Vh RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1567 
i ——— .——— 
Nature Notes 
When to Study Nature 
The little girl in the picture took 
genuine delight in the pig she is holding 
and its eight brothers and sisters. She is 
being brought, up on a farm and, like 
every child, finds much in growing things, 
both plant and animal, to command her 
interest. 
There are innumerable opportunities 
for nature study, domestic and wild, in 
the country. Some people think the open 
air is nothing more than a place to hunt 
The Pet Pig 
in on Sunday. There are so many ob¬ 
jects of interest that we often overlook 
all of them. Who cannot pause to gaze 
and meditate upon a ripening field of 
grain, a bird feeding its young, the Au¬ 
tumn leaves, a hen and her chicks looking 
for food, or any one of the thousands of 
other subjects available? The charm of 
country life lies in its surroundings. The 
time to teach people this is while they are 
young. Lead children to enjoy nature 
and they will be interested in the farm 
when they grow up. neil C. doren. 
St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
Lobsters? 
Have you ever heard of lobsters in 
fresh water? I have a few' that were 
taken from lake here last July. I have 
them in a trough at barn. The largest 
is four or five inches. Robert b. smith. 
Massachusetts. 
It is probable that the “lobsters” men¬ 
tioned are ordinary crawfish (the books 
say^we should spell it crayfish). These 
fresh-water crabs are very much like 
lobsters in general appearance, but have 
slightly different life histories _ and are, 
so far as I know, never found in salt or 
brackish water. This may not be quite 
true of the extreme southern part of 
Texas, where the fish get so thoroughly 
mixed up that the freshest of fresh-water 
fish and the saltest of salt-w'ater fish live 
together in wmter so salty that. it is al¬ 
most impossible for a man to sink in it. 
In one such pond I had to climb down 
a rope to get my hands on the bottom 
in wmter 4 ft. deep. I have seen some 
holes in that country that looked as 
though they might have been made by 
crawfish, but do not remember ever see¬ 
ing one of the crabs. 
Crawfish are not often used as food, 
although they are trapped and killed in 
other ways in large numbers in some of 
the Southern States. They do so much 
damage that the IT. S. Department . of 
Agriculture has issued a bulletin telling 
how to get rid of them. . In the low flat 
lands of the lower Mississippi Valley 
these creatures are not only a nuisance, 
but may cause very great loss of actual 
money as well as time and labor. They 
pull up young plants of cotton, corn or 
other crops. Their burrows may let the 
water seep through the levees to such 
an extent that disastrous floods may oc¬ 
cur. 
In Northern Illinois crawfish are 
usually found only in the prairie sloughs 
and streams, or in other similar places 
wdiere they can do little harm. Small 
ones are sometimes caught for bait. 
“Soft craws” are about the best bass bait 
that can be found in the proper season. 
Farther north there are some places 
where crawfish are caught and sold for 
food. In one of the publications of the 
IT. S. Bureau of Fisheries is a picture 
and description of a trap used for catch¬ 
ing them. 
Very few people eat crawfish, probably 
because no one else eats them. Food 
habits and food styles are very hard to 
break. The ling of our northern lakes 
and streams is every bit as good a food 
fish as its cousin, the cod. Even calling 
ling “burbot” and the pressure of war 
times was not enough to get the people 
to eating this fish. At the same time 
here in Chicago fish dealers import tons 
of fresh cod and haddock every year to 
feed their customers while the ling is 
thrown away. Personally, I have never 
eaten crawfish because I did not have the 
crabs and the way to cook them at the 
same time. They are smaller than lob¬ 
sters, but there are several species which 
grow larger than most of the shrimp 
that go to market. The meat looks good, 
and I hope to live long enough to have a 
chance to find out how it tastes. 
ALFRED C. WEED. 
Cow’s Stomach and Candy 
A young man told me he read that a 
cow had four stomachs. I told him that 
it was not true; that I would bet him a 
5-lb. box of candy that I was right, and 
that a cow had only one stomach. Would 
you tell me if I am right or wrong, and 
would you send me a letter as a proof, so 
that I can have my box of candy, d. t. 
We are always sorry to disappoint a 
lady, especially when there is a box of 
candy involved, but the young man wins 
in this case. We advise him to be well 
satisfied that he has proved himself wiser 
than the young woman. That is a priv¬ 
ilege given to very few men. Let him be 
satisfied with this victory—and buy the 
candy himself. 
