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CHICAGO, JANUARY 12, 1884.
[Transcriber's Note: Original location of Table of Contents.]
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For forty-three yearsThe Prairie Farmerhas stood at the front in agricultural journalism. It has kept pace with the progress and development of the country, holding its steady course through all these forty-three years, encouraging, counseling, and educating its thousands of readers. It has labored earnestly in the interest of all who are engaged in the rural industries of the country, and that it has labored successfully is abundantly shown by the prominence and prestige it has achieved, and the hold it has upon the agricultural classes.
Its managers are conscious from comparison with other journals of its class, and from the uniform testimony of its readers, that it is foremost among the farm and home papers of the country. It will not be permitted to lose this proud position; we shall spare no efforts to maintain its usefulness and make it indispensable to farmers, stock-raisers, feeders, dairymen, horticulturalists, gardeners, and all others engaged in rural pursuits. It will enter upon its forty-fourth year under auspices, in every point of view, more encouraging than ever before in its history. Its mission has always been, and will continue to be—
To discuss the most approved practices in all agricultural and horticultural pursuits.
To set forth the merits of the best breeds of domestic animals, and to elucidate the principles of correct breeding and management.
To further the work of agricultural and horticultural organization.
To advocate industrial education in the correct sense of the term.
To lead the van in the great contest of the people against monopolies and the unjust encroachments of capital.
To discuss the events and questions of the day without fear or favor.
To provide information concerning the public domain, Western soil, climate, water, railroads, schools, churches, and society.
To answer inquiries on all manner of subjects coming within its sphere.
To furnish the latest and most important industrial news at home and abroad.
To give full and reliable crop, weather, and market reports.
To present the family with pure, choice, and interesting literature.
To amuse and instruct the young folks.
To gather and condense the general news of the day.
To be, in brief, an indispensable and unexceptionable farm and home companion for the people of the whole country.
The style and form of the paper are now exactly what they should be. The paper used is of superior quality. The type is bold and clear. The illustrations are superb. The departments are varied and carefully arranged. The editorial force is large and capable. The list of contributors is greatly increased, and embraces a stronger array of talent than is employed on any similar paper in this country. We challenge comparison with any agricultural journal in the land.
The Prairie Farmeris designed for all sections of the country. In entering upon the campaign of 1884, we urge all patrons and friends to continue their good works in extending the circulation of our paper. On our part we promise to leave nothing undone that it is possible for faithful, earnest work—aided by money and every needed mechanical facility—to do to make the paper in every respect still better than it has ever been before.
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Every housekeeper ought to have this very useful scale. The weight of article bought or sold may readily be known. Required proportions in culinary operations are accurately ascertained. We have furnished hundreds of them to subscribers, and they give entire satisfaction. During January, 1884, to any person sending usTHREE SUBSCRIBERS, at $2.00 each, we will give one of these scales, and to each of the three subscribers Ropp's Calculator, No. 1.
Thesorghum-growers of Kansas are invited to meet at Topeka, the second Wednesday in February. The Kansas wool-growers meet on the 15th of this month.
Do notforget the Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society meeting at Kansas City, January 22-25. This will prove one of the important horticultural events of the year.
Ifany of our friends have Vols. I to XIV, and the years 1861, 1863 to 1873, and 1875 to 1883, ofThe Prairie Farmer, they would like to dispose of, we should be glad to hear from them.
Thefifteenth annual exhibition of the Montana Agricultural, Mineral and Mechanical Association, will be held at Helena, September 8th-13th, 1884. President, S.H. Crounse; Francis Pope, Secretary.
Thetwenty-fifth annual fair of the Linn County (Iowa) Agricultural and Mechanical Society will be held on the fair grounds at Cedar Rapids, September 9, 10, 11, and 12, 1884. C.G. Greene, Secretary, Cedar Rapids.
Ifyou are in need of a first-class wind mill, find out all about the Nichols' Centennial as advertised in our columns by Nichols & Daggett, and see if you do not think it just fills the bill. It is strong, durable, steady, and it takes and uses all the wind there is going.
