April 30, 1374. 1 



JOUKNAU OF HORTICaiiTOBB AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



355 



of our feed after the chicks are four weeks old— feeding with 

 boiled meat two or three times a-day. We riddle cracked corn, 

 feeding with the coarse part dry, mixed with wheat, in the after- 

 noon ; and the fine, mixed with coarse shorts, scalded together, 

 in the morning ; change once in a while if chicks tire of the 

 regular feed. We feed a good many boiled potatoes with corn- 

 meal and wheat middlings mixed, by mashing the potatoes, meal, 

 &c., together while the potatoes are hot. We find boiled rice a 

 cheap and very desirable feed to change with. One pound of 

 rice will take-in G lbs. of water, and makes a good feed for fifty 

 hens. At four weeks we separate our cockerels and pullets, 

 putting twenty-five to fifty together into a run 10 feet long, 

 3i feet wide, and 24 feet high, made of narrow boards, with 

 laths nailed on Ihree-fourths of an inch apart, on sides, one end, 

 and top. 



We use large boxes or small moveable houses for the chickens 

 to roost in and run into in rainy weather, and keep these roost- 

 ing-rooms clean and well littered, making the chickens sit on 

 the ground, or wide roosts, till they are four months old, as 

 roo&ting on small sticks will crook their breast-bones. After the 

 chickens are two or three weeks old they will begin to eat green 

 food, grass, oats, clover, cabbage, mashed maugold wurtzels, 

 ■onions, potatoes, iSrc. Our great study^is to make them com- 

 fortable and furnish them some exercise to keep their appetites 

 good. 



Chickens grown and cared for in the above manner will weigh 

 as much at three months old as, if running about, they would 

 do at six months old ; and pullets will begin to lay at three to 

 four months old raised our way. (I am speaking of Brown 

 Leghorns.) I do not think White Leghorns or Light Brahmaa 

 could stand the confinement. Partridge Cochins do very well, 

 and begin to lay when about five mouths and a half old, and my 

 Worcester county pullets commence laying at four to five and a 

 half months old. The cockerels are fit to kill at about the age 

 the pullets begin to lay. Brown Leghorns hatched in March 

 are fit for broilers in June, and will dress 21 to 3 lbs., and sell in 

 our market at 60 to 75 cts. per pound, and there never is one- 

 tenth as many as would sell at those prices. 



Some people will say chickens raised in this way cannot bo 

 rstrong and well. I will say that we seldom have a sick fowl, 

 and have hens five to seven years old on our yards that are good 

 'layers now and are perfectly well, that have never run out a 

 ■day in their lives, and have been constant layers. 



I do not approve of forcing all kinds of fowls, or of all the 

 fowls on the yards of any variety, for we can grow a better ex- 

 hibition bird by a slower process, especially of the large-combed 

 jarieties, as forcing tends to make the combs and wattles grow 

 too large and out of shape. Leghorn pullets will be larger if 

 they do not begin to lay until they are five or six months old. 

 1 prefer to choose my breeding-stock out of my runs that have 

 "been forced for eggs two or three years, taking the largest and 

 strongest hens that lay the largest and best-formed eggs, and 

 mate them with cockerels from six to ten months old that have 

 never ran with pullets or hens. My exhibition cockerels I let 

 inn with pullets and hens all I can safely — and do not have 

 them picked. Now that good breeders can get from 810 to $100 

 each for exhibition birds of any of the popular varieties they 

 -ahance to make a speciality of, it pays to take considerable pains 

 to breed them. 



I will say here, for the benefit of those who are constantly 

 questioning me in relation to the matter, that my Brown 

 Leghorns lay constantly (except when they are moulting), after 

 they commence, summer and winter, and if they are in good 

 condition the cockerels and cocks will not freeze their combs 

 or wattles until the mercury falls to 10° above zero, or the 

 pallets or hens until the mercury falls to zero. Still I do not 

 believe it pays to let the mercury fall much lower than to 45° 

 or 60° above, in the poultry house, or rise much above 75° except 

 in the small chicken. rooms, where it should be kept at 100°. — 

 Fbakk J. Kinney. — {Aynerican Pet-Stock Bulletin.) 



LIABILITY OF BAILWAY COMPANIES FOR 

 EXHIBITION POULTRY. 



Stephen versus The Caledonian RAiLw.iV Company. 