It is a fact that all ruminants have 
four stomachs, at least four compart¬ 
ments of their digestive apparatus. The 
cut printed herewith, taken from Stew¬ 
art’s “Feeding Animals,” shows how 
these organs appear, and they are de¬ 
scribed by Stewart as follows: A repre¬ 
sents the gullet along which the food 
passes to b.b., the rumen or paunch. This 
is a large compartment, which in a large 
cow holds nearly or quite a barrel. C is 
the reticulum or honeycomb, the second 
stomach ; D the omasum or manifolds, the 
third stomach, and e the abomasum or 
fourth stomach. Each compartment has 
its peculiar work to do in acting upon the 
food, and while they are all connected 
they are classed as separate stomachs 
and they are all needed by ruminants 
which consume great quantities of bulky 
food. 
The Message on an Egg 
I am sending you two eggs, thinking 
you would like to see them and print 
them for The R. N.-Y.’s large family. 
The one with letter D was laid Nov. 6, 
and the one with letter O, Nov. 13, from, 
a pen of 130 millets hatched April 19. 
The pullets started laying Aug. 28, and 
up to Nov. 18 they were laying 72 eggs 
a day, with nothing but plain care; no 
lights or forcing stuff. MRS. ,t. ciiarmelin. 
R- N.-Y.—The eggs with their letter¬ 
ing in lime are shown in the illustration. 
Evidently when the shell was made these 
pullets threw in a little lime for good 
measure, and this last deposit actually 
formed these rude letters. In old times 
this would have been accepted as a sign 
or warning of some supernatural power. 
Perhaps there will be another egg with 
an O and still another with an M—thus 
spelling out doom. We hope these hens 
are not doomed, however. They are too 
good for that. 
Tecko the Monkey 
Teeko, the fuzz-headed monkey, was a 
year old when he' came to us. “One mon¬ 
key, did you say?” the expressman re¬ 
monstrated, as he delivered the box con¬ 
taining the little animal. “One would 
think he was a dozen.” Truly one would, 
judging by the cries and chatterings of 
the tiniest of the monkey tribe. One could 
hold his little body easily in one hand, 
but his voice quite filled the house. In a 
few moments after his arrival we grant¬ 
ed to him the freedom of the dining¬ 
room. Like lightning he darted from 
chandelier to curtain rod, from the clock 
to the top of a tall mirror that hung over 
father’s big chair at the head of the table. 
That mirror proved to be a charmed place, 
lie never ceased to travel around the 
frame, one little hand behind, searching 
for the reflected image of himself. Some 
months after, when bringing him to the 
house one evening, from his apartments 
at the greenhouse, he immediately perched 
upon the back of the big chair. After giv¬ 
ing the image one look, he spread out his 
little hands, expectorated on them, pugil¬ 
istic boy fashion, and began pounding the 
glass with his fists. The boys were be¬ 
side themselves with merriment. We old¬ 
er ones were shocked. “Where had he 
learned such manners?” “Oh,” replied 
one of the boys, “he saw some of the 
boys at the greenhouse wrestling one 
day.” 
We experienced some difficulty in getting 
him back into his cage at first, but re¬ 
membering monkeys were curious crea¬ 
tures, would place a bit of banana, apple 
or egg inwide, and “Old Man” would 
quickly sell his liberty for a “mess of pot¬ 
tage,” or anything a little different. 
For some time after he arrived he 
would utter a peculiar call of three notes, 
each one higher than the last: “Ah, ah-h, 
ah-h-h !” We concluded finally it was a 
call to his mate. 
He loved to climb on my shoulder and 
go to sleep ; to pull the pine out of my 
hair, to play with a necklace, remove ar¬ 
ticles from one’s pockets, to crawl up in 
the nape of Little Boy’s neck, and go to 
sleep, or sit in the hollow of his arm and 
make faces. We placed a little cushion 
and blanket on the sunny south window¬ 
sill, where he liked to sleep. He would 
sit up on a bracket of the same window, 
and draw pins or needles from the cur¬ 
tain to pick his teeth, but never would he 
put a needle back. lie would spring from 
the bracket onto our laps, or our whoul- 
ders. But he very much disliked to have 
me read or sew during his friendly visit¬ 
ations. One day, upon coming into the 
room, I found him breaking the branches 
and leaves from a fine Begonia, throwing 
them on the floor. Giving him a ‘ good 
scolding, I sat down to write at the table. 
Presently a very subdued little creature 
crept up on my shoulder and began to 
caress me very gently, and reaching 
around proceeded to kiss me on the cheek, 
whereupon he received another scolding, 
and never again became so rude. 
Ilis cage was a wonder. There was a 
balcony, reached by the cutest ladder; 
rings for swinging, a little table, at which 
he ate, and a tiny bedroom, with blanket. 