Hon. E.B. David, member of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture from Mercer county, made a brief call atThe Prairie Farmeroffice last week. From him we gathered the facts regarding the late meeting of the Board mentioned elsewhere. Mr. David has long been a staunch friend ofThe Prairie Farmer, and his call was a very welcome one.
Immigrationat the port of New York fell off last year to the amount of 66,405 persons, or about 14½ per cent from that of 1882. The total number landed this last year was 388,342. The greatest decrease was from Sweden and Russia. From England came 30,818; Ireland, 52,555; Germany, 164,036; Italy, 24,101; Norway, 11,536; Hungary, 11,448; Switzerland, 9,447; Denmark, 7,770; Bohemia, 4,652. Last year the arrivals were 182,893. It is not unlikely that there will be a greater falling off this year for times are not sufficiently promising here to greatly stimulate emigration from Europe.
TheCrystal Palace Company, of London advertise the holding for six months, from April 3 next, of an "exhibition of arts, manufactures, and scientific, agricultural, and industrial products," and invite the participation of American exhibitors. A court in a central position on the main floor has been set aside for expected American contributions, and the ordinary charge for space is two shillings per square foot. This will probably seem a trifle steep to American exhibitors who are not accustomed to pay for space in their own exposition buildings.
Lastyear was not a very surprising one in the matter of railway extension within the limits of Illinois. The report of the Railway and Warehouse Commissioners will show that but 135 miles of track were laid. But there are 10,456 miles of track in use in the State. The companies among these lines numbering sixty-four, operate 29,370 miles of road or nearly 20,000 miles outside of Illinois. The total net income of these companies was $81,720,256 and the dividends amounted to $36,374,474. In 1882 the dividends amounted to but $29,000,000. The average freight charges in 1883 were 1.09 cents per mile, while the year before they averaged 1.20 cents, hence it must follow that the amount of traffic greatly increased over that of 1882.
A lecturecourse for farmers at the Nebraska Agricultural College, will be given from February 4-15, by the regular instructors in the college. One or more lectures will be given on the following topics: Breeds of cattle and swine; breeding, improving, and care of stock; care of farm machinery; health on the farm; adulteration of food; economical farming; tame grapes; ensilage; what to feed; meteorology and plant growth; sorghum-growth and manufacture; horticulture; principles of pruning; the digestive organs of domestic animals; injurious insects. A number of leading farmers of the State have been invited to lecture upon their specialties. All the facilities of illustration and study owned by the college will be at the disposal of the students attending the course. These include several compound microscopes, a good agricultural library, meteorological apparatus, six breeds of cattle and four of swine, orchard, nursery, arboretum, vineyard, etc., etc. A limited number will be boarded at the college farm for a price not to exceed three dollars per week. Persons attending will be aided in securing cheap board in the city. Persons expecting to attend or desiring further information should write to S.R. Thompson, Dean Agricultural College, Lincoln, Neb.
Someof our readers may wish to paste this item in their scrap books. It cost to run the United States Government last year the sum of $251,428,117, expended as follows: To supply deficiencies, $9,853,869; legislative, executive, and judicial expenses, $20,332,908; sundry civil expenses, $25,425,479; support of the army, $27,032,099; naval service, $14,903,559; Indian service, $5,219,604; rivers and harbors, $18,988,875; forts and fortifications, $375,000; military academy, $335,557; post-office department, $1,902,178; pensions, $116,000,000; consular and diplomatic service, $1,256,655; agricultural department, $427,280; expenses District of Columbia, $3,496,060. The interest on the public debt amounted to $59,160,131 and the amount of principal paid off was $134,178,756. The receipts from internal revenue were $144,720,368, and from custom duties $214,706,496.
