The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work, by
Mary Rogers Miller
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Title: The Library of Work and Play: Outdoor Work
Author: Mary Rogers Miller
Release Date: March 17, 2014 [EBook #45154]
Language: English
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THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY
OF WORK AND PLAY
CARPENTRY AND WOODWORK
By Edwin W. Foster
ELECTRICITY AND ITS EVERYDAY USES
By John F. Woodhull, Ph.D.
GARDENING AND FARMING
By Ellen Eddy Shaw
HOME DECORATION
By Charles Franklin Warner, Sc.D.
HOUSEKEEPING
By Elizabeth Hale Gilman
MECHANICS, INDOORS AND OUT
By Fred T. Hodgson.
NEEDLECRAFT
By Effie Archer Archer
OUTDOOR SPORTS, AND GAMES
By Claude H. Miller, Ph.B.
OUTDOOR WORK
By Mary Rogers Miller
WORKING IN METALS
By Charles Conrad Sleffel.
[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. Harvesting Nature's Crops]
_The Library of Work and Play_
OUTDOOR WORK
BY
MARY ROGERS MILLER
[Illustration]
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1911
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO
EIGHT BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO SENT
ONE ANOTHER TO COLLEGE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Acknowledgment is due to the expert writers of United States government
and state experiment station bulletins from which much practical
information has been gained by the author; to the boys and girls who
wrote for this book the stories of their success in several kinds of
outdoor industry; to Dr. Burton N. Gates, State Inspector of Apiaries
in Massachusetts, and Prof. James E. Rice of the Department of Poultry
Husbandry at Cornell University for reading the chapters on their
specialties and for numerous suggestions which make those chapters
valuable; and to many others from whom helpful ideas have come in
letters.
A WORD TO PARENTS
There are two sovereign cures for the ills of modern life: Work and
outdoors. It is the purpose of this book on "Outdoor Work for Young
People" to teach the gospel of these two remedies, not in lessons nor
sermons, but in the form of confidential talks, which are intended to
be both practical and inspiring.
The guiding principles in the preparation of this book are three: 1, to
help young people to earn money; 2, to help them build character; 3, to
help them make better citizens.
1. The most obvious reason why children wish to work is that they "want
to earn money," to spend as they like. Here is a great opportunity
and a considerable danger. The opportunities are to help support the
family, to learn self-reliance, to gain in efficiency, to appreciate
the sacrifices made by parents, to purchase innocent pleasures, and
to save toward a college education. The dangers are that children
may become too commercially minded, grasping, even dishonest, make
dull playmates, and become stunted in character for lack of play
and wholesome stimulus to the imagination. If you will analyze these
dangers you will find that they are all the results of overdoing good
things. The old rule of the Greeks, "Nothing too much" is the golden
rule to measure perfect commercial relations between parents and
children.
2. But far more important than money making is character making.
And therefore one of the principles of this book is to suggest in a
thousand ways that money making may go too far. For example, I would
encourage boys to gather and sell nuts, but not to take nuts from a
neighbour's trees without permission nor destroy young trees whose
future crops belong to a future generation of boys. I encourage
trapping but urge the use of humane traps to avoid cruelty. I encourage
the gathering and selling certain wild flowers, if abundant, but warn
against the danger of exterminating species, or of robbing the public
of pleasure. I have gone over all of the things that children do out of
doors and have tried to select the best occupations. I have studied the
worst things they do and have suggested their opposites--constructive
work that earns money, develops character, or preserves public
property. For example, instead of collecting birds' eggs I suggest
methods of attracting birds, building houses for them, and providing
food and protection from enemies.
3. The book is addressed to the citizens of nineteen hundred and
twenty. Will not busy boys and girls make better citizens than idle
ones? Practical patriotism becomes second nature to children who learn
early to regard the rights of others, to respect the laws, and to
protect public property. The boy who raises wild fowl and liberates
them or refrains from mutilating for purely selfish ends a fine tree is
doing his share in the great work of conservation.
But the young workers cannot do it all. You will be disappointed if
you give this book to a child for a birthday or Christmas present
and expect him to "do the rest," without further help. There is no
substitute for affectionate parental interest. This book will surely
fail you if you do not thoroughly believe in the dignity of manual
labour and experience the uplift that rewards work with your own hands.
Although in theory we may all believe in the dignity of labour (for
other people), many of us make mental reservations to suit our own
cases and persist in regarding certain forms of labour as distinctly
beneath our dignity. Children see through that attitude every time.
When I used to be acquainted with the citizens of the George Junior
Republic, they had a saying that even the President and the Judge could
not maintain standing with the others unless they took their turn now
and then working in the ditch. And so I say, work with your children,
with common tools, out in the dirt. The scratches will heal and the
dirt will wash off, but the sense of kinship with workers will stay.
Have a "You and I" club, with you and the children for members. Meet
once a week to discuss schemes for earning money to buy what the
children want. It is easier to go out and earn the money and give it to
them to spend, but where do they come in? Read parts of this book aloud
when outside information or suggestion is needed. Make a list of your
children's occupations; consider whether they are the best ones. If you
know any better ones than I have put into this book please tell me, for
I, too, have children and I wish them to have the very best works and
plays that children in this world can have.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Best Ways of Earning Money 3
II. Harvesting Nature's Crops 9
Wild berries--Wild fruits--Nuts--Tree seeds--Christmas
greens--Medicinal plants--Walking sticks--Wild
flowers for city children--Corn husks--Fragrant
herbs and grasses--Balsam leaves--Birch
bark--Porcupine quills--Maple sugar--Wild rice--Spruce
gum--Mushrooms.
III. Raising Domestic Animals 101
Colts--Sheep--Goats--Calves--Pigs--Chickens--Guinea
fowls--Turkeys--Peacocks--Ducks--Squabs
for market--Pheasants.
IV. Raising Animals for Pets 203
Shetland ponies--Rabbits, guinea pigs, and cavies--Fancy
pigeons--Bantams--Fancy fowls--Dogs--Goldfish.
V. Work and Play with Trained Animals 241
Dairy cows--Training pet animals--Training young
horses--Treadmills and cranks--Making animals
happy--Taming wild animals.
VI. Making Brooks and Springs Useful 271
Reclaiming a trout stream--Reclaiming a Spring--Making
a swimming pool.
VII. Keeping Bees 287
VIII. Raising Silkworms 338
IX. Making Collections 350
Plants--Shells--Insects.
X. Odd Jobs 405
Kindling-wood--Cleaning a carriage--Work in the
orchard--Making rustic furniture--Selecting seed corn--Making
cider vinegar--Making grape juice--Making
leaf mould--Making lavender sticks--Drying corn--Making
a tennis court--Shovelling snow--Mowing
lawns--Utilizing wood ashes--Planting crocuses in the
lawn--Making ice--Cutting seed potatoes--Pruning--Cleaning
rugs.
XI. Making the Country a Better Place to Live In 450
Improving home grounds--Outdoor clubs--Attracting
birds--Domesticating wild game--Protecting wild
flowers--Preventing forest fires--Killing weeds--Getting
rid of poison ivy--Lessening the plague of
mosquitoes--Fighting flies--Trapping--Curing and tanning
skins.
Appendix
Free Printed Matter: How to Get It 514
List of Books and Bulletins by Experts on Outdoor
Work 518
ILLUSTRATIONS
Harvesting Nature's Crops _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
Gathering Wild Flowers for City Children 62
"Big Boy Blue" Looks After the Sheep 106
Feeding the Goats 114
The Shetland Pony is the Ideal Pet 204
Holding a Conversation 242
Gyp Has an Ax to Grind 250
A Group of Happy Farm Animals 256
The Skunk is an Amiable and Well-mannered Pet 266
The Crow May be Tamed when Young 266
A "Bottle Baby" 268
Plenty of Trout in This Stream When Grandfather
was a Boy 272
An Odd Job that is Never Out of Date 404
Is this Work or Play? 452
OUTDOOR WORK
I
THE BEST WAYS OF EARNING MONEY
Couldn't you use more money if you had it? There are several million
American boys and girls just like you. They want a lot of things, a
lot of good things. Wouldn't you like a half dollar once a year for
a circus ticket, a quarter now and then for a box of candy, or ten
dollars for a new dress or some music lessons? You'd be glad to buy
your own clothes, and select them too, if you had the cash. That would
be a big help in thousands of families. Parents sometimes wish that
their children could "leave out" in new clothes in spring, like the
trees.
If you could begin to earn money at twelve you could save toward a
college education, too. Lots of boys and girls are earning their way.
You can. You can earn money between twelve and twenty years of age
without interfering with your schooling.
What kind of stories do you like best? Isn't it inspiring to read
about the boyhood of our great men. Do you remember young Abe Lincoln
splitting rails? Garfield drove mules on a tow path. The men and women
who are doing great things now started as boys and girls with work to
do. They washed dishes and split kindlings and fed chickens and milked
cows and dug potatoes. Now they are tunnelling mountains, building
bridges, helping make the world better in all sorts of courageous ways.
Don't you like to hear engineers, miners, sailors, inventors, animal
trainers, cowboys, foresters, and other workers talk about their work?
The only really happy people are the ones who have found the work they
love best. I have put some stories in this book. These are told by real
boys and girls who were successful in earning money. Can you beat them
at their own game? Will you try?
There are thousands of ways for young people in their teens to earn
money. I believe the best are the outdoor ways. I have suggested a list
of occupations, the best I can think of. Of course, no one person could
try them all. Circumstances must decide. You will succeed best with the
work which you like best. You must not let outside work interfere with
your studies. You must not undertake work that is too hard for your
strength or unsuited to your disposition. Maybe this list will help
you choose.
OCCUPATIONS SUITED TO THE FOUR SEASONS AND SOME THAT GO THROUGH THE YEAR
_Summer._--Gathering berries, tree seeds, bulbs and roots, wild
flowers and ferns, balsam leaves, medicinal plants, pine cones, making
collections, mowing lawns, marking tennis courts, sawing wood, cleaning
rugs, drying herbs, corn and fruits, raising queen bees, collecting
bait, rearing butterflies for museum specimens, gathering clam shells
for button factories, shocking grain, "toting" water.
_Fall._--Gathering fruit, nuts, making corn husk mats and baskets,
shelling corn, making leaf mould, clearing a field of stones, making
stone fence, making grape juice and cider vinegar, collecting
bayberries, painting barns and outbuildings, packing fruit, cleaning
farm implements, gathering faggots, collecting cocoons, collecting
insect homes for nature study.
_Winter._--Gathering spruce gum, collecting Christmas greens,
shovelling snow, pruning shrubs, vines and trees, trapping, tanning
skins, making candles, selecting seed corn, pruning and tying
grapevines, transplanting trees and shrubs, feeding birds.
_Spring._--Cutting seed potatoes, budding, grafting, cutting dandelions
from lawns, killing weeds, oiling ponds and ditches to kill mosquitoes,
shelling corn, starting silkworms, trout, frog and toad culture,
attracting birds, fighting flies.
_Year-Round Occupations._--Keeping bees, raising goldfish, training
animals, raising colts, sheep, pigs, goats, dogs, chickens and other
poultry, rabbits and other pets, collecting wood for kindling, turning
grindstone, milking, taming wild creatures, raising prize corn,
potatoes, or cotton.
THINGS WORTH THINKING ABOUT
Don't think only of the money you can earn. There's no use talking,
the work you do and the way you do it is going to have an influence on
your character. Do a good job! If you slight your work you cheat your
employer. You know it, if he doesn't. You cheat yourself, too. And when
you are working for yourself, you are the one who is doubly cheated by
slack methods. That's plain.
Don't choose an occupation you are doubtful about. Most occupations
are perfectly honourable. Dishonesty comes in methods. The grown-up
grafters, ten to one, were cheaters at games, and sneaks about work.
When in doubt, ask advice. Don't you like to be asked for your opinion?
Everybody does. Ask your parents' advice about the work you think of
undertaking, and the methods of carrying on the business side. What
will please them more than to know that you have a keen sense of honour?
This is my word of encouragement and inspiration to the boys and girls
who read this book. There are a hundred perfectly good reasons why you
should have more money of your own. And there are a thousand ways to
earn it. Every one of you can earn a college education. Choose the best
work _for you_, and do it with enthusiasm. If you want my advice about
your work or any information I can get for you, nothing would please me
more than to hear from you.
II
HARVESTING NATURE'S CROPS
PICKING BERRIES
The berry picking season begins "'long about knee-deep in June" with
the first wild strawberries. It does not end till the last cranberry
is harvested on the eve of Thanksgiving Day at the end of the drowsy
Indian summer. There is money to be earned at this occupation wherever
there is ambition to overcome difficulties and force of character
enough to step aside from the beaten paths. Fortunately berries are
ripe in vacation time. For some people berry picking has almost if
not quite the fascination of fishing. It lacks the objectionable
features of hunting, fishing and trapping. Guns, tackle, and traps are
unnecessary in this gentler sport. No costly tools are required. A
light pail, flaring somewhat at the top, is a good receptacle. A wire
bent into an S-shaped hook is handy to swing the pail over the forearm
while the ambidextrous picker almost doubles the day's harvest if the
fruit is extra plentiful.
There is hardly a state in the Union which has not plenty of wild
fruits. The young citizens of each state should know these fruits and
make the most of them. Some states or regions have fruits peculiar to
themselves. Wouldn't it be worth while for the domestic science or
cookery teacher in a country school to show her pupils how to utilize
these home products? We hear talk about the cost of materials for use
in classes in cookery. To let our wild fruits go to waste is poor
economy whichever way we look at it. Wouldn't you, if you live in
northern Michigan, like to exchange a pot of thimbleberry jam for one
made in North Carolina from persimmons? Or if you live in Montana would
you exchange buffalo berry marmalade with a Florida friend for guava
jelly or preserved cumquats?
WILD RASPBERRIES
Just the other day a girl from the shore of Lake Superior told me of a
camping trip on a part of the lake shore inaccessible except by water.
A storm on the lake kept them from going home when they had expected so
they gathered raspberries and canned and jammed them till their sugar
gave out, then until every available cooking utensil, even the coffee
pot, was full and the supply of berries was as unlimited as ever.
These great, luscious fruits, she said, were as big as the end of her
thumb, and fairly falling off the bushes with the weight of juice.
Doesn't it make your mouth water? The pickers who live near the woods
up there bring berries to town in milk pails. The fruit box may be more
elegant, but there is a bountiful sound about the milk pail that takes
my fancy. Of course, one gets scratched while berry-picking; but in
what a good cause. Is there something wrong about boys and girls who
prefer boxed berries and smooth hands to wild fruits and scratches?
There are thousands of dollars wasted every year that might be working
on some boy's or girl's schooling, just because nature's crop of
raspberries isn't half harvested.
Wild raspberries should be canned, jellied, or jammed by the regulation
methods. With a good oil stove all the work can be done in the open air.
THIMBLEBERRY
Do you know the thimbleberry? Some call it the flowering raspberry.
You will know by its shape and general look that it is a cousin to the
black raspberry although it is flatter, seedier, and more sharply acid.
It grows on a bush or shrub somewhat like a raspberry, but its leaves
are broad, like grape leaves. Instead of thorns its twigs are clothed
with sticky hairs. The colour of the fruit is pinkish purple.
Thimbleberries grow often along woods margins, just back of the fringe
of wild red raspberries. You are lucky if you get two cupfuls of the
thimbleberries while your companion is picking two quarts of the
raspberries. Yours pack more closely and the fruit is not so abundant.
The number of people who have tasted thimbleberry jam is small. I am
told by one who has made it that you can get any price you ask for tiny
glasses of it, even a dollar a glass, from people who "must have it."
Made just as one does other jams, equal parts of fruit and sugar, there
is nothing tastes quite like it.
BLUEBERRIES
Blueberry pie was a staple and justly popular dessert in a certain
college dining-room, where I first made its acquaintance. It was, of
course, made of canned blueberries, and we used to wonder where they
all came from. We certainly never saw them growing in the Mississippi
Valley. The blueberry belt is a wide one and includes all the eastern
and central states. I first saw them growing on Cape Ann, and later on
the New Hampshire hills. The women and children used to bring them in
small pails to sell at the doors of their less enterprising neighbours.
But the price was always high and the berries not first class, unless
we gathered them ourselves. It takes a lot of picking to get two
quarts. One gets an entirely wrong impression of the blueberry business
from these experiences.
The great canning factories do not depend on a haphazard crop. In
New England and the eastern states there are thousands of acres of
waste land, shorn of its forest, where blueberries grow in greatest
abundance. It is not possible to estimate with any accuracy the value
of this wild crop. Pickers get from one and one-half to three cents a
quart, and the boxes sell in retail market at from twelve and one-half
cents to eighteen cents a box. Northern Michigan shipped five thousand
bushels one year. They ship better than softer fruits, but the price
is always high and the supply small because the canning factories are
near the fields, and shipping is expensive. One large factory uses
seven hundred bushels a day. The total product of the Maine canneries
ten years ago was worth over one hundred thousand dollars. That must be
where our college cook got her supply.
Huckleberry and blueberry are the names used most commonly and you will
meet people who know one from the other. But as both are blue and there
are high bush and low bush huckleberries, as well as high and low bush
blueberries, it is useless to discuss the names. Both are right and a
huckleberry in Ohio may be a blueberry in Maine.
A sort of rake to gather blueberries is used for the low bushes. But
hand picking is best. The rake tears the bushes so, and the berries
have to be put through a fanning mill twice to free them from leaves
and rubbish. This process fits them for the canners who are not as
particular as we wish they were.
The blueberry bush is a kind of Indian. It does not take kindly to
gardens and other civilized places. It thrives and yields abundantly
if given a chance on its native hillsides, and comes up by the million
wherever the cutting of the timber lets in the light. By burning over
the blueberry land in very early spring while the ground is wet,
those in charge can keep down the alder, poplars, birches, and other
non-money-making growths, and this is taken by the blueberries as their
chance. They come right up, and deliver a tremendous crop the first
year after the burning.
WILD GRAPES
We used to gather wild grapes along the river bottoms in the middle
West when we went nutting. Sometimes our nutting excursion turned out
to be a grape harvest. These grapes were small, almost black under
their thin coat of bloom, in clusters like miniature garden grapes. Oh,
but they were puckery when green, but the frost sweetened them. The
vines grew tremendously, way to the tops of the trees, their stems like
great ropes, which we used for swings. The grapes were really mostly
seed and skin, but there was juice enough to stain our aprons, and give
the teeth and tongue an unmistakable telltale hue. There was juice
enough for a kind of jelly which I believe had the peculiarity of never
"jelling" properly. It is good, though, and they were well worth the
sugar to make them edible.
I was surprised at their size when I first saw the big summer grapes
of the eastern hedge-rows and banks. But their flavour is no great
improvement over that of the frost grape. There is more pulp, though.
My barberry gathering friend, who admits that she is "fond of all sorts
of woodland flavours," gathers these grapes in August before they
begin to change colour. She makes the only really green grape jelly I
have seen. This is her receipt:
Wash the stemmed grapes very carefully to rid them of dust and possible
taint from poison ivy, with which they often associate. Put them into a
preserving kettle with a very little boiling water, cover and let them
steam till tender. (No boiling here.) Strain to get rid of seeds and
skins. (Work fast at this point, because delay may cause the change of
colour we wish to avoid.) Weigh the juice and an equal amount of white
sugar. Heat sugar and juice separately, without scorching. Stir the hot
sugar into the boiling juice, let boil up, skim, and put into dry, hot
glasses. If it boils a long time it loses the green colour, and its
flavour of the wild out-of-doors.
Green grape jelly that is really green is a triumph. It would bring a
price.
ELDERBERRIES
Elderberries have almost gone out of fashion in these days of
refrigerator cars and cold storage, when fruits from all parts of the
world are brought to our doors. But I am antiquated enough to like the
rather flat, seedy things, and the "runny" jelly is of a wonderful
colour and flavour. Best of all is the fun of gathering the broad,
flat clusters, always seeing a finer one just a few steps farther on
or just over the fence. The golden-rod is brilliant in the September
sunshine, the asters like star stuff sifted in every fence corner,
while the fox grapes clambering over stray trees along the line fence
fill the air with fragrance. Perhaps I could get on without the
elderberries, but the New England conscience requires some practical
excuse for traipsing off over the fields when there is useful work to
be done indoors. Elderberries canned in a thin syrup, one cup of water,
two of sugar, and all the berries the jar will hold, are excellent for
steamed pudding. Drain off the juice, and stir the berries into the
batter just as you would blueberries, mulberries, or any other fruit.
The colour of the pudding will be awe-inspiring but with the juice for
sauce it is good, really.
BARBERRIES
Our Westchester County hostess always took a basket on her arm when
she went for a walk. She had an unusual taste for wild flavours of all
sorts and her guests were always sure of some delightful surprise at
her table. In September there is a choice of wild fruits, and everybody
recognized the necessity for a basket. I wondered, though, when we
passed, unnoticed, bushels of elderberries, and rods of browning
grapes, and headed for a group of dogwood trees. But although the
berries were thicker than I ever saw on the dogwood, they were only
admired and left for the sun to burnish. High on a bare hilltop we sat
where the view was panoramic. The lady with the basket betook herself
to a fringe of tall, ruddy bushes on the brow of the hill, and I found
her busily filling her basket with barberries. She did not wait to pick
them singly but snipped off the laden twigs with scissors, avoiding
thus the angry thorns.
"What are they good for?" I asked, as I tasted again the sharp,
astringent flavour and felt that indescribable pucker on tongue and
lips that goes with it. The barberry had long been a favourite with me;
the bush for its wayward grace and its cunning flowers, the berries for
their exquisite bloom and for tasting so unlike any cultivated thing.
But I had never dreamed of making jelly of them.
"Jelly," said our hostess. "It's particularly good with game."
Of course it would be good with game, but can you imagine eating
barberry jelly with corn-fed pork or with fat mutton?
The berries should be gathered before they are fully ripe and treated
like currants, although the yield of juice is meagre. Add a little
water and heat slowly. Strain and add "pound for pound" of sugar. Put
in tiny glasses. Any one in search for a unique Christmas gift for an
epicurean uncle would find barberry jelly fills the bill.
In Salem, Mass., I saw barberries for sale in the market. They looked
mightily out of place along with pineapples, watermelons, grapes,
peaches, Japanese plums, and other conventional market fruits.
BAYBERRIES
Two friends of mine, summering on Cape Ann, discovered there to their
delight, a low shrub, growing in great profusion on the rocky hills.
The foliage was of a rich green colour, of a leathery texture, and was
possessed of an aromatic odour at once delightful and wholesome to
their senses. They were seized with a great desire to take home with
them a quantity of this plentiful foliage to make into pillows or to
feed the fire on the hearth that they might inhale its fragrance, and
be reminded of Cape Ann and the summer sea.
So they procured huge gunny sacks which they were at some pains to
stuff to their utmost capacity. They have a snapshot of themselves,
bent double under the weight of the great sacks. With the help of
a friendly native they succeeded in transporting the burdens to the
express office, and addressed them home. We cheerfully paid the
expressman's charges at the home end, having been advised that the bags
were coming, and carried them to the attic floor where they were to be
spread to cure. But when the contents came tumbling out, its pent-up
fragrance was familiar. Then was it possible those blessed geese had
been spending their precious vacation days gathering bay berry leaves?
It was even so, and we had paid nearly two dollars express on the
bags--and our woods were full of it! What a laugh we had at their
expense when they came to reimburse us.
The bayberry shrub is also called wax myrtle and it is easy to see why,
when you find the berries in October. They are gray, almost white, and
you see that each one is covered with tiny drops of wax that has oozed
out of the berry and dried on its surface.
Bayberry is called candleberry, too, because of the use our
great-grandmothers made of the wax. Bayberry dips have come into
fashion again and people who make them skilfully find a ready sale for
their product.
MAKING BAYBERRY DIPS
To make bayberry candles you must first gather the wax-covered berries.
Get them early, for, as cold weather comes on, the pellets of wax drop
off. Two quarts make only a little ball of wax, so you must gather an
enormous quantity of the berries. Put them into water and bring it to
a boil, stirring well to be sure that all the wax is melting. Being
lighter than water the wax will rise to the surface. When you think
all the berries are bare, take them from the fire. As the water cools,
the wax hardens on top. If the berries do not all go to the bottom you
will have to melt the wax again over a slow fire or in a double boiler
until the wax rises clean at the top; all dirt and refuse on its lower
surface can be scraped off. Do not let the wax burn. Smoke is a sure
sign that it is too hot. In a double boiler there is no danger.
To make the dips, take regular candle wicking, a soft, white, loosely
twisted cord, cut it twice the desired length for the candle. Double it
and twist enough to hold it together. The loop at one end is convenient
to hold it by. Dip into the hot wax and then as it cools draw the wick
down with finger and thumb so that it hangs straight and kinkless.
A second dip adds a little to the diameter of the candle, the third
another layer and so on till your first bayberry dip is finished. If
the first effort is not a good shape and has to go back into the pot
you needn't be discouraged. Didn't the first chocolate cream you ever
made look like a chestnut gone wrong? But with patience it is possible
for even a beginner to produce very shapely candles. They do not need
to be absolutely regular. Paraffin or tallow candles, moulded just
alike by the hundred thousand dozen, may be as round and perfect as
machinery can make them. Part of the charm of the bayberry dips is in
these slight irregularities of shape and size.
WILD CRAB APPLES
Thickets of small trees, bearing little solid green apples are a
feature of almost every farm in the prairie states. They are common
also on the hilly pastures of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and New
York. The South, too, has its native crab apple. School children the
country over loved in my day to fill their pockets with the hard, sour,
little fruits and nibble at them surreptitiously under cover of a broad
geography. But perhaps children's tastes have changed since that far
time.
Modern geography must be different, anyhow. I saw one the other day
shaped just like a fifth reader or history or any other. It just looked
like any book, not one bit like a g'ography.
The little crabs were made into sauce or "butter," by pioneers of the
prairie states. We washed, quartered, and cut out the wormy places,
stewed them till soft with a little water, then put them through a
coarse sieve to take out seeds, cores, and skin. The pulp was then
sweetened with sorghum molasses and boiled; stirring is necessary to
prevent burning. The appetites of those days did not demand dainty
fare. Well do I remember a small visitor to whom our cookery was new
whose demand for crab-apple-sauce-if-you-please was hard to satisfy. I
believe crab apple jelly would be regarded a great delicacy by people
of good taste, if once they had a try at it.
PERSIMMONS
The children of the persimmon belt, which includes a much larger part
of the eastern half of the United States than many suppose, all know
that the fruit of some trees is better than that of others. The 'possum
knows, too, and lucky is he who finds both "fruits" on the same tree.
There is a market for persimmons if they are gathered after frost,
and a greater demand may be created. Seeing an unfamiliar fruit in
the market is very likely to awaken the interest. Whether the buyer
will want a second basket or not depends entirely upon the cleverness
of the person that supplies the demand. The thoroughly ripe fruit is,
according to an experienced traveller, "entirely without bitterness
or astringency, sweet, rich, and juicy." What more can you say about
watermelon or strawberries? But if you who gather the fruits persist
in hurrying them green into market you may expect that the prejudice
against persimmons will grow stronger.
HAWS
Is there any good reason why some of the people who used to be boys
should never have a chance to taste any thorn apples now that they are
older? Perhaps these grown-up boys deserve to be punished for deserting
the old haunts, but give them a taste of what the open road has to
offer and maybe they will be tempted back to a simpler life.
The fruit of the May haw or apple haw of the far South is sold in
the markets of some cities and is made into preserves and jelly. The
Washington thorn which grows wild in Virginia and the other states not
far from the capital city is also cultivated in many gardens farther
north. It has run wild from these gardens and ranges over New York,
Pennsylvania and neighbouring states. Though usually small, its berries
are a beautifully shining scarlet and very numerous. It is worth
risking a pound or so of sugar just to see what jelly they would make.
The pear haw has a thick, juicy flesh, and some of the yellow ones are
equally good.
WILD PLUMS
The wild plums of the East did not strike the early settlers as very
much worth while. They were almost all seed and skin and the rest
was "pucker." Quite naturally the plums of the mother country were
preferred and sprouts were brought over and set in the gardens of our
forefathers. These plum emigrants did so well in the new country that
they escaped from the gardens into the pastures and roadsides, coming
up wherever seeds were dropped. In such places they still flourish
and are thought of as wild plums. They are gathered for market, but
compare unfavourably, except with very old-fashioned people, with the
garden-grown fruits of the same or similar varieties.
The pioneers of the middle West, however, found very fine plums
growing wild in plentiful thickets. We used to gather these native
plums in the Mississippi Valley, in great tubfuls. We not only
appreciated the crop nature provided for us every year, but were
far-sighted enough to realize that the time would come when the march
of civilization would tramp out the plum thickets. So we planted them
in orchards and gardens, taking those trees that had given us the best
crops of the biggest, finest fruit. In fact, the pioneers did just what
we ought to be doing all over our country with other wild fruits and
with nuts. The wild goose plum is a native which has founded a race of
which there are many named varieties, much bigger and finer than the
little, old, wild grandmother of the plum thicket, but they all have
still that same tart tang, just under the skin, that gave to our wild
plum "jell" its incomparable flavour.
Are the wild plums all forgotten? Must all fruit come out of boxes and
have that stale taste of the town? Must it lose its characteristic
aroma and give off only that general "markety" smell? Is "goin'
plummin'" entirely out of fashion, even in the prairie states? I don't
believe it is as bad as that. Do you believe that moving pictures or
shoot the shoots or merry-go-rounds can begin to compare with such
simple pleasures as plumming, graping, berrying, and nutting? I have
tried both, and give me the old, homely pleasures every time.
The following extract from "The Tree Book" so well describes an annual
outing of pioneer children that it is quoted in full:
"'Do you calculate to go a-plummin' this fall?' The question was
quietly put in father's judicial tones, but it sent an electric thrill
from head to toes of every youngster. Mother's reply sent an answering
current, and the enthusiasm of the moment burst all bounds. 'Well, you
better go this afternoon. I can spare the team and wagon, and I guess
John is big enough to drive. There's no use goin' at all if you don't
go right off.'
"So mother and the children rode out of the yard, she sitting with her
young driver on the spring seat, the rest on boards laid across the
wagon box behind. What a jouncing they got when the wheels struck a
stone in a rut! But who cared for a trifle like that? John's reckless
driving but brought nearer the goal of their heart's desire.
"A lurid colour lightened the plum thicket as it came in sight. The
yellow leaves were falling and the fruit glowed on the bending twigs.
Close up the wagon is drawn; then all hands pile out, and the fun
really begins. How large and sweet they are this year! Mother knows how
to avoid the puckery, thick skin in eating plums. The youngsters try
to chew two or three at once and their faces are drawn into knots. But
they soon get used to that.
"Now the small folks with pails are sent to pick up ripe plums under
the trees, and warned against eating too many. 'Remember last year,'
says mother, and they do remember. The larger boys spread strips of
burlap and rag carpet under the fullest trees, in turn, and give their
branches a good beating that showers the plums down. With difficulty
the boys and girls make their way into the thicket; but torn jackets
and aprons and scratched hands can be mended--such accidents are
overlooked in the excitement of filling the grain sacks with ripe
fruit. How fine 'plum butter' will taste on the bread and butter of the
noon lunch when winter comes and school begins. (The Pennsylvanian's
love for 'spreads' on his bread leavened the West completely.)
"Other neighbours have come, and started in with a vim. It seems
unreasonable to take any more. The bags are full, and there are some
poured loose into the wagon box. Besides, everybody is tired, and John
shouts that the hazel-nuts are ripe on the other side of the log road.
"A great grape vine, loaded with purple clusters, claims mother's
attention. There will probably be no better chance for grapes this
fall, and the sun is still an hour high. John chops down the little
tree that supports it and the girls eagerly help to fill the pails with
the fruit of the prostrate vine, while John goes back to command the
hazel-nut brigade and sees that no eager youngster strays too far.
"Mother's voice gives the final summons, and the children gather at the
wagon, tired but regretful for the filled husks that they must leave
behind on the hazel bushes. A loaded branch of the grape vine is cut
off bodily, and lifted into the wagon. The team is hitched on, and the
happy passengers in the wagon turn their faces homeward."
Such was the poetry of pioneer life. Pleasures were simple, primitive,
hearty--like the work--closely interlinked with the fight against
starvation. There was nothing dull or uninteresting about either. The
plums and grapes were sweetened with molasses made from sorghum cane.
Each farmer grew a little strip, and one of them had a mill to which
every one hauled his cane to be ground "on the shares."
Who will say that this "long sweetenin'" was poor stuff, that the
quality of the spiced grapes suffered for lack of sugar, or that any
modern preserves have a more excellent flavour than those of the old
days made out of the wild plums gathered in the woods? And this is also
true: There is no more exhilarating holiday conceivable than those half
days when mother took the children and "went a-plummin'."
NUTS
The wild nuts gathered in this country for sale or home use in the
North are chestnuts, hickory nuts, black walnuts, butternut, hazel-nut,
beechnut; in the South, the pecan and the chinquapin; in the far West,
the pine nut. The least known of these in eastern markets are the
pine nuts, which form a very staple article of food for many tribes
of Indians in the Great Basin. John Muir says that there are tens of
thousands of acres covered with nut pines. An industrious Indian family
can gather fifty or sixty bushels in a month if the snow does not catch
them. The little cones are beaten off with poles as the trees are not
high, and are heated till they open and the nuts fall out from under
the scales. I have eaten pine nuts in Turkish restaurants. They came
as a surprise in a dish of eggplant stuffed with chopped meat, raisins,
nuts, bread crumbs, and I know not what all else.
The native chestnut, though smaller, is far sweeter than the popular
Spanish one. But it looks as if some foreigner must take the place
of our native chestnuts in the woods as well as in the market. The
chestnut disease which has driven the trees out of the parks and wood
lots near New York City is baffling the scientists. Every year the
deadline moves westward and southward and northward from its center.
Perhaps a cure will be found before all the chestnuts are gone. If any
region has a few trees which seem to withstand the disease while all
the rest die, those trees should be preserved and used to propagate a
race of chestnuts which would be immune. It may be that the Spanish
and Japanese chestnuts will prove hardier than our own. These are
being grown quite extensively in some Eastern states. They bear when
remarkably young. Japanese chestnuts begin to bear, according to the
nurserymen, "at three years of age, bear from three to seven nuts in
a bur, each nut measuring from four to five inches in circumference."
Trees five years old bear two or three quarts each and the yield
increases rapidly from year to year. These bring fancy prices in city
markets and are eaten either raw or cooked.
In growing chestnuts it is the practice first to cut down the old
native trees. As in all likelihood these would be dead in a few years
anyhow, this is economical. Dead lumber is not as valuable as live
lumber. The first year after a chestnut is cut, a crop of young suckers
come up around the stump. These shoots are grafted with scions of a
desired variety. There is a good story of a lad of twelve years of
age who asked his father to graft a chestnut tree. Although the man
was grafting apple trees at the time he laughed at the boy's idea.
The lad did not forget and years after he put his idea into practice
and now owns a chestnut grove which brings him an income of thousands
of dollars. His chestnut groves are on waste land unfit for ordinary
farm purposes. If one farm boy in every county would take an interest
in growing the nuts that belong to his region, think how the value of
the nut crop would increase. Every boy knows that the hickory nuts on
one particular shell-bark are bigger and sweeter than on every other
one he knows of. He and his friends try to get there first, before the
"other gang" do, and make sure of their share. But does he ever plant
any big sweet nuts along a fence row and take care of the young trees
till they are big enough to take care of themselves? In the seventeenth
century there was a law in certain European countries that every young
man should plant a certain number of walnut trees. Unless he could
prove that he had complied with the law, he couldn't marry. What a good
idea! With such a law we might have more fine trees and fewer hasty
marriages.
CHINQUAPINS
A coloured girl brought me a pint of chinquapins from her home in
Ca'line County, Virginia; I sampled them eagerly, taking great pleasure
in their diminutive prettiness, tidy shape, and rich, dark colouring.
I kept a handful securely tied in the little salt bag in which they
had made the journey and took them to my native state to show to the
children, who had never seen a chestnut tree of any kind.
When I took the bag from the trunk, there was a dustiness about the
feel of it that aroused my suspicions. I emptied the contents into a
flat dish. There were my nuts, their glossy brown shells as smooth as
ever, but empty. Rolling about amongst them were a lot of the plumpest
little white grubs, fairly bent double with corpulency. There must have
been one for each nut, for not a sound kernel was left.
I learn from chestnut-wise people that these weevils are another great
enemy of chestnut culture, no remedy having been found.
The chinquapin is the Southern child's chestnut. It is sometimes a
tree, but more often a low shrub. The bur is round and has only one nut
in it. A good many are marketed, especially in Southern cities, and
bring a good price when fresh. The weevils enter the nuts before they
are mature and it is difficult to find the bad nuts till too late to
prevent a disagreeable impression. This interferes with the popularity
of the chinquapin as a dessert nut.
HAZEL-NUTS
The American hazel-nut flourishes over the eastern half of the United
States. It is a sweet little nut, much more to my taste than the
bigger filbert, which is so popular in our markets. We used to gather
hazel-nuts in the edge of woods which fringe the little rivers of
the Mississippi Valley. The bushes grew in thickets and while the
big brothers and sisters gathered the nuts from among the closely
interlaced branches that grew scarcely higher than their heads, the
smaller fry crept in underneath and getting about on the floor of the
woods searched for nuts that had ripened early and dropped from the
browning husk.
There is no progress in simply going out in the fall and taking what
nature furnishes. Unaided, the good mother goes on producing the same
small nuts, caring just as patiently for the inferior ones and even
encouraging the nut weevils to prey upon them. But I wonder if some boy
or girl who thinks there isn't any interesting work to be done on the
farm, could not make some experiments in hazel-nut culture.
The bushes grow readily from seed, but seedlings do not always produce
as fine nuts as those that were planted. For this reason one can
save time by selecting the bushes that bear the largest crop of fine
nuts and propagating those. They grow in any well drained, fairly
rich soil and I know of hundreds of miles of fence rows answering
these requirements, which now produce poison ivy, cat brier and other
harmful crops. Hazel bushes make a beautiful fence row, and yield a
salable crop. Hazel bushes propagate naturally by suckers and layers.
By manuring well in summer long shoots for layering will be forced.
"These should be staked down in winter or spring and covered with
earth. They may be removed to nursery rows or orchard at the end of
the first season." So says W. A. Taylor in the "Cyclopædia of American
Horticulture." The same writer gives directions for pruning as follows:
Strong shoots should be headed back to promote spur formation (the
nuts are borne on short side shoots) and old wood that has borne fruit
should be removed annually. Suckers should be kept down unless wanted
for propagation. March or April is the best time to prune as they
blossom very early and one must avoid cutting off either the young nuts
or the pollen-bearing flowers. The nuts should be gathered when the
husk begins to brown at the edges. If left longer, as is most often
done, in the case of wild nuts, a large proportion of the crop falls
to the ground and is lost. Beside, the dried hulled nuts do not bring
as high a price as the fresh unhusked ones. If kept long in the husk
they will mould, unless dried thoroughly. The nuts, however, will keep
through the season in a cool place.
WALNUTS
The fruit of the black walnut is enclosed in a globe-shaped husk. All
country boys and girls know how that husk smells and how it stains the
fingers. The nuts are very oily and must be treated carefully. They
should be dried, preferably on the garret floor, hulled and stored in a
cool, dry place. If for market, they should be sold immediately. They
are very likely to grow rancid if kept. Billy, in the "Limberlost"
story, had a piece of heavy plank with a hole in it, just big enough to
let the husked nut through. He put an unhulled nut over the hole, then
with a wooden mallet, he drove it through the hole. It came through
clean.
The butternut or oilnut is from a tree closely related to the black
walnut. It is called also white walnut. The husk is not so thick as
that of the black walnut and adheres stubbornly to the nut if left to
dry. The nuts get rancid if kept warm and should be marketed as soon as
dry or kept stored in the cold and eaten before spring.
Pickled walnuts are a highly prized delicacy in households where
"culturine" has not taken the place of old-fashioned household arts.
The nuts are gathered when green, before the shell has hardened. If a
knitting needle can be pushed clear through the nut, it is not too old
for pickling. You will be fortunate if you can get a receipt from some
housewife who has time for real culture as well as for making pickles.
_Receipt for Pickled Walnuts._--(From my great aunt's cook-book.)
Ingredients: One hundred walnuts, salt and water, one gallon of
vinegar, two ounces of whole black pepper, half an ounce of cloves, one
ounce of allspice, one ounce of root ginger sliced, one ounce of mace.
Gather the nuts in July when they are full grown. They should be soft
enough to be pierced all through with a needle. Prick them all well
through. Let them remain nine days in brine (four pounds of salt to
each gallon of water), changing the brine every third day. Drain them,
and let them remain in the sun two or three days until they become
black. Put them into jars, not quite filling them. Boil the vinegar and
spices together ten minutes, and pour the liquid over the walnuts. They
will be fit for use in a month, and will keep for years.
BEECHNUTS
The boys of your neighbourhood may not know that the smooth,
gray-barked trees with very long, slender, pointed buds are beeches.
They may never have noticed the wonderful gray-green colour nor
delicate texture of the newly opened leaves, nor the soft, silky
flower head that bears the pollen. Too many boys think these
preliminaries are of no importance. The chances are strong that when
October ripens the nuts, nobody has any difficulty in locating beech
trees, if there are any in the vicinity. Usually, in the wild woods,
they grow in large groups of various sizes; the big trees sheltering
the little ones until they are strong enough to live in the full
sunlight. Do boys and girls find the beeches by instinct just as the
mice, the blue jays, the squirrels, and the foraging hogs do?
Do you know why it takes so much longer to gather a pint of beechnuts
than the same amount of hazel-nuts? They are pretty small; yes, but
there's another reason. If you were to count your beechnuts, you would
find it takes many more of them by count to make a pint than of the
round nuts, because of their triangular shape. They fit so snugly that
your pint measure of beechnuts is almost solid nuts. They are about the
sweetest of the wild nuts. They are very rich in fat too, and in olden
times an oil for table use was made from beechnuts. Olive oil takes
its place now and costs less. There is a market for all the beechnuts
you can gather. Dealers in tree seeds often have difficulty in filling
orders. As the nuts do not germinate till April they may be gathered
at any time during the winter, unless the wild folks have gathered them
all. The chances are that to get any you would have to go early and
search sharply. Once or so in a lifetime the burrow of a white-footed
mouse is discovered near beech woods. Are you hard hearted enough not
only to break and enter, but also to burgle his hoard? Rather admire
the little creature's industry and resolve to go and do likewise.
HICKORY NUTS
America is the only country that has native hickory nuts. Of these the
best nut producers are the shagbarks and the pecans. These two nuts are
increasingly popular. People are planting these nuts and experimenting
with new varieties, with grafting and cultivation, as never before.
Pecan orchards are being planted in many regions and hickory nuts are
being studied with a view to improving the kernel and reducing the
hardness of the shell. The value of hickory wood in the making of tools
and for fuel has made the lumber more profitable than the nuts. But
with improved varieties this may not be true. The poor quality of the
wood of the pecan has saved these native trees from destruction.
Hickory nuts have a husk as every country child knows; but the husk has
a good-natured habit of splitting neatly into four equal parts which
fall away from the nut when dry. There are several kinds of hickory
which produce sweet, edible nuts, but the nuts of the true shagbark are
the best. They grow on low hills near streams or swamps in good soil
in the Eastern and Middle states as far south as Florida, and as far
west as Kansas. The king nuts of the Mississippi are bigger, but not so
good, although the price you get for them is good and the baskets fill
faster than with the little shagbarks.
PECANS
This nut tree grows in the South, and as the wood is too brittle to be
very valuable nobody has cut it for lumber. Tremendous interest has
been aroused during the past ten years in pecan growing. Pecan orchards
are being planted in all sorts of soil, good, bad, and indifferent. The
wisest planters have gone to nature to learn what kind of conditions
the pecan requires. By cultivation and fertilizing and otherwise
improving good natural conditions, many growers are succeeding. By
planting nuts from trees that produce fine ones abundantly every year,
and by budding these trees with scions from still finer specimen trees
great improvement has been made. I have a picture of a pecan tree in
Georgia, sixteen years old, which is nearly fifty feet high. It has
borne already three hundred and fifty pounds of nuts and this year's
crop will be over a hundred pounds. This tree has never had to fight
weeds, has always had plenty to eat and drink, was protected in winter
while young, and now it is ready to foot all its own bills and give a
fine profit. How many of us are ready to do that at sixteen years? The
cultivation of pecans is only just begun. Very little of the annual
crop of these nuts is harvested in orchards. In "The Tree Book" the
author says that ninety-five per cent. of the crop is still gathered
in the woods. The annual crop is tremendous, and the pickers get only
three to ten cents a pound for the ungraded nuts. For the very best
nuts, mainly sold for seed, the retail price is from fifty cents to a
dollar a pound, which is from one to two cents per nut.
Who picks all these nuts in the woods? Surely, the boys and girls of
the pecan belt do their share. Do they do it in a primitive way or are
their methods worthy of the up-to-date American youngster? Professor
Hume of the Florida Agriculture Experiment Station (Bulletin No. 85,
1906) gives suggestions for gathering the pecan crop in the orchard
which ought to be useful to the "wild picker." The nuts ought to be
gathered as soon as the most of the burs have opened. In orchards, the
pickers use ladders for young trees and climb the big ones and gather
the nuts by hand into sacks. Beating and shaking the trees is only
resorted to for the nuts that are entirely out of reach. If allowed
to fall on the ground so many of the nuts are lost that the profits
are materially lessened. If practicable a large sheet should be placed
under the tree to save this loss.
The nuts should be spread under some sort of roof to cure, which
requires ten days or two weeks.
Have you ever tried the experiment of sorting and grading the nuts you
gather? The fruits of wild trees vary greatly in their size and general
appearance. The wholesale dealer who buys nuts undoubtedly grades them
and gets a fancy price for the big ones. Why should you not benefit by
this?
Pecans are graded by sifting them through screens, the mesh of which
lets only those of small size through. You might build up a private
trade in wild nuts by packing your best nuts in attractive pasteboard
boxes and charging a good retail rate for them. The inferior nuts you
could well afford to sell at the lowest wholesale price as your average
would be higher than the wholesaler would pay for unsorted nuts.
Your fancy nuts would have to be polished in order to compete with the
nuts sold in city markets. The polishing does not make the meat any
sweeter, but it does make a more attractive dessert nut, especially now
that folks are used to seeing them polished. This is done by putting
some dry sand into a barrel with the nuts and rolling the barrel about
till the nuts are polished. If you have a worn out barrel or box churn,
as we once had, that would be just the thing. Fancy packages of five to
ten pounds would be very much in demand at Christmas. The big cities
are well supplied with this sort of thing, but in the smaller cities
and larger towns there are always some people who know a good thing
when they see it and to whom the local markets often fail to supply
these little luxuries.
NUT GROWING
In Bulletin No. 125 of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station
published in 1908 you may read: "The young and middle-aged should not
only plant nut trees themselves, but should encourage the children to
do likewise. Every farm boy ought to have a small nut nursery and be
taught to plant and care for nut trees. Nothing more creditable could
be done in the schools than to interest the boys and girls in the
possibilities of nut production and to celebrate Arbor Day with the
planting of nut trees."
Doesn't that read like sound advice? Think of the land on your father's
farm to-day that is not working. Or if there isn't any idle land
can you not persuade him to lend you an acre or so for experimental
purposes? The chances are that he will encourage and help you because
he wants you to be interested in the farm. But you may say to yourself:
"Not much! I don't mean to stay on the farm. I'm going to work hard and
get an education. I want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a banker."
Nevertheless, you take the Maryland man's advice and set out some nut
trees. Let us say you start your nut orchard at age fourteen when you
have three years yet in the high school. Your trees will be set so far
apart that some other crops will be grown between them; corn, potatoes,
melons, or anything that requires good cultivation and fertilization.
When you finish the high school your nut trees will not look very big,
but promising. You go on to college and in four years you will see a
big change. No crop is in sight yet but you are only twenty-one and
ready to go to work. You may forget all about those nut trees for a few
years but they are not forgetting their business. They will bear a few
nuts some year, as if to try their hand at a new enterprise. Some day
when you are needing a sum of money to start in business for yourself,
and you are wondering who will lend you that much, you will get word
from the folks at home that they have harvested your first crop of
pecans or English walnuts or Spanish chestnuts and have deposited a
thousand dollars in the bank in your name as the net profits. Will you
try it?
Before planting nut trees it is important to learn all you can by
reading and by correspondence with your Experiment Station experts
about the kinds that will do best in your region and on your soil. If
more boys used a little forethought we should have fewer young college
men struggling along on small salaries in work they dislike, just for
lack of a tidy sum of ready money to set them on their feet at the
critical time.
There are good reasons for this greater interest in nut growing in the
United States. The use of nuts is more common than formerly but they
are still a luxury. Wild nuts are scarcer, owing to the destruction
of the trees for lumber. The food value of nuts is better understood
than formerly, and many articles of food are manufactured now from
nuts. Nuts as meat substitutes have come into prominence within a few
years. This creates a demand which will increase. There is no danger of
over-production. Now is the time to get into the nut business.
TREE SEEDS
In his book on "Forestry" Professor Gifford says: "Collection of tree
seeds should yield good returns if properly conducted." That is good
news, for if ever a crop was allowed to go to waste it is this crop of
tree seeds. Any one who has seen a forest of young maples cut down by
lawn mowers in the helplessness of their seed-leaf stage realizes that
with any sort of forethought those seeds might have been made a source
of income.
Professor Gifford says a little farther on that many of the seeds of
our native trees can be more easily obtained in Europe than in America.
We may learn many lessons in economy from our neighbours over there.
But who is going to harvest the tree seeds? A mechanic who earns a
good wage cannot afford to gather tree seeds; neither can a bank clerk
unless he does the work in his vacation. But our boys and girls are
often at a loss to find ways of earning money. Here is a crop they
can gather without danger of trespassing. There is a market for this
harvest. Some tree seeds are difficult to get and expensive; red pine
for instance. Spruce trees produce seed only once in seven years. This
keeps the supply short. In a spruce seed year every seed should be
gathered. Pecks of hard maple seeds are swept up by street cleaners
every year on our home street. They are worth a lot of money, yet the
boys on the street never have all the cash they want to buy baseball
gloves and circus tickets and bicycles. No enterprising reader of this
book need ever lack for pocket money.
Remember, Professor Gifford said, "Collection of tree seeds should
yield good returns _if properly conducted_." Every business to
be successful must be conducted properly. There are some simple
principles. You need not be an expert forester but the more you know
about trees the better. If a dealer buys six quarts of _red_ maple
seeds of you he will be disappointed if you send him _silver_ maple,
discouraged if you send him _sugar_ maple, and disgruntled if you send
him _ash_. Furthermore, he will not send you the money nor any orders
for more. If there is a maple tree with a peck of seed on it in your
yard, in five minutes or less time you can find out what kind it is
with "The Tree Book." Before the seeds are ripe write to a several seed
men and tell them what you have; ask if they want any, at what price,
and on what date. Some trees ripen their seeds in the spring, shake
them off, and let the wind scatter them. In the case of some kinds,
the seeds sprout within a few days after they reach the ground. These
should be gathered as soon as ripe, spread out to dry for a few days,
and planted within a few weeks at latest. Seeds of other kinds do not
grow till the following spring. None of these should be allowed to dry
too thoroughly. Nuts and acorns for seed should not be allowed to get
dry over winter. These should be packed in moist sand and kept cool but
not frozen. Cherry, plum and peach pits are better for being frozen.
The supply of white pine seed is never equal to the demand. The market
price is said to vary from two dollars fifty cents to four dollars
fifty cents per pound. You get a little over a pound of seeds from a
bushel of unopened cones. White pine trees require two years to mature
their cones and they set seed only once in every four or five years.
But every year there will be some trees bearing seed. Nineteen hundred
and four was a big "on" year in the New York white pine forests. You
can tell when the tiny cones first appear that a crop is coming. The
cones should be watched as August wanes and gathered before they open.
September is the month as a general thing. Boys can earn thirty cents
or so a bushel gathering the full cones. But I should not be satisfied
to let the other fellow get all the profits just because he knows how
to cure and market the seed. That is easy. Spread the cones out in the
barn to dry. Slat trays are best to get free circulation of air. You
can make these at odd times before the crop is ready. A fanning mill
comes in handy to thrash and free them from rubbish and imperfect seed.
Market them immediately to avoid loss. If you are to keep the seed for
home consumption, mix with dry sand and store in a cool but not too dry
place. If allowed to dry or freeze and thaw they lose their vitality.
Tree seeds need pretty careful handling.
Any one interested in gathering tree seeds should get information from
books and bulletins on forestry. He should write to firms who make
a specialty of selling tree seeds and they will help him by giving
directions about the treatment of seeds.
Did you ever wonder where the nursery men get the thousands of apple
trees they sell every year? Go a step back of the budding or grafting
that is done in the nursery. Where did the little tree come from whose
top was cut off after the first bud was set? It came from a seed; just
any apple seed. And where do apple seeds come from? From apples? Yes,
just any apples. Did you ever make cider on your farm? You put in whole
apples, skin, core, stem, seeds, and all; shovelled them into the
hopper. The pulp was squeezed dry and thrown away, wasn't it, at your
cider mill? That is proof of the wastefulness of some good farmers. If
the pulp were washed in tubs, the seeds would find the bottom (or the
top) and they would bring a good price per pound.
COLLECTING CHRISTMAS GREENS
Once upon a time everybody who wanted Christmas greens had the fun of
gathering his own. That was in the generation when all the grandmothers
lived in the country and only the plain fathers and mothers and
children lived in the cities. But now we children have grown up and
our children want to go to grandmother's house for Christmas just as
we did. Can't you imagine how surprised and disappointed they are to
find their grandmothers living in city houses, even in flats? Didn't
we tell them about going out to gather holly and mistletoe and ground
pine and hemlock and even how we used to cut the Christmas tree itself
in grandpa's woods? In the middle West where Christmas trees do not
grow in the woods we used to choose a shapely young oak. To make it
look like an evergreen we used to get grandpa to go out with his big
jack-knife and cut off the largest branches he could spare from the
evergreens in the door yard. With good, strong twine we tied these
to the branches of the oak. When all the decorations were on and the
oranges and the apples and the popcorn strings and the candles _and_
the presents, we children who had never seen a real live Christmas tree
couldn't have told the difference. We didn't even mind the fact that
some of the oak's outer branches were pine, some were spruce, some were
cedar. It was all evergreen to us and all Christmassy. We were easy to
please.
But now--alas! The gathering of Christmas greens has been
commercialized. It has ceased to be fun, and has become a business. The
boys and girls may share in the profits and perhaps get some fun out
of it if they go about it right.
Holly, which of all the Christmas greens is the most popular, is a
hardy and beautiful tree, which grows wild in great numbers in the
Southern states and in the Chesapeake region. Many country boys and
girls make easy Christmas money from the holly trees in their own
woods. To these boys and girls I want to say "Don't kill the goose that
lays the golden egg." A tree with fine berries on it this year will,
if treated right, produce a good crop again in a few years. Pruning is
good for a tree, but brutally hacking its head out destroys the tree's
future, and the boy who does it is not a good citizen.
Holly wood is close grained, light, and tough and is valuable in some
forms of cabinet work. Here is an industry that might be developed as a
side issue in the holly trade.
The best market calls for holly wreaths. I have a picture of a girl
of fourteen who can make sixty wreaths in a day and she gets six and
a half cents for each. That is good wages for a girl of her age, but
she must get pretty tired making wreaths every minute all day long.
If she could help her brothers gather the holly for part of the time,
it would be easier on her back. The wreaths are made on frames of
twigs, twisted into circles, and tied. Young twigs of any flexible
shrub are used. Somebody has to gather these. It is a wonder that more
holly trees are not planted in door yards. And wouldn't it be a good
idea for some boys to begin a plantation of holly now so they can reap
the harvest later? Holly will not go out of fashion in a great many
years. But at the present rate the supply cannot last. The amount used
every year is past belief. From one small railway station 150,000
wreaths! One year, several carloads were burned because the market was
overstocked.
The time has come already when raising Christmas trees is necessary.
They still come up like weeds in the woods where enough mature ones
are left to seed the bared hillsides. The harvest begins in November
and the trees are cut and sorted, roped to preserve their branches,
in bundles of eight or less or singly, and stacked along the roads
to await shipment. Hundreds of thousands are harvested every year.
"No-Christmas-tree" clubs are being formed now to try to stop this
wastefulness. We go too much to extremes. One Christmas tree used to be
enough for all the grandchildren; but nowadays every one must have his
own. If our children's children are to have real Christmas trees the
boys of to-day must plant the seeds of the beloved balsam fir.
The man who discovers and makes popular a new kind of Christmas greens
does everybody a good turn. One of the most remarkable "ten-strikes"
ever made along this line was a sort of accident. A man who calls
himself "Caldwell, the woodsman," describes his experience as follows:
"It was several weeks before I found the evergreen that was to make
the town of Evergreen, Ala., famous throughout the decorative world.
Wandering through the woods one day, my attention was attracted to a
beautiful green vine hanging from the topmost limb of a small dead oak.
I caught hold of the vine and pulled it down, and was much astonished
at the ease with which it came out of the tree, and the fact that it
seemed in no way injured by my rough treatment. On carrying it to
my new home, I arranged it around the mirror in my room, and, after
leaving it there for about a week or ten days, found that it was as
fresh and green as ever."
Mr. Caldwell saw that in wild Southern smilax he had found a plant that
possessed all the good points required for wholesale decorations. It
is used everywhere now. City florists cannot get enough of it. The
plant is a perennial, renewing itself every year, and grows in greatest
profusion in its wild habitat. He had an uphill job, though, convincing
the fashionable florists of the value of this plant. But he persevered
and now he ships five thousand cases of it a year at an average profit
of one dollar per case.
Young long-leaf pines grow in the South and are now used extensively
for Christmas decoration in the North. It seems a pity to kill a pine
tree every time one of these is cut, but in places where the seedlings
come up too thick for good forest growth cutting out some is a benefit.
If only the gatherers would be conservers as well!
The collecting of ferns in the woods is a business suited to the
country boys and girls. This has grown to a really great enterprise
since the rage for country things has struck city people. There is
some sham about every fad of this kind, but the fern gatherers are not
shamming. They do the real work. To succeed in this, one must not work
haphazard. He must know just what his customer wants, and the buyer
must know just what the collector can supply. _Ferns_ is a big group of
plants, and some of them you couldn't sell. If Christmas ferns grow
plentifully in your woods, you can gather them by the thousand fronds.
But will the florist buy those leaves which have the brown spots (or
spores) on the under side? Find out before you waste your time. Those
spores are more valuable in the woods than on the garbage heap. The
boys who pull the plants up by the roots are killing their own goose.
The fern can spare all the perfect leaves you find on it in the fall
without much if any damage. A new crop will be forthcoming next year
if the roots are undisturbed. Scissors and care used in gathering only
good leaves will pay now, as well as in the future.
There are a number of wild things that deserve more popularity.
Bitter-sweet is lovely and lasts forever, nearly. You seldom see it
in the market, though. Sumach too, has great decorative value, yet
whoever saw it in a florist's window? Cattails, pussy willows, spice
bush, dogwood flowers and berries, Solomon's seal, and a score of other
wild flowers are already in use. But there are others you may be able
to introduce to city people. It is surprising what they will buy and
admire if it comes from the country. I rode on a suburban car one day
behind an armful of poison ivy. It was brilliantly beautiful and I
suspect the gatherer wished I had kept still when I told her what it
was. If she hadn't had a child with her, I should have let her risk it.
Maybe she was immune. Most people are. The funniest thing I ever saw
for sale was a basket of skunk-cabbage flowers on Broadway. The shrewd
old farmer who had them for sale got a quarter for two. He called them
Japanese lilies.
I wonder that the winter berry has not found more favour for
decoration. Two kinds of shrubs with this name are common in our
Northern woods. They are both hollies, but, unlike the Southern holly,
lose their leaves. One has bright orange-coloured berries, the other
is covered with a great profusion of bright scarlet fruits. Nothing
could be more effective in a large vase in a dark corner. They light up
handsomely at night or in the sunlight.
