Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1904 — FRAM AND GRADERN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FRAM AND GRADERN

Top-Heat Hot Air Brooder. The following la a description and a diagram of a brooder which 1b in use at the Mantana Experiment Station and is recommended by them. It was designed by Mr. James Rankefl, a veteran poultry breeder of Massachusetts. Its construction is as follows: “A box is made three feet square and of four pieces of eight-inch lumber surfaced. Upon the top of this box, for a cover, is nailed a piece of zinc entirely covering the box. This zinc has a hole in the center over which is soldered a pipe I’/i inches in diameter and 22 inches long. This pipe is soldered on the outside, the metal being the top of the box. Next comes t’.ie floor over this zinc, but not touching it because an inch strip, 1 by 1, should be nailed on around the outside in order to make an air space between the floor and zinq. This strip should be broken: midway on either side an inch opening should be left for the admission of outside air to the space underneath the floor. The floor should be made of “ceiling,” smooth surface up. Exactly in the center of this floor a hole should be cut 2% inches in diameter and in this hole a pipe inches in diameter and 3 Inches long fastened. This pipe should just extend through the floor level with the underside of the bottom. Through this pipe the long ventilating pipe will go. This completes the body part of the brooder and a hover and top complete the requirements. The hover should be made in the form of a circle two feet in diameter, in the center a hole large

enough to allow the vent pipe to pass should be cut and four legs 3 inches long tacked on to raise it to the required height; then tack'a light fringe of jute sacking around the only. This is the hover complete. Next is the top. Make another box similar to bottom, using four pieces of six-inch lumber dressed. Upon oppo side sides a piece cut with a doubit pitch 3 feet long and 1 foot high in the center should be nailed to form the ends and the apex and joined with a piece 34 inches long and inches wide cut with bevel to allow the screen doors, which should constitute the two sides of the roof, to fit snug ly. This box portion should have a little door cut in it and an ineliut! made for chicks to run in and out of the brooder. The working of this brooder is extremely simple; a brooder sto?e is placed under the box and it heats the metal cover; this in turn heats the air in the space between it and the floor. This air on being warmed, rises upward through the 2’i inch pipe and flows out over the chicks that are underneath the hover. Since this air comes through the holes between the 1 by 1 inch strips and does not come in contact with the lamp, a pure and constant supply of air is insured, giving almost perfect ventilation in addition. These brooders serve the purpose very well where only a limited number of chicks is to be raised, but where the business is to be conducted upon a larger scale, either coal or wood heaters with pipe system is best.

, Cure for Brittle Hoofs. Horses are frequently troubled with brittle hoofs, caused by a deficiency of water In the bone. This condition may be caused by fever of the feet, as in common founder; inflammation of the interior of the feet; exposure to fer’ menting manure of filthy stables, by which the horn is saturated with moisture containing ammonia. It may also be caused by leaving the feet covered with mud, or by continued dry weather or other unhealthy conditions. The horn may thus become dry nnd granulated and often separates very easily, crumbling and splintering away until there is scarcely crust enough left to fasten n shoe upon. The remedy is to remove the cause nnd restore the moisture. .Frequent washing of the feet with cold water will aid materially In curing. Glycerine nnd water in equni parts make excellent dressings for the hoofs. Fighting Oleomargarine. The State Dairy and Food Department of Ohio has been in receipt lately of a number of protests from traveling men Against the utter disregard by cer-_ tain hotels of the oleomargarine law. In response to these protests warnings .were sent to the proprietors. A circu-

lar letter will be sent to every Hotelkeeper in the State calling attention to the provisions of the law regarding this matter, together with the intimation that the department intends to use repressive measures. The law on the subject prohibits the use of artificial butter that contains any coloring matter not natural to the product. The statute also prescribes the display of a card not less| than 10 by 14 inches in size, upon which are to be shown in letters not less in size than one and a half inches square, in black ink, the words, “Oleomargarine sold and used here.” This must be shown in the eating room where the substance is served and must be in a place therein where It can be easily read. The penalty for falling to observe the law is a minimum tine of SIOO for the first offense and a maximum tine of SSOO and ninety days in jail for subsequent offenses. —Dairy and Creamery. To Prevent Shying. A plan for preventing a horse from shying consists of a nose piece passing over the horse's nose, as shown In the

sketch. The strap does not necessarily draw- on the lip unless the driver pulls on it, then it touches the animal’s nose, and the mere touch does the whole business. Tn describing this device its origiuat-

or says: “The contrivance consists of simple head strap, properly braced and coming down between the horse’s eyes and nostrils, to its end in the shape of a sort of little metallic upper lip. The latter little pieces of metal, one about two inches long, and not half an inch wide, is humorously called a ‘trolley bit.’ Its curving side-ends, like an ordinary bit, are so devised that a very slight, gentle pull on the reins brings the ‘trolley bit against the top of the horse’s nose. In complete absorption in the study of a new experience the horse may be drizen right up by the side of a noisy-locomotive, or of a gong-banging trolley car, that presents to the horse, under ordinary clr- , cumstaijces, the sinister aspect of a moving, perhaps a living, thing, going without auy visible means of propulsion; and in his strict attention to the new sensation at the tip of his nose he will take no notice of the car or of the locomotive. The queerest thing of all is the fact that no amount of use or familiarity with the nose-toucher arrangement seems to lessen the horsels interest in it."

The Mqsquito Plant. The “mosquito plant,” species of basil, is attracting a great deal of attention in England just now. An army officer who secured one of these plants in Nigeria says it is well known 1 as a mosquito defense there, and the natives use an Infusion of its deaves to cure malarial fevers. As soon as a hedge of this shrub was planted about the Victoria gardens, Bombay, India, the workmen, who had previously been almost unable to work because of the swarms of mosquitoes, had no furttier trouble with either these pests or the scourge of malaria from which they had been suffering. Butchering Outfit. ■ An interested reader sends a sketch for a one-man butchering outfit, as illustrated in the Ohio Farmer. A post 8 feet high has pivoted to its top a sweep 15 feet long. This sweep has a hook on the short end and a rope on the long end. The scalding barrel, cleaning bench and hanging gallows are all on the circumference of the cir-

cle made by tile short end of the pweep. With an arrangement of this kind it is apparent how one man can easily do his own butchering. Does This-Fit Your Cow? If a boy should come from the heart of a city, says the Farmer, who had neither seen nor heard of , a cow before, how would lie describe it as It is seen at this time of the year on many of our Minnesota farms? His observations would lead him to say that It was used as a sort of scavenger to keep things picked up about the fields in winter time, to pull the branches off the corn stalks and tritn up and bore into the straw piles, and while not at work stands on the leeward side of the strawstacks or In the fence corner with Its rudder to the wind. It has a hump similar to a dromedary, only more rounding. It has hair like most other animals, except that It stands up more, and on Its flanks it has not hair at all, but scales like an aligator. It doesn’t seem at all satisfied with life, but stamps its feet, shakes Its bead and acts mad.

Dtick-Houeee. Ducks are very free from disease conipnred with chickens, but they are nt times subject to leg weakness, due to overfeedlug or damp floors. The floors of the duck-house should bo kept well littered with cut straw. They soon make their quarters very filthy, hence the necessity of renewing the litter frequently. As uo roosts are required, and ducks are hardy, the house need not be very expensive. The roof should be tlgb{ and the floor dry. If the floor is of boards, so much the better. In such quarters they should begin to lay now, and keep at it until the summer la well open. t

HOT AIR BROODER.

ONE MAN BUTCHERING OUTFIT.