TheMinnesota State Horticultural Society will hold its seventeenth annual meeting at the College of Agriculture, Minneapolis, four days, beginning with January 15th, and with the Minnesota State Forestry Association on the 18th. A cordial invitation is given to all persons interested in horticulture and forestry to be present. A large number of papers and reports are to be read, followed by discussions. These reports are by persons who possess a thorough practical acquaintance with the subjects presented, including such men as Peter M. Gideon, J.C. Plumb, Dr. T.H. Hoskins, Prof. C.W. Hall, Prof. J.L. Budd, Dr. F.B. Hough, H.J. Joly, J.F. Williams, and others. A number of premiums are offered for apples, grapes, plants, and flowers, vegetables, seeds, and miscellaneous objects. John S. Harris, of La Crescent, is President, and Oliver Gibbs, Jr., of Lake City, is Secretary.
The Illinois State Board of Agriculture held a business session in Springfield last week. All the members were present at one time or another during the meeting. The premium list was revised for the fair of 1884. The premiums for speed were somewhat increased over last year. In cattle sweepstakes classes it was decided that no animals can be allowed to compete except the winners of a first prize in other classes in which they had been entered, except in the case of the grand sweepstakes, to which will be permitted animals not previously entered for any prize.
The Board is to make a laudable attempt to stimulate corn culture and to benefit the corn growers of the State. It offers $100 for the best bushel (ears) of corn grown in each of the three grand divisions of the State, and a second prize of $50 for the next best sample in the three divisions. The premium samples are to become the property of the Board, and the winners of prize premiums must deliver on cars directed to the agricultural rooms, Springfield, twenty-five bushels (ears) of same variety that shall equal in merit the premium bushel. The winners of the second premiums must send the samples and fifteen bushels of same variety and of equal quality. The premiums will not be paid until the comparisons of the premium corn with the larger lots are made by a committee of the Board at its winter meeting in January next. The corn thus donated to the Board will be distributed to farmers throughout the State for planting in 1885.
Premiums are to be offered for tools, implements and appurtenances used in the coal mining and handling industry of the State.
Premiums for poultry have been increased, and an expert will be selected to do all the judging in the poultry department.
The chicken exhibit at the Fat Stock Show will not be continued.
The committee of dairymen appointed at the late meeting of the Illinois Dairymen's Association did not present themselves at the State Board meeting to confer about holding a dairy exhibit either at the State Fair or the Fat Stock Show, as instructed to do. No explanation of the failure was made. The State Board, however, to leave nothing undone to establish its desire to meet the dairymen half way or more, appointed a committee consisting of Messrs. David, Chester, andGriffith, to confer with the DeKalb committee, in Chicago, at some convenient time to be agreed upon.
It was decided to hold the next Illinois State Fair at Chicago the week beginning September 8th, and the Fat Stock Show at the Exposition Building, Chicago, beginning November 11th.
Prof. Wiley, of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, will soon issue his report upon the sorghum business of 1883. Newspaper correspondents have been permitted to make a digest of the report. He pronounces erroneous the prevalent impression that every farmer may become his own sugar-maker. Sorghum, unlike sugar beet, contains various non-crystallizable sugars, the separation of which demands much skill and scientific knowledge. Sorghum-sugar will have to be made in large factories. The existing factories have shown that it can be made, but how profitably or unprofitably can not be stated by Prof. Wiley, who suggests that farmers near factories may, in effect, make their own sugar by raising the cane and trading it at factories for sugar. Cane giving sixty pounds of sugar per ton ought to bring the farmer thirty-five pounds, the rest of the sugar and molasses going to the manufacturer to pay expenses and yield profit. The profitableness of making sugar from sorghum depends largely on utilizing all waste products. The scums and sediments make manure hardly inferior to guano. Bagasse, or crushed cane, can be turned into manure by being thrown into hog-pens, as at Rio Grande, N.J., or it will make a fair quality of printing paper. It is not economical to burn it. If the manufacture of sorghum-sugar is proved to be profitable, it will result in supplying to a large extent our demand for sugar, but as sorghum makes a great deal more molasses in proportion to sugar than sugar-cane does, the Professor concludes that when there is enough sugar there will be a great deal more molasses than can be disposed of.