 At the Quarterly Sheriff Small Debt Court held at Blairgowrie 

 «n the 11th, Mr. A. Stephen, draper, Blairgowrie, and Secretary 

 to the Blairgowrie Poultry Society, claimed i'G from the Cale- 

 donian Railway Company, being the value of a pen of Dorkings 

 which, along with others, had been given in charge of the com- 

 pany at Meigle Station, and which the defenders had failed to 

 deliver. The company denied receipt of the hamper containing 

 the birds. The evidence proved that the fowls, along with 

 other five pens belonging to Mr. Stephen, were exhibited at the 

 Meigle Poultry Show on the 20th of August last, and were being 

 returned to Blairgowrie. Several witnesses proved that the 

 hampers containing Mr. Stephen's poultry had been taken to 

 Meigle Station, and left on the platform there at the request of 

 a porter. The company denied receipt of the missing pan ; but 



from the evidence of a railway guard it was shown that eleven 

 hampers — the same number that had been sent away from Blair- 

 gowrie — had been received at Coupar-Angus Junction, aud from 

 thence taken to Blairgowrie. The Sheriff thought that the 

 senders had acted somewhat carelessly in the way they had left 

 the fowls at Meigle Station ; but as it had been proved that the 

 proper number of pens arrived at Coupar-Angus, he held that 

 receipt by the company was established, and decided that the 

 company were liable. After evidence of the value of the birds, 

 the Sheriff awarded £i with costs to the pursuer, remarking 

 that the price was a fancy one, but that the birds were faocy 

 also. Other cases were held over, awaiting a decision in this 

 one ; therefore we may expect to hear of more damages being 

 awarded to exhibitors whose fowls are lost or delayed in their 

 transit either to or from an exhibition. 



APOPLEXY IN FOWLS. 



There is no disease so liable to affect the thriftier aud more 

 precocious specimens of our thoroughbred fowls, which have 

 been well fed aud kept in close yards, than apoplexy ; and while 

 it does not necessarily prove fatal in all cases, it cripples our 

 efforts in producing the best specimens of the flock. It is an 

 affection of the brain, and is attended with congestion of the 

 whole cerebral mass, including the spinal marrow. The fowl 

 becomes suddenly disabled, walks with a tottering gait, falls 

 down, tumbles over, aud is some minutes in recovering an 

 equilibrium, soon to be lost again. The inclination of the head 

 is low, the legs much flexed on the body, and trembling ; the 

 wings droop, the plumage is rough, and great listlessness attends 

 the whole system. The appetite, however, is generally good 

 until the last days of the disease, when the victim sinka down 

 and dies in a state of exhaustion and great emaciation. 



Treatment. — The first thing to be done is to place the fowl in 

 the open air, where it may have plenty of exercise and green 

 food. Scarifying the comb and wattles, thereby abstracting 

 some blood locally, has had a good influence. But the remedy 

 on which I rely chiefly is the bromide of potash, in ten-grain 

 doses (to an adult cock), three times a-day. This has succeeded 

 when everything else has failed. One of my Houdan cockerels 

 lingered for several weeks in a most hopeless condition, nothing 

 being of any avail until I adopted the use of the bromide of 

 potash, when he suddenly commenced improving, and is now 

 one of the most vigorous cocks of my yards. I have also a Buff 

 Cochin cockerel which has been suffering with the same malady ; 

 and but for the timely use of the bromide of potash I am sure I 

 should have lost him. I offer these facts for the benefit of those 

 engaged in rearing poultry, and am satisfied that it is capable of 

 accomplishing great good in the treatment of this disease. My 

 mode of administering the remedy is in the solid form ; and, as 

 it is not poisonous, there is no danger in the free use of it. — 

 (Poultry World.) 



THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY'S SPRING SHOW. 



Thb above-named Show was held in the Society's Exhibition 

 Hall, Kildare Street, Dublin, on the 21st and following three 

 days. A considerable redaction on the amount of prizes offered 

 last year had been made ; the consequence was that few English 

 birds put in an appearance, and the entries were not nearly so 

 numerous as we have seea them. There were, however, about 

 240 entries in twenty-nine classes. 



SUver-Grey Dorkings headed the list, and were such a class 

 as is rarely seen on this side of the Channel, scarcely one bad 

 bird being shown, and the winners could not be easily excelled. 

 Dark Dorkings were bad, but of Spayiish some good birds were 

 shown. The first-prize pen, which were in the highest condition, 

 consisted of a cockerel very deep but narrow in the drop, with a 

 moderately good hen ; the second-prize hen, which was much 

 better, and the cockerel broader but somewhat shorter, lost 

 entirely from want of condition. Both winners in Light 

 Brahmas were good in all respects excepting that the cocks 

 were tinged with yellow. The class was better than we have 

 generally seen here. Dark Brahmas had fifteen entries, among 

 which we noticed many good cockerels, the hens not proving 

 nearly so good. Bnff Cochins were one of the best classes at the 

 Show, large, broad, high-coloured birds leading the way, while 

 some excellent Lemons received very high commendations. The 

 first-prize Partridge-coloured contained a most perfect hen as 

 regards both style and marking, and a cockerel perfect in shape 

 and excellent in colour ; the second-prize pen being aged birds, 

 large and rather dull in colour. Cochins, any other colour, 

 were Blacks of fair quality ; the first-prize hen was exceedingly 

 good for that variety. Game were very poor in both classes, 

 but the first-prize Silver-pencilled and both winning pens in 

 Spangles were good. Gold and Silver Polish were but poor, 

 though two very good pens of White-crested Black were shown. 

 La Ftfche were moderately good, while the Houdans were very 

 good, the winners having the proper comb for that variety. In 

 the Variety class good Malaya stood first, with Black Ham- 



