424 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



First the chicks are placed in the brooders, the floor of which is covered by 

 newspapers and on the paper is placed about an inch of chaff from the hay 

 loft, and the whole made warm and dry before chicks are placed in the 

 brooder. Into this chaff I scatter a handful of oatmeal, bread crumbs or 

 ground wheat, sharp sand or powdered eggshells, also a little charcoal. 

 This will prepare them for their first meal. I prefer the dry method of 

 feeding. Almost anything of a vegetable nature is good for feed after the 

 chicks are a week old if it is properly prepared. Chicks should have grit, 

 charcoal, and water from the start. One of the main points in raising 

 brooder chicks is to keep them active. Throw their feed in the litter. Make 

 them work for it, for exercise is the only method to develop muscle and 

 make a strong healthy chick. My chicks receive very little corn at any age, 

 but they do get ground oats, wheat, rye and plenty of exercise. 



A few advantages in raising brooder chicks are: You can raise larger 

 numbers, and in case of danger of storm you can call them and they will 

 run and fly to you; in a few seconds you will have them under control, 

 whereas it would take you a long time to drive them to a place of shelter 

 and lots of them you could never drive up before they got wet and chilled. 



Let us all look into the poultry question a little closer and try to give it 

 the same consideration and preparation to importance that is devoted to other 

 kinds of stock. 



RAPE AND KALE FOR POULTRY, 



Gustave Thommen^ in Farm Poultiy . 



Many people to whom, in talking about green food for poultry, I have 

 mentioned rape, have either never heard of the plant or have had poor or 

 no success at all with it. 



This is unfortunate, as it deprives them of the benefits from a source of 

 green stuff especially adapted for summer and fall use. Moreover rape is 

 very easily and cheaply raised after one has come to know how. There are 

 a few little points to be observed in its culture, and it pays well for all the 

 labor spent on it, besides being about the best and cheapest green stuff for 

 either growing chicks or laying hens. The fowls relish it greatly, and do 

 not get tired of it. Rape also grows so fast under proper management that 

 it is almost impossible to use it up as fast as it comes along. 



Where the cabbage maggot is at home (and this seems to be the case 

 everywhere) there is positively no use to sow rape or kale before the 15th of 

 June, unless one will run the risk of having one-half to three-fourths of the 

 crop destroyed by the insect, which lives in the upper part of the root, just 

 below the surface of the ground, and eventually kills the plant. After the 

 above date the insect is mostly done with its work, and the coast is clear. 



The seed of rape is quite small, smaller than turnip seed. The sort to 

 use is Dwarf Essex rape, sold by all seed houses at about ten cents a pound, 

 and one pound will sow about one acre. Sow in any soil which will raise a 

 good crop of cabbage or potatoes, and which has been perfectly prepared to 



