540 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 29, 1924 
came; after that we kept them indoors nights, but 
during the day let them out, all except a few of the 
heavier ewes, which we began penning. Along one 
side of the building are six pens, 11x14 ft., each com¬ 
fortably accommodates seven ewes and their lambs. 
THE COW AS A PARTNER.—Ewes having twin 
lambs are generally kept alone with their lambs for 
a few days till they get well started; often one 
twin has more pep than its mate, and takes more 
than its share of the mother's milk. The weaker 
one if not given a little help is liable to drop out. 
We let them nurse from a cow, milking slowly in 
their mouth. .They quickly learn to eat -this way, 
not too much at a time, but four or live times for 
the first day or so. After that they should he strong 
enough to need no help from the cow. We have 
found this to be a handier way than bothering with 
a bottle. 
FEEDING.—Second cutting of clover or Alfalfa 
and two feeds of mixed grain, oats, bran and cracked 
corn a day will give a supply of milk by the mothers, 
and the lambs when but a few weeks old will begin 
nibbling at the clover leaves and eating of the grain. 
In severe weather young lambs when first born are 
supposed to chill very easily, but in January this 
year, I think it was the coldest day that we had, 
with some snow on the ground, we had about 10 or 
12 ewes outside, for an hour perhaps, surely not any 
longer. When crossing the yard, I heard a ewe 
bleat as though calling a lamb, which was answered 
by a little fellow that had been born a few minutes 
before out on he snow, and when we found him he 
bad already rigged up a couple of barrel staves as 
skiis and was having a lot of fun. j. and m. 
Estimating Value of Standing Grass 
I N the readjustment of farming that is rapidly 
working out all over the Eastern States the prob¬ 
lem of selling standing grass is coming more and 
more to the front. Some farmers and gardeners 
have given up active production of food. They seed 
down their land to grass or Alfalfa, and having 
sold their horses, and most of their tools, offer the 
grass for sale as it stands in the field. Frequently 
some near-by farmer or some liveryman will buy 
Hie standing grass and take the chance of cutting 
and curing and housing it. Now what is a fair price 
to charge for the standing grass? 
As is the case in selling silage, there is no definite 
price for such a product. In our own country the 
usual plan is to make as good a guess as possible 
of the amount of grass in the field. Then take the 
local price of hay and divide it by three as the price 
per ton tor what the grass will produce. Of course, 
Ibis is something like the old plan of weighing hay 
by putting a large rock on one side of the scales 
aand then guessing at the weight of the rock, but 
unless the hay can be carted to a pair of scales as 
it comes from the field it is about the only way 
for making an estimate. A good farmer can gen¬ 
erally guess close to the yield of grass on a field and 
it is considered that where a man does all the work 
and takes all the risk of bad weather that he should 
have two-thirds of the final price. It is not a scien¬ 
tific way of doing business, but probably it is as 
fair as anything that can be worked out. In some 
cases the hay is cut and put in stacks and left there 
for several months. Then, when it is taken out 
each load is hauled to the scales and weighed, and 
a settlement made on the basis of one-third to the 
owner, and two-thirds to the buyer. Of course, this 
means very much more work, and the seller must 
wait a considerable time for a settlement. Most 
men prefer to'sell right in the field and agree upon 
a price before the hay is cut. This is only one ease 
to show how farm business is changing as a result 
of the revolution now going on in farm production. 