Prof. Wiley has made experimentally some fair samples of rum and alcohol from sorghum molasses. Under favorable circumstances one gallon of molasses weighing eleven pounds would give 2.75 pounds absolute alcohol, 3.03 pounds of 90 per cent, and 5.5 whisky or rum. Thus each gallon of molasses would give nearly half a gallon of commercial alcohol and two thirds of a gallon of whisky or rum. As it has been abundantly proved, he says, that sugar can be made from sorghum, the Government should make no further experiments in this direction. Prof. Wiley has tried the diffusion process, and finds it yields 20 per cent more sugar, but at a somewhat higher cost than grinding. The Government, he thinks, should purchase machinery for large experiments in the diffusion process, and should raise its cane somewhere else than near Washington, as land there is expensive and not adapted to the purpose. The Government should also make arrangements with agricultural colleges or other agencies in various States for experimenting with sorghum-culture to determine what parts of the country are most favorable to the culture of sugar-producing plants. Prof. Wiley suggests in each State the trial of two acres divided into ten plots—five for sorghum, four for beets, and one for corn—to test for purposes of comparison the general fertility of the soil and the character of the season. The Government ought to carry on for a series of years the process of selection of sorghum seed in order to secure an improvement in the quality of the cane.
The cold weather of last week seems to have extended over nearly the entire North American Continent. Nothing for severity has been known to equal it during a long series of years. East, West, North, and South it was all the same, differing in degree of course, but uniformly colder than scarce ever known in the same latitude.
The greatest loss to stock so far as heard from was in that in transit to market. On some of the roads the losses were heavy. A dispatch from Independence, Mo., says a train of fifteen cars, loaded with mules from Texas via the Iron Mountain and Southern road, arrived there on the 5th, when it was discovered that at least 100 of the mules had frozen to death, and the others were in a freezing condition. The mules were two years old and direct from grass. They had been three days without food.
Many trains arriving at Chicago had scores of frozen animals.
No great disaster is yet reported from the far West or from Minnesota and Dakota. Still there must have been great suffering not only among the dumb brutes, but among human beings as well. It is fortunate that polar waves do not visit us more frequently.
The effect upon fruit, buds, trees, and shrubs is not yet ascertained. It will be a marvel if many localities are not barren of fruit of nearly all kinds next year.
The Prairie Farmerwill be very glad if its readers will favor it with their ideas and the results of their observations in regard to the damage of all sorts done by the intense cold of the first week of the year.
William Miller and F. Myrick, Peotone, Ill.—1. What are the laws in regard to drainage passed by the last Legislature? 2. Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and who his associates?
Answer—1. This is a question probably neither lawyers nor judges in Illinois are competent to answer. It you doubt it procure from the clerk of your County Court a copy of the public laws of 1883 and read the fifteen pages relating to drainage. 2. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court is M.R. Waite, and his associates are S.F. Miller, S.J. Field, J.P. Bradley, J.M. Harlan. W.B. Woods, S. Mathews, H. Gray, and S. Blatchford.
Samuel Snodgrass, Meade Co., Ky.—1. I have some large, old, and apparently healthy, apple trees, but they are comparatively barren. What can I do for them? 2. I have others which appear to be going to decay and will soon die. Had I better anticipate their death by cutting them down, or try to save them as I would like to do, for their associations with the past.
