Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/206

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Protecting Flocks from Coyotes by Means of a Gas Lamp "Gun"

���campfire burning brightly. The "gun" does away with this. It will operate for a period of about fourteen hours without refilling.

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��Coyotes are afraid of light and flee at the sound of a gun. This gas lamp causes an ex- plosion at regular intervals which is similar to a pistolshot. At the same time the lamp revolves constantly, shed- ding light in every direction

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gas lamp known as a "coyote" gun is being used extensively by western ranch- men to protect their flocks from the ravages of coy- otes. The device consists of three chambers and a lamp box. In the upper chamber is water which drips into the larger chamber below, filled with calcium carbide. The greater part o^ the gas feeds through a tube to the blaze but a quantity is forced into the third chamber, on the left side, and from there at about one minute intervals it feeds through to the lamp box and causes an explosion similar to a pistol shot. The device is attached to a spring and suspended four or five feet above the ground. The explosions keep the "gun" revolving and throwing the light in every direction.

Coyotes are afraid of a light and flee at the sound of a gun. In the past it has been the custom of the sheepmen to keep herders on duty all night, firing a gun every few minutes, and keeping a big

��Shipping Day-Old Chicks Is Profitable at Both Ends HEN little chicks come from the shell, they need neither water nor food for sixty hours. That fact has given rise to a new busi- ness. Day-old chicks are sold and shipped by people who operate incubators. Those who buy are relieved of the trouble, of the incon- venience and to some extent of the uncertainty of hatch- ing. Only a small percentage of day-old chicks perish while on the way from shipper to customer. People are thus enabled to get the little chicks and begin the poultry busi- ness without the necessity of purchasing an incubator.

Special boxes of pasteboard, are made for shipping purposes. Some have a capacity of twenty-five chicks, some of fifty and some of one hundred. It is doubt- less best that no more than twenty-five shall in any case occupy a single compart- ment. The walls of the boxes are mod- erately thick, and some soft material as grass is put in the bottom. Otherwise there are no especial provisions against cold weather. However, the chicks themselves may be depended upon to cluster together and in this way keep one another warm.

The boxes are not to be opened en route, nor are the chicks to be given food or water. Successful shipments have been made for two thousand miles.

���Special pasteboard boxes are used

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