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Efforts of th Did you ever see a rat or mouse or wild rabbit sick from what might be termed natural causes? Any one who can contribute such an animal to the Department of Agriculture may unwittingly confer a benefit of mil lions of dollars annually on this country. What the Department wants is a fatal and contagious malady, which it is working hard to get now, but up to date the work is merely promising, there having been no satis factory result to record. So if any one has a hutch of rabbits swept off by a sudden and mysterious disease, or if he notices any swift and sudden mortality among the rats and mice in his locality, that may be the very thing the Department is looking for, -sE PRAIRI One of the Pest and one of the rodents should be forth with dispatched to Secretary Wilson. He will be glad to get it. Of course, every one knows that the gopher problem is a serious one in many parts of the West, and the rab bit pest has at times threatened to devastate Australia. and even Cali fornia. Altogether the small animals do a great amount of damage, but most people do not realize what its aggregate really is. Yet in one cou. ty of the state of Washington last year field mice destroyed at least half a million dollars worth of prop erty, whilc in the same time wolves ii Wyoming alone muleted the stock men of $1,000,000 worth of cattle, while the damage from field mice, and similar little "varmints" throughout the United States, especially in the West and South, amounted to many millions. TASK OF THE SCIENTISTS. To cope with these pests is one of the most interesting tasks of the biological survey of the Department of Agriculture. It has been working in a quiet way for several years, and has about come to the conclusion that al though it is possible to trap, poison and otherwise reduce the pests in many instances, the thing that is really needed is a contagious disease that can be bottled up in the labor atory and distributed to do its own work on an infinitely more effective scale than can traps and poisons. That there is some such disease, or that one can be produced, the scien tists of the department do not doubt. The trouble up to date has been to find it. The biological servey is working" in conjunction with the bureau of animal industry. Some promising leads have been struck, but none of them have turned out to be just what was wanted. For instance, while they are working with one dis ease now that is fatal to a certain breed of field mice, it will not touch others, and the rats laugh at it in conscious immunity. Also there are plenty of contagious animal diseases that could be turned loose on the rats, ground squirrels, and rabbits, but as they would kill a horse just as quickly as they would a rat, they are not wanted. ERNEST THOMPSON SETON'S. FIND. Some years back the survey lost just the chance it has been looking for. Ernest Thompson Set on was p in Canada., where there was a pest of. rabbits, and noticed that they were rapidly dying out. Some mysterious disease was carryIng them off, and it was not long before the country was almost cleared of them. He realized that this disease might prove valuable and managed to catch some sick rab bits which he shipped to a laboratory in New York. but the problem was not just in the biologist's line, and he did not realize the immense importance of it, so the secret was not grasped. Now the biological survey is looking out for similar occurrences. and if the vpportunity offers, will make the most of them. There is a field mouse disease that is harmless to doniestic animials. and the survey is trying hard to make it virulent enough to do business with some of the larger pests. It proises well, but the scientists have had too many disappointaients to he braigging in advance. They are. however, act ually trying to reinforce the disease and make it worse than it has proved up to date. This is getting pretty deep into the network of germology and toxic science. It means really breed ing up disease germis on somewhat the same plan that plants and animals are now bred by the dlepartment. But there is a hope that they may be aible to do something with it. Anyhow they are trying. There has been a number of reports from abroad of the wonderful th ingst forei.:n bacteriologists have succeeded in doing in the line of contagious dis eases for small animal pests. but though cultures have been bought abroad and tried fa tXully here. no results have ever been obtained. Some of the germs have proved fatal to the animals that ate them. hut the same 18 true of any sort of poison that can it TO BREED UP A DISEASE. Government to Start a Plague Among Destruc GUY ELLIOTT MITCHELL be bought by the pound and spread on bread. The contagious quality has not develope -et in any of the foreign cultures t id. TIIE RABBIT PEST. The biological survey has been able to do a good deal in a practical way with the rabbit pest. Some time ago the forest service set up a howl of in dignation. It had planted some hun dred thousand young trees, nursery stock. 