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{TRAP-NESTING IS ADVOCATED >OnJy Certain Method of Separating Good Layer? From the Poor te to Keep Dally Record?. ! That the only sure way to know which hens In a flock are doing the work and which are not "earning their keep/' is hy using the trap-nest, Jfi the belief of Prof. James Dryden of the poultry husbandry department of the Oregon agricultural college. "High egg production is not a char acteristic of any one breed of fowls," says Profesor Dryden. "The trap-nest .has demonstrated this. There is no particular shape or type that indicates good laying qualities, so far, at any rate, as our present knowledge goes. , "The only certain method of sepa rating the good layers from the poor . is to use the trap-nest and keep a daily record of eggs laid. It Is not al ways the fault of the feed and care that they don't do better, lt is the misfortune cf the hen herself very j .often; she couldn't lay if she want- j ed to. "It requires considerable time to keep a trap-nest record of a flock of hens. Not every farmer has the time, hut if a few farmers in every county would trap-nest a flock of hens, in a few years" all the farmers of the coun ty would very likely have stock that were from heavy-l?.ying, trap-nested fowls. Where it is possible for a j farmer to devote a little time to it each day he will be well repaid for the labor. "The Oregon experiment station is trap-nesting a large flock each year and it is doing the best it can to fur nish the farmers of that state with stock from good layers, with the ob ject of increasing the egg yield in the state. It is desirable, of course, to keep a full year's record for each hen, but if that is not possible, a record for a part of the year would be valu able. For instance, a record of the first six months of laying, beginning probably in November, would show which were the good winter produ cers. PREPARE GEESE FOR MARKET Closer Fowls Are Confined, If Allowed Sufficient Room for Exercise, Better They Are. A goose that is being fattened for market should never be penrilted to swim in the water or to wander any distance. The closer they are con fined, as long as they have a pen for sufficient exercise, the better table poultry they make. To keep them clean while being fattened, cover the floor of the building in which they stay at night with a thick covering of straw. Remove this in the morning with a pitchfork, either into the- air or sunlight where it will dry. Thor oughly scrape the floor, and cover it with dry sand or earth; as bight ap proaches throw down the bedding again, and in this way they can be kept perfectly clean, and under these conditions they will improve much faster. When the time comes for selling them, the geese should be confined ia a limited space, provided with a building for shelter only, plenty of water to drink, and be fed all they will eat of a dry mash mac? of one half cornmeal, one-fourth bran and middlings, the balance of ground oats. Pair of White China Geese. This is best mixed with boiled milk, buttermilk, sour milk or skim milk, which, when thoroughly cooked, can be mixed into the meals to make the dry mash, r.nd fed in boxes or troughs once or twice of day. In addition to this, a small amount of green food, the best of rye, clover or grass, may be provided with good results. Remove Dead Carcasses. Never allow the carcasses of birds that have died to lie around and de cay. Eithei um/ them good and deep or, better still, burn them. If you have no furnace or stove in which you war*; to burn them, saturate them good with kerosene and set fire to I them. If you leave them uncovered and adow them to decay, your whole Dock is liable to be stricken. , ESCAPING BY A HAIR By MAURICE SMILEY. It was DO evidence of any special shrewdness on my part that 1 knew what Wilson waa watching the train for. The'papera were foll of the details of Judson's last exploit The trick he had turned on this particular occasion was the lifting of s tray of diamonds from the importing firm of Convier Freres. The police had followed Judson pretty sharply and I knew that Wil son must have got some tip te the effect that Judson was going to take a tran tor a cooler habitat-most probably the 9:40 for the west. Now, Wilson and I knew each other by sight We had had a professional rub or two 'on former occasions, and I knew with what I had to deal. It just happened that I saw him get a telegram at the station office and that gave me two ideas which I pro; ceeded to put into effect. One was to intercept the messenger boy attached to the office, and for a Quid pro quo Induce him to hand to Wilson this mes sage, scribbled on a telegraph blank: "Mr. Wilson: I forgot in my hurry to copy the message just delivered to you. Kindly return it to me for a moment and I will hand it to you *t any time.