MEDICINAL PLANTS
There are a good many kinds of aromatic roots and medicinal plants
which are kept in stock at drug stores. Some of them are rare and bring
a good price; like golden seal at a dollar or over per pound. Digitalis
in the drug store is foxglove in the garden; but who ever thinks of
gathering its leaves and finding a market for them? Somebody must or
the supply would run out. The leaves of the second year's growth are
dried for medicinal uses.
Wild ginger root is used in preserves and for confectionery. I have
seen it in market and wondered who gathered it. Preserved calamus root,
too; who buys that unless it is Br'er Rabbit? There is a Bulletin
of the Department of Agriculture on "Weeds Used in Medicine" that
you ought to have. The list of weeds used in medicine will certainly
surprise the unenlightened. How do you know that your doctor isn't
dosing you with burdock, dandelion, dock, pokeweed, foxglove, mullein,
tansy, boneset, catnip, horehound, fleabane, yarrow, or jimson weed?
All these and many more common weeds are collected by somebody, dried,
and used in medicine.
POKEWEED
Pokeweed roots are poisonous. The berries are not. They are used to
make a syrup with which to colour frosting for cakes and the like.
Receipts for this are to be found in many cook books. But the best
part of pokeweed is not the fruit. In early spring, when asparagus is
expensive and scarce, the pokeweed shoots grow rank and as thick as
your thumb in fence corners. They will take entire possession of a
large garden in two years if given the least encouragement. I cut the
stems when about a foot in height. They are covered with short leaves
which are best removed except at the end of the shoot. Cook exactly
like asparagus, and dress with butter or cream. They resemble asparagus
somewhat, but are more delicate in flavour and less woody in texture.
WALKING STICKS
I once knew a stubborn man who was convinced that an unproductive
orchard full of old gnarled trees on his place was good for nothing
but firewood. He had the trunks cut into stove lengths and then burned
the brush in ten huge piles. As the last pile was about to be fired, a
manufacturer of umbrella handles offered him ten dollars for what was
left. Imagine his feelings! Thousands of handsome walking sticks and
umbrella handles are made of apple, cherry, and such woods. The makers
cannot get enough of it and yet every year how much salable wood must
be burned in the form of prunings. There is a true story of a young man
in Florida who paid his way through college by collecting orange wood
suitable for walking sticks. This wood is still popular for the same
purpose, and the idea is worth passing along.
Roots of quaint or grotesque shape are often found in the woods and may
be used as handles of umbrellas or walking sticks. I have a stick made
of a small sapling upon which a branch of bitter-sweet had entwined.
As the sapling grew in circumference, the coils of the climber had not
been loosened but had become imbedded in the wood of the little tree.
The long vine was not cut off, but trimmed and wound round and round
at the head of the stick to make it large enough to grasp comfortably.
Such a stick is an interesting gift for a friend.
[Illustration: Walking sticks decorated by nature]
Another pretty bit of nature's handiwork is a walking stick engraved by
the engraver beetle. These little insects make their burrows just under
the bark and they often work on small branches of a great variety of
forest trees. Remove a bit of loose bark and ten to one you will find
it carved with a more or less intricate design by the engraver beetle.
Could you do as neat a piece of work? A thorough brushing and oiling
are all that such a stick needs to make it an ornament to the hat-rack.
Sticks intended for handles or canes cannot be bent when dry. They
should be steamed until flexible or buried in hot, wet sand till you
can shape them. Boiling for a half-hour will sometimes make a piece
supple. Fasten in the desired shape with stout cords and dry thoroughly
before releasing. Sticks that are slightly crooked may be straightened
by putting them into a bundle with perfectly straight pieces and
winding with strong rope; let them dry in this bundle. Sticks which
are to be peeled should be partially dried first but not by artificial
heat. Rapid drying is likely to split the stick.
WILD FLOWERS FOR CITY CHILDREN
Children who live in the country part or all of the year do not know
how much pleasure they might give if they would gather wild flowers
and send them to city children. There is a society which distributes
flowers thus collected in New York but maybe there is none in the
city near you. The commonest flowers, even the weeds like daisies and
dandelions and black-eyed Susans, are eagerly taken home by children
who are so poor that they never even saw a park, much less a meadow. In
one city school over two hundred children had never seen a dandelion.
A lady once started with a bunch of daisies to give to a city friend.
She was met at the ferry with, "Please give me a flower." She went on
up the street. "Won't chu gimme one o'yer flowers?" Children seemed to
appear from every direction; maybe they were always there and she had
not noticed them before. The grown-up friend did not get any flowers
but she got a good story instead. Mr. Jacob Riis founded a flower
mission on a similar experience. It is fun to gather flowers anyhow,
and if you can make some other child happy even for a few minutes it
would be even more fun. This is only a hint.
SHELF FUNGI
Have you seen those outgrowths on dying and dead trees which stand out
like a shelf? They are called bracket or shelf fungi. If you have an
artist friend who can make beautiful things on these by carving them
with little engraving tools, gather all you see for her.
[Illustration: Photograph by Verne Morton. Gathering Wild Flowers for
City Children]
DANDELION GREENS
Do your folks cook dandelion greens? Mine never did but since seeing
them for sale at so much per half-peck I have come to think that they
must be eatable and have wished we had gathered and sold the bushels
that grew in our lawn.
CORN HUSKS
Corn husks is a crop that used to be more eagerly harvested than now.
In the corn belt, where the husking is done in the field, the husk is
left on the stalk and would therefore be hard to get. But where corn
is snapped, husk and all, and left to be husked at leisure in field
or barn, the husks can be saved with profit. For summer beds they are
cheaper and softer than hay. For porch cushions they are far superior
to excelsior. For braiding into mats they are really valuable, and
well-made ones bring a good price.
Cornstalks yield another crop that is little known. Collectors of
insects use thin sheets of cornstalk pith to line their insect boxes.
It is peculiarly adapted to this purpose. They cannot get a large
supply of it, yet what boy in any great corn state could not get a ton
of it if he had the gumption. Ask the entomology man in your state
Experiment Station, if he needs cornstalk pith. If you live in a cactus
country, ask him if he could use thin slices of the pith from the
flower stalk of the giant cacti.
FRAGRANT HERBS AND GRASSES
Of the fragrant herbs, grasses, and shrubs which nature provides,
nothing is more in demand than sweet grass. In the parts of the country
where it is abundant, people still gather and cure it and make useful
baskets and mats of it. Sometimes it is combined with birch bark or
porcupine quills or both by skilful Indian women who learned how from
their grandmothers. The good market for such things will keep the art
of basket making from becoming a lost one.
Indian maidens are not the only ones who have learned basket weaving.
Indeed this has almost taken the place of patchwork, for girls, except
in very old-fashioned families. Clever girls will not be content to use
only such conventional materials as raffia and reeds. Often the colours
of those you buy are so crude that you cannot make really artistic
things of them. Some of the native grasses, flower stalks, strips of
palmetto, rushes, soft inner corn husks, cat-tail leaves, and sedges
are used. One basket maker has used the shiny brown stems of maidenhair
ferns and the effect is very pretty. Another uses long pine needles in
her weaving. Most of these materials are unfit for use when dry and
brittle, but books on basketry tell just how they can be made pliable.
Grasses are usually at their best just after flowering.
The dried leaves of sweet fern, sweet clover in blossom, balsam fir,
and bayberry make sweet smelling cushions and bags for bureau drawers
and couches.
BALSAM LEAVES
In gathering what you hear called "pine needles" for pillows be sure
you have the right kind of trees before you begin to gather the leaves.
Pine needles are long and stiff and sharp. A pillow made of dried
ones would not be a very fragrant nor a very comfortable thing. What
you want is the short, soft leaves of balsam fir. These retain their
wholesome odour after being dried. In five minutes you can learn to
tell the balsam from spruce, hemlock, and cedar, the other common
short-leaved native evergreens.
BIRCH BARK
Camping parties often leave a trail of devastation behind them which
would shock the most hardened and wasteful one of the lot. This is
largely if not entirely because they are ignorant, not because they
are intentionally breakers of the laws of the woods. Indeed they are
probably very ardent believers in the theory of conservation. Has it
never occurred to them to practise it?
In the matter of collecting birch bark much damage has been done.
Some people in whom you have confidence say: "Oh, no. It doesn't hurt
the tree." So you strip off layer after layer; such a fascinating
occupation, I do not wonder you hardly know when to stop. But read what
Miss Rogers says in "The Tree Book:" "The feminine tourist in Northern
woods loses no time in supplying herself with birch bark note-paper.
The bark is usually removed in thick plates, from which the thin sheets
may be stripped at leisure. These sheets are orange-coloured, with a
faint purplish bloom upon them and darker purplish lines. Alas! for the
zeal of these tourists. They usually cut too deep, and the strip that
tears off so evenly girdles and kills the tree, because nothing is left
to protect the living cambium. A black band (of mourning) soon marks
the doomed tree, and it eventually snaps off in the wind."
I know a girl who killed thirty-seven beautiful birch trees before any
one showed her how she could get plenty of bark and leave some for the
tree beside. She was perfectly horrified when she realized what she had
done. So few people know that the live part of the tree is not at the
heart--that is quite dead--but just under the skin. Cut off the bark in
any large quantities and your tree falls an easy prey to disease.
Hiawatha was not the first Indian to use the canoe birch for practical
purposes. His ancestors used this bark for all sorts of utensils,
dishes, baskets, buckets, and for their canoes. They sewed the pieces
together with fibrous roots and filled the cracks with wild gum
or pitch. The Indians of nowadays have degenerated and the things
they make have become less artistic. I lately saw a buckskin pouch,
decorated with exquisitely woven bead work, in simple but charming
design. It was a piece of real Indian handiwork, but the whole effect
was spoiled by a lining of coarse red and blue and green gingham and
the pouch flap was secured by a thong looped over a large white agate
shirt button!
In trying to imitate the Indians at their game of making things out
of birch bark, quills, sweet grass, and other natural materials, let
us keep clear of the shops and use only what combines naturally and
artistically.
PORCUPINE QUILLS
"Give me of your quills, O hedgehog!" Hiawatha was talking to a
porcupine, for the chances are that he never saw a hedgehog. Poets
ought to know better than to confuse their "critters."
A real Indian boy in the woods knows that porcupines give up their
quills all too willingly. It is strange that the wild beasts of prey
and the domestic dogs cannot learn this and let the porcupine alone.
They have no quarrel with him. He eats the bark of trees, and goes
about his own affairs. There isn't a word of truth in the story of his
shooting his quills. No doubt he would if he could, if sore pressed,
but he can't. He bristles them up when attacked and then woe be to
the tender nose that touches the sharp points! The quills let go of
their original owner very easily, but being barbed on their outer end
they bury themselves in the soft parts of the attacking animal. With
no thought of revenge in his rather witless head, the porcupine may
pronounce the death sentence on his captor.
Porcupines are hunted for their quills and easily captured by men as
they are slow and awkward. The quills take a pretty polish and their
cream white and shaded brown colours blend softly with the tints of
birch bark and wild grasses with which they are combined by basket and
mat weavers.
MAPLE SUGAR MAKING
Most of the fifty million or so pounds of maple sugar made in this
country is made in six states, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. The boys and girls of these states
have exceptional opportunities of studying the mysteries of tree life
and of sharing the bounty the maples provide. I was not brought up
in any one of the above-named states, yet I remember the maple sugar
making in the woods along the river. One of my early recollections is
of a party of Indian women, on piebald ponies, bringing fascinating
heart-shaped cakes of maple sugar to exchange at the farm for fresh
meat. Theirs were no pale, anæmic, delicate squares of creamy texture,
but ruddy and hard. Less discriminating than now, we children ate with
relish the coarse sugar almost black from the bits of bark, chips of
leaves, and twigs which had undoubtedly been boiled with it. Nor did we
innocents turn from it with loathing when told by a teasing uncle that
its colour was due to the sirup having been strained by the Indians
through their blankets. We didn't believe it then and I don't yet. How
very bad for the blankets!
The Indians discovered the maple sugar industry long before they
themselves were discovered by white people. They taught our New
England ancestors how to tap the trees and boil down the sirup and how
to "sugar off." They had little or no sugar except what the maples
supplied. The Indians had very primitive ways of tapping the trees,
collecting the sap, boiling, and sugaring. These ways have been
improved in the last three hundred years. Although wooden buckets and
home-made spiles made of sumach branches may still be used where only a
few trees are tapped, the up-to-date sugar maker has modern, patent,
covered buckets, spouts, and evaporators. He uses a thermometer and
knows "for sure" when to shut off his fire if he wants to make sirup,
and how high the temperature may go to make the best sugar. He knows,
too, whether he can afford to make sugar which tests eighty per cent.
or ninety per cent. pure and get the bounty, if his state pays one, or
if it costs him less labour and expense to sell his entire product in
the form of sirup.
But scientific methods can never take away the charm of maple sugar
making. There is so much yet to be learned from the trees about the
whys and wherefores of their behaviour during the harvest, that our
interest in maple products increases as our interest in mere "sweets"
decreases.
If you have a "sugar bush" planted by your great-grandfather, the
chances are that you have had annual opportunities to help in making
sugar, ever since you could drive a horse on frosty mornings to collect
the sap. But I am going to suppose that during the winter you have
been reading "Trees Every Child Should Know" and have been identifying
the trees about your home. The maples are about the easiest trees to
identify when leafless. Suppose you have found several maple trees,
good big ones, right in your own door yard. The hard or sugar maple is
the one most frequently used for sugar making, but experiments show
that soft maples make good sugar too. It isn't worth while to tap trees
in winter. The sugar is in them all right because the leaves were
storing up the starch all summer. This starch has been changed to sugar
in the living cells of the wood. But you couldn't get any of it until
the sap begins to run. It does this with the first warm, sunny days of
February.
After locating all the trees you expect to tap, you must make some
preparations so that you will not lose any time at the critical moment.
I knew one boy who got his bit and brace out the first thing, bored
a hole in the tree trunk, and lost about a gallon of sap before he
could get a spile and a pail ready to catch it. You want a spile or
spout for every pail and a pail for every tree. The patent spouts have
a hook upon which the bucket hangs. If you use sumach spiles you may
have to set the bucket on the ground where it is likely to get dirt in
it, tip over, and it is so far from the spile that the wind blows the
sap away from the pail entirely. The pails should be generous in size
unless you expect to collect the sap more than once a day. An average
yield per day is five quarts per hole. The pails and spiles should be
in readiness before "sugar weather" begins. Beside the pails and spouts
you need a wooden mallet, and a bit and brace or small auger for the
outdoor work; a kettle for boiling down, a large jar to put the fresh
sap in, and a dipper to dip it out, a strainer and a skimmer for the
indoor work. If you boil your sap outdoors using cheap fuel you will
make more out of your enterprise than if you use coal or gas. A good
sap-running day is a warm, sunny day after a frosty night. While the
days and nights are about the same temperature the sap does not run
much.
The best place to tap a tree is about four feet from the ground, and
fortunately that is the easiest place to work with the auger or bit.
The bit should be bright and sharp; a dull, rusty bit makes a shabby
hole in the wood with a lot of woody shreds which clog the flow of sap.
Clean out the hole, as any chips left in stop the flow in the same
way. The bit or auger used should be about one half inch in diameter.
A bigger hole might give more sap but would injure the tree more. The
tree fills up the smaller hole in a few years with new tissue. The
hole should not be deeper than three inches. It is a mistake to think
that the centre of the tree holds the sap. As a matter of fact there
is less there than anywhere else and more as you near the surface. The
living, active part of the tree is just under the bark. It is necessary
to say this over and over again so that people will get it into their
minds. The Indians used to tap the trees on the south side because
they said more sap came from that side. Experiments show that on warm,
sunny days, this is the case. On cloudy days, however, sap comes about
equally from holes on all sides. If the trees have been tapped before,
it is best to tap at some distance from the old places. The size of the
auger and spile should be the same and the latter should be forced in
tightly, and not fall out when the pail is full.
Pure sap makes the clearest sirup and the lightest-coloured sugar.
Every bit of dust, leaves, twigs, or bark that gets into the pail
leaves its mark on the sugar even though strained out. So covers on
the pails are preferred if one can afford them. Most of the sap runs
between nine o'clock in the morning and noon. It has been found by
tests that this morning sap has more sugar in it than that which runs
later in the day. It is the custom in some places to throw away the ice
if the sap freezes. This is very wasteful, for this ice contains about
thirty per cent. of the sugar. Of course, melting ice is expensive
business so one must try not to let his sap freeze. The sap in the
storage jar or tank must not be allowed to get warm, though, as it may
sour. It should be boiled as soon after gathering as possible to ensure
best results.
Maple sap contains other ingredients beside water and sugar. In
boiling, the water passes off in steam and the sugar and other solids
remain. The changes in colour from clear sap to dark brown sugar is
caused by the action of the heat upon the sugar and other substances.
All sugar makers know that the lightest coloured sirup and sugar can
be made from the earliest run of sap. That is because, as the season
advances, more of the lime, potash, magnesia, and other substances are
present in the sap. You see the tree does not stop work just because
you tap it; and the sap is changing every day until, by the time the
buds begin to open, the sap is so changed that it does not make good
sugar at all.
Water boils when it reaches two hundred and twelve degrees, Fahrenheit,
as any thermometer will tell you. In fact, you cannot heat water
hotter than two hundred and twelve degrees, for at that temperature
the water becomes steam. A mixture of sugar and water will not boil
at two hundred and twelve degrees but requires a higher temperature.
Therefore, as the water passes off the sap in boiling, and as the
amount of sugar per gallon increases, it gets hotter and hotter. It is
necessary to watch boiling sap carefully to avoid burning. In making
sirup it is important to have it just thick enough to taste right and
not so thick that it will granulate. Sirup that weighs eleven pounds to
the gallon has long been considered as "just right," and it has been
found by testing that if you take the sirup off the fire just as soon
as the thermometer registers two hundred and nineteen degrees it will
weigh eleven pounds to the gallon and will not granulate. If you take
it off when the thermometer says two hundred and sixteen degrees your
sirup will be a pretty fair article, but you cannot expect to get as
good a price for it, because it has more water in it than there should
be in a prime article.
When the sirup has boiled down to nearly two hundred and nineteen
degrees, it is necessary to pour it off or strain it through thick
cloths to take out the dark-coloured impurities. After this the sirup
is heated again to boiling point and sealed in jars or cans.
A gallon of sirup will make between eight and ten pounds of sugar.
Can you afford to make your sirup into sugar at this rate? It will
depend upon the relative price of sugar and sirup, the cost of your
fuel and the value of your time and whether your market wants sugar or
sirup. There is a good and increasing demand for pure maple products,
especially in the form of confectionery. If you can work up a market
for fancy maple sugar in the form of bonbons it will bring a fancy
price. This is not so hard as it sounds but it takes enterprise and
gumption and perseverance and knack. Here is a job where brothers and
sisters can work together to very great advantage and add to their
store of college money by discovering and harvesting a crop right at
home which in many cases has been neglected for decades. If you have
city cousins they will help you sell your products among their mates.
It will pay you to prepare small sample parcels, enough to whet the
appetite but not enough to satisfy. I remember receiving a number of
packages of maple cream from a Vermont friend. The price per pound
was equal to that of the finest candy and I wanted to share with all
my friends. But I couldn't afford to give away pound packages to
everybody. I might have created a large demand for this delicious
confectionery, had I been able to get sample packages to give to
friends. This year I am to have them.
It adds wonderfully to the attractiveness of maple sugar to have each
cake or bonbon wrapped in its own piece of waxed paper. This is a kind
of guarantee of dainty handling that is appreciated by the purchaser.
A shoe box is hardly a dainty parcel, yet I know of one unimaginative
maple sugar man who packs his cakes in just such boxes. There is a
chance for some one to "make a hit" in this line.
WILD RICE
Wild rice sells for two or three times the price of ordinary rice and
the supply never meets the demand.
"But who wants it and what for?"
Wild rice is not likely to become a popular breakfast food except
among the Ojibways, yet a lot of time and effort have been spent on
trying to find out how to grow crops of it. The reason for this is
that nothing fattens wild ducks, geese, and other game birds quite so
satisfactorily. Where the wild rice flourishes there is the hunter's
paradise in September. This is reason enough for wanting to grow wild
rice. When our true American sportsmen awoke to the fact that game was
scarce and realized why, they set about protecting the wild fowl and
studying their habits so as to better supply ideal conditions for the
remnant to increase. This is conservation and boys that help in such
enterprises are truly patriotic citizens.
Wild rice grows in swamps, shallow lakes, and sluggish rivers covering
immense areas in the Mississippi Valley and the middle North-western
states. Mud is a necessity to its growth. It grows taller than a man's
height above the water and its seed comes in a loose spray at the very
top of each stalk. The plants die every year and new ones come up from
seed. The grain begins to ripen early in September and keeps on until
heavy frosts. This is all right for ducks but it makes harvesting a
very difficult task. The Indian women of the wild rice regions go out
and shake the heads over their boats. They have to go again and again.
If they left it till all the grain had ripened they would get very
little seed, because the wild rice falls as soon as it is ripe and lies
in the mud till spring. The long-hid secret of the many failures to get
wild rice to grow from seed was discovered by some scientist to be this
habit of lying in the mud over winter. Thoroughly dried seed does not
germinate.
Wild rice is queer looking stuff. The grains are black and very long
and slender. Some of them are an inch long. It is said by some to be
very good eating, especially as prepared by the Indians. They parch it
usually, but sometimes it is made into a sort of porridge and eaten
with maple sugar.
Practically, the best market for wild rice will always be amongst
the wild fowl and it is a sportsman-like act to gather the seed and
propagate it for their sake.
GATHERING SPRUCE GUM
If spruce gum were used only in the manufacture of "chewing-gum"
we had much better let the crop go unharvested. It serves a useful
purpose in the tree which produces it. When you have a cut or bruise
you like to put something on it that excludes the air. The tree acts
on the same principle. The live part of the tree is just underneath
the bark. Trees are liable to many kinds of injuries. The winter winds
strain them sometimes to the point of splitting, a heedless woodsman
blazes the bark in passing, wild creatures gnaw or scratch the trunks,
a woodpecker digs a hole through the bark. Any injury of the living
layer is like a "hurry call" to the cells where the resin is stored.
These cells are the health department. They send out to the injured
part a covering of balm, a salve which seals the wound effectually from
contact with the air. We cannot say that the tree knows that the air is
full of the germs of decay and that to let them get a foothold means
decay and sure death; but the tree has something that serves the same
purpose as knowledge.
Physicians make use of the resinous gums in preparing medicines, and
druggists always try to keep a stock of spruce gum on hand. Collectors
find their best market for it in the drug trade. The best quality
brings as high as one dollar and fifty cents a pound, while one dollar
a pound is not too much to expect for the average collection.
All the spruces yield gum, but the best quality is said to come from
the white spruce. The first thing to do then is to learn to recognize
this tree on sight. It will take you and a tree book together about
five minutes to distinguish between the three short-leaved evergreens
which look so much alike to a novice, the firs, the hemlocks, and the
spruces. When once you know the spruces by the looks or the feel, you
will begin to know the white from the red and black spruce by the
colour. Everything about the white spruce is paler than the others.
The foliage is light, almost pea-green, and the bark is not ruddy but
grayish-brown. There are thousands of acres of spruce woods in our
northern Central and New England states. Boys and girls on camping
trips can sometimes collect spruce gum enough to pay expenses and have
fun doing it. The only equipment necessary is a heavy pocket knife, a
gum spud, a canvas sack, a strong hand, and a pair of sharp eyes. The
eyes will get sharper as the knife gets dull and the tree you found
nothing on in the morning of your first day may yield a good harvest on
the return trip. You will not be able to buy a gum spud, but a tinsmith
can make one for you at small cost, according to these directions:
Solder a piece of galvanized iron into a funnel six inches deep, three
inches across the top, and one inch in diameter at the bottom. A
ferrule two or three inches deep and an inch in diameter is fitted into
the bottom of the funnel and soldered in tight. Fit a long handle into
this affair and your spud is ready. You may count on a good majority of
the gum you find being out of reach of the knife but the spud gets it
down very successfully.
The best place to find spruce gum is undoubtedly in woods where no
one has been "gummin'" before, at least not for five years or so. The
most plentiful supply is said to be on slopes where the trees have a
southern exposure, and the smaller trees yield more gum than the big
ones. Your work is not done with collecting, for in order to get the
best price you must present a fancy grade to the market. If your gum
is all thrown in together, good, bad, and indifferent, your average
price is pretty sure to be less than for a carefully cleaned and sorted
lot.
Spruce gum can be collected in summer or winter. Which time is better
for you depends on circumstances. There is a peculiar charm about gum
hunting on snow-shoes. A young man suffering from too little fresh air
and attendant ills might find his health among the spruce trees while
the gum paid the bills.
MUSHROOMS
"Are you sure these are good mushrooms?" I asked my seven-year-old
daughter.
"Yes. I'm sure. Don't you know Aunt J---- says that all the _Coprinæ_
are edible?"
This is a true story and it only goes to show that even a small child
can learn that there are a small number of unmistakable mushrooms,
which are edible and there is never any danger of being wrong about
them. The puff-balls, for example, are all good to eat. When we found
the neighbour's children kicking great white spongy puff-balls in the
pasture we begged them to let us have them instead. "Pap says they're
p'ison" was their reply, but we heeded them not for their "pap" was
no oracle of ours. We were quite willing the children should go on
thinking puff-balls were poison, if only they would not use them for
foot-balls. Nobody in his senses would try to eat puff-balls after they
have begun to turn black or brown. But when they are white and tender
they are very good. Skin the ball, slice thin, add water and a little
salt, and stew for twenty minutes or so. Drain and dress with cream
sauce. No doubt puff-ball slices broiled over a camp fire with bacon
would be good. I wish I had tried it, but I never have. We will agree
that no puff-ball can compare with the pink-gilled meadow mushroom, but
we make no such claims for it.
The best place to look for puff-balls is in old pastures in late summer
and early fall. The giants are sometimes as big as a milk pail. The
pear-shaped ones grow on tree stumps and are as big as your fist or
smaller. There is an endless variety of tiny ones of all sorts which
are either too tough or too small to bother with. But no puff-ball is
"p'ison," not one.
Boys and girls who like to harvest nature's crops are missing a lot
of fun besides many pecks of delicious food by neglecting the common
edible mushrooms. If you know a few good ones you are perfectly safe.
When you have seen them a few times and gathered them a few times and
compared them with photographs you are ready to eat them. I should
advise always to go mushroom hunting first with some experienced
person. Personally I take no risks. For instance if my book tells me
that "dangerous fungi resembling this species and sometimes found in
company with it--etc.," that's enough. Say no more. I let that one
alone. I do not like the company it keeps, and it may be a sheep in
wolf's clothing. In my list of edible fungi, common in New York and
New Jersey, there are less than a dozen kinds. No one of these looks
enough like any other fungus to be mistaken for it. A few good looks at
them will fix them in the memory. These are morels, meadow mushrooms,
shaggy-manes, inky-caps, oyster mushroom, puff-balls, coral fungi,
and chanterelles. The open season for morels is in early spring, when
arbutus is blossoming, and later. Coral fungi and chanterelles are
at their finest in midsummer, puff-balls in September, inky-caps and
shaggy-manes in October, and we ate oyster mushrooms on January first
one year, though they appear earlier. The meadow mushroom with white
flesh and pink gills is grown indoors and is seen in the market from
fall till spring, but nature's crop must be harvested in fall before
frost.
_Morels._--Morels look like nothing else. When full sized they are six
inches high. The hollow stalk is as large as your finger and about half
the length of the whole. The top or cap is brownish and so covered with
ridges and wrinkles that it would never be mistaken for anything else
in the world. You ought to see a picture of it because it is difficult
to describe so irregular an object. Look it up in some mushroom book or
bulletin in your library.
[Illustration]
You never know just where morels may appear. We found them in our
garden once. They come up right among the weeds or dead leaves. I have
often found them along forest by-paths, especially in wet weather in
spring. They are delectable. Perhaps you have eaten delicately broiled
slices of tenderloin of young pig. Morels do not taste like this--they
look a little like it--they taste very much better. You taste them.
_Coral Fungi._--The coral fungi that I eat look like chunks of pinkish
or cream white organ pipe coral. They are fleshy, soft, yet firm enough
to keep their shape, and the whole mass is made up of tiny thread-or
rod-like parts of many branches. There is a fine one which looks like a
cauliflower though more yellow. I have found the pink and creamy ones
on fallen and decayed tree trunks in deep, cool woods in midsummer.
Others equally good grow in thin woods or open places. They vary in
size from chunks as big as a walnut to those as big or bigger than
your fist. They need careful cleansing under a faucet. Some cooks soak
them first in cold water into which they put a little vinegar or lemon
juice. They then fry in butter. Another way is to stew till tender in
water with lemon juice in it. Then drain and dress with cream sauce.
_Puff-balls._--What country child has not puffed the "smoke" from the
hole in the top of the tough-skinned little brown balls they find in
the fields in autumn? Children generally believe them to be deadly
poison and call them "devil's snuff-boxes." Their life history is very
like that of other fungi. The most of the year these flowerless and
leafless plants spend underground. They spread in a tangle of fine
threads all through the soil wherever they find decaying vegetable
matter upon which to feed. When their time comes, little white balls
push out and up from the threads. These come to the surface and we know
them by their shapes and sizes as our different kinds of puff-balls,
mushrooms, or other fungi.
The puff-balls are white and look like fine cream cheese when they
first appear. Their business is to ripen their spores, scatter them,
and disappear. The brown smoke or dust of the ripe puff-ball is blown
about by the wind and finds its way into the earth in time; each tiny
spore or grain of dust can start a new mat of threads down underground.
When you puff the devil's snuff-box you are doing the plant just the
kindness it was waiting for. When a cow steps on a ripe giant puff-ball
a great smoke goes up, and the breeze catches the dust. Some of the
spores may be carried on the wind or on the cow's foot to far distant
pastures, there to settle down and start a new puff-ball colony. It is
just so with all the fungi.
All the puff-balls are edible but one of the most eatable is _the
giant_, which is found in August or September in pastures or other
grassy places. When right to eat it is grayish on the outside and pure
white clear through. In size this giant varies from six or eight inches
through to two feet. Specimens of ten pounds' weight are not rare, and
there is record of some twice that size. When yellow or brown inside,
the giant is past eating.
The _pear-shaped_ puff-ball is the commonest one. This is a sort of
dirty brown colour outside, pure white inside. It is found on old
wood or on the ground as early as July and as late as October. In size
the balls vary from thimble size to that of a big pear. They grow in
companies, sometimes scores together.
The _brain_ puff-ball is larger than the pear-shaped. The top is
wrinkled or corrugated, and grayish or reddish in colour.
_Chanterelles._--Chanterelles are found in late summer in the woods
amongst moss where it is damp and cool. They are red or yellow and look
as if you had put your thumb in the middle of the top and pushed it
down so that the network of gills appear on the outside. The name means
a little goblet, and the perfect ones are goblet-shaped. If you go
camping in the woods in summer you are almost sure to find chanterelles.
_Meadow Mushrooms._--The wild meadow mushroom usually appears in
large numbers after the autumn rains have renewed the pastures. They
frequently come up alongside of an old dried patch of cow manure. To
make myself familiar with this pink-gilled variety I visited a large
market where they had them for sale in all stages, from the little
round buttons to the big flat broilers which are turning brown. They
are just right when the cap has spread so as to burst the delicate
white veil which covers the gills. The flesh is white and the gills a
delicate pink. The skin peels off easily like that of a ripe peach.
Look them over with great care when preparing for the table. The early
worm which is on hand to get a first bite of everything sometimes
honeycombs the whole plant. The stems of young ones are tender at the
top.
_Inky Caps._--You never expect to gather your dinner from an ash heap?
Neither did I; but in the edge of the woods nearest us the public used
to be allowed to dump ashes. It is now overgrown with golden-rod, iron
weed and various other coarse plants. A path leads through it. Last
fall we discovered that the place was fairly swarming with _Coprinus
comatus_, the shaggy mane mushroom. This does not look like anything
else on land or sea and is delicious. Its relative, the inky cap is
just as good to eat, but not so handsome. Both melt away into black
ink as they grow old. They should be cooked as soon as possible after
gathering. We kept some over night once. Such a sight! They looked like
black corn smut.
The _Coprinæ_ push up in such tight clumps sometimes that their heads
are all out of shape. They rise literally over night. Sometimes
one comes up singly and grows tall and perfect, a truly lovely
object, pure white, six inches tall, its shaggy head held high, its
silver-white gills delicate as tissue paper. A few hours later you will
see a ragged bit of pulp rapidly dissolving in a pool of black ink.
_Oyster Mushrooms._--The oyster mushroom comes out like the shelf fungi
on decaying tree stumps or logs. They are ashy colour or dull white,
solid and rather tough, and vary in breadth from two to five inches. As
to why they are called oyster mushrooms, opinions differ. The flavour
is not oyster-like, though the flesh is about as tough as a boiled
oyster. The shape does suggest an oyster shell; perhaps that is the
best reason for the name. One edible relative of the oyster mushroom
grows usually on decaying elm stumps as late in the year as November.
The first thing to do if you get interested in mushrooms is to get
some good illustrated book on them. The chances are that your State
Experiment Station has issued a bulletin on the subject. If not you
can get those published by the United States Department of Agriculture
or perhaps those issued by some neighbouring state. What you want is
information on wild fungi, especially the edible ones, not directions
about growing the market varieties. When you write for bulletins state
just what you are looking for. Pictures, especially photographs, are
of the greatest use in identifying specimens. Compare the descriptions
and pictures with your mushrooms and do not use them if there is any
question in your mind as to what they are. The books mentioned in the
appendix of this book have been of help to me.
CONSERVING NATURE'S CROPS
The harvesting of nature's crops is a most fascinating occupation. As
boys and girls we do not ask why; we only know what fun it is. If the
time ever comes when you wish to forget that you are grown up, nothing
will help you like going into the woods, the fields, or the hedge-rows
to help the birds and the little fur-coated animals harvest the crops
of nuts or berries or other fruit that grow in nature's orchards. With
your sack of nuts or plums on your arm, or your pail full of berries,
you can easily forget that you live in a flat or work in an office or a
factory.
Some people think when they see how much over-ripe fruit is falling
to the ground, and how much more there is than can ever be gathered
by human hands, that nature is wasteful. Perhaps this is why these
same people and others who did not think at all, have been so very
wasteful of our country's natural resources, and brought about such a
really alarming state of things in our forests. Those who do stop to
think will see that although she is lavish, nature is never wasteful.
The berries must decay in order that the seeds may germinate, and in
moulding they nourish the fungi which are just as important in nature's
eyes, so to speak, as the berries are. Nothing is _wasted_ in nature.
On the contrary, everything is _saved_ and is made over into some other
form. Nothing stands still; transformation goes on continuously. What
was soil yesterday is fruit to-day and is built into our muscles and
nerves and brains to-morrow.
Every boy or girl that helps to harvest nature's crops can do a little
to assist in our great national work of preserving the country's
natural resources. Would you ruin a fine young tree just beginning a
life of usefulness? By mutilating it past recognition, you may add
a few nuts to your this year's store. But what an injustice you are
doing to the next generation of boys and girls. You are robbing them.
I have heard men say: "When I was a boy we used to bring home arbutus
by the wagon load from Coy Glen. But it's hard to find any there now.
It must have winter-killed or blighted." My tongue burned to tell them
that they themselves were the blight that winter-killed the arbutus and
robbed me of my right to gather a few sprays. They had torn it up by
the roots in their greed to fill their wagons, and then they cut out
all the trees, and the sunlight destroyed all the shade-loving things.
Boys and girls of a more enlightened generation know better ways and
will not leave behind them a record of selfishness.
THE STORY OF THE CREATION OF A NEW INDUSTRY
I am glad to tell the methods by which I have developed a good business
in collecting and growing California bulbs, as I believe my success
can be duplicated in other parts of the country--in fact, one man
already makes a good living by exploiting the wild flowers of the
Rocky Mountains, several people are exporting the cacti of our desert,
and there are several nurseries in the southern Appalachians for the
interesting plants of North Carolina.
In 1870, when I was nine years old, my family moved to Ukiah Valley in
north-western California, and there I have lived ever since. My early
home was a farm, and my first work to raise hops and a mortgage. My
education was such as the district school and an abundance of good
reading could give me. At eighteen I began to teach school. I was
always a lover of nature and fond of wandering about the hills. In
Mendocino County in 1870 the country was just emerging from the cowboy
era, and little attention was paid to vegetable gardening, while flower
gardens were all but unknown.
HOW THE LIFE WORK WAS DETERMINED
There was one notable exception to the indifference to flowers.
Alexander MacNab, a Scotchman who had been forced by declining health
to leave Glasgow, had found new vigour in California's mountains. The
property which he had purchased for a stock range is one of the most
picturesque in northern California, and there he built a modest but
ideal home. He sent everywhere for flowers, and I know of no place in
these later days where more flowers are well grown. He gave to his
flowers not only money, but love and himself, and few gardeners were
more successful. I often visited there in my boyhood days and the
inspiration that I received from this place and from another source
determined my life work.
I had a sister a few years older than myself who had been in the East
for some years and whose failing health forced her to return to
California. She was a flower-lover and soon called upon me to begin a
garden on the bare hill where our very plain home stood. It was a work
of love, for all of the new soil was carried in buckets, and the water
which our hot climate made necessary was carried from a well, but it
was a great success. My Scotch friend was most liberal with both plants
and instruction, and between the two my bent was well fixed.
THE BEGINNING OF THE INDUSTRY
It was through Mr. MacNab that I got started in the collection of
native plants. Woolson and Company, then of Passaic, N. J., were the
first American firm to take up the culture of our native American
plants as a specialty. They wrote to Mr. MacNab, asking him to secure
the native plants and offering to pay for them in eastern grown plants.
My love for flowers had interested me in botany, and it was quite
natural that the letter should be turned over to me. In my first letter
to Woolson I sent a pressed flower of _Colochortus pulchellus_ and
received in return an order for one hundred bulbs, which they said they
would pay for in cash. This order was filled and it was the beginning
of my bulb business.
My first idea was to earn money to buy plants with, but before long I
saw that a small business might be built up.
My progress as a collector went hand in hand with my education in
botany. My method was this: First to find something of sufficient
beauty to make it probable that it would be wanted; next, to find its
name, and then to offer it to some one of the very few firms then
interested in such things.
Such was the first stage in the development of a new industry, but the
latter was no less important, for it involved knowing the plant at
every stage of its growth, finding when it could best be handled, and
how best packed for shipment. Almost from the beginning I tried to grow
the native plants, and botanical study, collection, and cultivation
have gone hand in hand since.
METHODS OF COLLECTING
Every year I took longer trips. I went alone, with the lightest of
camping outfits, slept on the ground, and penetrated the wildest
regions, learning where the desirable flowers grew, and collecting
those in demand, at the same time studying the general flora. When I
had learned the flora of a region, I tried to train some resident as
a permanent collector, for not all of these long trips could be made
every year. My horizon fast widened, and through friends, by letters
to others, and often by the migration of men whom I had trained, new
fields were opened, and later I had men who had been trained under me
to send to distant points.
Before I began to collect, others had been in the field, but they were
principally wandering botanists who seldom collected over the same
ground for two years in sequence. Their collections were of stuff of
all grades, often made at the wrong season, and there was no demand
except from a few special lists. At first I shared their faults, but
after a few years I saw the necessity of making a reputation for
reliability, for thoroughly learning the art of packing, and for such
grading as would insure uniform quality.
ESTABLISHING A NURSERY BUSINESS
As time went on, collection became less important and culture the
central feature of my work.
My first garden was at the farm home; later I spent much time and money
in experiments in a reclaimed lake bed near Ukiah, still later at my
Ukiah home, and since 1897 in the mountains about eight miles east of
Ukiah. Each experiment had its value. No one had grown Californian
bulbs in California, and everything had to be learned experimentally.
I now have two nurseries. One of them is at Lyons Valley, a lovely
spot in the highest part of that branch of the Coast Range which I
found six years ago was specially adapted to lily culture. About three
quarters of a mile away, at "The Terraces," nature has provided endless
variations of soil, climate, moisture, sun, and shade. Here I grow a
great variety of bulbs.
In 1886 I sold about seven thousand plants of all sorts; in 1888,
two hundred and fifty thousand, and the difference was on business
principles.
CARL PURDY
III
RAISING DOMESTIC ANIMALS
RAISING COLTS
Every farm boy I ever knew was ambitious to own horses. Before my
eldest brother was twelve he had traded pigs with our father for
calves, then heifers for a horse, and his favourite air castles were
great luxurious barns inhabited by blooded horses of his own raising.
If your colt's mother is dutiful, and they mostly are, the youngster
will have plenty to eat for the first few weeks. Petting is a good
thing for little colts; never a cuff nor a harsh word. Their confidence
won, their education is begun. While still dependent on the mother for
milk the young colt begins to nibble hay from the manger, and gets a
taste of the oats in the feed box, too, and finds them good. Oats and
clover hay, a little bran and shorts, a run in the pasture every fine
day all winter, will usually keep the colt growing and healthy. A warm
stable with plenty of dry bedding, preferably in a stall with another
colt, is necessary at night.
Colts need a plentiful supply of cool, clean water in summer, but in
winter, water should be heated just enough to take off the chill. It is
bad for a colt to drink at meal-time. (That sounds like a rule for boys
and girls.) A chunk of rock salt handy for colts to lick at helps keep
the appetite normal.
An ordinary farm colt at three or four months old is worth only thirty
or forty dollars. Two years later, with the right kind of care and
teaching, the same colt will bring four times that price. What other
farm crop will do as much?
The mother of a baby colt once died on our farm. My father felt very
badly over it; losing the old mare was misfortune enough, but the colt
was a noble-looking little fellow, highly bred. We girls had been
foster-mothers to almost everything; cats, pups, and pigs were easy,
and calves. But what of a colt? "Let's try if we can't raise him on the
bottle," said our mother. The experiments we tried with that colt were
many. We gave him "half and half" at first--a cup full of milk to one
of water. Our small cousin had once been fed on mare's milk, much to
our disgust, but it gave us ideas for our colt. Mother read somewhere
that cow's milk was not so sweet, but was richer than mare's milk. So
we patched our bits of hearsay together and made up our colt's ration
about like this:
First week: half sweet milk, half water, a teaspoonful of sugar to each
pint, ten times a day--always warm--last feeding at ten P. M.--not
very much at a time. Second and third weeks less water, six feedings a
day, warm and sweet as before. Fourth to tenth week: increase quantity
gradually, give warm--not very rich--milk three times a day. We gave
him a bottle at first with a nipple made of a goose-quill wrapped each
time with clean, soft rags. Everything about his food had to be kept
sweet. We scalded the bottle and the quill and washed them in water and
baking soda, just as mother said. Then we taught him to drink from a
pail. He followed us about like a dog and was very playful and frisky.
We fed him a little hay and oats and grass when he was old enough. My
little sister wanted us to give him less milk so that he would grow up
into a pony, but when he begged for food, she was the first to go for
his bottle. He grew up and developed just like any horse and father
said he was the easiest two-year-old he ever had to teach to work. He
paid us seventy-five dollars for the colt when he was eight months old
and ready to shift for himself with the other colts.
RAISING SHEEP
Every boy on the farm ought to have his own particular hobby in the
line of stock. It is far easier to keep account of your own if they are
entirely different from the animals raised by the other members of the
family. An account should be kept with the animals, to learn whether
they pay or not. It is only by this business-like method that the young
farmer, or the older one for that matter, can know whether his animals
are visitors or boarders.
If the mother keeps poultry, the boys pigs, and the father raises
horses and cows, then why should not the girls raise sheep? There is
room on every fair-sized farm for a flock. There is nothing about the
care of sheep that a strong, healthy girl may not do if she is not
needed to help with housework. Her father will teach and advise her.
Tending sheep is far more healthful occupation and more remunerative
than embroidering sofa pillows or knitting "fancy work."
Whoever undertakes the sheep raising must know first some of the needs
of his favourites. They are grazers. They will glean a good living in
stubble fields and crop grass in pastures where cows would starve; they
will bite the weeds in the fence corners down to the quick nor leave
one stalk to blossom or set seed. They are among the best and cheapest
of lawn-mowers, enriching the ground they feed over. They are easy to
care for, as they can take care of themselves most of the year. What a
joy it is to take a quiet walk over the hills of a Sunday morning to
salt the sheep! They are trustful, playful, docile creatures, and their
presence undeniably adds to the picture of content and comfort that
every homestead should present.
While it is true that sheep will keep fat on good pasture with plenty
of water and a semi-weekly supply of salt, it is not to be supposed
that they can pick up a living the whole year round in a cold climate.
They do not need stuffing in cold weather, but they do need plenty of
good hay in early winter and nourishing food like bran, oats, barley,
and clover hay toward spring. Alfalfa is ideal, but many people
succeed with sheep who fail on alfalfa. Sheep will over-feed if not
restrained. They should have exercise and fresh air in plenty all
winter. They should go out every day to pasture, except during storms,
until snow covers the ground.
Ewes fed but not over-fed over winter and sheltered under some kind
of rain-proof roof will be strong and healthy mothers. A new-born
lamb is about as weak and wobbly and inefficient as a human baby. The
weakest ones seem bent on dying, but a little coddling and care will
put them on their feet. They should be taught how to take nourishment
and whoever takes this in hand should use patience and insist that the
lesson be learned. I have known of many a good shepherd who sat up late
and got up early and visited the sheep at midnight in lambing time and
so saved all his lambs. There is something so appealing about a lamb
that no owner would like to remember that he slept comfortably through
a stormy night while a new-born lamb starved in the presence of plenty
or was chilled past help while its mother could only bleat helplessly
for the slothful shepherd.
Lambs should not follow their mothers to pasture until the grass is
grown enough to be really long and nourishing. They should be out in
the barnyard on warm, sunny days, and not weaned until near six months
old. After August they will fatten on clover pasture and be ready for
market before Christmas.
Sheep are sheared in spring, about April first, but this depends on
the climate. Most farm crops are fall or winter affairs. Like maple
sirup, wool is a spring cash crop, which is a great convenience. An
eight-pound fleece is worth nearly half as much as the sheep it grew
on, and the lambs will soon be worth as much as their mothers. So we
have a double chance to make good in sheep raising.
Sheep are so hardy, so harmless, and so easily managed that the only
wonder is that any farm is without a flock. Men who know say that the
farm dog is to blame for this. How about the farm dog, boys and girls?
Honestly, now, is your dog worth his keep? No matter how much better
he is than the neighbours' dog. How about your dog? You like him, of
course, but is he a loafing, worthless, sneaking, sheep-killing dog?
Look between his teeth before you deny that he is a sheep-killer.
Are you a good citizen if you let such a dog run at large? If you
raise sheep you will need a dog, and remember that a good collie will
protect your sheep from all the roving, bloodthirsty dogs in the
neighbourhood.
[Illustration: Photograph by Julian A. Dimock. "Big Boy Blue" Looks
After the Sheep]
RAISING GOATS
Boys, are you really serious about making some money? Do you live on
a farm where the hills are too steep to plow and the only crop that
amounts to anything is the crop of stones? Are those steep hills
covered with brush and good-for-nothing trees that look too hopeless?
Don't grind your teeth and say "There's no chance here. I'm going to
buy a ticket for the city." Glance at the heading on this page and
don't smile derisively nor turn on to some new chapter.
"Goats! Humph!"
If you never heard of anybody making anything out of goats, here's your
chance to hear something new. People can and do make money out of goats
and so can you. Why, it is too easy!
Here, read these facts about goats:
Goats _prefer_ rough, rocky, wild, and hilly land.
Goats _always thrive_ if allowed considerable range.
Hilly, _bushy_ land is _best_ for goats.
The feed of _one_ cow will keep _twelve_ goats.
_Temperature_ need not be considered. Goats thrive where temperatures
are _extreme_.
The Angora goat _fleece_ is cut annually and is _very valuable_. We
import over one million pounds a year. Skins of common goats are in
_great demand_ for leather. We imported sixteen million dollars' worth
in 1898 and more every year since.
_Goat manure_ is as valuable as that of sheep.
Angora _venison_ cannot be told from lamb.
Goats _scorn_ to eat fresh grass if _coarse weeds_ like wild carrot,
mullein, dock, etc., are in sight.
_Every part_ of a goat is _salable_. Fleece, milk, cheese, skin, flesh,
tallow, bones, hoofs, horns, and manure.
Goats _improve land_. They are "lifelong scavengers," and can put land
covered with useless underbrush into shape for pasture more cheaply and
more quickly than dynamite.
A herd of _common goats_ can be built up in _a few years_. They breed
at one year and usually have twins.
Goats are _hardy_; less subject to disease than sheep.
A good goat is a _money-maker_.
These statements are quoted directly from the writings of men and women
of experience. They have no goats to sell, so you can take their word.
The requirements for successful goat raising are few and easy to
provide. They are these:
(1) _Space._--Goats do not take kindly to herding nor to small fields.
If they have only a small enclosure they are likely spend more time
trying to get at what is outside than in browsing. To meet a wire fence
every few steps makes a goat restive.
(2) _Housing._--Goats must be kept dry overhead and under foot. The
shelter for goats should be high and dry. They will not thrive in wet,
marshy land, nor keep well if their shed is muddy. They dislike filth
and will not stand in it nor touch soiled food. They prefer to sleep
on the roof of the barn, you know, but if a clean, dry bed in an airy
place is provided they will not roost so high.
(3) _Water._--Plenty of clean fresh water should always be available.
If you can supply these three essentials, you are ready to raise goats.
There are two well-marked lines of business in goat raising. Which
shall you follow?
Angoras are raised for their fleece; common goats either for leather or
for milk. Angoras are not much good for milk and their skins are not
so fine nor durable as those of common goats. The Angora is free from
the offensive odour of common male goats. The greatest demand for goat
products in our markets to-day is for Angora fleece and for common goat
skins. The other products, like flesh, hoof, bones and horns, tallow,
cheese, milk, and manure, can easily be marketed and should pay most of
the expenses. The main products should be clear profit.
BUILDING UP A HERD
There is a slow way and a quick way to build up a herd of goats. As
usual the slow way requires less capital. If you have but a few dollars
you will have to begin with cheap goats, but to keep a poor goat is
poor business. You can buy good, common goats for one dollar and a
half or two dollars each and with time and patience build up from them
a herd of Angoras by crossing. If capital is easier to command than
years of time, you will begin with good Angora does which cost from
eight dollars upward. If you begin with common ones, choose white,
short-haired individuals. Keep only the best does in your herd for
breeders; you will soon learn how to judge them by the quality of their
fleece and the price it brings you per pound. In five or six years it
is possible to build up a herd of fine mohair producers from common
goats.
The hair grows coarser as the goat passes six years of age, so it does
not pay to keep one too long. Buy young does. A goat's teeth tell its
age up to the fourth year. If all the eight teeth are full-sized the
goat is certainly four to five years old, it may be more.
CARE OF KIDS
A young kid is not a very sturdy youngster. Good care should be given
both doe and kid at this time. A warm shelter should be provided. May
is the best month for kids to come, in the North. Extra feeding should
be given the doe and plenty of water. If possible each doe with her kid
should have a separate stall or pen so that the doe will know her own
young one. If you can arrange that each pen in the kid stable can have
an outdoor entrance the mother can come and go at will. A board a foot
to eighteen inches high across this entrance will keep the kid from
following his mother. When about six weeks old the kid will jump this
board. By this token you will know that he is strong enough to jump
about over the stones wherever his mother leads him.
FOOD OF GOATS
The comic papers may be right about some things, but they are wrong
about goats. A diet of newspapers and tin cans will not keep a
goat healthy nor produce a salable fleece of fine mohair. Angoras
like common goats are browsers, not grazers like sheep. They eat
coarse vegetation such as weedy growths and the twigs and leaves of
underbrush, rather than grass. Besides this, particularly in winter,
they should have other food. Leaves, table scraps like potato and fruit
parings, turnips and other roots, and cabbage are all acceptable if
clean. Parings and roots should be washed; if you expect goats to eat
swill you deserve to be disappointed. Dirty carrots, rotten apples,
sour or mouldy refuse do not tempt a self-respecting pig; much less
an Angora. Oats in the sheaf are very good fodder for them. Grain is
not required if clover hay, alfalfa, or cowpea stubble is plentiful.
Too much grain makes a lazy goat and a lazy goat will not produce a
handsome fleece. Bran may be fed for a change, and a little cotton seed
or corn may be given, but sparingly. Leaves or other coarse food should
be given plentifully at night, as Angoras relish a midnight lunch
beside their three square meals a day.
A supply of rock salt should be kept where goats can get it whenever
they want it. If it is given only at long intervals they may
over-indulge. Water should be warmed slightly in winter if practicable.
SHELTER AND ENCLOSURE
Hardy as they are, goats cannot stand exposure to storms. They abhor
wet. Cold rain or sleet storms are really dangerous to their health.
Goats will go the long way round every time rather than get into mud.
Mud is very bad for the fleece, too. Buyers refuse to pay for dirt.
Goat shelters should be dry, but they need not be tight except
overhead. In fact many goats die of suffocation when huddled in close
quarters. If the roof is just high enough from the floor for goats to
go under, it can be open all round except perhaps on the side where the
prevailing wind and storms would beat in.
No other animals should be quartered with goats. Experience shows this.
Goats prefer hard beds. Chaff or straw enough to absorb the liquid
manure is all that should be put on the floor. Trees are the best shade
from the hot sun, but if none are growing in the goats' pasture other
shelter should be provided.
It is true that goats thrive best when unconfined. But this does not
mean that your goats should be allowed to range on other people's
domains. They are a very real nuisance in orchards and gardens, and
if your place is small it is no place for goats. A fence need not be
very high to restrain a flock of goats. They are climbers and once
in a while there is one who would take a prize for the "high jump."
Ordinarily a fence three and a half feet high is all that is necessary.
Boards, rails, or wire will make a good goat fence. It should go close
to the ground to prevent crawling under. If wire is used, take care
that the mesh is too small for a goat's head.
You must take your market's demands into consideration when deciding
whether to breed Angoras or common goats. An Angora fleece weighs from
four to eight pounds. This can be cut every year for ten or twelve
years. The common goat's skin is valuable, but he has only one! This
makes the Angora look like the best business proposition, although
requiring more capital to start, as the care required is about the same
and the value of by-products practically equal.
THE COMMON GOAT
Two arguments may be brought forward in favour of the common goat. In
the first place, the herd increases much faster as the Angora doe
usually has only one kid, while twins are the rule with common goats.
There is a decidedly growing demand for goats' milk near large cities,
especially for hospitals. We all know how commonly goats' milk is
used in foreign countries. We Americans have a rather silly prejudice
against it, but we will get over this when we realize how often goats'
milk saves the lives of babies and invalids. The following statements
are vouched for by physicians and others of experience:
[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. Feeding the Goats]
Goats' milk is more easily digested than cows' milk.
Analysis shows goats' milk has a marked similarity to human mothers'
milk and is more readily assimilated by infants.
Goats' milk is generally claimed to be free at all times from germs of
tuberculosis.
Cannot be told from cow's milk by taste.
Excellent for coffee and in cooking.
The goat is claimed by its friends to be greatly the superior of the
cow for milk, for the following reasons:
The goat is naturally cleanly.
The goat is easy to keep clean because of her small size. Goats can be
and are put into tubs and scrubbed and sterilized when being used as
foster-mothers in baby hospitals. But no such treatment is possible
with a cow.
A goat can easily be taken from place to place with a family. A cow
could not be transported without great expense.
Goats eat far less than cows. Eight milch goats can be kept on the food
of one milch cow. The same quality of food should be furnished.
I believe there is a great future in America for the milch goat.
TWENTY ACRES REDEEMED: THE STORY OF A SATISFACTORY EXPERIMENT WITH
GOATS IN NEW ENGLAND
In January, 1902, I bought seventy-five Angoras, as I had about twenty
acres of brush land that I wanted to reclaim. I kept the goats in sheds
until May. I had to put up a wire fence to keep them from visiting my
neighbours, and in early May turned them into the first section, about
one half of the piece. I built a shed for them to stay in nights and
during rains.
The work they did was marvellous. In less than a month this section had
the appearance of having been struck by a cyclone, and it was evident
that the goats would soon require more territory. Consequently I wired
the other section of this twenty-acre piece, and when finished allowed
them the range of the other piece, to which they marched in military
precision daily, returning to the shed at night or during the approach
of rain, which they seemed to foretell as accurately as a barometer.
It was not long before it developed that they would require fresher
fields or I must reduce my flock, as this ground was all that I had of
that kind. Consequently I sold all but twenty-five, retaining twelve
registered does, twelve kids, and one buck. For the does I paid ten
dollars each, and my buck, which was a kid, cost twenty-five dollars.
I had some grades that I sold at eight dollars and eight dollars and
twenty-five cents each, and also some wether kids that I sold at five
dollars each. I have this same flock now, with the addition of ten kids
born this spring from these twelve does, which had twelve kids, two
having died, leaving thirty-five now in the field.
During the past winter I have handled more than six hundred that were
sent here from the West. The test that I was anxiously watching for
at the advent of spring was to see the effect of their work done last
season, and I must say I am very agreeably surprised. In the first lot
fenced there is scarcely a brush left, no briers, and not even Canada
thistles. The entire field between the rocks came out this spring with
beautiful, thick, green, grassy foliage, mostly white clover. On the
other lot, part of the brush tried hard to show its tenacity of life
by coming out with green leaves, but at this writing the shrubs have
fallen prey to the devouring Angora, and green grass is coming out
in about all the ground that they have trod. This alone to me is a
satisfactory commercial experience.
W. O. CORNING
RAISING CALVES
Feeding the calves is always the boy's job or the girl's. Usually
the milk is prepared by their mother, but the responsibility for the
calves' welfare is left to the youngsters. If you look upon calf
feeding as nothing but a chore to get over with as soon as possible,
you get very little fun out of it. But if you see in those calves the
beginning of your own fortune or the foundation of your college fund
they look different. Whether the calves are yours or your father's,
they are living creatures, capable of appreciating proper care and
repaying it. They are just as capable of showing neglect.
If you are going to feed the calves, make a study of calf nature,
know what kind of animals you want to make of them, find out how to
accomplish your purpose, and then keep a straight course. Find out
first the parentage of the calf. Then inquire if it is to be a beef
animal or a dairy cow. Knowing its past and its future you can provide
wisely for the present.
A new-born calf should stay with the mother from twelve to twenty-four
hours. The fluid she gives first is not milk, but is just what the calf
needs to prepare its digestive organs for milk. If left longer with the
mother it will be more bother to train. The calf should be fed sweet,
whole milk for two weeks. If put immediately onto a diet of skim-milk,
indigestion is likely to result, and the calf gets a setback from which
it may never recover.
When a young calf is taken from its mother, it knows nothing about
drinking. The best practice is to let it fast for from twelve to
twenty-four hours till it gets good and hungry. It is then in a state
of mind to learn anything rather than go without any longer. [They
treat human babies the same way if need be.] If started right, a young
calf learns to drink in a day or two. Holding the pail with one to two
quarts of warm, fresh, whole milk in your left hand, stand beside the
calf and put your right hand over its nose. Insert two fingers into
its mouth. Did you ever feel anything so funny? The calf will suck
your fingers hungrily. Gently push its nose down into the warm milk
with your fingers still in its mouth. After a while gently pull out
one finger. If he misses it put it back and later try again. In a few
lessons the calf will drink readily. Patience and kindness must be
exercised if one little scamp proves dull. A calf that gets a slap for
not drinking will come to think that the two disagreeable things always
come together and his education and his growth will be delayed.
For the first ten to twelve days the calf should have about five quarts
of milk a day, divided into three feedings. This should be warmed to
blood heat, ninety-five to a hundred degrees Fahr. At two weeks you
can begin to substitute skim-milk. A half-pint a day at first is about
right. Watch the effect on the calf. Increase the quantity gradually,
until at a month or six weeks old the calf is getting seven to eight
quarts per day of skim-milk, always warm and perfectly sweet.
The worst disease of calf-hood is scours, and this disease is caused by
feeding cold, unclean, or sour milk. I'd be ashamed to have a calf of
mine sick with the scours! To cure it, add lime-water to the milk or
mix a teaspoonful of dried blood in a small amount of water, then stir
into the milk. Or an ounce of wheat bran or kaffir corn meal stirred
into the milk will be helpful. Some recommend oat or corn meal fed dry,
or a little linseed meal mixed in a little water and then stirred into
the milk.
