woy 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



417 



on its feet and beginning to trrow in every sense of the 

 word. I believe we are eointr to have one of the 

 cleanest and best little towns ritrht here on the south 

 bank of the beautiful Manatee River that can be found 

 anywhere, and I know that we have a climate that is 

 unequaled the year round. I fortrot to mention that 

 quite a number were baptized in the creek at the back 

 of your place. J. E. STANTON. 



Bradentown, Fla., June 14. 



Poultry 

 Department 



By a. I. Root. 



THE "WHITE PLAGUE," ETC., AMONG CHICKENS. 

 At this season of the year, all the poultry 

 journals are full of articles in regard to the 

 care of little chickens; and it has been so 

 much of a repetition — the same thing over 

 and over again, that I finally thought I would 

 not read them any more, but here is some- 

 thing, clipped from the Kansas City Star, that 

 is a different story. It is something I can 

 heartily indorse. Read it, and see if you do 

 not agree with me. 



While they were repairiuK the lawn one day at Ernest 

 Kellerstrass' poultry-farm, Eighty-fifth and Holmes 

 streets, in the suburbs of Kansas City, the men noticed 

 that the chicks, the little yellow fluffy ones, insisted 

 upon standing on a pile of sod. Time after time they 

 were driven away, as the sod was needed for use; but 

 a moment later they were back afxain, apparently more 

 contented than at any former period of their brief ca- 

 reers. Mr. Kellerstrass was interested. A man whose 

 business it is to breed poultry is bound to pay atten- 

 tion to things that would be passed over by any one 

 else. If those little chicks liked sod. Mr. Kellerstrass 

 decided that they should have it. He had no idea then 

 —two years ago— that his decision in a simple matter 

 would be so important that it might mean, literally, 

 millions of lives among chicks. 



"Sol told the men," Mr. Kellerstrass said one day 

 last week, "to put some of the cool black earth in the 

 brooders, if it pleased the chicks so much. The result 

 was marvelous. Wherever we put the sod-earth the 

 chicks seemed delighted. They grew strong and 

 healthy. We buried their food in the earth and they 

 scratched for it. This made their legs strong and re- 

 liable. It was the natural way for them to feed. No 

 other chicks were so thrifty." 



A PLAGUE A.MONG YOUNG CHICKS. 



If there is any ailment in this world which has done 

 more than the white intestinal trouble to increase the 

 mortality rate among chicks, no one has heard of it. 

 Poultry-breeders have to contend against a long list of 

 diseases — roup, canker, bumblefoot, scaly leg, gapes, 

 the pip, leg weakness and breakdown behind — most of 

 them attacking the fowls after they have begun life for 

 themselves. But the white intestinal trouble originat- 

 ed in the brooders among the chicks from the incuba- 

 tors—the route most frequented in these high-pressure 

 days by the stork in chicken society — and it worried 

 the lives half out of the men whose money was in the 

 business. It has been the subject of gossip for gener- 

 ations, too, among old-fashioned hens and dignified 

 roosters who never did have a very high opinion of 

 patent mothers. The United States Department of 

 .Agriculture and many staid professors in the agricul- 

 tural colleges have tried for more than ten years to 

 find a remedy for it, but they failed. 



The records show that the white intestinal trouble 

 killed at least 40 per cent of the incubator and brooder 

 chicks between the age of two days and two weeks. 

 When you realize that fully 80 percent of the country's 

 poultry comes from incubators it is easy to see how 

 important it is to eradicate a malady which killed so 

 many. 



It was an accident. Mr. Kellerstrass thought only of 

 adding comfort to the livesof the brooderchiclts when 

 he covered the floors with the sod earth, and made 

 them scratch for their food. But the result was sur- 

 prising. In 1907 he raised 96 per cent of his chicks in- 

 stead of only 60 per cent, as previously, and in 1908 he 



increased the product to 98 per cent. In 1907 he pro- 

 duced 8500 chicks, and last year 8000. Without a doubt 

 he had found a remedy for the white intestinal trouble. 



HERE IS THE SECRET. 



"This is the cause," Mr. Kellerstrass said: "The 

 chicks are put in the brooders when two days old. 

 They are kept there for two or three weeks. These 

 brooders have hard-wood floors. The floors cause leg 

 weakness, which brings on kidney trouble, followed 

 in its turn by the white disease, and that by death. 

 Probably 30 million chicks a year die that way." 



The remedy satisfies Mr. Kellerstrass. In the fall he 

 hauls thirty or forty loads of solt black dirt. This is 

 screened until it is clean and clear. When the first 

 chicks come from the incubators in the late fall Mr. 

 Kellerstrass has the dirt spread on the brooder floors 

 four or five inches deep. The food is buried in it so 

 that the chicks have to scratch to get it. The dirt ab- 

 sorbs the droppings and provides a resilient footing; 

 the chick's legs grow strong, and by the time he is 

 ready to face the world that lies outside the brooder 

 doors he is a worthy, reliable member of chicken so- 

 ciety, safe from the white disease. 



I have been satisfied for a long while that 

 chickens, big and little — yes, about as soon 

 as hatched — should be on the ground, and 

 on ground outdoors if the weather will ad- 

 mit. But aside from this black dirt I think 

 there is some virtue in sod — especially rot- 

 ting sods, such as we use for greenhouse 

 work. Chickens love to scratch among the 

 grassy roots, even when they are mere baby 

 chicks. If Mr. Kellerstrass has not discover- 

 ed a sure remedy for this white plague among 

 little chicks, he certainly has o;ct on to some- 

 thing that is reasonable and all right, no mat- 

 ter what the trouble is. 



ANIMATED EGGS — SOMETHING FURTHER ABOUT MY 

 "DISCOVERY." 



Mr. A. I. Root:— In regard to animated eggs, page 21, 

 June 15, " a wonderful discovery," what you say about 

 placing a well-fertilized egg on plateglass has been 

 known to the writer for some years. Should the em- 

 bryo chick be taking a "nap" it will "wake up and 

 take notice " if a drop of ice-cold water be put on the 

 egg. An egg. containing a strong chick will also bob 

 around if placed in a pan of lukewarm water. 



LeMars, Iowa, June 19. G. A. C. CLARKE. 



Thanks, friend C. But how does it come 

 that neither you nor anybody else ever 

 thought to mention this in print? I have 

 ransacked our books on poultry, just as I did 

 years ago, when this journal was started, on 

 bees; and I have also gone through a haystack 

 of poultry journals; but so far I have never 

 found any such thing mentioned in print. 



ANIMATED EGGS; A RIVAL TO OUR INVENTION IN THE 

 FIELD. 



Friend Roof:— You mention animated eggs in your 

 Special Notices. I have for years practiced taking eggs 

 from under sitting hens i generally having set three or 

 more at the same timei, on or about the 15th day; and 

 by putting them in a deep basin of water, heated to 

 about blood heat, I detect the eggs having live chicks 

 by their movements, as the struggles of the chick in- 

 side the egg make it wobble as it floats on the water. 



Allenville, Ala., June 18. H. F. HART. 



Many thanks, friend H., even if you are 

 taking a part of our laurels. Your plan would 

 certainly be the cheapest way to test eggs. 

 There would be one great objection, how- 

 ever. If you have to wait until the 15th day, 

 the eggs tested out would hardly be fit for 

 culinary operations. Another thing, it seems 

 to me (without having made a test, of course) 

 that some of the eggs having no live chickens 

 in them might not " wiggle " at jtist the time 

 of your experiment; and I suppose you would 

 not want to leave them in the water very 

 long. Notwithstanding, your communication 



