696 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



range of the farm. I am positive from experience that you can get better 

 results and can raise better chiclvens on the farm. There is no place 

 as good to raise chickens and children as on the farm. Look at a majority 

 of our great men — they were raised on the farm. So it is with our 

 highest scoring birds. 



What is the best feed for hens, you ask? Plenty of good sound wheat, 

 corn, clover, milk, and pure water, with some kind of good sharp grit 

 and charcoal which, by the way, are not very easy to get, especially the 

 last two named, in Iowa. Remember, fowls must be kept busy if you 

 want them to pay their way, especially in the cold weather in January 

 and February. Like boys, they must be kept busy, or they will get into 

 mischief and then lose their appetites. It is the busy hen that lays the 

 most eggs. 



Farmers are far better situated to raise fancy poultry than are the 

 city people and should be the ones to raise fancy birds. They have all 

 the facilities for raising them and they should be the leaders in this 

 business. It is only a question of time and education along this line 

 when they will be the leaders and will be reaping the reward of their 

 labor which justly belongs to the farmers. 



REARING, FEEDING AND CARE OF CHICKENS. 



Geo. D. Black, Greene County, Ohio, in Breeders' Gazette. 



Chickens are a good deal like people. If you want a f^ood strong 

 chick that will grow fast, feather quickly, and never be an invalid, you 

 should begin with its great grandparents. See that they are vigorous, 

 and that their vitality is never allowed to be sapped by lice and unsani- 

 tary housing. Many a chick has come into the world like Richard the 

 Third, "scarce half made up," and then peeped its unprofitable life away 

 because of the sins committed against its ancestors by a heedless poultry- 

 man. 



Virility is the foundation of a good flock. If one is aiming to keep 

 pure-bred fowls other things are important, as form, breed type, and 

 plumage; but if you are laying the foundation of a flock, sacrifice 

 much else rather than begin with birds that are lacking in size and 

 vigor. More disappointments . have come in poultry-raising through the 

 use of inferior breeding stock than in any other way. Healthy breeders 

 mean strongly fertile eggs, and such eggs mean large hatches and rapidly 

 growing chicks. 



I believe most farmers will find it profitable to use incubators aod 

 brooders, It is pretty certain that the earl hatches are the best in every 

 way. The chicks grow faster, they are much less exposed to the inroads of 

 the various parasites that prey upon chicken life, they are ready to do 

 much toward keeping themselves by mid-summer and are much better 