If your calves are all heifers to be added to the dairy herd, you do
not want them to lay on great amounts of fat, but to grow strong and be
able to digest great amounts of hay. If they are to be beef, they need
more fat. Grain is fattening, especially corn. Begin to feed hay as
soon as the calf will take it. Clean, dry clover is best, but any good
hay will help prepare their stomachs for the work which is expected of
them later. Milk and hay are best for growing calves. Grain, oil-meal,
and pasture furnish variety.
Have you seen a wild-eyed cow being literally dragged behind a wagon,
scared past endurance and behaving like a savage creature? There is not
the slightest excuse for that sort of thing. What fun it is to slip a
halter on a calf to-day and let him get accustomed to it; to-morrow
lead him about a little with coaxing. In a few days he will lead like
an old horse. He will learn to expect only kindness from his feeder
and trainer. It would be well to accustom the calves to the presence
of your dog, too. There are men who think a frightened animal is a
humourous sight. But such a man is "no gentleman" and I certainly would
never think of trusting him to drive my horses, or milk my cows, or
even feed my pigs.
Our calves were kept in an old orchard, convenient to the house, with
good pasture, plenty of sun and shade, and a suitable fence. A shed for
wet weather is essential, for a clean, dry bed must be provided. Calves
have no way of cleaning themselves, therefore they must not be allowed
to get dirty.
Milk should be fed until the calves are four months old, and may be
continued longer. After the first few weeks, when they have begun to
take some hay and grass, the milk may be given in two feedings. Water
should be given freely especially in hot weather. If your pasture has
a clear running brook, your calves are in luck and so are you, for
carrying water for a bunch of calves is no joke. A garden hose or a
series of v-shaped troughs from pump to pen saves a lot of time and
backache.
A calf whose mother has a record for milk rich in butter fat and a sire
of good family has in it the possibilities of a prize-winner. Whether
she will earn seventy-seven cents a year over and above her keep, like
those one thousand and twenty poor cows that Illinois boys and girls
know about, or thirty dollars a year, like the twenty-five good cows,
depends very much on the care she gets. No amount of care given to a
cow will make up for neglect to the calf. There's a big responsibility
on the boys and girls of the farms, for calf feeding is their job.
THE STORY OF TWO BOYS AND A COW
The suggestion that the suburban home might be a money-making
investment would strike the average suburbanite as ridiculous. But a
few moments of careful calculation may put preconceived notions to
flight and show how considerable money may be made--or saved, which is
quite as important.
Some years ago a family, which included two boys of eleven and thirteen
years, took a house in the outskirts of a good-sized town, about thirty
minutes' ride from the city. The father was a buyer for an importing
house, and absent from home for several months of each year. His salary
was large, as such salaries go, but there were seven children to be
raised and educated, several of them with marked abilities that needed
the very best possible instruction to bring them to their highest
development.
The boys spent one summer vacation at the country house of an old
friend of the family and got ideas. They talked them over, went back to
their friend for counsel, then turned their batteries on their parents
to gain their consent to an important new enterprise.
Attached to the house was about an acre of ground, three fourths of
which was old pasture grown to weeds and a tangle of brier bushes.
By promising to work for a farmer during the coming vacation the
boys arranged to have the field, which they cleared and made ready,
ploughed, harrowed, and marked in the most thorough fashion.
They planted it with the best variety of mid-season sweet corn. The
farmer cultivated it, and the boys hoed it and kept it in almost
perfect condition.
The season was very dry, but they laid a hose so as to start a stream
of water into the lines between the rows of corn; then with a good pump
they filled the trenches they had dug and completely irrigated the
entire field.
The crop was a great success. The boys picked and sold at retail prices
to private customers twelve hundred dozen ears of the finest corn
raised in that section. As it averaged twenty cents a dozen, it footed
up the very comfortable sum of two hundred and forty dollars with small
ears and left-overs quite sufficient for the use of the family.
Two weeks from the first picking the stalks were cut and set up to cure
for the cow that was really the object of their endeavour.
The friend of the family selected the cow. She was a fine, fresh, young
Jersey and Alderney cross--a high-grade animal, good for quality as
well as quantity of milk and cream.
There was small, well-built barn on the place, and here the cow was
stabled. Cleanliness was the first, last, and intermediate law in and
about the place. The boys had clothes expressly for barn wear and white
aprons with long sleeves to put on when milking.
Such unusual attention to details attracted customers until the demand
went far ahead of the supply.
For the first six months the cow gave, on an average, sixteen quarts a
day, fourteen of which were sold to persons who came for it, thereby
saving all trouble and cost of delivery. Two quarts were kept for the
family.
For the next four months the sales were twelve quarts a day. Feed for
the cow cost one dollar a week, besides hay and corn-stalks.
The cow was bought late in July, and by the first of August the milk
trade was well established. After ten months' experience the boys made
up a statement to show to their father when he returned from a trip to
Europe.
CREDIT
1,200 doz. corn at 20 cts. a doz. $240.00
Stalks 20.00
Milk, 184 days, 14 qts. at 8 cts. a qt. 206.08
" 120 " 12 " " " " " 115.20
--------
$581.28
DEBIT
1 cow, $60.00; 1 ton hay, $18.00; feed, $40.00 $118.00
--------
Profit, cash on hand $463.28
Value of 1 cow 60.00
--------
Total assets $523.28
NELSON S. STONE
RAISING PIGS
When I was nine years old I laid the foundation of my college fund. My
grandmother had a flock of twenty or thirty geese which were kept for
the pillows and feather beds they filled. Great was my delight when
grandma told me that she would give me a pig if I would help her pick
the geese. Helping her would have been reward enough, for I was a great
grandma girl, but the ambition of my childhood was to own a pig. Did
not my elder brother now own a beautiful mare and colt, and had he not
started with a pig?
Wednesday was the day set for plucking the geese and all my leisure on
Monday and Tuesday was spent in building a pen. Plenty of material from
which to construct this edifice was found about the place. I wisely
located it at the back of the henhouse which left me only three sides
to build. One corner was roofed with the best boards I could find, for
I didn't wish my precious pig to suffer from sunstroke or have his bed
transformed into a mud-hole when it rained.
When the geese were picked to the last feather they could spare, I
went with grandmother to select my pig from the litter of sucklings
now ready to begin taking their food from the trough. She generously
allowed me my choice, and if I did not get the pick of the bunch it was
not her fault. I wonder how a girl of nine succeeded in transporting
a lusty pig the three quarters of a mile between grandmother's house
and ours. I should not like to undertake it now, but my confidence in
my ability to do what I wanted done in those days was unlimited. A
piece of rope, a stout cudgel, a pair of strong, young arms, and a high
disregard of appearances sustained me. I got my treasure home and into
his pen--no mean triumph even as viewed by my elder brother who had
passed by the pig stage and even the calf stage and entered into the
exalted realm of horse ownership.
My father was not the "your shoat, my hog" kind of a father. There came
a time when he used to say that the girls owned all the cattle and the
boys all the horses on the farm. When my pig grew up, I traded it to my
father for a fine calf. This calf was the nucleus of my "herd," for I
never owned a horse. All through my college course when I needed money,
I used to write to father to sell "Rowena" or "Corinne" or "Natty
Bumpo." (We named our calves after the people we read about.) There
was always a buyer ready at hand and the price paid was strictly in
accord with the market quotations. The cow which bought my graduation
cap and gown was the last of her race, "Betsy Bobbett," one of the
great-great-granddaughters of the calf for which I traded that original
pig.
No one can deny or doubt that there is profit in pig raising. Pork
"on the hoof" is ten cents a pound even as I write these words, with
prospects good for going higher. A profit of one hundred per cent. is
recorded by growers when the price is only six cents a pound.
With the one exception of poultry, hogs bring the quickest returns for
investment of any live stock. It is poor economy to keep any animal
which cannot pay its board, except for sentiment, and few people keep
pigs on that account. If I were beginning again I should not trade my
pig for a calf but should raise pigs.
In selecting a mother for my family of hogs I should care more about
her individual character than about her breed. A good brood sow
ought to have a good disposition, which means a good digestion, and
respond quickly to kindness. Nervous, irritable sows often develop
vicious habits. A short, broad face, a wide space between the eyes,
a deep chest, broad back, and large hams with rather short legs are
all considered good points. A good-natured, healthy pig has a bright,
friendly manner when accosted and a look of shrewd though guileless
interest in his master.
"Dirty as a pig" is a slander on the pig and a censure on its owner.
Pigs and goats are more particular about their beds than either horses
or cows. Success with porkers is spelt _c-l-e-a-n-l-i-n-e-s-s_. They
like to wallow in the edge of a sluggish stream on a warm day. Well,
so do you. Mud is not dirty unless mixed with foul manure and decaying
vegetable matter.
All feeding troughs, floors, and beds should be thoroughly scraped,
swept, and dried if the pigs are to be healthy, happy, and comfortable.
Under no other conditions does keeping pigs pay.
You will be very fortunate if your young sow's first litter numbers
ten or a dozen lively youngsters. Six or eight will not be bad if she
raises them all, and with care she ought to. Improper care and feeding
before the pigs come are usually responsible for any cannibalistic
habits developed by the sow. Corn alone is not a good ration except
for fattening. Used with wheat, middlings, bran, and ground oats, with
plenty of clover or alfalfa hay, corn is all right. The sow should be
put into a pen by herself before farrowing time. The best bedding is
clean wheat or rye straw, which should not be left until it is wet and
filthy. Sprinkle air-slaked lime in the sleeping pen under the fresh
bedding. A sick pig means a neglectful owner.
Pigs ought to grow fast and without any check. At six months old they
should weigh two hundred pounds, an average gain you see, of over a
pound a day. With a good, healthy mother little pigs need no extra
feeding the first month. The sow should be given nourishing food, bran
and ground oats and rye, lots of skim-milk and an abundance of clean,
fresh water.
If the pigs seem hungry when only a couple of weeks old a little, new
trough should be made for them. A small quantity of boiled corn and
skim-milk should be put into this trough where the little fellows can
get to it but the sow cannot. They may not take much at first, but
several hours later the trough should be rinsed and a fresh supply
given. Sour, dirty milk may produce serious sickness in young pigs and
check growth. The sow will wean them when she gets ready, and they will
not know the difference if they get used to their trough early.
It is possible to raise and fatten pigs in pens, but it is not
economical. Pasture is essential to their best growth. It gives them
exercise, and the green food not only nourishes them, but aids in
the digestion of the more concentrated foods. The expression, "Pigs
in clover," is based on fact. A happy, healthy, money-maker is the
pasture-fed pig. He will put on his ten cents' worth a day of bone,
muscle and fat at less expense in a clover patch than elsewhere.
Alfalfa or cow peas will serve him about as well. Fruit windfalls are
good for him, too.
If you live on a place where grain or fruit are the main crops and a
few cows are kept, you are losing a great opportunity if you are not
raising a few pigs. They dispose of the surplus on such farms, as well
as the unsalable garden crops and weeds, and pay their board day by day.
The owner should keep a close account with his pigs. If they eat what
would otherwise be wasted you are so much to the good. What you sell
them for, less what you have paid out for food, equals what you get for
your time.
RAISING CHICKENS
Success with chickens does not depend upon the breed, nor upon any
patent devices for hatching and brooding, nor on any special mixture
of feed. You can find frenzied advertisers trying to disprove these
statements, but do not your own observations bear me out? However, I
venture to say that with common-sense and gumption, and a real liking
for chickens, success in this line is nearly certain. There are dozens
of good stories of boys who have begun chicken raising at twelve
to fourteen years of age and have made money at it, beside training
themselves at the same time in business methods and efficiency. There
are no good reasons why girls also should not succeed.
There are certain principles of poultry culture upon which most people
agree. These are based on a knowledge of hen nature and are the result
of study and experience. We will discuss them under the following heads:
1, Housing and Care; 2, Food and Feeding; 3, Raising Young Stock; 4,
Business Methods.
HOUSING
[Illustration: Frame for eleven-dollar chicken house]
This first department properly includes not only the house proper with
all its interior fixtures and its care, but the runs, the scratching
shed, and all that has to do with the supply of air, warmth and
sunshine and the protection of the flock from disease and vermin. No
matter how plain and ordinary your chicken house is, the test of your
fitness for the business comes with its care, not once a month, but
day by day.
[Illustration: Chicken house a boy can build]
Many people have an idea that the only way to keep hens healthy and
productive is to let them range. Of course it is true that chickens
on the farm seem to pick up a free living, but it is equally true
that, as a general thing, the farmer does not keep any account with
his chickens, and if they get into the corn crib or granary he does
not know how much grain they eat and how much they waste. If they hide
their nests and the eggs spoil, or if they sit and the chicks do not
live to get to the barnyard, the owner is unaware of his loss. If,
having no house and nest boxes, the hens lay in the weeds, in the wood
pile, in the straw stack, in the haymow, it's no loss, for the women
and children hunt the eggs and their time isn't worth anything! But
do you believe there are any farm hens whose portraits will appear
in the big magazines? Did you see that one last year in _Collier's
Weekly_? Do you suppose there are many 200-eggers on farms with all
their supposed advantages? I don't. But we shall never know, because no
accurate records can be kept of chickens that run at large.
I shall take it for granted that you expect to begin in a small way
with very little to invest. Remember that a few hens pay better per
hen than a large number, but on the other hand it takes about as much
time to care for a dozen as it does for one hundred. You will therefore
look forward with satisfaction to increasing your flock as your capital
grows and your time becomes more valuable.
Have you a suitable place for chickens? It should be dry, sunny,
though with some shade, protected from severe winds and storms. The
sun is the greatest purifier and disinfector in the universe, and you
must have your house face the south or east if possible. Whether your
first house is made of store boxes or of expensive matched lumber the
principles are the same. To make the house _dry_ it should be built on
well-drained soil and should sit up six inches from the surface of the
ground so that air can circulate freely beneath.
The only heat in the hen house comes from the hens and the sunshine.
Therefore, to make the house _warm_ you should have it small enough
so that your hens can generate heat enough to keep warm in winter.
The exposure should be such that the sun can get into it. If possible
it should be shaded by trees or other buildings against storms and
summer sun. Every hen needs from four to five square feet of floor
space and only eight to ten cubic feet of air space. Square houses are
more economical to build. Figure out with diagrams and drawings to
scale just how large a building is needed to house your flock when you
get it. How low at the back can you make it without bumping your head
when you go inside? How high in front must it be to provide space for
your door and window? What shaped roof will be easiest to build, most
economical of lumber, and most satisfactory as a rain shed?
[Illustration: Self-feed grit box]
Consider many things in the selection of material. Rough boards are a
little cheaper, but how they do ruin good paint and whitewash brushes!
Matched boards are cheaper and tighter than unmatched boards with
strips nailed over the cracks. For the roof some kind of waterproof
roofing material will keep the house warm and dry. If you have ever
seen a chicken house with a cement floor you will be determined to have
that kind. At first the expense may be greater than for boards, but if
you live in your own home you can afford to put a cement floor in the
chicken house sooner or later, especially if you do the work yourself.
If you are a renter you will not feel like putting in expensive,
permanent improvements. It will be warm and dry, saving many losses
from wet feet and diseases brought on by dampness and cold. It is easy
to clean. It will do away with the rat problem, and last forever. You
can put it in after the house is built. Figure out the cost of a layer
of cement one and one half inches thick laid on a bed of gravel and
small stones. The cement is mixed as follows: one part Portland cement,
three parts clean sand, five parts gravel. Mix the cement pretty thick,
tamp it down conscientiously until perfectly level, then with a trowel
smooth it and smooth it, over and over, until the surface is free from
anything like a stone or large pebble.
The door to the chicken house should be well hung, easy to open, shut,
and lock. The window is to admit light and sunshine, especially the
latter. Very small panes may be cheap but they shut out the sun; twelve
eight by ten panes in a single sash make a window of convenient size.
The window should be placed so that the sun can get way back to the
very farthest corner of the house. A high window is better for this
than a low one. The diagram shows why.
[Illustration: The windows should be placed high enough to let the sun
in to the back of the house]
Sunshine and exercise are necessary for healthy fowls. They can stand
cold weather well, if they are kept dry and active. Scratching sheds or
open-front pens provide sunshine and exercise.
Scratching for food in the litter keeps hens moving and they get to
be very athletic, jumping up to cabbages and fresh meat or grain
self-feeders hung just out of reach. Scratching sheds in the North need
adjustable curtains of coarse muslin to keep out driving rain, snow,
and sleet. The State Agricultural Experiment Station at Orono, Maine,
has made valuable studies of curtained sheds, and the use of this form
of poultry house has found favour all over the country.
[Illustration: Grain self-feeder for fowls]
The furniture of the hen house consists of roosts, dropping board,
nests, dust box, and utensils to hold ground feed, grit, shell, and
water. In making and erecting each piece ask yourself, "Will this be
easy to clean?" The roosts should be in the corner farthest from door
and window, out of all draughts. There should be enough of them to
provide each fowl with six to eight inches of room and they should be
set at least a foot apart. Do not have the roosts at different levels.
It is hen nature to want the highest place, and they will fight and
crowd and worry each other if there is a higher roost. Pieces of two by
two, with the upper edge rounded, make good perches.
As the floor of the chicken house is also the dining table for the
occupants it is extremely important that there should be a well-built
platform under the roosts for droppings, in order to keep the floor
clean. There should be space enough between this board and the perches
to allow you to clean it frequently without difficulty.
[Illustration: Corner in chicken house, showing up-to-date furniture]
If you ever tried to clean a range of wall nests you know why the
up-to-date poultry men are discarding them as unsanitary. Many are
now placing their nests under the dropping board. They are out of
the way here, not too high for the hens, nor too low for you. Square
nests, fourteen inches each way and at least a foot from the droppings
platform, are satisfactory. A long door hinged at the top and hooked
at the bottom should form the back of a row of nests. You open this to
gather eggs and to clean the nests. The front, where the hens enter,
should be in behind under the platform. As it is rather dark in there,
the hens are pleased, because they like to preserve the old-time
fiction that they are hiding their nests away. The nest should be five
or six inches deep. Straw is the best nesting material. Short hay is
next best. A hen cannot be happy with excelsior twisted round her toes
and an unhappy hen is an unproductive hen.
The dust bath must be provided. Most baths are wet but hens are dry
cleaners. The dust bath must be dry to be of any use; the lighter,
finer, and dryer the better. A sunny corner of the house or shed is the
best place. Sifted coal ashes and street dust is a good mixture.
Allow just as much space for the runs as you can afford to fence. If
possible divide the enclosure in two and keep one part seeded to clover
while the chickens are in the other. The heavier fowls usually make
very little trouble flying over a fence of five foot wire netting even
though it have no top strip. Clipping one wing may be necessary to
restrain some individuals. Small trees in the runs are most desirable.
Plant there such small fruit trees as plum or cherry and the hens will
help to keep insects in check.
[Illustration: Covered dust bath in sunny corner]
One of the biggest items of work in the chicken business is keeping
the house clean. The health, comfort, happiness, and the very life of
the hens, as well as the business, depend on this. Many a boy with a
sort of natural knack at carpentry can build a chicken house out of
second-hand lumber or out of a couple of piano boxes. But it takes a
long distance form of gumption to keep any chicken house sanitary.
The droppings should be cleaned up often and right here a word to the
wise. Hen manure is a valuable garden fertilizer _if_ it is sprinkled
with land plaster while fresh. Otherwise it may become very nearly
worthless. So if you have a garden or can dispose of your fertilizer
every day or two you can make something extra on this by-product by a
semi-weekly cleaning of roosts and droppings board. Litter is not dirt
in the chicken house but it ought to be dry, fresh litter.
It is not enough that the house should look clean. The obvious dirt,
bad as it is, does less harm than the almost invisible vermin that
lurk in the crevices of roosts, nests, and walls. Whitewash is a very
wholesome finish for the interior and should be put on at least twice a
year. This is not enough however. Every square inch of surface should
be wet thoroughly with some liquid which is sure death to vermin. Spray
or brush may be used. I wonder if this could be done too often in hot
weather. Once a month is probably often enough if good insect powder
is used on the hens and in the nests. In winter the vermin are less
active, but it is not safe to neglect them even then.
FOOD AND FEEDING
Hens are known to be omnivorous. They must have animal and mineral as
well as vegetable food. They need these things in variable quantities
depending on their occupation. The hen's main duties are growing,
laying, brooding, moulting, fattening. She needs a great variety of
these three classes of foods throughout her life. Study your flock,
read of the experiences of others in magazines, bulletins, and books,
follow their advice, and work out mixtures and methods to suit your
conditions after you gain experience. The hens will give you many a
hint. Let them out of the pen now and then just before feeding time
and see how they make for the grass. In the evening the earthworms are
near the surface. The hens devour them greedily. You can get the flock
back easily if you have a call, whistle, or other signal which they
associate with grain-scattering, but they will go in at twilight anyhow.
Sitting hens need less food because of their sedentary occupation. The
main thing is to keep food and fresh water where they can get it when
they want it, or see that they go to it regularly.
Broody hens are a trial. The common practices of starving them, ducking
them, and otherwise subjecting them to indignities, are little short
of cruel and often fail to cure their natural desire to sit. Stop and
reason not with, but about, the hen. Having laid all the eggs nature
has provided during the spring, the hen's instinct is to brood and rear
a nestful. She has worked hard and maybe is run down physically. Feel
her bones. What you want from her is more eggs. Instead of wasting time
"getting even" with her for being a nuisance, try some rational way of
breaking up her desire to sit. Remove her immediately from the nest to
a coop. Instead of starving her give her a plentiful supply of the diet
you have found best for layers. She will probably soon begin to lay
again if treated sensibly.
[Illustration: Racks over feed pans prevent waste and soiling food]
Moulting is a perfectly natural process but it occurs at the end of
the season and the chickens are often in a low state of vitality.
For this reason it is a critical time. Study the hens. Find out what
their physical condition is at moulting season. The best condition is
half-way between fat and thin. If they are thin, provide a wholesome
diet rich in fatty foods, as corn, oats, sunflower, and some flaxseed,
with bran, meat scraps, and clover. If heavy with fat from too rich
a diet in the summer, less of the fat-producing foods makes a better
moulting diet.
The quality and flavour of the eggs and meat depend pretty much on the
kind of food given. If filth is taken into the hen's system it affects
her general health and efficiency. There is an opinion that hens and
pigs are by nature dirty. We will not stop to argue that, but your hens
will eat nothing but clean food if nothing else is provided. That's
certain! Look to your feeding racks and watering pans. Use water freely
and a stiff brush or cloth. Clean water is positively necessary. All
sorts of diseases lurk in dirty houses, filthy runs, and stale, unclean
feeding and drinking pans.
Regularity in feeding is important. Do not go into this business if
you expect frequently to be otherwise employed at feeding time. The
main feedings are two, morning and late afternoon, for whole or cracked
grain scattered in the litter. Ground grain should be there, in a
hopper, at all hours in summer and all the afternoon the rest of the
year. The exercise they must take to get the grain keeps the hens from
getting fat and lazy.
A busy hen is a happy hen and a productive hen. Hang a half cabbage up
just out of reach in the house on a stormy day and see them train for
the standing broad jump! If you can get what is known as "the haslet,"
really the lungs, heart, and liver of a porker or lamb, you can suspend
this in the same way and they will work all the better for it.
RAISING YOUNG CHICKENS
[Illustration: Model chicken coop--open on pleasant days]
It is poor practice to set your hens in the chicken house. Prepare
as many fresh nests as you expect to need. Put them in the cellar,
unused shed, under the porch, or any convenient and protected place.
Doors of wire netting or slats are a great convenience. When a hen is
broody, take her off the nest the first night and put her into the
new place with an artificial egg or two. Ten to one she will stay all
right. If not, do not waste time with her. When assured that her mind
is unalterably made up, give her thirteen eggs and close the door on
her again. Set two or three the same day and later combine the flocks
under one hen. Select the eggs with reference to their shape, size, and
quality of shell. Misshapen, very large, or very small eggs or those
with thin shells are worthless for setting. Set the eggs of the best
layers. Every morning take sitters off nests, leave food and water for
them, and return in half an hour. Usually they are all back in their
places in less time than that. If not, you can replace and shut them in
again. In eighteen to twenty-one days the eggs will hatch.
Probably more little chicks die from lice than from any other cause.
Preventive measures must begin early. Get fresh, dry insect powder and
treat the nest and hen about the third, the ninth, and the fifteenth
day of incubation. Rub the powder all through the feathers. Fine dust
obstructs the breathing pores of the lice and kills them. When you
take the chicks from the nest examine the head, neck, and vent regions
of every one. If lice are present a drop of melted lard will put an end
to them. Constant vigilance and nothing short of it, will prevent death
from lice.
[Illustration: Prop the door open, thus, in rain, wind, or too hot sun]
A good home-made lice powder, costing only about four cents a pound,
may be made as follows: Mix together one quarter pint crude carbolic
acid (90 per cent. pure), and three quarters of a pint of gasolene.
Stir into this enough plaster of Paris to take up the liquid, (about
two and one half pounds). Mix thoroughly and rub through a wire
mosquito screen to break the lumps. This can be used to dust through
the feathers, the day after it is made. Keep in a tight jar or box.
This powder is the invention of an expert in poultry husbandry.
The coops for hen and chicks need not be ponderous, but they should be
rain proof. A coop two and one half feet square with removable roof
and floor is not too heavy to handle and answers every purpose. A wire
netting run three or four feet long attached to each coop is necessary
and this combination will house a hen and from fifteen to twenty
chickens.
[Illustration: Closed for the night. Vermin-proof, weather-proof.
Screen-covered ventilator on one side]
[Illustration: Bottom of model coop can be cleaned by lifting up the
coop]
All the food a young chick needs the first twenty-four hours is
provided by nature. After that it is "up to you." Their first meal may
be hard-boiled eggs minced finely, shells and all, and mixed with
oatmeal or custard made of milk and eggs baked hard, or it may be baked
and crumbled corn bread. By the third day they will be ready for raw
broken grain. There are many good commercial kinds: less trouble than
making your own mixtures. The chicks will learn to scratch for this
in a week or two. The hen is their teacher. Fine grit, charcoal, and
clean water must be kept where they can get what they want. Soft food
should not be fed in unlimited quantities; give what they will eat in
five or ten minutes, then take it away. They are likely to over-eat of
wet mashes, but what they have to work for is not likely to give them
indigestion.
When chickens are two months old they no longer need wet mash. They
should now have access to food whenever they want it. A mixture of
cracked corn, wheat, beef scrap, bone, grit, shell, and other grains,
with dry middlings and bran, may be put into a slatted self-feeder,
like the illustration, easily constructed by yourself. It is not much
trouble to see that this is never empty. If fed only at intervals they
rush at you, bolt the biggest grains, stuff their crops, crowd away
weak or modest ones; result, some are under-fed, others are over-fed.
If food is kept where they can get it whenever they happen to think
of it they take a reasonable amount, then visit the growing clover or
grass, pick up a casual pebble, take a drink of water, scratch out a
worm, and return to the feed tray, all in natural course of the day's
work.
You will want to get rid of most of your young cockerels as soon as
they are marketable. Broilers bring highest prices. To put them in
tip-top condition they should be fattened for about two to three weeks
when they are four months old. There is nothing better for fattening
than a mash made of equal parts finely ground corn meal and wheat
middlings with one fourth the quantity of meat meal. This should be wet
with sour skim-milk or buttermilk and fed in a semi-liquid condition,
about the consistency of pancake batter. Ground oats may be added. The
product is known in the highest priced city hotels as "milk fed" or
even "cream fed" chicken. If you can get skim-milk cheap why not buy
a bunch of young cockerels and stuff them for market? They have been
known to put on a pound for every five pounds of this mixture eaten.
BUSINESS METHODS
The day you drive your first nail into what is to be your chicken
house you should start an account. Every item should go down, cost of
materials, cost of stock, cost of feed. Economize where you can by
utilizing vacant space for growing clover for summer feed and some
root crop like mangolds for winter supply. Apples are fine in winter
for hens. You can often get bushels of windfalls for the picking.
Sunflowers are easy to grow and their heads hold a tremendous lot of
chicken feed. Table scraps ground with a hand mill vary the hen's diet,
but do avoid sloppy messes.
There are two sides to every account. If you charge the chickens with
what they cost you, it is only fair to yourself and to them to credit
them with the eggs and meat they furnish, as well as with increase of
stock, etc.
[Illustration: Trap-nest open. The hen's weight shuts the door behind
her]
In every flock there are some idlers. They lay only a hundred or so
eggs, they leave their eggs too long when sitting, or they never put
on any weight. You want to be rid of all such. You can mark the bad
sitters, and send them to the pot, as well as those whose habits are
such as to make them a nuisance. But you need to know which fowls lay
the biggest and best eggs and which lay the largest number. For market
in our country where eggs are sold by the dozen it is numbers that
count, but for breeding you want eggs of good size and shape. You also
want to set the eggs of the good layers. These eggs taste no better
in cake or omelet, but by careful selection you can breed a strain
of extra good layers, right in your hen house. The device known as a
trap-nest is the thing you will need if you go at it scientifically.
You want it in winter, too, to prevent killing your best hens for
potpie, while the idlers cheerfully eat your grain without recompense.
The simpler the mechanism of the trap-nest the better. It must stand
open until the hen enters, then close without frightening her. Most of
them keep the hen a prisoner until you go and examine the nest, credit
the hen by her leg-band number, and release her. By following the
drawings in the bulletins of the New York and Maine Experiment Stations
referred to in the list of bulletins on chickens you can construct your
own trap-nests.
[Illustration: Trap-nest closed after hen has gone in]
There are people who claim that "common chickens" or mixed breeds
are hardier than pure bred fowls and better all around producers.
How many can show records to make good that claim? American boys and
girls who go into chicken raising will want to breed from good pure
stock. Nothing is too good for them. Did you ever hear any one show any
enthusiasm when passing a flock of mongrels? Contrast this with the
delight you and all your friends take in the sight of a hundred fowls
all white, all red, all spangled, all black, all piebald, all blue,
or all speckled, as alike as peas in a pod! I vote for the pure stock
every time. You can keep it pure and strong by exchanging cockerels
with other breeders of the same variety and with similar ideals and
practices.
Keeping chickens isn't mere child's play. There's lots to be done. You
must be carpenter, gardener, breeder, merchant, and even doctor, all
rolled into one. But there is fun in it and profit in it. Better than
all, there is a satisfaction in doing a good job and doing it well, and
it keeps a boy out of doors where he belongs if he's a healthy boy.
EGG RECORDS
HOUSE NO. MATCHED BIRD NO.
PEN NO. VARIETY
+======+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=====+====+
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The egg record is the up-to-date way of keeping tab on idlers. It goes
with the trap-nest.
[Illustration: A useful hen gate]
As with many other products of home industry the first and best market
is the home market. Credit the hens with every pound of meat you
furnish for the table and every egg consumed by the family. But you
will soon need to extend your market. Across the street, up and down
on both sides, you can find people who like "personally conducted"
eggs and prefer that the fowls served on their tables should be
acquaintances rather than the embalmed kind. You must be business man
enough to work up a trade for fresh, clean eggs in attractive packages,
and for wholesome meat. It would be a good stroke of business to date
your eggs if you know what demand you can depend on. That would help
impress the idea of real freshness on the consumer's mind.
If you pluck fowls for market it will interest you to know that
feathers have a market value. They should be plucked dry and the wing
and tail feathers kept separate. Any large city dealer in chickens will
probably take your feathers. By-products often make the difference
between plus and minus in a year's business.
The winner of the first prize of one hundred dollars in the Junior
Poultry Contest of the Oregon Agricultural College tells this story:
RAISING CHICKENS
Boys and girls should raise chickens in the city as well as on the farm
because it pays and is a fine occupation. It is a work that never grows
tiresome and new experiences are always awaiting you. Various theories
are advocated as to the proper manner of feeding and housing to get
the best results but simple rules are the best to begin with. Plenty
of clean water, clean houses and yards and good feed are needed to get
the best results. Spade up a little in the chicken yard every day that
is pleasant, but if it is cold and in wet weather provide a scratching
shed. Keep the hens busy. Read the bulletins furnished free by the
government and the various experiment stations. Also subscribe to a
good poultry paper. The ideas you will get from these together with
your own experience will make you a successful poultry raiser. By doing
all that was stated above I was able to win first prize in the poultry
contest just closed.
CLARENCE A. HOGAN
SUCCESS WITH CHICKENS
The contest of the Portland Junior Poultry Association has closed. It
lasted a whole year, and it seemed as if it would never come to an end.
But if it had not been for the contest I would never have known many of
the interesting things I now know about chickens.
I had twelve white Leghorn hens and a cock entered. They were all
little beauties and I enjoyed working with them very much.
They laid one thousand six hundred twenty-two eggs during the year. The
eggs were worth from twenty-five to sixty cents a dozen. We fed them
wheat, corn, barley, oats, and bran in which table scraps were mixed,
oyster shells, grit, prepared beef scraps, charcoal, and green foods
such as grass from the lawn, cabbage, kale, and lettuce and other
green things from the garden. Each hen made us a profit of two dollars
and seventy-two cents for the year.
Chickens need lots of care. Their house must be cleaned out, there
should be some fresh ground dug up in the yard, and they need some
green food every day. Papa took care of the house, and I mowed the lawn
and gave them the clippings and gathered cabbage leaves, kale leaves,
and lettuce leaves out of the garden and gave them each day.
In the spring time we let them out a few minutes every morning to get
bugs and worms. They soon had all the bugs and worms scratched out
of the garden and then they ran out in the yard and scratched up the
flower beds, which did not please mamma very well. After that they
wanted to go to the neighbour's yard but we had to keep them up. This
was before we made the garden.
Chickens make nice pets. They are much nicer than dogs or cats, and
if you take good care of them they will pay well beside. I had a nice
little white Leghorn hen I called "Petty." When she was a little
chicken I would catch her every day and play with her. She would go in
the nest and wait for some one to take her out and pet her. She got so
tame that I could catch her any place in the yard. I would go in the
yard and get her and take her out in the garden and dig for her and let
her find the bugs and worms.
I had another little chicken that I called "Jim." He was a cute little
rooster. When he was just a little chicken I would put him to bed every
night and when he grew a little older he would not go to bed alone.
One night we weren't at home at his bedtime and when we came home that
night we heard a funny little noise in the back yard. It was raining
and Jim had gone under the sweet pea vines to sleep instead of going
into his box.
The first little chicks we hatched we took away from the hen and raised
them by hand. For about a week after they were hatched we put them in
a basket and covered them over with warm, woollen cloths and set them
by the stove to keep warm over night. I had a peach box with a wire
covering to keep them in, in the daytime. On sunshiny days we set them
out in the sunshine but after about a week they were not satisfied with
that. I decided that what they wanted was to get out and run for bugs.
So one afternoon when I came home from school it was nice and sunshiny
and I let them out of their box. When they first stepped into the grass
they were surprised. That was the first time they had ever stepped
on the lawn. They ran right to a rose bush and stayed right there all
the time picking off bugs. Each evening I let them out they would go
a little farther away from home. At last they had caught all the bugs
around the place and if we did not watch, they would run over to the
neighbour's yard. I am anxious for the time to come when we will have
more little chicks.
RUTH HAYES
The girl who tells this story is thirteen years old. She won second
prize, fifty dollars.
ANOTHER PRIZE WINNER'S STORY
During the time that I have been taking care of poultry I have been
successful. I only had six chickens in the Oregon Junior Poultry
Contest, five hens and a rooster, but I have about fifty other chickens
to take care of. The chickens that I had in the contest were Black
Minorcas, but I also raise White Wyandottes. I seem to have better
success with my White Wyandottes than with my Black Minorcas. The
house I have for the contest chickens is twelve feet wide and six feet
long. The place they roost in is four feet by six and the rest is a
scratching shed, which is eight feet by six. The house is open front
and has a ground floor, which is dry and the chickens can dust in it.
I feed them three times a day, grain morning and noon, which I feed
in litter, and a warm mash at night so they can go to roost warm. I
also keep bran, charcoal, and grit before them all the time. I have
a bone cutter, and feed cut bone to my chickens once a week. I clean
off the drop board every morning, and once a week I coal-oil the roost
and where the roost rests. During this cold weather I do not let the
chickens out very early and when it is raining I do not let them out
at all. Every night after the chickens have gone to roost I go out and
throw a little grain in their litter and that gives them something to
do the first thing in the morning.
I am sorry that I did not have a photograph of myself to send you.
FRANK MITCHELL
A BOY FEEDS SIX THOUSAND HENS IN HALF AN HOUR
What do you know about that? I saw this feat done last winter by a
fourteen-year old California boy, and I took his photograph as he was
doing it. What can a boy not do if he has the opportunity? There are
other boys who find it a harder task and a more disagreeable one to
feed half a dozen hens. A boy can feed six thousand hens and gather two
or three thousand eggs a day and go to school.
This California boy had a gray pony to help him, but what enabled him
to perform this feat day after day was system. His uncle, the owner of
the farm, had planned the work to make it easy. The farm contains one
hundred and twenty acres, and the six thousand hens are scattered over
the whole farm in colony houses. The system of feeding was a liberal
feed of soft mash in the morning. Three colony houses were placed
together. The middle one was a laying house; the other two, roosting
houses. In one end of the laying house there was a wheat bin holding
several sacks of wheat. The bin was a self-feeding hopper. After dinner
the fourteen-year old boy jumped on his gray horse and made the rounds
of the houses, opening a door to the hopper of wheat, so that the hens
could eat at will during the afternoon. It took just a moment to jump
off of his horse, open the door, and jump on again, the horse going on
the lope between the houses. He made the rounds in less than half an
hour. About three or four o'clock he hitched his pony to a low wagon
and visited all the houses, gathering the eggs. This was a bigger job
than feeding the hens; he could not go as fast with the eggs. In the
morning, about seven o'clock, he makes the rounds of the houses, and
without getting off his horse opens the doors to the laying houses, and
does it all in fifteen minutes. What do you know about that?
JAMES DRYDEN
AN AMATEUR'S EXPERIENCE
In April, nineteen hundred and one, I purchased four broody hens, two
settings of White Wyandotte eggs, and two of Plymouth Rock. I live
in a suburban district where dogs and cats abound and poultry cannot
have free range. I therefore made two wire-covered board runs, six
feet by eight, eighteen inches high, and against a six-inch hole sawed
in one end of each I placed a box turned on its side for a coop. Of
twenty-eight Wyandotte eggs, twenty-six hatched, and three chicks died.
Of twenty-six Plymouth Rocks only three hatched, and these I put with
the Wyandottes in care of the two most motherly hens.
Every morning I fed a mash of meal, shorts, and beef scraps, in equal
parts, mixed dry with boiling water; at noon and night oatmeal,
cracked wheat, or occasionally cracked corn, and clean table scraps
at any time. Oyster shells and fresh water were always before them.
Mothers and children ate together, each taking what she liked best. As
often as they soiled the grass I shifted the runs, and on fine days I
let the families out for an hour before dark into an adjoining field,
keeping an eye on their wanderings.
October first I sold the four hens, which had laid meanwhile fifteen
and a half dozen eggs. Twelve chicks were cockerels, which were killed
as needed.
November first I reduced the daily feed to two meals--a warm mash at
half past eight A.M. so that they would scratch awhile before being
fed, and for supper grain, generally oats, scattered about the yard,
with a few handfuls inside the house to induce more scratching. They
had all they would eat, but if they left any food I skipped the next
meal and let them get hungry. The water was renewed often, dishes kept
clean, and field excursions continued occasionally.
November sixth I sold the first dozen eggs, and for eleven months the
supply never failed. The eggs were large, and the hens were active,
healthy, and happy. Any success I attribute to moderate feeding,
exercise, and cleanliness.
_May 1, 1901, to August 15, 1902_
EXPENSES
Eggs, White Wyandotte $2.00
Express .25
Eggs, Plymouth Rock 1.00
4 hens 2.60
Boards, net, and boxes 1.22
Grain, 15½ months 31.41
------
$38.48
RECEIPTS
Eggs, 14 pullets, 162 dozen $47.33
Eggs, 4 hens, 15½ dozen 3.92
12 cockerels, 55¼ pounds 10.35
4 hens 2.00
14 hens (sold by reason of my illness) 8.00
2 barrels dressing 1.50
Runs, etc., on hand 1.00
------
$74.10
38.48
------
Profit $35.62
BELLE S. CRAGIN
HOW I STARTED WITH HENS
I am a boy, thirteen years old, and have always been very fond of farm
animals, especially chickens. I like the White Wyandottes best for
all-around, general-purpose fowls. They lay well, and when they are
dressed for market there are no dark pin-feathers to spoil their looks.
In April, nineteen hundred and five, I purchased two settings of White
Wyandotte eggs at the Rhode Island College, and borrowed two broody
hens. I bought one of these hens later, but she soon died. I fixed up
an old pig house that was on the place, and set the hens in this house.
While they were sitting, papa helped me make two coops and pens for
them. For the coop I took a dry-goods box, about four feet by one and
one half feet by fifteen inches, and made a door in one corner large
enough to admit a hen. In one end I bored some holes and covered them
with wire netting, for ventilation.
For the pen I took four pieces of scantling and a good supply of laths.
I used the pieces of scantling for the corner-posts and nailed the
laths on the sides, top, and one end. I did not put anything on the
other end except the top and bottom strips. The pen is just the length
of a lath, but the width is a little less. The open end is placed
against the front of the coop; the hen can then come out into the pen,
and the chicks can go anywhere.
After awhile the chicks hatched and there were sixteen of them. At
first I fed them a mash of corn meal and bran and later a little
cracked corn and wheat. They grew finely, but I raised only thirteen of
them, eight of which were pullets.
I fed them in the back yard for a while, but they dug the grass up so
that I had to stop it. Then I built a scratching-pen by the wood shed,
to feed them in.
In the summer the chickens were roosting in the trees, and when cold
weather came and I wanted them to roost in the hen house they would not
do it. I tried feeding them there, and driving them in; but that did
not work very well, because I could not drive them all in at once, and
when I drove some in and tried to get the rest, the first ones would
come out again. So I had my brother help me, and every night we would
carry them down to the hen house. After a time they learned to roost
there.
The pullets began to lay early in November and laid well all winter. I
am proud of one of my hens. She laid two hundred and thirty-eight eggs
from the eighth of November, nineteen hundred and five, to the fifth of
August, nineteen hundred and six. I think this is a very good record,
considering that during the most of that time she was fed nothing but
cracked corn.
During the first part of the winter of nineteen hundred and six to
nineteen hundred and seven the hens did not lay very well, and I asked
one of the poultry men at the Rhode Island College what to feed them to
make them lay. He told me what he had fed with good success, and as it
made my hens lay, it may make somebody else's hens lay.
GRAIN
{ Whole corn
Equal parts, by weight, of { Wheat
{ Oats
MASH
{ Bran
Equal parts, by weight, of { Middlings
{ Corn meal
{ Beef scraps
This means that they will get more wheat and oats than corn, and more
bran and middlings than corn meal. I feed the grain morning and night,
and the mash at noon. The mash may be fed either wet or dry. I have
tried it both ways but I like to feed it dry fully as well for two
reasons: First the hens cannot gobble it up so fast and all get an
equal share; second, the hens lay just as well and it saves labour.
Feed is expensive here and it cost me three dollars and thirty-nine
cents for one hundred pounds of both kinds. I think I shall continue to
feed it till I find something better, and I would recommend it to any
one who desires a good, satisfactory feed.
My poultry record for one year is as follows:
POULTRY ACCOUNT
DR. CR.
Jan., feed $3.15 Jan., eggs $2.63
March, feed .24 Jan., roaster .75
April, shells .20 Feb., eggs 2.28
May, feed 1.85 March, eggs 1.88
June, feed 1.26 April, eggs 1.41
July, feed 1.28 May, eggs 1.96
Aug., feed 3.38 June, eggs 2.32
Oct., feed 1.24 July, eggs 1.85
Nov., feed 1.24 Aug., eggs .63
------ Sept., eggs 1.12
Total $13.84 Sept., roaster .65
Oct., eggs 1.32
Oct., premium .75
Nov., eggs .38
------
$19.93
------
Profit $6.09
Two of my hens died during the first year, leaving six, hence these six
paid a profit of one dollar and one and one half cent each, above cost
of feed.
LESLIE E. CARD
HOW ONE YOUNG WOMAN MADE A START WITH POULTRY
We had long dreamed of a country home, my mother and I--of a place
where living expenses would be lessened and which would be pleasant
during the summer for my sisters, who teach eight months of the year--a
place where we could add materially to our income by keeping chickens.
After discarding the idea of buying near New York City, because of
the higher value of land and greater cost of living, we chose a place
of twelve acres on the edge of an aristocratic old town in western
New York. Being within the corporation limits we have water and sewer
connections, hardware and lumber delivered (which is quite an item when
one is building poultry houses); and, best of all, the expressman comes
for all eggs and poultry. A woman intending to go into the poultry
business will certainly find such a location a great advantage over
being farther from town. The increase in taxes is slight. The cost of
expressage is, of course, greater than if we had located near New York
City, but grain is cheaper.
We purchased the place in the fall to have possession the following
March. During the winter, I took the three months' Poultry Course at
Cornell University. The course is comprehensive and very practical.
Beside learning the principles of poultry husbandry, I gained
confidence and courage.
We paid two thousand six hundred dollars for the property and spent
four hundred dollars more in plumbing and repairs on the house. The
place consists of about twelve acres of very good land, especially
suited for poultry, being somewhat sandy and sloping enough for
drainage. The house is small but well built. The view is magnificent,
and the place is easily adaptable to some charming bits of landscape
gardening which good taste and personal supervision can accomplish
without expensive gardener's fees.
We first built some brooder houses, gasolene heated, as used at
Cornell, and purchased day-old chicks of a good laying strain. Late in
the summer we built a five-pen laying house, the pens being twenty by
twenty feet, using one pen for a feed room. The entire first year we
took care of the poultry ourselves, with the assistance of a schoolboy
who worked for his board. Most of the land was in hay, which we hired
cut and sold, and we raised some corn. I knew nothing about farming,
and was so interested in chickens that I had little time to study;
however, I got the Cornell bulletins on alfalfa and started an acre
according to their suggestions. This has been successful and is fine
feed for poultry.
The second spring we hired a man by the month. One man can take care of
twelve hundred hens and the horse, carry coal, and drive for us some of
the time. The regular farm work we hire done by the day. A woman needs
to pay special attention to keeping down the labour expenses.
The laying hens have about three acres for yards. This is divided into
three different yards, one for the four hundred best pullets which I
take the time to trap-nest, and the third one to be alternated with the
other two so that they can all be ploughed and seeded, in order to keep
the ground from becoming contaminated. I have planted cherry trees in
one yard and will in the others later, to furnish shade for the fowls.
I chose cherries for various reasons. They can stand the enrichment and
the treatment of the land necessary for poultry; also, if they are well
cared for, sprayed, etc., I can get a fancy market for them at home.
The place had been noted in former years for its fine cherry orchard,
so I believed the soil and location to be well adapted to them.
We felt we could not afford to build an incubator cellar, so we
moved the furniture from a north-east bedroom where we placed three
four-hundred-egg incubators. We closed the east shutters so that the
morning sun would not interfere with the temperature and used the north
window for ventilation. It was successful and convenient.
The brooder houses are located near the house as long as the little
chicks need heat. I have started a hedge for a windbreak in front
of them, which will also screen the poultry part of the plantation
from the house. When the chicks no longer need heat the hovers of the
brooder houses are removed and roosts put in. The houses, which are on
runners, are drawn to a cornfield as soon as the corn has grown enough
not to be injured by the chicks. Here they have free range all summer.
By moving the first hatches to some shack houses, which are cheaply
built, when the chicks no longer need heat the brooder houses can be
used once again.
There are two cornfields for growing the pullets, to be used in
alternate years so the ground will be fresh. The corn gives shade and a
sense of security, besides furnishing a considerable part of the winter
feed. I hope to be able to grow corn for several successive years on
the same ground by sowing either clover or rape at the last cultivation
to furnish humus for the land.
The following were our initial expenses:
3 400-egg incubators $111.00
8 brooder houses 320.00
4 shack houses 60.00
Laying pen for 1,200 hens 1,500.00
Fences 94.00
Tools and equipment for poultry 100.00
---------
Total $2,185.00
Last year I cleared two dollars over the cost of feed from each of my
layers, from the sale of eggs alone.
The pleasure and freedom of country life are worth much. A garden with
high quality vegetables, fruit of all kinds and varieties, fresh eggs
and poultry, goes a long way in making the cost of living less. (We
save cracked, small, or misshapen eggs for our own use.) With a saddle
horse and a tennis court, life in the country is far from dull.
AVA HOOKER
PRESERVING EGGS FOR WINTER USE
When eggs are cheap and plenty is the time when it will pay to preserve
some for winter use. Remember, though, that no amount of preserving, or
cold storing will make a fresh egg out of an old egg. As infertile eggs
keep better than fertile ones, it is well to separate the laying hens
from the roosters when the hatching season is over.
Cold storage is undoubtedly the best method for keeping eggs in
wholesale quantities, but for home consumption there is nothing more
satisfactory than a preservative called water glass which is _sodium
silicate_ and can be bought in crystal or liquid form at drug stores.
Prof. J. E. Rice of Cornell University says that "the liquid form is
very much to be preferred owing to the fact that it is very difficult
to dissolve the crystal. One part of water glass to nine parts of water
makes a liquid having a consistency not quite heavy enough to cause the
eggs to come to the surface, but still sufficiently strong to furnish
the coating which prevents the air from entering the shells."
Stone jars are recommended as inexpensive and not likely to leak.
Eggs taken out after nearly a year in the water glass and washed look
like fresh eggs. As to taste, a very fastidious person might find the
flavour not quite right when served as boiled eggs. In all other ways
they are entirely satisfactory.
With water glass, eggs can be preserved for less than two cents a
dozen. In communities where the price of eggs varies from a cent apiece
to four cents apiece it would be very profitable to preserve all the
surplus.
RAISING GUINEA FOWL
What would you expect if you ordered "American pheasant" from a bill
of fare in a London restaurant? No matter what you expected, when the
bird came onto the table it would be guinea hen! This is a dish you
probably never ate at home unless you live in the South, "where they
know what's good," or make a practice of dining at fashionable hotels
where they serve fancy game and poultry.
Most of the guinea fowls marketed in this country are put into cold
storage and sent to England. They also bring a good price in city
markets in this country.
Farm boys and girls all over the country are familiar with the strident
squawk and the furtive, hunching trot of the speckled guinea fowl. I
doubt if any farmer could tell why he harbours one on the premises,
unless it is to warn his chickens of the presence of danger. I know of
very few people in the North who eat either eggs or birds (if they know
it), and the young are very seldom seen. Here is a really valuable game
bird which silly prejudice is depriving of its fair share of attention.
If farm boys realized that there is a good and growing market for
guinea fowls, eggs, and birds, they would read this: A fashionable New
York hotel served three thousand of these birds between January first
and April thirteenth, nineteen hundred and five. Listen to the prices:
from one dollar to one dollar and a half per pair for young broilers in
midwinter in the large Northern cities. Eggs twice the price of hens'
eggs. Taking into consideration the fact that they are hardier even as
chicks than ordinary poultry and that the market is strictly fancy and
not oversupplied, the chances for success in guinea raising are good.
In beginning this branch of business it is not best to buy old fowls.
They are swift of wing, and they are extremely likely to take "French
leave" unless closely confined for a week or more to their new
quarters. This confinement is not very good for them. My advice is to
begin with a setting of fifteen eggs under a common hen in May or June.
The eggs are smaller than hens' eggs and have good, strong shells.
They take from twenty-six to thirty days to hatch. The treatment and
care of young guinea fowls varies from that given to young chickens in
a few particulars only, _e. g._, the chicks should be fed very _soon_
after hatching and need a large percentage of animal food when first
hatched. Dry bread crumbs and hard-boiled eggs minced finely or pieces
of cooked meat cut very fine are a good first meal. Bread and milk and
finely chopped lettuce, cress, or other vegetation should be given a
day or two later. They will pick up innumerable insects if allowed the
privileges of the garden or fruit plantation. Little guineas should
have access to feed all the time as a few hours without food is very
likely to prove fatal. Like little pheasants they require a greater
percentage of animal food than chickens because if in the wild they
would eat little else. Soft grains should follow the earlier rations,
and the mixtures given to ordinary poultry should gradually take the
place of these.
Old guinea fowls have the reputation for making very tough meat. For
this reason it is better to market them while the breast bone is still
tender, the claws still short and sharp, and before the crest or helmet
has reached its full size or changed colour. In young birds the helmet
is nearly black, growing lighter with age.
Ordinarily it is more economical when raising a few guinea fowls
not to confine them to runs, in which they are less hardy. Partial
confinement, such as coming to the barn yard to roost and appearing
regularly to be fed, is more practical. If kept in runs it is necessary
to cover the pens. High roosts should be provided. During the laying
season the hens are almost certain to hide their nests and need close
watching. They may lay in nest boxes if these are in dim, secluded
corners. Guinea hens are very wary and may resent having their nests
visited, by quitting. Also, the hens seem to be able to count and will
usually desert their own nests if all but one or two eggs are taken
away. They are rather impatient sitters, often leaving the nest when
the eggs are half incubated or when the first chick is ready to go,
even though they have a dozen pipped eggs. The little ones are, like
little turkeys, susceptible to dampness and cold. Very early and very
late hatchings are undesirable.
RAISING TURKEYS
Among the pictures which my memory calls up is that of an old bushel
basket by the kitchen stove on a damp spring morning. From the
comforting folds of an old flannel petticoat in the depths of the
basket came the feeble "peep-peawp" of a dozen or more miserable little
turkey chicks rescued from the shower. What a chase they had given us
through the wet tangles of grass, weeds, and bushes, scooting to cover
like partridges, hidden by their colouring almost as effectually as
their wild cousins. We shall never be quite sure that we got them all,
for we weren't certain how many there were originally. If the chill
had not penetrated to their vitals, and these important organs lie
disastrously near the pin-feathers, we had been in time to save them.
Experiences like these impress upon the minds of farm children much
that is characteristic of the turkey. As grown-ups we read of the
precautions necessary in raising turkeys and realize that we knew all
that years ago. A turkey hen will stay close around the barn yard
eating and drinking with the other fowls all winter, roosting in
convenient tree tops, and giving no hint of wildness or firmness of
purpose. But in April you miss her. She may return about meal time,
take a dust bath perhaps, then she is off again. Now you must test your
wits against her instincts and see if you can find her nest. She may
have secreted her eggs in a perfectly safe barrel, provided with straw
and cunningly secluded in the shrubbery. She is likely, though, to go
far afield and give you a merry chase. It is wise to take away the eggs
each day until she has finished and wishes to sit. Then you may give
her a nestful, fifteen to eighteen, or you can set the eggs under hens
and when the turkey's broody spell is over she will lay again.
Four weeks is the time required to hatch turkey eggs. Newly hatched
turkeys are far from spry. They have no interest in food nor in the
world about them. It is forty-eight hours or even longer before they
begin to take notice. Hard-boiled eggs chopped fine is a good first
meal for them. Some growers take a pint of sweet milk in a saucepan,
let it come to a boil, and stir into it two eggs well beaten. This
makes a sort of custard and this quantity is said to be enough for
fifty new turkey chicks. Cottage cheese without salt is recommended.
A dusting of black pepper in the food is good for week-old turkeys,
especially in cool weather.
Two deadly enemies of little turkeys are lice and wet. These are
responsible for the high rate of mortality in flocks of all breeds.
Keep them free from these by all known methods and with ordinary care
in other details your profits are safe. If you tide over the first two
months you will see the delicate chicks transformed into hardy little
poults, holding their own with any kind of fowls.
I don't know of any one who ever made a success of turkeys on a
small lot. Their habit of ranging can be restrained to the extent
of keeping them off the neighbours, but close cooping opposes their
natural instincts. They are great insect eaters and will pick up a
fair living away from the feed trough. It is best to train them by a
regular evening feeding to roost at home. You will want to count them
frequently, especially as November draws near and the price begins to
soar.
There are a number of breeds in cultivation. The biggest and perhaps
the hardiest is the bronze turkey. Some consider their flesh less
delicate than that of the smaller kinds. There is always a good market
for any size. If all your neighbours have bronze turkeys and the flocks
are always getting mixed, why not try the buff or black or the white
Holland? The latter are almost as beautiful an ornament to the country
home as peacocks, and can be seen at a great distance because of their
brilliant white plumage.
If one wants to get enthusiastic over turkeys let him drive through
a thrifty farming community in the fall and catch glimpses of the
sunshine reflected from the burnished backs of the great flocks which
ornament every farm yard. Or, if inclined to a meal of turkey, just
inquire the price on the farm or in the market, and you will decide to
raise some for your own use next year, and a few to sell.
RAISING PEACOCKS
We have it on the authority of the curator of birds of the New York
Zoölogical Garden, Mr. C. William Beebe, that peafowls are not
difficult to raise if the owner is watchful. Wouldn't it be a triumph
to raise a family of these wonderful birds? Mr. Beebe says also that
"peacocks are so common that we sometimes fail to appreciate their
really wonderful colours." I wonder if that can be true. They were so
uncommon in the Mississippi Valley when I was a child that I never saw
one; it was less than ten years ago that I saw for the first time this
regal bird spread his wonderful tail in the full sunlight. It was one
of Mr. Beebe's own pets and I shall never forget nor fail to appreciate
the sight.
A peahen lays fewer eggs than most birds of her size. She will lay
three times a year if you succeed in "changing her current of thought"
when she is broody. She usually wishes to sit on the first six eggs and
as she has pretty good judgment in placing her nest and is a patient
and courageous mother, you had better trust her to bring up her family,
unless you wish to raise the first lot under hens or turkey mothers.
Like young turkeys, the little peachicks are very tender and
susceptible to dampness. Woe unto them if the chill of an early May
rain gets into their bones! This is the time when watchfulness on the
owner's part is necessary.
For newly hatched peachicks a few meals of finely chopped, hard-boiled
eggs and minced lettuce are right. As they develop appetites, feed some
of the mixtures prepared for game, pheasants, etc. By all means let
them have space to run in; a little coop is bad for their health. Make
it twelve feet long at least. They will eat quantities of insects and
will need feed only morning and evening after the first month or two.
Corn, wheat, barley, and millet make a good mixture.
No regular house is required for peafowls, though shelter must be
provided against rain. They prefer to roost high, where the air is
fresh and cool. Wind and cold weather they like.
Indian peacocks cost twenty dollars to thirty dollars a pair. You can
grow them for far less from eggs and sell the birds. They live to be
twenty or thirty years old.
If you are convinced that you want to try your hand at any of these
kinds of fancy poultry, collect all the information you can first.
Visit some successful poultry plant, ask questions, take notes. Get
all the government and state experiment station bulletins available.
Breeders often publish information about rearing birds. They are glad
to help any one who is interested. It increases their business. Write
to your agricultural college for information. They may not have a
bulletin on the subject, but the men in their poultry department are
glad to answer questions. Giving advice is part of their business and
you can count on it being good advice.
RAISING GEESE
March is a good month to set goose eggs. As it takes them a little
over a month to hatch, they will come out in April and the early birds
catch the best prices. It is really surprising that more farmer's boys
and girls do not raise geese. They will "board themselves" if given a
chance at pasture, but need fattening with ground grain if held for
Christmas trade.
Goslings can be raised under hens, six eggs in a nest, but the goose is
an admirable mother. Unlike most of his feathered kindred the gander is
a true helpmate, often "spelling" his mate during the sitting period
and caring for the young afterward with great solicitude.
Watchful care is needed to prevent the damp, cold April from getting
the best of little goslings. They should begin their careers with a
meal of bread crumbs, scalded meal, and hard-boiled eggs, chopped
vegetable tops and grass included in the mash. They eat small
quantities at a time, but need it frequently to stay their stomachs.
Water for drinking should be accessible, clean, and fresh always. Many
a sick gosling can trace his disorder directly to the bad water. A
large tub of water for bathing, too, is advisable for geese after they
are feathered.
