The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-11-03

O-StNHS
than when performed after the leaves
have fallen, London Garden.
Common Sense in the Poultry Yard.
Common sense is too often uncom-
mon sense, and there is more truth than
novelty in this sentiment in its applica-
ton to poultry keeping, 1t is not my
intention to criticise nonsensical ways,
but to show ways sensible.
The poultry" that everybody keeps
are technically designated "fowls," or
"baln-door fowls" as rule they are
kept in small fockp, fed chiefly on what
no farmer misses. On most farms q
flock of twelve to forty hens will pick
up living without receiving particle
of grain from May to October, includ-
ing both months. Their food consists
of insects, seeds and grass or weeds
they need fresh water besides. What
wonder is it that fowls thus kept are
demonstrably more profitable than any
class OF stock, or any crop on the farm.
This is the best way to keep fowls,
provided they can he induced to lay
where their eggs can be found while
fresh. To accomplish this a house of
some kind is needed where the fowls
may be shut in occasionally for few
days at time, so as to make them
roost and lay in convenient places. If
fowls can roost in the trees, lay all over
the farm and "dust" themselves in the
road, they will almost surely be healthy,
lay a great many eggs, and keep in
good condition. Besides every now
and then hen will unexpectedly ap.
pear with brood of ten or dozen
chicks, Matched under some bush where
she had "stolen" her nest and done her
Matching. That is all very we'll so far
as the hen is concerned, but no one
wants it to happen. We wish the
hens to lay and sit where we can
put what eggs We please under them
for hatching-and what is still more
important, we wish to be able to collect
the eggs for use or for sale daily.
fresh egg is joy, delight, good gift
Of heaven-a perfectly coed" egg is
an abomination. An egg, to be fit to
eat, or for sale, must be fresh beyond a
peradventure, and utterly untainted
with suspicion OF having been brood
ed OF weathered. For this reason it is
a most untidy thing to use natural nest
eggs. The nest.egg after while is
almost surely gathered, and of course
is not fright. ."-Am~icam AWicuHurist
Muck.
That muck may be of its greatest
value-for it has valuable elements OF
plant food in its structure-it must be
treated or brought into proper con-
dition, SO that these important elements
may become available to the plants that
arc to use them. The muck should be
dug in the fall, and there is no letter
time than now, during this dry spell,
when the swamps are dry and can be
worked to the greatest advantage. 1t
was, in fact, the favorable condition for
getting out muck that suggested the
writing of this article. and therefore
must dwell upon the leading point.
The end to be gained now is to get
the muck out of the bed, and to a
place where it will be dry when the wet
weather comes. A scow or fiatboat with
heavy runners is one of the best vebi-
cles for drawing the muck, being easily
loaded and readily drawn by yoke OF
oxen or span of horses. A tramway
may in many cases be constructed from
the bed to the heap. The muck should
be left in the heap during the winter,
that it may be acted upon by the frosts,
thus bringing it to fine state, when it
is ready for use in the stable as an alb
sorbent OF liquid manure. In this way
the muck becomes incorporated W III
the dung, and is improved by the chemi-
cal changes that are thereby induced
Muck needs fermentation, and if
it can play the part of holder or
absorbent of liquid manure
while undergoing the fermentation s.,
much the better. The natural course
for muck that the greatest good may be
obtained from it is from the bed to the
heap; from the weathered heap to the
stable or compost heap, with feTment-
land Muck treated in this way has
been known to pay good returns for het
labor expended upon it, especially upon
land where there is lack of vegetable
matter or humus. There are q great
many muck beds that it will not pay to
work even in this way from sanitary
point of view. / have in mind bed
p that was close by the barn and the
house : "just the place to have
one," the owner said, and counted
it fortunate that his muck was
SO handy. The muck was dug
and its place then was soon a pool oi
stagnant water-a perfect breeding
ground of unhealthy odors, with mos
quitoes Ito counteract the oders of the
filth in the bargain). The excavation
had to be filed in with soil at a consid
erable expense, and no more muck is
mined on that farm. In many other
cases the same fertiliziug elements can
be procured at less expense in other
ways Muck farming has not always
paid, partly because OF wrong methods,
and in many cases il will not under the