Laying Questions; Line-breeding 
1. What is the reason for a pullet laying a few eggs 
at the commencement of her production and then quit¬ 
ting for a period of a week or longer before starting 
again? Do you consider that such a bird will prove a 
good producer, and could be bred from? I have read 
that a pullet which stops laying shortly after start of 
production proves unprofitable to keep. Once they 
break it is hard to tell when they will again produce, 
and an examination and observation proves that such 
pullets eat very little, will not take a full crop at night, 
and sit around all day. Is it natural for breaks in pro¬ 
duction of this sort, and does it necessarily mean that 
the pullet will not be a high producer? On first-class 
breeding plants they would cull out such pullets as unde¬ 
sirable. , , 
2. How soon after start of production should eggs as- 
■ urae a natural size, say l 1 /^ oz.? Is it true that progeny 
can inherit the small-egg habit from their parents, and 
continually lay small eggs? Will heavy, continued pro¬ 
duction tend to keep the eggs .small? My birds have all 
been “in’ over a month and a large percentage still 
give undersized eggs. 
3. Would you explain in simple English the method 
of line-breeding as shown by chart? Every poultry- 
book is so technical in their explanation that it is im¬ 
possible, for the average person to follow it. b. b. 
l’rinceton, N. J. 
HERE are so many causes for pullets stopping 
laying, such as weather and housing conditions, 
composition and palatability of feed. etc., that it is 
impossible for me to say what the causes are in the 
cases you mention. It is possible that the cause may 
be different with each pullet in the pen, or that they 
are simply taking a natural resting spell. The fact 
that a pullet stops laying after a few weeks does not 
necessarily disqualify her as a profitable and desir¬ 
able breeder unless she remains idle too long. I be¬ 
lieve that it requires about four months trap-nest¬ 
ing with pullets from the time they lay the first egg 
before you can form a definite opinion in regard to 
their value as producers and breeders, although of 
course a year’s record would be better. If a pullet 
will not make good during these first four months, 
demonstrating her ability to produce high-priced 
eggs in paying quantities, I would not consider keep¬ 
ing her after the first laying season is over. 1 would 
not sell her at the end of the four months if she 
showed signs of laying at that time, but would keep 
her through the Spring, and sell her as soon as she 
stopped laying after the first of July. 
2. Leghorn eggs should weigh 1 !A oz. each very 
soon after a pullet starts to lay, and should gradu¬ 
ally become larger, so that at least 75 per cent of 
them should be large enough to sell for firsts in 
about six weeks. The size of the egg is usually con¬ 
ceded to be a strain characteristic, although in some 
cases and under some conditions the feed and care 
also have some effect upon size. I do not think that 
heavy, continued production will reduce the size of 
the eggs very materially, provided you are able to 
keep the layers in first-class condition; but poor con¬ 
dition in the layers may be reflected to some extent 
in the size and quality of the eggs. 
3. The breeding chart which you inclose is the 
Standard Felc-h chart, originated by I. Iv. Felcli over 
20 years ago. It is very simple, as the dotted lines 
represent the female line, and the straight lines rep¬ 
resent the male line. In practical operation it is nec¬ 
essary to start with a single pair, male and female. 
The second year you would have two pens, one pen 
of pullets bred to their sire and a cockerel mated to 
his dam. The third year you would have three pens; 
one pen would contain the original hen mated to a 
cockerel hatched from one of her eggs the second 
year. Another pen would contain pullets bred from 
the original male mated back to their sire, and the 
third pen would contain pullets from the female line 
mated to a cockerel from the male line, all hatched 
the second year. This is as far as direct inbreeding 
goes, and it gives you three pens of birds, one pen 
carrying seven-eighths the blood of the dam, one car¬ 
rying seven-eighths the blood of the sire, and one 
pen carrying one-half of each. The original pair of 
birds are then discarded and five pens are mated up 
for the fourth year. A pen of pullets from the fe¬ 
male line are mated to a cockerel from the male line, 
all hatched the third year. This we will call Pen 
No. 1. 
Pen 2 is a third-year male mated to the hens 
hatched the second year, all from the female line. 
Pen 3 contains a cockerel carrying one-half each of 
the blood of the original sire and dam mated to pul¬ 
lets carrying seven-eighths of the blood of the orig¬ 
inal female. Pen 4 contains pullets carrying one-half 
each the blood of the original sire and dam, mated to 
a male carrying seven-eighths the blood of the orig¬ 
inal sire, and Pen 5 contains hens hatched the second 
year and containing three-fourths the blood of the 
original male mated to a cockerel hatched the third 
year, and carrying seven-eighths the blood of the 
original sire. 
