A self-supporting home

Chapter I Page

The origin of the farm — What was reared the first summer — Cost and profit — The accident that established pet stock — Considering the pros and cons of a countrylife — Suggestions for finding the home — Things which must be bought before leaving the city , ♦ 1

CHAPTER n

OCTOBER

Putting the out-buildings in order — Renovating the poultry-house — Whitewash — Roosting frame — Nest boxes — Space required by hens — Quarantine coops

— Barrels as grain bins — Mixing grains — Feeding

— Drinking tubs — The cow — Points for buying — Learning to milk 16

CHAPTER m

NOVEMBER

Imperial Pekin ducks — Dry-goods case as a coop — Gathering the eggs — Ponds not necessary — Feed for laying ducks — Pigeons — How to house, mate, feed, and general care — Homers the best breed for squab raising — Scratching material and nuts for poultry V

PAGE

— Selecting the ground for next year's garden — Trimming the orchard — Tending to small fruits — Pruning grapes — Covering strawberry beds — The asparagus bed— Rhubarb for cellar forcing — Storing celery and other vegetables — Preparing potting mould 39

CHAPTER IV

DECEMBER

The cow stable — Home-made improvements — Winter feeding — The care of milk and utensils — Churning

— The horse as a Christmas present — How 1 learned to hitch up — Choosing a family horse — Feed, stabling, and grooming — Rabbits — Making the hutches, breeding, and feed — Correct way to handle — Caring for the little ones — Mushrooms in a cellar — Compost

for beds — Hints for salads 59

CHAPTER V

JANUARY

The honey-bee — Purchasing a colony and hive — Swarming — Smoking — The government of the hive — The age of bees — The queen, mother of the hive — The nuptial flight — Wintering bees — The poultry-yard ; making up breeding flocks — Alternating males — ■ Chemical analysis of the egg — Balanced rations — Guinea-fowls ; their market value — Housing and feeding — Finding a nest — Setting the eggs under common hens — Special brood coops — A lost baby — Feeding the little ones — How to cook ... 87

vi

CHAPTER VI FEBRUARY

PAGE

The incubator — Setting it up on arrival — Correct adjustment — Heating and regulating — Testing eggs — Hay instead of roosts for cold nights — Making brood coops, drinking fountains, feed troughs — Planning the garden — List of seeds, vegetable and flower — Nursery boxes — Starting flower seeds and potatoes in the house — Hastening rhubarb and asparagus in the garden 116

CHAPTER VII MARCH

My first experience with incubator chicks — Brooders ; advantage of individual machines — Preparing for the motherless babies — Food for the first twenty days — Setting hens — How to know a broody hen — Removing from the chicken-house to special coop for the period of incubation — Removing the babies — Placing Mrs. Biddy and her family in the brood coop — The right consistency of mould for ploughing — Transplanting seedlings to larger boxes — Starting tender vegetables in the house — Planting potatoes ; how to cut the tubers — Buying and setting out dormant trees 141

CHAPTER VIII APRIL Launcelot Gobbo, our first gander — Geese ; breeding, feeding, hatching — Care of goslings and young ducks —

vii

PAGE

Young ducks for market ; how to catch, a"'7^oid frightening — Changing diet for hens — Special whitewash for fruit trees and fences — Spraying fruit trees — ' Bordeaux mixture — Planting vegetable seeds ; distance of rows and depth — Bedding out hardy vegetable plants — Uncovering strawberries — The herb bed — Preparing the ground in flower garden . , 166

CHAPTER IX

MAY

Turkeys — Serviceable suggestions gathered on a large breeding farm — Personal experience of feeding, hatching, and rearing the young — Importance of caring for growing chicks — Weight of chicks — Separating flocks for market and stock — Feeding young pullets — The cow and calf — Weaning an unnecessary cruelty — Rearing the calf — Bedding out tender vegetables — Looking-glasses in the cherry trees — Starting an asparagus bed — Field corn — Trees in the chicken yards — Setting out house plants in the flower garden 194