-Mary Emerson, Operator." Five minutes later the boy handed me the message Wilson had received. It read: "Anderson says Judson will take the 9:40 train for Chicago. Will wear a long white beard.-Foley." Foley was the chief. His dispatch j threw new light on the Judson tip. So j Anderson had turned against Judson. I It happened .that I was going to take ! the 9:40 train myself, and I determin ! ed to keep a sharp outlook for any body with a long white beard. I was ! smooth shaven myself. I But the second idea. It was ridicu lously easy to write a message my I self, and my convenient messenger friend for another ' quid pro quo j handed it to Wilson. My message ran ; like this: "Made a mistake. Judson will leave ! on the 9:15 for Montreal.-Foley." It was already 9:05 and Wilson had , barely time to catch the 9:15 train, ; for he swallowed the spoon, hook and ! bait. j With Wilson safely side-tracked, I ; boarded my train. "Message for Henry Wilson. Is Mr. Wilson in this car?" "Ah, yes, I guess thad's for me," I remarked, casually, reaching out my hand for it as the conductor stopped I at my berth. Of course it was from I Foley. It read: '? "Anderson makes complete confes sion. Says story of Judson being dis guised was a blind. He will, so far as Anderson knows, be smooth shaven, as ho does not suspect he will be fol lowed, but thinks he has sidetracked i us. Williams is at Buffalo, and will ? meet the train at Lee's Landing. j Fol3y." The plot was thickening. , "How tar are we from Lee's Land ing, portel. ' I inquired. "Next stop, sir." I started on another exhaustive in I epection of the car. but there was no j body there whom I thought Williams j would be likely to spot as Judson, i ?> But there was a gentleman with a I long brown beard, sitting all alone lu I one end of the car. A white beard ??might be dyed overnight. "Would you mind stepping into my drawing room compartment sir?" ] Baid in a weak voice as I bent over the brown-whiskered gentlement. "Certainly, sir," he replied, rising and accompanying me to my drawing I room. Once the door was locked and I there was something doing in two min otes. "That's a very fine bunch of whisk ers you have there, my friend," I said fiercely, "and I shall have to trouble you for .hem! Don't make any fuss now and you won't get hurt!" The sheer absurdity of my words made him blink bewilderedly and be fore he got through blinking I had him j tied hand and foot and two minutes : later I had neatly snipped off his j beautiful brown beard, k I had become suddenly alive to the I fact that a pair of whiskers waa j something that ? needed in my busi I ness. I usually went provided with j spirit gum and other toilet accessories, ,but I had neglected to grow a bunch of side whiskers or provided myself with a set of false ones. "Lee's Landing!" shouted the brake man, as I stepped out ol' the drawing room to run plnmp into Williams, whom I spotted instantly. "He's in the drawing room there!" I whispered hurriedly in Williams' ear. "Yes. This is Wilson! I am detail ed on another lay; that's wh;- you were wired to meet me. Grew these over night Good luck." Then half holding my whiskers with I my hand to keep them from falling off, I pulled my hat down over my i eyes and made my getaway. It wasn't a very close shave for the parson, but it was for me, all on ac ? count of that traitor Anderson. I Just j escaped by a hair-that is, by a con J veniently large number of hairs, judi ciously UBed. Oh, yes, I was Judson. You havi guessed that. . ! (Copyright, by Dally Story Pub. Co.) Shows lt ? "Women are certainly con tra ul o 1 tory." "They certainly are. There is nsy neighbor who la dying to know bov i'm UfiQ*.' "_V" v LIKE PITCHED BATTLE RAILROAD IN FINISH FIGHT WITH HORDE OF CATERPILLARS. Though Defeated In the End, the In sects Succeeded In Demolishing All Train Schedule? on Long Island Railroad. ?boat a month ago a column-ions teleffrasa