The fifth year then we mate pullets hatched from 
Pen 1 to a cockerel hatched from Ten 2. We also 
mate another lot of pullets from Pen 1 to a cockerel 
from Pen 5. Another cockerel from Pen 5 is mated 
to pullets from Pen 3, and another lot of pullets 
from Pen 3 is mated to a cockerel from Pen 4, while 
another cockerel from Pen 4 is mated to pullets from 
Pen 2. This gives us the five pens for the next year, 
and so on. 
It will be noticed that the female lins is only car¬ 
ried straight to the third generation, while the male 
line is carried straight right along. I understand 
that better results have been produced in this way 
than any other. 
In following this system the first year you would 
have only one pen, the second year two pens, the 
third year three pens, and after that five pens is all 
that is necessary, unless you should have some 
special matings. This is all very simple, as the 
chart guides you for each mating, but expert skill is 
required in selecting the proper birds to breed from 
in each lot. Unless good judgment is used it is very 
evident that poor results may follow such close 
breeding. c. s. greene. 
My Experience With Kudzu Vine 
W HEN this first came out I purchased one doz¬ 
en vines for $1. I planted them in a row of 
different trees and plants, and as far as growth it 
was all that was claimed for it. It spread in every 
direction, making growths of 25 or 30 ft in one 
season, the vines rooting their whole length, and 
when not disturbed formed a perfect mass, and one 
of the worst nuisances I ever had. It would be only 
a matter of time for a few vines to cover an acre of 
good soil. As for hay you might as well go in a 
sweet potato field and cut it for hay. All you could 
get would be the leaf which would be impossible to 
rake. 
On account of the vines cattle will eat the foliage 
but when it became established enough for pasture 
it would have to be permanent, as it would be im¬ 
possible to plow through the mass of vines and 
roots. If wanted to cover over waste places it is 
all right but if you do not want trouble do not plant 
it in your fields, unless you want it always to remain 
there. chas. black. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. 
R. N.-Y.—We want all possible reports about 
kudzu. Most reports from the North state that the 
roots will not grow. Here comes Mr. Black finding 
fault because it is too vigorous! It is hard to suit 
everyone. Some of our people seem to think kudzu 
must look like clover or gi*ass. Imagine a Lima bean 
vine or any long pole bean vine running over the 
ground and rooting at every joint about as squash 
vines do. That will give you a good idea of the 
way kudzu looks in the field. It is started by plant¬ 
ing a root about the size of your tingex*, and if it 
sees fit to grow it will certainly do what Mi*. Black 
says. We had no trouble in plowing and killing out 
a patch that had made a thick mat. A disk harrow 
was run over it to chop up the vines, and then the 
plow was started as usual. We do not consider it 
well adapted to orchard work—where more or less 
cultivation is needed—but take Mr. Black’s descrip¬ 
tion of its growth and think what it would do on a 
dairy farm where the chief profit comes from pas¬ 
ture. Suppose you could make it grow on some of 
our poor New York hill pastures and have it spread 
as Mr. Black describes. It would change these old 
pastures into great tracts of land thickly covered 
with a growth richer in food value than Alfalfa, 
and good for years of growth without replanting. 
It would be like swapping ragweed, golden rod and 
thistles for wheat bran! Even though it were never 
cut for hay, such pasture would save the farm. And 
remember that it grows on acid soil and does not 
need lime. It is a legume, and requires but little 
fertilizer except acid phosphate. We do not guar¬ 
antee that it will grow on every dairy farm, but we 
think it is well worth trying. Within a few years 
there should be a great business in growing and 
supplying roots grown at the North of a stx*ain 
adapted to northern planting. 