CHAPTER X

JUNE

Pheasants — Different breeds — Enclosures, feeding, mating — Bantam hens as foster-mothers — Killing and dressing poultry — Artificial method of fattening in use abroad — The effect of food on flavor — How to pluck, draw, and truss birds for table — Commencing

viii

PAGE

to sow succession crops in the vegetable garden — The advantage of the hand plough and cultivator — Sulphur for grape vines — Caring for the spring bulbs after flowering is over 220

CHAPTER XI JULY

Cats of high degree — Home cattery — Mother cats — Kittens — Vermin that attacks poultry ; how to prevent and exterminate — Moulting, hastening and aiding, effect on egg production — Increasing the currant and berry patch — Sowing crimson clover for poultry — Renovating the orchard ground — Cow peas and clover to eke out the poor hay crop . . . . 244

CHAPTER XII

AUGUST

Preparing fowls for the show-room — Washing white birds — Crating and shipping — Capons — My first lesson and last attempt — Their use as foster-mothers — Water-cress; starting beds and forcing for winter — Planting new strawberry beds — Some hardy vegetables — Harvesting onions — Planting bulbs in the garden for next year — Starting bulbs in the house to bloom for Christmas — Taking slips from geraniums and other plants 266

CHAPTER XIII SEPTEMBER Collecting green food for the poultry during the winter — Buying new cockerels — Sorting and mating young

ix

PAGE

pigeons — Building up the business side of a farm — How to ship eggs — The new chicken-house — The pig; its sty and general care — Gathering apples and storing for winter use — Hot-bed and cold frame . 288

CHAPTER XIV

POULTRY AILMENTS

Roup, bronchitis, canker, influenza, all kindred ills — Gapes; prevention and cure — Scaly legs — How to prevent feather pulling — Cholera — Indigestion — Crop bound — Eye troubles — An old cure for gapes . 313

CHAPTER XV

VEGETABLES FOR TABLE AND HEALTH

Squash cutlets — Irish stew — Mock duck — Furmity — Okra — Pot-cheese, plain and savory — Potato cheese cakes — Curd cheese cakes — Honey cake — Honey drink — Generalities 332

ILLUSTRATIONS

The House that rented for Fifteen Dollars a Month Frontispiece

PACING PACK

The Fireplace 5

The First Hen ("Mrs. Perry") — Just turned out into

Brood Coop 12

Sheds made into a Chicken Yard 21'

Powdering a New Arrival 28

Pair of White Wyandottes ....... 33

A Fine Coop for Little Chicks 37

A Fine Flock . 44 •

Yards for Pigeons 48

Drake 53

Winter Quarters . . . * 60

The Right Way to squeeze out the Buttermilk ... 65

Ploughing — Currying 69

A Pair of Beauties 76

A Corner of our First Rabbitry 80

Jacko, who comes and goes as he Likes . . . . 85

Looking for the Queen 92

What the Bees give Us 97

A Flock of Pullets 101

A Pair of White Guinea-fowl 108

Market Birds hatched by Hens and as Tame as their Foster-mothers 112

XI

ILLUSTRATIONS

FAOINO PAGE

A Sturdy Pair of Plymouth Rocks 117

The Head Herdsman ' . . . 124

Single and Double Brooder House 145

Interior of Sectional Brooder House, One Hundred Peet Long,

heated by Hot Water, used on Large Broiler Plants . 160

Father of his Flock 165-

Launcelot and his Perturbed Spouse . . . . .172

Launcelot Gobbo the Wonderful 181

The Right Sort of Pool for Ducks 188

Gathering Dandelion Salad 193

One of our Pets 197

Brooder Yards 204

Feeding — Going to Pasture 208

Colonizing Plan 213

Pheasant Enclosure 220

Ring-neck Pheasant 229

Useful Coops for Hens and Chicks (Rough Shelters for keeping off Noon-day Sun later in the Season) . . . 236 The Fox Terrier that came to Visit — Tabitha . . . 245 Argent Splendor (a Superb Specimen of his Kind) — Kliner . 252 Mowing down a Weedy Patch for Bedding .... 261