Toulouse and Embden geese are tremendous creatures, even reaching the
enormous weight of twenty-five pounds. Their meat is highly prized in
European countries and is becoming popular in America so that a good
market is assured.
The business of fattening geese for market is quite specialized now.
Men engaged in this business visit the farms where a few geese are
kept and buy the eight-weeks old goslings for seventy-five cents to
one dollar and a half apiece. If you can get this price your profit is
fair and certain and your work ended. You can put your cash into some
other business. Raising geese is a good summer vacation job. On a goose
fattening farm near a good Eastern city market as many as fifteen or
twenty thousand geese are fattening at one time.
Geese on farms when I was a girl were kept principally for their
feathers which found their way into the pillows and feather beds then
used. The best pillows in my house are filled with the feathers plucked
from geese with which I was personally acquainted. These feathers have
a high market value, higher when you buy than when you sell to be sure,
but you may be able to supply a local market and thus get a better
price. Geese, like all the other feathered tribes, moult naturally in
late summer. If the live geese are to be plucked, it should be done
very carefully, three or four feathers at a time. The geese do not
show evidence of minding much when they find that your designs are
peaceable. Only the breast feathers and the smallest ones from the back
are ordinarily taken for home use. Avoid the feathers with coarse stiff
shafts. No down should be removed. Goose quills make good toothpicks,
cleaned and scalded and trimmed into shape. Or they may be sold
separately as feathers.
Geese are plucked before sending to market. Most of the feathers and
some of the down now extensively used by manufacturers of bed clothing
comes from the marketed geese.
RAISING DUCKS
Probably in many neighbourhoods you would be laughed at if you tried
to raise ducks without a pond or stream of water. It is not customary.
True, if you have them for ornament principally, they look best
disporting themselves in what seems to be their natural element. But
if you believe there is money in raising ducks for market, nothing is
easier than to prove that the people who laughed were not up to date.
You have heard the old saying on a very wet day, "Good weather for
ducks." Don't you believe it. If you go into duck raising you must be
just as careful about ducks getting wet as you are about your chicks.
The duck must have plenty of water inside, all he will drink, but keep
him dry outside. Little ducks are hardy if kept dry and warm. Even
cold drinking water will give them cramps and should be avoided. The
drinking vessels should be so covered that the duckling can get only
the bill wet.
The advantage of ducks over chicks is this: they do not bring quite so
big a price per pound, but they grow so much faster during the first
two months of their lives. Ducks should be marketed at eight to ten
weeks old. At ten weeks old a good broiler will weigh about two pounds
and will sell for seventy-five cents, but a duckling will weigh four to
five pounds, which at twenty-five cents a pound will give you from one
dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents. The cost of feeding the two
will be about the same.
Ducks have other advantages over chickens. They are not nearly so
subject to vermin, though lice sometimes attack their heads. They seem
to thrive in confinement and cost less to house than chickens. Their
feathers will bring a good price, and eggs of pure breeds for hatching
are in demand. They are excellent layers, even better than some hens,
as experience will show. If a duck lays nine dozen eggs at four dollars
a dozen, and raises a family, she does a pretty good year's work, and
is more profitable to keep than some cows. She eats grubs and insects,
too, and grass and surplus from the vegetable garden.
The commonest practice for beginners is to set duck eggs under hens in
April and May. The biggest varieties are the best to raise as all are
hardy, fast growers, and good layers. The eggs take about twenty-eight
days to incubate. Treat the hen and nest for lice just as when sitting
on hens' eggs.
When ducklings are twenty-four hours old, they are ready for their
first meal. Mashed potatoes mixed with meal of corn or oats and
middlings are good for them. Milk, too, is excellent as for all fowls.
Begin to stuff them immediately; you will find them quite agreeable.
Green food of all kinds--grass, lettuce, cabbage, vegetable tops--all
chopped small, fills them up and is good for them. Such things as
turnips and potatoes should be cooked. Ground meat should be fed three
times a week. Have the feeding troughs so arranged that they can get
their shovels into it but cannot walk over the food and foul it; same
thing with the water. Feed four times a day. They must not get empty.
Growth will not be rapid unless continuous. Grit should be supplied.
On duck farms one hundred ducklings are kept in brooders five by seven
feet, with yards five by sixteen feet. They are kept absolutely clean
and dry. Those you keep over winter for next year's egg supply should
have access to a pond and grass. Old ducks do not bring high prices for
table use and do not put on weight very fast.
It was perhaps a young Boston housekeeper who asked when her market man
offered her Pekin ducks for her table, "How are they esteemed?"
He replied, "Oh, my wife, she don't never steam ducks. She just stuffs
'em like you would a chicken and bakes 'em."
RAISING SQUABS FOR MARKET
A few years' experience in raising fancy pigeons for pets is the best
kind of training for a young man who wants to raise squabs for market.
This business on a small scale ought not to take all one's time and
can easily be combined with some other business or profession or with
attending college. But your experience, varied though it may be, has
not acquainted you with all that is worth knowing on the subject. The
time has gone by when a man can afford to ignore books and bulletins
even on a subject upon which he may himself be an authority. A library
of pigeon literature will increase your wisdom. A practical man writing
of his experience in your business may save you hundreds of dollars
if you heed his advice. Don't scoff at college bulletins as your
grandfather probably did. He had reason, but the bulletin is not what
it was. Great strides forward have been made. Visit some big squab
raiser's plant and take mental and written notes of significant facts
observed. The colour of his pigeon loft does not affect the price he
gets for his squabs, but the quality of the grain he feeds has a direct
influence on the fullness of his wallet.
Full-blooded homers are declared by many to be the best, all things
considered, for table use. Good, mated birds of this variety can be
bought for about two dollars a pair. They are hardy, bright, active on
their feet, and the squabs have a larger breast than some of the other
sorts.
Homers are not all the same colour; some are white, others black,
reddish, and mixed colours. Good stock will rear six or eight pairs of
squabs in a year, while some exceptionally good ones will raise ten
pairs. If you make a clear profit of one dollar and twenty-five cents
per year on an average from each pair you should do well. It is not
profitable to keep birds which produce less than five pairs a year. A
record must be kept in order to weed out worthless birds. You do not
wish to spend your leisure running a free boarding house for pigeons.
You must know which are the big producers and keep only their young
as breeders. Nests should be numbered and every bird have a leg label
with a number corresponding to a numbered description in your book of
records. This is good economics.
Squabs of homers should be ready for selling at four weeks old; they
should be fully feathered but still in the nest. The heaviest grade
weigh eight pounds per dozen and these bring highest market prices.
Lighter birds are considered poor quality and bring a correspondingly
low price. Prices vary from four dollars and fifty cents to one dollar
and seventy-five cents per dozen. Dispose of pairs which habitually
produce light-weight squabs as indicated by your records.
Minute directions for killing and dressing squabs for market are given
in Farmers' Bulletin No. 177, which every squab raiser should have in
his library.
There is, as yet, no indication of over-production in squab raising;
although many more are grown every year, the demand is still on the
increase. It is a good business for two people to go into together, a
brother and sister, two brothers, or adjoining neighbours.
Descriptions of house and furnishings, fly, foods and feeding, and
details of care are given in Chapter IV under "Raising Fancy Pigeons."
RAISING PHEASANTS
The young people on a big ranch or estate with its up-to-date poultry
plant, raising not only plain and fancy chickens, but pigeons, ducks,
geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl, all attended by men hired for the
purpose, may look about in vain for a chance to try their hands at
raising anything with feathers. To such boys and girls I say, "Did you
ever see any pheasants?"
"At the Zoölogical Gardens, yes."
Aren't they beauties? How would you like to grow pheasants? There is
a line that has not been overworked. Profit in it, too. Look at prices
you must pay for birds and get an idea of how yours will sell later.
Numerous experiments in pheasant growing have been tried in this
country. It is well to know of these and to profit by them. Some men
raise many varieties, importing them from every quarter of the globe.
Their ideal is to have a complete collection. A visit to a large
aviary will give you some idea of what a gorgeous family of birds the
pheasants make. They are highly prized as game birds. In Germany they
are served in a most surprising way. The edible parts are cooked and
arranged on a platter on a bed of parsley. At one end of the platter
the cook puts the head with its beautiful neck ruff and at the other
end the tail feathers. Imagine the waiter's triumphant entrance into
the dining-room, platter held aloft, and the pheasant's brilliant tail
feathers streaming far behind like pennants from a mast top!
The pheasant most easily grown in the United States is the ringneck or
Mongolian pheasant imported from its home in China. There is hardly a
state in the Union where no attempt has been made to raise pheasants.
It is an industry that appeals to sportsmen everywhere. Massachusetts,
Ohio, New York, Indiana, Illinois, California, New Jersey, and some
other states have made pheasant rearing a part of the work of their
Fish and Game Commissions. The state of Oregon is the only one where a
remarkable success has been won. Evidently the climate and conditions
there were ideal. About three dozen pheasants were set free in the
Willamette Valley in eighteen hundred and eighty-one. So rapid was the
increase that when the first open season of two and one half months
was declared eleven years later it was estimated that fifty thousand
birds were shot the first day! They have continued to increase in that
state and towards the north, and many other states get their supply for
propagation from Oregon.
The first thing to do after becoming interested in pheasants is to
learn something about their nature and needs and to consider whether
your conditions are such as would make the business possible or
profitable. They are not domestic fowls but more like the jungle fowl
from which, in all likelihood, our barn yard fowls are descended. But
they can be raised in captivity if due regard is taken of their habits
and characteristics. Books and bulletins are mentioned in the appendix
of this book. In some respects pheasants are very like chickens, being
especially susceptible to the diseases of the poultry yard. In England,
pheasant rearing is quite common. One sees in open meadow land on great
estates the tidy coops where anxious biddies cluck after their wayward
foster children. It is a pretty sight to see the fifteen or twenty
brown-striped birds scuttling wildly to her protecting wing at the
approach of danger.
Pheasants' eggs for shipping should be most carefully packed in cotton,
hay, or excelsior to insure safety from jar. You do not have to begin
with grown birds which cost five dollars a pair for ring-necks, as the
eggs are best set under hens. The eggs should be set in late April or
early May for best results. Bantams are often preferred, but any good
mother will do if she is cleanly and not too clumsy. Great precautions
should be taken that the nest be clean, and that the hen should have
all the comforts of home, _e. g._, a dust bath, clean water, and
regular feeding. Can you afford to run the risk of young chickens
getting lice as soon as they are hatched? Well, you simply can't take
any chances with baby pheasants. Hens should be dusted three times
during incubation with insect powder. Visit an aviary or a pheasantry
if you can and ask questions and take observations on how to make
nests, coops, and pens. Study your books, too, and be guided by the
experience of others.
While you wait for your young pheasants to hatch there is plenty to do
in preparing coops and learning what to feed them when they arrive.
Much of our lack of success in rearing all sorts of wild game is
because we know so little about what they eat. We probably make lots of
mistakes with the animals we have domesticated but the more adaptable
of them have grown accustomed to civilized food, and thrive.
There could be no better place for a rearing ground for young pheasants
than an orchard where clover abounds. Coops, like chicken coops, should
be rain proof, well ventilated, bottomless, and so built that they can
be closed to keep out vermin and to shut the chicks in when the grass
is wet.
Pheasants are omnivorous but they need more fresh animal food than
is supplied by ordinary "chick mixtures," to balance their ration.
Probably they share with other young birds a relish for insects and
while their mothers do not actually bring this food to the open bills
of their young, they take the flock to the feeding ground and show them
how to find worms, bugs, caterpillars, etc., by scratching. There are
ways employed by experienced pheasant growers of raising a supply of
meal worms, maggots, and ant pupæ for their flocks, but cheap, fresh
meat ground very fine furnishes suitable animal food. During the first
three or four days after feeding is begun a custard made of ten eggs
to a quart of milk, baked well, is their best food. Hard-boiled eggs
finely minced (put through a potato ricer), fine bread crumbs, and
fresh vegetables cut into small bits can be given during the first
week. Later, small grains of a great variety of kinds. A sprinkle of
red pepper in their food during cold, damp days is good for half-grown
chicks. The young pheasants must have access to fine grit and gravel
and they must have fresh, cool water all the time.
In building pens for pheasants we should take into consideration their
habits, their safety, and their lack of hardiness in domestication.
Select the site for the pens after due thought. There must be both
shade and sunshine. The soil should be well drained and rich enough
to grow grass and clover. Each run should be at least ten feet by ten
with netting of medium mesh for sides, eight feet high, cover of the
same. A house is an unnecessary expense, as it is pheasant nature to
stay in the open or seek a covert of brush. A rain proof shed, where
they can retire when it rains, and where a dust bath will always be in
readiness, is a necessity.
Wild birds of prey evidently consider it perfectly legitimate to
visit pheasant runs. Raccoons, foxes, rats, and mink, too, may work
ruin there. The cover of netting protects from above and it may be
necessary, where burrowing animals abound, to dig a trench a foot deep
and set the netting down in the ground that far. A few steel traps set
unbaited along the outside of the runs may prevent a serious loss and
provide you with a handsome mink or raccoon fur skating or motoring
cap. Severe cold, even storms, are not fatal to pheasants. Provide
perches in the pen as well as in the shed and they will usually choose
those in the open air.
Because of their great timidity the birds should be disturbed as little
as possible. Unfamiliar sights and sounds alarm and distress them.
What a triumph it would be to induce your pheasants to eat from your
hand! It can be done by exercising great patience, gentleness, and
perseverance.
All you know about chicken raising will be useful now. Make up your
mind that everything that is bad for chicks is simply fatal to young
pheasants; for instance, wet feet, lice, dirty, or sun-warmed water,
over-feeding, wrong feeding. If you play this game you must expect a
constant succession of hazards, of narrow escapes, and losses. But it
is a noble game.
IV
RAISING ANIMALS FOR PETS
SHETLAND PONIES
The perfect pet is the Shetland pony. This diminutive horse is a model
of gentleness, patience, good-nature, and horse sense. One writer says
of him: "If more than eight children get on his back he will shake
himself like a wet Newfoundland dog and then stand motionless, while
they pick themselves up and out from among his four hoofs." So many
generations of ponies have lived right in the family circles of their
cold little island that children do not make them nervous.
Is there a prettier sight than a well-groomed Shetland pony, a carriage
made in Lilliput, and a small driver, and a reasonable number of little
passengers of assorted sizes? A goat team is a joke, a dog team is
impracticable, a team of young oxen is too plodding and lacks style.
The pony outfit is charming and always delights everybody. But who
likes to see a grown man in a pony carriage? A small grown person may
be necessary, especially if the baby is to be taken for a drive, but a
full-sized adult makes a pony carriage look top heavy.
The Shetland pony is a sort of "boy horse" so far as work is concerned.
(Some say, too, that he gets out of as much work as possible.) There is
no better helper at light jobs than the pony. Like the yak:
"He will carry and fetch
You may ride on his back
Or lead him about with a string."
Indeed he will follow his master about without a string and can carry a
good load. With a light cart or wagon suited to his build and a boy to
do the rest, one of these hardy little fellows will be of greatest help
in doing the endless odd jobs that always fall to the boy's lot. The
pony will more than earn his board if the boy earns his.
[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. The Shetland Pony is the
Ideal Pet]
A thoroughbred Shetland pony should be less than forty-five inches
high and weigh less than three hundred pounds. Many are raised in this
country. A boy is lucky who has a chance to train a pony colt. Training
should be begun early. One successful breeder says that his children
do all the training of his ponies. His boy, seven years old, broke
the first one they raised to drive to a little wagon. Little boys and
girls under ten take entire care of the ponies in another man's herd.
No doubt their father or mother oversees the work, but it is fun for
the children to groom and feed and pet these wee horses.
Breeding Shetland ponies is a very practical way to make a few hundred
dollars a year. They eat less than full-sized horses and will keep fat
on grass from frost till frost. The price of ponies is 25 per cent.
higher than it was five years ago. This makes the cost of going into
this business higher, but the sales begin the second year and selling
prices are higher, too. Shetlands are hardy and require shelter only in
bitter cold weather. Ponies of various sorts are becoming far commoner
here than formerly, so the demand is increasing. I wish every boy and
every girl whose heart is set on having a pony could have one. Let us
all raise ponies until there are enough for every one.
RABBITS, GUINEA PIGS, AND CAVIES
Rabbits, guinea pigs, and cavies are not poultry, yet there is always a
department devoted to them in the great Poultry Show at Madison Square
Garden in New York. It was there that I first made the acquaintance of
these three kinds of popular pets. Many a boy has made a neat little
addition in two figures, at least, to his college fund, by raising
hares, rabbits, guinea pigs, white rats, fancy mice, or cavies. Common
white rabbits can be bought for one dollar a pair, but these days it is
not uncommon for a breeder to pay from fifteen dollars to twenty-five
dollars for wearers of blue ribbons. If you had guinea pigs for sale
you would be glad that the best ones cannot be bought for less than ten
dollars apiece.
Rabbits are the most popular of these pets, while cavies come next.
There is just now a great demand for cavies. They are odd little
creatures, neither intelligent nor affectionate. Neither are they very
hardy; in the North they have to be kept indoors in cold weather.
Cavies are easy enough to feed, for they eat everything that is set
before them, and keep at it all the time. All sorts of vegetables,
bread and milk, and corn are the "chief of their diet."
Before going into the business of raising any of these creatures it is
well to consult some other boy who has had some experience and find out
if there are any peculiar difficulties he can help you provide for.
Maybe your locality and conditions are better fitted for one than the
other. A dealer will often be able to give you valuable information
about the different sorts of pets, and may be able to recommend the
best book on the subject.
FANCY PIGEONS
If I were a boy or a girl to-day there is nothing I should so much like
to do as to raise pigeons. Not that I think it an easy job. (Wouldn't
you almost as soon work as to look for an easy job, anyhow?) There are
lots of disappointments, discouragements, and hard labour about pigeon
rearing. But young folks with hobbies like this are getting more fun
out of life than the idle ones.
Pigeons are hardy, easily tamed, prolific, and can be made to pay their
own way. It would be impossible to associate with them, care for them,
learn their nature and habits, without becoming thoroughly interested
in them. No pets could be more gentle, more beautiful, more docile than
pigeons. Success in rearing them will not be immediate, but will come
with experience.
The business of raising fancy pigeons for pets is quite distinct
from squab raising, treated in the chapter on poultry, and is far
more likely to interest boys and girls. If you were to go to a big
poultry show you would be bewildered at the number of breeds of fancy
pigeons. The pouters, the tumblers, the barbs, the dragoons, nuns,
helmets, the fantails, and carriers are all there in endless variety.
What you like will be different from what I like, probably, so it is
not easy to recommend. Beginners would do well to choose some one
variety and try their hand at that before investing very extensively.
The flying tumbler is recommended by many good authorities. These are
not difficult to breed, are small eaters, do not need to be caged
continually, and although they are to be had in nearly all the colours
of the rainbow they are not very expensive. It is not good economy to
buy cheap stock, in anything. Though by getting good ones you must
start with a single pair, it is the best economy. Your increase will
be very much more valuable. You should ask the breeder for a written
guarantee that the pigeons are as represented, healthy, young, mated
stock. If he does not care to give the guarantee, I should not consider
him reliable.
Pigeons are not much influenced by elaborate dovecotes. They are
quite as happy living the simple life in a dry-goods box, provided it
contains the conveniences they require, and is placed where the light
will be plentiful, the air pure, and the roof rain proof. City boys and
girls need not sigh and give up the idea because they have no place for
pigeons. The attic or the roof serves them just as well as the barn
yard, perhaps better, as mice and rats are less likely to disturb them
on housetops. Every precaution should be taken however against these
vermin. Cracks, doors and ventilators should be covered with fine wire
netting. Even the entrances, holes six inches high by four in width,
should be protected by tin guards which rats and mice cannot creep over.
[Illustration: Net for capturing pigeons]
[Illustration: Pigeon roost]
Each pair of pigeons will need two nesting compartments. A good kind is
described in Farmers' Bulletin No. 177, and is constructed as follows:
Inch boards, twelve inches wide, with parallel cross cleats nailed on
nine inches apart, are set upright full twelve inches apart against one
wall, and securely fastened at top and bottom. Cut twelve-inch squares
of inch boards for the bottoms of the nest boxes. It is easy to see
how convenient these sliding bottoms will be to clean. Provide small
earthenware dishes as nests, with a foundation of tobacco stems, to
discourage lice. The birds will build nests of straw above the tobacco
stems, the male bringing the material which the female arranges to suit
her ideas of house furnishing. Some growers use sawdust in the nest. If
your pigeons are allowed their liberty with no shelter save the pigeon
loft, perches will be needed inside. As the pigeon's feet are formed
for perching on flat surfaces instead of on rounded branches like
many of their feathered relatives, you should provide what suits their
needs. A good form of perch is made as follows. Cut half-inch, dressed
material four or five inches wide into five or six-inch lengths. Nail
together two of these pieces in v-shape. This can be nailed to a
square foundation piece and hung angle up on the wall of the loft. The
slanting sides afford no lodging for droppings and as only one bird
at a time can perch on so small a place, quarrelling is avoided. Iron
brackets with perches attached are also used.
Two nest dishes are provided for each pair, as very often the hen will
lay a second pair of eggs before the earliest young ones are ready to
leave the nest. The male pigeon is untiring in his devotion to the
young and their mother, taking his turn on the nest regularly during
the seventeen days of incubation, doing his share of the work, and even
beating his wife if she shows any disposition to slight her duties.
If the pigeons are confined in a wire fly, perches should be provided
there, and board walks for them to alight upon and walk about on should
be placed at a distance of four or five feet from the ground. Nothing
in the shape of roosts or cross pieces should be put in the fly, as
the pigeons need all the space in which to exercise their wings.
[Illustration: A fly for pigeons. Put no roosts across the fly. Flying
against these would injure the birds]
For one hundred birds the fly should be thirty-two feet long, eight
feet high, and the entire width of the house. It will be a fine problem
in practical arithmetic to figure how much netting will be required
to cover the frame of this fly, how many posts, and how much one by
four-inch stuff will be needed to complete the frame. The advice
of some one who has built a pigeon fly would be most valuable to
the inexperienced person, and the pictures in books, bulletins, and
magazine articles will be helpful in making your plans.
Holes, at least two, rounded at the top and six inches each way,
provide for the going and coming of the birds between house and fly.
For yourself, an outside door into the fly is a necessity, of course.
Before installing your pigeons in their house, use the whitewash brush
there freely. Into each gallon of your mixture of lime and water put a
half-teaspoonful of crude carbolic acid. Clean sand is recommended for
the floor of both fly and house. It is very bad practice to scatter
food for pigeons on the floor or ground. You will see, if you try it,
how much is wasted; any that they leave becomes soiled, moulds, or
sours, and if eaten in that condition is nearly sure to injure the
birds. A shallow feeding trough should be placed near the centre of
the house. Fine charcoal, table salt, and cracked oyster shells should
be kept permanently before the birds, the boxes cleaned out at least
weekly. Clean water in stone or galvanized iron fountains should always
be there, too. Daily or semi-daily is none too frequent to clean these
vessels.
Pigeons are not gluttonous feeders but "they want what they want,
when they want it." In other words, regularity is important to their
well-being. An early morning feed, six-thirty in summer, seven in
winter, of equal parts cracked corn, wheat, and peas, and an afternoon
feed, at four in summer, three in winter, of equal parts cracked corn
(with no fine meal in it), kaffir corn, millet seed, and peas, is a
fair ration. Pigeons like a variety but not as a steady diet. Hemp
may be substituted for millet once or twice a week; a little broken
rice, green vegetable food, like lettuce and onions, will be taken
sparingly, and tiny bits of fat bacon seem to be acceptable. Nothing
but first-class grain should ever be set before pigeons. The quantity
needed should be determined by watching. If food is left in trough,
feed less next time.
Water for bathing is as necessary for pigeons as the dust bath is for
hens. A broad galvanized iron pan three inches deep makes a first-rate
bathtub. Although fancy plumbing is out of place in a pigeon house,
it is the greatest convenience to have running water passing through
a trough constantly; this solves completely the problem of sanitary
drinking water.
The best fanciers clean their houses weekly. With a few birds this may
not be necessary. But when your nose gives unmistakable evidence that
it is time, do not put it off. A spade to scrape the floor, an old
knife for the nest boxes, and a broom are necessary utensils.
Mated birds will choose a nesting box after becoming accustomed to
their new quarters. The nest pans, with their foundation of tobacco
stems cut in six-inch lengths, should be in place, and a supply of
short hay or straw where it can be found. Two eggs are usually laid,
with a day between and sitting begins as soon as the second egg is laid.
If the sight of a young squab does not make you sick of your choice of
a hobby, you are a hopeless case, and I predict great success for you.
Young robins are not beautiful to behold, but squabs are such ghastly
looking little beasts, with nothing to recommend them except their
entire helplessness. Evidently the parents are well satisfied with
the appearance of their offspring which look just as they expected,
no doubt, and begin almost immediately to feed them. "Pigeon milk" is
injected into their open throats by the parent birds, in whose stomachs
it has been manufactured. The squabs gain rapidly after a few days
of this "milk" diet; pin-feathers replace the scanty yellow down in
about a week. At three weeks they are able to walk, but are still fed
by their parents, although grain is brought to them instead of the
predigested food.
Although they are hardy, do not suppose that pigeons have no diseases.
However, the author of a government bulletin on squab raising says that
with "wholesome food, proper housing, and proper care, very little
disease is usually encountered." To prevent disease, and avoid dampness
in house and fly, keep the food and water untainted, and the house
clean.
It is very desirable, whether raising squabs for market or for pets,
to keep a record of the performance of each pair. This is usually done
by the use of numbered tags on the birds' legs. The record makes it
possible to prevent inbreeding, gives you knowledge of whether certain
pairs are profitable, and keeps up your own interest far more than
haphazard methods do.
BANTAMS
Almost every family that keeps chickens has two or three "banties" for
the children. What an amusing sight it is to see a tiny fuss-budget
clucking and bristling to protect a half-dozen lubberly Plymouth Rock
"broilers" that she has been inveigled into rearing. But the raising of
pigmy fowls is not confined to the child's play of the chicken yard. At
the big poultry shows almost every breed of fowl from Brahma to Silkie
has a diminutive mimic, and the requirements for the dwarfs are just as
rigid as for the big fellows.
To be just right a bantam ought not to weigh much over a pound, the
cock should be impetuous, pugnacious, and haughty; the hen should be
smaller than her lord, and meek in demeanour except when her flock is
in danger. Bantams are very popular with amateurs who regard them as a
sort of joke, but the poultry fanciers take them quite seriously. It is
not unusual for the prize-winning bantams to bring as high prices as
the heavy weights.
Game bantams are great favourites with fanciers. They are easily
recognized by their game-fowl characteristics: tall, upright carriage,
oval body tapering from shoulder to tail, very long legs and neck,
small head, and almost no show of comb. There are eight standard
varieties in America, and the Game Bantam Club is interested in
improving the breeds and increasing the popularity of the birds.
As the varieties of bantams are pretty thoroughly mixed, it is no
simple matter to breed birds fit for exhibition. But after all there is
so much fun for boys and girls in growing any sort of pigmy chickens
and such a good market for both eggs and pairs for pets that I wonder
that more young people do not go into the business. Bantams take less
room than ordinary chickens which is an advantage on a small place.
Care should be taken to save for setting eggs of none but the smallest
and most perfect members of the flock, and to dispose of any which
are larger than the standard or poor in shape or colour or in any
characteristics peculiar to bantams. If you start with eggs of some
fine breed, try to keep your stock pure, and improve it by selecting
the best individuals for breeding.
In matters of housing, feeding, cleanliness, and care, bantams should
be treated just like other chickens. The young of some varieties are
exceedingly delicate and cannot stand the least neglect. These are
more like little wild things, partridges or quail, than like domestic
fowls. Other varieties are as hardy as Plymouth Rocks, but any one
who has tried it knows that raising Plymouth Rocks is no mere joke,
especially in a cold, damp spring.
If your father objects to your going into the bantam business instead
of raising standard size fowls bring these arguments to bear upon
him: Bantams occupy one fourth the space. Their food costs one fifth
as much. Their eggs are two thirds as big. Pairs can easily be sold
without expensive advertising.
FANCY FOWLS
If you want to make the neighbour boys open their eyes, and the
passers-by stand still to admire, try the experiment of raising fancy
fowls. Growing them for exhibition purposes is such a separate and
distinct department of the poultry business and demands familiarity
with many "show standards," "tricks of the trade," and special
practices in breeding and grooming to bring a fowl up to a high score,
that it may be best not to undertake to compete with more experienced
breeders.
A visit to a fancy poultry exhibition is like a trip to Wonderland.
Just looking at the pictures of the prize winners, and studying the
alluring advertisements arouses enthusiasm. But to read the accounts of
the fanciers, or to hear them talk about the merits of their favourites
makes a chicken lover fairly thrill with ardour. How to decide upon
which variety to try is a hard problem. Take a lot of things into
consideration. Discount what the enthusiasts say about the one they
have for sale; they mean every word of it, but they are prejudiced.
Don't be influenced to select one breed when you really prefer another.
Here is a department where personal preference should cast the deciding
vote; the one you like best is the best one for you.
It is not well known except by specialists that there are so many
distinct varieties in breeds of fowls. For example take the Polish.
There are blue Polish, plain white, golden, white-crested, black,
buff-laced, and silver; of the Hamburgs there are black, silver-and
gold-spangled, silver-and golden-penciled white, and so on through the
list. The Polish and the Houdans are remarkable for their tremendous
top knots, the Hamburgs, Lakenvelders, and many others for their
wonderful plumage and colour combinations, while the most astonishing
creatures in the whole chicken tribe are the Yokahamas whose snow-white
tail feathers trail gracefully behind them like a bride's gown and
veil at a fashionable wedding. These must be the originals of the
extraordinary fowls represented on Japanese and Filipino pottery and
embroidery.
It is not much wonder that fancy breeds are growing more popular in
our country. Although as a rule they are non-sitters, they are all
described by their advocates as prize layers, some hens even reaching
the remarkable record of two hundred eggs a year.
The Hamburgs, for example, are called "Dutch Everlasting Layers." Their
eggs are smooth and "satiny white"; Polish eggs are very large and
snow-white, but they are not winter layers; Houdans lay white eggs of
great size and almost certain fertility, and are, besides, excellent
table fowls; the Lakenvelders rank with Leghorns as layers and their
eggs are also "of a porcelain whiteness" which insures a fancy market
in New York where the preference is for white eggs.
Do not think that you can just as well house your fancy breeds in with
your ordinary chickens. It is a mistake. They should be kept apart
from the beginning. Light hens of commoner breeds are successfully
employed as foster-mothers for the fancy fowls, but it is important to
provide separate pens even for the young. If young chicks are kept in
the same run with those somewhat older, they are crowded away from the
feeding dishes; chicks with top knots should never be raised with other
sorts. The crest interferes with their sight, and they are not fighters
and will allow themselves to be driven away from the food. Crested
chicks should be treated with a grease lice-destroyer at least once a
fortnight. A little of the lard or sweet oil is enough but it should be
worked into the feathers to be effectual. Use powder on the hens, but
not while the chicks are oily.
Making the neighbours gape in open-eyed astonishment is not all there
is to raising fancy chickens. With a few years' experience in chicken
raising back of you, it would not be risky to raise them for commercial
purposes. The popularity of fancy chickens is just beginning in this
country. There is a fine market for eggs for hatching, but as it is
extremely important to keep the breeds pure your fancy birds should
be kept by themselves practically the year round. Most of the breeds
mentioned are quite hardy, and the same care required for ordinary
poultry as to housing, food, prevention of disease, cleanliness, and
records will insure a good measure of success with fancy fowls.
DOGS
Raising dogs may prove a profitable business for any one who likes
dogs, understands them, and is willing to doctor them when they are
sick, and train them to good habits. An untrained dog is a nuisance,
however well bred he may be.
To start a small kennel does not require any more room than to start
in the chicken business in a small way. Just now the prices are so
absurdly high on high-bred dogs of popular varieties that few but
fanciers can afford to own the best stock. Why is it not better to
raise some first-rate but not fashionable breed, and not enter into
competition with men whose living depends on the number of blue ribbons
they can win at dog shows? Buy a young female dog, teach her, and train
her. Get experience with one dog and her young ones before you put in
much capital. Find out by going to a good dog show what are the points
of a good dog of your chosen breed, make out a score card, and mark
your own dogs. Sell for pets those which do not come up to the mark.
I have before me a balance sheet made out by a young man who began
raising white English bull terriers in nineteen hundred and three. In
spite of a lot of bad luck, which, with better arrangements, need not
have happened, he netted nearly a hundred dollars the first year and
over two hundred the second year. This young man kept chickens, too,
beside his regular business which kept him at an office seven hours a
day; and he found dogs better money makers than chickens.
In raising puppies there are three important essentials: the right sort
of food, fresh, clean water to drink, and exercise. I believe more dogs
get sick from water or lack of it than from any other one cause. If a
dog's dish is not clean enough for you to drink out of yourself, then
it is not fit for your pups. Keep that in mind. Fresh air and sunshine
are as necessary for puppies as for children. Kennels should be airy,
face the south, and have shavings or straw bedding.
Authorities differ about a dog's food. It is safe to feed him about as
you would a growing boy. Like the boy he may overeat of his favourite
dish. For breakfast, oatmeal or other cereal with milk and no sugar;
for lunch, some dry dog biscuit or stale bread; for afternoon tea, soup
or gravy thickened with boiled rice or corn mush. But a puppy's supper
ought to be a good square meal because he is an outdoor sleeper, and it
is easy for dogs to take cold on an empty stomach. For supper, then,
give the puppies some bits of cooked meat, stale bread, and gravy or
cooked vegetables. "Never feed a puppy hot bread or any rich, greasy,
or highly seasoned foods. Avoid all sweets." Doesn't that sound like a
book on what children should eat? But it is quoted right out of a dog
book.
If your dogs get sick, eczema, distemper, or fits, consult a veterinary
surgeon. A good book on dogs and their care will be of greatest value
to you for such minor troubles as dogs are heir to.
Full-grown dogs do not need more than two meals a day. Most dogs are
over-fed, under exercised, and are therefore unhealthy beings. Dogs eat
slowly and should not be hurried. They should be fed regularly but not
fussed over.
A word to boys and girls who own pets: if you live cooped up on a small
lot you have no right to keep a dog, much less dogs. If you have a dog
and let him run at large, you will probably lose him, and you deserve
to. Nobody has any right, law or no law, to allow his live stock, let
them be chickens, dogs, cats, or children, to annoy the neighbours. A
dog or a cat, a rabbit, or a family of chickens can do more damage in a
garden than anybody would believe,--except the gardener. Your dog may
be worth ten dollars; he may do ten dollars' worth of damage in ten
different bulb beds in ten days. A thirty-cent cat can frighten away
more birds in five days than an owner can attract to his garden in a
whole season. Be fair to yourself, your neighbour, and your animals,
and keep them on your own place. If you are out with your dogs, that
is a different matter; if you have them trained "to heel," people will
welcome you.
GOLDFISH
I have already said that the Shetland pony is the ideal pet. That is
true still, but I should have said "for out of doors." Of all the
candidates for the office of ideal indoor pet, I believe goldfish would
get the most votes.
They are peaceful and innocent, their needs are few, and their manners
engaging. They are attractive in colour, shape, and movements and never
get under foot. Above all they have no bad habits. They neither squawk
nor whistle, bark, sing, nor howl. They never stay out late nights, nor
make trouble with the neighbours. They require a minimum of attention
and a minimum of expense both for quarters and for food. For developing
a sense of responsibility in children they serve a good purpose, and
they can even be taught. It is very evident that they have memory as
well as sight, hearing, sense of smell, touch, and taste. They easily
learn, if patiently taught, to know their master's voice and to come
when he signals. They will learn their feeding time and place and seem
to enjoy attention.
Just as with horses, dogs, or elephants, the first essential in
teaching goldfish is to gain their confidence. This can only be done
by patience and gentleness. A restless, nervous goldfish rushing from
one side of the tank to another when any one approaches tells its own
story. Teased, frightened, neglected, and unhappy they are indeed in a
sorry plight, for they are, even more than some other pets, utterly at
the mercy of their owners. The sooner they die and pass into oblivion,
the better!
But what a pretty sight it is to see a well-balanced aquarium, water
plants spreading their delicate fronds, a clean, pebbly bottom, and
bright-coloured, healthy, happy, care-free goldfish glancing in and out
in the sunshine.
China is the greatest place for goldfish. Rearing them there has been
reduced to a science. We find them running wild in our waters, but they
are not native to America. Under ideal natural conditions they are said
to live to be a hundred years old. Many are known to have lived to the
age of ten years in one aquarium.
Goldfish are hardy, live in sluggish streams or ponds, and eat all
sorts of vegetable matter. They also eat soft-bodied insects, worms,
and small fish, even their own spawn and young.
For directions for keeping goldfish happy and healthy in an aquarium
in the living room of your home, I must refer you to various books and
articles on aquaria and on how to make and maintain them.
Raising goldfish for profit is "a horse of quite another colour."
Goldfish are sold by the thousand in department stores as well as in
shops which deal wholly in pets. Some fish are imported, but the bulk
of them are grown in this country. One of the most scientific growers
in this country is Mr. Hugo Mulertt, whose book on the subject is quite
enough to make its readers enthusiastic fish culturists. The best
markets are in cities, and transportation is difficult and expensive.
Fancy varieties would not be in demand except in large cities.
One can begin goldfish growing in a small way at very small expense.
Four tanks or reservoirs are required. Any boy who can make a hotbed
frame can make these. They should be in a series: No. 1, spawning pond;
No. 2, rearing pond; No. 3, storage pond; No. 4, winter pond.
Whether one makes artificial tanks or utilizes a natural valley,
separated by little dams, it is essential that the four ponds should be
so fitted that they can be emptied at will. They should be sheltered
from cold winds and from direct summer sun.
The spawning pond should be built first, and furnished with water
plants as much like nature as possible. Female fish ready to spawn can
be bought from growers. These men are reliable and know how to advise
you. It is to their advantage to increase the interest in goldfish.
While building tank No. 2, keep watch for eggs in the spawning tank.
Laying begins late in April or early in May outdoors. The egg is no
bigger than a pinhead, yellow, or cream-coloured. Look for them on
the plants. Snip the twigs off with great care and transfer the eggs,
twigs and all, into large candy jars in clean water; one hundred eggs
is enough for a gallon jar. Be careful that the water is of the same
temperature in the jar as in the tank. Eggs should be kept not lower
than sixty degrees Fahr., and not higher than ninety degrees Fahr.
They hatch in two or three days or at most in less than a week. Do not
disturb the water. Sudden changes of temperature will kill the young
fish.
When the fish are three days old, they are pretty lively and will soon
begin to need other food than that supplied by the egg. To transfer
them from the "incubator" to the rearing tank is a delicate operation.
Mr. Mulertt advises putting the tiny fish into a small, shallow,
"nursery" tank first to make the change more gradual. The jar can be
emptied very gently, fish and all, into this tank.
Prepare the rearing tank, taking every precaution against enemies. It
should be covered with a screen to keep the dragon flies from laying
their eggs in the tank. Dragon fly nymphs are death on new-hatched
goldfish. If the fish get a good start they will hold their own. Let
me warn you again to take great precaution against chilling the fish.
A few degrees difference may be fatal. When the fish are a week to ten
days old, they should be about a half-inch long, darting swiftly about
in the nursery tank. Be sure the temperature of the water is right,
then set a wide-mouthed pail or jar full of water down in the tank with
the fish, and dip the biggest one at a time with a little hand net of
soft material. Do not crowd the fish in the transfer pail, but rather
make more frequent trips. Extremely delicate handling is absolutely
necessary. Do not dip the fish out of the jar, but put it down in the
water deep enough so they can swim out of their own accord. They are to
stay a long time in the rearing pond so must not be crowded. In a tank
covering an area of one hundred and sixty square feet, two hundred to
three hundred fish can be reared. When they are only one half an inch
long, the tank looks thinly settled, but they soon grow.
The young are silver-gray at first. They usually get their permanent
colour before reaching the age of two months. In warm ponds, in sunny
weather, goldfish may grow to be six inches long in the first summer,
but between two and three inches is more normal.
Goldfish in outdoor rearing ponds do not require artificial feeding.
Nature supplies them with their natural food.
The storage tank is simply to keep the fish in while awaiting
purchasers. It should be divided by partitions into small compartments.
It is convenient to sort the fish taken from the rearing tank, so that
those of one size or colour or variety can be separated and buyers
can readily see the stock. It is easier to catch them in the small
tank also. In the storage tank some feeding is usually needed. Fresh,
dry bread crumbs are recommended by most fish growers; feed small
amounts until they get used to it and until you know just how much they
require.
The winter pond costs the most to build. It should be three feet or
more deep, lined with boards or cement, and located so that water
will be moving through it, in and out slowly all winter, to prevent
freezing. It should be covered during storms. Growers plan to get rid
of their stock except breeders before winter sets in. One can dispense
entirely with a winter tank if he can establish a house aquarium
successfully for wintering the fish from which he expects to obtain
spawn the following spring.
As might be expected of animals which have for so many centuries
been associated with man, goldfish have a good many diseases. Their
ill-health can almost invariably be traced to neglect or ignorance
on the part of the person upon whom they are dependent. The signs of
ill-health are usually quite noticeable. They are: Faded colours,
bloody streaks, coated or inflamed fins, and swollen gill covers.
Most of the troubles have to do with air supply. When a fish loses
colour and appetite, has a slimy coating, and acts weak and dejected,
it should be put into a "hospital" aquarium where plenty of plants
are flourishing, at a temperature of seventy to eighty degrees Fahr.
One teaspoonful of salt to each gallon of water will be good for the
fish, but no food should be offered for several days. This remedy will
usually restore the fish if its trouble is asphyxia or itch and has
not gone too far. In the open water conditions right themselves more
readily, but fish acting queerly should be taken out from among the
others.
The greatest harm may result from hail storms and heavy rains on
unprotected tanks. The natural enemies of goldfish inhabit the same
ponds and to succeed one must daily wage war against crayfish,
tadpoles, salamanders, snakes, fish-eating birds, muskrats, and aquatic
insects. Toad and frog spawn found in goldfish ponds should be removed
to some other pond to mature. These creatures are useful as destroyers
of insects but you can dispense with them in goldfish tanks.
THE STORY OF A BOY'S ANIMAL CAGE
Two years ago, when I was ten years old, my father built me a house for
my animals. It is twenty feet square and ten feet high. The framework
is of wood. The walls are covered with wire netting. In winter they are
boarded in. Last winter we had a fire in a stove in the passageway,
but we decided that the animals were better off without it. The pen
cost about one hundred and fifty dollars. I keep in it three 'coons,
ten to thirty rabbits, and about twenty pigeons. Two 'coons, Tom and
Jerry, I have had three years; the other one, Pauline, I have had two
years. My oldest rabbits, Harry and Lily, I have had six years. The
'coon pens and the passageway have wooden floors. The walls of the
'coon pen have double wire to prevent the 'coons from grabbing the
other animals. Their pens go up to the roof of the house. The rabbit
pens are separated by movable wire panels six feet high. On this side
of the house there is a second story for the rabbits and pigeons. This
is reached by a step-ladder, and is divided by movable panels. The
pigeons' house is over the passageway. There are shelves with nappies
in them for nests. It is open at both ends in summer. I have kept crows
and white rats; they were not a success. The crows killed the rabbits,
and the rats smelled bad.
I feed the rabbits morning and night and water them once. Their feed
is oats in the morning and hay at night. They have from two to eight
little ones in a litter. When they multiply too fast we eat them.
Their meat is like chicken. The only way to distinguish it is by the
bones. I feed and water the 'coons twice a day. They have a sort of
cake made of corn meal. They grow very fat in the fall, but in the
spring and summer they get very thin. They are not of any use except
to look at. I did play with them until they bit my sister. Since then
I have been timid about playing with them. I feed wheat to the pigeons
once a day. I have tumblers and magpie pigeons. Both kinds are great
fighters. I have four ducks, also, two Mallards and two Pekins. Their
pen is outside of the rabbit pen. In summer I keep them shut up here.
In coldest winter weather I keep them in the barn. The rest of the year
they wander about as they please. They have a tub, which I keep filled
with water, where they can bathe. I feed them corn. They are much more
interesting pets than hens.
A STORY OF SUCCESS WITH DOGS
Some years ago two young women, one a bookkeeper, the other a
stenographer, decided to exchange city for country life. Born and
reared on farms, they secured seven acres of farm land, with cottage,
but sixteen miles from Chicago, and started a chicken business. This
did not prove entirely successful, mainly, as the now prosperous
farmers admit, because of ignorance and inexperience.
Meantime the fine collie dog, kept as guard and companion, was bringing
many requests for good puppies, and it was determined to raise collies
instead of chickens. So Daisy Rightaway, an English champion, was
purchased, later being joined by imported Master Clinker, son of the
famous Wishaw Clinker, which was brought from England about three years
ago by J. Pierpont Morgan at a fabulous price. Warned by the trying
chicken experience, Miss Porter, who conducts the farm while Miss
Benson retains her business position and looks after the "city end" of
affairs, resolved to "make haste slowly" in the new direction. Few, but
good, animals were chosen, only the best of the young stock was placed
on the market, and if the farm books at first showed but small profits,
the upward trend, both in cash and reputation, was gratifyingly steady.
With less than four years of professional dog rearing behind them,
and with all buildings, runs, etc., originally lacking, the pleased
proprietors of "Sylvan Farm" rejoice in promising financial statistics
for the last half of that time.
About two years ago came, apparently by chance, that branch of the
business which has, perhaps, proved most lucrative, and which is
especially worthy of note by other women with country homes, love for
and some knowledge of dogs, and a desire to make money. A friend who
owned fine collies envied the splendid environment under which the
"Sylvan" canines flourished, and asked permission to board some of his
young puppies with "Porter and Benson," to give the young women their
official title. The dogs sent thrived remarkably, and he mentioned the
matter to other dog fanciers, and they to still others. Almost without
knowing how it happened, the delighted farmers soon found themselves
caring regularly for from forty to seventy-five well bred dogs.
Only collies were at first accepted, but business and accommodations
alike gradually widened until practically all kinds of dogs are now
handled, in a most progressive and hygienic manner. An isolation house
for dogs when first received or suspected of illness; heated homes
for young mothers, puppies, and lapdogs; winter houses, with shelters
for open-air exercise in bad weather; commodious separate runs--these
are among the conveniences now enjoyed by the happy "visitors" whose
owners are off for the summer or winter or are otherwise unable to care
for their cherished pets. The Desplaines River runs by the farm and a
picturesque "river run" is much appreciated by water dogs and those
enjoying an occasional frolic in cool water. Two fine cows provide
fresh milk in abundance for the nursing mothers and young puppies.
Every dog, whether boarder or family resident, is personally and
intimately known to Miss Porter, who takes sole care of them with the
aid of an intelligent boy to perform the rougher tasks.
Five dollars monthly is charged for the board of healthy dogs, with
special rates for those needing special care. The standard dietary,
varied to suit individual and class needs and varying occasions, is
composed of soup made of meat and vegetables, meat jelly, rice, plenty
of bones, and dog biscuit, with warm milk every two hours for the young
mothers and puppies. The other dogs are fed twice daily--to the minute.
In this incessant, indispensable care is found the chief drawback of
the business for those fond of personal freedom, since the important
duties of feeding, inspection, etc., seldom can be delegated to those
not personally interested in the dogs.
The little farm provides all the vegetables needed and some corn,
but all other food supplies must be purchased. With more ground the
recurring feed bills might be made smaller, but the labour outlay would
be correspondingly augmented. Eliminating unnecessary details, the
financial situation for the two years in which the dog experiment has
been successfully running stands thus:
EXPENDED
Stock, buildings, and fences $785
Miscellaneous expenses, labour, etc. 286
Feed 815
Cash on hand 716
------
Total $2,602
RECEIVED
Original investment $400
Sale of puppies 990
Board of dogs 1,212
------
Total $2,602
The balance of seven hundred and sixteen dollars does not represent a
bad profit in less than three years made from an investment of four
hundred dollars, and while the young farmers feel that perhaps in other
lines of work such increase might have been more quickly and easily
acquired, they feel that perhaps in no other field could they have
received such high dividends of health, happiness, and independence.
The work is hard but enjoyable, while its widening scope and success
bring true satisfaction. Sylvan Farm now receives dogs from, and sends
dogs to, all parts of the United States, and the "farm family" of
high-bred animals from time to time receives judicious addition. Some
famous canines have been raised, welcomed, and boarded, and one young
puppy, born on the place, recently sold for one thousand dollars.
V
WORK AND PLAY WITH TRAINED ANIMALS
DAIRY COWS
If the boys and girls of the farms are looking about for a big thing
to do, the very best place for them to look is at their father's herd
of cows. Even if it isn't a strictly dairy herd it is kept partly
for dairy purposes. Every cow demands stabling, pasture, feed, and
attention. She is supposed to give value received for all this. But how
many cow owners know which cows pay their board with a bonus, which
barely keep even, and which are eating their heads off? The margin of
profit when feed is high is too small to risk feeding an unproductive
animal.
If your father has not been in the habit of keeping accounts with his
cows, you can make him open his eyes. You do not need ledgers and
daybooks for your simple statement of facts. Bring every animal face to
face with her record. On one side of the account put the cost of what
you give each cow. On the other side what she gives in return. You
will have a page like this:
_Roberta Grade Holstein 5 years_
DEBIT
To feed (at prices you would have to pay if you
bought it) $
To stabling, estimate $
To care (so much an hour) $
CREDIT
To milk, so many qts. at so much $
To calf $
To compost $
You will have to reduce the item "feed" to many items, and remember
that hay produced at home is not free hay. It is worth to feed to
Roberta just what you would have to pay wholesale for it if you had to
go to the feed store, minus the cost of cartage. To work this out is
good arithmetic, better than covering acres of blackboard space with
examples in "partial payments." Now Roberta may give a good quantity
of milk but of poor quality. At first you might think that didn't
matter; it brings just as much a quart. But does it, when your mother
and sisters make it into butter, for example? Or, if you sell cream,
wouldn't you want a cow whose milk tested high in butter fat? Your
customers would, whether they bought milk or cream, I know.
[Illustration: Photograph by Julian A. Dimock. Holding a Conversation]
The boys and girls in many of the great dairying states, notably
Illinois and Wisconsin and New York, are learning in school how to test
milk for the butter fat it contains and the chances are that every
agricultural college in the United States is ready to instruct boys and
girls by letter in this important part of dairying. Many of them send
out printed lessons giving careful directions about using the Babcock
testing apparatus, and I have seen a class of boys and girls in a
country school testing milk from their fathers' cows.
It is astonishing how many cows are kept on farms purely for
ornament--or maybe to give the boys plenty of chores. These cows
consume as much food as good ones, but they are idlers. It isn't their
fault but the farmer's. Can your father or you afford to keep money
invested in any cow that returns him less than a dollar a year over and
above the expense of feed? A good cow may cost twice as much to buy,
but a good cow will make thirty or forty dollars a year clear gain.
These figures are not guess-work but facts.
So I say again to the farm boy and girl--if you want to do a big thing
for your home place and for the neighbourhood, reform the dairy herd.
Keep a record for every cow. Weigh the milk of each one separately
every day for a week, then again two months later, and so on through
her milking days. Take an average of all these weights as the weekly
weight of milk and multiply by the number of weeks the cow gave milk.
This will give the total number of pounds produced. Learn how to test
for butter fat. Your neighbourhood creamery tests the milk with a
Babcock test and you can learn how. Persuade your father to sell all
the cows which fall below a fair standard and buy good ones. Test the
milk of the cows he thinks of buying. A poor cow often looks as well
as a good one. The Illinois Experiment Station shows by tests that
twenty-five of the best cows in the state produce as much butter fat
as ten hundred and twenty-one of the poorest cows, while eating only
one fortieth as much food, to say nothing of the stable room, the time
spent in milking, etc. And a quarter of the million cows in the state
of Illinois are making their owners only seventy-seven cents a year
apiece. Can your father afford to keep that kind of a cow?
CLEAN HOME MILK
I know what milking is on the farm. Take it on a frosty October morning
about sun-up, when you make the cow get up from her bed so that you can
stand in the "warm spot" to warm your feet. It gets no better from that
time on, even if you do milk in the cow stable. But the boys that do
the milking do not realize how perfectly filthy the milk often is when
it gets to the house.
Take a milk pail from the shelf, go down to the cow barn. There is
the cow. Throw her down an armful of hay to chew on while you milk,
brush off the stool, rub off the cow's bag with a wisp of hay if she
is especially dirty, never mind your hands or the open pail, throw a
stream of milk onto each palm and begin. Is there a little hay and dust
in the pail? Never mind; it will strain out. When you get through, set
the pail down while you drive the cows out to pasture. To be sure,
they will raise a lot of cow-stable dust and the smell is pretty bad
in there, but if you set it outside the pigs would get into it. It is
nearly school time and you have other chores to do. Take it to the
house and strain it. Mother always doubles the strainer cloth, but it
takes an awful time for it to run through that way. There, you said
the dirt would strain out, and look at it there in the cloth!
This is a cold-hearted picture of one of the chores the farm boy
particularly hates. Compare each item with your own methods and improve
on each. Home milk is not always clean milk.
[Illustration: Sanitary milk pail]
The boy that milks ought to do a better job than this. He ought to
bring clean milk into the house. How shall he do it? A clean place to
milk, a clean cow, a clean boy, and a sanitary milk pail; these four
things are within the reach of every farm that can afford a cow.
I have seen a good many patent milk pails, mostly in stores, seldom on
farms. The sanitary milk pails _keep the dirt out_, they don't strain
it out. Here is one described by the man who invented it for his own
use. This pail is tin, holds ten quarts or so. On one side is a spout
two and a half inches in diameter and three inches long. The spout has
a tin cover like a baking powder can cover. To keep the dirt out of the
top of the pail the man bought a tin pan, just the size to fit tight
into the top of the pail. Just above the bottom of the pan on one side
he had a tinner cut eight or ten small holes, like a collander. Scald
the pail, double the strainer cloth and lay it across the top of the
pail. Press the pan down on the cloth till it goes down into the pail
tight, taking care that the edge of the cloth comes up all round. Do
all this at the house. With this pail, a clean milker can milk a clean
cow in a sweet smelling place, and get clean milk. This may look like a
pound of prevention, but think of the tons of cure it will save.
MARKETING MILK
There are lots of boys delivering milk in towns and cities. Most of
them do their part well. But I believe they would like to do it better.
Driving from one house to another is pretty dull business for a live
boy and unless he has something to think about his mind wanders. Why
not put some thought on the very business he is engaged in? Does he
know what milk is? That children's lives depend upon the care he gives
it? Does he know that dirt in ice and dust from streets may be deadly
if they get into milk? If dust gets into that little puddle that ought
not to be on top of the bottles does he wipe it off with a dirty rag,
ignorant of the danger? If he thought of these things and studied out
ingenious ways of keeping his bottles free from dust, life would no
longer be dull but interesting. He would be well started toward good
citizenship.
TRAINING PET ANIMALS
Trained pets have a greater market value than those which have no
education. Parrots, for example, with nothing but their native harsh
squawk, can be bought for very little. But every word added to Polly's
vocabulary can be expressed in dimes added to her price. There are very
few domesticated or tamed animals so lacking in wit that they cannot be
taught. But it takes a particular kind of patience and persistence.
Some animals learn very quickly; mice for instance. One trainer has
taught them to walk the tight rope, climb ladders, swing in a trapeze,
pull tiny wagons, and do other little tricks.
We have all seen trained animals in shows and have marvelled at them.
It is hard to believe that they are real. It takes genius to train
fleas, for example, or geese, yet these animals are tamed. Every boy
has a little spark of such genius and with use the spark would grow.
Dogs are about the easiest animals to train. Teach a dog first to
obey. He must learn to understand just as a baby does. How long does
it take a baby to learn what "no, no" means? A bright dog will learn
to "charge" about as quickly. When he knows what you mean and that
you really do mean it and are not fooling, he will suit the action
to the word or signal. A little training every day will do the
business. Rewards in the form of food or caresses appeal to the dog's
understanding. Never forget to give the reward. You may sometimes have
to punish a dog, but you should be careful to make certain that he
associates the punishment with the crime. Whipping a dog to "get even"
with him is not the way to make him a good dog. He may take his chance
to "get even" some day. Do you blame him?
Most children expect a dog to learn too fast. For instance, a boy
wants his dog to draw a wagon or sled. The dog is big and strong and
there are leaves to be gathered or kindling to be brought in. Don't
make a harness, force it onto the dog, hitch him up regardless of his
protests, and expect him to trot off like a pony. Ponies are trained to
the feel of the harness from their youth up. Your dog will rebel, not
angrily, but none the less emphatically. He will lie down or slip the
harness or otherwise rid himself of the burden. Or he will balk. Train
him gradually, just as you would a colt or calf. He will learn faster
than either.
Dogs are sometimes trained to carry baskets or bundles and can even be
trusted to go on errands alone, if, by going over the same route daily,
their minds are impressed sufficiently.
Training a dog should begin in puppyhood. Make commands in single
words and accompany the word with a sign. Use always the same easily
interpreted sign with the command word. Teach him his name first, then
to come when called. After these commands are thoroughly learned, teach
him to come "to heel," "charge," and similar commands. A poor teacher
will make a poor dog, so teach yourself patience. Your voice should be
firm but never loud or high-pitched.
A young dog will learn to herd cattle, sheep, or goats more easily from
an old dog than from you. He will follow his leader at first, then
later he can go on ahead driving the herd on his own responsibility or
in obedience to a command.
[Illustration: Photograph by George G. McLean. Gyp Has An Ax to Grind]
Did you try to teach your dog to retrieve by ducking him? How silly!
How soon would you learn to swim by that method? Begin by letting
him think he is bringing you his play-ball, although really you are
pulling it by an attached string. Insist on his giving up the ball
every time. Do it again and again till he is out of the primer class.
Throw the ball a few feet at first, then farther and farther away till
he has that trick "down fine."
When the water is well warmed by the spring sunshine, take him to the
shore and repeat the same lessons patiently, a little each day. If you
have an old retriever with you the youngster will be ambitious to "go
him one better" and will learn more quickly.
It is necessary in training dogs to consider the inborn instincts of
the breed. A terrier is a "nat'ral ratter" and needs little training
for that, but you would have to train a long time to get a spaniel to
catch rats.
A dog on the farm can be trained to save the boys a lot of steps. We
had a shepherd dog once which was a famous runner. When my father
suspected that the cattle were breaking into the cornfield, he would go
first to the top of the knoll by the house, hold Nimp up in his arms,
point in the direction of the cows. Nimp would whimper and squirm and
when let down was off like a streak of brown lightning. He would not
go in a bee-line, but followed first the road, then the line fence
to where the marauding cattle were at work. By the time my father
or one of the boys on horseback reached the break in the fence the
fleet-footed dog would be hustling those cows. If he didn't actually
get them back into pasture he kept them moving so that they got no more
green corn than was good for them. "Good old dog" was all Nimp expected
for little deeds of kindness like this. He wagged his head, hung out
his long pink tongue, and almost smiled with satisfaction. There was no
doubt that he was pleased with having outwitted the cows, for which he
had small respect.
Teaching a collie to herd sheep or goats is a special sort of business;
experienced shepherds can teach you how it is done. Training hunting
dogs is also a work for experts. Anybody knows that a poorly trained
dog makes the difference between real sport and disgusting failure. A
young man with a real aptitude for training dogs for various forms of
hunting can find opportunities to turn this genius into cash.
TRAINING YOUNG HORSES
"Breaking colts" is a phrase handed down to us, I think, from the days
way back when our pioneer ancestors used to go out and catch a wild
horse and break it to saddle and harness. On ranches where colts range
over vast areas and never get acquainted with human beings except at
branding time, it is little wonder that they must be broken. They do a
little breaking on their own account, too. But on the small farm where
three or four colts a year or fewer are raised, no colt should need to
be "broken." All should be trained, which is one way of saying taught
or educated.
Everything depends upon the colt's learning each thing right first.
If you put an old, worn strap on him, or a fraying rope which he can
break, he will just as likely as not become a halter and bridle breaker.
