1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



605 



houses, and because it is nature's way. lie objects 

 to roofs on account of fleas; says that the chickens 

 scratcliing in tlie Florida soil, backed by Florida's 

 pure atmosphere, will make It unnecessary to 

 clean up very often. His rule is, cut out all unnec- 

 ess,iry expense either of money or labor. 



( )ne other's views should be given. He is a bright 

 young man who has lived many years in the State, 

 but has only recently come to South Florida to 

 enter a homestead. He plans to raise poultry on a 

 commercial scale, but has had no experience at 

 the business. His idea is an open-sided colony 

 house with a tight roof and a cement floor. He 

 expects to clean his houses every day. 



I believe that I have got to forget nearly all of my 

 old ideas, and begin with new ones. It is my pres- 

 ent purpose to build a frame out of 2x3 pine stud- 

 ding, and cover it with poultry-netting on the top 

 and sides. In this will be the roosts and the nests. 

 These will be shut up after the chickens get into 

 them at evening, and opened in the morning. 

 These will be inexpensive and (I hope) efficient. If 

 roofs* seem to be wise they can be put on later. 

 Just now the smallest investment of money, time, 

 and work seems to be very important. Should the 

 plan prove to be unwise, a report will be submitted 

 with the hope that it may be of benefit to some of 

 your readers. Fbank M. Baldwin. 



Denaud, Fla., Aug. 5. 



My good friend, yoii strike on some very 

 imjiortant points. Now I wish yoti -would, 

 at your first opportunity, ask those friends 

 liow they manage to get clean eggs to mar- 

 ket. My experience is, if the rain is allowed 

 to fall on the hens' nests the eggs will be 

 stained more or less; and in the summer 

 time it rains almost every day, as you know. 

 I am well aware that no roof over the fowls 

 helps greatly to keep out vermin, and I pre- 

 sume it is also better for the health of the 

 fowls. Now, then, friends, the problem is, 

 how shall we deliver to our customers nice 

 clean fresh eggs unless our hens' nests are 

 covered to keep out rain'.' 

 ' Our readers may remember that I have 

 kept poultry in Florida for three winters 

 without any houses whatever except a cov- 

 ered place for the hens to lay. Now, just 

 think of it — living in a locality where you 

 can run a large poultry-plant, if you choose, 

 without any roosting - places whatever ! 

 There are, however, two very serious draw- 

 backs. How are you going to catch your 

 chickens when they are up in the trees'.' 

 When you wish to separate your cockerels 

 from the pullets, how are you going to catch 

 them '? How are you going to catch them 

 to clip their wings'.' If you use the open 

 hopper, feeding as I have always done, you 

 will find it a big task to catch any chicken 

 tniless, indeed, you climb the trees to catch 

 them, and you may not be able to get them 

 e\en then. This is a great objection to 

 roosting in trees. The other objection is 

 that owls sometimes take even the grown 

 chickens; and, if I am right about it, coons 

 also sometimes climb trees. I was finally 

 obliged to decide that I wanted my poultry, 

 big and little, .shut up nights where not 

 even a rat could get in. Of course, this 

 necessitates closing all the houses after the 

 fowls have gone to roost, and opening them 

 up again in the morning, say at daylight or 

 soon after. 



BERIMUDA GRASS A^D STICK-TIGHT FLEAS. 



In regarJ. to the stick-tight fleas, here is 

 something more from a Floriila man : 



If Mr. A. I. Root will keep his chickens on a good 

 sod of Bermuda grass he will not be bothered with 

 jigger fleas. R. Addison. 



Loughman, Fla., July 18, 1910. 



The above is a valuable suggestion. In 

 Florida the chickens must have green feed 

 the year round; and we have just one yard 

 now so heavily sodded with Bermuda grass 

 that 100 chickens on an eighth of an acre 

 could not, I believe, keep the grass eaten 

 down as fast as it grows. You see the drop- 

 pings of the fowls giv&the Bermuda grass 

 just the stimulant it needs to do its best, 

 and I hope that this Bermuda grass will 

 keep off stick-tight fleas, as they live only 

 in sand. 



POULTRY BULLETINS FROM OUR VARIOUS 

 EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



I have been reading with great interest 

 Bulletin No. 119, from the Northwest Ex- 

 periment Farm at Crook ston, Minn. I was 

 particularly interested in the tables where 

 they tested dry-mash and wet-mash food. 

 The wet mash gave a little the more profit, 

 it is true; but when we take into considera- 

 tion the extra work required, I should de- 

 cide in favor of the dry mash. But I was 

 still more interested in the experiments to 

 determine whether the Hogan & Potter 

 systems ("don't kill the laying hen") were 

 worth what the promotors charge for it. 

 Here is what they say in regard to the 

 matter: 



During recent years there have been many wide- 

 ly advertised systems for choosing the laying hen; 

 and the discoverers have made a great deal of mon- 

 ey from this system. They claim that, by certain 

 signs and types, they are able to estimate quite ac- 

 curately the number of eggs a hen will lay in a year. 



With a view of giving one of the most popular of 

 these systems a trial, we persuaded the discoverer 

 to come personally and estimate the laying quali- 

 ties of 50 Leghorn pullets. 



The birds were then carefully trapnested for a 

 year, and the result in the table gives a very good 

 idea of the worth of the system. 



Well, after looking over the table show- 

 ing the results of the experiments, which 

 were kept up for a whole year with 50 lay- 

 ing pullets, it seems evident to me that the 

 system amounts to but very little, if any 

 tiling at all; and yet who knows how many 

 people have been humbugged by sending 

 their dollar or ten dollars for this great se- 

 cret? 



LEE CO., FLORIDA — AWAY DOWN ON THE 

 SOUTHERN LIMIT. 



If you will look on your map you will see 

 there is only one very small county below 

 Lee — that is, Lee is very near the southern 

 limit, the jumping-off place, I might al- 

 most say. Well, a good deal of attention 

 has been directed to this region of late by 

 land speculators. Lake Okeechobee and the 

 Everglades are right in touch with the north- 

 eastern corner of Lee Co.; and the drainage 

 canal, of which we have been told so much, 

 is now being cut through from Lake Okee- 

 chobee through the Everglades swamp to 

 Lake Hicpochee; and from this lake anoth- 

 er drainage canal is to go through to Lake 