A Pretty Corner near the House 268

The Beehives in August 277

Vegetables for Dinner 284

October 289

Twelve-dozen Egg Box 293

Breeding House for Hens 300

The Pigeon Yard 304

Pleasure and Business 312

Xll

CHAPTER I

A SELF-SUPPORTING country home -^^-^ for persons whose income depends on personal effort within the heart of a great city will seem a Utopian dream unless I relate my personal experiences as to its practical value, which commenced ten years ago. Up to that time I had been a city woman, striving, like hundreds of others, to maintain appearances on a housekeeping allowance which needed coaxing over every little bump of hospitality, to induce the two ends to meet. Through all the petty warfare of bad times, one desire, one hope, was paramount — a country home where plenty should make visitors an unalloyed pleasure. Chance, Fate, Providence, or whatever name is preferred for the Power which shapes our ends, led me to the Pet Stock and Poultry Show, and there it suddenly occurred to me that, instead of waiting for the acquisition of fortune to realize the desire, the desire might be made to help acquire some of the fortune. It was such a comfortable, invigorating inspiration that it enthused away all the obstacles suggested by a cautious husband, and his consent was won on condition that current expenses were not increased, or capital risked.

An advertisement was inserted in a Sunday paper for a small farm not more than twenty-five miles out, or more than one mile from a depot. At least a dozen real estate agents answered, assuring us that they had exactly what we required. Being unfamiliar with the capacity and fertility of the imaginations of these gentlemen, our faith was great until we had inspected seven or eight wretched places, utterly unlike any ideal home. Then we became convinced that the real estate business undoubtedly affects mental vision and veracity.

However, we eventually discovered a dear 2 old house of nine rooms, two cellars, a summer kitchen, barn, chicken-house, cow shed, small smoke-house, and twelve acres of land, five of which were covered with apple trees. Near the house were three pear trees, four peach, three quinces, two plum trees, and about half an acre divided between strawberry plants, blackberry and raspberry bushes. It was the haven of our imagination, and could be leased for three years at $180 a year, so that, even after $6 a month had been added for my husband's commutation ticket, there was still a surplus of $19 from the rent of the apartment we were occupying in town, which, of course, was to be used to defray moving expenses and purchase of stock. The latter commenced with the acquisition of an old Plymouth Rock hen, which my nearest neighbor sold me for fifty cents, because, as she put it: —

"The plaguy thing wanted to set afore weather was settled enough to be bothered with chicks."

I thought differently, and "Mrs. Perry," as we christened her, became the founder of my poultry farm by presenting me with nine strong little chicks out of the thirteen eggs I set her on. Five more broody biddies were bought, and by the end of March I had sixtyseven chicks. During the summer there was an addition of fifteen varied mongrels, and one hundred and forty-eight chicks were raised. The cost of the hens *was $10, eggs for setting $5, feed from August to March $4; total outlay, $19.

On the credit side, ninety chicks were sold as broilers, realizing $22. So the profit was $3 in cash, with fifty-eight pullets for stock, as well as eggs for our own table from May.

Ducks commenced, as did everything else, in a very small way; but they were real Imperial Pekins, two ducks and a drake, acquired the second week in March. Their laying started on March 20; and as these birds take all their rest during the winter, paying their board every day with an egg

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■ .:'l»SBHiHi ./^IH through the early summer, by the 26th I had the requisite eleven to put under a hen for hatching, the first ten having been used for cooking.

On June 30, when my ducklings were nine weeks old, a man drove in and offered to buy them at eighteen cents a pound. There were sixteen about the same age; their weight tallied up forty-four pounds, netting me $7.92.

By November, thirty more had been sold, twelve being retained for stock.

The cost of feeding cannot be given with exactness because no separate account was kept — $20 would certainly cover it. The originals cost $4.50, so profit on the investment amounted to nearly $30.

Three guinea-fowls became my property for a dollar and a half — the owner was anxious to be rid of them. We raised thirty-two. Six pairs sold, at six months old, at a dollar a pair: we used ten for our own table — they are delicious, very like game; eight were retained for stock.