Answer—1. We know no better course for you to take than to dig a deep ditch all around the trees, say three feet wide and as many deep, and just within the outer reach of the limbs, and fill this in with half the earth removed and the other half made up of vegetable matter, ashes, road dirt, and such manure from the barn and stable as you can spare. Having done this make an arrangement about each tree that will retain all the rainfall which comes down to the earth beneath and collect as much more from the open spaces about as possible. 2. Your old and decaying trees may be saved if decay has not gone too far. But the remedy is an heroic one, and rather expensive as you will find. First treat the decaying trees as described for the healthy ones, with the exception you add a greater proportion of fertilizers and manure when you fill in the ditch with half new material. Then (and all this work should be done, as it can readily be done, in your latitude during the cold months when vegetation is at a stand) give the old trees a thorough pruning, even going as far as to remove 90 per cent of all the leaf and fruit buds on the tree. Then wait for results, looking for nothing more than a new growth of wood the first year, but fruitfulness thereafter and a new lease of life. But remember as in the first place, care must be taken to supply abundant water, indeed as much more as the average rainfall, so much being absolutely necessary to afford the roots the amount of manurial plant food, in solution, the new departure demands. Every fruit-grower knows when a dwarf pear has borne a certain number of crops, fruit buds cease to form and the tree becomes nearly barren. If at this stage the dwarf is deprived of every bud, whether fruit or leaf, and the limbs are left to resemble bare sticks, and at the same time the earth about the roots is fortified with wood ashes and well rotted manure, a handsome growth of branches will be made the first year and a crop of fruit result the second. This, the writer has tried with perfectly satisfactory results twice on the same dwarfs, and has others which, having been submitted to this course of treatment, in the fall of 1882, made a handsome growth in 1883, and have set fruit buds for a good crop in 1884. The life of an average apple tree in Illinois is scarcely more than 35 or 40 years; but there is no doubt if, when they begin to show signs of decrepitude or decay, they are treated as above, they may be made to live and bear fruit for perhaps a hundred years.
There are five well-known species of this genus (Fraxinus Americana), and they occupy an important place as valuable timber trees. This is especially true of the white ash, more commonly called the American ash. Of this tree the late Arthur Bryant, Sr., said in his Book on Trees: "It is one of the most valuable and worthy of culture for the quality of its wood and the rapidity of its growth. When full grown it is one of the largest of the trees of our forests. * * * * The prairie soils of Iowa and Central and Northern Illinois are well adapted to the growth of the white ash."
It is a strange and almost an unheard of thing for any one to say a good word for the "tree peddler" but I am going to say it if it breaks the heart of every horticultural baby in the land. Since a time to which the memory of man runneth not back, the poor "tree peddler" has been abused and maligned by horticultural speakers and writers. In conventions he has been ridiculed and denounced. Every cross-road nursery-man not possessed of stock sufficient to warrant a line of advertising even in his local paper, nor business force enough to send an agent through his own neighborhood to take orders for trees, has spoken in a horticultural meeting or written a letter to his favorite paper, warning the farmers against the wiles of the oily tongued fellow with colored fruit plates, specimens of preserved fruits, and an order book for trees, shrubs, and vines. And I think I have known of some of the big fish in the nursery business who with one end of their tongues have lashed some other big fish in the same business for employing irresponsible agents to sell stock for them, while with the other end they were commanding a small army of the same class of agents to go forth into all the world and preach the gospel of tree planting and—sell trees. Others have sold and continue to sell trees to peddlers without limit, for cash, and of any and all varieties called for, while they denounced the system of peddling in unmeasured terms. Now it is just as possible for a tree peddler to be an honest man as it is for the man who grows trees to sell to be honest. I do not say that all men belonging to either class are honest. It would be equally absurd to say that all of either class are dishonest. I despise the quack, the liar, the deceiver in any business, and I have no respect or love for the man who will sell worthless varieties of trees or wrongly named varieties, knowingly. Honesty here as elsewhere is the best policy. But here is a fact, as I believe: It is better to plant an inferior tree than none at all, and I know of neighbors who would go down into their graves without ever planting a tree if some persuasive peddler had not talked it into them to do so, and these same neighbors now have quite respectable orchards. Here is another fact: One half the orders sent to nursery-men by farmers during the past twenty years have called for varieties utterly worthless for the localities in which they were to be planted. And the tree peddler often gratifies the purchaser by pretending to sell to him a sort which he has made up his mind to have because he knows it was good in his old home a thousand miles away. But the peddler, not having this variety, and knowing that if he did have it it would prove worthless, substitutes a Ben Davis or some other approved variety, and it goes into the ground and in due time produces an abundance of excellent fruit. In this case the peddler does a really good thing. If nursery-men will stop propagating everything but varieties adapted to the country and the markets, and many of them are doing this, the tree peddler will be powerless for mischief—will in fact become a great public benefactor. But so long as nursery-men will continue to grow and sell worthless varieties, and so long as the people will remain in ignorance regarding adaptability, so long will the dishonest peddler remain an unmitigated nuisance and fraud. In brief these three things are wanted: Intelligent and honest nurserymen; orchard planters who either know what varieties are best for them to have, or who are willing to trust the selection to the afore-mentioned intelligent and honest nursery-men; and third, first-class talkers, intelligent as to varieties and methods of culture, who buy only of the intelligent and honest nursery-men, to go through the country and sell trees. It is unfortunate that it takes so many words to express what I wanted to say, but I am done at last.
