The record-union., 1892-09-19

far as possible from the others, where
they can be fed to get them in good con-
dltlon for fattening, and ready to take
advantage OF any advance in the market.
They ought to be got now into such
state that three or four days in the fatten-
ing pen will put them into prime order to
sell. II, also, the cockerelS are kept by
themselves, the hens will pay well for
their board in eggs that will be just the
thing for winter packing.
If among this promiscuous lotthere are
any OF excellent qualities that you can
recommend, often an advertisement will
bring you customer who wishes to inn
prove the blood of his flock, and you
can get more for the fowl than he will
bring dressed, and get rid of boarding
him.
If you are, the coming year. to intro
duce new blood into your flock, now is
the time to be looking about you. The
fairs are poor places to select poultry.
Often prize birds are such from weight,
and marking, and not from egg-produc-
ing, or as breeders; and often they have
been forced to an unnatural size to make
them show off, but, like dollhouse rose.
they are not calculated to thrive with gen.
eral handling, and they are too pampered
and weak to breed from. | would much
rather take my chance in some reliable
dealers yard, even among the culls.
If you have not such thing you can very
easily make one of boards, in dark shed,
or where it can be made dark or light at
pleasure.
Make frame eighteen inches deep, four
feet high and eight feet long. Make
it strong enough to stand upright firmly.
Divide this with three shelves at equal
distances, having the front edge flush
with the edge OF the frame, but the back
ed Ue three inches
Divide the space between these shelves
into boxes a foot or less wide, or Just
large enough to hold a fowl. Now put
close doors to each box at the back, that
they may be scraped out each day and
kept clean; and put grated gates at the
front where food may be given them. 4
thick curtain. may be run on pole at the
top, and let down to keep out the light.
The fattening may be done by mixing
cornmeal with drippings or any coarse
lard or tallow on hand, and skim milk,
until 1t is thick enough to make into pei
lets. Feed at least six times a day by
thrusting down the throat as many of
these pellets as the crop will hold, and
give all the skim-milI they will drink.
Sometimes barley-meal and shorts are
mixed with the cornmeal, and often, if
drippings are not at hand, cotton seed
meal that has previously been softened
in warm water. and then made thick
with cornmeal, answers every purpose.
In most cases it will only be necessary
to thrust the pellets down for one day, as
the fowl quickly learns, and will take
them eagerly enough himself on the sec
ond day.
Very late chickens, if it IS thought best
to raise them, can. in September, have
the run of the garden, and will make
away with many weed seeds, worms and
bugs.
The flocks for keeping, also, will be
the better for the small potatoes, apples,
and other vegetables that are not to be
put into the cellar, and if they can have
the run Of the orchard they will save
many worms nests, and borers from
wintering over. September, also, is an
excellent month in which to store gravel,
and green stuff for your fowls in winter.
and to lay in supply of late clover hay
for them; also to repair old houses, and
build new, although final preparations
for their comfort should be made as late
as November; but, at least, begin now to
keep an account with your fiocks.-The
Housekeeper.
POORLY CURED FRUIT.
The California Fruit Gl.0aOcy saws that
lack of care, or any dishonest practice
in the course of preparing fruit for con-
sumption IS sure to return, sooner or
later, to veX the soul of him who perpe-
trates it. The man who puts the best
fruit always on top, thus gliding, as it
were, inferior stuff below, and he who
marks his packages above the grades
they will show up on opening, are sure
to be remembered next year. And this
is right. Trickery in trade is distasteful
to properly constituted minds as petty
pilfering. In fact, it amounts to the same
thing, and is born of a desire to get
something for nothing-a thing which no
honest man expects to dom honest trans
actions. Apropos of this subject we
quote from a circular lately received,
signed by ten prominent firms who
handle the dried fruits Of Western New
Y ork, as follows:
WET and improperly cured fruit is a
fraud, not only upon the dealers, but on
the consumers, and should be discounte-
nanced by every person desiring to see a
business of such profitable and valuable
character to the people of Western New
\ ork protected and further developed.
1t is only fair to state that the majority of
the producers make reliable and thor
oughly cured fruit, but there are others.
whose numbers appear TO be yearly in
creaslng, who bring TO market fruit from
10 TO 20 per cent. too wet. To counteract
and check the production of such fruit,
we agree not to handle such imperfectly
cured fruit, to discourage its manufact-
ure, and to inform each other of the
names of those who habitually manufact-
ure or bring such inferior and irregular
grades to market"
WHY POOR STOCK?
One thing that we cannot understand is
why some men who are so particular
about the crops they grow, buying the
best implements with all the latest i'm
provements for their cultivation, grow
ing the largest crops possible and har-
inc 10
ner, pay no attention at all to the sort of
stock to which they feed them. 1t is an
anomaly in our farm practice, something
that cannot be explained on any reason
able or sensible basis, and yet we see it
done every day. Men who would laugh
at the idea OF following so old a method
as to cut their hay with a scythe, who
would hardly use mower except of the
most approved pattern, will vet keen
cattle that are twenty years behind the
times TO eat their hay. There has been
just as much Improvement during late
years in our farm stock as III implements
with which we cultivate our land. and it
Will pay the farmers even better TO keep
up with modern progress in this line
than in any other. Some say they do not
believe in thoroughbred stock; then they
should not believe in improved machin-
cry, in drainage, in the silo, in the early
maturity Of fattening cattle, in growing
of sheep for both mutton and wool. in
any of the things that are helping to make
our agriculture to-day better agricult-
ure than that of generation ago. Some
say they cannot afford high-class stock:
then they cannot afford any expenditure
that tends toward better farming, for
stock, and good stock, too, is the Begin
ming and end of agricultural progress
Colman's Rural World.
CASTOR OIL BEAN CULTURE.
The culture OF the castor bean is. at the