In April we made our garden. Seeds, including a barrel of potatoes, cost $10. May 17 we had radishes, lettuce, and young onions. June 7 new potatoes and green peas graced our table. From that time in quick succession came turnips, beets, cabbage, carrots, sweet corn, melons, okra, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, and squash, all so delicious in their crisp, cool flavor, unspoiled by packing or travelling, that we became almost vegetarians; but so bountiful was the supply that the surplus, when canned and stored, was sufficient to carry us through the winter. The rhubarb gave us fruit pies in April, after which came cherries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries, peaches, apples, and pears — all we could use, and plenty to "put up." In fact, with April, living expenses became lighter each week, for many of our rest hours were devoted to fishing on the river which ran through the orchard; the spoils making a pleasant change for breakfast, and

a an additional reduction in the butcher's bill.

By October the savings from these sources alone enabled me to gratify my great desire for a cow. The day of her arrival was the advent of the real farm home, which gave the blessed feeling of independent sufficiency. Cereals, hitherto eaten as a sort of duty, became tempting luxuries when surrounded by real cream.

With April also started the pet stock branch of our farming, which will appeal to many women who cannot possibly alter their lives enough to start a chicken farm. We had two Maltese cats and a white rabbit, merely as pets. Early in February, Graykins had four kittens, all of which had been kept because they were so pretty, and Graykins was so fond of them. I had not the heart to consign them to the usual watery grave. About the same time. Bunny had six little pink-eyed babies; but their becoming the foundation of a pet stock business was quite an accident. In fact, these little people

Think of a family enjoying the comfort of a large house instead of a small apartment, leading a happy, healthy life, exempt from the wear and tear of the city rush and noise — surely an enviable condition under any circumstances. When you realize that all these comforts enabled us, after the first year and a half, to bank the sum previously absorbed by living expenses, you will understand my enthusiasm on the subject of a country home for people of moderate means, which you might have received with doubt, had not this summary of facts been given to prove conclusively what can be accomplished in a short time without capital.

Before deciding to embrace a country life it will be well to consider the pros and cons. The average city man may dread becoming a commuter; but when he realizes the enjoyment and rest found on a comfortable seat in a moderately filled car, the standing, crushed strap-hold of the elevated train will scarcely be regretted.

Children's education is the next "obstacle." Every village has a school, some extremely good ; all possess the advantage of not being overcrowded. When the little one has outgrown the village curriculum, at an average distance of ten miles in any of the adjoining districts will be found the high school or college. All suburban lines issue school tickets at extremely low rates. It being conceded that full mental development is impossible unless accompanied by physical and moral growth, the pure air and wholesome freedom of the country must make the best men and women of your children.

The entire category of supposed drawbacks is replaced by benefits and values too numerous to be catalogued here.

October and November are always delightfully bright months, just cold enough to make tramping about in the country vastly enjoyable, and should therefore be utilized for finding and fixing the future home. It is also the best and cheapest time

Think of a family enjoying the comfort of a large house instead of a small apartment, leading a happy, healthy life, exempt from the wear and tear of the city rush and noise — surely an enviable condition under any circumstances. When you realize that all these comforts enabled us, after the first year and a half, to bank the sum previously absorbed by living expenses, you will understand my enthusiasm on the subject of a country home for people of moderate means, which you might have received with doubt, had not this summary of facts been given to prove conclusively what can be accomplished in a short time without capital.

Before deciding to embrace a country life it will be well to consider the pros and cons. The average city man may dread becoming a commuter; but when he realizes the enjoyment and rest found on a comfortable seat in a moderately filled car, the standing, crushed strap-hold of the elevated train will scarcely be regretted.

Children's education is the next "obstacle." Every village has a school, some extremely good; all possess the advantage of not being overcrowded. When the little one has outgrown the village curriculum, at an average distance of ten miles in any of the adjoining districts will be found the high school or college. All suburban lines issue school tickets at extremely low rates. It being conceded that full mental development is impossible unless accompanied by physical and moral growth, the pure air and wholesome freedom of the country must make the best men and women of your children.

The entire category of supposed drawbacks is replaced by benefits and values too numerous to be catalogued here.

