1901 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



357 



HIGH-PRESSURE POUI.TRY. 



I did not mean to say any thing more on 

 poultry-keeping just now, but I really can 

 not help it. We exchange with something 

 like a dozen poultry-journals, and I tell the 

 clerk to put every thing on my desk in the 

 ■way of poultry. Well, they are all good — at 

 least I suppose they are ; but few of them 

 contain any thing that particularly interests 

 me. It seems to me they are too much the 

 same old story over and over, while there are 

 a thousand things I want to know about poul- 

 try that are rarely touched on. For instance, 

 now many days may a hen lay an egg a day 

 without skipping? I thought I had owned 

 hens that would lay a hundred eggs and not 

 miss a day. The trap nest tells me I am 

 mistaken. Some writers say very few hens 

 lay a dozen eggs without skipping a day. 

 Now, this is an exceedingly important matter. 

 If there are broods or individuals that will lay 

 100 eggs without a miss, we want thein. 

 Again, I am just beginning to discover by the 

 trap nest that the quantity of food has much 

 to do with it. My six pullets had been giv- 

 ing six eggs a day for four or five days. But 

 one day they got out of their staple ration ; 

 and the little shortage in rations knocked off 

 nearly half the eggs for two or three days in 

 spite of the best food I knew how to give 

 them, q/?£'r the shortage. 



I think I might fill a page with just such 

 vital questions and suggestions ; but this is 

 not a poultry-journal, i wish to say a word, 

 however, about that pugnacious rooster. He 

 chases Mrs. Root out of the poultry-house, 

 and he actually sent me off limping and with 

 a wry face, this morning. I was fixing a nest 

 for a hen that wanted to sit. I thought he 

 could not do much harm anyway ; but he flew 

 at my knee, and struck it with both feet and 

 with both wings so that I was glad to beat a 

 retreat. Now, I never before heard through 

 any of the poultry-journals of a rooster that 

 would attack its keeper. After my knee got 

 over hurting I tumbled him over and over in 

 the grass, and gave him a pretty good cuffing, 

 and after some time I succeeded in getting 

 him to run. Then I chased him out and in 

 among the bee-hives until I thought he was 

 conquered ; but in a little while he was crow- 

 ing lustily, and wanted me to stop my work 

 and engage in another "round." If there 

 had been a crowd of the right sort (?) of peo- 

 ple I do not know but there might have been 

 bets as to which would whip — A. I. R. or the 

 big lusty Plymouth Rock rooster that would 

 " never say die." 



Now, then, does this trait of that particular 

 fowl necessarily indicate unusual vitality, vig- 

 or, as well as courage? Will his chicks like- 

 ly inherit this vigor ? I think he would give 

 a chicken hawk a pretty good tussle. He is 

 not afraid of any thing nor of anybody. Every 

 thing has to get off the walk and go around 

 him — that is, when he is among his group of 

 six pullets. If they are not around, he does 

 not care particularly about fighting. He re- 

 gards the poultry-house as his special domain; 

 and he evidently thinks the eggs were not 

 laid to be gathered. They are to hatch chick- 



ens. Now, is he a sport among poultry, or 

 " are there others "? He will take a little run, 

 and spring high enough to knock a dish out 

 of one's hands, and give your hands and el- 

 bows such a thumping you will be glad to 

 back off. I have heard of people who would 

 go for you in a fight, with " both feet." Well, 

 he uses not only both feet but both wings. 



Later. — I have finally got three sitting hens, 

 and they are behaving nicely in the trap nests. 

 When I set one of them I carried out a ba- 

 sin of eggs. I had just got them put under 

 the hen all right, and straightened up, when 

 "that rooster" made a spring, knocked the 

 basin out of my hands, and not only the ba- 

 sin, but my nose-glasses too, went tumbling in 

 the dust. Then he tipped his head to one 

 side and gave me a look that evidently meant, 

 " These sitting hens belong to me, and I pro- 

 pose to run this thing myself." Ernest is 

 planning to get a snap shot of him some day 

 when he is on the "war-path," and we will 

 have him in Gleanings. Now if it is a com- 

 mon thing to find male fowls with such cour- 

 age and strength as this one I will drop the 

 subject. Can our poultry-men tell us about it? 



By the way, the honey-bee has from time 

 immemorial been considered the emblem of 

 industry ; but for patience and perseverance 

 I would put a sitting hen at the head of all 

 animated creation. I am just now studying 

 sitting hens. 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



GILT-EDGED GRAND RAPIDS LETTUCE SEED. 



We have still quite a number of packets left of this 

 gilt-edged stock seed. If you waut to grow some 

 plants io produce seed, you had better get some of this, 

 and you had better start in before it gets any later. It 

 will pay you to have the best to start with; and then 

 if you grow more than you want for your own use, 

 there is a good market for a choice article of Grand 

 Rapids lettuce seed every daj' in the year. Remem- 

 ber, a little packet of this gilt-edge stock seed, grown 

 by the originator himself, costs you only 5 cts. 



HUBBARD SQUASH SEED. 



It will soon be time to plant it. We have a very nice 

 stock of beautiful plump seed grown by a bee-keeper, 

 and nice Hubbard squashes almost always sell. Large 

 plump seeds are much more likely to make strong 

 healthy plants. See what Gregory says about it in 

 his squash-book. And, by the way, if j'ou ha%-e never 

 read "Gregory on the Squash," you had better have 

 the book. The price is only .TO cts. The directions he 

 gives for growing a big crop of squashes will apply 

 very well to growing big crops of almost every thing. 

 The price of the squash seed is .5 cts. per ounce ; 1 lb., 

 50 cts. If wanted by mail, add 8 cts. per lb. extra. 



POTATOES FOR PREMIUMS. 



For every dollar you send for Gleanings, asking 

 for no other premium, you may have a peck of our 

 nice Red River stock of Early Ohio potatoes (35 cts.); 

 and for every dollar you send, that pays for sending 

 Gleanings to somebody who has never taken it be- 

 fore, thus introducing it in a new locality, we will 

 send you half a bushel, worth 60 cts For any of the 

 other potatoes (see table, last issue) we will send you 

 25 cents' worth for renewal, or 50 cents' worth to any 

 old subscriber who sends us a new name. 



seed potatoes, seconds. 

 At present writing, April 15, we are practically sold 

 out of all seconds except Carman No. .3 and Russets. 

 These, you will see by the table, are $1.25 per ban el. 

 We have, however, 85 bushels of Early Ohio seconds, 

 but we can not make these less than $1.75 per barrel ; 

 bushel, 75 cts.; % bushel, 40; peck, 2.5. 