A little colt starts out without any habits. All the bad ones as well
as all the good ones are learned. Every bad habit harks right back to
some mistake. You can manufacture balky horses by overloading a wagon
for your team of colts. I have seen boys tease a colt "just to see him
kick." That strikes me as lacking in "horse sense."
Every time you go out with your father to visit the two-year-olds and
the yearlings, be sure that you pet and caress them. Don't attempt to
mount one till you have accustomed him to the feel of a burden on his
back, a very small weight first, then the saddle of an old harness,
then a very light saddle. Don't act as if you were in desperate need
of a saddle horse. His training cannot all be done in one visit. A
yearling must be taught to lead, then to be driven.
After a two-year old has been accustomed to the feel of a harness,
one part at a time, he can safely be hitched with some old stager to
a light wagon, and taught what pulling means. He should already know
that a pull on the right rein means "gee" and on the left means "haw";
never give the command "whoa" to a colt, unless you have the muscle
to make your command good. A runaway may not break any harness, nor
any vehicle, nor any bones, _this_ time, but a runaway horse is an
ill-trained horse.
It is almost an impossible thing to train an old, high-spirited horse
to regard an automobile or a trolley car with anything but disfavour. A
young horse can learn easily. Soon after a colt is well "halter-broke"
he should be led around where the farm machinery is at work. He must
be held with a strong hand and not be allowed to bolt when the mowing
machine starts. Break the automobile to him gently. Lead him up to
a quiet one. Have a bit of his favourite dainty to offer him from
the seat and see to it that he is convinced that the automobile is
harmless. (Would that it were true!) Speak reassuringly to him. If he
jerks back, don't get mad and whack him, just to vent your impatience.
He will associate your whack with the automobile, and you will
have your work to do over again. I have known of a colt being made
"trolley-wise" in an hour and he never has forgotten; he would no more
shy when one whirls by than he would at his own mother hitched to a
load of hay.
TREADMILLS AND CRANKS
How a boy does hate the sight of a crank. Turning the grindstone,
running the washing machine and churning are part of a country boy's
daily life. He may do these things cheerfully, because he knows they
are boys' jobs or because he hates to see his mother doing them even
worse than he hates doing them himself. But that doesn't prove that the
boy's tastes run to crank turning.
Why not train a dog or a sheep to turn the crank? That's a scheme. It's
fun to train an animal and then it will be more fun to see him do the
work while you read a book and watch him.
Here is a picture of a big wheel from which a belt runs to a
grindstone out under a tree. In the wheel stands a good dog; by his
bright eyes, his erect carriage, and the "near-smile" on his face, you
can see that he is no brow-beaten labourer. A man at the grindstone
holds the axe and the wheel is ready to turn. This fine dog knows that
a certain signal means work. He does not skulk off and hide, nor yawn
and look limp. He steps up into the wheel, waits for the signal, then
begins a steady tread. On Mondays he does the washing, on Tuesdays and
Fridays he churns, on other days he helps grind the axe, the sickle,
the scythe, or the butcher knife. When the job is done, at a well-known
signal, the dog stops, steps off the wheel, and waits for the kindly
pat of his mistress or the "Good old fellow" of his master.
MAKING ANIMALS HAPPY
In training any domestic animal you will find their greatest weakness
is fear, just as with wild animals. You do not want to develop this
but to win their confidence. With horses taken right from the range or
wild, the men who are most successful are those who train by kindness.
A horse whose spirit is broken and who does his task because he is
afraid not to is not a safe horse. I wouldn't trust him in an
emergency. A horse who lives in a state of fear has very little sense.
[Illustration: Photograph by Julian A. Dimock. A Group of Happy Farm
Animals]
One blow, yell, jerk, or even a threatening motion will often
obliterate all the work you have done. So the animal trainer must not
lose his temper, especially with dogs and horses. The more intelligent
the animal, the more kindness and gentleness are required. On one farm,
you will see the calves trembling when coming for their food, trying to
keep one eye out for sudden blows while drinking; the horses jerking
timidly up as if expecting their tender mouths to be yanked; the cows
kicking the milkers; the colts hard to toll in from pastures; the dog
with tail between his legs; the cat on her way up a tree. Do you know
the owners of such animals? How are the boys of the family liked in the
neighbourhood? Are the girls popular and good-natured? Has the mother
the sweet and patient look that the best mothers have?
Every domestic animal ought to be kept happy. A happy hen will lay
eggs, a happy cat will purr and rub your leg in passing, not because
she wants anything out of you, but because she thinks you are a good
fellow and that's her way of expressing herself; she will catch mice
for you, too. A happy cow will give down her milk; a happy pig will lay
on fat faster than a miserable one, a happy horse will almost trot at
the plough. So really it pays to keep animals happy. Having creature
comforts alone is not enough for most animals. They like attention,
caresses, and even seem to enjoy and understand conversation.
Boys that train animals will find that the animals train them. If you
have a hot temper and can keep it in enough to train a dog to draw a
wagon, you will find it isn't so hard to hold in when you are playing
ball. Self-control is one of the biggest things in life.
The training of a calf or colt should begin early, just as with other
animals. If the animal has never been frightened the task is easy.
Begin gradually. Petting for a day or two will get him used to being
handled. A rope may be knotted round his neck and worn for a day or
two, or a rope halter put over the head; something that slips on
easily so that you don't have to hold the youngster's head. When he
is accustomed to the feel of the halter, you can lead him to his food
without his realizing it. Unconsciously he gets used to the pull on the
rope.
A pair of well-matched oxen, trained by kindness, taught to "gee"
and "haw" at the word without reins or goad, with no bad habits like
kicking or turning in the yoke, are worth between two and three
hundred dollars. They started out worth four or five dollars a head
for veal. Training and grass have done most of the rest. If trained
in kindness, they are docile, gentle, industrious, and though less
spirited than horses, they are also steadier and far better suited to
many heavy farm tasks than horses. The harness for oxen is very simple,
costs little, and seldom needs mending.
Every county fair ought to offer prizes for animals trained by boys and
girls. I believe boys train animals more often than girls do. I wonder
how that comes. Practise on the hens, girls, and on the cat. I know of
a cat which picks up nuts and puts them in a basket quite as a child
might. This cat treads a wheel, too, to turn the churn.
If all the animals were happy and earned their living, helping do the
work, as well as reproducing their kind, farm life would be less dreary
and hardships would seem less hard and the country would be a better
place to live in.
TAMING WILD ANIMALS
All little children are interested in animals. It does not take much
argument to convince a boy that he needs a dog or the girl that she
needs a canary bird. If, as they grow older, they seem to lose their
pleasure in the companionship of animals, it means that something is
wrong. Probably home conditions are such that an intimate acquaintance
with any animal is inconvenient or else some unnatural lessons in
natural history have been forced upon the children at school and their
interest in the real things has been deadened. I have heard many boys
and girls say that they dislike zoölogy. Take these same boys and girls
out on an excursion, with an opera glass or with an insect net, or show
them a rabbit's tracks in the new snow, and who will say they are not
awake and interested?
The first thing you want to know about an animal is its name. The
same is true of a new neighbour or a new schoolmate. The name does
not tell you much about the animal or the boy. When you know them
better you will give them names that fit. The new boy's name may be
Reginald. When the boys get to know him they may call him "Piggy," or
"Chief," depending on what kind of a boy he is. But a name is a great
convenience.
Next after the name you want to know where he lives, how he lives, and
above all what he can do. After all "what he can do" is the boy, and
the same is true of other animals.
How are boys and girls going to find out what animals can do, how they
live, how they make a living?
The good old natural way to find out what an animal can do and will
do is to catch him and watch him. Some small neighbours of mine did
not catch grasshoppers and throw them into the water because they were
cruel, although their mother berated them for cruelty. They wanted to
find out whether grasshoppers could swim or not. The boys who catch
squirrels and rabbits and birds and put them in cages want to take care
of them and teach them tricks.
But, seeing the wild ones unhappy and drooping, most boys will
voluntarily let them go. There is no good word to be said for the
practice of caging wild creatures merely for the entertainment their
misery will afford an irresponsible and curious crowd. I am glad to
know that those horrid whirling cages in which squirrels used to be
shut have become less common.
In these days of hunting without guns, there is also a good deal of
taming without cages. This is the real thing, and has everything in
its favour. There are two sides to it. From the animal's side the
tamed one has nothing to lose. He, and for his sake, all his fellows,
receive protection, consideration, care. If he tells any secrets, his
confidence is not betrayed to the enemy. He comes and goes at will and
pays his debts by keeping true that balance which existed in nature
before mankind upset it. From the human side taming wild things is a
delightful though not an easy way to learn to be patient, persevering,
and gentle. You simply have to practise these virtues or you will fail.
Furthermore, the domestication of wild animals useful to man results in
very great practical value. From the naturalist's point of view, this
is a most fruitful method of discovering the true habits of the wild
creatures, about which so much is yet to be learned.
Most efforts to tame full-grown animals result in complete failure.
Taken when young, almost any of them can be tamed.
No one ought ever to have a pet of any kind unless he sees one thing
clearly: Forcing his pet to become dependent upon his protection and
care involves a real responsibility. When I consider the number of
cases of neglected pets I am inclined to discourage children from
keeping them. It is a very good method of developing responsibility,
but, if the method fails, the innocent pet suffers. The uncaged pet has
an advantage over the caged one in that he can, if neglected, return
to the wild and shift for himself.
BIRDS
A great many famous people have made friends with our native birds.
John Burroughs could depend on an audience of robins to perch on his
knee. They would listen politely while he remonstrated with them for
stealing his grapes, well assured that the next forkful of earth he
turned would yield worms enough to repay them for waiting. It is not
uncommon to see photographs of birds perching on the hands of children
or grown people. One noted naturalist is pictured with a piece of bread
in his mouth, out of which a bird is taking a bite. To really tame a
full-grown bird is practically impossible. To gain its confidence is
difficult. It means that the person has never in its presence made a
motion sufficiently sudden to startle the timid creature nor lost his
patience or self-control once during many trials. A bird is not tamed
in an hour nor a day. A quick wave of the arm or a sharp noise is
enough to undo all that has been accomplished in long, patient hours
spent in establishing friendly relations. The photographs are records
of triumphs.
Professor Hodge encourages the taming of young birds in the interest
of increasing our valuable bird life. He says: "It is a rare lesson
in gentleness to capture a young bird without frightening it, but,
if successfully done, your bird is practically tame. If even a young
bird is caught after a severe chase, it is likely to be days, weeks,
and even months, before the effects of its fright can be obliterated.
If they can be picked up without frightening them, they will often
immediately perch on the finger and feed from the hand. I have tested
this with young vireos, chipping sparrows, orioles, grackles, and
repeatedly with young robins, which some even put down in their books
as untamable. Think what a monster the open hand must seem to a bird!"
Those of you who have read Mrs. Stratton-Porter's story of Freckles
will remember how he tamed the wild birds. They were residents of the
great primeval woodland and had not learned yet from sad experience to
hide from men. They swarmed about the gentle Irish lad because he had
made himself a part of the forest. To them he was like some new kind
of beneficent tree, yielding nuts for the nut-eaters, grain for the
grain-eaters, and bits of suet or scraps of meat for all who came for
it. He called them all, "Me chickens." Was there anything wonderful in
this? Yes; so thought the Scotch woodsman with whom Freckles lived.
And no, because anybody can do the same who will follow the same
tactics. If you read on in the story, you will readily believe that
his relations with the birds and the forest helped make Freckles the
lovable boy and the fine, sweet-natured man he grew up to be.
How to do something toward domesticating wild birds in order to make
the country a better place to live in is treated more fully in a later
chapter.
Humming-birds are said to be entirely without fear if tamed when
nestlings. They sometimes fall from the nest and are, of course,
helpless so far as feeding themselves is concerned. They will take
sweetened water from a spoon, but should not be expected to thrive
on this diet alone. Their natural food while growing, and probably
afterward, too, is largely insects. A supply of these should be given
the young birds. They become very tame and perch on the hand and on
the flowers in vases. They will visit your best hat, too, if it has
flowers on it, and will even try to collect nectar from the flowers on
wall-paper or curtains.
TOADS AND THEIR KIN
One is really surprised at the long list of wild animals that have been
successfully tamed. That is, they are sufficiently tame to come to the
tamer, eat from his hand, nestle in his pocket, follow him about--in
short, to show perfect confidence and little or no fear.
The toad for example, "ugly and venomous," (we have Shakespeare's word
for that, but he was mistaken)--, a very useful animal and absolutely
without disagreeable traits. It has been carefully estimated that every
toad is worth twenty dollars to the garden he lives in. Yet how seldom
one hears of a tame toad. At best they are tolerated, but not often
encouraged by protection or by a little attention. To tame a toad, one
only needs to feed him. Frogs, salamanders, newts, snakes, turtles, and
fish have all been tamed in the same fashion. As nearly all are insect
eaters, we are benefiting mankind when we encourage them.
[Illustration: Photograph by Charles W. Miller. The Crow May Be Tamed
When Young]
[Illustration: Photograph by Chester K. Reed. The Skunk is an Amiable
and Well-Mannered Pet]
SQUIRRELS
Tame squirrels are amusing. It takes very little encouragement to
make them tame enough to eat from the hand and even to rummage the
pockets for nuts. I remember a case when the red squirrels made so
free with the books in a great man's study that he became positively
annoyed, although he had himself encouraged them and had enjoyed
their friendliness and tameness. The case got so bad that he was
forced either to vacate or to get rid of the squirrels. He finally
had a trap set. The first squirrel that came in ran straight into the
trap. The great man had really not counted on any such circumstance.
He was nonplussed. In all his diplomatic career no such a situation
had arisen. He gave the matter earnest thought. He considered all the
_pros_ and _cons_. He weighed all the evidence. The squirrel was guilty!
When asked by a friend what penalty he pronounced, the great man
replied: "I read him such a lecture as he will never forget--and turned
him loose!"
The relations of the red squirrel with the birds are such that we are
pretty sure they should be discouraged. They are, alas! egg-suckers and
nest-robbers. The gray squirrel has not been caught in this nefarious
occupation. If plenty of nuts, fruit, and water were supplied for red
squirrels, maybe they could be cured of their bad habits.
The flying squirrel is to me the most beautiful member of his family.
He is said to tame easily, but I remember the only pair we ever caught
were shut in a convenient closet "till morning." When morning came
there were only a little pile of gnawings and a hole under the door to
tell the story. They had flown, nor could I blame them.
RACCOONS, WOODCHUCKS, AND SKUNKS
A raccoon is a most satisfactory pet and will afford about as much
amusement in the back yard as a cage of monkeys. Raccoons are more
numerous, especially in New England, than formerly. They are extremely
fond of green corn, but corn in any form is eaten greedily. Also, I
regret to say, they are nest-robbers. In fact, they will eat fish,
flesh, and fowl, as well as vegetables and insects. This makes the food
problem for a pet 'coon a very simple one. But we can not afford to
encourage them, because of their bird-eating habits.
Sometimes a hunter finds a suckling 'coon in the woods. He cannot let
the helpless thing starve, as it certainly would if left. When he gets
it home, he will realize that its natural food is 'coon's milk. Some
bright member of the family will suggest that a bottle of cow's milk
with rubber nipple will do the trick. Having no such convenience as a
rubber nipple, we once successfully brought up a baby pig on a bottle.
We took a goose quill and wrapped it with a strip of clean old cotton
cloth till we made a stopper for the bottle. This was fine, and I
can recommend it for suckling lambs, pigs, fawns, 'coons, and other
young mammals. There are well-authenticated stories of baby 'coons
being adopted by cats whose young have been "disposed of."
[Illustration: Photograph by E. S. Kane. A Bottle Baby]
A 'coon is a most mischievous creature, and if you tame one you should
really not expect your mother to feel all the enthusiasm you do about
him, for his mischief is sometimes exasperating. An animal enclosure
in the back yard may be necessary, but that means more work for you to
keep the 'coon and his mates happy.
Tame woodchucks are said by experienced boys to be a great success.
Young ones are easy to capture, for they are not allowed to "hang
around" the home nest after the parents decide that they are big enough
to earn their own way. In "American Animals" there is a good story of a
tame 'chuck for which the author traded an old fish line with a broken
hook and thirteen cents "to boot." This little chap was brought up by
hand and developed most interesting traits. He made life miserable for
the family tabbies by nipping their heels, and he tunnelled under the
door step till he made the earth cave in. A wild woodchuck will show
fight when in danger of capture, but the tamed ones are not vicious.
The last creature I should ever think of becoming familiar with is
the skunk. Yet I have a photograph of a lady feeding a full-sized one
from her hand. The account that went with the picture said that this
skunk was in "perfectly good working order," too. Several naturalists
have tamed these little animals, and there is no doubt that they make
amusing and well-behaved pets.
Prairie dogs, chipmunks, badgers, fawns, 'possums, crows, and many
other native wild animals have been successfully tamed. You may have
read of "Red" Saunders's pets, the bob-cat, the snake, and Judge, the
hawk. Whether you would call them tame or not depends. They certainly
had "wild, wild ways," though they frequented the kitchen and slept
under the stove, one at a time. The same methods must be employed, no
matter what the creature is. Gentleness, patience, and common sense
will succeed almost every time with young animals.
VI
MAKING BROOKS AND SPRINGS USEFUL
RECLAIMING A TROUT STREAM
"I used to ketch trout that 'ud weigh two pound in that little crick
back of my pasture when I 'uz a boy."
Who has not heard old men say that? They seem to have just accepted
the lack of trout as one other piece of bad luck, like wormy apples,
blighted wheat, and other dispensations of Providence. The younger
generation are not satisfied with this view. If good wheat can be
grown by modern methods, and wormy apples prevented by spraying, why
shouldn't trout be caught in grandpa's old brook? No reason in the
world. In between you and grandpa there was a generation of neglect.
Your father and his brothers probably went to town to seek their
fortunes. Anyhow, everybody was too busy to fish, and something went
wrong with the brook that needs to be righted.
Any stream that has been a trout stream once can be so again, provided
that the water is not fed with poisoned drainage from some mill
or factory. If the forest has been removed and natural conditions
so changed that the brook that used to be perennial is now only
semi-annual, going dry in time of drought, it will be necessary to
build a series of dams to make sure that the water will always be deep
enough for trout. A spring-fed brook is best; it is cool and constant.
Lower the channel by digging where refuse has choked the natural course
of the stream, but don't tidy it up enough to make it artificial.
The ideal brook, and the country is full of them, has gravelly or sandy
stretches which serve as spawning beds, swift rapids where exercise
is necessary, and deep pools for rest and quiet, shallow places where
insects lurk in the overhanging vegetation, and once in a great while a
real little waterfall where the water gets well churned and mixed with
air. The brook ought to supply enough food for all, but I have seen
fish so plentiful in well-cared-for streams that it was necessary to
feed them. We would take great pans of specially prepared food to the
water's edge; as we threw it broadcast on the surface the trout would
leap entirely out of the water in their eagerness to get the morsels.
We did not feed them liver because the epicure does not like his trout
to have a liver flavour. The natural food of the trout should be
encouraged to breed in the trout stream. You can restock your stream
with the little crustaceans, insect nymphs, and similar fish food
from other streams if you think it necessary. A few pails full of mud
carried across will start them.
[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. Plenty of Trout in This
Stream When Grandfather Was a Boy]
The greatest necessity is to protect your fish from their natural
enemies. Big fish will eat little fish, trout will eat trout, so will
bass, pickerel, and suckers. You can keep the big fish out by screening
the spillway at the upper dam.
There is good fun to be had in raising trout from the egg. This
work has been regarded by most people as too complicated and too
difficult for any but an expert. As a matter of fact, it is no more
difficult than many of the occupations boys engage in, chicken
raising, bee-keeping, and photography, for instance. Visit a fish
hatchery if you have one near, get all the government bulletins on the
subject, and, if you have available running water, you can try your
hand at trout growing. It would not appeal to many, but it is really
fascinating work.
SPRINGS FOR TROUT CULTURE
If there are constant, cold springs on your place, you are neglecting
a golden opportunity for earning money in an easy and delightful way.
A spring is capable of furnishing living room for a large family of
trout. You can sell live trout at sixty-five cents to a dollar a pound
to a first-class hotel. The big fish bring the smaller prices per
pound, those weighing from half a pound to a pound being most popular.
Clean out your spring first and make a basin ten to twenty feet square,
the bigger the better. Put a fine, galvanized iron netting over the
overflow of your reservoir. Young fish can be bought from a fish
hatchery in the form of eggs, fry, fingerlings, yearlings, or even
larger. The government will stock your streams for you free, but it
imposes certain conditions, which is quite just and proper. Get all the
information you can from state fish hatcheries or the United States
Bureau of Fisheries, before you decide finally.
RECLAIMING A SPRING
There is often a neighbourhood tradition concerning a wonderful
spring somewhere near, a spring that never ceases to flow, no matter
how complete the drought. The water is pure, cold, and clear; maybe
the oldest inhabitant had it from his grandfather how the Indians
used always to camp near it on their cross-country marches from the
Catskills to the Blue Ridge. They call it "The Old Indian Spring."
Sometimes they tell hair-raising tales of midnight adventures and
hair-breadth escapes, till you wonder that the spring itself never
turned red with the spilt blood. From stories of early pioneer days
one gets a good idea of the very great importance of the ever faithful
spring. With the certainty of a pure water supply for family and
beasts, a man might safely carve a home in a primeval forest. Without
it, he must push on yet another lap toward the wilderness.
I remember such a spring. Generations of red men, trekking from one
hunting-ground to another or maybe waging their own peculiar war in the
enemy's country, have depended on this spring for their success. Later
generations of pioneers have passed that way and refreshed themselves
with its sweet water. As years went by, the spring fell into disuse
and gushed on forgotten. But forty years ago it was re-discovered by a
searching party, identified as an historic spot, reclaimed, and made
permanently useful and beautiful by public spirit.
Nobody knows just how to appreciate a spring except the person who
discovers it, reclaims it, and makes it do his bidding. No bit of his
own ingenuity pleases the householder quite as much as his spring,
his piping, his reservoir, and his little hydraulic ram, yet one of
the last springs I visited was in a New England pasture. Its only
protection was a sort of fence of poles to keep the cattle out. To
approach it you had to leap from hillock to hillock, in constant danger
of losing your balance and sinking in a deep mud hole. The spring
bubbled up clear as crystal in a most unromantic hole in the ground;
its overflow simply spread out on the ground between the hummocks. It
didn't look thrifty to me. Two days' work would have laid a basin rim
of small stones about that spring with a piece of tile for an overflow
pipe, and a shallow channel might have been dug to carry the surplus
to the edge of the slope where another basin for the cattle might have
been made, or to a trough.
The water of a spring ought to be analyzed by a chemist before it is
used for drinking. Nobody knows what contamination is possible to a
spring whose sources are mystery. Campers ought to be particularly
careful in this, especially if their camp is near settlements.
The first step in reclaiming a spring is to dig out a basin. The
chances are that the one made by the water is too shallow for practical
purposes. Compute the number of gallons you want in reserve and take
out enough cubic feet of soil to make a basin of that capacity. Decide
next what to do with the surplus. Your basin is not designed to hold
the spring's daily output. If the spring is in a ravine, nothing is
simpler than to lay a tile drain from the basin down to the stream bed.
By damming the stream you can make a pond for waterfowl, for trout
raising, or for a swimming hole: but that is another story.
The basin should have a protecting rim. For a number of reasons this
should be solid and permanent. You are sure to want to sit on it and
watch the water, for one thing. Then, too, you want a protection
against surface water. All sorts of decaying animal and vegetable
matter must be kept out of the spring, so cover it tightly.
MAKING A SWIMMING POOL
In a country where wooded brooks are plentiful there is absolutely no
good reason why boys shouldn't have a swimming pool. It needn't cost
a thousand dollars, either. Every outdoor club ought to have one as a
special feature. The same dam that holds back the water for the skating
pond may serve in summer to make the swimming hole. It is really fun to
build a dam. Your father or the other boy's father will know how. You
can dig out the stream at low water, and make the pool deep enough for
diving.
High banks make the place more private; trees and underbrush serve the
same purpose. But if the banks are not high naturally, and the trees
have been cut away you have no idea how quickly you can make a natural
screen. Willows love the margin of streams and they grow tremendously.
A frame of poles covered with wild cucumber or morning glory will make
a good screen the first season while the permanent trees and shrubs
are growing. You don't need to swim all your spare time, so you can
give some time to making the pool more secluded. Move a few big bushes
from the woods in winter. They will never know the difference if you
transplant them while their roots are frozen in a big ball of earth.
Let me make a suggestion to you. You believe everybody ought to know
how to swim, don't you? That includes your father, of course, who
taught you. Does it include your sisters and the other boys' sisters?
"Everybody" is a big word, now you think of it. Why it includes even
your mother! Do mothers know anything about swimming? Some of them do,
already, only they never get a chance to keep in practice; but they
like it. It is precisely as natural for girls and mothers to enjoy
the water as it is for boys and fathers. Just be generous and let it
be understood that a certain day in the week is ladies' day, and turn
the pool over to them. Their bathing suits may not be in the latest
fashion, but you won't be there to criticize nor to see how well they
really swim.
A HOME-MADE SKATING POND
The family who own a tennis court and enjoy no skating in the winter
have their own want of ingenuity to blame, if they live in the Jack
Frost belt. Any level piece of ground, even the grass plot in the back
yard, can be skated on.
You need first to set a six-inch board on edge all round the level
plot. This board should be three inches in the ground and three inches
out.
As winter approaches, rig a trough from the pump to the pond-to-be or
have the hose where it can be attached to the spigot at a moment's
notice. Wait for a hard freeze. When it comes, and the ground is like
rock, give the word "all hands to the pumps." Let on enough water to
cover the surface, then let it freeze. If you get a smooth surface the
first go you are luckier than most boys. Cover the first coat with a
second and that with a third layer until you have smooth ice.
Then skate. On cold nights spray the worn places if you use a hose, or
run on another half-inch of water.
A good skating pond can be made by boys with a little ingenuity, which
in this case means engineering ability, by damming a brook until it
floods a naturally flat area above its own level. Or by damming the
outlet of a pond before dry weather comes on and holding the water at a
higher level than it would naturally have. It is perfectly astonishing
what a small dam will do, if cleverly placed. Study the work of beavers
if you know of any. You can get pointers from mill-dams built by your
great-grandsires, if there are any in your vicinity. In one of the
books for boys, mentioned in the book list, are practical suggestions
about building dams.
Sometimes boys think nature has not done as much for them as for boys
who have a natural swimming pool, a skating pond, or a trout brook.
Maybe if you helped her out a little, nature would do her part in your
case, too.
THE STORY OF RECLAIMING A SPRING
When I was fourteen years old my father bought his property in Ithaca,
N. Y., on which we live. That part of it on which there is now a
fine spring was considered worthless. Through this property ran a
well-wooded glen, the upper end of which was very wet and swampy. This
condition was due to several small springs emerging from the ground
at the head of the glen. All of these springs joined and flowed down
through the glen, forming a fairly large stream. This stream flowed
continually throughout summer and winter, without change of volume.
The first step in the reclaiming of this spring was to collect all
the water through tile drains into a large, concrete reservoir. This
reservoir, which was four feet wide, four feet high, and twelve feet
long, was constructed about two feet under ground. An open spring basin
was connected with this reservoir by a two and one-half inch iron pipe.
This basin was made of rough stones laid in cement, and the back side
of it arched over a foot or more, forming a partial roof. On the open
side is a concrete seat where one can conveniently sit and get a drink.
My father and I did all the work except part of the ditch digging. From
this basin was laid a one and a quarter-inch iron pipe which carried
the water down the glen a distance of about sixty feet to a hydraulic
ram. This ram is always running, and is made to go by the constant
pressure of the water from the spring basin. The water is forced
through a half-inch iron pipe to a large tank in the attic of the house
situated on the hill above. The tank, which holds about five hundred
gallons, supplies the house with pure, cold water for all purposes.
As the water is always flowing into the tank it is provided with an
inch and a half overflow pipe, which carries the surplus water back
into the glen. Thus, through a series of pipes and a ram, the water is
conveyed from the reservoir throughout the house. By building a small
dam farther down, we made a fair-sized pond on which to domesticate
some wild fowl.
The ground drained by concentrating the springs was well adapted
because of its fertility for the growing of shrubbery and flowers
of many sorts. In the wetter places, ferns and pink and yellow lady
slippers were planted, and in the dryer area shrubbery, such as the red
bud and azalea. Thus, what was once a mud hole was transformed into a
useful piece of ground.
JOHN NEEDHAM
A BACK YARD SWIMMING POOL
Somewhere and somehow our boys came into possession of the idea that
they could make a swimming pool. I think the original suggestion came
from _Country Life in America_, wherein was described, with beautiful
pictures, a swimming pool that cost five thousand dollars or six
thousand dollars. The boys had land a-plenty, water, too, and a will
to work if they were shown what to do. With the decision made that a
swimming pool must be had, a council was held to decide on ways and
means. The oldest boy, aged thirteen, stoutly maintained that he could
do the entire work himself, while the youngest, aged four, was equally
confident that the job was entirely within his capacity. It was finally
agreed that I should stake out the ground and furnish the material, and
the boys would do the work. With some slight modifications this plan
was followed throughout. It was decided to make the pool twenty-five
feet long, ten feet wide, and four feet deep. The ground was thereupon
staked off and the boys fell to with a will removing the earth.
It was hard digging, but the youngsters stuck to the work and finished
within a week. Earth to the depth of three feet was removed, and by
piling this around the entire margin of the excavation the level was
raised about one and one half feet for a distance of eight feet on all
sides. This plan avoided the necessity of hauling away the earth, gave
the desired depth, and provided a flat surface eight feet wide all
around the pool.
The rough digging being finished, the sides of the excavation were
trimmed with a spade to an angle of about forty-five degrees. Rough two
by four-inch studding was then cut into lengths of four and one half
feet and placed four feet apart all around the banks. Where each piece
of studding was set, the earth was removed, so that the timber was made
flush with the soil. The end of each piece of timber was also sunk in
the earth at the bottom of the pit for about three inches, in order
that it might be held firmly against the bank. Rough pine boards, free
from cracks and knot holes, were then nailed to the timbers at the top
only. These boards were twelve inches wide, and thus formed a border
or rim all around the upper portion of the pit, one foot in width. At
right angles to the twelve-inch rough boards others of the same size
were nailed, the last projecting out on the level ground, thus forming
a boardwalk around the excavation. The main object of these boards was
to keep the waves from washing the banks and to give a clean place upon
which to stand or sit while not actually in the water.
The boards being up, there was still left about three feet of the
sides, and the entire bottom of the excavation, without covering of
any kind. It was decided to cover the sides and bottom with cement,
plastering this material directly upon the earth. The cement was mixed
with sand, one part cement and two parts of sand, and was spread on
with a mason's trowel. Two and a half barrels of cement and about four
barrels of sand were used. Toward the last, pure cement was applied as
a thin wash to the entire surface.
The cementing was a pretty tough job, but with the help of an old
coloured man the work was finally done in a thorough manner, and the
pit was then as tight as a jug. It was allowed to dry for two days;
then the water was turned in. The water was supplied from the service
pipe of our home near by, and as it is furnished by meter, we had no
qualms as to the quantity used. The pool holds about eight thousand
gallons and requires from twelve to fifteen hours to fill it through a
three-quarter inch pipe.
The entire cost of the work, not counting the boys' time, was as
follows:
12 boards, 1 × 12 × 16 $2.25
8 pieces rough pine, 2 × 4 × 16 1.05
2½ barrels cement at $1.50 per barrel 3.75
------
Total $7.05
The pool was located in the shade of some willows on ground slightly
higher than the adjacent territory. Every few days some of the water
was siphoned off through a piece of hose and fresh water run in. Once
a week, however, about a handful of copper sulphate was tied up in a
piece of cheese cloth and thrown into the pool, where it was whipped
up and down in the general fun until all the copper was dissolved. The
copper kept the water absolutely pure and sweet throughout the entire
season, and not a sign of algæ appeared.
The pool was a source of constant delight, not only to our youngsters,
but to those of our neighbours. All but the four-year-old learned to
swim, and by the end of the season even he could make some preliminary
moves in that direction. The moral of the story is that if you have
some youngsters, a back yard and a city water pipe you do not need to
go to the seashore for fun. Give the boys a chance to make a swimming
pool and they will enjoy it all the more if it is the result of their
handiwork.
BEVERLY T. GALLOWAY
VII
KEEPING BEES
I picked up a number of the _Bee-Keeper's Review_ one day and my eye
caught this surprising headline:
"A BOY'S BUSINESS WORTH $1000"
I opened my eyes and read on in astonishment about a boy who started
with no more capital than any boy could get together, and, without
sacrificing his school or college plans, built up a bee business which
he sold for one thousand dollars. In the meantime his bees had not only
paid their own board but his as well. If one boy can make a success
like that, other boys can. So can girls, for bee-keeping is a form of
outdoor work which seems admirably suited to sensible, nature-loving
girls.
HOW TO BEGIN
There are a good many ways to begin this like any other business, but
there is probably a _best_ way for each person. Fortunately one does
not have to begin on a large scale. In my opinion the only way to learn
how to keep bees right is to keep them. Experienced bee-keepers advise
young people to visit a practical apiary and watch the owner among his
bees, taking note of what he does and says. Offer your services if he
needs help, asking him to explain what he is doing and what for. Stay a
few days or a week if he will keep you and learn all you can. One young
woman spent a summer vacation on a farm where twenty or thirty colonies
of bees were kept, and helped whenever anything was to be done with the
bees. When she went home she took a colony of bees with her, and now
she is manager of her own apiary with a larger income than the average
teacher and ten times the leisure.
For beginners the cheaper bees are satisfactory. Later, nothing will
be too good. A stand of bees can be bought for two dollars or three
dollars, but a colony of choice Italians in a modern hive with tested
queen may come as high as fifteen dollars. Better have them to sell
than to buy at that price.
There are cheaper ways of getting them than buying them. If a runaway
swarm which no owner claims, alights in your yard the bees may be
yours by right of discovery and if you hive them successfully, by
right of possession. This method though practised by some has not the
sanction of the golden rule, and is not here recommended. What fun
it would be, though, to secure a runaway swarm and make the visitors
comfortable in a temporary hive. You would probably find they belonged
in the apiary nearest you and ten to one the owner would just as
soon you kept them unless they were a very choice kind. He will be
so pleased that you were able to hive them that he will offer you
something substantial for your work. He may give you the bees, and your
bee-keeping will begin "by accident" as did the life-work of the famous
veteran apiarist, Mr. A. I. Root.
Make a small beginning. Many successful bee-keepers had less than
twenty dollars to begin with. One colony is a start. It is astonishing
how quickly bees begin to "pay their way" and this test ought to
be applied in all your ventures. Keep a strict account of all your
expenditures in supplies, and credit the bees with all the honey you
take off and with the new swarms. If I say this often, it is because it
must be repeated to fix its importance in the mind. If you make good
interest on your money you know it is safely invested. If, however,
you charge up your time against the bees you must credit them with the
fun you have, the outdoor exercise you get in caring for them and the
consequent freedom from doctor bills.
THE BEST PLACE FOR BEES
You will read of keeping bees on a city roof, in a suburban attic,
and on boats; but the most natural place for them is in the village
or country, where fields of clover, groves of basswood, and patches
of buckwheat abound. An orchard or large garden is incomplete without
a few hives. The young bee-keeper with these advantages is to be
congratulated; the conditions are ideal. All he needs is a liking for
bees and spunk.
Before you get the first colony decide where your apiary is to be
located. Even one hive must have a place and you must plan for
increase. An orchard is a fine place, and the hives should be at least
fifty feet from the street or road, because bees do not recognize the
laws of the open road and turn neither to the right nor to the left. If
necessary to put them next the street or close to a neighbour's garden,
there should be tall bushes, a hedge, or a high fence to protect the
passers-by. Otherwise your venture into bee culture may make you "bad
friends" with the neighbours and even carry you before the justice of
the peace.
In very hot weather some shade is necessary for beehives, but too much
shade may result in failure. The morning sun and the late afternoon
sun are good for bees, but the heat of the mid-day sun may cause the
comb to melt and bring disaster to bees young and old. As moving the
active colonies is not always safe, it pays to make a plan in the
beginning for the whole number you expect to have. This is a case where
it is justifiable to "count your chickens before they are hatched." It
will not take much imagination to draw a plan on paper locating the
principal objects in and near the apiary-to-be, and to sketch in the
location of the ten, fifteen, or twenty hives you are likely to have
five years from now. If you have no large, deciduous trees to offer
ideal shade you needn't give up the idea of keeping bees. With the
modern ventilated covers, bees are successfully kept out in the sun, if
protected from wind and storms. A grape arbour affords good protection.
It should run from east to west. Any trellis with quick growing vines
like hops, Virginia creeper, or grapes, will serve well. Grapes give
best return as they bear fruit and their blossoms supply honey in
season. Where no natural shade is possible a shade board or air-spaced
cover supplies the lack. A shade board can be made of any old box
material. Lay a couple of sticks across the top of the hive to rest the
shade board on and to let the air circulate.
Wind is worse for bees than too much sun. Bless the pioneers of
the windy country if, by reason of their forethought, you have a
real evergreen windbreak on your place. If you have not this ideal
windbreak, a building will serve, or your hedge or high board fence
should be on the windy side.
If you start, as many have, with one or two colonies let them face the
south or east and leave space enough between the hives to run a lawn
mower. As your number increases, your original plan may be changed, but
it always pays to make the plan.
Try to consider, in the arrangement of the hives, not only convenience
but beauty. If a board fence is necessary, train vines to cover its
bare ugliness; a fringe of low shrubs will help make it beautiful. As
your apiary grows, experience will teach you how to group the hives to
get the best results. Twenty hives grouped in fives under the north
side of four big, spreading apple trees would be the ideal I would set
for myself if the orchard was ready for occupancy. If I began at the
age of fourteen years, I could easily reach this ideal in six years
and keep my other duties up, too. By that time I should know whether
I wanted to be a bee-keeper or not. A great many people find that the
chicken business combines well with some other business or profession.
It is surprising that more people do not consider bee-keeping in the
same way. Barring accidents, bees are far easier to handle, cleaner,
and they board themselves. You can leave them over Sunday without any
qualms of conscience and without arranging with somebody to feed and
water them. The bees will not get out and scratch up your garden or
your neighbour's, but they will do work in the garden that is too fine
for your hands to tackle, and your crops will be bigger because of
their visits. Chicken owners always sleep with one ear open, expecting
night prowlers to appear and carry off their best stock. But who ever
heard of a burglar alarm on a beehive? There are honey thieves, but
they are not common.
Beehives look best on a carpet of grass, but if you have to be away
during much of the summer wide rough boards should be placed in front
of the entrance to the hives to keep the grass down. A bee is likely to
come home heavily laden and pretty well fagged out with a long flight.
If she should settle in a tangle of grass she would be likely to give
up the struggle and fail to answer to roll call the next morning. Keep
the grass short in front of the hives, then, if you have to cut it with
shears, which is not as dangerous as it sounds, once you get used to
it. This is best done on cold or wet days when few bees are going in
and out. Salt, ashes, or gravel may be sprinkled close up to the hives
to kill the grass.
BUYING BEES
Even the people with bees to sell advise beginners to buy from some one
in their neighbourhood. It is not safe, though, to move bees less than
a mile and a half as they are likely to return to their old location.
Buy from an up-to-date apiary if you can, and get standard hives;
the old box hives are not worth anything; neither are fancy hives of
complicated structure. The entrance to the hive should be closed with
wire cloth after the bees all get home in the early evening. If closed
in the middle of the day you are cheated. In warm weather the cover
should be taken off; in its place should be put the super over which
wire-cloth has been tacked. Strips of wood can be nailed on top of this
to which the cover can be fastened. By this arrangement ventilation
is secured. We once lost a colony shipped by express without any
provision for the circulation of air. Night is the best time to move
the bees, though it can be done in the daytime; a cold day is best.
Remove the wire cloth the first night after placing in permanent
location.
Spring is the best season to buy your first colony. The price may be
higher but the risk is less. Get a strong colony that has wintered
well, which contains, on the average, twenty-five thousand to
thirty-five thousand worker bees.
It would be well just here for the beginner to get acquainted with the
opinions of the best bee-keepers about the kinds of bees. There are
varieties among bees as well as among hens, pigeons, dogs, and horses.
Americans like to be "hail, fellow, well met" with all their live
stock, and although even the best tempered bee might resent a cordial
slap on the flank, there are bee-lovers who tell of stroking their
little winged friends with a grass stem. It requires real sympathy to
succeed with bees just as it does with chickens or cows. No one can
work long with them without becoming intensely interested. Most people
learn to love them and find absorbing occupation in studying their ways.
Two races of hive bees are common here, though none are native:
German, or black, and Italian. All the books and magazines as
well as bee-lovers unhesitatingly recommend the latter as the more
good-tempered, being at the same time hardy, prolific, and industrious.
Good hybrids, that is, a mixture of black and Italian blood, may do
almost as well as pure stock, but pure-bred queens are a necessity to
keep the grade up. When you hear of people who gather bees by handfuls
into aprons or baskets you may be sure that those concerned are all
thoroughbreds.
If there are no bees for sale near by, the best plan is to order from a
dealer in the spring what is known as a nucleus. This is a very small
colony, about a quart of bees (three thousand two hundred), should
be accompanied by a tested queen, and housed in a modern hive with
three frames of comb. The queen sets to work laying eggs in the cells,
new frames should be added as needed, and if pollen and nectar are
plentiful the hive will soon be full of busy young workers. By fall the
frames should be stored with the honey needed for the winter.
Your first expense after securing a colony will not be for "mixed
grain" or "middlings," but for a smoker, a bee veil and gloves, extra
hives for your swarms, honey sections, and other supplies. Don't buy
everything that looks useful or is highly recommended by the salesman.
Maybe he never saw a bee. Sometimes an old spoon or other cheap utensil
can be made into a more useful tool than the one he wants fifty cents
for.
The following list includes the supplies you are pretty sure to need
the first year:
One colony of bees, in an up-to-date though simply constructed hive.
On the whole, the ten-frame hive seems to me to have advantages over
a smaller one. A deep telescope cover gives room for two supers on
top at once. The only advantage in the chaff hives seems to be that
winter protection is not needed for bees housed in them. The obvious
disadvantage is their greater cost, size, and weight. Single walled
hives are so easily made weatherproof, (see Wintering) that the expense
of the chaff hive is not necessary.
Three extra hives.
Two supers; four super covers.
Two to five hundred section boxes for comb honey. You will not need
very many of these the first year, but they come cheaper in larger lots.
One smoker. Of the several kinds offered, you may safely choose the one
that you have seen used successfully.
One pair bee gloves; one bee veil.
One pound brood foundation, for the new swarms to begin on.
Two pounds thin super-foundation for starters in the honey sections.
One foundation fastener. One experienced bee-keeper tells me that he
likes the "Dewey" best. Others prefer the "Daisy."
One Porter bee escape.
One bee brush.
One queen and drone trap. The new Alley trap is made with bars instead
of perforated zinc, and works better.
A bee-keeper's guide. (See list of books in the appendix.)
Complete directions for putting together the hives, etc., should
accompany the filled order, and the novice should work with one eye on
the printed page. A good book on bee-keeping should be included in the
beginner's order. Those recommended in the book list in the appendix
are all good books for beginners.
BEES AS WAGE EARNERS
Average American boys and girls are a pretty sensible crowd and they
don't expect to get much for nothing. If they make money they like to
see "for value received" written on it. They may get enthusiastic over
the work they undertake, but there is a difference between enthusiasm
and gush. Enthusiasm helps you do the hard part of your job. Gush only
makes you ridiculous. Is there anything worth doing that doesn't take
time and work? The honey-producing business is no exception. But the
people who keep bees like their job. "Yes," they say, "it takes thought
and energy and some hard work, but it is _such fun_." The "little
people" are so interesting that you forget that it is work. Compared
to "butter money," "egg money," and "fruit money," the women of the
household regard "honey money" as "easy."
How much can you count on your bees earning? General statements will
give you some idea. You may do better or not so well as the average. A
good colony ought to turn out thirty or forty pounds of comb honey a
year beside what they need for winter, which is fifteen or twenty-five
pounds if wintered in a cellar, twenty-five or thirty-five pounds if
wintered outdoors.
The best market for honey is the home market, and the price is the
best. You get the commission man's profit and the retailer's profit as
well as the grower's. The last honey I bought was twenty-five cents
a pound. If I bought your thirty pounds at that price you can see for
yourself what you would get per hive. The new swarms add to your assets
and you are out nothing except for supplies. Compare this with the
expense of going into chicken or squab raising. The following is quoted
from a good authority: "Two dollars a year clear profit per hive is the
very lowest estimate and twenty to thirty hives infringe very little on
one's time. This many colonies may easily be managed by a woman or by
the younger members of the family."
The United States has to import two and a half million pounds of honey
annually, and a half million pounds of beeswax. Will not our bees
work just as cheaply as those in foreign countries? Let us have more
bee-keepers.
HIVES
Little flat-topped white houses varying in height, standing under the
trees in back yards are not an unfamiliar sight to most of us. We say
as we pass on the road, "Those people keep bees," and our mouths begin
to water. But what do the hives look like inside? They are not mere
hollow boxes. Wild bees are content with a hollow tree, but modern
domesticated bees require a special kind of furniture.
The first eaters of honey were simply robbers of the wild bees. When
man began to domesticate bees, and that was so long ago that we cannot
stop to count the centuries, there came to be two sides to the bargain.
In return for a share in their stores he kept them in clean quarters,
provided abundant pasture, protected them from their enemies and from
the weather. The old-fashioned hives were very picturesque affairs; you
see them in pictures, and when you travel in Europe you may see them
still in use. Those skeps do not encourage doing much with the bees
or knowing what is going on in the dark hive. I wonder how the folks
ever got any honey to eat. The modern bee-keeper wants to open his hive
for a good many reasons. He not only wants honey when the bees have an
over-supply, but he wants to know what is doing. He wants to know if
his expensive queen is doing her duty; he wants to know if too many
young queens are being developed; he wants to know if any diseases or
other enemies are present. He therefore must have a hive that permits
frequent and minute inspection of its interior.
"But," said one boy, "I don't intend to open my hives and get stung all
over." Now who expects to get stung all over? There's no denying that
bees sometimes sting, cats often scratch, dogs sometimes bite, goats
butt, cows hook, horses kick, and so on. Some method of self-defence
is their right, and I doubt if we should find bees so interesting if
they did not carry concealed weapons. We certainly respect their rights
as we might not if they were defenceless. A bee sting is uncomfortable
while it lasts, but people afraid of bees get very little sympathy from
me. Rest assured that you will open your hives often and the less said
about being stung the better.
[Illustration: Modern hive, showing parts in their correct order]
If possible examine at a dealer's or at some apiary an empty hive.
Learn the uses and names of the parts. The bottom board represents the
foundation, the brood chamber is the living room, and the supers are
the attic store rooms. The flat cover is the rain-proof roof. The hive
must be a good home for the bees and easily handled by the operator.
The bottom board should not rest directly on the ground because of
dampness, which rots the wood and is not good for the bees. Some use
hive stands, others set the hives on a platform, supported by wooden
blocks or on tiles as illustrated here.
Beehives, like cottages nowadays, must have all the modern
conveniences, and up-to-date furniture. In the brood chamber there are
movable frames into which the bees build the combs where the young are
reared. With the introduction of these movable frames by Langstroth,
fifty years ago, a new era in bee culture began. The furniture of the
second-story rooms consists of rows of little section boxes, empty at
first, but ready to be stored with comb honey. When nectar is plentiful
and the brood-chambers are full to overflowing with honey, the workers
are quick to take the hint and begin to store their surplus in the
section boxes.
You will notice that there is just one entrance to the hive. This
front door is sacred to the occupants. When going among his hives, the
bee-keeper who knows his place keeps to the rear. If you respect their
privacy to this extent, the bees will come out in front, rise, and
sail off above your head without taking the slightest notice of you.
WHAT GOES ON IN THE BROOD CHAMBER?
Bees are the most public-spirited of creatures. They devote their time
to the service of their colony. Their industries are all directed
towards one end: the increase of the number of bees in the world. When
the hive gets too full of bees, the colony divides and a "swarm" is the
result. Thus two colonies are established where there was but one, and
the number of individuals goes on increasing twice as fast.
The honey bee, like its wild cousin the bumble bee, passes through
four changes of form during its development. These are the _egg_, the
_larva_, the _pupa_, and the _adult_. The queen is no ruler, but she
is the mother-bee, and upon her depends the future of the bee colony.
Dealers in bees rear some of her young before selling each queen, in
order to be sure that she has mated with a pure-blooded drone. These
are called tested queens. Their progeny can be depended upon to possess
the good qualities of both parents. If the eggs of fine Italian queens
develop into nervous, lazy, black-coated, and black-tempered workers,
you may safely say, "They take after their father's family." The
egg-laying begins in the spring and at the height of honey harvest the
queen bee may lay as many as three thousand eggs every day. She hurries
over the open comb inserting her body into the empty cells, and leaves
an egg stuck fast at the bottom of each.
The worker bees grow from egg to maturity in small, hexagonal, or
worker cells. Three or four days in the egg, six days as a footless
grub or larva floating serenely in a tiny well of liquid food supplied
her by the nurse bees, twelve days wrapped in a silk coverlet of her
own spinning, the young worker bee passes through her four stages of
growth. At the end of her three weeks some inner impulse tells her to
be up and doing, and she obeys the stern call. She cuts a hole in the
cap of her cell, sheds her skin for the last time (she did this five
or six times during the larval or growing stage), and comes forth.
It takes her about one day to dry her "feathers," adjust herself to
her environment, and "get busy." She finds many little open wells of
unsealed honey, and as nobody pays any attention to her she drinks
her fill. A round of duties await her, and she goes at them without
being told how. She must do nursing, comb-building, cell-capping, and
general housework, and all without the least training. After about a
week of this, the young worker goes out to play, and then to work.
She is young, inexperienced, and self-conceited, and tries to call
attention to herself like any vain young miss. When she brings in her
first load of pollen she fairly swaggers with importance. Mr. Root
says, "Her first load of pollen is just what the first pair of pants is
to a boy baby."
When a bee is a month old, she is in the prime of life. Three or four
months of hard work in summer means old age for the workers, but in the
bee colony there is no such thing as an old ladies' home. With their
wings worn to stumps, their once velvety backs rubbed shiny, they may
be seen creeping away from the hive to die, having given their very
lives in willing and faithful service of the commonwealth.
Of the unexplained wonders of the development of queens and drones, the
mystery of the laying workers, and the other many and varied activities
of the hive, we cannot tell much in detail here. Your own book on
bee-keeping and larger books of reference will be mines of information.
But there are undiscovered North Poles in the bee world, and the young
bee-keepers of to-day may be the Greeleys and the Pearys and the
Shackletons of this new-old science.
SWARMING
Did you ever wonder why bees swarm? They have no regular dates for
doing things. Although they have been known to swarm in May, and even
in April, you are not likely to get a swarm before June. Early swarms
are the most valuable, therefore you should be ready, for bees are
like time and tide. Have the hive fitted with frames and keep it in a
cool place. Bees swarm to increase the number of colonies. The date of
swarming depends on local conditions and nobody can tell but the bees
themselves, and they won't, what these conditions are exactly. If there
are too many bees, too much honey stored, thousands of workers hatching
daily, many young queens ready to emerge, the bees are likely to swarm.
The bee-keeper is on the lookout after he knows the signs and can guess
pretty shrewdly whether the swarm will be out in a few days or later.
He gets his apparatus together and his hives ready. Bees often "hang
out" on the outside of the hive, and we used to think that was a "sure
sign," but it often fails.
It is the old queen that leaves the hive, but the bees that go out
with her are a mixture of young and old ones. No one knows how the
decision is made as to who shall go and who shall stay behind, but
there is never any indecision in the community that we can reckon with.
Some hot Sunday you will be roused from your book by the excited
cry: "The bees! Look, there they go! The air's full of them. They're
swarming. I'll bet they get away. No, they're settling." Meantime, if
you are the boy who owns the bees, you are getting ready to hive your
first swarm.
It's no joke, for thrills will be chasing up your spine, and if you
didn't have so much to do you would be as excited as the rest. But
success may depend on your keeping cool. You have probably already
instructed the family in modern methods so that no one will be raising
a din by beating an old wash boiler, etc. If you have a garden hose
handy, let some one play a fine spray on the whirling bees. Nothing
brings them to time more quickly. When the bees have settled, place the
hive conveniently near them, with a sheet or hive cover in front. Cut
the branch on which the bees are clustered and shake them off into or
in front of the hive. If well disposed they will go in promptly.
If high trees and no shrubbery is the rule in the vicinity of your
hives, you will probably need your long-handled swarm-catcher. Or you
will very soon begin the practice of clipping the wings of your queens.
When the clipped queen brings out a swarm she hops about near the hive.
She may climb into a shrub if one is near by. Why not provide her with
a still more convenient forked stick as some bee-keepers do? She climbs
up this, calls her family together, and you do the rest. You may prefer
to capture the queen in your little queen trap, and place her at the
entrance to a new hive which you should place on the stand where the
old hive was. The bees will return to their old location when they
discover that the queen is not with them. The new hive will receive
them and the queen when released will go in with her family. If the
bees refuse to stay in the new hive, it may be because the hive is too
hot. Prop up both hive and cover to allow extra ventilation.
MAKING APPARATUS
While I do not advise any amateur bee-keeper to try to construct his
own hives and frames, I do think it is a fine idea to begin right away
to study how to improve the appliances now in use. You will have to
discard many of your own ideas as useless when you come to try to
apply them to practical use. There are lots of patented appliances for
sale that make an experienced bee-keeper smile. He undoubtedly knows
a clever boy at home who can rig up a home-made contraption that will
cost nothing at all, and do the work better than the expensive tool. A
boy that keeps bees will find a knowledge of tools and wood-working of
great advantage to him, and a girl's deft fingers will know how to put
materials together that a professional would never think of.
In this connection I will here describe a swarm-catcher, devised by
a practical bee-keeper many years ago and recommended by an expert
in Apiculture of the United States Department of Agriculture. The
construction is so simple that I believe I could make one myself!
Though home-made, it is interesting to see how thoroughly scientific
are the essential features of this device, all based on a knowledge of
bee instincts.
This description is adapted from an article by Dr. B. N. Gates in one
of the annual reports of the Maryland Bee-Keepers' Association. The
accompanying drawing was made from a picture of the swarm-catcher in
the same report. The apparatus consists of a box with one end open and
supported on a pole. The materials required are nails, a large wire
hook, some thin boards, and two or three poles of different lengths.
A saw, a bit and brace, and a hammer are the only tools required for
making it.
[Illustration: Swarm-catcher that works like magic. Any handy boy can
make it]
It is bee nature to try to get into some small hole. To take advantage
of this instinct the five sides of the swarm-catcher are perforated
with holes about one half an inch in diameter. While the framework of
the box should be light, it should also be strong and the materials
good so that the swarm-catcher will last for years.
A convenient size has been found to be eight by eight by sixteen. A
hole to fit the size of the poles should be bored in the centre of the
top and one at the bottom. The big wire hook should be screwed into the
top far enough from the centre so that it will not be interfered with
by the projecting end of the pole. A slot should be cut lengthwise of
the top, sufficiently large to allow a frame of honey-comb to be put
in so that it hangs down inside to attract the bees. This honey bait
is essential to the successful working of the swarm-catcher. You can
devise other ways of suspending it to the top inside of the box. It is
thought that a coat of green paint on the outside and one of black on
the inside induces the bees to enter the box more readily.
A swarm-catcher like this cuts out all the loss of time and danger of
losing a valuable swarm of bees while preparations to hive them are
going on. And you can practically catch a swarm anywhere with this
device. If they light on a stone wall, a tree trunk, or on the ground,
you simply brush a pint or so of them into the box, stick the sharp
lower end of the pole into the ground near by, and go off and leave
them to go in at their leisure. A whiff or so of smoke is needed when
you first go up before beginning to wield the brush.
For swarms hanging in the ordinary way from limbs of trees or vines,
while the bees are clustering, take a frame from one of the hives and
hang it in the swarm-catcher. It is best to take a comb containing
developing brood and some honey. This forms a well-nigh irresistible
lure for the swarming bees. One look at the pendant mass of bees will
tell you what length of pole you need in the box. Put on your veil and
gloves and hoist the box up into the tree. Put the open end of the box
up against the mass of bees and get as many of them into it or onto it
as possible. Catch the branch with the hook on the box and give it a
vigorous shaking. This unsettles the rest of the bees and they will be
attracted instinctively to follow the rest into the box where the brood
cells are. Once the bees are safely clustered in and on the box there
is no rush about hiving them. They are safe to be left hanging by the
hook within ten feet or so of their original clustering place or with
the pole stuck in the ground near by. They are secure there for hours,
even for days, but one usually has time to hive them the same day. The
swarm should not be left in the hot sun.
Hiving is done in the usual way. After the hive is prepared with combs
or foundation, shake the bees from the swarm-catcher either into or in
front of the hive. With large swarms it is advisable to prop the hive
body up slightly from the bottom board to enlarge the entrance. The
"marching in" is a wonderful sight.
An established colony of bees cannot be moved five feet without
causing them confusion. Before the newly hived bees have had time to
locate themselves and set to work at honey gathering, the hive should
be moved to its permanent location. It is not safe to delay longer than
twilight of the day they are hived. When once they get a location fixed
they return to it and are lost.
If they refuse to be reconciled in a new hive, put in a frame of young
brood from some other hive and try them again. They seldom desert an
obvious duty like the caring for young.
OPENING THE HIVE
The modern art of bee-keeping was made possible by the invention of the
hive with movable frames. Some of the many reasons for opening the hive
are:
1. To take off honey.
2. To see if enough honey has been stored for winter.
3. To find the queen.
4. To introduce a new queen.
5. To examine the brood.
Before opening the hive know just what you are going to look for. Get
the smoker well going; shavings, punk, excelsior, or chips crowded in
make a good smudge; you want much smoke and little fire. Put on your
bee veil. For a greeting, blow a little smoke in at the entrance of
the hive you are going to open. Loosen the cover which you will find
to be glued tight with propolis by the bees. A dull putty knife or
screw-driver is a good tool for this job. As fast as you unseal the
cracks, blow smoke into them. At this juncture it is well to close the
hive for a few minutes to give the bees time to "think it over." The
better the grade of bees the less smoke is required. Take your time.
Keep your nerve steady and the smoker handy. Loosen the frames and take
them out one by one. In order to see what is going on in the frames
you must clear off the bees. Do this in such a way that you will not
endanger the queen if she should be on the frame. Poke the bees off
so that they fall bewildered back into the hive. Set the frame down
against the outside of the hive and take out another.
There are cells of three sizes in the brood combs. Queen cells are
large, standing out from the surface of the comb quite prominently.
The drone and worker closely resemble one another, but the drone cells
are the larger. Honey is stored in both drone and worker cells. If you
wish to destroy the queen cells to prevent swarming you will find it
a ticklish job, even with a sharp, slender knife, not to ruin a lot of
comb.
[Illustration: Drone and queen trap at hive entrance]
It is often important to locate the queen. If you wish to clip her
wings, find her you must. She is usually near the middle of the hive,
surrounded by her court, a rosette of workers. She is quite different
in shape from the workers. It is well to study her picture before going
to look for her. A queen's wings are not much to cut, but you will need
a steady nerve if you do it free hand. Many devices are to be had to
make the operation less difficult and to insure safety to the rest of
the queen. The danger is all to her, for although she is armed she will
not sting you. She reserves her sting for some rival in her own class.
Harvesting any crop has interesting features, but nothing has the
peculiar charm of taking off honey. Loosen the cover, puff in a little
smoke, lift the cover, then the whole super off. Put on a new super
and replace the cover. Have your bee brush ready and as you lift the
fitted sections out of the super, brush the bees that cling to them
down to the entrance to the hive. This is the old way and is fraught
with dangers. Moreover, the bees may regard one robbery as sufficient
excuse for another. Robbery is a serious matter in the apiary. The
modern way is to use the Porter bee-escape. This device obviates all
the difficulties and once you have "got the hang of it," you will have
no further trouble getting honey from your hives.