October and November are always delightfully bright months, just cold enough to make tramping about in the country vastly enjoyable, and should therefore be utilized for finding and fixing the future home. It is also the best and cheapest time to purchase birds, fodder, etc., — poultrymen and farmers are anxious to reduce expenses and economize space before real cold weather sets in. Another advantage in moving then, is that roads are in good condition and teamsters are not busy.

A good plan is to study maps of the surrounding country within twenty miles of the city; select a few villages, then write to the station agent or postmaster in each, stating plainly just what size place is required, requesting him to hand the letter to any one having such a farm for rent or sale. Country officials are usually well posted and obliging. When making appointments through the mail to visit places, do so two or three days in advance to insure being met. Farmers seldom send to the village for mail every day.

Every woman, of course, has individual tastes to be considered in selecting a home, so my only suggestion will be this : do not expect or desire modern improvements in a cheap farm-house; they are a snare and a delusion, invariably a never ending expense and menace to health. An abundant supply of water, not merely good, but "without fear and without reproach," is essential. Your inquiries about the well cannot be too careful.

The ideal poultry-farm has sandy soil sloping to the south, or southwest, standing well away from neighbors. To a self-supporting home there must be an orchard, cow pasture, strip of woodland, and the ordinary farm buildings.

A lease should have a renewal or purchase clause^ and the right to cut small or dead wood for repairing, fencing, and for fuel. Of course this does not mean sacrificing timber, or any power to sell it. Also it must be understood that the right to remove chicken-houses or other buildings you may erect during your tenancy, belongs to you.

Before leaving the city, certain additions

to the household belongings should be made

as follows : —

A portable bath-tub, lamps, stoves, wash-tubs, and such tools as are indispensable — spade, long-handled shovel, pick, grub-hoe, rake, two saws, scythe, sickle, axe, big hammer, screw-driver, chisel, gimlet, and wheelbarrow.

During my first year of poultry raising, like most amateurs I craved reliable information, and bought, borrowed, and begged many books, so-called authorities on the subject. There was always a page, when there were not several, devoted to each breed of hens. In each case it was the best breed (only there was a reason why it was better not to keep it), lengthy dissertations on the value of protein, carbohydrates, cellulose, in a nutritive ratio in feeds — all very learned and clever, of extreme value to the experienced poultryman, but mere confusing jargon to the uninstructed. Remembering this, my great desire will be to make these monthly schedules of work simple and drastically plain, stating exact quantity, quality, and methods found by personal experience to be safe and useful — a sort of necessary foundation on which the layman can build knowledge as gleaned from individual experience.

Chapter II October

TpRESUMING the selection is made and ■^ the ordeal of moving over, the practical side of the work can now claim attention.

Go over all the buildings carefully. A loose board or rotten stable floor, a jagged point to some projecting post, a loose facing to a manger, are all trifling matters needing only a few minutes' work to fix, but neglected may cause serious accidents. See that all the doors fasten easily and securely.

The chicken-house is usually a dilapidated, dark shed, needing thorough renovation. Commence by having the old roosting poles and nests torn out and burned at once. Do not let them be left lying about. Ceiling and sides must be swept with a stiff broom; corners, ledges, all crevices, well scraped to remove accumulated dust and dirt. If the floor is earth, half a foot must be scraped off, the surface carted to a remote part of the farm, and scattered broadcast. It is excellent fertilizer for the garden; but as the previous occupants of the chicken-house may not have been healthy, it is safer not to leave it where your birds can scratch in it. Get a quart of crude carbolic acid and mix it with three gallons of naphtha — needless to say, these commodities must be kept in closed cans in an outside shed, secure from children or fire. Take out about a quart at a time, in an open pail into which a brush can be dipped. The interior of the house is to be thoroughly painted over with this mixture, swishing it well into corners. Scatter quicklime on the floor; shut the door and leave the place alone for twelve hours.

Unless it is an exceptionally well-built house, the outside will have to be covered all over with two-ply tar paper, or the red

roofing paper, whichever is preferred. In c 17 calculating the quantity required, remember that the dealer's quotation of feet in a roll, is of square, not running feet ; therefore a roll of two hundred and fifty feet of the usual yard width would only be about eighty-two lineal feet.