'in one of the California forest reserves, and the rabbits ate them up in about a week. Then it seeded s( veral hundred acres with white pine to restore the land after a fire, and the rabbits cheerfully set to work, dug up all the seeds and ate them. But DOGS. of the West. the biologists were loaded for rabbit, so to speak, and they furnished the forest people with a harmless wash to soak their pine nuts in before plant ing,. and with a cheap dip for the nursery stock which a self-respecting rabbit will no more nibble than will an ordinary human being smell auto mobile odor for a perfume. In this the biologists confessedly took a leaf out of the book of the Piute and other desert-dwelling In dians. The Piutes have been caching food supplies of pine and pinion nuts in the desert for hundreds of years and they found that the rabbits, the ground squirrels and prairie dogs would clean out their cache. But they found by experience that there was a little desert weed that the ground animals disliked excessively and that anything dipped In a tea steeped from the bark of the weed was rabbit-proof for a long time thereafter. So the rabbits were checkmated on that play and the forest officers have no more trouble from~ that quarter. PLAGUE OF THE WOLVES. But it is the very presence of the forest reserves that has bred the present plague of timber wolves in the West. No hunting is allowed in the reserves and they form nurseries for game of all sorts. But it seems that they breed wolves quite as fast s they breed anything else, of which fact the cattle raisers have been ,made painfully aware. In the days of the buffalo on the plains, thousands of wolves lived on the herds. When the buffalo were killed off the wvolves disappeared also, till there was not one where there used to be a thousand. Then the cattle men began to stock the ranges, and the wolves found conditions much the same as in the buffalo days. They promptly multiplied and increased till they are now doing an immense amount of damage, aided largely by their asylum in the forest reserves. The biological survey has sent out M~r. Vernon Bailey. one of its best men, to study the wolf problem, and e has been skeeing and snowshoeing through Wyoming and Montana while the snow was on the ground and the wolves were particularly easy to track and study. Hie has not done any shooting. but is trying the effects of poisons and traps. But the wolves are about as cunning as foxes, and after you have trapped and poisoned a few in a given district the rest grow, wary AN OUT OF DOOR BROODER AND Fl and the poisons and traps are rele-1 ztted to seat 23. The wolves get so crafty that they will not swallow a piece of meat without mouthing it, and if they get the bitter taste of strychnine or arsenic they dIrop it and look for something else to eat. Whether or not the survey will he able to kill them off with some corstagious disease is a questio~n. but they are rapidly becoming as great a pest and far more dangerous than the smaller ive Varmints. - Egg Farms of California. By T. F. McGREW. Many years ago I assisted a friend in the loading of a car of poultry for California. This car was shipped from Central Ohio, and the fowls contained therein were very well selected from flocks of desirable varieties. The owner of this car crossed the conti nent in care of his birds and settled in Central California. Reports from there a few years later told a direful story of the impossibility of success in poultry-growing in California. It Is unnecessary to relate the many troubles experienced, except to say that the amateur in poultry at that time imagined that the birds would live and prosper in the California cli mate without proper shelter within houses during the cold. damp weather. A close study of these conditions has entirely eliminated all these mis takes, and to-day there is no place in the United States where there is an enthusiasm equal to that found throughout California with reference to this industry. The