The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-11
New York SUM-

The manager of one of New York
great dry goods stores, who has a farm
| near Brewster, n. Y, is much interest
ed in the contention of Director Smith
that the Central Park menagerie is
becoming an Eveless Eden. because
visitors feed hydrocarbons to the ami
mails
II am not disputing Mr.. Smiths ar
gument that peanuts and sweets pre-
determine the sex among animals. -
said he. He may be perfectly cor
rect. l only want to state the sad
conditions on my farm, and l can't
give a reason for them. They are just
like the conditions at the menagerie.
although my live stock has had moth
ing but ordinary food.
There are three hundred acres on
the farm, which is situated on a ridge
and is carefully stocked with the best
cattle and poultry that money can buy.
l have been there seven years. and all
that time l have suffered a plague of
too many males.
Il have 100 cows. and of their calves
So per cent. have been bulls. / brought
80 heifers there from other parts of
the. country, which were about to
calve, and they produced the usual
number of heifers, but since then they
have given me nothing but bulls. ]
-
bulls of fine breeding along the coun-
try side, so l had to sell them i'm the
market or raise them as steers. Young
bulls whose grandsire sold for S12. 600
brought about $37 from the butchers
1t was useless for me to keep more
than one out of twenty of them.
"All these are of the finest Ayrshire
stock. The president of the Ayrshire
Association laughs at me every time
10 ms "a cl & bnN nj a y.n
He knows that it is almost impossible
for me to raise a heifer on my farm.
with sheep it has been worse. if
possible. / have a flock of thirty.
Some ewes have had two lambs. some
one, and twenty-six of them have been
males. The men on the farm have got
so used to the state of affairs that
when a heifer and a eve lamb is born
there is a celebration.
II have tried my best to raise chick
ems. but the chicks are nearly all
ROSTERS You know what that means
to a farmer. My turkeys, raised for
the holiday tables of myself and my
friends, with hardly an exception.
turned out to be toms A hen turkey
may bring % cents a pound when a
tom turkey sells for o. The meat of
a hen turkey is far superior to that
of the male bird.
THE hoodoo affects even the carrier
pigeons, which | thought would be an
ornament to the place The females
were in the majority when l bought
the pigeons. but they produced nothing
but males. The result was that the
males flew away to find mates and my
loft was deserted.
"My cat lad a litter of kittens and
six of. the seven were tomcats. There
is fine place for hogs on the farm.
but after observing the course of
events in the other branches of live
stock / have decided not to try hogs
just yet. Bears, except when they are
in the sucking stage. are of no use for
the market, having q strong odor
But that is not all. When l start
ed the farm seven years ago | took on
a hired man who had just been mar
ried. He was with me until recently,
and while in my employ became the
happy father of five boys. He moved
away and girl came. Another man
who has worked for me four years has
had three boys come to cheer his life.
but no girls.
Excessive maSculinity has extended
even to the vegetables on my farm.
The corn came up only in stubs and a
learned professor whom | consulted
told me that it was male corn.
MY neighbors are not troubled the
way l am. Perhaps that is because
my farm is apart from theirs on a
higher land. l have sufficient luck on
my farm on Lake Champlain, but l
am going to keep away from there as
much as possible. lest | bring the
strange influence or suggestion or
whatever it is.
81 might say in conclusion that l
am the father of four boys, but l don't
see what bearing that has on the puz-
zle The boys were not born on the
farm near Brewster"