STINGS: PREVENTION AND CURE
The bee mittens, the veil, and the smoker are all preventive measures.
A good deal depends on the way you behave when working with bees. If
you are nervous and anxious you probably will act that way and the bees
have a way of understanding and are likely to find you.
Remove the sting by a scraping motion with a knife blade or some hive
tool you happen to have handy. If you use the thumb and finger you
squeeze the tiny bulb at the outer end of the sting, and inject the
poison into your blood.
Experts have little or no faith in cures which are rubbed on. They
underestimate the comfort one gets "doing something" for a spot that
hurts so mighty bad. So go ahead and put on alcohol or baking soda or
ammonia; you can't do a bit of harm that way. In the meantime nature is
busy neutralizing the acid the bee punished you with.
Mrs. Comstock, in "How to Keep Bees," gives these maxims for opening
the hive:
Have the smoker ready to give forth a good volume of smoke.
Use the smoker to scare the bees rather than to punish them.
Do not stand in front of the hive lest the bees passing out and in take
umbrage.
Be careful not to drop any implements with which you are working; take
hold of all things firmly.
Move steadily and not nervously.
Do not run if frightened, for the bees understand what running away
means as well as you do.
If the bees attack you, move slowly away, smoking them off as you go.
If a bee annoys you by her threatening attitude for some time, kill her
ruthlessly.
WINTERING
Before buying your hives you must decide where your bees are to winter.
If you have a suitable shelter you can use the ordinary hives; but
if your bees are to winter outside, you may decide that you want the
great chaff-packed, double hives. As the summer wanes every hive must
be examined to make sure that the colony is strong and that the supply
of honey is not short. If the season has been a bad one for flowers,
or if the region provides few blossoming fields it may be necessary
to feed the bees. Special directions are needed and any bee book will
supply them. A strong swarm, supplied with twenty-five pounds to
thirty-five pounds of honey, will winter without serious loss in a
chaff hive. Other protection than that afforded by a good windbreak is
unnecessary. In our furnace-heated houses no part of the cellar is cool
enough all the time for the bees. The temperature should not go above
forty-eight degrees Fahr., nor below forty degrees; forty-three degrees
is considered just right. Sudden changes are bad for bees.
[Illustration: Beehive covered with newspapers and waterproof paper for
wintering outdoors]
Many experienced bee-keepers winter their colonies successfully
outdoors with home-made protection. The ordinary hives, with the covers
on but with the supers off, of course, are put into winter quarters
in this way: Fold seven or eight thicknesses of newspaper over the top
of the cover and sides. Make a neat job of this as if you intended to
send the box by mail. Use a few tacks if needed. Over this fold a large
piece of tar or other waterproof paper. There is a right way to fold
the ends of this outer wrapper, and a wrong way. The illustration shows
the right way. If the paper is brought down from the top first and
round the ends from the sides over that (the wrong way), pockets will
be formed which hold snow and water. Nail thin pieces of wood on to
hold the folds securely. The entrance to the hive should not be closed
as bees come out more or less on warm days in winter. Be sure that the
entrance is always free from dead bees.
Another way to protect hives from the cold when wintering outside is
to construct a packing case three and a half inches bigger in all
dimensions than the hive. Set one of these down over each hive and pack
the space between hive and case with any kind of dry packing material,
such as shavings, sawdust, cork chips, dry leaves. Any of these
materials used wet would do more harm than good. Some sort of shelf or
projection should be so placed over the entrance as to keep it open as
with other forms of winter protection.
FEEDING
In the spring, bees need water. If the tree blossoms are late in coming
out, sirup is often fed to the bees to give them a start. Patented
feeding devices are not necessary. A flat tin pan works admirably. The
best sirup for all purposes is plain granulated sugar and water, made
cold. Stir in all the sugar that the water will hold. Fill the feeding
pan with excelsior first, then sirup, and place it in the super. Little
ladders leading up to the top of the pan will help the bees get at the
sirup.
Feeding is also practised in the fall if the amount of stored honey is
short. The feeding of honey is likely to start the bees to robbing.
Under no circumstances should "market" honey be fed to bees. Diseases
are transmitted by this practice.
PLANTS THAT FURNISH HONEY OR POLLEN OR BOTH
gill-over-the-ground }
shadbush }
tulip tree }
willow }
grape }
sorrel } spring.
elm }
maple }
dandelion }
hawthorn }
red bud }
fruit trees }
clovers (cultivated) }
alfalfa }
wild sweet clover }
raspberry }
bee-balm }
blueberry }
chestnut }
corn } summer.
fig-wort }
locust }
basswood }
catnip }
horse mint }
mustard }
sage }
sumach }
buckwheat }
spider flower }
sunflowers }
fireweed }
smartweed } fall.
milk-weed }
golden-rod }
aster }
rape }
THE PRODUCTS OF THE HIVE
Besides honey, bees make use of wax to construct combs, bee-bread for
larvæ food, and propolis for glue. If you think the bees gather honey
from the flowers you are greatly mistaken. Nobody knows yet quite how
honey is made. Chemists say that it has in it water, grape sugar, a
little formic acid, some mineral matter, albuminoids, and essential
oils. But this list leaves us little the wiser. No chemist has been
able to combine these materials into honey. The nectar gathered by bees
passes directly into a receptacle, the honey-sack or honey-stomach,
which is used for that purpose only. It does not go the same road
as the bee's food. The notion that bees swallow the nectar and then
unswallow it is as erroneous as it is unappetizing. The flavour, body,
and colour of honey depend on the source of the nectar, the age, the
amount of chemical change wrought by the bees, and the completeness of
the ripening process which goes on in the hive before the cells are
capped. Honey is a very wholesome sweet, far more easily digested than
cane or grape sugar.
If the making of honey is mysterious, what can we say of wax
production? In the height of the honey season we can watch the bees
making wax through a glass-sided hive. Mrs. Comstock says: "A certain
number of self-elected citizens gorge themselves with honey and hang
up in chains or curtains, each bee clinging by her front feet to the
hind feet of the one above her, like Japanese acrobats; and there
they remain sometimes for two days until the wax scales appear pushed
out from every pocket." Sometimes a honey-and pollen-laden bee will
come home from pasture with flakes of wax exuding from the wax plates
on her abdomen. But this happens only when wax is needed for comb
making. At other times no amount of honey gorging will produce a scrap
of wax. Does this not hint at mystery and something higher than mere
intelligence?
You would think in such a perfectly organized community there would be
something like specialization. Such appears not to be the case. All the
workers seem to do all the different kinds of things. Let us say a bee
goes out and gets a load of honey the first thing in the morning. When
she comes in she goes to the comb to deposit her honey, then to the
brood cells where she combs the pollen off her legs into a cell where
it is stored to feed the young bees later. Perhaps she sees in passing
some cells which need capping, does that, then away to gorge herself
with honey and make wax, then builds her own or her neighbour's wax
onto the comb. If the day is hot it may occur to her and a thousand
others to construct a living fan and keep the air stirring inside the
hive by waving their wings. In a system like this there is no resting,
no play, no shirking, no specializing. There is always work to do and
always somebody doing it with a will in the perfect socialism.
Many boys and girls of these days are fortunate in having had at school
an observation hive. No bee-keeper will be long without one if he has
any curiosity about what is going on in the dark hive, or if he is
ambitious to solve some of the mysteries. An ordinary hive can be made
into a good observation hive by putting a pane of glass in the sides
and top. There should be hinged doors to fit tightly over the glass. A
two-frame hive devised by Prof. V. L. Kellogg has both sides of glass
so that the whole domestic economy of the bee family can readily be
observed.
DISEASES AND ENEMIES
You will not be in the bee business long before you learn that bees
have diseases and enemies. In fact, it is better to face that fact
at the beginning and learn how to recognize and combat the troubles.
Carelessness along this line is inexcusable and will surely cause
failure. Several states have official inspectors whose business it is
to know bee diseases and methods of controlling them. He is required
to inspect apiaries where diseases are suspected, and the best thing to
do is to interest him in your work and get all the help from him you
can. An ounce of prevention will save a pound of cure, every time.
If there is a Bee-Keepers' Association in your county, by all means
join it and help make it a live, active organization. The United States
Department of Agriculture can give you much needed information as to
who the men are in your locality who are officers in the associations
and official inspectors.
MARKETING HONEY
The best honey market is the home market as I have said. You may have
to work up a demand in your neighbourhood and there are many ways to do
this which ingenious boys and girls will devise. Most of us, if we can
afford to use honey at all, know it only as a "spread" for hot biscuits
or griddle cakes. But not every one knows that honey is a very much
more wholesome sweet than cane sugar. Many people cannot eat sugar at
all, but find honey does not cause indigestion. If you could persuade
your neighbours to buy your honey for their children instead of candy,
"all-day-suckers" coloured with cheap dyes, and sirups made of nobody
knows what, you would be doing something worth while.
Honey is used in cooking too, in many ways. Get your mother or sister
interested in trying some receipts in which honey takes the place of
sugar. If you make a success of this you can get other people to making
honey cakes, thus creating a demand for your product.
One enterprising chap made a great success by first going from
house to house and giving away samples of his honey. He also left a
self-addressed postal card with prices and order blank printed on one
side, and nine out of ten of the people he called on sent orders. It
seemed a pity to waste a good postal card and everybody likes to help a
bright boy along; and beside they wanted the honey! It might be well to
have a little pamphlet telling about your honey and of the many uses it
may be put to, with a receipt for honey cake, perhaps. You will get a
reputation, if you try, for pure products, neat packages and courteous
dealings. As your output increases from year to year your market will
grow, until you, like the boy we mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, have a business worth at least a thousand dollars.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH HONEY BEES
It was just by chance that I ever got started in keeping bees. There
were several boys about my size in the neighbourhood at my home and we
used to go swimming and play ball together. One fine spring day a few
of us were walking down the road toward the swimming pool when we found
a swarm of bees on a fence post. One of the fellows knew how to hive
the swarm, so we got a box from the store and watched while he got the
bees into it. It was the first time that I had seen a swarm hived and
the performance proved very interesting to me.
I bought that swarm in the old box for seventy-five cents, very well
satisfied with the bargain, for of course the box would be full of
honey in a short time!
The colony was placed upon a bench in the front yard. One night the old
bull got out and upset the bench. The bees were ready to sting anything
next day. I bundled up until I was sting proof and then got them
straightened up. The combs were broken which gave the bees a setback
from which they did not recover. I did not get any honey from them and
they died out in the winter.
An old bee-keeper who lived near us gave me two swarms the next spring.
One of them left the hive and flew to the woods and the other was weak
and died. It began to seem as though bees were hard to keep. I got a
book called "A B C of Bee Culture," and read it. I soon learned that
bees should be kept in movable frame hives so they could be easily
handled.
I had no bees now, but, although we were laughed at, my father and I
entered into a partnership. He furnished the hives and implements and
I furnished the bees and labour. We were to divide profits equally. We
bought two hives, a smoker, and a bee veil. I caught one swarm in the
woods and bought another. They were both late swarms and died in the
winter.
Success was still far off and things did not look very bright, but I
had learned how not to do lots of things. The two hives we had were not
the best, so we sold them and bought five of a different kind for the
next spring. The outlay was large and no profits, but I was determined
to succeed.
In the spring I caught a swarm early in the season and it made a few
pounds of surplus honey which we used at home. During the latter part
of August my chum and I were out squirrel hunting and he found a swarm
that had built combs on the limb of a large tree. We got it into a hive
and I bought his share of the swarm. This colony needed feeding, so I
fed it on sugar and water. Both colonies lived through the winter and
made a strong start in the spring. Each gave a swarm and I caught both.
The book and the old bee-keeper taught me that Italian bees were
better than the wild bees, so I invested in two Italian queens which
I got by mail from a queen breeder. I killed the old queens in two
of the colonies and introduced the new ones. They did some good work
that summer and lived through the winter. The next spring I had two
colonies of black or wild bees and two of Italians. The blacks together
made about twenty pounds of surplus honey, while the two Italians
made nearly two hundred pounds. This showed me that there was a great
difference in bees. Each colony swarmed once, making eight in all.
We had now made a success and the business was on a good footing even
after four years of failure. That last honey crop was worth about
thirty dollars, and the bees and hives were worth about forty-five
dollars. We were encouraged.
That fall I was sixteen years old and had decided to go to college.
The president of the agricultural college in this state offered me a
chance to work my way through college by taking charge of the bees on
the college farm. I gladly accepted it and sold my bees at home.
Life at college was very different from home life, but the bees always
furnished a source of pleasure and recreation during my spare moments
on week days and on Saturdays. In the summer months I either worked
with the government bee-men or for the college.
The bees have not only given me lots of pleasure, but they have made it
possible for me to pay my entire tuition and expenses for five years
at college. Besides studying and attending to my bees, I have had time
for much other fun, and this year I made the 'varsity football team and
played in every game.
Some people think that the honey is not worth the stings, but my advice
is to get a colony and try your hand.
SYDNEY S. STABBLER
HOW I EARNED TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS
I had helped with the bees more or less all my life, so that I already
knew how to handle them when my high school course was broken into by
illness and I had an enforced vacation of one year and a half. I was
able at this time to devote to the bees one full season, that is, from
April through July.
My father allowed me the use of bees, hives, combs, etc., for queen
rearing. The queens I sold for seventy-five cents and one dollar each,
according to the grade. To my father I furnished one hundred queens
at the reduced price of fifty cents each as rent for the bees, hives,
etc. I had about ninety nuclei of two frames each. During the swarming
season I used a good many natural cells from the better colonies. Later
I used artificial, dipped cells which I made myself. In the latter case
I took larvæ from the very best queens in the apiary and placed the
cells in queenless colonies to be developed, or sometimes in colonies
which were superseding their queens. When the cells were nearly ready
to hatch they were placed in the nuclei where the young queens remained
until they commenced laying, when they were ready for sale.
Altogether I made a little over one hundred dollars that season. I was
then eighteen years old and determined to go to college. Two years
later I began my studies at the University of California, working for
my board in a private family and drawing from the one hundred dollars
for incidentals. Clothing I had received at home and had made myself
for the most part.
The San Francisco earthquake occurred on the eighteenth of April, in
the spring of my freshman year, and college was closed immediately, so
that I was able to enter again into the queen rearing business. That
season I sent out advertising cards to the members of the California
Bee-Keepers' Association and sold nearly all my queens to them. The
financial result was nearly the same as for the former season.
So in all I made about two hundred dollars, which paid for the
incidentals during three years of my college career which is as
far as I have gone. By "incidentals" I mean books, paper, and such
necessities, also subscriptions to the college daily paper, class and
association dues, tickets to college jinks, theatricals, games, etc. I
also spent a good deal for tickets to concerts, plays, etc., as that
was my first opportunity to hear the great musicians and actors and I
considered that a part of my education.
FLORA MCINTYRE
PROFITS OF BEE-KEEPING
I have been asked to tell something of my early experiences as a
bee-keeper, for boys and girls who may become interested in this very
fascinating, and, I may say at the same time, profitable, pursuit.
I think it may be said of bee-keeping as sailors say of seafaring--once
a bee-keeper always a bee-keeper.
I should like to tell you in a few words what can be expected from a
dozen and a half hives of bees with an average of one and one half
days a week spent in the apiary. I believe really, though, that when I
began keeping bees it was not because I expected to make much money.
The whole story of the bee life, as read from different books which I
secured after becoming interested, was so wonderful and fascinating
that I could hardly wait until spring so that I might study the two
hives acquired through the winter. That first spring and summer there
were only those old box hives, which could not be opened for inside
study, and all observations had to be confined to watching the bees
from the outside. The next summer some modern hives that could be taken
apart and every nook and corner laid open to observation were bought.
In the fall I was very fortunate in securing eighteen colonies of bees
at an auction sale, paying therefor only fifty cents a colony, much
to my satisfaction and my neighbours' amusement. Most of the hives
were frame, but of an undesirable sort of frame. The next summer these
colonies were transferred to up-to-date hives. That summer, and for the
next succeeding six summers, these colonies did not fail to yield on
an average about seventy dollars' worth of honey and wax. Counting out
winter losses the number of colonies per year would average twelve, the
number of pounds of honey about three hundred and seventy-five, worth
twenty cents a pound. The bees received only a small part of my time
each day.
Later, when a student at the Ohio State University, as manager of
the apiary there, about the same results were obtained, so that an
average of about five dollars a hive is a conservative estimate. If
one begins in a small way, in a few years he should be able to manage
one hundred colonies. But it should be remembered that the yield per
hive may decrease somewhat as the number of colonies increases, because
of the danger of launching in the business on a large scale. The best
insurance against loss is a thorough study and understanding of all the
details by the practice of bee-keeping on a small scale for a term of
years first.
I may say that the income from the bees aided not a little in helping
me through college, and I may say, also, without exaggeration that
this interest in bees by one enthusiastic student helped in no small
degree toward the inauguration of a course in bee-keeping at our own
Ohio State University. To make the story complete I think I should add
that the writer of this article is at present engaged as assistant in
apiculture, doing experimental work in apiculture in the government
apiaries at Washington, D. C.
There is opportunity for those who wish to take up some problem
relating to apiculture as a subject of investigation, and the
agricultural colleges and experiment stations will no doubt in the
future give more and more attention to the investigation of problems
related to this interesting and profitable pursuit.
ARTHUR H. MCCRAY
VIII
RAISING SILKWORMS
Although silkworms are not actually reared in the open air, there is so
much outdoor work and moderate exercise connected with their care that
the subject may properly be included in a book on outdoor work.
The best food for silkworms is the leaf of the white mulberry. If you
have already a hedge of this or several trees you can begin at once.
If not, several years must elapse while you raise your preliminary
crop of mulberry trees from seeds or cuttings. It is useless to buy
silkworm eggs if you have not the wherewithal to feed your infant
caterpillars. You may not think of going into silkworm rearing in a
commercial way but only as an interesting bit of nature study. Why not
make up some neat attractive cases, each containing a little collection
illustrating the four stages of the growth of this insect? Heat a few
eggs to destroy life, then glue them to a card; preserve a caterpillar
in a vial of alcohol; glue a cocoon to a card; pin and spread two of
the moths, a male and a female, and pin them into the box. From such
a box school children will get a far more definite idea of insect
metamorphosis than they will ever get from a book on zoölogy. Such
little collections ought to sell well in schools where nature study,
zoölogy, or agriculture is taught.
The mulberry silkworm makes the best silk, although it is by no means
the only silk-spinning insect. Every now and then we read of some one
who is experimenting with the silk of our American or giant silkworms,
the _Promethea_ or the _Cecropia_, or with the silk spun by spiders.
But none as yet compares with _Bombyx mori_ in either quantity or
quality of its product or in ease of rearing or in reeling of the silk.
The adult moth lays between three and seven hundred eggs during the
first three days after she emerges from her cocoon. In a week or ten
days she dies, her work finished. Moths in the wild state are at some
pains to deposit their eggs on the favourite food plant of their young,
but in the case of _Bombyx mori_ this instinct has been lost in the
countless years of domestication. The eggs, when laid, are moist with
a sort of glue which secures them to the surface upon which they are
deposited. The winter is passed in the egg stage. A cool, dry place is
safest for them, where no sudden changes of temperature are possible.
A steady temperature of thirty-five degrees is ideal, and they must
be enclosed in something that is mouse proof, though not air-tight. A
perforated tin box is right for this purpose. Silkworm eggs for study
may be obtained from dealers in miscellaneous insects, birds, animals,
etc.
As spring approaches you must watch the mulberry leaves and make your
preparations. Any room in which temperature and ventilation can be
regulated will serve for rearing silkworms. You should have some racks
made of lattice work, and shelves, open to the air, on which to place
them. I have seen a clothes-horse, with racks resting upon the rungs,
used for this. A supply of cheap wrapping paper or newspapers should
be on hand to put on the shelves, and some coarse netting, the use of
which will be described later. Do not make the mistake of getting too
many eggs. An ounce does not seem like very much, but the well-grown
worms from an ounce of eggs ought to have at least seventy-five square
yards of shelf space. They will require during the first six days
only eleven pounds of leaves, six meals a day, but during the eight
days just before spinning they will require over half a ton of food.
Imagine lugging in two hundred weight of fresh mulberry leaves five
times a day to feed these ravenous things so dependent upon you!
[Illustration: Movable frame and light shelves for feeding silkworms]
Warmth and moisture are required for hatching the eggs. As the spring
advances and the mulberry shows signs of putting forth its leaves, the
silkworm eggs should be spread thinly on sheets of paper on the shelves
in a temperature of about fifty-five degrees Fahr. The temperature
should be increased after three or four days and gradually raised to
seventy-three degrees Fahr. Sprinkle the floor to make the air moist,
but do not wet the eggs. At this temperature hatching will take place
after about ten days' time. Watch the eggs. When they begin to whiten
you must get to work, as the first worms will soon be out. Take two
thicknesses of coarse tulle or bobinet cut the size of the racks. Chop
some young, tender mulberry leaves very fine. Scatter a thin layer of
these bits over the cloth and lightly lay it over the hatching eggs.
No sooner do the young silkworms become aware of the presence of their
favourite vegetable than they make their way to it, coming up through
the holes of the bobinet as easily as "rolling off a log." They are
tiny creatures. Eight of them laid end to end would hardly measure an
inch. As hatching usually takes place in the morning, by ten o'clock
the worms will all have crawled through the netting to the leaves on
the upper layer of the net. This can now be transferred to the rearing
shelf. The netting should be kept well stretched, as the worms may
be injured if buried down amongst the leaf bits. All through life
silkworms must be handled with extreme care. If necessary to lift any
individual from one shelf to another it should be done with tenderest
touch. Rough treatment is fatal.
[Illustration: A clothes-horse fitted with racks for feeding silkworms]
For young worms the newly opened leaves are the best. As they grow
older their tastes change and the more mature leaves may be given. A
quantity of leaves may be gathered at one time and kept fresh. The
leaves themselves should never be put into water. Prepare the food
by removing the foliage you intend to feed from the stems. Then chop
or cut it into fine shreds. Six times a day a small quantity of the
prepared leaf should be sprinkled lightly over the netting.
Like other caterpillars, silkworms shed their skins at certain
intervals. The six-day period between hatching and the first moult
is called "the first age." On the fourth day it is best to change
the beds, as the droppings from the worms and the litter of uneaten
leaves are not healthy for the moulting caterpillars. Spread fresh
leaves on nets and place over the worms in the evening. By morning all
will be ready for the clean shelf and doubled space. As the sixth day
approaches, the worms lose appetite and cease to move about. Finally
the skin whitens, the head seems to grow larger, and each little
creature pulls himself out of his old skin and finds himself clad in a
new suit. I imagine he must feel very much as a boy does when on the
first really warm day in April his mother allows him to shed his winter
underwear, get his hair cut short, and wear his summer blouse and
knickers.
The young worm, however, does not feel very lively at first. No food
should be given for several hours. When signs of waking are evident,
food should be given and the worms transferred to clean shelves by
means of the nets. On the third day they should be changed to fresh
papers. Four meals a day are needed by the caterpillars at this time.
The second age is shorter than the first, being only four or five days.
The skin now changes in colour from gray to yellowish white. After the
second moult their food need not be cut much, but they require a lot of
it, as they should double their size during the third age, which lasts
six or seven days. If the weather is pretty warm their development is
faster. They should never be crowded nor allowed to go hungry. Always
change to clean shelves when the dead leaves and excrement become the
least offensive. This odour, which you can escape by leaving the room,
may be deadly to your pets. They are helpless to escape it, and are
entirely at your mercy.
During the fourth age, _i. e._, after the third moult, give more space
and feed small branches with leaves on. Always remove every berry from
the mulberry branches or the worms will eat them and be made sick.
Their appetites are enormous, their growth rapid. Change the beds four
times during this period of nine days.
[Illustration: A rack or ladder for silkworms to spin on]
After the fourth moult the worms pass into the last age. Five or six
days of voracious feeding brings them near that most dramatic event
in their lives--the cocoon spinning. For three days, now, instead
of eating steadily they wander aimlessly about, as if seeking they
know not what; they wag their heads; they behave in an altogether
restless and uncertain way. Is it some mortal ailment or mere
"weakness of intellect?" You are expecting this and have prepared
for it beforehand. They will not need to search long for a place to
mount and spin in safety and security their cocoon of shining silvery
silk. Farmers' Bulletin, No. 165, recommends the use of small, clean,
leafless brush tied together into bundles and fastened between the
shelves in rows a foot or so apart. Some use a sort of rack or ladder
of narrow strips of wood which should be placed upright on the shelf
where the worms can easily find it. They spin between the slats. Any
worms which seem not to be ready to spin with the others should be fed
until they, too, feel the impulse to travel.
As the process of spinning takes some hours, there will be no
difficulty in observing it from start to finish. You are entitled to
this exhibition, for, without your constant care and feeding, these
creatures would not have been able to develop. The dull, inactive
silkworm has acquired wonderful agility, and without practice is able
to weave himself into his sleeping bag with astonishing celerity,
reeling out his twelve hundred or sixteen hundred yards of silk in one
continuous thread. There are no knots or kinks in it. It is inaccurate
as well as rather silly to refer to the cocoon as a shroud or burial
casket, as some do. The creature inside is just as much alive as ever
it was.
The cocoons with the live pupæ inside are called green cocoons. To
prepare them for market they are usually subjected to heat either in
the oven or by steaming. No water should touch the cocoons, neither
should the oven be hot enough to brown them. After heating they should
be dried in the sun or other heat. Open one when you think they may be
dry; if they are, the pupæ inside can be rubbed into powder with the
fingers. A good price per pound is paid for dried cocoons, but it takes
five hundred or more to weigh a pound.
If you have never seen a moth emerge from its cocoon you should keep
several of your cocoons. In eighteen or twenty days the moth comes out,
usually in early morning. Invite your friends to have a look, too. Must
the moth break the threads in getting out, or is the cocoon woven in
a manner to provide a gateway when it shall be needed? How does the
creature get out anyway, and what is it like when it first arrives in
the open? Wonderful happenings must have been going on inside to make
a winged moth out of that naked caterpillar. Something left in the
cocoon rattles when you shake it. Examine the dried ball and you will
recognize in it the cast-off clothes, hat, coat, socks, and boots that
he had on when he shut himself in. There, too, is the brown shell he
wore as a pupa. You may think you know these things by reading about
them, but you do not, really. Hearsay is not the real thing in any
realm of life, least of all in the realm of nature.
IX
MAKING COLLECTIONS
PLANTS
Collecting plants has always been an important feature of practical
scientific work. Great sums of money and many years of time have been
spent in searching through little-explored countries for new plants.
Agents of many governments, representatives of great nursery companies
of this and other countries are all the time looking, looking, often
at the cost of the greatest hardship, for new plants. Why is this? Not
as you will readily conclude, merely to add new specimens to museum
collections, nor merely to find and name a new species, though some
collectors are in the field for these purely scientific reasons.
But our Department of Agriculture is on the lookout for new plants
from foreign parts which will be commercially valuable to us. Our
enterprising nurserymen are after the same game. At the present time
very great interest is being taken in plants from western China, a
vast and little-explored region. Strangely enough, the plants from
that far away country seem to be peculiarly fitted to thrive here, and
while the government and the nurserymen are telling the people about
these new plants, the botanists are trying to discover the reasons why
Asiatic plants fit our conditions better than the plants of Europe seem
to.
The making of collections of plants, then, is a big, important work,
and well worth the while of any boy or girl. If you would read
stories of exciting adventures, narrow escapes, thrilling encounters
amid romantic surroundings, read some of the accounts of scientific
explorations. The collectors of plants and insects in the Philippines,
Central Asia, little-known islands of the far East, and such "wild
nations," must needs be men of valour, and to know any one of them is a
liberal education.
Making a collection of plants is probably not the best way to arouse
an interest in outdoor life. Indeed it was made such a deadly dull
business for me that my early interest was entirely "nipped in the bud"
and lay dormant many, many years. Collecting is one of the recognized
and useful ways of introducing ourselves to our neighbours of the
vegetable kingdom. Living in a plant-infested world as we are elected
to do, eating plants, wearing their products, utilizing them in all
our arts, buying and selling them daily, unable to get through an hour
of the day without being constantly reminded of our entire dependence
upon the members of the vegetable kingdom, what is more natural than
that we should wish to know them? To know their names is not the end
and aim of plant study. The name is a convenient handle for a plant.
It enables you to talk about the plant to others without the necessity
of a lengthy description. It enables you to read understandingly what
other students have said about the plant in books. It is only the
beginning, like the introduction to a stranger. To make of a stranger a
friend, you must know something of his family, of his relation to the
rest of the world, how he lives, gets a living, how he makes use of his
faculties, what are his peculiarities, his habits, his environment,
in fact all about him. In discovering the name of a plant by use of a
botanical key you learn a few but not all of these things.
As with some people so with some plants, the more you know of them the
less you think of them; the less you wish to have to do with them. Take
poison ivy for an example. Knowing its characteristics you pass it by
without touching it. You observe it from afar off, so as to be able to
warn others of its whereabouts. On the other hand, if you had only
known well the giant puff-ball you so wantonly crushed under your heel,
you might have enjoyed a delicious supper of creamed mushrooms.
Making a collection of plants is an extremely simple job. The materials
needed are not expensive nor hard to get. Here is a list of what is
required for a beginner's collection:
(1) A dozen or so newspapers.
(2) Driers, two or three dozen, 12 × 18 inches.
(3) Two boards, 12 × 18 inches.
(4) A stone of twenty to thirty pounds weight.
(5) Mounting paper.
(6) Genus covers.
Cut the newspapers into half sheets. Each specimen is to be placed in a
folded piece of this. The driers may be cheap blotting paper or pieces
of carpet felt, cut to the desired size.
Arrange a specimen just as it was taken from the ground, inside of
one of the half pages of newspaper. While it is not desirable to put
too much time on the arrangement of each specimen, it is as well to
place it in a natural position and in such a way that the leaves will
not lie all over each other and the flowers be crowded so that the
appearance will be awkward. But do not overdo this: if a flower droops
naturally, do not make it stick upright. With one of the boards as a
foundation build your pile of pressing plants up as follows: Lay on
two or more driers, then a folded newspaper holding a specimen, then a
drier or two. (If the specimen is a juicy thing, several blotters are
needed between it and the next one.) Now another specimen, a drier, a
specimen, etc., until you are through with the day's collecting, or
until the pile begins to topple. Finish with a drier, then put on the
other board, and weight it with your big stone.
The driers must be changed every day. Do not disturb the specimens, but
lift each folded newspaper from the old to the new pile, building up
with fresh driers as before. In a week or ten days most plants will be
thoroughly dry. If at all moist they are likely to mould after being
mounted and your work will be spoiled. A dried specimen is brittle and
needs careful handling.
Mounting paper, to be standard and uniform, should be white, plain
paper of a very heavy quality. It costs a cent a sheet, size eleven
and one half by sixteen and one fourth inches. No other size would be
acceptable if you wish at some later time to donate your collection to
the local museum or to sell it to some school.
There are several ways of fastening specimens to the sheet. Some
like to use little strips of gummed paper or court-plaster, but
old-fashioned glue is about the most satisfactory stuff. It is mussy to
work with till you get your hand in, but it holds the plants fast to
the sheet, and "that's the intintion." It is best to keep the specimens
in the newspaper wrappers until you have a lot ready to mount. Then
with a pot of glue, a dry cloth, a damp one, and a small brush you are
ready for business. Lift the specimen from the newspaper and lay it
first on the mounting sheet to get some idea beforehand of how you will
place it. You may have to prune it some to get it all on, but this is
not likely as your drying sheets are the same size as your mounting
paper. Having decided at what angle to place it, lay the specimen back
on the newspaper upside down. With your brush wet, but not dripping,
with glue, brush the stems, buds, leaves, and flowers lightly over the
back. Lift it again, turning it over as you transfer it to the white
sheet. With a light pressure make the parts fast and lay the sheet
aside for the glue to dry.
Small specimens should occupy a place just a little below the centre of
the sheet, and if more than one specimen is required to show all parts
they may be arranged on the sheet as their various shapes and sizes
look best.
[Illustration: Plants should be mounted on paper 16¼ × 11½ inches]
A few facts should accompany each plant to refresh your memory of that
specimen when you come to study it later. These facts should have been
recorded by you in whatever way you like and referred to the specimen
by a number while in the press. Finally each mounted specimen should
have its label, bearing the name of the plant, the collector's name,
the date collected, locality, and any useful information regarding it.
Glue the label into the lower right-hand corner, which should always be
reserved for that purpose.
These loose sheets, covered with mounted specimens, must not be allowed
to lie in a shelf or drawer unprotected. Each group of them should be
put into a folded sheet of manilla paper. Such a holder is called a
"genus cover." Its size, folded, is eleven and three fourths by sixteen
and one half inches.
This word "genus" suggests that in time the collector is going to be
able so to classify his specimens that each genus cover may contain
only plants so closely related one to another that they are of the same
botanical genus. The beginner need not be seriously disturbed if there
are many plants in his collection that he does not know the names of
yet. The collection is for study or it is worth nothing. Knowing plants
is more important than knowing names. You cannot handle plants much
and observe them in their places without noticing how different they
are. Then you begin to see that some are more like than others. This
is the beginning of classification. You need not know even the common
names of the plants to do this, although you will know some, of course.
Professor Bailey says: "Learn first to classify plants; names will
follow. Look for resemblances, and group plants round some well-known
kind. Look for sunflower-like plants, lily-like, rose-like, mint-like,
mustard-like, pea-like, carrot-like plants. These great groups are
families."
After you have handled your common plants a good deal you will be
surprised to find how easily you can guess at one's family, and guess
right.
When you have reached this stage in your collecting you will feel that
you need some book to guide you and act as a check on your studies. All
the books mentioned in the lists in this book are useful for beginners.
If you find a book which pretends to take the place of the plants
themselves, you would better throw your money away than buy it. Instead
of helping it will hinder your progress. You will find in beginners'
botanies what is known as a "key." Now, a key is obviously to unlock
something with. If you had a door key which turned with difficulty, or
fitted the lock imperfectly you would be sure to have it repaired or
get a more modern one. Some of the old botanical keys seem to be rusty
and it is difficult to use them. Choose the key that works most easily.
In making a key for classifying plants one begins by dividing the whole
vegetable kingdom into two big departments, thus:
A. Plants which never have flowers.
AA. Plants which do have flowers.
As your specimens are all of the flowering kind we shall for the
present forget all about the others and begin to divide our big group
AA into smaller groups. This is how it is done:
AA. Flowering plants.
B. Flowers not showy, seeds in cones (usually), leaves needle--or
scale-like, evergreen (usually).
BB. Flowers showy, seeds not in cones, leaves of various shapes,
deciduous (usually).
You will see that in dividing a group it is important that A is just
the opposite of AA, and B is just the opposite of BB, and that the
place to look for BB is just the same distance over from the margin
of the page as B although it may not be on the same page, if there
are a great many divisions under B. These little things make the key
easier to use than the old-fashioned ones were. Some people still use
botanical keys as mental gymnastics but I do not believe in that. After
all you are studying plants not keys.
You will want to go back to the group we called A, for to the
non-flowering plants belong the lovely ferns which must certainly
grace your collection. This is a delightful group to study and it is
possible with a reasonable amount of persistence and by exchanging with
fern collectors in other parts of the country to get a very nearly if
not quite, complete collection of native forms. Only one hundred and
sixty-five of the four thousand species of ferns are native to the
United States. Such a collection should be very valuable.
Some boys and girls lose interest in collecting plants after the first
season, especially if they have done well the first year and secured
most of the species in their locality. If the opportunity to collect
elsewhere does not come the next spring there can be nothing more
interesting than to try to get the same things you already have, but
in some other stage of their growth. For example: most collections
will have several kinds of violets, blue, white and yellow, in all the
beauty of their flowering. But whoever thought of getting one that
showed the seed pods? What is a violet's seed pod like anyhow? Is the
seed pod of the white one like that of the yellow? Are the seed pods
of one plant all alike? When do the pods open and how? How do the
seeds germinate and when? These and other questions are waiting to be
answered by every plant in your collection. Would it not be fine to
know the pure white trillium in midsummer when it has grown a leaf
nearly a foot across and has a red fleshy seed case thrust up where it
will be conspicuous? Some plants are far more showy in fruit than in
flower and you will begin to see why these and other things are true as
you carry on your studies throughout the year.
Many a teacher of botany is forced to depend upon pictures when she
wishes to teach children to discriminate between two kinds of leaves,
kinds of roots, kinds of stems, kinds of inflorescence. What a boon
to those teachers would be a collection put up to illustrate the
lessons as they came along! I wonder if there is not a market for such
collections in schools where no herbariums are made or kept.
For little children, making blue prints is delightful occupation. I
knew a child of four who learned to recognize the leaves of most of the
common trees one spring by means of this work, and she did every bit
of it alone. A small printing frame, blue print paper of the required
size, and plenty of water is all that is required. A child soon learns
to use good judgment in printing, exposing the frame just long enough
to get a fine blue. The outline of the leaf comes out distinctly in
white against a blue background. The prints should be thoroughly washed
and may be dried on panes of glass.
The blue prints of leaves and of flowers do not show anything but the
outlines, of course. Leaf prints of other kinds are made which bring
out the veining as well. The outfit for this work is simple. Two print
rollers, a pane of glass, and a tube of printers' ink, sheets of paper
to print upon, and leaves. Put a small quantity of the ink on the clean
glass, and work it into a thin film over the surface. Lay a leaf upon
this film of ink and go over it with the inky roller. Transfer the
leaf to a sheet of paper and cover with a second sheet. One whirl of
the clean roller ought to give you the desired print. It is surprising
how delicate and true these are and how perfectly they show the
characteristic margin, indentations, venation, and even something of
the texture of each leaf. A little practice makes one able to make
impressions which are like leaf shadows, so delicate and lace-like can
these prints be made. It is an excellent way of fixing the leaf forms
in the memory, as well as in the note-book.
In making a collection of plants the same "rules of the game" should
hold good as in collecting insects and other natural objects. Take only
what you need. Do not uproot and leave to die the near neighbours of
the specimens you select. The taking of rare specimens is discouraged.
I shall never forget the look of indignation our dear old professor
gave an ambitious youth who had uprooted for his paltry collection
every plant of a species of rare fern which the professor had been
trying for years to re-establish in its old location. After all is said
and done, a live plant is better than a dead one. This is all a part
of the great spirit of conservation that has so taken possession of
our people of late years. Out of these little acts of preserving our
resources will grow a more beautiful America and a better appreciation
of all things beautiful.
COLLECTING SEA-WEEDS
Every child ought to be familiar with that musical poem of Percival's
beginning:
"Deep in the sea is a coral grove,
Where the purple mullet and goldfish rove."
And then when the child grows bigger he should have an opportunity to
go out in a glass-bottomed boat, at Santa Catalina Island or elsewhere,
and see for himself that those "yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean,"
"bending like corn on the upland lea," are not pictures from a poet's
dream, but beautiful realities.
Sea-weeds are exquisite things and few people can resist the temptation
to collect them when spending a vacation at the beach. When going on
a collecting trip for these it is well to take a net and two pails,
one small enough to hold the smaller things and carried inside the
larger. A heavy knife may be useful, too. The best time is after the
spring-tides, because at the lowest ebb of the water one may find
forms of great beauty and brighter colours than elsewhere. The rocks,
the rubbish left by the tide, the pools, the piles, the sea-wall,
the surface of the waves themselves, are all good places to look for
sea-weeds. They are fewer on sandy beaches than elsewhere. They vary in
size from great, coarse, leathery rock-weeds to those so delicate as
hardly to be seen at all.
Sea-weeds are real plants, belonging to that great group of
non-flowering plants mentioned before. They are called algæ. They do
not have true stems and leaves, neither do they feed by means of roots.
Many of them are so shaped that they appear to have stems, roots, and
leaves, but as these parts do not do the work of true stems, roots, and
leaves they are not classed as such. The root-like parts of a sea weed
are usually simply hold-fasts, which anchor the plant to the rocks.
Algæ which live in sea-water get their nourishment from the water which
washes their entire surface.
When collecting algæ, every specimen which is intended for immediate
mounting should be kept continuously in sea-water. This is what
the pails are for. Every part of the plant should be taken, as the
attachment to the rocks is as valuable as the rest. The knife is useful
here, or a staff with a metal point, for scraping the weeds off the
rocks.
The natural element of the sea plant is sea-water. Do not put your
specimens into fresh water even to wash or rinse them, as they will
lose some of their beauty. Unless dried soon after gathering they will
decay and fade. In collecting, try and get plants of various sizes even
though they look alike. The larger ones may be in the fruiting stage.
Do your mounting out of doors if possible, where you can have all the
basins of sea-water you want and need not be careful about spilling.
If your collection of sea weeds is for a regular herbarium you should
by all means have mounting paper of the standard size and quality;
heavy white, unruled paper, of a quality which will stand wetting
without being spoiled, eleven and one half by sixteen and one fourth
inches. If you are merely making a few souvenirs of your summer at the
shore, your own taste is the only thing to be considered. You will
require genus covers, labels, etc., just as for flowering plants.
For the work of mounting you will want plenty of driers, some pieces
of muslin the same size, sheets of standard size mounting paper as
described above, a heavy needle fitted into a wooden handle, a pair
of forceps, scissors, two smooth boards, and weights. For complete
enjoyment of the work you will surely have a little magnifying glass,
for your pressed specimens will never be as beautiful as the fresh ones.
[Illustration: Sea weed mounted on paper of standard size]
With several shallow dishes of sea-water within easy reach of your
hands, and your pails of specimens floating in sea-water, you are ready
to begin. Select your first specimen and lift it with care from the
water. Dip it up and down gently in clean water. Every bit of matter
that does not belong strictly to that plant must come off, and all
the sand or other dirt. Let it spread out naturally in the water and
with your scissors prune it to suit your purpose. Some grow in such a
bunch that they will not show well on the paper, others may have to be
trimmed to get them onto the page. Do not, of course, trim them down
to look alike but preserve their peculiarities and characteristics.
The great charm in a collection of this kind is in its variety. When
the plant is absolutely clean, float it in a dish of clean water. This
last dish should be a broad one for now you are to slip your sheet of
mounting paper right into the water and get the plant onto it, floating
it out in a natural attitude. This takes a knack, you may be sure, but
the knack can be acquired with practice. If you can provide yourself
with a pane of glass to lay the sheet upon when you take it from the
water you will have the best conditions. Some people get along very
well with a shallow plate. Some of the delicate parts will be certain
to cling together as you lift them out of the water, but you can remedy
that by dipping a few drops of water onto them and with your needle you
can arrange them as you wish. Take your time. This is not a job for a
person in a hurried mood. Examine and admire each piece as you work at
it. Make it yours for all time, although you may sell it the following
day and never see it again. Lay one of your driers on the lower board,
put a mounted specimen all wet as it is, on this, then spread over the
sheet a piece of muslin, lay on another drier, mount another sea-weed,
cover it with cloth and so on you may build up your pile. Top it with a
drier, put on the second board, and your weight, of ten pounds or so.
Coarse, thick algæ should not be pressed in the same pile with the fine
ones as they would make the pressure uneven. Blotters and cloths must
be changed every day at first, dried in the sun to be ready for the
next day. After two or three days the cloths may be taken off, and the
plants left in press at least a week longer, changing driers every day.
If you can set aside a regular time each day for this job, it is not so
likely to be forgotten. Moulding specimens are very disappointing.
After one has made a little collection of sea-weeds all the stories
about the wonders of the deep will take on a reality. You will want to
read all you can find about the Sargasso Sea, which sounds like a fairy
story. Maybe you have a specimen of this sea-weed in your collection,
maybe you have been fortunate enough to sail through that "vast acreage
of vegetation as large as the continent of Europe, lying southwest of
the Azores!" Do you wonder that the first navigators, sailing uncharted
seas, were alarmed by this vast expanse and thought of course there
were concealed shallows beneath the feathery fronds of this gulf weed?
You must read, too, of some of the giants of the sea-weed tribe; the
"devil's apron," the "sea-otter's cabbage," with its air-vessel as big
as a hogshead, and its stalk a slender cord hundreds of feet in length.
These are all algæ, and so are the microscopic plants which produce
that wonderful phosphorescence on the surface of the ocean. There
are still unsolved mysteries about these plants and there is always
a chance that the boys and girls who collect sea-weeds to-day on the
beach may in the years to come read some of the secrets now hidden from
all eyes. It is well worth while to keep such a big thought in mind
even while doing the simple and easy work of mounting specimens.
COLLECTING SHELLS
Of all the kinds of collections of natural objects that I have seen,
there is none that has quite so much beauty, in itself, as a collection
of shells. How easily they can be displayed in a cabinet for our
friends to enjoy, too, and they are never attacked, so far as I know,
by what we call museum pests, those destructive little creatures which
make life a burden to the owners of collections of insects, plants,
stuffed birds, and the like. Perhaps the products of the sea possess an
especial charm to the "landlubber," but most people admire shells and
love to handle them and to wonder where they came from and what kind of
creatures built them.
Did any one ever visit the shore and come home without a pocket
bulging with shells? Or a big handful tied up in a grimy handkerchief?
Probably that is the way most of the great collections in the country
were begun. You can begin one this summer or any time that you visit a
beach, and add to it daily if you are spending the summer on the shore.
As your collection and your interest grow, you can exchange specimens
common on your coast with collectors who live on the other oceans and
the Gulf. Remember that every shell is rare until you get it in your
cabinet and what is common as the sand on your coast may be a rarity in
other parts of the world.
You will probably begin your collection by picking up empty shells
of various sizes, colours and shapes. Sometimes you will find a pair
still held together by the tough tendon that worked the hinge when the
bivalve that built the shell was alive and going about his affairs.
Many of these will be worn by their daily encounter with the tide, and
some will be pierced with small round holes too neatly ground to have
been made by accident. These holes give you a hint as to why this shell
is empty for they are the work of a band of little pirates which live
by boring into their neighbours and sucking their life-blood. Many of
the dead shells are those of animals which live far out at sea or in
the deep water and have been washed ashore when the tide was high.
Search along the shore where the water has drifted a line of sea-wrack.
It looks like rubbish at first glance but it is almost sure to hold
many small shells you will want, some even from far-off coasts.
The collector will not long be satisfied to gather only such shells
as he finds on the beach. His eyes are opened. What seemed to him at
first a flat, smooth surface of sand strewn with bits of rubbish and
a few shells, most of them not worth picking up, has awakened into
life. Every pool has become as a village, its inhabitants engaged in
a variety of occupations. The smooth sand is inhabited. The centre of
population is down at the low-water line. The rocks, the bridge piers,
the wharf piles, and the sea-walls are seen to be covered with living
things. Now collecting begins in good earnest.
On the sandy beach one needs a net, a sieve, and a shovel. The best
costume for such work is the same as that worn when bathing. You will
need to be in the water part of the time and will not wish to be
hampered by anxiety as to clothing. The best time to go is the time
you can go, of course, but you are more likely to find a great variety
of things at the very lowest tide. You have heard of planting "by the
moon" and you are right in supposing that the moon has little influence
on potatoes and cabbages. But to go collecting on the sea-shore "by the
moon" is quite reasonable. When the moon is full and when it is new
they have what are called spring tides at which times the ebb is lower
than ordinarily. After a storm is a fine time to look for things which
have been dragged by the force of the water from their anchorage in the
depths, and tossed ashore.
When you arrive on the sand all will appear to be quiet. Your best
plan is to sit still and wait for some signs of life. In a moment some
clam may send a jet of water into the air near you. If you are quick
enough with your shovel you may catch the joker, but he has had more
practice in the game than you and will probably elude you. Watch for
bubbles and jets of water and dig frantically. You will be able to work
up speed after a few trials and land your "fish." After some practice
you will be able to unearth many living things you little suspected of
being there. Crabs of various kinds are common and sea-worms of rainbow
colours and curious forms. Creatures in snail-like shells, little and
big, are common in the sand of our coast. As you shovel away try to
have presence of mind enough to throw the sand into your sieve. Take
this to the water's edge and wash it. You will in this way get many
small things which you otherwise would not see.
Do not discard anything about which you have an unanswered question.
Many of the mollusks leave egg cases on the sand or these are washed
in by the tides. They are no less wonderful than the shells, for they
are chapters in the same story. The egg-cases of the whelk are common.
Those of the skate are called "devil's pocket-books" by natives.
Muddy shores have their own special forms, while rocky coasts differ
from all the rest. Some creatures, like the hermit crab, are abundant
everywhere. You can read the story of this fellow in any book on
shells. Take some of the stories about him with a grain of salt. He
may not be as bad as he is painted for much of the gossip about him has
never been proven. His affairs need investigation.
The creatures which build the shells are for the most part soft
bodied and can not be preserved except in some liquid like alcohol or
formalin. These would be difficult to transport but will be of greatest
value if you are studying the structure of the mollusks. If you wish to
preserve the shells only, you should take great care to free every part
from any animal matter that adheres to them. Boiling the shell will
usually accomplish this.
Labels should be used and record made of the locality, date,
collector's name, and other interesting data. Every naturalist of any
experience has the note-book habit. Many a collector who trusts to
his memory finds himself sadly at a loss when he comes to work with
his specimens and especially when he wants to write about them. If
his note-book tells him the story he will be able to make his account
accurate as well as interesting.
COLLECTING INSECTS
The two principal reasons for making insect collections are first,
to study, second, to sell. The beginner's outfit will be the same
whichever reason is his. Time was when any one carrying an insect net
was looked on with a sort of pitying suspicion. He or she was thought
to be the victim of a mild form of lunacy, which might or might not
take violent shape. All that is past now that insect study has grown so
important and popular. It is quite safe to conclude that the hundreds
of trained scientists employed by the government to investigate the
problems involving insect life all started their studies by making a
collection.
Probably the easiest kind of collection to make is one of plants.
Once you see them, their fate is sealed. Escape is impossible. But
collecting wild plants about your own door yard and in the woods is
tame work compared to insect capturing. Your eye marks a butterfly or
a dragon fly for your own, but you have him yet to reckon with and his
wings may carry him far beyond your reach.
The outfit necessary to an insect collector is simple and inexpensive.
For general collecting, and that is the best for a beginner, you need:
1. A net.
2. A killing bottle.
3. Insect pins.
4. Insect boxes.
While you can add to your collection almost every day in the year
when once "you have the fever," the best time to begin is summer. More
insects are in evidence then, and their active flight, their beautiful
colours, and wonderful variety of form all help arouse the interest. As
the collection grows you will find that many insects can be captured
without a net, but as you will want every new butterfly, moth, dragon
fly, and grasshopper that comes into your line of vision you must
certainly have a net the first thing.
The materials needed for a net are these:
1. A smooth, light, but strong handle about three feet in length. (An
old broom handle will answer.)
2. A strip of tin, four inches wide, and long enough to fit around the
handle. (Why not use a piece of a tin can if you have strong shears?)
3. Three and a half feet of heavy wire. (No. 3 galvanized is the thing.)
4. A piece of cheese cloth, three fourths of a yard. (Get a good grade
to stand a season's wear.)
Almost every boy knows a tinsmith and when it comes to putting these
materials together, the services of a skilled workman are very
valuable. If pocket money is scarce, there are any number of jobs a boy
can do for the tinsmith in exchange for his help in making the net.
That piece of wire is to form the ring which holds the cheese cloth
bag; the ring must be fastened securely into the end of the handle.
Bend the wire into a circle a foot in diameter, then bend back three
inches of both ends and force them into the end of the handle, a hole
for the purpose first having been made by burning or boring. Bend the
tin round the handle at the net end to keep it from splitting when in
use, and tack it on tight.
[Illustration: Insect net]
If you know how to sew you are more fortunate than most of the boys I
know, although why should not a boy learn to use a sewing machine? The
bag ought to be sewed on the machine. You must first lay the finished
edge or selvedge around the wire to make sure that it goes around and
has a little extra for the seam. Pin the cloth together where it meets
around the wire, then lay it on a table, double. Cut the bag, rounding
the bottom neatly. Cheese cloth is the worst stuff to ravel, and if
you sew the bag with a single seam you will soon be sorry. Pin the
cloth so that the two edges are exactly together and sew a seam about a
quarter of an inch wide all the way round. Now turn the bag inside out
and fold it so that the seam you just made will be right on the edge.
Sew another seam, three eighths of an inch deep this time. The ragged
edge of the goods will now be inside of this second seam and can not
fray out and make a nuisance of itself. If all this is worse than Dutch
to you, take the bag to your sister. She is not so much cleverer than
you but the chances are that if you ask her to sew you a French seam,
she will make it just as I have described. Sew the finished bag onto
the wire with heavy double thread and your net is ready for use.
Materials to make a killing bottle: 1. A wide-mouthed bottle. (I advise
every collector to have two bottles, one to carry in the pocket all
the time, the other for special trips for large things. For the first
a small olive oil bottle, a test tube, or any convenient sized bottle
with a mouth nearly or quite as large as the body of the bottle. A
fruit jar, pint size, does well for the very large things.)
2. A cork which fits the bottle tightly, and is an inch long. A cork
any shorter than this is an aggravation as it is so unhandy.
3. A lump of cyanide of potassium as big as a hickory nut for the
small bottle, two or a little more for the big bottle. Yes, cyanide
is a deadly poison, and the druggist will not sell it to you and your
father will not let you buy it. But if you convince your mother that
she can trust you to use a cyanide bottle as it is intended to be used,
her objections will melt away. Just as likely as not she and your
father, too, and your teacher, and maybe the druggist all made insect
collections when they were your age and one or the other will make your
cyanide bottles for you following these directions:
[Illustration: Killing bottle]
4. A teacup full of plaster of Paris.
Handle the cyanide with a couple of sticks or drop the lumps from the
paper into the bottles so as not to touch them with your fingers, mix a
little of the plaster of Paris and water till it is like a thin paste
and pour enough in on the lumps of cyanide to entirely cover them. Put
in on top of this all the dry plaster of Paris the water will take up.
Let the bottle stand open for an hour or so, then wipe it out with a
rag, which may be burned afterward. Put in the cork and your killing
bottle is ready to do its share toward making a collection for you.
Don't forget to label your bottles "poison," and always be careful not
to inhale the fumes. The smell of the breath of the bottle will be
enough to remind you.
It was a Japanese student, who, when he found one of his pinned moths
had come to life and beaten its wings to pieces in the box, said: "It
ought-a be dead. He in cy'ni' bot'l' a' night." I should not wish to
be quite so stoical. His bot'l' was probably an old one, which did its
work too slowly.
MOUNTING INSECTS
The first insects I ever saw in a collection were a sorry sight.
Beautiful as the specimens had been, they were all spoiled by the
collector. The moths were all out of shape, wings half folded, the
pins used were short common pins, and every specimen was disfigured
with masses of verdigris, they were pinned into rough boxes in
higgledy-piggledy fashion, and showed every sign of neglect and
careless handling. My interest in insect collecting did not date from
that hour but from a look I had at a friend's cabinet years later.
The first mistake a beginner makes is to use common pins. Really,
before you begin to collect, you ought to send away for a supply of
German insect pins. These can be bought from dealers in entomological
supplies and a hundred each of Nos. 3 and 5 will cost thirty cents.
With them your collection may be salable, and you may exchange your
duplicates with other collectors, while if you use common pins your
specimens will have no commercial value, and will soon be spoiled, by
the corroding of the pins.
[Illustration: Cross-section of spreading-board, showing construction]
The first insect you get will probably be a butterfly, or a moth, for
these showy ones are all you are able to see. Later the smaller ones
will attract your attention. Therefore you will not be able to mount
your first specimen properly without a spreading-board. The drawing of
one which appears on this page will tell you more about how to make as
well as how to use it than any amount of description. If you can earn
seventy-five cents more easily than by making a set of three of these
in assorted sizes, you can buy for that amount an adjustable one which
will serve you for all winged insects of all sizes.
[Illustration: Spreading-board, in use]
I will suppose that you have captured your first butterfly. Do get a
good sized one first as it will be easier to learn on that than on a
small one. An hour in a freshly made cyanide jar is long enough to
insure a painless death. If any one calls you a cruel boy at this time,
assure the person that butterflies are very short-lived and that this
one would have been eaten by a bird within an hour or two anyhow. The
cyanide is the least painful form of dying for the butterfly. Its work
is probably done, already. You can prove that you do not kill insects
for the fun of seeing them die, by putting the bottle back in your
pocket where they can die in private, and by never killing any unless
you need them for your collection. A few duplicates for exchange is
also legitimate. It does not injure a specimen to leave it in the jar
over night. If you cannot spread it immediately, do not take it from
the jar, as when dried they cannot be spread, as they are very brittle.
If you never looked at a butterfly before, you will look at this one.
You will note that it has four broad wings attached to a rounded body.
The portion of the body to which the wings are fastened is called the
thorax. For a medium-sized insect, a No. 3 pin should be taken. The
butterfly should be pinned through the thorax, half way between the
front wings. Direct the pin so that it will come out in the middle on
the under side of the thorax. One fourth of the pin's length should
remain above the insect. This may seem a small matter but insects
unevenly pinned look badly, and it spoils their salability. You will
want some black-headed pins for use on the spreading-board. Common
pins hurt the fingers, insect pins are too flexible and expensive.
Pin strips of paper on to hold the wings in place. With the picture
of butterflies on a spreading-board as a model, you will, after some
experience, get so that you can do this well. It is no job for an
impatient person, though. Leave the butterfly on the board until it is
thoroughly dry, which takes three days. Put the board where the air can
have free circulation around it, but not the mice.
[Illustration: Showing how to pin common insects]
The only insects that are not pinned through the middle of the thorax
are the beetles, those hard-shelled creatures like June bugs (which
ought to be called May beetles), and potato bugs (which are also
beetles). If you put a pin through the centre of a beetle's thorax, it
spreads the wings out in an unnatural way. So collectors agree to pin
them through the right wing-cover.
[Illustration: Pin butterflies through the thorax, between the front
pair of wings]
Your next requirement will be boxes to put the specimens in. Many a
fine collection has been begun in ordinary cigar boxes. At first you
will probably try to pin the insects right into the bottom of the box.
After you have spoiled two or three of your rarest ones, bent a dozen
or so expensive pins, you will conclude that the wood is too hard and
does not hold the pins well. Be warned in time to save yourself this
bother. The boxes should be lined with a thin layer of some material
which, though soft enough to push a pin into easily, must at the same
time be elastic and firm enough to hold the pins. Cork, linoleum, and
slices of pith are all used. You may have noticed, though, if you have
been to a large, up-to-date museum, that the specimens of insects
are all pinned into solid blocks of wood. Many an hour I have spent
pinning specimens into blocks in their permanent places in a great
museum collection. It is hard work and has to be done with a tool.
When once fastened on a block the insect is supposed to be a fixture;
when it moves the block goes along. But the material you use in your
boxes ought to be soft enough to make shifting of specimens easy. For
example, at first you will get a great assortment. A butterfly to-day,
a beetle or two to-morrow, a pair of moths the next day, some crickets,
a dragon fly, a cicada, a waterbug, and so on. Take everything unless
you already have it. That is the only way to collect. If you say, "Oh,
I'll get a better one to-morrow," the chances are that the season will
go by and you will not get that variety at all.
[Illustration: Glass-topped insect case]
CLASSIFICATION
Your first box full will be a varied assortment. When you have all you
can conveniently pin into three boxes without crowding, you will want
to arrange them. If you have begun to study science you will know what
"classify" means. Every school is made up of classes. So with insects.
You will know by the looks of the insects that certain ones belong
together. A good way to start is to put all the butterflies and moths
into one box. You may not know what you have done, but you have simply
separated the members of the order _Lepidoptera_ from all the others.
Look over those that are left and you will see that some, like the
blundering June bug, have their wings so placed that a straight line
appears down the middle of the back. These belong together, regardless
of their colour, size, shape, habits, or other considerations. They
belong to the order _Coleoptera_. Grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets
belong to another group and can be pinned together. All the flies have
two wings, and belong in a group apart from all the four-winged ones.
The dragon flies go together. You will have representatives of other
orders, less easy to distinguish, but by the time your collection has
grown to this extent you will be ready for some beginner's book on
entomology, which will make further classification simple enough. As
you shift your specimens from one box to another observe a certain
regularity of arrangement. The heads should all point in one direction.