I have got it! Yes, all the ice I want is now white for the harvest in our "artificial" pond. It is the only thing that reconciles me to this fierce visit of polar weather. As soon as a trifle milder wave gets along our way we shall carefully store away sufficient for the year's use. By the way, where are the poor deluded woodchucks, muskrats, and Old Settlers, who told us we were to bask in mild etherialness all winter long? I am disgusted this morning, with the mercury at 30 degrees below zero, and still going down, at the whole batch of them, and with Vennor and Hazen, and all professionally weatherwise men and things. I have heard of little real suffering in my neighborhood from the cold, among either humans or brutes. Doubtless, when the weather moderates and people get out to tell each other all about the cold spell, there will be many true tales of intense suffering and more than the usual romancing about the terrible week. And then the Oldest Inhabitant will thaw out, and with all the self-satisfaction that superior age and experience crown him with, will tell how much colder it was in such and such a year, until we wish this little spell had sealed his memory and mouth, for we do all take a great pride in living in a time that excels all other times, albeit, if it be only in a storm or a freeze. But in these things the early times of the Old Settler can never be excelled, no matter in what century he flourishes. He is always master of the situation. His experiences are like those of no other settler that ever lived and died. With him, imagination has gradually usurped the place of experience and its isothermal dips and dodges carry him through hotter and through colder seasons than are marked down in any Standard TimePrairie Farmer, or any other map or chart in existence. But for this weather business I should like to live next door to the Old Settler, for he is generally truthful, good, kind, full of practical knowledge and common sense.
We are having some very sharp winter weather, and sleighing as uninterruptedly good since the 20th of December as I ever remember. This morning, January 5th, the mercury reported 28 degrees below zero at 5:30a.m., and 20 degrees below at 10 o'clock. This is the coldest since January 29th, 1873, when 36 degrees below was recorded at the Industrial University here, and 42 degrees below by the spirit thermometer at one of the Jacksonville institutions. But the wind was west at that date, and it is so to-day, showing our coldest weather comes from that direction rather than from the northwest or north. The explanation I suppose to be, those great fountains of cold storage, the Colorado mountains, lie west and southwest of us, and are several hundred miles nearer than the lower peaks and ranges northwest.
It is an interesting and important truth to know at this time that an unexpected source for seed corn has been discovered here at home. It has been ascertained by experiment and investigation that the early frosted corn, which has been allowed to stand in the field, has a sound germ, and though shrunken, will make fairly good seed, whereas corn which was not frosted till late in October, and ripened in most respects, save drying out, is wholly unfit for seed, having had the cells of the kernels ruptured by the freezings it has been subjected to. This rupture of cells the grain of the frosted corn escaped, having parted with the surplus water of vegetation before hard weather set in. However, the early frosted and shrunken cane fit for seed may be confined to this county or neighborhood, or a narrow area, and therefore I advise every one who thinks of making use of it to ascertain for himself, by the usual methods, whether the germ is sound or not.