from Montant, L. L, ap peared In the newspaper* nader a big-typo cap tion: *Cat?rpil lars LOM? War on Railroad." There was no picturesque exag geration la that caption. Oae of _ the most offen sive tactics of an Invading army is to cut railroad lines In the enemy's country, and this ia exactly what was done by a countless j army of caterpillars that Invaded tho Long Island railroad's right of way, , between Amagansett and Montauk. j The fatalities among the invaders i were appalling; billions of them were ! squashed; but for two weeks the ! dead and the dying, their number constantly increased by willing hordes from the ranks of the living, sucoeed i ed in smashing train schedules, j There were battles daily between I the big, powerful engines of the road ! and the tiny caterpillars, the former ! aided by skirmish lines of trainmen armed with brooms, shovels, and pail? I of sand, the latter aided by nothing but their ability to climb up on the track and grease it with their squashed bodies. If these two opposing forces-the j big locomotives and the tiny cater ! pillars-had been left to fight it out between tht:mselves, it is a grave J question but what history would have j had a different story to inscribe upon her tablets. I Acting under hurry-up orders, how ever, from President Ralph Peters, H. B. Fullerton, the railroad com I pany's director of agricultural devel opment, bore down on the invaders Spraying Tracks Against Caterpillars with a couple of hand-car batteries manned by section gangs, and swept the field of action with solution of sulfocide and nicotine shot from hand spray pumps. Bay after day Fullerton and his hand-car batteries raked the battle* ', field with their spray pumps, and day j after day caterpillars and yet mort? j caterpillars immolated themselves be? 1 fore any and every Long Island train j that juggernauted that way. Then Fullerton bethought himself I of the method by which mediaeval castles were defended. He ran a six I inch moat along both sides of the In? I vaded stretch of track and flooded it ! with crude oil. Then did history re? i peat herself and tell over again tim . story of the French cuirassiers and j the sunken road at Waterloo; rank i after rank of caterpillars dashed into j this moat of Fullerton's, but not a j caterpillar reached its other side, j The Long Island railroad had won j the war of the caterpillars. But though vanquished, they had I established a record. Bugs and worm i j before this have crippled railroads, : but never before has any army, either : bug or worm, succeededfin continuing ! Its campaign for so long a time. Railroad Cat's Long Life. : "Tiger," the remarkable cat of th-? Great Eastern Railway company'^ I freight shed at Peterborough, Enc ; land, which is reputed to be a bou: : twenty-seven years old, is peacefully ending a life crowded with rat ex termination and other happy inci dents. Few cats live much beyond fourteen or fifteen years. During her long life Tiger has killed thousand i of rats. She is a light tabby, ami came to the sheds for refuge dunn:; a fire at a timber yard close by over twenty-six years ago. having been driven from her home in a timber Btack by the flames. Tiger has al ways been wild, and has obtained her own food, consisting almost entirely of rats, of which she would kill as many as fourteen and fifteen in one night Her custom was to bring all the rats alive to one of the men em ployed in the shreds, and would not eat one until she received permission. Veteran Railroader Dead. William Graham, one of the earli est settlers of Grafton, W. Va, who was born in Preston county, W. Va., died, aged eighty years. He spent fifty years In the service of the Bal timore & Ohio railroad, having been placed on the retired list in 1900. His family were among the first settlers to cross the mountains and seek homes in the western portion of what was then Virginia. He moved to Grafton in 1861. and entered the Union army, was discharged with honor and resumed work with th? railroad. TREAT POTATOES FOR SCAB Corrosive Sublimate Solution and Bor deaux Mixture Applied to Seed Gave Excellent Results. At a German experiment station, experiments with potato scab bare been carried on for two years. Corrosive sublimate solution of 0.05 per cent., and Bordeaux mixture of two per cent., both applied to the seed potatoes for 1% hours, gave ex cellent and about