VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 89 



Q. How many acres of sun-flowers do you raise to feed your 

 hens? 



A. From one to two acres, and it averages 160 bushels to the acre. 

 One thing I want to say to you, brother farmers: You can as well 

 moult your hens when the eggs are low and put your hens in the pink 

 of condition at the beginning of the season when eggs are high. Just 

 as quick as a hen puts on fat it spoils her egg production. We have 

 one house that is 367 feet long. When eggs are low in the month of 

 August we put them inside the house with a southerly exposure. There 

 are two windows in the room, and we just throw the windows open 

 and give them plenty of water and plenty of air and feed them a light, 

 scant ration and reduce their flesh. Then we open up the building and 

 let them into a 14-acre lot and feed them on peas and oats, and as soon 

 as it begins to agree with them they will begin to lay as much as 

 though they read the papers and knew when eggs were high. 



I want to say to you that although I have no children, it has been 

 my privilege to educate three boys, and every one of them has been 

 interested in the farm equally with me. I share their joys and their 

 sorrows as they have developed into manhood. They are a pride to the 

 country in which they live. Interest your boys along these lines and 

 they will be the light of your life in your declining years. 



Q. Will you repeat your formula for feeding? 



A. Peas and oats in the morning with enough straw to cover it up. 



Q. Why do you use the straw? 



A. So as to keep the chickens busy, give them plenty of exercise 

 and keep them happy. It is so in the human family, and it is so with 

 all kinds of families. 



At noon we feed the mash: 100 pounds of corn meal; 100 pounds of 

 wheat middlings; 50 pounds of wheat bran; 30 pounds of alfalfa; 25 

 pounds of meat scraps. Mix that together with skim milk and bring 

 it to a boil. Thirty per cent, of that food is clover, which is rich in 

 protein, and they are very fond of it. 



We had last year 3,500 bushels of hen manure, and we divided that 

 into car load lots. We kept the manure dry, and we took that and 

 put it onto our farm with wonderful results. We can see a marked 

 improvement from it. We raise 45 bushels of wheat to the acre. We 

 have a fourteen acre orchard, and we had 1,400 bushels of apples in 

 that orchard this year. I thought two years ago it would be ruined 

 by the worms, but, as you see, I was happily disappointed. 



Q. In the absence of clover to put into the hen's feed is there 

 anything we can put in to take its place? 



A. We do put in cabbage, but sometimes we have a little trouble 

 with the smell of cabbage. We put cabbage into the hen's food in 

 Cobleskill and take the eggs to New York city, and the ladies open an 

 egg and come out and shout cabbage. We put beets in. too. 



Q. What about a surplus of eggs? 



A. I don't believe there will ever be a surplus of good eggs in the 

 world. For ten years we have increased our production every year. 