Several parties have written me—one from Missouri, another from Indiana, and a third from Kentucky, that they have seed corn for sale, cheap and in quantity. I have no doubt of it, and I have accordingly advised each to advertise it inThe Prairie Farmer, if they are really desirous of selling, stating briefly what variety, where grown, and at what price. I should be glad to advertise it for them gratuitously, but the contract ofThe Prairie Farmerwith its contributors contains a clause to the effect that "they shall neither use its columns to grind their own axes nor the axes of anybody else." With the recourse of early frosted corn to go to, and the assistance of appropriately selected seed from abroad, the gross mistakes and disappointments of 1883 are pretty certain to be avoided in 1884.
No doubt many who are more or less familiar with the Reports on Hog Cholera in the official publication of the Department of Agriculture, ask themselves why Dr. Detmers is singled out by Frenchmen as the sole authority on swine diseases, when his colleagues of the commission, Dr. Salmon and Laws went nearly as far as he did in their extravagant statements. But the prominence Dr. Detmers has obtained in the estimation of Frenchmen is now explained in this: At a late sitting of the French Academy of Sciences that eminent savant, Pasteur, referred to him and his investigations in flattering terms. Giving an account of the discovery of the microbe which causes the rouget of swine in France, Pasteur said: "Respect for historic truth compels me to state, however, that in the month of March, 1882, the microbe of the rouget was discovered at Chicago, in America, by Professor Detmers, in a series of investigations which did great honor to their author." With the indorsement of one of the most eminent scientists in the world, before a body equally distinguished, Dr. Detmers may find some compensation in being singled out as the scape goat for an unfortunate commission which has cost the country many millions.
B.F.J.
B.F.J.
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Poultry NotesPoultry-Raisers. Write for Your Paper.
You will not find it on the map because it is not mentioned there, and I shall not tell you where it is because I promised the little woman who owns it, and who gave me permission to tell other women what she had done, that I would not mention her name or the name of the place where she lives and works. How did I happen to find her? I didn't find her; it just happened—i.e., if anything ever happens in this queer old world of ours. We bumped our heads together once in a railway accident, and we have been firm friends ever since.
Her farm is only a bit of land, some thirty acres, but for the last five years she has made from ten to twelve hundred dollars a year from it, and most of the money came from the ducks. She sells eggs for hatching, and ducks for breeding and for exhibition, but the main object is ducks and feathers for market. She thinks ducks are less trouble and quite as profitable as hens. She keeps twenty-four stock ducks, eight males and sixteen females, through the winter. The ducks commence laying from the middle of February to the first of March, and lay from 100 to 125 eggs each in a season. The first laid eggs are set to get ducks to sell for breeding stock and for the early summer market. For this purpose the eggs from the ducks that are two or three years old are used, and when hatched the ducklings from those eggs are marked by punching a small round hole in the web of the feet. She thinks, and rightly, too, that the eggs from the older ducks procure larger and more vigorous birds than the first eggs from the young ducks.
As soon as the weather gets warm enough to ship without danger of chilling on the way, she sells eggs for hatching at $3 per dozen, and finds no difficulty in disposing of as many as she cares to spare at that price. Her sales of eggs for hatching amount to about $100 yearly. Besides the eggs used and sold for hatching she generally sends a twenty-four-dozen case to New York just before Easter. These large, finely-shaped, pure white eggs sell readily for Easter eggs, and bring from forty to fifty cents per dozen.
From the eggs set on her own place during the season she raises from ten to twelve hundred ducks each year. The ducklings are hatched from the first of April up to about the first of August. Most of the ducklings are raised by hen mothers, and she keeps some fifty hens for that purpose. The hens are all pure Buff Cochins, and are kept until they are two years and a half old. Besides raising two broods of ducks each season, each hen pays her owner an average profit of seventy-five cents a year from the sale of eggs for market. When fattened for market at the end of the second season, these Cochin hens are large and heavy, and the carcass of the old fowl generally sells for enough to pay for a pullet to take her place. No chickens are raised on the farm; the pullets are bought of a neighbor who keeps the Buff Cochins.