When pinning a group all of which are about one size, set the pins all
in line, in military fashion. How much better they look! This neat,
formal arrangement of the specimens adds greatly to your satisfaction
and enjoyment of your collection. Avoid crowding and breakage. A dried
specimen is almost everlasting, but at the same time it is the most
fragile thing you can imagine.
As your collection grows in size, value, and interest, you will
certainly want wooden cases. Perhaps your manual training teacher will
be willing to let you build a box under his direction. A cabinet-maker
can make them at one dollar or less, apiece, of well-seasoned basswood.
Before you have been collecting long, you will have learned by
observation quite a lot about insects and their ways. You will know
that some localities are very poor collecting ground, that other places
yield an abundant variety; that the best time for butterflies is in
a sunny forenoon; while moths are abroad in the early twilight and
later. You will see that dragon flies are fond of flying about over
streams or ponds and you may wonder why as you try in vain to net a
fine one without getting your feet wet. Other insects are frankly
aquatic and you can get them only by dipping your net in. It is well
to have a second net if you expect to do much water collecting as the
cloth is hard to smooth out after a wetting. As a majority of insects
are vegetarian you will naturally seek among plants for specimens. If
the winged forms are not eating the foliage you may discover that they
are laying eggs on the leaves of the food plant on which their young
must develop. If you live in town you will find it worth while to carry
your bottle with you when you go out in the evening. Nocturnal insects
of all kinds are attracted to electric lights, many of them to their
death, as you will see. A candle in your open window will attract some
valuable additions to your collection and also some you will sleep
better without. Some collectors care nothing for a specimen unless it
is rare. A better way is to regard them all as rare until you secure
a specimen for your box, and of equal value towards building up a
complete collection.
A LIFE HISTORY COLLECTION
You can not collect insects very long before you begin to see a lot
of things you never noticed before. You see leaves cut or eaten in
strange forms, or you find a cluster of tiny eggs on a leaf, or several
leaves sewed or stuck together with strands of silk. Perhaps you find
strange abnormal growths on certain plants, swellings on their stems,
leaves transformed into balls, or pod-like or cone-like affairs which
do not look natural. These things are sure to arouse your curiosity.
Sometimes the answer to your question is right there. Cut open a
swollen golden-rod stalk and you will find the culprit which caused the
plant to grow that way. But how did the footless, helpless grub get
there and when? You break down the mud-dauber wasp's nest from among
the rafters of some building. What is that yellowish object that rolls
from among the ruined adobe walls? Look! It is a spider. What business
has a spider in the wasp's nest, if it is her nest? Spiders have none
too good a reputation, but this spider does not act very spry. Seems to
be alive, yet not alive.
The secret of the relation between the spiders and the wasps you can
read in many a book. You might even guess at it, but there was no guess
work about the observer who first studied out this secret. He did not
get his knowledge from books. He patiently watched the mud-dauber going
about her house building. He knew that her painstaking labour could
have but one meaning. She was building not a home for herself, but for
her children.
The wasp's children are not little wasps, yet they are none the less
young wasps for being footless, colourless, wingless, stingless grubs.
They are eggs at first of course, just as all insects are. When the
mother wasp has one cell of her apartment house finished she concerns
herself immediately with stocking the larder. Knowing the tastes of her
yet unborn young, she leaves for a time the mud hole, and visits the
haunts of certain spiders. Finding one to her liking, she captures it.
Not appreciating the fact that the law forbids the use of preservatives
in meats, she injects a drop of some wonder-working fluid into the
spider and preserves the creature, not only fresh but alive, though
paralyzed. Upon the inert body she places an egg, then seals the cell,
well assured in her mind that when the grub hatches it will find the
food just as she left it and just enough to nourish the young one to
maturity.
Before your first season of collecting is past you will find yourself
bringing home as specimens many insects which you will see are not
fully grown. Little grasshoppers, scarcely bigger than a fly yet
possessed of such strength of leg that they can hurl themselves into
the air for a distance equal to twenty times their own length. How do
you know that they are young grasshoppers and not fully grown ones of
some tiny race? Look at one closely and you will see a look of youth
about him that is unmistakable. He is fuzzy, his head is too big for
him, his legs out of all proportion to the rest of him. Then, too,
he has no wings, just little buds where the wings will be some day.
By these tokens you will know him for a baby. You can find them in
all sizes and can have a series to show the stages of growth. This is
one of the first steps in the making of a "Life History Collection,"
far more valuable to the naturalist than a collection containing only
mature insects.
Generally speaking, all adult insects have wings, and all winged
insects are adults. There are exceptions to this, but they will take
their places when the time comes. The young of the insects belonging to
certain orders resemble their parents enough so as to be placed where
they belong at a glance. This is true of the grasshoppers, katydids,
and crickets, of the true bugs which include the squash-bugs, the
chinch-bug, the stink-bug and others. Of most of the other orders
this is not true. The young do not look at all like the adults. In
many cases as, for example, the dragon fly and the mosquito, they
are fitted in the immature stages to a life in the water. They must,
on this account, have organs for swimming, for aquatic breathing, and
for getting a living in the water. The forms of these young insects
are just as varied as those of the adults, but they do not resemble
the winged ones in the least. The life history collection must contain
specimens of the immature forms of insect life as well as adults if it
is to be most useful and complete.
Some orders of insects, as for example the moths, butterflies, beetles,
flies, bees, wasps, ants, and others pass through four distinct
changes of form. They always follow the same order. Every generation,
beginning with the egg, passes next to the larva (called caterpillar
or incorrectly worm, or grub, or maggot), on to the pupa, then to the
adult. The egg of an insect is often a most beautiful object. With a
hand lens, which every collector will surely need, one can see its
delicate colouring, its pearl-like shell, its curiously carved or
sculptured surface. To get some idea of the great variety in form,
colour, shape, and markings of insects' eggs, ask at your library for a
book on butterflies, with coloured plates, and the chances are that you
will be surprised.
The second or larval stage of the insect's life is the eating, growing
stage. During this stage the young bee, butterfly, ant, or moth
moults several times. In this process the entire old skin is shed, an
operation well worth seeing. Under the old coat a new one has formed,
which being larger, accommodates itself to the insect's increased size.
The larval stage is in the case of many insects the active time when,
if they are vegetable feeders, they injure crops.
When the larva has completed its growth it changes into a pupa. Some
insects pass this third stage inside of silken cases they spin about
themselves, others, after shedding the larval skin, find themselves
each clad in a sort of horny coat of mail. We call these chrysalides.
Some larvæ creep away into the ground, there to shed their old coats
and rest inside of the pupa cases which nature provides. Each one
follows the fashion of his own family and is in no danger of being
mistaken for any one else.
Out of the pupa, whether it be cocoon, chrysalis, or just plain pupa
case, comes the adult. The main business of adult insects is to
reproduce their kind. After the eggs are laid there is little excuse
for their living. In the case of a great many kinds of insects death
follows soon after. There are some noted exceptions to this rule as
for instance the wasps which build with so much skill and patience
the homes in which to rear their young, the ants and the bees, both
social and solitary, which carry on such a complicated home life. Of
these highly "civilized" insects only a word can be spoken here. From
the chapter on "Bee-Keeping" and from other books you may learn of the
wonders they perform. We must return now to our life history collection.
How the subject opens as we add specimens of cocoons and pupa cases to
the collection! To get a complete series illustrating the life, let
us say, of one of our common butterflies, the monarch or milk-weed
butterfly, you should visit the clusters of milk-weed along the
roadside or anywhere, in the forenoon of a sunny July or August day. A
few butterflies are probably flitting about in rather casual fashion.
Watch them light on the leaves, mark the leaf with your eye and hurry
to the spot. Search well. The tiny speck of pale yellow may be a
drop of milk but if it stands up on the leaf it is likely to be a
butterfly's egg. Your lens will tell you. Having made sure of one you
will find others.
You may find a young caterpillar lunching on the leaf. If just out of
the egg it is a dull lead colour, but when half grown a young monarch
is striped with rings of greenish yellow and black. Though handsome
as to colour scheme, this caterpillar has manners unbecoming a plain
citizen, let alone a monarch. Touch its back with a grass stem and see
what happens.
If time permits you should visit your clump of milk-weed daily or
better still take home the eggs and the young caterpillars. Keep the
food plant fresh in a jar of water and get more when needed. As you
want a specimen of the egg-shell for your collection, you must be on
the spot when the young caterpillars come out. They sometimes eat the
shell the first thing. It is a delicate operation to glue a thing as
frail as this shell onto a dried milk-weed leaf, and you may have
to content yourself with making a sketch of it on a small square of
drawing paper. Pin the leaf or the drawing in the box. It is not easy
to keep specimens of caterpillars. There is a method of preparing
the inflated skins, but as the process is a difficult as well as a
ghastly one, you can wait till you go to college to learn it. For the
milk-weed caterpillar I suggest instead, a coloured drawing. When your
caterpillars are full-sized they will transform into chrysalides.
It is worth sitting up all night to see a sight like this. When
a caterpillar spins a little mat of silk and suspends itself by a
tail-hook, you will know that the performance is about to begin. The
chrysalis is a lovely light green with spots of gold upon it. All this
beauty was hidden under the skin of the caterpillar. With an egg, a
caterpillar, a chrysalis, and an adult you have all four stages of the
monarch's life represented.
INSECT HOMES
Nothing in the insect world interests me more than their homes. The
collector sees many of these in his rounds, and begins to consider
how he can complete his series by adding samples of them as specimens
to his collection. I was lucky enough to find, when on a collecting
trip one day, a curious structure made of mud on a weed stem. It was
declared by the professor to be an ants' "cow-shed." Knowing that the
museum specimen was in a bad state of repair I readily offered my find
to replace it. The professor refused the gift, but offered me what he
thought it was worth. I accepted and bought a pair of shoes with the
money, which shows that these things have a market value.
It is well to press a specimen of the favourite food plant of a species
of insect and make it a part of the collection. But dried butterflies,
fastened in utterly unnatural attitudes upon dried plants they would
scorn to eat in life, framed or put under glass globes on the parlour
table do not appeal to the naturalist. They are "fakes" pure and simple.
There will be a few among the many who begin to make collections of
various kinds who will keep at it. I know one young man who sold his
stamp collection for enough to take him on his first trip abroad. Six
hundred dollars was the sum realized, I believe. Those of you who have
read Mrs. Gene Stratton-Porter's story "The Girl of the Limberlost"
remember that "the girl" sold Indian relics and insects enough to send
herself to high school and start a college fund. She made up little
life history collections to illustrate the talks she gave as special
teacher of nature study in the grades in a city school system.
The Limberlost girl had an offer of three hundred dollars for a
complete collection of the butterflies and moths of the United States.
She had a wonderful collecting ground in and about the big swamp,
and she had enough duplicates to exchange with other collectors for
things she could not get at home. In order to have perfect specimens,
both male and female, she made breeding cages and reared the moths
and butterflies. She dug in the earth about the tree roots and other
"likely" places for pupæ, she searched the shrubs and vines and trees
for hanging cocoons, she brought in innumerable eggs, caterpillars,
and chrysalides and the story of her successes and failures fills many
delightful pages. It all rings so true that you can't help hoping that
you may see her insect collection some day, and hear her tell how
she brought this butterfly up "by hand," how she had to wait a year
to get a male to complete one series, how narrowly she escaped the
quicksands in a wild chase she had for another, and other details of
her occupation.
REARING INSECTS
[Illustration: Bandbox breeding-cage for insects]
Breeding insects is easy. Look at the home-made breeding-cage
illustrated on this page. Materials needed: One round or oval hat box,
a strip of wire screen, two and a half feet wide or so and long enough
to fit around the inside of the box and lap three inches. Either sew
the screen together in the form of a cylinder or fasten it every
six inches with paper fasteners. (Any way to keep it together good
and tight.) Push the screen down inside the box till it touches the
bottom, put the lid on and you are ready for business. If the screen
is too wide you will have trouble in reaching to the bottom of the
box which you will have to do sometimes, for one reason or another.
Into breeding-cages made on this general plan you can put all sorts of
material while waiting developments, and get many additions to your
collection that you would otherwise miss entirely.
Some surprising facts are often discovered by accident. A breeding-cage
containing a female _Cecropia_, one of our largest and most beautiful
moths, was accidentally left near an open window over night. The next
morning between twenty and thirty moths of that species were found
fluttering about the cage. They had evidently been attracted from some
distance, but found their way to their imprisoned sister unerringly.
Collectors have many ways of capturing night flying moths. One way
is known as "sugaring." This consists of daubing a sticky, sweet
preparation on the trunks of trees and visiting the baits later in
the evening with cyanide jars and capturing the specimens which are
attracted by the odour to the feast set for them. It is unsportsmanlike
and entirely unnecessary to put any poisonous substance in the bait and
this practice should be darkly frowned upon.
The best places for sugaring are these: a strip of woodland edging a
stream, the rim of the woods adjoining an open field or pasture, old
roadways through woods of beech, oak, chestnut, or any mixed growth,
wooded slopes in city parks where there is some protecting undergrowth,
anywhere about the old groves surrounding country homes. Windy or wet
nights are not the best for sugaring, neither are moonlight nights.
The ideal night for this is the evening after a hot, sticky day in
late summer, the sky overcast and dark but not foggy. You will need a
lantern to work by. Keep calm. Quick, nervous movements frighten away
more moths than the light.
The following is the unspeakable concoction recommended by one
collector as "the best ever" for baiting moths:
Four pounds darkest sugar.
One quart New Orleans molasses.
One pint stale beer or ale. (This should have been allowed to stand
uncorked in a warm place for a week, before using it.)
Mix all together and heat gradually. Boil till about as thick as
varnish, which takes about five minutes. When cool add four ounces of
Jamaica rum. Cork loosely and keep in a cool place. The strong odour
of this mixture pervades the air for a long distance, and proves
attractive to the olfactories of moths though none of us would care to
have it about.
A good evening's work at sugaring ought to furnish moths enough to
keep you busy spreading all the next forenoon. A night in the cyanide
jar will do them no injury. It is well to have a pair of light pincers
to take specimens out with. If all are emptied out at once some will
dry too much before you are ready to spread them. Every time they are
handled they lose part of the scales and become slightly defective. If
practical, put the very large specimens into the jar hinder end first.
This will make it easier to get them out head first.
It is almost inevitable that the inveterate collector of insects shall
become a naturalist. By constant watching, he discovers how insects
live, and how they affect plants. He will witness many a tragedy. He
will find that there are among them thieves and robbers, pirates,
cannibals, assassins, scavengers, and disease carriers. He will witness
many acts of heroic self-denial, some feats of strength, endurance
tests, and acrobatic turns. He will admire the ingenious architecture
and wonder at the never ending variety of forms, colours, and markings
they exhibit. Many questions will come up in the course of his studies.
He may seek the books in vain for information on some of the commonest
insects of the garden. Entomology is a new science. Boys and girls who
begin the study by collecting their first insect to-day may, before
they stop, discover some important fact to add to the sum of human
knowledge and make the world a better place to live in.
X
ODD JOBS
KINDLING WOOD
Cutting kindling wood was ever a boy's job. Most set tasks have little
to them but drudgery. But cutting kindling used to be interesting. What
is there about it? The struggle to master a stubborn stick, the danger
that a slip may bring the axe down elsewhere than on the stick, or that
a careless blow may cause the stick to rebound, leap into the air, and
give the chopper a whack on the head? Scarcely a boy but can show a
hatchet's scar on the foot and I know a girl who will always carry one
in the place where most people carry a corn.
The problem of a source of kindling supply on the farm is never one
to be reckoned with. There are always old fences going to pieces, old
buildings being torn down, and the problem is rather how to store
the supply where it can be had when needed. In town things are
different. The fences, if any, are iron, the buildings are few and kept
in repair because they cost so much to build. There are practically no
loose boards lying around and kindling has to be bought outright. The
ex-farmer always resents this as an uncalled-for expense. But kindling
is a necessity wherever fires are to be made. No patent article quite
fills the bill.
[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. An Odd Job That is Never
Out of Date]
Why should grown men monopolize the kindling business? Because there is
good money in it? But any boy can go into this business, if he has any
spunk. The capital required is very small. If your credit is good you
can borrow a hatchet. The chances are that spunk will supply the wood.
It may be rotting in somebody's wood lot waiting till the right boy
comes along.
Boys in the South are lucky. They can get fat pine which is in great
demand both North and South. Some say the supply has given out, but who
believes such tales? The demand for this will never be less than now
and there is no substitute for fat pine.
Collecting driftwood is another occupation for boys, sea-coast boys,
this time. A kind of substitute for this is being sold. It is a mixture
of chemicals and does very well for toy fireplaces in city apartments.
But the real thing will always bring a fancy price.
It is the common practice of American lumbermen to regard no part of
the tree as valuable, but the trunk. All the rest is rubbish and the
expense of trimming off the branches reduces the amount of profit on
every log. Some day when our young foresters get enough experience to
see all round the great subject they are working at, they will think
out ways of disposing economically of the tops and branches of the cut
trees. This is one of the big problems of forestry for these reasons:
(1) The huge amount of this refuse wood chokes out the young growth and
the forest cannot renew itself as it would naturally. (2) The brush
dries quickly and whenever a small fire gets started there is fresh
food for it everywhere. (3) The brush prevents the fighters from making
their way to the threatened district. They have to fight the brush
piles before they get to the fire.
This refuse wood might be put to a number of uses, e. g., for pulp
wood, thus saving the trunks for lumber; for fuel, nothing makes better
fires than the smaller limbs; for kindling, the branches which are too
small to use for stove wood make splendid kindling, particularly for
fireplaces.
Some of us think gathering faggots too slow and laborious. But we
needn't make work of it. When I see men, women and children poking over
the masses of evil-smelling rubbish on the mammoth dump-heaps that
deface the landscape near some of our great cities, or going from house
to house collecting old iron or rubber or newspapers, or picking over
the slag along the railways for chance lumps of coal, I wish that there
were some way of getting them away into the woods where firewood is
rotting and doing harm besides, a waste that works both ways, you see.
There is no excuse for the poor people of a village near woods
suffering for fuel. They needn't steal. Let them get permission from
the owner to clean up his wood lot. It will be good for the wood lot
and the owner knows it if he is an intelligent man. The boys and girls
are much safer gathering faggots in the woods than coal along the
tracks.
Faggots for kindlings bring a fair price, too, and I recommend it as
a way of earning money out of your father's wood lot if he has one.
In some villages in Germany the people have the right to break off in
the forest all the branches that they can reach when standing on the
ground. In those forests there is never any loss of life, nor lumber,
by fires, no choking out of young growth by brush piles. You could walk
through the forest there and see in every direction miles and miles of
clean trunked trees of varying ages, but no underbrush, no rubbish, no
decaying logs, no diseased wood.
Maybe those thrifty German people made mistakes when their country was
as young as ours. But they found out the way to take care of their
forests hundreds of years ago and we can learn how from them.
CLEANING A CARRIAGE
If you get home late at night after a drive in the mud the chances are
that you will not clean the carriage till the next day. But if thin mud
is allowed to dry on a varnished surface it will be sure to leave spots.
Water is the "first aid to the injured" in cleaning highly polished
vehicles. Plenty of it should be flushed onto the varnish, the mud
washed off by the force of the water rather than being rubbed off or
scraped off. Keep your buggy out of the bright sunlight when not in
use, especially when it is wet. Slow drying is better for the varnish.
A coarse sponge is a good thing to wash a carriage with; this should be
thoroughly rinsed after each rub to free it from grit. Never use soap
on varnish. It may be used on the metal parts of the carriage. Prepared
chalk is the best for polishing the ornamental parts. For glass, clean
water and a cloth or chamois skin are all you need.
WORK IN THE ORCHARD
[Illustration: Shield-budding]
Many are the light jobs in the orchard or fruit plantation, which fall
to the boys. I know a boy who at thirteen was his father's expert
budder. There are high school boys in localities where nurseries and
orchards are plentiful who follow this as a trade, making good wages
at it. It is a wonderful thing to do, a very neat job in handicraft,
and while a book might tell how it is done, nobody could learn how to
bud or graft without seeing it done and then trying, till the trick
is learned. Boys also follow the grafter and tie in the bud or wax the
graft.
Boys are often employed in vineyards to follow the pruners and tie the
vines to the trellis or wire with rags or raffia. They become very
expert and tie an incredible number in a day. In fact many of the light
jobs grow pretty heavy after eight or nine hours.
MAKING RUSTIC FURNITURE
Collecting material for making rustic furniture is a pastime that is
suggested by walks in the woods. Sometimes a bit of twisted branch may
look like the arm of a settee or the leg of a tea-table. Procuring the
first part suggests the quest for the other pieces and the fitting them
together to make a natural looking, balanced, artistic piece. Rustic
furniture to be good, should appear to have grown that way. There is
too much of the kind that looks as if it were made to sell. The truth
is that the more truly artistic it is the better price it will bring
in the right market. Laurel wood is particularly adapted for rustic
furniture.
SELECTING SEED CORN
By a careful study of what experts have to say about the best corn for
seed, and of the photographs of ears of prize corn, any young man
of intelligence may learn to select from his father's field the best
corn for seed. It may be that your father buys his seed corn from a
seedsman. My experience is that seed corn bought in bulk contains a
large number of poor grains. They probably shell the whole ear. The
best farmers never plant grains from tips or butts of ears, since it
costs just as much to plant and cultivate and harvest a runty corn
stalk bearing a nubbin as it does a lusty, towering stalk with two good
ears of corn on it.
[Illustration: Prize seed corn]
Find out what a good ear of corn looks like. Make note of all the
points to be encouraged. The habit of producing two good ears of corn
is a good one to establish. Go through the field when the corn is ripe,
before the huskers, and select the best ears, with all the points you
have learned in mind. Take off the outer husks and draw the rest back,
exposing the entire ear. When you have ten or a dozen ears braid the
husks together, starting with three ears, adding one after another to
the braid till all are secure. Fasten with strong twine and make a loop
to hang the bunch by. Seed corn should hang for a few weeks in the open
to cure, but should be taken inside before snow. You will have to use
a good deal of ingenuity to keep chickens, rats, squirrels, and other
thieves away from your seed corn.
When spring comes the corn should be shelled, and every imperfect grain
should be discarded. By selecting the seed in this way, demanding of
each ear that it shall be perfect, you find the crop will improve, if
cultivation is good, the soil well enriched, and the season normal.
Every time a farmer boy uses his mind first in connection with any kind
of work, the quality of work improves and his interest in his work
increases. Selecting seed not only gives better corn but it helps make
a better farmer.
MAKING CIDER VINEGAR
Every good apple year there are thousands of bushels of apples that go
to waste. It doesn't pay to pick and put them into barrels when the
price of barrels is more than you can get for the apples. The farmer is
the last man to learn how to make use of what ordinarily goes to waste.
Nature is lavish always, but wastes nothing. The farmer has learned
to be lavish and wasteful too. They say that every part of the pig is
utilized in the packing house except the squeal. That is the principle
which the farmer will have to live by if he would succeed. What can be
done with those wasting apples? Let the boys have them to make into
pure cider vinegar. Every one knows how vinegar has been adulterated,
and now the law-makers have put their veto on the practice and a
penalty to match the crime.
There is nothing very difficult about the physical part of vinegar
making. Nature does the hard work but we can aid nature by providing
the ideal conditions for making the product we want.
The best apples for making pure cider vinegar are clean, ripe apples.
If you use green, dirty, decayed, or over-ripe apples, your vinegar
will probably not meet the lawful tests and your time and work will be
wasted. Green apples have not enough sugar in them. The same is true of
over-ripe apples. "But there isn't much sugar in cider vinegar," you
say. No, that is true, but without sugar in the cider you wouldn't get
any vinegar. If you were a chemist you could find out just how much
sugar was contained in the juice of your apples. Unless the cider has
85 per cent. of sugar it will not make vinegar good enough to satisfy
the requirements of the law. However, plenty is found in cider made
from sound, ripe apples, and he who makes cider out of anything else
deserves to fail.
Expose any fruit juice to the air and it will change. We say, "Oh, that
is fermented," and throw it away. But what is this ferment? Set a glass
of fresh apple juice in the sun and watch it. In a few days you can
actually see that some change is taking place. It is "working," as they
say. The sugar is changing to alcohol; so the chemists tell us. What
makes it do this? The chemists must answer again. They say that there
are yeast plants in the apple juice. How did they get there? We did not
put yeast in the apple juice. No, but the air is full of the spores
of wild yeast plants so the juice does not have to wait till we put
in domesticated yeast from a little "silver" wrapper. As these yeast
plants grow they cause the sugar in the juice to change to alcohol.
There are lots of other wild spores in the air and in the dirt which
collects on the apples if they are left out very long. Some of these
spores may be of a kind that would delay the fermentation. For this, if
for no better reason, we should wash our cider apples.
In a glass of cider set out in the sun it does not take long for the
yeast plants to convert all the sugar to alcohol, because warmth
hastens the work. In the barrel set in a cool cellar it takes longer,
about six months.
But you have no vinegar yet. You have nothing but "hard" cider which
isn't fit for anything. But in the barrel along with the yeast plants
are lots of other bacteria, to be seen under the microscope. Among them
is a kind that causes alcohol to change to acetic acid. Did you ever
pour off the vinegar from a jug and find a mass of jelly-like substance
stopping the mouth of the jug? They called it "mother" didn't they?
This mother contains great numbers of acetic acid makers and if placed
in your barrels will hasten the changes that fit the hard cider for use
on the table.
The making of cider vinegar is almost all profit for there is very
little outlay for materials and very little work is required. It
does take some knowledge of what to do and when. A little study and
experience makes success almost certain. A bulletin of the New York
State Experiment Station at Geneva gives the following directions,
somewhat abbreviated here, for making good cider vinegar at home:
"Use sound ripe apples, picked before they have become dirty or
crushed. Observe ordinary precautions to secure cleanliness in grinding
and pressing, and use no water. Let the juice stand a few days to
settle, then draw off the clear liquid into barrels that have been
cleansed and treated with steam or boiling water. Do not fill more than
three fourths full. Put a loose plug of cotton into the bung hole.
If kept at a temperature of fifty to forty-five degrees Fahr. the
alcoholic fermentation will be complete in about six months. This time
can be shortened to three months by keeping a temperature of sixty-five
to seventy degrees in the storage room and by adding one cake of
Fleischmann's compressed yeast dissolved in a little water, to every
five gallons of juice. When the cider stops 'working' you will know
that the sugar has all been changed to alcohol. The clear liquid should
now be drawn off, the barrels rinsed and filled again. To each barrel
should now be added from two to four quarts of good vinegar containing
some 'mother.' If kept at a temperature of sixty-five to seventy
degrees Fahr. the vinegar may be ready for use in six months. If kept
very cool it may be two years. When sour enough to be 'just right' the
barrels should be filled as full as possible and tightly corked or the
sourness may disappear."
MAKING GRAPE JUICE
Any girl with a little experience in canning fruit can make for home
use and for sale a harmless and delectable beverage out of the surplus
grapes. Every good grape year on the farm there comes the question of
what to do with the grapes. A little jelly is made when the grapes are
green but most people prefer currant jelly or blackberry or crab apple.
Canned grapes are pronounced "no good" by all the family, and grape
marmalade is full of "splinters of glass," though how they got there
who can say?
The housekeeping magazines give receipts for preserving grapes but
cold storage alone gives good results and few farms have cold storage
plants. Those grapes hang there by the bushel and try as you may you do
not get them all eaten fresh.
Grape juice is not wine. If you should try to make wine you would
probably fail. But unfermented grape juice is easier to make than jelly
and as it needs no sugar your investment is small. Grape juice has food
value, as it contains more solid matter than milk, and is recommended
as a drink for children and for invalids. In many European countries
"grape cures" have long been popular. In the pure, unadulterated,
unfermented juice of the grape we have a palatable, nourishing food and
a refreshing drink in one. It is highly recommended as a preventive
of some diseases, a cure for others, and as a restorative of general
health.
So much for the product. Now how is it made? It is possible to make
grape juice from start to finish in the open air. If the grapes grow
on an arbour what more delightful occupation can you imagine than
spending a day or two converting the perfect fruit into nectar? Idling
in a hammock may appeal to some, but a row of shining fruit jars worth
seventy-five cents apiece looks better to an enterprising girl than a
finished novel.
You will need a table, a rocking chair, a large basket and scissors,
granite pans and double boiler, an oil or gasolene stove, clean jelly
bag and flannel filter, jars or bottles, corks, rubbers, etc.
When the grapes are just right to eat out of hand they are right for
grape juice. Green or over-ripe grapes are not worth working over.
Discard all unsound fruit, wash, and crush. Put into a freshly washed
bag of coarse, strong muslin, tie securely and twist and squeeze it
until the juice is all out. Two people can work to advantage at this
job.
The juice should now be put into a stone jar set in a pan of water or
heated in a double boiler. It is just at this point that most people
make a mistake and destroy the fine flavour of the grape by boiling the
juice. _It should never boil._ If you have a thermometer use it now.
The object of heating this juice is to destroy the yeast spores and
other organisms which have alighted on the grapes as they hung in the
arbour and which are so small that they came right through the mesh
of the muslin bag. A temperature of one hundred and eighty degrees to
two hundred degrees Fahr. is high enough. Take the juice from the fire
when the two hundred Fahr. is reached. A thermometer is not absolutely
necessary. When the juice begins to steam it is getting close up to two
hundred and twelve degrees Fahr., the boiling point, which you must
avoid.
Making prime quality unfermented grape juice requires two forenoons.
If you want your jars to be clear from top to bottom instead of
muddy with sediment you will set the juice away in an enamelled or
glass vessel until morning, when you will see why this precaution is
necessary. With greatest care dip the clear liquid off and filter
it. A flannel bag made in the shape of a cone with a stiff wire or
wooden ring at the top to hold it open, is the best filter. Several
thicknesses of flannel or felt are better than one. All the tiny
particles of sediment will be caught in the woollen meshes and the
juice will be pure. The last traces of settlings, will be removed and
the liquid will be clear. The colour and flavour will depend on the
kind of grape used.
Put the filtered juice into bottles or fruit jars that have been
sterilized by boiling in water. Do not fill them quite full. Wiping
is unnecessary. Fit a false bottom made of a thin board or slats into
the bottom of the washboiler and set the jars of grape juice with
rubbers and covers on but not screwed down in on this. Put water into
the boiler till it comes up to the shoulders of the jars. Heat now
until the water is on the point of boiling, but do not let it boil.
Remove jars from the water and screw down the covers. If bottles are
used, clean, sterilized corks must be put in, while the juice is still
in the hot water. If the corks are very tight further sealing is not
required, but wax or paraffine is put over them by cautious persons to
make assurance doubly sure.
Quart jars are probably most economical and will find a ready sale.
Grape juice will ferment very soon after unsealing and should be used
immediately. Even a small family will have no difficulty in consuming
a quart if given the opportunity. Many delicious desserts can be made
with this juice combined with sugar, eggs, gelatine, cream, lemons, and
other fruits.
MAKING LEAF MOULD
Every year I see boys and girls raking leaves from the lawns and
either piling them in the street or in the back yard and then burning
them. Nobody likes an outdoor fire more than I do, whether it is a
real camp fire, a little back yard faggot fire just enough to roast
a few potatoes and onions and play gypsy, or a big blazing bonfire,
almost dangerous and wholly splendid. What I don't like is a sickly,
smouldering pile of leaves sending out a suffocating smudge, bursting
with sudden flame at night and having to be put out after you had your
slippers on and had begun a new book. Such a fire is a nuisance to you
and to the neighbourhood and no satisfaction.
Burning leaves is like burning money. That is quite another way of
looking at it. "Why, most people have to pay out money to get their
leaves taken away," you say. True, but that is because we are such
a lot of wasters. We are just beginning to learn to be economical,
because we must. To make a long story short, turn your leaves into
money by composting them.
For greenhouse work pure leaf mould is a necessity and the supply of
the real article is never equal to the demand. Ask the florist in your
town where he gets leaf mould and how much it costs him.
Making leaf mould is simple. All you have to do is to rake the leaves
into a pile where they can lie still and rot. To make a really neat
job and lose none of your work or leaves make a frame of boards a foot
high or so and as large as you think your leaves will require. Set this
frame in some part of the yard where it will not look unsightly but
as near the source of leaf supply as is permissible. If you have to
carry the leaves by wheelbarrow you will see the force of this. Use a
pony and cart for the job if you have them. A big box or barrel on a
wheelbarrow is better than the wheelbarrow alone. Get a layer of leaves
a foot deep, then tramp it. If water is handy, wetting them with a few
pailfuls would make them pack well. Put on layer after layer of leaves
if pure leaf mould is to be made.
Lay boards over the top to hold the leaves down or the autumn winds
will scatter them for you. Forking over a few times will hasten the
process of decay. A very small quantity of leaf mould for home use can
be made in a store box or barrel. This should not be water tight. Let
the leaves be exposed to all the elements; the rain, the air, freezing
and thawing, help on the process of decay.
Leaves are a very valuable ingredient in the making of compost for the
garden. I have from an expert gardener this receipt for his favourite
"GARDEN FRUIT CAKE"
Three parts selected leaves.
Three parts cow manure.
Two parts garden soil.
One part kitchen refuse and weeds.
One part pasture sod.
Compost these in alternating layers for one, two, or three years under
cover. The result is a rich, brown, moist compound which, added to
common garden soil at suitable times, is warranted to raise flowers and
vegetables fit for the queen's table.
Now then, instead of burning your leaves, go out and gather all you can
from the neighbour's yard as well as your own and make leaf mould.
Combine the boys on the street into a "Leaf Mould Syndicate" and get
the local florists interested in a home-made product.
MAKING LAVENDER STICKS
The weaving of lavender sticks has been described to me as "the
harmless occupation of old-fashioned fingers." In these days when the
revival of old-time industries is so often undertaken, it is well to
learn from our aunts or our great-aunts some of the fancy work that
employed their elegant leisure when they were girls. The lavender
stick is such a sweet and dainty object that I hope for it a renewed
popularity. It is one of the always acceptable gifts the Pacific coast
can send to the Atlantic where it is so hard to make lavender grow.
I might say here that there is good reason to advise the growing of
lavender in the light limestone soil of some of our Southern states.
Immense quantities are used in the manufacture of lavender water and
perfumery, and although the dried flowers are retailed as a preventive
for clothes moths, I have grave doubts about that.
The best way to learn how to make lavender sticks is to have some dear
old lady show you. Failing this you may try to follow these directions
and the picture that goes with them. Late June is the best time,
September the next best. The lavender must be in full flower. If too
young the stems will cure limp. The finest odour passes with the going
to seed. Cut the flower stalks in clear weather and before the heat of
the day.
[Illustration: A lavender stick]
As some lavender sticks should be shorter and some longer to suit their
various purposes, you should next sort the stalks into groups according
to length. For a handkerchief box nine short ones would be right. To
make a large "stick" for a linen closet shelf choose twenty-five of
the longest, heaviest heads. Always have an odd number. Strip off the
leaves, draw the stems down till the heads are all on a level, then tie
them "gently but firmly, under their chins" with soft cotton yarn that
will hold but not cut. Use plenty of string and leave very long ends.
Build the thistle-like head into a shapely oval--but not with cotton,
after the way of the Philistines. Plump it out with a little sheaf
made of the heads that are too small to use, and add a few leaves to
round it out. With those long string ends wind the head, now, and tie
securely.
The next step is one where skill and care are necessary. Each stem
is to be bent directly backward at a sharp angle and it will be a
wonder if you do not break every other one. Crease each stem over your
thumb-nail before turning it back over the head. When all are safely
reversed, double one end of a bolt of lavender ribbon over one stalk,
close to the top and begin to weave. The simplest weaving is the most
artistic, under one stalk and over the next, passing round and round
till the head is covered. At this point it is best to fasten the end of
the ribbon, wind the stems with common string and begin on another till
you have brought all to the same stage. Lay them all away for a month
to cure. You will find that the weaving will then have to be tightened
about the head. Now wind the ribbon tightly round the handle and fasten
it there. A tuft of loops at the end is a simple and old-timey finish.
The less attempt at decoration the better. A lavender stick is a very
acceptable gift for one who is fond of its perfume and can detect the
aroma of homely sentiment that mingles with its sweetness.
DRYING CORN
In my girlhood the surplus sweet corn was not left to dry on the
stalks. It does not make very good fodder. The best ears were marked
and left to ripen for seed, but the surplus green corn was dried. The
boys would bring in a bushel or so of ears in the husk. We prepared
these as carefully as if for immediate use on the table. Every silk was
removed. The ears were then put into boiling water a few at a time and
left only five or six minutes, just long enough to "set" the milk. As
soon as the corn had cooled sufficiently we began to cut it off, with
thin, sharp knives. With the butt of the ear resting on the flattest
big platter, one sliced from top to bottom. We had orders not to cut
deep the first time--just to take off the tops of the grains. The next
cut was thin, too, and came off in a slice which fell apart. We cut
three slices, at least, before we came to the cob. By this means we
obtained a final product far superior to that of the neighbours who
made one cut suffice. When a platter was full, the corn was spread
evenly and put out in the sun, on a long table and covered with netting
to keep off flies. When partially dry we transferred it to a large
cloth and continued the drying until every vestige of moisture was
gone from it. It was then put into a loose muslin bag and hung up
near the ceiling where mice and dampness could not get at it. I have
eaten evaporated corn, and find it a poor substitute for the sun-dried
article.
To prepare dried corn for the table wash well, soak over night, and
then steam slowly on the back of the kitchen stove from morning till
late afternoon, with salt to taste. By this time most of the water will
have been absorbed or evaporated. The corn will be soft and all its
native sweetness will be right there. Add a generous libation of cream,
a lump of butter, a whisk of pepper, and you have a delectable dish.
MAKING A TENNIS COURT
The largest item in all the estimates for making a tennis court is
for labour. If a boys' club can supply this they can have a court
without expense except for the wire netting and the necessary posts.
A standard double court is seventy-eight feet by thirty-six. Choose a
well-drained piece of ground; the more nearly level the better. Locate
the courts with reference to the time of day when they will be most
used and the direction of the sun's beams at that hour.
The first job is to get rid of the grass and weeds, root and branch. If
a plough is used do not begin the levelling until every root is gone.
Turning grass under is bad practice. Some kinds of grass can grow no
matter which end is up. Next with rakes make the surface fairly level.
_Level_ is one of those adjectives that can not be compared. If a court
is level it can't be any leveller, and to be right it must be done with
a straight edge and a spirit level. If there is one boy in whom you all
have confidence, it is a good plan to elect him boss of the job and
follow his instructions. "Team work" is the right thing in this kind of
a job, just as in games. When the court is level it must be rolled and
rolled and rolled again, with the heaviest roller you can get.
A surface of ordinary dirt does not wear well. Some people prefer to
spread on a layer of ashes, next three inches of sand, soil, and clay
mixed.
Roll each layer thoroughly. For a top finish a very fine gravel is used
on some courts, sand is used on others. You will probably use that
which is most available. Clay is hard to work with, but when overlaid
with fine sand makes a hard court on which the swiftest experts can
play with enjoyment.
The care of the court should be taken week about, two boys working
together. The roller should be used often, especially after a rain, and
worn spots mended immediately before they get bigger.
Most clubs count in an expensive marker when estimating the cost of
tennis. An ingenious boy can make one for nothing. A square varnish
tin or olive oil can holding a gallon or more can easily be held by a
framework upon a wheelbarrow or wheel hoe in such a way that the drip
from two nail holes will fall upon the broad rim of the wheel. Fold
a piece of paper into funnel shape, fill the can with thin whitewash
and paint mixed and you are as well equipped as if you had spent five
dollars for a marker.
If conditions favour a grass court the sod should be taken off and the
ground beneath spaded, raked, and made level. Then the sod should be
matched and laid accurately, then rolled, sprinkled, and rolled again;
for three days at least the rolling and sprinkling should be repeated.
SHOVELLING SNOW
The boys of our neighbourhood made an abundance of pocket-money in the
winter time by combining into a "Snow Shovellers Union." Most of the
men on our street take early trains and have very little time, and even
less inclination to shovel snow. The boys are out early before the snow
gets packed on the sidewalks. They work by the job or by the hour,
whichever the employer prefers.
At first the boys expected the employers to furnish the tools. But that
didn't work very well. To make work a pleasure one must have his tools
right and an expert snow shoveller does not want to use a dilapidated
spade on one job, a short-handled shovel here, and a long-handled one
there. He wants snow shovelling tools and after a little experience he
knows what he wants.
The tools can be made by the boys. Our boys made a most efficient
plough for walks, out of cheap store boxes, and a scraper for steps
that fit every corner accurately so that one scrape did the trick and
no false motions to waste time and strength. For informal paths to
chicken house, garden, etc., a shovel made of light barrel staves
sawed in halves was found to be better than an expensive iron-bound
shovel from the department store.
If there is a lame boy on your street take him into the Union too;
although he can't keep up with you at the shovel, he can have a book,
keep track of the time each boy can work, call at patrons' doors to
arrange about their work, and these things are just as important as the
actual shovelling.
MOWING LAWNS
In summer the Snow Shovellers Union can reform into the "Lawn Mowers
and Irrigators, Limited." Every year I used to send my lawn mower
to a "tinker" who charged me one dollar and twenty-five cents for
_sharpening_ it. I learned one day and it made me sad, that a lawn
mower properly cared for keeps itself sharp. Any boy who is strong
enough to run a lawn mower ought to be smart enough to take care of
one. He needs to know how the machine is put together, what parts do
the work and where the wear comes on the parts. The directions which
come with a good machine are worth reading. The man who sells the mower
may not be able to explain any part you don't understand. His business
may be to sell, only. If you go into the hardware store and find the
man who knows all about lawn mowers, he will be only too glad to show
you how to run the machine so that it will do its work and last. It
is to his interest to have you recommend his machine. Make yourself
familiar with a machine in perfect working order. Your ears and your
eyes ought to tell you when it is going wrong.
It is, above all, of greatest importance to know how to adjust a lawn
mower. A wrench, a screw-driver, and an oil can should be your constant
companions. Go over the machine before you begin and put it in shape.
It is ten minutes well spent. Tighten screws, oil the parts that rub,
adjust the knife to the kind and condition of the grass. When the job
is done, look the mower over. If a screw is lost be sure to supply a
new one before the next using; clean the machine and put it away in a
dry place.
UTILIZING WOOD ASHES
Boys who have as part of their daily work the cleaning out of ashes
would do well to stop and consider before they dump their pails. Coal
ashes are as nearly worthless as anything I know of although they can
be used in making a tennis court, and are even advised by some for a
very stiff garden soil. A garden must be pretty bad off to be improved
by coal ashes.
But there are thousands of cords of wood burned every year and wood
ashes are very valuable. There is no fertilizer equal to them for
certain purposes. Not only are they valuable at home, but they are an
article of commerce, and have a market value. Who has a better right to
the ashes than the boy who manages the ash pan?
Barrels are the most convenient receptacles to store ashes in. Cheap
boxes come next. They should be tight and kept under cover. Leaching
takes the value out of wood ashes.
PLANTING CROCUSES ON THE LAWN
Did you ever see crocuses, yellow, lavender, and white, scattered
informally in the lawn, coming into blossom with the earliest springing
grass. One fall we tried the experiment of poking a crocus bulb down
in the hole where we took out a dandelion and the result was charming.
There are philosophers who profess to a liking for dandelions in the
lawn. Perhaps it is Hobson's choice with them, as with many, but
although the dandelion flower is bright as gold the leaves are a real
nuisance. They are coarse and rank and they resist the lawn-mower,
and discourage the fine grasses. Except when in blossom they are a
disfiguring feature. Crocuses are certainly more delicate in flower
than dandelions and their leaves are more like grass. Moreover they
die down early and are out of the way of the lawn mower. So instead of
just digging out a dandelion or a thistle and leaving a bare hole, I
recommend that you poke in a crocus bulb next fall. Your reward will
come in gold and purple.
MAKING ICE
Lots of us get along without ice in winter because we cannot afford to
buy it all the year round. We put things outside and they freeze, we
keep them in the kitchen and they spoil. The butter is either too hard
or too soft all the time.
Boys and girls like ice-cream the year round and yet many of us do
without it in the winter time because the iceman does not come around.
Sometimes you may have thought when you broke the ice in the watering
trough that there was nearly enough to make a freezer of ice-cream.
Did it not occur to you that you could make home-made ice, supply the
refrigerator in coldest weather, and make ice-cream whenever you want
it? All you need is the cold weather and a heavy tin pail. Fill the
pail with clean water some clear, cold night and stand it where it
will get the greatest exposure. If the mercury is a little below zero
it will freeze a coat of ice two or more inches thick on top and sides
of the pail. Turn the pail upside down on a bench and turn enough hot
water over it to loosen the pail; then take it off. The ice on the
bottom will be thin. Break this and dip out all of the water, but about
two inches. This will freeze very quickly in cold weather and you can
put in more. Keep filling it up until your ice pail is solid. It is
then ready for the refrigerator.
From making one block of ice in a heavy tin pail it is an easy step to
making a winter supply to store in sawdust where the sun cannot melt it
during a thaw and where you can get at it when needed. From this the
logical conclusion is that a man and his boys could make a supply of
ice for both summer and winter by following the same tactics.
How well I remember the hardships of the ice harvesters of my home
neighbourhood. The ice had to be cut in the river three miles away, and
hauled up a bad hill. If the roads were good the ice was bad as a rule.
Good sleighing meant ice covered with snow. There was always anxiety
for fear we should not get a supply, and often the houses were filled
with thin cakes, for fear the cold weather was over for the year. Then
the hauling and the cutting in the bitter weather was bad for men and
teams. The ice was river ice and we knew it was unsafe.
A writer in _Country Life_ describes how he made his supply of
home-made ice. He first had a tinner make heavy tin boxes of a size
convenient to handle. He had them made an inch smaller at the bottom
than at the top and the top was bound over a heavy wire. When the cold
weather came the clean pans were filled from the well. The cakes were
turned out of the pans next day and dipped and filled just as described
above, as solid cakes formed. These were packed in the ice house for
the summer's supply as fast as made. The cost was less in time and
cash, than putting up "wild ice," even including the cost of pans,
which can, of course, be used over and over, year after year.
CUTTING SEED POTATOES
[Illustration: For cutting seed potatoes]
Cutting seed potatoes is a job that most boys and girls dislike and
no wonder. It takes so long, is so dirty, your thumb gets so scored
and even cut seriously. But most fathers want the potatoes cut before
planting and who is to do it but the boys and girls? Two ingenious
boys invented a contraption which decreased the time and labour to a
minimum and almost made the job a pleasure. This description of their
potato cutter is adapted from _Farming_ for April, nineteen hundred and
seven. A dry goods box holding several bushels was fitted with four
strong legs, just long enough to lift the box to a height convenient
to sit by. At the bottom of one side of the box a board was removed to
let the potatoes roll out on a shelf attached beneath the opening. The
shelf should have a rim two or three inches high and there should be a
crack where shelf and box come together to let the dust sift down. The
knife is driven into the end of a short piece of plank and held with
fence staples. The boy sits on the plank. The potato is pushed forward
against the sharp blade and the pieces drop into the basket. A man can
cut forty bushels of potatoes in a day with this outfit.
The work ought to be done out under a tree, and if the boys want to
wear gloves to keep their hands clean and smooth for more delicate
work, I should encourage them to do so.
PRUNING
[Illustration: Rosebush before pruning]
When I see a lot of ignorant labourers put onto the job of pruning
trees, my blood fairly boils. Their work, unless overseen by an
expert, is pure butchery. Many a noble tree has been so mangled by saw
and axe that it has become an easy prey to all sorts of diseases.
[Illustration: Rosebush after pruning]
Pruning is work that requires intelligence. In orchard and door yard
any one with the strength to wield a saw or shears can do the annual
pruning. A woman can do it as I can testify, except occasionally
where large limbs are to be handled. Such occasions seldom arise on
a well-cared-for place. It is impossible to treat the whole subject
of pruning in one short chapter, but there is nothing difficult to
understand about the principles or practice. In ten minutes an expert
grape pruner could show a pupil how to prune a grape-vine so as to
produce the best and largest crop. Each kind of shrub whether for fruit
or flowers requires its special treatment. It takes experience to
acquire judgment but the principles are easy to learn and to practise.
You should go to a book on pruning to learn just how to prune the
various kinds of shrubs, vines, and trees.
[Illustration: The right way. The wound is healing]
[Illustration: The wrong way. The stub prevents healing]
But if there is a limb to be cut off a tree in the door yard who is
likely to be delegated to the job? Every boy ought to know how to do
this right. You may be acquainted with the boy who sat on the limb
and sawed between the tree and himself, but you will certainly not
share his fate. When you use the pruning shears on the branches and
twigs of a tree or shrub you are, so to speak, cutting its fingernails
or hair: but when you go up with a saw you are performing a far more
serious operation. Do not forget that the life processes of the
tree, the circulation of the blood, the assimilation of the food,
the respiration, all go on right under the bark. The "heart" of the
tree is a misnomer. That fresh moist layer which is uncovered by
the skinning of a tree is the only part of the tree which is really
actively alive and at work. This layer, called the cambium, extends
like a tight-fitting garment over the entire tree. Every tiny twig and
spur is overlaid with it. If you ever had an "infected" finger from
a scratch or pin prick or cut you have some idea of the danger the
tree is exposed to when the cambium layer is laid bare and the wound
neglected. Compare the two drawings on this page. Look at the trees in
your yard. Are there some like No. 1 and others like No. 2? In No. 1
the pruner cut a branch off close up to the main trunk. The wound was
dressed with thick paint to close the pores. All around the edge of
the wound was the cut edge of the cambium layer. A roll of new tissue
formed there, covering a part of the wound the first year. In a year
or two more the roll became broad enough to close over the smooth base
where the severed limb was. The wound is healed. But look at the long
stubs of No. 2. That was the work of a "tree butcher." Already the stub
has begun to rot and the injury has gone far into the tree, past cure.
You have seen a fine board ruined by a knot hole? That knot hole was
made by careless pruning. Have you seen beautiful "curly" places in
fine woodwork? Those curls or "eyes" are made by the healing over of
places where limbs came off. As the cambium adds layer after layer over
it, the base of the old limb becomes more and more deeply buried in the
wood.
Learn the principles of pruning: cut off the branch, no matter how
small, close to the trunk or larger branch from which it grew; cover
the wound with a dressing to prevent decay. Trees, shrubs, vines, and
bushes should be pruned every year. Cut out all dead wood, and then
prune to shape the tree or shrub as you want it or to produce the
greatest quantity of fruit, blossoms or branches.
CLEANING RUGS
The sanitary home has never a carpet these days, but rugs on bare
floors. These rugs, if small enough to handle every week, make the
semi-annual old bugbear of house-cleaning a thing of the past. What
could be more dreary than to come home from school some afternoon and
find the floors littered with flattened old straw, so gray with dust as
to be scarcely recognizable? Getting that straw out was the boys' work,
the girls did the sweeping and mother washed the floor. How cheerless
the days that followed! How damp the floors, how extra careful we had
to be not to carry in dirt on our way to bed! The whole house wore
a dejected expression reflected by the family. All because of those
miserable carpets. They had to be beaten, too, and the clouds of dust
that had to be breathed before we heard the welcome call, "That's
enough now. Don't whip that carpet all to pieces. Fold it up and bring
it in." As we folded it we realized how far from clean it really was
and how we longed to _turn the hose on it_. But no one had the courage
to suggest such an unorthodox proceeding. Probably the colour would all
run and the carpet would shrink and everything. But anyhow we wished it
was really clean, now that so much discomfort had been endured to clean
it.
Rugs on bare floors are preferable. They can be swept and beaten every
week and they can be washed. No rug should be hung on a line to be
beaten. It is bad for the rug and a waste of energy. A rug-beating rack
can be made which will save the wear on the rugs and get them more
nearly clean than any other dry method I know of. It is described, by
Mr. W. C. Egan, who devised it, as follows:
[Illustration: Rug-beating frame up against the barn]
Make a frame of four by four pine timbers, braced across the corners.
It should be somewhat bigger than the biggest rug you expect to beat.
Stretch galvanized iron fencing over this frame and staple it securely
all round. The best place for this frame is at the side of the barn.
Strong strap hinges should be used to attach it to a piece of four by
four spiked to the barn at a height convenient for your beating. When
the frame is not in use it is pushed up and rests against the side of
the barn, held in place by hooks. A rope and two pulleys enable one
to raise and lower the frame easily. When down, the frame rests on
swinging legs made of inch iron pipe and attached to the frame at the
outer corners. The rug should be laid on the netting pile downward.
Rug-beating is hard work no matter what kind of tools one has. But who
does not love to ply the hose? I made up my mind once that a rug that
had to have an expensive compressed air bath or stay dirty was not
living up to its function as a sanitary floor covering. I experimented
with an all-wool rug, some good white soap, warm rain water, and a
scrubbing brush. A good lather was laid first on the back, then I threw
discretion to the winds and lathered the face of the thing. I scrubbed
it as if my life depended upon making the colours run, if they would.
Then I let the children turn the hose on it. We turned it over and over
and over again, till it was very, very wet. It was also clean. We left
it on the grass in the shade the first day. Then we laid it still damp,
face down, on the clean, dry floor of the porch where the sun could get
at it and the breeze. It was dry by the night of the second day and so
clean that it was a real joy to handle it. One by one we put every rug
in the house through the same course of treatment. A couple of Wiltons,
a few of Brussels carpeting, some that were woven out of old ingrain
carpets, the rag ones, and finally the precious Orientals went through
the water cure. Before I dared do this last act, I got advice from a
rug man, who said that really good rugs would suffer no harm from such
treatment. But one never believes until he tries it, and now we all
believe, and our rugs are more beautiful than before. We treated the
best rugs very gently, of course, but none the less thoroughly, and we
dried them face up on the hard floor right in the sun part of the time.
It takes about three days and nights to get the dampness all out.
[Illustration: Rug-beating frame, down in use]
Good rugs ought never to be treated roughly. They should be swept
gently _with the nap_, and never beaten with a whip, hung on the line,
or shaken. Lay on a soft carpet of grass or on a rug-beating frame and
beat gently with a flat rattan beater. When rolled, roll with the nap;
never fold them.
XI
MAKING THE COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN
I once asked Professor Bailey, "What is the most important farm crop
raised in the United States?"
Without a moment's hesitation he answered, "Boys and girls."
Of course they are.
The best farmers, the real bone and sinew of the country, are the kind
that raise the crops themselves, without much help from the outside.
They grow nearly every thing they eat, and exchange their surplus for
the food and clothing that they can't raise. There is a type of farm
life where the family is brought up on the principle that what is too
poor to sell is good enough to eat. The boys and girls of such a family
are too good for such a life. They do not stay in the country. Like the
big apples, the prize potatoes, and the gilt-edge butter, though raised
on the farm, they are consumed in the city.
The country is the best place in the world for boys and girls to grow
up in, just because it is the country. But there are ways in which
country life can be improved and if the grown folks are too busy
raising crops, the young folks must head the campaign which is to make
the country a better place to live in.
Since this is a book on outdoor work we cannot consider ways of making
the life indoors more attractive, more comfortable, more convenient,
and more sanitary, but concern ourselves with outdoor problems only.
Boys and girls, stop and think. What can you do to make your own
particular corner of the country a better place for you and your
companions to live in? When a crowd of boys meet together, what do they
talk about? Are they interested in local affairs or do they tell each
other of the great things they expect to do when they get away? A wise
old man once said, "In a republic you ought to begin to train a child
for good citizenship on the day of its birth."
Are you going to be a good citizen? Are you patriotic? Do you salute
the flag at school, and then go out and break the game laws? Train now
for citizenship. There is more patriotism in obeying the laws of your
home, your school, your town, and your state than there is in parading
with flags and band in the National Guards. Good citizenship begins at
home. How can you make your own home a more desirable place for your
brothers and sisters to live in? Take a look at the house. Is it plain
and unadorned and uncomfortable? Are the surroundings bare and ugly?
Have you had experience in building, painting, and planting? If you can
help build a corn crib, you can make a porch over the front door or a
sidewalk connecting the back door with the pump or the milk house. If
you can help paint the barn, why not the house? If you can plant trees
in the orchard, why not shrubs in the door yard, and vines over the
porch? Don't think you must have expensive pillars and fancy railings.
They will not look as well as rustic work or pillars of home-made
cement. The vines will soon cover the porch with their greenery if
given half a chance.
OUTDOOR CLUBS
Have you a boys' club in your neighbourhood? Or a girls' club? You used
to have a literary society in school, and it failed? Why was that? The
boys didn't take any interest in it.
Why not have a club that the boys will take an interest in and a club
that the girls will take an interest in? What kinds of clubs do boys
like? Athletic clubs where they wrestle, box, turn handsprings, have
jumping, skating, walking, and running matches, and play such games
of skill and endurance as hare and hounds, pitching horseshoes, and
baseball. They like all sorts of clubs that get real things done, like
raising prize corn or cotton or pigs or training colts or steers or
dogs. Boys and girls like to compete for prizes. How boys or girls
will work to do something so much better than any other boy or girl in
the crowd that the judges will award the prize to them. It is hard in
contests like these to be able to walk up like a true sportsman and
congratulate the winner. But a boy can learn to do it; so can a girl.
All over the United States boys are banding together to raise better
corn, better cotton, better chickens, better fruit. North, west, east,
and south, thousands of boys are raising corn. They test their seed,
prepare the soil, plant, cultivate, and harvest the crop, weigh it,
take it to the exhibition where they compare it with other boys' crops,
and see for themselves who has the best yield. One boy, a member of
the Winnebago County Farmer Boys' Experiment Club took first prize of
fifteen dollars in gold for the best ten ears of corn. This club has
about eleven hundred members. There is a Winnebago County Girls' Home
Culture Club with an equally large membership. These boys and girls are
growing up to be good citizens right there in the country, where they
were born. They don't have to go to the city to find education or good
manners or a good time. The fathers and mothers, the school teachers,
the ministers, and the county superintendent of schools all work
together in Winnebago County, Ill., and they can everywhere.
[Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. Is This Work or Play?]
The boys in your home school can form a Boys' Agricultural Club now.
The first thing you need is information about other clubs. Your club
will not be just like the others. It ought not to be. But if you know
how the others are managed it will help you to manage yours. Send to
the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and ask for Farmers'
Bulletin No. 385 on Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs. On page
fifteen of this bulletin are suggestions as to an invitation to be sent
out for the first meeting. If your teacher is willing you can hold
the first meeting some Friday afternoon in the early spring at the
school-house. If the teacher is not yet interested hold the meeting at
some home in the neighbourhood. If you are acquainted with the county
superintendent or the school commissioner, tell him about the club you
want to start, and maybe he will arrange for the first meeting and get
all the boys and girls in the county organized. You could have a local
chapter of the club, with local exhibits and local prizes; then you
could have a space at the county fair, and members of different clubs
all over the county could compete for first prize.
The bulletin gives suggestions for a constitution, enrollment of
members, and a scheme for cards on which to keep a record of the crop
you are going to grow. There are rules, too, that each person who
competes for prizes must observe.
A good many boys' clubs start in with growing a crop of corn, and
girls' clubs with bread-making. They need not do these same things
every year, although one can learn something new about growing corn,
raising chickens, or making bread every year.
The country would be a better place to live in, if there were more
boys' and girls' clubs.
ATTRACTING BIRDS
The country would be a better place to live in if there were more song
birds there. I know of a shrewd firm of real estate men, who wished
to attract a certain class of residents to their suburban section,
knowing that others would follow and property become more valuable.
They laid out the woodsy tract with as little change from the natural
conditions as they could, and still have a sanitary, convenient, and
comfortable suburb. They did not chop down the trees in order to run
straight roads through, nor did they fill in the small gully that
wanted to be a brook. They encouraged the brook and ran their roadways
so as to avoid the big trees and give each building site a character of
its own and privacy. Then they put a man in charge with strict orders
to make the place attractive to song birds; to protect and feed them;
to destroy their enemies. He was also to foster and encourage such wild
flowers and ferns as grew naturally in the woods, and to propagate and
increase them so as to make the place a paradise. The man entered into
the spirit of their idea and succeeded wonderfully. The real estate
men advertised and the right people came and were convinced and bought
homes there and "lived happy ever after."
