144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Last summer we were visiting a large poultry farm in 

 southern New Hampshire, and the manager called attention 

 particularly to the bright, lively appearance of the youngsters, 

 of which there were about 2,100 running about, some of them 

 about half grown then. He told us that he had lost but 

 thirty-four in all, out of that great number, and upon our ex- 

 pressing surprise, for there are usually a greater proportion 

 than that which are born weak and cannot possibly survive the 

 hardships of infancy, he told us it was a fact, and that a care- 

 ful census of several of the older families had proved the 

 correctness of the records of mortality among them. 



At the Jordan Farm, Hingham, Mass., they raised several 

 thousand chickens each year, with practically no loss from that 

 scourge of chickenhood, " bowel trouble," and all the food for 

 the first weeks is Cyphers' Chick Food. The result of this simple 

 feeding method is a most gratifying growth of the youngsters, 

 who seem to have no set-backs, and to grow " naturally," to 

 grow from the start, without having any time lost or back- 

 ward slips to make up. 



The most remarkable growth of young fowls of which we 

 have ever heard, was a pair of Barred Rock cockerels castrated, 

 and grown to be " soft-roasters." They were killed the day 

 they were six months old, and weighed (the pair) twenty-three 

 pounds, live weight, and the larger one weighed ten and a half 

 pounds, dressed. They were grown on a ready-mixed chick 

 food for the first weeks, with cracked corn added after the 

 first four or five weeks to increase the ration, and beef scraps. 

 The last two months the ration was cracked corn and beef 

 scraps, and the total result was a growth never equaled by any 

 other method of feeding. 



A New Jersey friend writes me : 



" My young stock this year are simply wonders ! Some 

 of the pullets are already showing good sized combs and wat- 

 tles, and from appearances, look as though they would lay by 

 the middle of September. Some of the capons, hatched March 

 23d, will weigh five and one-half to six pounds now ; certainly 

 a fine testimonial to the dry-feeding method. All I have to do 

 is to keep the hoppers filled, and they do the rest. I find I am 

 this year raising three times as many birds as last year, with 

 only about one-half the labor." 



Let us, however, turn again to the Maine Station bulletin, 

 and quote the statement given there. This is a State experi- 



