers, mostly Summer resi¬ 
dents. The woman who writes the following wants 
someone to keep up the garden and do general work, oc¬ 
cupying about half of his time. She thinks a man 
could be found to come and do general odd jobs about 
the town. We surely do not know of anyone who could 
undertake such an uncertain proposition. It merely 
shows another labor need or demand. Very few of our 
people can imagine clearly such a condition.! 
HERE are possibly even more reasons than or¬ 
dinarily, here, for lack of help. This is not a 
thoroughfare between other places—except for mo¬ 
torists who drive round the triangle. Our nearby 
are 16 miles away, and both mill cities, and 
the mill workers, even when mills are closed, would 
rather starve in the city than risk losing the chance 
to earn $35 or $40 a week when the mills start up 
(sometimes unexpectedly) by going out into the 
surrounding country to work. 
Here almost all the men in Summer go fishing and 
lobstering. I have heard of a man’s making $18 a 
day in the lobstering season. The boys, as soon as 
they are big enough, go with their fathers, and until 
then, when 11 or 12 years old. want as much as a 
man used to get for mowing lawns, etc. And the few 
who work ashore would always rather work for the 
wealthy Summer residents than their own village 
neighbor; money seems better, some way, from a 
man who has lots of it, such is human nature, even 
if the worker does not get any more of it himself! 
r ot- of Summer people who like to have gardens and 
do not o'vnie early would be glad. 1 have an idea, to 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
put their gardens in the hands of someone who 
would put them to bed in the Fall, and get them up 
in Spring-, so that their owners could have vegetables 
and flowers all ready when they come. I was once 
asked to undertake just that, for one of our Summer 
neighbors, but it was out of the question for me. 
The village, I will admit, is usually slow to wel¬ 
come outsiders who come into it ; but no worse, per¬ 
haps, than any country town in this part of the 
globe. We are more or less strangers still, having 
Ventilating Henhouse. See page 26. r / 
settled here only about 70 years ago, and not being 
related to any of the villagers to begin with! My 
grandfather believed that the land we now own and 
cannot as yet sell, though it has great potential 
value by reason of fronting on one of the few un¬ 
developed and most wonderful beaches in New Eng¬ 
land. or anywhere on the Atlantic coast, was suited 
to cranberry raising. I can see that the dry sand 
method is being exploited in the West now—I be¬ 
lieve he was the pioneer of it. He made big bogs and 
raised the best berries in this part of the State, and 
my father raised them after him, till our house and 
machinery were burned, a few years before my 
father’s death. Then we sold our largest bog to a 
Cape grower, and the others have grown up to trees 
and bushes—that never used to have a weed in 
them ! M. E. B. 
Massachusetts. 
Three-Row Cultivator 
W HEN I used to cultivate corn it seemed to be 
the most monotonous job on the farm. The 
weather was usually hot, the air dusty, and the 
green-eyed flies especially hungry for horse blood. 
There seemed to be little for horse or man to do. but 
to take a row at a time and cultivate patience as 
well as corn. My patience, however, did not respond 
to this form of cultivation, and as I walked along 
mile after mile I resolved that Old Dobbin and I 
must accomplish more in less time, or else drop be¬ 
hind in the strenuous efficiency race of these modern 
times. The result was I figured out aud built for 
myself the three-row cultivator described here. 
Take a piece of 2x6 hardwood, long enough to 
reach between four rows of corn. On this mark the 
position of the corn rows as determined by the grain 
drill hoes you use to plant corn, or by the planter 
spacing if you use a planter. Allow 12 in. opening 
for each corn row. Fill the remaining space with as 
many teeth as you believe necessary to thoroughly 
pulverize the soil. I used three between each row. 
Too many teeth would rake up stoues. I used for 
teeth old spring-tooth harrow teeth partly straight¬ 
ened to the shape shown. .Secure the teeth to the 
2x6 by a “pinch hold'’ formed by bolting a 1x6 to 
the bottom of the 2x6 with the teeth between, using 
one bolt on each side of each tooth. 