equal results in the pr?vention of scab, as was also the case with Bordeaux mixture of two per ?ni. applied to two lots fori three and fourteen hours, respective ly, and with two lots treated with four kg. per acre (356 pennas per acre) of sulphur mixed with th? soil, one let having been also thoroughly rubbed with sulphur before planting. A peat mold dressing of 86 cm. depth ap peared to give some protection against the development of scab, while a sand dressing of the s?me depth afforded none. On both the plats treated with soil dressing the next year's crops were found to he healthy. KILL OUT CANADA THISTLES Most Practical Way sf Getting RM of Patch ls to Cut Off All Leaves Below Surface. In response to a Query as to the best way of getting rid of a patch of Canada thistles the Wallace's Farmer makes the following reply: Anything which keeps Canada this tle leaves from getting to the sun light for two or three months during the growing season will give them a severe set-back, and in some cases kill them. Putting a heavy coating o? straw on the patch has in some eases proved successful, but in other cases the straw has become disarranged and the thistles have grown np Canada Thistle. through it. Really, the most practica way of getting rid of a small patch o Canada thistles is to go over it ever] week and cut off all leaves below th< surface of the ground. If a conscien tious job of this is done for the sum mer, the thistles will not bother mucl the next year, although it is best ti keep an eye open for them and cu them off regularly. A careful jol must be done, for if the leaves ar< allowed to grow very long in the sun shine enough energy will be stored u] in the roots to hold the pest over fo; a considerable length of time. Santa Claus can find toys, vases : ups and saucers, rh ina ware and ; iwvelties of all kinds at our store. Dunevant & Co. In making up your Xmas lis' ' 'on't forget that box of Hnylers : .?mas tide is Tluvlers time, i VV. E. Lynch & Co. We have a full line of firework. 'or Christmas and New Year. Penn & Holstein. IV. A. Hemstreeti & Bro. I Gun.', Revolv?is, Cartridges, etc. Just below Ga. R. R. Bank 655 Broad St., Augusta, Georgia. Shipment of"" fresh evaporated apricots, peaches, apples and Cali fornia >runes. just received. W. E. Lynch & Co. Come and get yon a pair King Quality shoes, the best and most comfortable. Every pair guaranteed. AI uk ash y Bargain House. Let UH have your order for fruit, cake ingredients such as currants, citron, raisins, spices, etc. VV. E. Lynch & Co. A big lot of warm Gloves, s Oe ip, at F. G. Mertins, Augusta, Ga Grow More Cotton to the Acre. Plant Simpkins' Prolifie Seed. The earliest Cotton in the World Ninety days from plan ting to hale. Very prolific and a j?ood linter. We sell the only tren nine- Mr. Simpkins' own s-ed-- di rect from his farm. Price $1.25 per bushel. 25 bushels at $1.15 LIBERAL DISCOUNT IF ORDERED BEFORE JANUARY FIRST On every order sent us before Jan. let take 10c off this price. Ordei now-the time is short. W. H. NIXSON SEED CO., - CHARLESTON Sole Distributors for South Carolina B Wmw SSE 9& m. ??? Perkins Sash and Door Company Manufacturers of High Grade Millwork Hardwood work a Specialty -h Rough and Finishing Work. Estimates on Request. AUGUSTA, GA. rartyf,Myi>^amff*'ilP""1"1" - Biff1* Deep Plowing Season We have and still arriving a full line of Oliver turn plows, Oliver middle-busters, Oliver subsoil. Repairs of all kinds, such as points, bolts5 extra wings, extra land bides, extra handles. Jones & Son. J. C. LEE, President F. E. Gibson, Sec. and Treas. FARMERS, MERCHANTS, BUILDERS, If you nre going to build, remodel or repair, we invite your inquiries. COMPLETE HOUSE BILLS A SPECIALTY. We manufacture and deal in doors, sash, blinds stairs, interior trim, store fronts and fixtures, pews, pulpits, eic., rough and dressed lumber, lath, pine and cypress shingles, flooring, ceiling and siding. Distributing agents for Flintkote roofing Estimates cheerfully and carefully mane. Y/oodard Lumber Co. AUGUSTA, GEORGIA. Corner Roberts and Dugas Streets. Our Motto: 682 Your Christmas Fruit I desire to inform our patrons that we will have a large stock of fresh fruit of all kinds and will give a bunch of bananas with every order for $6.00. Big stock of nuts of all kinds. Cheapest and best candi es, also full line of fireworks. Edgefield Fruit Co. ?