She aims to set several hens and the incubator at the same time; when the eggs hatch the incubator ducklings are divided up among the hens; one hen will care for twenty ducklings until they are old enough to care for themselves. The eggs hatch well—those in the incubator quite as well as those under hens, and when the incubator ducklings are once mixed up with the others she finds it impossible to distinguish "which from 'tother."
When the ducklings are ten or twelve hours old they are moved with the mother hen to coops and safety runs, which are placed in an orchard near the house. This orchard contains about four and a half acres, and the coops are scattered over it a few rods apart. On the side of the orchard that leads to the "pond lot," the bottom board of the fence is a foot wide and comes close to the ground in order to keep the ducklings from taking to the water too early in life.
When the ducklings are four weeks old the hens are taken away, but the ducklings are kept in the orchard until they are six weeks old, or until they are well feathered on the breast and under part of their bodies, when they are turned into the pond lot, where they "take to the water like ducks."
The pond lot contains nearly thirteen acres, five of which are covered with water. Originally, this lot was a piece of low, rocky, bushy pasture land, between two low ranges of hills. A stream of clear, sparkling water, a famous trout brook, ran through the center. The woman who proposed to raise ducks saw at once the advantage of such a situation, and had a dam constructed near the upper end of the lot, and later another was made lower down, so that the lot contained two large ponds. Where the fences which separate my friend's land from that of her neighbor cross the stream, water-gates are put in, which keep the ducks from swimming out with the water; and the bottom boards of the fence around the rest of the lot keep them from getting out that way. Two well-trained dogs guard this lot at night, and woe to the two-footed or four-footed prowler who intrudes.
The duck houses are simply long, low sheds—with the exception of the one where the breeding stock is wintered, which is inclosed—placed on the slope a few rods back from the water. They were built of refuse lumber, and the cost was comparatively trifling. Connected with the house for the breeding-stock is a small yard where the ducks are shut in at night through the laying season. From the time when they are twelve hours old till within twenty-four hours of the time when they are killed for market, the ducklings are well fed with a great variety of food. From the first meal until they are turned into the pond lot they are fed every two hours between daylight and dark. "Little and often," is the motto. Before they take to the water the ducklings are fed a little cooked meat once each day, and doubtless this ration of meat has much to do toward making the fine large ducks that my friend has a reputation for raising. After they are turned into the pond lot the ducklings are fed but three times a day till within two or three weeks of the time when they are to be marketed; then they are confined in the fattening yards and fed oftener.
The fattening yards are situated between the two ponds, and so arranged as to inclose a portion of the stream.
The ducklings are marketed as fast as they reach a suitable age and size. She commences sending them to market about the middle of June and keeps it up till about the middle of September, when she quits till near the middle of January. These prime young ducks, getting into market at a time when such poultry is scarce, bring good prices—from 22 to 25 cents a pound, dressed. By the time the price begins to decline she has marketed all the earlier ones that she cares to spare, and the later-hatched she keeps growing till mid-winter, when fine ducks are again scarce and the price goes up. At Thanksgiving and during the holidays when the markets are crowded with poultry of all kinds, she holds on to her ducks, unless she has an order at an extra price.
At first my friend kept the Rouens; then she tried the Aylesburys, but now she keeps only the pure Pekins, and is so well satisfied with them that she has no desire to change for anything else. She says, "For laying qualities, quick growth, great size, fine flesh and fine feathers, the Pekins can not be excelled."
On her place I have seen six-weeks old Pekins that weighed six pounds a pair alive, and those that dressed from three to four pounds each at ten or twelve weeks. At five and six months her ducks dress from six to eight pounds each. For the feathers, the best and finest of which are carefully saved by themselves, my friend obtains forty cents per pound.
All the work connected with the duck-raising, except now and then some heavy work which is necessary in the pond lot, is now performed by my friend and her three children, a boy of fifteen, and two girls of thirteen and eighteen.
There is a moral to this, but if you can't find it it will not do you one bit of good.