construction of proper houses, the selecting of proper breeds and the proper caring for them has built up an enormous egg business through that section of the country. In the neighborhood of Petaluma, more Leghorn fowls are probably kept for producing the white-shelled eggs for the California city markets than can be found within the same number of miles in any other place in the world. One enthusiastic visitor to that locality has made the statement that every acre in the fifty thousand acres visited contained a hundred Leghorns. - The climate of Southern California, the beauties of the scenery, the pleas ure of fruit cultivation and the profit able growing of poultry have attracted many hundreds to that section to em bar1k in these pursuits under pleasant conditions, A )Ir. Brownlow who purchased a few acres of ground in that locality ten years ago has built up for himself, with the assistance of his wife and children, a most profitable combination of poultry, fruit, bees and squabs, all of which thrive continually under the softer climates of that locality, ena bling these people to produce broilers every month with a minimum amount of care and attention, the fruit and bees being a remarkable source of profit during,the greater part of the year. PROTECTION AGAINST DAMP IMPORTANT. The buildings used for poultry in these localities need not be so expen sive in construction as is necessary in that portion of the country visited THE SCOURGE OF THE feeding the fowls; and the facility with zero weather durin;; the winter n?onths. Protection from rain, damp1 and vermin is the most necessary ad junct to a properly constructed poultry house when the poultry can not run at large and range over the land. There is no month in the year in whieh they can not find more or less animal and vegetable life for food upon the range. This 12 months of food _supply reduces the expease very materially in SOCK OF YOUNG WHITE LEGHORNS. with which squab) breeders can fiy their birds at large. continually adds vigor and strength to the breeding stock, which naturally assists in the quick growth. and size obtained in the squahs. 9 The quotation of eggs. dressed poultry and squabs in the California market. while not the equal of the New York and Boston markets. will grade well in value with the average markets of our larger inland cities. Th expnse of living as to food ind other necessities is not sc igh as in the colder parts of the country, as :nuch of it i usually prodloed near at hand. Al f these things oom*ine to make the regions of Southern California mos1 ittractive to poultry growers, who may be seeking a softr climate to lesser the aggravation yhich the rigors 01 winter heap upon ;ome member of the family. Many have gone there seeking a place mercly to benefit thei health. and have becn much improved by so doing; but they have also beer able to make a livi ig fvr theimselve: and their families -:hrough the com ination above described. ALL CANNOT SUCCEED. All do not succeed. This can not be In any following of life. Those who do succeed usually nave more or less experience in the business before they mbark upon it. The failures come to the inexperienced, and those who are unable to contend with the diffi culties always confiorfting one in the upbuilding of a new home in any 10 cality. What are known in the San Fran cisco market as "rarge" eggs. the Nc - York market desigintes as "fresh-laid' eggs. Ranch eggs of California are the fresh-laid eggs that are broughi irect to the market and sold as such, During November and December lasi this quality of eggs. sold in the mar kets of San Francis-o as high as fifty one cents a dozen. and as low as thirty ents, influenced, no doubt, by the s'ip ply and demand, governing this pro uct In every locality. Eggs sold In Chicago during the year of 1905 as low as fifteen cents In San Francisco the lowest price quoted for the ye ar was fourteen cents. When the lesser expense of aring for them Is --r-sidered, the ad vantages or profit from poultry grow. ing should be fully equal to. if not bet ter than would be the same pursuit in Illinois, USINESS METHODS IN FARMING Successful Kansas Farmer Who Has Kept Trace of Fecelpts and Ex penditures for Twenty Years. the Kansas City Journal of the suc cess of A. L. Hollinger, a well-to-dc Kansas farmer who opened a set of books when he began farming twenty years ago and wh) has kept his ac counts as accurately as a bank does Its. The other day he struck a trial balance and found himself $50,000 tc the good. He has- now retired from the farm and will make a tour of America. The compilation of his long record beginning with 1886 shows the total figures given as follows: He has raised 5,265 acres of wheat, a yearly average of over 463 acres, and or that area has raised 98,791 bushels, or an average per aci e for twenty years of 18% bushels. During all the two lecades henever hadan entirefailureof wheat, although s.n average of 1% bushels an acre in :.895 came very near to it, His corn record is equally interest ing. He has raised 2,846 acres of corn, a yearly average of 142 acres. The total number .f bushels was 72,. 