BRINGING BACK THE SONG BIRDS
How can boys and girls bring back our song birds? I will not say
much about why we want them, for in enlightened America we take
it for granted. Some people still want to be convinced that birds
are of practical value. I will say only that the damage to crops by
insects in nineteen hundred and four, is estimated at nine hundred and
seventy-five million dollars. Investigations by scientists in state and
nation all go to prove that a vast percentage of this loss could have
been saved by birds. I wish every child would be ambitious to increase
the bird life on every farm, on every village block. Here are some
facts that ought to be convincing. I take them at random from my notes:
Kingbirds kill bot-flies.
Brown thrashers feed mostly on insects, especially white grubs and
curculios.
Cat-birds, cuckoos and orioles are very important enemies of gypsy moth.
The red-eyed vireos are "premium caterpillar hunters."
Bluebirds board themselves. Eat cut-worms, furry caterpillars, and
grasshoppers.
Wrens' food is ninety-eight per cent. animal matter.
Warblers, titmice, creepers, and nut hatches eat lice.
A pair of robins fed their nestlings this menu in three hours,
bringing food every three minutes: sixty-one earth-worms, sixteen
yellow grubs, thirty-eight other insects. Also four grasshoppers,
several dragon flies, and a few moths.
Robins rank first as enemies of white grub.
Kingbirds protect poultry by driving away hawks; ninety-eight per cent.
of their food is insects, mostly injurious sorts.
Woodpeckers destroy grubs in living trees. Phoebes catch flies,
lighting on backs of cattle so as to be handy; also elm-leaf beetle,
adults of canker-worms, cut-worms and gypsy.
Baltimore orioles are worth their weight in gold as destroyers of gypsy
and brown-tail moths.
Rose-breasted grosbeaks cleaned out potato beetles.
Scarlet tanagers ate gypsy moths at the rate of thirty-eight per minute
for eighteen consecutive minutes.
Thirty cedar waxwings will destroy ninety thousand canker-worms in a
month.
So we can pile up the evidence in favour of the birds.
HOW TO ATTRACT BIRDS
Two words tell us what to do to increase bird life: provide and
protect. We must provide food, water, and nesting places. We must
protect from disturbance, from natural enemies, from destruction by
hunters who sell the feathers.
[Illustration: A birds' table hung with wires]
All over the country, laws to protect birds are being introduced into
legislatures. Boys and girls may think that they cannot do much to help
make laws. They can if their fathers are in the legislature as lots of
fathers are, take the country over. Maybe your father does not know
how much birds are worth. Get him to read the bulletins issued by the
government. The boys who protect the birds around home will be the law
makers some fine day themselves. They'll "see to it," then.
But now what can you do to-day? Is it winter? Feed the birds. There
are many winter bird residents. Where are the insects in winter? Have
they gone south? Not a bit of it. They lurk under the bark on your
apple trees. They hide on the fence rails and under the leaves. Trust
the birds to find them unless snow prevents. The extra feeding you
give them will not toll them away from the insect food they love, but
will keep them "on the job" and will keep them from starving in stormy
weather. Water, too, they often suffer for in winter. Supply it in
shallow basins and slightly warmed. Tie suet to the trees; sacks made
of loose netting will hold nut meats for them. Scatter grain for the
grain eaters on a platform.
In spring furnish nesting places and material, protection from cats and
distressing disturbances; mud for robins, string for orioles, floss,
feathers, and straw for others. Do something every day for your birds.
Drinking fountains are a necessity, especially in towns where there is
no running water. Shallow basins are best. They will often come right
to the door and drink or bathe, unless frightened by some real or
fancied danger. To make the birds tame you must make them feel safe,
and supply their wants.
THE TRAFFIC IN BIRD SKINS
Not many girls wear birds' feathers in their hats. But many women do,
and girls get to be women very soon. No one knows how many birds are
slaughtered in America each year for hat trimmings. A few facts are
available such as: seventy thousand skins were sent in four months
from a small district on Long Island; one New York house contracts
to furnish to Paris forty thousand skins in one season; four hundred
thousand bird skins from America sold in one London auction room in
three months. These numbers fairly stagger the reader. I don't know one
American girl who would kill a bird. If every one of them would refuse
ever to wear any bird feathers there would be a great falling off in
this traffic.
Collecting birds' eggs and nests is still quite common, and should be
discouraged. The present state of the bird population does not warrant
the destruction of any except for the big museums. Their collectors
are trained experts who collect only such birds as are needed for
scientific purposes. They go at the right season to do the least
damage, and they do not slaughter by wholesale.
Besides cats, which can be regulated to a certain extent in our homes,
birds have other enemies. Crows, though valuable insect eaters, are bad
nest robbers and have been caught in the act of killing nestlings and
even small adult birds. Snakes eat both eggs and young. Guards for cats
will keep out squirrels which molest the birds' nests. Ground nesting
birds may be protected with wire netting. Where this has been tried,
in no case did it cause birds to desert the nests.
Birds need thickets, hedge-rows and shrubbery for nesting places,
hiding places, and shelter from storms.
Every farmer who kills the birds on his place justifies the destruction
by the evidence that they eat fruit. True, some of them do. But if
water is provided many of them prefer it to fruit juice. To preserve
our strawberries and cherries, we should plant June berry and Russian
mulberry, which the birds like better. Chokeberry, buckthorn, elder
berry, and mulberry will attract birds away from blackberry and
raspberry patches. Wild cherry will protect the grapes, as both ripen
late.
DOMESTICATING WILD GAME
The country would be a more attractive place to live in if there were
more wild game. Thirty years ago, when I was a little girl in the
middle West, my brothers used to shoot "prairie chickens" (grouse),
quail (bob-white), wild geese, brant, wild ducks, and even bigger
birds. But now the guns are all rusty, and the powder flask is empty. I
came across the old wad-cutter in the attic and hardly recognized it.
Efforts are being made in several states to rear wild fowl in the
barn yard. Bob-white, grouse, mallard, wood ducks, and Canada geese
are being experimented upon. A measure of success has already been
achieved, but more experience is necessary especially with regard to
the feeding of the young birds.
[Illustration: A wood duck will nest in a box like this]
Probably the wild fowl for young hunters to experiment with is wood
duck or mallard. A man whose ten years' experience with raising wild
fowl has earned him the title of expert, writes as follows: "I think
it would be a most useful work to educate our young people up to the
fact that with a little patience and a small outlay they can help to
increase our supply of wild birds. For raising wood ducks, all one
needs is a small pond or even an artificial tank surrounded by a few
bushes enclosed by a wire fence. In one corner, place a box on a post
three feet high with a cleated boardwalk leading up to a platform from
which they can reach the entrance, which should be a round hole. Turn a
pair of wood ducks into the enclosure the first of March, and with luck
your duck will build her nest, and lay from eight to twelve eggs. In
about four weeks the eggs will hatch and the troubles commence."
He goes on to say that some kinds of wild geese are comparatively easy
to raise and that they do not require much of a pond, but ample grazing
facilities, like their domestic relatives. Mallards, also, are very
easy to raise.
As wild fowl bred in captivity bring a very good price and the demand
is increasing with the spreading interest in the subject, raising wild
fowl might be a source of income to an enterprising young man or woman.
All spring shooting of wild fowls ought to stop. Don't say, "If I don't
shoot them, somebody else will." That is not the attitude of a good
sportsman. Public opinion among boys can only be established by boys.
If you don't believe in hunting in spring, when the ducks are laying
or brooding the young, you can not only stop doing it, but you can
influence others. Will you do this? To kill one mother duck this year
means eight or ten less next year. It is a plain example in arithmetic
to see what a big blunder you make if you shoot in spring.
A GAME PRESERVE
If you live on a big farm or ranch well wooded and watered, your
conditions are ideal for creating a private game preserve. If a few
wild birds are known to be already at home on your place, encourage
them. Let them breed in security and plant their favourite food crops.
Small areas of land in various out of the way places can be ploughed
and planted in spring to buckwheat and millet, wheat, rye, and barley.
The bob-white has become so rare that you will probably have to plant
some seed birds, as they say. They can be bought for five to ten
dollars a dozen. Care should be taken that the birds are not frightened
when liberated. To spend ten dollars for birds, only to lose them by
carelessness, is poor business. These suggestions are given by an
experienced game warden: "Take the boxed birds out near some good,
thick shelter where they can hide and gain confidence. Attach a long
rope to a soap box, scatter grain about near the end of the box nearest
the cover, and scatter sheaf grain along toward the cover. Take only
three cocks and three hens from the shipping box and put them in the
liberating box. Go some distance off and be deliberate. Let the quail
get rested and quiet. Pull the long rope, lifting the box gently and
steadily. The birds will see the grain and hop out. Watch them from
your safe distance following the wheat toward the cover. Keep up the
supply of wheat until they are accustomed to their new home, and can
find their way back after roaming. Birds should not be planted later
than May first."
PROTECTING THE WILD FLOWERS
The country would be a better place to live in the whole or part of the
year or to visit for a day or a week or a month if there were more wild
flowers there. Even the man who doesn't know one flower from another
will acknowledge, if asked, that wild flowers make the woods and the
roadsides and the meadows prettier to look at.
The country over, our loveliest wild flowers have met the same fate as
the bright-feathered birds. They have been hunted for their blossoms
and the gatherers have not cared whether they pulled the plants up by
the roots or not. The case of trailing arbutus is a particularly sad
one. In localities where it used to flourish, selfish and wanton hands
have literally rooted it out until none remains.
Only lately has any effort been made to protect the wild flowers and
multiply them. Now, in the general awakening of the public to the fact
that we are blundering and wasteful, a widespread interest has grown up
in saving the wild flowers.
In your own locality you can help this good work. Refrain from
destroying the plants yourself. When you gather flowers in woods or
meadow do so in moderation. A few loose, graceful sprays will give you
as much pleasure as a huge bunch inartistically crowded into a vase.
Have you not often seen children returning from a walk in the woods
bearing handfuls of columbine? These frail blooms wilt in the hot sun,
and the roadway is often strewn with forlorn bunches of them, dropped
by tired children. How much better that each child should gather a few
and put them all in a botanical case or wet paper to be distributed
when they reach home. Those hundreds on the dusty road will never be
visited by the ruby-throated humming-bird, nor set any seed for next
year's flowers. Older boys and girls can do much to influence the
younger ones to gather sparingly.
Another way to increase the wild flowers in your locality is to
propagate them. Gather their seeds and plant them in your garden
where you can protect the young seedlings from harm. Where they are
big enough, set them out where they will have natural conditions. Or
undertake a bit of wild gardening right in the woods or the roadside
where the plants grow naturally. Clear out less desirable sorts,
lessening the struggle for your favourites. Cultivate them a little.
See that they do not suffer from too much sun or rain or drought.
If you know of a plot of woodland soon to be denuded or a piece of wild
land to be improved, get permission to gather bulbs, roots, and plants
there. If you know the flowers the year 'round, you will be able to
recognize the lilies, the orchids, the blood roots, the wild ginger,
hepatica, violets, and can transplant them to your own woods or garden.
PREVENTING FOREST FIRES
It is October now, and this morning's paper had accounts of terrible
forest fires raging in Minnesota. Hundreds dead, thousands homeless,
and millions of dollars' worth of property wiped out.
Nobody knows, who has not fought fire, what a fiend the foresters have
to deal with. I have looked up many forest fire statistics and I find
always noted among the "sources of fires," this item: _Forest Fires Set
By Children_. There may not be much that boys and girls can _do_ to
put in practice the big things we hear talked about under the name of
conservation, but one thing you can certainly refrain from doing, and
that is, setting a forest fire. A person who makes a fire in the woods
is responsible to the community for that fire and its consequences. To
boil a coffee pail, to broil bacon, to bake biscuits, to fry fish, to
give comfort to the hunter, trapper, camper, or picnicker, many are the
legitimate uses of a fire in the woods. No real sportsman forgets his
fire. His last act before leaving a camp is to see that no vestige of
it remains. He makes sure every spark is dead, then throws on another
pail of water, and goes on with a light heart and a clear conscience.
If you have ever left a fire in the woods, anywhere, your conscience
ought to give you a good jab when you read of forest fires, though
distant, a jab that will prevent your repeating the offence.
KILLING WEEDS
Weeding is the boy's job, isn't it? If only one could get some kind of
inspiration into weeding, so as to rob the work of its drudgery!
If we must serve our time at weeding, let us at least weed
intelligently. What is a weed anyhow? In Germany, I am told, the
peasants call weeds "_Unkraut_". Since "_Kraut_" is cabbage,
"_Unkraut_" must be weeds.
A weed is really a plant growing where we don't want it. The worst weed
in a hill of four corn stalks is the fourth stalk of corn that crowds
the others. The worst weeds in a row of beets are the little beet
plants that crowd each other. What a plague they are!
Some of the plants we usually include among our "coarse native weeds"
are grown in gardens in Europe. Mullein, for example, over there is
called "the American velvet plant" and a well-grown specimen is really
handsome.
If weeds are plants out of place there is much to be done by boys and
girls in the way of ridding gardens, lawns, school grounds, and village
streets of their overgrowth of weeds. If you clear out one thing put in
something better or nature may put in some plant that will not please
you. Save seeds from your own garden and drop them along the roadside.
The school grounds are the particular province of the school boys and
girls. Join together to make the grounds more beautiful and there is no
end to the improvements that will follow.
A lecturer once visited the school in a small village in the state
of New York. On his way from the village to the school-house he was
impressed with two things: first, the wonderful size and vigour of the
burdocks that seemed to have possession of even the front yards on the
business streets; and, second, the quantity of rubbish accumulated
on the margin of the pretty little stream which wandered under the
bridges of the town. Do boys and girls know what public spirit is? Do
you know how your little village strikes a stranger? The lecturer was
so struck by the sad state of the town that he made up his mind to
talk to the school about it. He did. He found that public spirit was
not dead there; it was only dormant. The boys and girls had passed by
the burdocks so often during their growth that they had taken them
for granted. They had so often thrown papers, broken dishes, worn-out
baskets, barrels, and rubbish over the bridges that they forgot to
notice how it looked. What else is an old creek like that good for
anyhow? Can't go swimmin' in it.
Before the man finished his sociable little talk with the boys and
girls he had organized the younger ones into brigades of twenty to make
war on the burdocks. With the help of teachers and boys he mapped out
the town and assigned given localities to certain groups. Each group
had a captain with orders. The lecturer had a burdock plant brought in,
a tremendous one, root and all, from the school yard. He showed the
boys and girls how well adapted this weed is to make a living, how by
means of burs it steals rides, travelling from place to place, dropping
a few seeds here and a few there. He showed them the tough, long root
and told them the plant's life history. Has the burdock any vulnerable
spot they wondered? The only time when burdock is weak is when it comes
up as a seedling. One scrape of the hoe would kill hundreds then.
Hearing what was up at school, an enterprising business man offered
to give ten dollars to the squad of pupils who brought in the largest
number of burdock plants. This added zest to the work and a generous
emulation. Before the week was up, the town was rid of burdocks, and
there were wagon loads of them withering on the vacant lot near the
school. The squad that won the prize brought in upwards of seven
hundred plants, root and branch. They donated the money to the school
library.
The boys and girls in that village didn't need to be waked up but
once. They went to work on the little stream. They had bonfires at the
water's edge. They planted willows and other water loving trees on the
banks, they asked the selectmen to pass a law to forbid the throwing of
rubbish and sewage into the stream. They enforced the law themselves.
Then they built two little dams, and made a skating pond right near the
school house.
GETTING RID OF POISON IVY
If there is any one thing that would make the country a better place
to live in for some people, it would be to eradicate poison ivy. When
it once gets possession of a fence row, it is an awful job to get it
out. Cutting off the tops is about as effectual as cutting your hair.
It grows again thicker than ever. The roots and the creeping stems run
under ground and every cubic inch of soil has to be gone over.
A great many beautiful plants will have to be destroyed in our fence
rows in getting out the poison ivy. But we can replace these, and by
constant watchfulness keep the ivy out.
In some localities the village selectmen have seriously undertaken the
eradication. Any one who has ever suffered will agree that the work
ought to be taken hold of in a public way. Many people are immune.
Those who know themselves to be so should undertake the work. A bounty
is offered by some towns for uprooted plants.
The hands should be washed frequently with hot water and plenty of soap
when working on poison ivy. Washable overalls and shirt should be worn,
as the oil of the ivy gets on the garments and may poison any one who
handles them.
LESSENING THE PLAGUE OF MOSQUITOES
Every boy and girl in the "mosquito belt" realizes keenly that the
towns as well as the country would be better places to live in if there
were no mosquitoes.
Some people do not believe that it is possible to lessen this plague,
much less end it. But such a belief is pure ignorance. I know of an
army post where in one season the mosquitoes were eradicated. It was
easy there, because the post was isolated and because, when the
commandant issued a general order that all rain barrels were to be
covered or emptied, the people went right out and obeyed. You see, army
people get a fixed habit of obedience. Then the health officer, who
really had the matter most at heart, though backed by his superior,
had squads of prisoners at work gathering up and carting off tin cans
or other rubbish capable of holding water. Pools were drained. Sewer
openings and ponds were oiled. Before the mosquitoes had fairly got out
of winter quarters all the stagnant water was coated with an oil film.
There was no use trying to lay eggs under those conditions, so they
left for parts unknown. As mosquitoes cannot fly far unless carried by
the wind, they undoubtedly perished just outside the gates, and the
people came out and sat on their porches safe and happy. They were
ashamed that they had grumbled when the orders came to cover the rain
water barrels.
Mosquitoes breed in water. The wigglers of the watering trough or
rain barrel are young mosquitoes. You can raise your own mosquitoes
as well as your own chickens and pigs. A little precaution would save
much annoyance. Neighbourhoods should unite to rid themselves of the
pest. Boys can do the work required. The school children in Worcester,
Mass., wage very effective war against mosquitoes every year under the
guidance of their teachers. The saving in cost of netting and wire
screens would almost pay the expense of a campaign against mosquitoes
and flies.
After emptying or covering all the water receptacles on the place, it
is well to place a few decoy pails in promising situations. When the
mosquitoes have deposited their eggs, tip over the pails and that is
the end of that lot. One female can produce four hundred eggs, so you
see what a calamity it is for her young to come to maturity, which they
may do in eight to ten days.
Mosquitoes have their natural enemies. Where areas of water are too
large to oil, we should see to it that fish are plentiful, especially
goldfish, sunfish, roaches, killies, and minnows. Toads, frogs, and
lizards also prey on mosquitoes as do the nymphs of dragon flies and
other water insects. Swallows and purple martins catch mosquitoes on
the wing.
FIGHTING FLIES
The house fly is no longer a mere nuisance, but is a menace to health.
He is well named the typhoid fly and the filth fly. The boys and girls
who help rid their neighbourhood of these disease-carrying pests are
real patriots.
Flies are not a heaven-sent plague in this day and generation. Flies
in the milk, flies in the pantry, flies on the kitchen door, flies
buzzing about the table, are the obvious result of carelessness and
mismanagement. What is more, the remedies are not hard to apply. The
typhoid fly (house fly) breeds in horse manure. The adult fly feeds
upon every known variety of filth as well as upon good food, but the
undeveloped fly is a footless maggot and it breeds in your own and your
neighbour's stable yard.
People will go on buying fly paper, fly poison, fly traps, screen
doors, and window netting to keep flies out, but the very fly that has
visited a typhoid patient to-day may to-morrow leave the imprint of his
foul feet on the baby's face, or drown himself, but not his germs, in
your gravy.
What does your father have a manure pile for? If he is a frugal farmer
he expects to put it on his fields when the other work is out of the
way, and plough it in. He knows the value of manure on fields. But does
he realize that the best time to carry the manure out is while it is
new? Every expert will tell him so and why. In the pile by the barn
it lies and burns. Have you seen it smoke? Burnt manure is wasted
fertilizer. When it rains, the valuable elements needed by the soil
leach out and nourish the crop of "jimson weeds" and burdocks that will
crowd round the barn yard next year.
Meantime the flies buzz round the manure pile. The worse it smells
the better they like it. They are there for business. Eggs, thousands
upon thousands of tiny flies' eggs, are deposited by industrious and
prolific flies. A fly's egg! The hired man will laugh at you for
bothering over a thing so insignificant. But when his wife comes down
with typhoid and the flies come in and worry her, he will complain
of his luck and drive out the flies, which go merrily forth to start
little private epidemics all over the neighbourhood.
Destroy their breeding places. That is one remedy for flies. Trap them,
poison them, discourage them.
Is it worth while for you to do this when the rest of the people do
not? Yes, indeed. If you have very near neighbours, their flies may get
to you to some extent, but with nothing to furnish breeding places, and
no foul-smelling swill or decaying animal or vegetable stuff around,
they will not be attracted to your place. Awaken the neighbour's
interest in your "fly-destroying crusade." If you can reach results
best by forming a club, organize and pass resolutions and wake people
up to their responsibilities. This is practical work for a boys' good
citizenship club.
TRAPPING
I know a city boy who is fortunate enough to have a farm home to
go to as soon as school closes in the summer. With his parents and
brothers and sisters he lives the life of the farm boy, with enough of
gardening, a little of chicken raising, one cow to milk, and a chance
to measure his cunning against that of many "varmints" which would
otherwise destroy his garden and steal his chickens. He knows how to
use a gun, and when, and where. He can make a good trap, a scientific
and humane trap, and he knows the ways of the two-or four-or six-footed
enemies he is at war with. Between them and him there is a fair field
and no favours, just as between one wild creature and another. If
to-day he outwits a crow, to-morrow a skunk pays the crow's score with
heavy interest by making a meal of a nestful of young chickens.
This boy has learned enough of the art of preparing skins to make those
he gets salable, and he exhibits with just pride a handsome fur skating
cap made by his mother out of skins of mink he has taken. His traps
add something every year to his growing college fund.
[Illustration: Simple box-trap]
There are a great many things about the business of trapping that seem
very horrible and brutal to a sensitive person. Because many cruel men
have gone into that life, which is a life of the greatest hardship and
has little in it to encourage gentleness, we have rather taken it for
granted that all trapping is unjustifiable and that a boy who wants to
set traps is an inhuman monster and not to be tolerated in a civilized
home. If fathers and mothers were all like my young friend's parents,
they would see that trapping ought to be a part of a boy's training,
just like using an axe, or a saw, or a gun.
Trapping everything would be bad business. You would not catch
squirrels in a trap any more than you would shoot bluebirds or brown
thrashers. One could easily damage his neighbourhood and himself by
trapping the wrong things or trapping in the wrong way. A trapper who
is a sportsman will see to it that his traps are of the right kind.
I would not have a mouse-trap in the house that made a practice of
catching mice by the foot or tail. There are traps of many kinds for a
variety of purposes and the trapper must either catch his prey alive
and provide a way of despatching it humanely or use a trap which is
instantaneous in its deadly work.
[Illustration: Box-trap and figure 4]
Boys who have learned to trap in the natural, legitimate way do not
become "fish butchers" or "game hogs" when they grow up. I once saw
a picture of a game warden standing triumphantly beside a mound of
dead crows, two thousand and twelve was the number, I believe. He had
cunningly learned to imitate their call so successfully that they
could not resist coming within range of his deadly weapon. Crows may be
harmful to wild fowl but no boy with right instincts would be guilty of
an act so base as this, so unbecoming a sportsman and a gentleman.
Getting rid of the animals which prey upon orchard, garden, and chicken
roost is, without question, one of the ways of making the country a
better place to live in. Trapping may be regarded as clean sport when
done for this purpose, or for food when needed. Catching animals alive
for the sake of taming and training them as pets is treated in another
chapter and has its own rules.
There are a number of fur-bearing animals which, though too shy to
venture inside the barn yard, prey so successfully upon the less
fortunate ones, that it has become our duty to take up warfare against
them. This duty is all the more heavily laid upon us because, in the
act of civilizing the woods and converting the hills and valleys into
cultivated fields and pastures, we have destroyed the natural hiding
places of the wild things and "upset the balance." If we were suddenly
to abandon this country, it would not be many generations before the
buffalo, the wild pigeon, and the wild turkey would return to their
haunts, the forests would recover the hills, the potato beetle would
go back to its Colorado weed, and some natural enemy would control the
San José scale and the English sparrow and reduce them to their natural
places.
In some localities trapping of fur-bearing animals is still a
money-making small industry and if properly carried on will lead to no
evil results. The more a boy knows about the habits of the animals he
seeks to outwit, the greater will be his chances of a capture, and when
he knows a little he will want to know more. He will learn that there
are rules in this game as well as in games with his human fellows,
and that there are things "that no man would do," and pretend to
self-respect. A knowledge of woodcraft is indispensable to the trapper
and helps him to take care of himself and act with good judgment in
cases of emergency.
A boy that sets a trap takes a certain responsibility. If he fails to
visit his traps he breaks a rule of the game. A live animal in a cage
trap begins to suffer very soon for water and for food. An animal in a
steel trap, if not dead, will often pull or even gnaw off his injured
leg, and escape. His tragic story may often be read in his footprints
in the snow. If trapping for skins you must take them off while fresh,
as they taint very quickly and may be ruined by delay.
TRAPPING MINK
The boy that catches a mink is a pretty lucky boy in these days when
those wily little robbers have grown so scarce. The price of mink fur
made into muffs and collars is so high as to make a mink skin worth
trying for. I can imagine the surprise and well-earned triumph of my
young trapping friend when, after trying for a year or two to solve the
mystery of the disappearance of his thoroughbred chickens, he finally
succeeded in capturing a fine mink. A friend of his to whom he had
taught all he could of the art of trapping caught another. And this
happened within the city limits of the nation's capital! Who says now
that the mink has disappeared?
The mink is a flesh-eater, and lives on what he can catch, varying his
bill of fare with frogs, snakes, birds, mice, muskrats, and fish. It
is always open season for trout in the mink's code of laws and though
he is not a water animal his home is more than likely to be near a
trout stream, on the bank, in a well-concealed place. It is not fair
to trap mink in the breeding season, which is April or May. The young
are at the mercy of all sorts of flesh-eaters, including their own
fathers, who are a most undiscriminating sort. There ought to be some
form of guarantee to a mink mother that while she is foraging for food
for her young she will not be enticed into a trap. Later, when she
goes a-hunting on her own account and the chances are even, she is
legitimate prey for the trapper.
Steel traps are best, say the experts, and they should be cunningly
concealed. Gouge out a sort of hole in the bank, conceal the trap
at the front, and put the bait farther in so that the trap must be
passed to reach the bait. Muskrat flesh, fish, or other meat is the
bait used. A common practice is to scorch the bait, to make the odour
more pervasive and attractive. The price of fresh mink skins varies
according to size and condition from two dollars and a half to four
dollars.
TRAPPING SKUNKS
The last thing you would expect of a skunk is that he should be popular
among the girls. But under the seductive title of Alaska sable, the
fur of the plain Jersey or York State skunk is worn with satisfaction
by ladies of good sense and good taste. A skunk's pelt is worth two
dollars and a half or more and although he is of undoubted value to
the farmer as a destroyer of insect pests, I shall not undertake his
defence. A cloud of witnesses would rise up to recount their losses
from the marauding skunk. His fondness for poultry would be mere
circumstantial evidence that he is an enemy of the wild birds as well,
but we have direct evidence enough to convict and condemn him. Because
of his unusual weapon, used only when hard-pressed in an unequal
battle, a good deal of special precaution has to be taken when trapping
_Mephitis_ for his fur. The least taint of the unmistakable odour ruins
the skin, as no cleansing compound has been invented strong enough to
remove it or drown it. It is said on good authority that the skunk
seldom besprinkles itself when discharging its "rear battery."
Skunks are not very clever nor very swift. They go about at night for
the most part, or early evening. The young are born, six to nine in
a litter, in April or May. The nests are hidden in holes in hollow
trees, among rocks, or in the ground. The young ones frequently follow
the old ones all summer or even longer, little realizing that this is
a dangerous habit. By tracking them from the scene of their nocturnal
visit to or from the stream they run to daily for water, one may find
the hiding place. A clever trapper succeeds in capturing a whole family
ofttimes by simply making the path the skunks follow more distinct,
treading down the grass, and even setting up sticks to guide them along
toward the place they wish to go. Traps with bits of meat for bait are
set at intervals along the path. A snare and spring pole are said to
insure no bad consequences. One author advises the hunter that striking
a sudden blow near the tail paralyzes the ejecting muscles. No doubt!
But in the meantime what is the skunk doing?
[Illustration: Deadfall trap]
The white stripe on the skunk's back, while a valuable warning to
all of what is approaching, is a disadvantage from the trapper's
viewpoint. This stripe varies in length and some varieties are without
it entirely. There is a story of the days when the Indians in western
New York used to bring in many skunk skins to the local fur-buyer. One
red man, a notorious cheat, came in one day with a single skin to sell.
"Long stripe or short stripe," said the buyer, whose prices varied with
the length of the white stripe on the skunk's back.
"Ver' short stripe. How much pay?" said the Indian.
"Let's see the skin," said the buyer.
The Indian showed the skin, which was that of a young animal, and very
small, the stripe extending the entire length of the skin.
"You said short stripe," said the indignant buyer, pointing the finger
of scorn at the runty little skin.
"Short skunk, short stripe," said the Indian with a shrug. "What you
pay?"
I cut out an item from the daily paper last week which had this
headline: "Skunks sent him to college." Can you draw your own
inferences? The fur of skunks is very valuable now and in many
fashionable Paris shops it is advertised with large placards printed
distinctly for their English-speaking customers, "_Veritable Skong_."
TRAPPING WOODCHUCKS
Judging by the tales they tell, New England boys of the passing
generation spent most of their time trying to outwit the woodchucks
which infested their farms. If all their tales were true, the barn
doors of their respective states must have needed stretching to hold
all the skins of all those woodchucks, and no boy could possibly
have been long without that valuable possession, a whiplash made of
woodchuck hide. This little cousin of the squirrels is neither very
fleet nor very cunning. He has, though, very quick ears and quicker
eyes, and knows that his hole is the safest place for him when boys are
around.
The only excuse for hunting woodchucks is that they sometimes get so
numerous as to do real damage in the garden, either by their holes
and the mounds of earth they throw out, or by eating more vegetables
than can reasonably be spared. A better game than hunting them would
be to discover how they build their underground galleries. Are these
mere holes deep enough to crawl into for safety? Is there more than
one tunnel? Has the owner an exit as well as an entrance to his home?
Has he a nest, and where and what is it? Does he hoard for winter, or
hibernate?
TRAPPING MOLES
It is hard to get a new point of view. Having been brought up in the
belief that the mole is a nuisance, pure and simple, I find myself
unable on short notice to believe that this little blind miner is
actually useful. If only he would confine his sphere of usefulness
to some other neighbourhood than our lawn! We all think that his
underground passages disfigure the lawn. But does the grass die where
the tunnels run? I think not. You see patches of dead grass on many
lawns, but do you find moles at work in these same lawns? In fact, the
brown, dead patches of grass are probably killed by the white grub,
arch enemy of grass roots. The mole is arch enemy to the white grub and
others of his ilk. According to people who know about moles, we ought
to decorate them with medals instead of trapping them and decorating
the barn door with their tiny skins.
The first mole I ever saw was one brought in by our old cat. She laid
it down with a sort of shamefaced air as much as to say, "Things
have come to a pretty pass when a self-respecting cat is obliged to
bring in the likes of that. It fair turns my stomach!" It was not an
attractive object, but we children turned it over and over with a
stick. What an odd shape, so unlike the animals familiar to us. Its
nose like a gimlet, its fore feet like little shovels; no wonder it
could tunnel. No eyes, no ears; but what use has a mole for either? Do
you know what Oliver Herford said of the mole?
"See, children, the misguided mole,
He lives down in a deep, dark hole;
Sweetness and light and good fresh air
Are things for which he does not care.
But say not that he has no soul,
Lest haply we misjudge the mole."
No one can say that the mole has not a redeeming feature. Surely there
is no creature clad in a coat of more surpassing softness and fineness
than the mole. Are the exquisite "moleskin" garments sometimes seen in
furriers' windows really made of tiny skins of this despised little
quadruped?
It is not likely that any of us will ever catch many moles. If they
are troublesome in your lawn, you and the neighbour boys can do some
trapping with mole traps. They are of a kind specially fitted to outwit
the mole in his tunnel, and directions accompany each trap.
Every boy knows what "knuckle down" means and how sore your knuckles
get in marble time. There is usually one boy in the crowd who is lucky
enough to have a knuckle dabster, made of moleskin. "There, use that.
Soft as velvet, eh? Nope, don't want to sell it. Caught a mole last
summer, tanned the skin myself and my mother made this for me, like the
one in 'The Boy's Own Book.' Wouldn't take a dollar for it."
TRAPPING MUSKRATS
The first fur collar I ever had was sold to me as "electric seal."
There was no deception practised on me, for I knew that the fur
was neither electric nor seal. But I didn't know then that it was
muskrat fur. They call it Hudson seal nowadays, I believe. These
small relatives of the beaver have so few natural enemies, and are so
prolific that they are in no danger of disappearing from our ponds
and sluggish streams. The beaver, on the other hand, is supposed to
be protected by law. Until it is against the law to sell and to wear
beaver skins, trappers will evade the law and escape the fines.
Muskrat fur is not so fine nor thick as that of the beaver and not
nearly so expensive. A fresh skin is worth twenty-five to forty cents.
They are more in demand now than ever, owing to the fashionable demand
for furs and the scarcity of other fur-bearing animals. There are many
ways of trapping them. As they are aquatic and active in the winter
they are often taken through the ice. Muskrat trappers are always good
skaters. A hard blow on the ice will stun the rat, which is pulled out
through a hole. They are sometimes speared through holes in the ice. A
boy might develop enough patience and perseverance, as well as skill
and alertness, in a job like this to make it pay better in some other
field than the sale of the skins.
Muskrats are often caught in traps, too. To be successful at this it
is necessary to learn a great deal about the little fellow's habits of
life, his house, his food and his ways of escaping enemies. It is well
to know his enemies, too. These are the fox, the mink, and the otter.
You would be a lucky boy, indeed, if instead of common little musquash
you bagged an otter whose pelt is worth fifteen or twenty dollars. My
father has an otter skin cap about which he and my uncle tell a truly
exciting story. They caught an otter, but that was sixty odd years ago.
Muskrats are the greatest nuisance in ornamental grounds where there
are large water features. They have an unfortunate fondness for lily
bulbs. The boy who can outwit them will win favour with the gardener
and the garden's owner, with the muskrat skins thrown in.
TRAPPING GOPHERS
Our old dog Nimp was convinced that the way to get a gopher was to dig
him out. Doctor Hornaday tells an amusing story about his having that
same conviction when a boy. Many a night Nimp would come home from the
pasture, panting, his coat all rough with the reddish soil that we knew
had come out of a gopher hole. Weary, yes, but discouraged, never. The
old dog would go back to his job morning after morning. Sometimes we
would try to help by carrying buckets full of water and "drowning him
out." Never did Nimp scent a gopher near the cattle well but once,
and then the boys drowned him out with a vengeance. The hunted little
creature leaped out of a hole so unexpectedly near where the boys sat
that one turned a complete somersault and landed in the last pailful of
water. Nimp was quicker than his masters and soon laid the bedraggled
little miner at our feet. We felt pretty small.
Very little can be said in defence of the gopher. He is an undeniable
nuisance and helps to bring the farmer's crop down to a lower figure
than it ought to be. Traps and poisoned vegetables are swifter methods
of dealing with the case than digging, for the gopher is himself past
master in the art of digging.
TRAPPING THE WEASEL
One of the natural enemies of the pocket gopher is the weasel. If only
we could set the weasel on the gopher and then had something like a
mongoose to keep down the weasels! I never yet heard a good word for
the weasel. He seems to be the embodiment of all that is mean and sly
and hateful. It is undeniable that he does not obey the laws of the
woods, that he kills for the mere joy of killing, and that is a high
crime. Men with weasel-like ways get to have the same blood-thirsty
look. The weasel is a savage, hunting every wild creature in the woods,
rabbits, mice, chipmunks, moles, rats, grouse, chickens, and ducks, and
even insects. He robs the nests of birds, eats eggs and young, and even
the old birds are not safe from him.
I just read in a book that "weasels are so small that their fur has
little value, but the time will come when it will be eagerly sought
and used." Well, that time has come, but, who ever went to a shop and
asked for a weasel tippet? But ask for ermine and they will show any
quantity of it. The price! Well, wouldn't the weasel be surprised to
find himself so popular. It all comes about because of that interesting
habit of his, changing colour in the winter. The weasel is a sort of
peculiar shade of brown as you can testify if you have caught one; the
ermine is pure white all but the tippest tip of the tail which is dead
black; yet they are one and the same. Weasel in summer and ermine in
winter.
The weasel, the mink, and the marten are all enemies of the native
wild game, and efforts to exterminate them are always applauded by
sportsmen. Much is yet to be learned of their habits. Trappers have
succeeded in keeping the mink and marten in check, but the weasel goes
his murderous way, feared and hated by everybody.
TRAPPING RATS
There is no pest around the farm yard or barn yard anywhere so hard to
cope with when once they get a foothold, as rats. Finding them numerous
in the barn once, we put chicken feed in the uncemented cellar of the
house. Before the end of the first winter of that arrangement we were
praying for a visit from the Pied Piper. The rats took possession. They
broke dishes, seemingly for the fun of it; they gnawed the softened
woodwork around the kitchen sink and held high carnival at midnight
throughout the spaces between the walls; they all but bit the babies in
their cradles and defied all our efforts to outwit them. Traps, cats,
poison, we tried everything, but they outstayed us. If ever we get into
a like case again I shall be tempted to try ferrets or cyanide.
Some people are successful trappers of rats, and these suggestions come
from them. Set a trap in a pan of meal or bran, cover with same and
put it in a runway. Make the runway easy to pass through by placing
boards or boxes along near the walls. Cover a trap with thin brown
paper or cloth and set it in the runway. Smoke the trap over the fire
and heat it hot (not hot enough to draw the temper of the steel), after
each setting. Change the place of the trap very often. Wear gloves to
keep the odour of your hands from the trap. The rat is the very wisest
of all his family, his behaviour seems to be the result of impish
intelligence rather than mere instinct for self-preservation.
No true sportsman will allow his antipathy to rats or weasels to lead
him to commit acts of cruelty. Fighting them with their own methods
makes you into a human rat or weasel.
TRAPPING RABBITS
There are times when rabbits get too numerous, and times when they are
needed to eat, and times when you want to try your hand at taming a
wild one. Under these circumstances it is legitimate sport to hunt or
trap them. If damage is being done to crops in the spring we shall be
forced to wage war against them in self-defence during their breeding
season. Otherwise no sportsman would do it. If there is so little
legitimate rabbit food in winter that they are driven to destroy fruit
trees to get a little bark, then the inference is that there are too
many rabbits. Study the rabbit's ways of living, and learn his weak
points. Find out if he has a "tendon of Achilles" or vulnerable spot.
Look one over. What are his conspicuous characteristics? Is it not
evident that his life is one long series of narrow escapes? He has
few, if any, wits; how low his forehead. Timid eyes. But ears! Can he
not hear you coming a mile off? And LEGS! Did you ever see a greater
development in that direction? Yes, in a grasshopper, but nowhere else.
The rabbit is a perfect mammalian grasshopper. When you stop to think
of it you will see a certain pathetic side to its life.
The rabbit has its wild enemies, ever watchful, ever close on its
trail. The hawk, the mink, the weasel, the fox, the lynx, and others
are rabbit hunters. Besides his quick hearing, and his swiftness, Br'er
Rabbit has a wonderful power of becoming invisible. His nondescript
colour, combined with his ability to "freeze," serve him as well
as a cloak of darkness. The cotton-tail rabbit is commonest in the
Middle and Southern states, while his bigger cousin, the varying hare,
overlaps the rabbit's territory in the colder parts, and takes his
place in the most Northern states. The varying hare is called also the
snow-shoe rabbit and the white hare, but in summer he is dull russet
brown. You may have heard of the wonderful change of colour of this and
other animals. Interesting stories are told of the sudden blanching
of the fur, of its turning white, "in a single night," like the locks
of the prisoner of Chillon. Not a word of truth in that story. Why do
people, whose only fitness for telling stories lies in their having an
imagination, make up such yarns about real things? They could invent
an animal and then tell as many wonderful tales as they liked and
nobody would be deceived. The truth about animals is wonderful enough.
If writers would only take pains to find out the truth instead of
repeating fancies!
Suppose the early ancestor of the white hare had a grayish-brownish
coat, just the thing to protect him from his enemies in a world all
full of grayish-brownish things. But one day there came a snow storm,
and all the gray-brown things were covered with whiteness, except the
poor hare. Suddenly he became the most noticeable object in the woods.
Then all his neighbours saw him and wanted him, and mostly they got him.
It was about then that the hare began to be the "varying hare." A law
of nature came to his rescue. Some hares there were which were not so
dark coloured as others. They may have been longer winded and swifter
footed, too, but anyhow they escaped and lived to bring families into
the world. As like breeds like, these young hares took after their
parents, and because they were lighter coloured in the winter they in
turn escaped and carried this peculiarity into the next generation.
It took endless years, and innumerable generations of hares, varying
this way and that to fulfill this natural law, and fix the habit. But
now that it is fixed we may well view it with wonder, and call it an
example of the law of the "survival of the fittest." How is the change
brought about? Just as the chickens and the birds moult, and the horse
sheds, so do the rabbits. Their summer coats are thinner and brown. One
by one the brown hairs fall out in the fall till finally the new coat
is there, which is white. It is not like the human hair changing from
brown to white. In the fall and then again in the spring there is a
time when the varying hare is a variegated hare, his coat being mottled
with white and brown.
Rabbits are hunted with dogs and their trails in the new snow are
easily followed by the hunter alone. They are caught in traps and
snares of various kinds. In one of his lessons in woodcraft, Mr. Seton
describes a rabbit snare as follows: "String, a shoe-lace, a buckskin
thong, or even a strip of clothing may be used as a snare. There are
many ways of making a rabbit snare, but the simplest is the best. The
essentials are, first, the snare--an ordinary running noose; second, a
twitch-up--that is a branch bent down or a pole set in the crotch of a
sapling. The snare is fast to the end of the pole, and spread open in a
well worn runway. The loop is about four inches across and placed four
inches from the ground. The pole twitch-up is held down by placing
the cross-piece of the snare under some projecting snag. The rabbit
bounding along, puts his head in the noose, the slight jerk frees the
cross-piece from its holder, and in a moment the rabbit is dangling in
air."
Rabbit fur is not very durable but is much used for the manufacture of
less expensive fur garments. Under the name of "French seal" it finds a
ready market and is really soft and pretty.
TRAPS THAT BOYS CAN MAKE
There are a number of traps and snares that boys can make. Descriptions
of these are to be found in books on amateur carpentry, manual
training, and books for boys of various kinds. The illustrations in
this chapter are intended to give a few suggestions.
MONEY AND RECREATION IN TRAPPING
I shall not attempt to go at this subject from a professional side,
as I think no boys care to trap for a living. Whatever may be said
about the boy having a gun in a thickly settled suburb, nothing can be
offered against his trapping if he goes at it in an amateur way and
with no intent to exterminate the animals (which only a shrewd trapper
could do).
I will presume the boy to be attending a neighbouring school either
on the edge of a city or in a town. Under these circumstances he must
attend to his traps early in the morning or after school. At first
there may be no more than enough money in it to cover the cost of
traps, but nevertheless the recreation which it offers will appeal to
the average boy. As his knowledge of animals becomes greater with time,
he will get more and more pocket money.
When he starts in, the other boys may laugh at him and say that there
is nothing to trap. In most cases they would make a big mistake,
because there often are, on the edge of a city, more fur-bearing
animals than in the surrounding country. This for the reason that the
professional trapper is not present and most of the city boys do not
know how to trap. There are, say, muskrats and an occasional mink along
the rivers and streams. The swamps usually abound in muskrats. In the
woods and fields are squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, and (in
the North) woodchucks.
It is legitimate to catch the water animals in ordinary steel traps
because, if set right, the captive is instantly drowned. For dry land
the steel jaw-trap is not suitable, because it will rarely kill the
animal, but cause him much suffering as it usually breaks his leg.
Often in such case the trapper will only find a foot in his trap, the
animal having gnawed or twisted his body free. Nevertheless any trap is
humane which kills the animal instantly. There are many new traps on
the market which will do this, but on account of their being patented
and high-priced they are not extensively used. The traps which are most
commonly used for this purpose are the deadfalls and snares.
The muskrat lives wherever there is a body of water. He feeds chiefly
on vegetable matter which he obtains in the swamps or digs on the
banks, although he frequently visits a cornfield or vegetable garden.
Only in cases of extreme hunger, as happens when they are frozen in,
have they been known to eat their own kin. In swamps they have houses
made of rushes and twigs, standing in a rounded shape about two feet
above the water.
To trap in the swamps one must have high rubber boots and if the water
is deep a small boat is necessary. A home-made flat-bottomed canoe,
made of canvas, will be found to answer the purpose admirably. Where
it is shallow enough to use the boots, a long, heavy staff should be
carried, as the mud is very often treacherous and interwoven with
muskrat runways. I might as well say in the beginning that the
intending trapper should take a friend into his confidence and the two
set out to trap together, for in this way they can help each other out
of difficulties. (My friend had to do some pretty stiff pulling once to
get me out of a mud hole into which I had recklessly plunged, having
only in my mind to get to my traps quickly.)
Along the rivers the muskrats live in holes in the banks. In trapping
in such places one may walk along the bank or use a boat, setting the
traps in the entrances of houses or in the runs.
Before the trapping season begins it is very wise to go over the
territory and locate the different houses, runways, and feeding places.
This will save time when trapping begins, which should not be before
December, because up to this time the pelts are not in their prime. The
trapping season lasts for about three months or until the ice breaks up
in the spring.
If the water is not yet iced over, the muskrats can be caught with the
steel jaw-traps. They should be set in the runs or at the entrances
of houses so that they are just under the surface of the water. The
chain should be staked in the water as far out as possible. The muskrat
will in every instance try to swim out into deep water and the weight
of the trap on his foot will pull him down and drown him. Traps may
be baited with apples, carrots, turnips, and nearly any vegetable or
fruit. The bait should be stuck on a slanting stick so that it will
hang about a foot above the pan of the trap.
[Illustration: "Stop thief" trap]
When the water is frozen over, other methods must be followed. Many
trappers cut the houses open and set the traps on the inside, but those
who wish to keep the muskrats in the vicinity will not do this, because
it destroys their homes and causes them to seek new shelter. For my own
use I have "stop thief" traps which kill instantly and are not very
expensive. A hole is cut in the ice and the trap set before the house
entrance or in a swimway. In going through, the muskrat puts his foot
on lever _a_, which releases _b_, and this in turn lets down lever _c_,
which strikes him over the neck or back, breaking it instantly. As
shown, the trap is fastened with staples to a wooden prong, one end of
which is stuck in the mud at the bottom and the other fits just under
the ice.
Mink are rarely caught, because they are very crafty and keen to the
scent of a human being. Once in a while they are caught in a trap set
in the water or in the entrance to a muskrat house. This is accounted
for by the fact that the mink preys largely upon these weaker animals
in the winter when food is scarce. Sometimes they can be lured with
a muskrat carcass or a dead bird. If the trap is not set under water
there is little probability of getting the mink. The trapping of mink
should be encouraged, because they kill not only muskrats, but chickens
and other domestic fowl as well. One must use his own judgment and set
his trap in a place frequented by the mink. Prime mink skins usually
bring three or four dollars from any local fur dealer. On the other
hand muskrats are more plentiful and bring only about thirty cents.
Thus it is that some boys prefer to keep the muskrat skins and tan
them at home. From these skins they make comfortable caps and gloves.
[Illustration: Stretchers for skins. The narrow one for mink, the other
for muskrat]
To skin the muskrat and mink, commence on the hind legs. The skin is
slit down one leg and up the other. With muskrats the tail is cut away
from the rest of the skin. The mink's tail adds greatly to the value of
the skin, so the bone is carefully extracted with a pair of pincers and
the tail left on the skin. The skin is then gradually peeled down over
the body and head. It is then stretched with the fur side inward on a
board as shown in the figure on this page. After this it is hung in a
dry, airy place to dry, away from the sun. For home tanning a fresh
pelt needs only salt, but the following solution gives somewhat better
results and makes the skin more pliable:
Salt, two pounds.
Sulphuric acid (com.) two ounces.
Rain water, one gallon.
The pelt should remain immersed in the solution for about two days.
When taken out it must be first nearly dried and then the flesh side
scraped and rubbed until soft with some dull steel instrument, such as
an old blunt chisel. Care should be taken not to break the skin as it
is very fragile in some places, especially on the belly.
[Illustration: Snare with carrot bait]
The land animals can be caught in snares or deadfalls. Very likely
most boys know of these, but I have illustrated them here in the forms
which I think have served me best. Usually only the smaller animals are
caught in the snare, such as rabbits and squirrels. To bait for either
of these corn or apple is commonly used, although onion makes a good
scent bait to draw rabbits from afar. Besides these named nearly any
green vegetable or fruit will answer very well. These animals being
maybe the least wary of them all are therefore very easy to catch. For
an opossum green corn and a little raw meat is all that is necessary,
while for a raccoon a crawfish may be added. This latter is considered
the best, and hardly ever fails to lure the raccoon. The skins of the
raccoon and opossum bring about a dollar and a half, and half a dollar,
respectively.
[Illustration: Deadfall]
Rabbits and squirrels are caught as game, while raccoons together with
opossum are considered eatable by most trappers. The up-to-date people
who order "marsh rabbits" at the most fashionable restaurants are
eating no other than muskrat. These they eat with a great relish under
the new name. I will add that it makes a great difference in eating
a muskrat whether you let your imagination get the best of you. Many
times I have eaten muskrat with quite as much comfort as though I were
eating rabbit. Naturally the meat has a very strong taste which must be
removed before cooking, by soaking over night in salt water. Young fat
woodchucks are also frequently eaten.
It is hard to set down on paper just how and where to set the traps
and it can only be learned from another trapper or by experience. The
most important thing is to observe closely and learn the habits of the
animals.
STANLEY COVILLE
CURING AND TANNING SKINS
The boy trapper must know how to take the skins from the animals he
traps, and how to treat them to preserve their beauty and value. The
skin should be taken off before it becomes tainted, and with greatest
care not to injure it. Some skins are exceedingly tender. Be careful
to remove bits of fat or flesh; left to dry on the skin, these detract
from its value.
No artificial dressing is needed to cure or dry a skin. The fresh skin
should be tacked to a smooth board or drawn over a stretcher, fur side
in, so that the air can get at it freely. It should not be put in the
sun, or rain, or artificial heat.
When thoroughly dry, the skin is ready for market or it may be tanned
at home. A boy fortunate enough to obtain a valuable pelt like that of
marten, mink, or otter, will certainly want to try his hand at tanning.
You want first to be sure to use a mixture which will not injure the
fur but will fix it more firmly in its place. Never put any dressing on
the fur itself. You also want the skin to be soft and pliable so that
it can be made up into some form of garment. The following directions
are adapted from "The Tricks of Trapping" by W. Hamilton Gibson, a
reliable source of all trapping lore for American boys: "After every
particle of loose flesh and fat is removed from the skin, it should be
soaked for a couple of hours in warm water. While waiting, prepare this
mixture: Take equal parts of saltpetre, borax, and sulphate of soda.
Mix with enough water to make a thin batter. Paint the wet skin over
thickly on the flesh side. Fold the skin flesh side in and lay in an
airy place, for twenty-four hours.
"On the following day prepare a second mixture consisting of two parts
sal-soda, three parts borax, four parts castile soap. Melt these
together over a slow fire. Apply this mixture in the same manner as the
first, twenty-four hours later. Fold skin as before and leave another
twenty-four hours. Make a third mixture of equal parts of common salt
and alum, dissolved in warm water and thickened with coarse flour to
the consistency of thin paste. Allow this to dry on, then stretch
the skin lightly and scrape off the hardened paste with the bowl of
a spoon. Sometimes a second or even a third treatment with the last
mixture is required to make the skin absolutely pliable, after which
it should be finished with sand-paper and pumice stone. A skin thus
dressed should be soft as velvet. The alum and salt set the hair
securely."
APPENDIX
FREE PRINTED MATTER. HOW TO GET IT
There are three principal sources of free printed matter on outdoor
work subjects. These are (1) the United States Department of
Agriculture. (2) State Agricultural Experiment Stations. (3) Commercial
houses who sell supplies for outdoor occupations.
(1) The Farmers' Bulletins are the ones which will be most useful to
outdoor workers. They are written in plain language and treat every
subject in a practical way. To get them, you should address a postal
card thus:
Secretary of Agriculture,
Washington,
D. C.
On the other side of the card write as follows:
Please send me the list of publications for free distribution sent
out by your department, and oblige,
Sign your name and address distinctly.
In a few days you will get a printed circular giving the numbers and
titles of all the Farmers' Bulletins and other free literature they
have. Choose the ones you want and address another postal card to the
Secretary of Agriculture. Ask for the bulletins wanted by number and
title both, to avoid mistakes.
Some of the bulletins of the United States Department of Agriculture
are not for free distribution. They are too valuable. A charge is made
to cover cost of printing. To get any bulletin mentioned in this list
_with its price_, address a letter to Superintendent of Documents,
Washington, D. C., and enclose the amount in money order or coin. Do
not send stamps.
(2) To get the bulletins of your own State Experiment Station you have
only to address another postal card; this time to the Director of State
Experiment Station, with the name of the post-office and state. If
not sure of the title and number of the bulletin you want, tell the
director what phase of the subject you are interested in. For instance,
one experiment station issues several poultry bulletins. Do you want
the one on "House Construction" or the one on "Feeding Pullets?" The
more definite you are in your requests the more likely you are to get
exactly what you need most.
To get the bulletins of another station than your own is not quite so
simple. They have no fund for distributing bulletins in other states.
But I have never failed to get them by asking for just the thing
I need. It is well to offer to pay for these; the price is always
small. Some of them are republished by the United States Department of
Agriculture and appear in their free list as Experiment Station Work,
I, II, III, etc.
(3) The booklets and catalogues sent out free by seedsmen and other
commercial houses are mines of information, condensed and well
arranged. You may be sure that the advice they give is good, too, as it
is to their interest to have their patrons succeed. You can tell the
difference very quickly between the "hot air" of advertising matter and
the practical advice to beginners given in catalogues.
I most earnestly advise every one of you who is engaged in a money
making enterprise to subscribe for some good periodical. There are
good magazines devoted to many of the occupations, and some of the
general magazines have special departments which are full of up-to-date
suggestions which have not yet been put into books. The latest and
best word on your subject is none too good and may make a difference
of dollars in or out of pocket. If you devise any new apparatus or
discover any time or money saving methods, don't keep these things to
yourself. Help the world along by writing to some magazine about it.
They are on the lookout for valuable novelties. The stories told by
boys and girls in this volume have almost all appeared in a magazine
first.
THE OUTDOOR WORKER'S LIBRARY
The following is a list of useful books, magazines, and bulletins on
all sorts of outdoor occupations, written by experts. They are here
arranged by subjects under eleven of the chapters of this book.
N. B. Some of these books are expensive. Get them from your library
if you can. The librarian will usually order a good book which is in
demand.
CHAPTER II.
United States Department of Agriculture:
Farmers' Bulletin No. 332. Nuts and Their Uses as Food.
" " No. 188. Weeds Used in Medicine.
" " No. 252. Maple Sugar and Sirup.
Plant Industry Bulletin No. 107. Root Drugs. Price 15c.
Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 105. Maple
Sap Flow.
Vermont Experiment Station Bulletin No. 26. Maple Sugar.
Practical Forestry. Gifford. D. Appleton & Co.
Mushrooms, Edible and Otherwise. Hard. Mushroom Publishing Co.,
Columbus, O.
CHAPTER III.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 22. The Feeding of Farm Animals.
" " No. 205. Pig Management.
" " No. 49. Sheep Feeding.
" " No. 137. The Angora Goat.
" " No. 64. Ducks and Geese.
" " No. 234. Guinea Fowl.
" " No. 357. Methods of Poultry Management at the
Maine Experiment Station.
" " No. 177. Squab Raising. Price 5c.
" " No. 390. Pheasant Rearing in the United States.
Bureau of Animal Industry Bulletin No. 68. Milch Goats. Price 13c.
Cornell University Rural School Leaflet. Vol. 4. No. 1. Horses.
Ithaca, N. Y.
Poultry Bulletins Nos. 240, 282, 274, 249. Cornell University.
The Poultry Book. Doubleday, Page & Co.
CHAPTER IV.
The Poultry Book. Doubleday, Page & Co.
Our Home Pets. O. T. Miller. Harper & Bros.
The Self-Supporting Home. St. Maur. The Macmillan Co.
Goldfish Culture. Mulertt. H. Mulertt, publisher, 289 Fennimore
St., Brooklyn, N. Y.
CHAPTER V.
Illinois Agricultural College Extension Course. Dairy Lessons for
Use in Public Schools.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 413. Care of Milk in the Home.
" " No. 196. Usefulness of the American Toad.
" " No. 328. Silver Fox Farming.
" " No. 330. Deer Farming in the United States.
CHAPTER VI.
American Boys' Handy Book. Beard. Harper & Bros.
Bound Volumes of_ Country Life in America_. Articles on Swimming
Pools, Springs, etc.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 138. Irrigation in Field and Garden.
CHAPTER VII.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 397. Bees.
A B C of Bee Culture. Root. A. I. Root Co., Medina, O.
How to Keep Bees. Comstock. Doubleday, Page & Co.
CHAPTER VIII.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 165. Silk-worm Culture.
CHAPTER IX.
Botany. Bailey. The Macmillan Co.
The Sea Beach at Ebb-tide. Arnold. The Century Co.
Cornell Nature Study Leaflets. How to Make a Collection of
Insects. Comstock. J. B. Lyon, Albany, N. Y.
United States National Museum Bulletin 39. Collecting Fossils,
Plants, Insects, Shells, Arrowheads, etc.
CHAPTER X.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 415. Seed Corn.
" " No. 175. Unfermented Grape Juice.
New York Experiment Station at Geneva. Bulletin No. 258. (Popular
edition.) Making Cider Vinegar at Home.
CHAPTER XI.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 185. Beautifying the Home Grounds.
" " No. 134. Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds.
" " No. 155. How Insects Affect Health in Rural
Districts.
" " No. 385. Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs.
" " No. 368. The Eradication of Bind Weed or Wild
Morning Glory.
" " No. 369. How to Destroy Rats.
" " No. 383. How to Destroy English Sparrows.
" " No. 396. The Muskrat.
" " No. 99. Insect Enemies of Shade Trees.
" " No. 28. Weeds: How to Kill Them.
" " No. 54. Common Birds in Their Relation to
Agriculture. Price 6c.
Biological Bulletin No. 24. Grouse and Wild Turkeys in the United
States. Price 10c.
Bureau of Entomology Bulletin No. 25. Mosquitoes. Price 10c.
Bureau of Entomology Circular No. 11. House Flies.
1909 Year Book of Department of Agriculture. Plants Useful to
Attract Birds and Protect Fruit Trees.
New Jersey Experiment Station Bulletin No. 216. The House
Mosquito.
Circulars issued by The Audubon Society. New York.
How to Attract the Birds. Blanchan. Doubleday, Page & Co.
Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping. Gibson. Harper
& Bros.
Trappers' Guide. Newhouse. (Try to get this book from a library.)
Transcriber's Notes:
Spelling appears to be evolving between US/UK e.g. both color and
colour are seen.
Some page numbers in contents list are incorrect, these have been left
as given.
CH II is p. 8. (TOC has 9)
CH II is 100 (101)
CH VIII is 337 (338)
CH IX is 349 (350)
CH X is 404 (405)
CH XI is 449 (450)
Appendix is 513 (514)
Book list is 516 (518)
Corrected obvious typos and inconsistencies, otherwise spelling has been
left as printed:
p. 149 gasoline -> gasolene.
"skim milk" -> "skim-milk".
p. 163 "Wynadottes" -> "Wyandottes".
p. 181 "precentage" -> "percentage".
p. 228 "vak" -> "yak".
p. 247 "belive" -> "believe".
p. 341 "at" -> "as".
p. 485 "noctural" -> "nocturnal".
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