It was very amusing to watch him retire. 
He rolled his long tail up like a cruller, 
placing it between his hind feet, or if it 
were cold he would wrap it around his 
neck. He would pull his blanket over 
himself and cuddle down like a child. 
But never could we enter the room, at 
any time of night, even in the dark, that 
he would not call to us. And always in 
the morning he had a word of greeting. 
He was very mischievous; would tease 
old Bobby, the cat. pull his ears and tail, 
sometimes seem very friendly, only to 
spoil the effect by some little teasing act, 
until the cat ceased to trust him. lie was 
very inquisitive; his curiosity often got 
the better of his judgment. Once he 
slipped on the table when we thought him 
asleep, and removed the doughnuts from 
a plate. First taking a bite from each 
one, he placed them in a circle around 
the plate. 
One day, while paring apples from a 
basket, I offered him choice bits, but he 
very indignantly refused, watching in 
cold indifference. I was called out, leav¬ 
ing the basket on the table. Upon re¬ 
turning I found the basket empty. “Old 
Man” had carried every core and peel 
and thrown them on the floor behind the 
rocking chair. He seemed to consider 
it quite a joke, laughing and chattering 
while we gathered them up. 
He was especially fond of violets, hold¬ 
ing them in his hands enjoying their odor. 
Many other flowers he would tear in 
pieces; he never destroyed those. During 
his last sickness we kept a little bouquet 
of them near him. He would take them 
carefully from the vase, hold them, and 
then put back in the water. Other flow¬ 
ers he would pull apart. 
The last Summer he was with us I was 
gone for several weeks. I had kept him 
on the open porch in his cage. Upon my 
return I found he had been taken to the 
greenhouse, not far from the house. As 
I came up the walk upon my return I 
saw his little black face (it was not 
larger than a 50-cent piece) pressed 
against the bars of his cage. It sat on a 
table in front of the window, which was 
open. Before I could remove my wraps 
“Old Man” had made his escape and was 
hopping across the lawn to the house, as 
pleased to see me as any human could 
have been. His round black eyes shone 
with delight, every whire hair on his tuft¬ 
ed head stood erect with joy. There was 
a broad grin on the old familiar face, and 
th wrinkles on his forehead were almost 
gone. After that he would not ntay in 
his cage. IIow he got through the bars 
no one knew, and when finally they in¬ 
closed the cage in fine wire his spirit 
seemed quite broken; he was never the 
same again. Rheumatism developed; 
gradually he lost the use of his limbs. 
Everything was done for him. He was 
very patient and affectionate, but always 
he must be near me, in his basket. IIow 
many times during the Winter nights 
have I gone downstairs to see that he was 
warm and covered. Always he had that 
little soft cooing word of welcome; al¬ 
ways he would take his medicine, and en¬ 
joy his food. He was dainty and very 
neat in his habits, and seemed to feel 
deeply his helplessness. One day in May 
we knew he could not be with us longer. 
He knew, too ; he was in his basket on the 
kitchen window in the warm sunshine 
Little Teclco, the Monkey 
where he could be with u«, facing the out¬ 
side, with his little white pillow and 
white sheet. Finally we heard a low call. 
He was trying to move himself around to 
face me, reaching his little hand out piti¬ 
fully. Very gently I lifted him on his 
cushion and sat on the front porch, in the 
beautiful sunshine, his little hand grasp¬ 
ing my finger. Then raising his face he 
gave three calls, very low: “Ah, ah-b, 
ah-h-h !” and burying his face in his 
hands our beloved little pet was gone. 
Out by the old trellis there are some small 
white rocks, surrounding a tuft of purple 
wild violets. I guess you know who 
sleeps beneath. 
THE COUNTRY GENTLEWOMAN. 
Cost of Feeding Hens 
(On page 1498 we gave figures showing 
the cost of feeding a pullet one year at 
the egg-laying contests. Here are two 
more reports.] 
The feed costs at the Vineland contest 
last year for the various breeds are as 
follows : Barred Plymouth Rocks, $2.39; 
White Plymouth Rocks, $2.47; White 
Wyandottes, $2.18; Rhode Island Beds, 
$2.29; Jersey Black Giants, $2.51, and 
White Leghorns, $2.36, making an aver¬ 
age for the entire contest $2.35. The year 
before the average was $2.27, and the 
year before that $1.95. The cost per egg 
for the entire contest was 1.8c per egg. 
RALSTON R. HANNAS, 
Two “Lettered” Eygs 