672, or an avecrge ner nre for twenty years of 25% buishels. The corn CATTLU COUJNTRY. 1ade two entire failures, one In 1895 nd one in 1901. In 1895 it was very iear a falure, onliy 3 bushels per icre. Less'attention was paid to oats nd only 679 acres were raised. This SEND~ NO MONEY We will gle.dly send you as a present full size, for fa::ily use. high-grade poro and pretty with edges ..aced in gold, the York. if you wi11 help us Introduce our S Flavoring Eixtracts. Soaps and Toilet Ar have been tried. and tested by experts and help and you d.o not need to send us a cer convince you that thleir offers were libers iums are better than any others you havi side of ours at :1 have been declared so b: can easily prove this to you if you will di that we can se:nd you a full description things which 3 ou may keep for yourself, of business wi'h us. or not. You will be WE WILLt SEND YOU ALMO such as Lamp:r. Furniture, 8lteerware. Cr you should not completely furnish you expense. by hciping us to introduce the' We want to be fair and squsare with y ifad It Is not exaetly as representd, you That' kia of eope we re. LmndSet,. tqart 1gb-igrade gre ages you get a batifu Dinner Se for yourseL as the same tim'. and we pay freight charges. SeNEW YORK THE GREATI ,'Itr tekher s teUntd st5~esand or whe they get z~to tub, ,we ca dance thE t anl the en eIftasthe sucess of orentire P9rweTlpan"md'.en yo al t*othigs e.** TI:E GURU ELL GO.. "2 "'" averaged for the twenty years 25%2 bushels per acre. In all these figures - the number of acres sown is given and d: the number of bushels harvested. l "During the twenty years," said Mr. nL Hollinger. "I have aimed to carry t, -nough cattle to use up the rough- A ness and the corn raised on the farm, V usually from 100 tp 400 head. Of late 7 years I have pai'd more attention to dl: cattle and alfalfa, and have found M that it was a far more reliable com- = IC bination than purely grain farming in d which I was chiefly engraged in the A N' earlier time of my experience. There ~ is no question but that any intelligent farmer can make a competency, and a support his family in abundaut com- E fort in central Kansas. I have doa V no more than any of 1uy neighbors didj or might have done. Eich ye. r the D same income approximately can 1c se cured if the work is carefully planfted 9 and such cropsare raisedos areadapted to Kansas soil and Kans~as climhte. tLi As an example 6t Mr. HoLiinger's a' stock raising It may be mentioned that he came to Kansas City recently with 'r $9.50 worth of stock which he sold u off his farm, He has lived on the M same plaee for thirty-three years and P is not leaving Kansas because he is entirely satisfied with his wealth but n because he wants to give his family cc a broader education and to secure recreation for himself. "I think I have enough to keep me from want," - he said, "and I am entitled to get some- k thing more out of life than I have t8 heretofgre done." . GREAT BEAR COUNTRY. Representative Bede of Minnesota ca ce Tells the President About Big at Game Hunting in Duluth. c How it happened that the war cor respondents at Washington found out yc about J. Adam Bede's conference on ac bears with President B.ooseielt does not appear. However, a full report of O the Minnesota Congreisman's tales ri< has been made, and was made public 2 In the New York Evening Post. It - makes an alluring document Mr. Bede, - who is the acknowledged wit of the c House, sought the President with the B friendliest intention. "You like to - shoot bears," said "Jadam," diplo matically. Mr. Roosevelt admitted It. - "But you don't have to go into the Y wild West for your sport," went on the d Minnesota statesman. "Think of this 0. fact: thirteen bears were shot In the i streets of Duluth last year-in Du- b" luth, the pride. of the Northwest, that te: beautiful city on the great unsalted W_ sea." The statement had a perceptible effect on the President, and Mr. Bede was