To the center of the cultivator bolt a 4-ft. piece of 
2x6, as shown, for a whitfie-tree leader. Fasten a 
short whitfie-tree to the front end of this leader. A 
pair of plow or cultivator handles should be bolted 
to the frame at a convenient angle to suit the op¬ 
erator. Use no wheel at the front end of the leader. 
It will make the cultivator wobble. The horse, by 
pulling, will lift the end off the ground, and the pull, 
being at the end of this rigid leader, will keep the 
cultivator steadily in line. m. c. 
Cuba, N. Y. 
How I Catch Chicken Hawks 
EVERAL weeks ago I saw in The R. N.-Y. the 
question “How to Catch Hawks iu Steel Traps,” 
and not having noticed any answer, I wish to offer 
the following suggestions to the readers who are 
troubled with hawks. My father and I have used 
this method, and between us we have trapped 18 
hawks and shot five. 
The operation of setting a steel trap is very sim¬ 
ple. The main thing is to get the chicken or pigeon 
before the hawk has finished picking all the flesh off 
the carcass. The best way to do is this: When you 
see a hawk after a fair-sized chicken, let him kill it 
and drag it away, and allow him 10 or 15 minutes to 
start his meal. Keep as quiet as possible and out of 
sight, and the hawk will not go far. Next go and 
find where he is sitting eating—always on the 
ground if his prey is fairly large. When he sees 
you coming he will fly and sometimes drag the chick¬ 
en with him, but follow him up and he will drop it. 
Should he drag it a little way, bring it back to 
where he was feasting on it. Tie the chicken fast to 
the nearest tree or bush with a piece of bale wire or 
stout copper wire, so that it will be a foot or more 
from the tree or bush. Should there be nothing to 
fasten the chicken to, then drive a stout stake into 
the ground. Fasten the chicken only by one leg 
and place it so that the torn flesh will show plainly. 
The next thing to do is to form a circle around the 
chicken with brush or branches, these to be about 
2 y 2 ft. long. Push the thick ends into the ground 
and see to it that the rear and sides are closely set 
so that the hawk will hot attempt to go through. 
Also lay some branches over the top. Have the cir¬ 
cle about 2 ft. in diameter inside, and on the front 
leave an opening of about 7 in., and in this opening 
lay your steel trap so that the jaws and trip plate 
will be even with the ground. Fasten the trap 
securely to the same tree or bush with bale wire or 
stout copper wire about 4 ft. long. After the trap 
is placed, tear off some of the feathers from the 
chicken and scatter in front of the opening, so the 
hawk will more quickly find the place on his return. 
Also scatter a few of the smaller feathers over the 
trap so it will not be visible. Now go away and out 
of sight and shut up all dogs and cats, or they may 
be caught. 
The hawk is sure to return, so be sure to have it 
quiet where the trap is set, and do not go too often 
to see if the hawk is in the trap. He will sometimes 
sit in a tree nearby for some time before going down 
on the ground, and if scared away he may not return 
for a whole day. If the trap is set in sight of the 
house where it can be w r atehed without going to it, 
one may see the hawk trapped and still not be seen 
by him. When trapped he will fly around as far as 
the tie wire will allow. A good steel trap will hold 
a large hawk by one toe. If a trap has to be left set 
over night, be sure to look to it before retiring, for 
often a stray cat, dog, or even an opossum or skunk 
may be caught with the same bait, and when the 
hawk returns in the morning and the trap is not 
set for him, you may not get him. 
When trapped a hawk may either be killed in the 
trap by hitting him on the head with a stout .stick, 
or he may be removed alive by placing a long stout 
stick over his neck, and then place one hand around 
his legs and the other around his neck so he caainot 
dig his claws into your hands or bite with his beak. 
If oue will follow these simple instructions he can 
almost count on a sure catch. The operation of set¬ 
ting the trap will become very simple with a little 
practice. o. j. o. 
Lakewood, N. J. 
Meteorologists talk about the dew point, which 
means the temperature of saturation, when the water 
vapor in the air condenses to a liquid or solid state. The 
do point in a man comes when his thought is made solid 
by action—when he does it himself! 
