32 



Early in the fall we use cabbage or rape; or at times where the runs have 

 been sown to fall rye or wheat, the fowls are allowed to feed upon these. Where 

 rape is extensively fed it frequently will cause the whites of the eggs to have a 

 greenish cast, which renders them unmarketable. This food is relished by the 

 fowls, but must be fed carefully. Cabbage at times will flavor the eggs slightly, 

 and if frozen may cause serious digestive troubles. Both rape and cabbage make 

 good green foods, but good judgment must be exercised in their use. 



Mangels are a very succulent food and are relished by the birds during the 

 winter. They can be fed either pulped or whole. When they are fed whole, we 

 usually stick them on a projecting nail, at a convenient height, upon the wall of 

 the pen. When these are fed freely they frequently scour the fowls. For this 

 reason during some seasons we are obliged to feed them not more than twice a 

 week. 



Turnips may flavor the eggs. They are not as palatable as mangels, in fact 

 some birds will not eat them at all, but at the same time they have considerable 

 food value. 



Clover leaves, either steamed or dry, are relished very much, and upon the 

 whole are the most reliable winter green food. One hundred hens will eat from 

 a peck to a bushel of clover leaves daily. This food upon the farms is cheap and 

 easily procured, and should be fed more than it is. 



The growing of green food is becoming quite popular with many, but we have 

 never received sufficient results to warrant our growing it extensively, except for little 

 cliicks. 



The ordinary plan is to soak the grain — most people use oats — twenty-four 

 hours previous to sowing. The ordinary greenhouse flat is useful for this purpose. 

 Any box from 3 to 4 inches deep will answer. It is necessary that the bottom of 

 the box should have sufficient holes to give good drainage. Place a little damp 

 earth over the bottom of the box, and then put inabout i/2-inch of soaked grain, 

 and cover this with about 1 inch of sand. Keep the box in a warm place and keep 

 the earth moist. In a few days the grain will begin to germinate. Most feeders 

 allow the grain to grow two or three inches before feeding. 



INCUBATIOK 



This is a very interesting topic. Here we are dealing with the renewal of the 

 flock. This has been to the larger grower a difficult problem, and to most farmers 

 and small growers comparatively easy. (It is apparently easy for the farmer to 

 hatch and rear 100 or more chicks, and very difficult to get hens to lay during the 

 winter. The large grower can usually get a fair production during the winter, 

 if he can get the chicks out and well grown.) There are so many factors that 

 may influence the hatch and the vitality of the chicks, that it is at times an 

 impossibility to say why one fails and another succeeds. 



The first essential to successful incubation is good hatchable eggs. The 

 hatching power of eggs is apparently influenced by the parent stock, not only in 

 the present generation, but possibly for generations back. Granting this, we must 

 then use only the strongest and best birds as breeders, and if a rigid culling is 

 followed annually, it is our belief that gradually, but surely, the problem will 

 become less difficult. Then, again, the methods of housing and feeding are factors. 

 Birds kept in ill-ventilated, damp houses, or under any unsanitary conditions, are 