encouraged to go on. "It's the 7 only place in the whole world, Mr. b President, where you can go bear or hunting by trolley car, under the elec- s tric light, and on asphalt pavements. ! We have all the conveniences so dear Bi to the heart of the true sportsman, and without leaving your hunting ground you car walk across the street to the Mail box and drop in a postal y card to your friends, telling them all about the game you have bagged." With the Congressman wAs a Duluth constituent, a lady with first-hand knowledge of bear ' hunting in that city. She added her corroborative c statement:- "Oh, yes, Mr. President, a,. short time ago a friend ot mine heard a noise outside his, window, and on looking out saw that It was a bear try- E ing to clmh a telegraph pole. He shotc that fel.law without leaving his bed-' I room.'" Then, to the joy of the Presl..j dent, Mr. Bede took up the tale: "Why, bears are common thiags with us up In Minnesota, Mt, President. Last year1 five bears held up one of our trolley cars, 'They were two old ones and . thriee cubs. This occured right in the streets of Duluth. The big fellow got in front of the car and put his paws on the dashboard, driving the motor- - man off, while mamma, and the cubs went around after the conductor. After they had had enough of this sport they raised the siege and trotted off toward the outskirts of the city. Oh, no, 'we don't let the bears trouble us much. When they get too bothetsome we turn them over to the police, who drive them out of townl but It's a great bear country up there, and I'm sure you I would like~ to see a bit of it." Now, if - it is announced that President Roose velt means to take a vacation up in the Minnesota woods, the correspond ents may go straight to Duluth, where, as Mr. Bede is a true prophet, the great bear slayer may be found sitting in the door of an up-to-date hotel, a rifie across his 'saees, waiting for the promised sport. PeranetlyCrd ~ oK I orsusoafe storer. Send for Fan soo trial bottle and treatIsea lain. no cha imtArtion),Paldei.cast kin thti -l herg nfshoal e adr aig odr es Cofes S.cs ice. Allou god r pr-otr;te [ giestsato.W aayu nlec n a- ofyumny te frsa-aeret oof our autifnd man ter Seally guabe lai(o mte heIthr on ever d ein.'soth aid thatei all teragin fahouaitle Nube. tainda, Trukin facwtereais noffeeson Spiey irs hous or ooae ure-no ithout 6Ceo Cgrvel saisacn. We do n urIn. cean tou n f yoanfter. yOuecvethersa Dner eto butay kep tadnt o ohergod ahnd fores. for seen, ak besf thesae eenparylong cmetet udea b e*{ ople who kn. ', oforasand *" ny"otherreallyJa ls"uable 1umatter whether ynoeer doe nt's wort ST ARKTIN THE.WOL WAN use deond cloh oursoerl witoe aeond to for yo to takte stordes for te n eceyo hnouede srpow cab ofs. s one adsm .l en'*- 124 .nte Pl .. rcoete Yiord Bible MALE HELP WANTED. 8OOKKUEPER: Man thoroughly experienced l'e uble entry bookkeeping. who is competent to t".k large of office. Salary $12U0. 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SALESMTEN TO SELL the largest line of souvenir Yt cards in the country. Also l2re line of adver sing fans. Ex-ellent side line. GoodCommission id Prompt settlement. Alfred Hol-an, Pub 1her, 340 Dearborn St. Chlgago. IlL. MEN & BOYS WANTED to learn the Plumbing rade. Complete the course in 2 or 3 months. Ju ors earn from, $3 to $4 per day. With 6 months' perlence outside. you can join the Union and de and $4 to $5 per day. Catalogue sent free. Union umbing School. 16aW. 29th St., New York. E WANT MEN in every State to carry on busi ss of great profit. Attractive proposition to anent men. State Maos sell themselves. St~c~uvy mmission basis. Scarborough Co., Box 5269, Bce n, Mass, or Indianapolis. Ind. LADIES' APPAR.EL SHIRT WAIST HOLDER EXTRAORDINARY eps waist down all around: no pins or hooks to ar: send 25r. with waist measurement over coriet id ask for white or black. Felix corset Co., 131 -nce St., New York. 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His latest efforts, "T Adventures of Sherlock Holmes have been published and r, throughout Europe and Amern In fact, no writer of late y has received more popular tenion or merited more p than this gifted Englishman. style is most pleasing and his aginative power far abovt, usual. We have secured fronm Conan Doyle's American publis ers the right to this novel., and is with great pleasure that we able to announce its early ap ance in the " Magazine Sectio Be sure to get the initial chapt as it is a stirring tale that 'will ho you interest from first to last. t