Choose a dry day without frost; start at the bottom, using the caps and nails which are specially made for the purpose; some makers send out sufiicient for each roll and include it in the prices quoted. Each row must be allowed to lap over the edge of the preceding one, two inches. Fit up snugly under the eaves of the roof, or, if it is even with the sides, allow ample overlappings ; otherwise slanting, beating rains will find a vulnerable spot and cause trouble. Whatever the size of the building, have the greater part of the south or southwest exposure, glass. Ordinary-sized sashes can be bought in or near every village, and are best fixed in grooves top and bottom, because then the whole sash can be pushed back and out of the way on fine days. On the outside, cover the opening with wire netting.

After the exterior of the poultry-house is put into good repair, the interior must be considered.

If the floor appears damp, have a thick layer of stones laid over it before filling in clean earth in place of the surface scraped away. It must be levelled and well stamped down; when finished, the floor must be a foot above the outer ground.

Put a quart of unslaked lime into an ordinary-sized galvanized pail; pour on it enough boiling water to come about three inches below the lime; don't disturb it, and in a few minutes it will boil and bubble ; then, with a long piece of stick, stir it into a smooth paste, to which more boiling water is to be added until it is about the consistency of thin cream. Half a small cup of crude carbolic acid and a similar-sized cup of kerosene are then to be stirred into it. This completes a whitewash which, when applied while hot to the walls and ceiling of the chicken-house, makes it wholesomely clean. When this is done, have a platform three feet wide run across the back, or end, of the house, two feet from the floor.

Get hardwood slats four inches wide by two inches thick; from these construct a frame eighteen inches wide and six inches shorter than the length of the platform. At each corner of this frame put a nine-inch leg. This frame, when stood upon the platform, makes two roosts which, being on the same level, prevent the birds fighting and crowding upon one another, as they always do when the roosts slant, each bird desiring to be on the top rung.

If the house is to accommodate twelve hens, provide six nests a foot square, made in groups of three, with legs a foot high; they are easily handled and removed for housecleaning. Stand them in the darkest and most secluded part of the house. Put a handful of hay and a china nest-egg in each. Scatter dry sand, earth, fine ashes, or sawdust on the platform, to prevent the droppings from adhering to the boards; it facilitates cleaning. The entire floor space is finally to be covered five or six inches deep with straw cut a foot in length, common bedding hay, or dried leaves.

The yard is best in front of the house. Straight poles about eleven inches in circumference and eight feet long, cut from the woods, or four-by-four spruce scantling, inserted two feet in the ground and six feet apart, constitute the foundation on which to stretch the wire netting. Make a door into the yard, using very light poles or slats for the foundation and, of course, covering it with wire. Run a baseboard from post to post, and above it two-inch mesh galvanized wire netting, five feet wide. Yards for a house accommodating twelve birds should be at least fifty feet long and ten feet wide.

If time or the restriction on expenditure prohibits the platform, nests, etc., they can be dispensed with for a time by standing the roosting frame on the floor, taking the precaution to have plenty of the scratching material under it; empty grocery boxes can be substituted for the made nests. Nail the netting as low down on the posts as possible, if baseboards are not used, and throw earth all around the outside. Even the roosting frame could be made from straight saplings.

The cleaning, whitewashing, and making storm-proof must be in no way slighted. Cleanliness, freedom from draught and damp, are essential conditions which must be established before genuine work can be accomplished.

There are some twenty-five distinct breeds of fowls — domestic fowls, that is. Furthermore, there are four or five varieties of each chronicled in the "American Standard of Perfection," as qualified to compete at poultry shows. But as practical utility is the keynote to be struck in establishing a self-supporting home, the lists must be reduced to those birds which are the best as marketable commodities. In this list will be found Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, and Leghorns. After experimenting with all these and many others, the White Wyandotte, in my opinion, reigns supreme as queen of the "general purposes hen." They are good winter layers, mature early, and either as broilers or roasters are excellent. Having small bones and being of round, compact build, they have plump breasts even at twelve weeks old. Their feathers are worth nearly as much as ducks'. Lastly, they are kept in bonds by a fence only four feet high.