258 



The above sounds fair and liberal, and I 

 at once sent the dollar. By the way, when 

 I was in Portland, Oregon, some years ago, 

 I found the ladies of the church were mak- 

 ing and selling little chicken pies at 25 cts. 

 each; and, if I remember aright, I was told 

 a fair-sized chicken made five or six of these 

 little pies, and they sold, too, "smoking 

 hot,'" like "hot cakes." I wondered if the 

 " secret " was not something on this line. 

 See below, which came in due time: 



A. I. Root:— Were Is our method: You know that 

 ham, such as is used for sandwiches, costs from 

 thirty to forty cents per pound. We make what 

 we call minced chicken, to be used in the place of 

 ham, for sandwiches. To get It started we make 

 about four pounds. We take it to a restavirant, 

 lunch room, or any place where they sell lunches. 

 We tell the proprietors that we have something 

 that is cheaper and better than ham for sand- 

 wiches. We ask him to give it a trial, with the un- 

 derstanding that, if it does not sell, he will be noth- 

 ing out. Me tell him that, if it does sell, we should 

 like to arrange to furnish it to him. 



You see a chicken sandwich is pretty good eating. 

 During the fall of 1910 we got 38 cents per pound. 

 Last fall we cut the price to 25 cents, and are still 

 getting that price. \\'e usually make it so that ten 

 pounds of live chicken will mince about twelve 

 pounds. After you have made it a time or two you 

 will know about how the weights will run. 



We try to take in a supply on Tuesdays and Sat- 

 urdays. We suppose you will say, " That is a hot 

 proposition." Don't turn it down, but jvist try it 

 once. <io out and get the oldest, toughest chicken, 

 and weigh it up: make some according to formula 

 attached, and try it out. We buy chickens of the 

 neighbors at market price right along. We work 

 them up this way, and it goes a long way on feed- 

 bills, I assure you. You see an old rooster looks 

 like a springer with this plan. Now, Mr. Root, we 

 realize that there are some people who do not live 

 in a location where they can use this to advantage; 

 others do not want to bother with it. We do not 

 want to take a cent from any one who can not put 

 this to use. If for any reason you do not want it, 

 advise us and we shall be pleased to return your 

 money. All we ask is, if we return a man his mon- 

 ey he should forget all about the plan, 



OSOLO POULTKY YAKDS. 



Elkhart, Ind., March 23. 



RECIPE FOB MINCED CHICKEN. 



Weigh chicken alive. Dress for boiling. Boil un- 

 til done, and keep covered with water; then take 

 the chicken out and let it cool. Take the meat 

 from the bones and grind through a food-chopper. 

 Weigh the ground meat. Take five crackers for 

 each pound of live weight, and roll fine: then stir 

 into the boiling broth. After this has boiled for a 

 few minutes, thicken with flour as for flour gravy, 

 until it is thick. Weigh the gravy. The weight of 

 the gravy when added to the ground chicken should 

 equal the weight of the live chicken. If there is not 

 enough gravy to make this weight, add boiling wa- 

 ter. If there is too much, take out some. Mix the 

 ground chicken and gravy together thoroughly, 

 and season highly. Pour into pans. A\'hite-lined 

 granite mixing-bowls are the best. A few trials 

 with this recipe will make you an expert. 



I really believe the above is the most val- 

 uable "secret" I ever invested in, and I 

 especially admire the venders for not hav- 

 ing any clause about secrecy or giving the 

 plan to your neighbors, etc. They don't 

 say what the sandwiches sell for, but I have 

 paid as high as 15 cts., and got very little 

 real chicken at that. Down here in Flori- 

 da, at one of the stations, the colored folks 

 are, I am told, making quite a little money 

 by selling a chicken sandwich for a dime, 

 and they are really excellent, too, as I can 

 testify, although they are not "minced 

 chicken." Some of you may think it hard- 

 ly courteous, to put it mildy, to "give 

 away" this enterprise. To which I reply. 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



it is folly in this day and age of print to ex- 

 pect to keep out of print any thing of value; 

 and, finally, to reward these people, since 

 they are so fair, if any of our readers build 

 up a profitable trade in the "sandwich" 

 line, will they not be fair enough to send 

 the Osolo Poultry Yards a dollar, as I did? 



MUSTARD FOR LAYING HENS, ETC. 



On page 122, Feb. 15, I spoke of mustard 

 to start hens laying. Here is something 

 further in regard to the matter, which I clip 

 from the Petaluma Weekly of March 20, 

 from our good friend L. E. Keyser: 



At one time I believed that nothing on earth 

 would make hens lay. Then when some rather 

 worthless pullets were obstinate and refused to lay 

 when I was giving them the best of feed and care I 

 resorted to the " Strikebreaker," and in a very lit- 

 tle time they were laying nicely. Right here It oc- 

 curred to me that, as these pullets were not valua- 

 ble as breeders, and would never be used as such. 

 It stood me in hand to get all the eggs out of them 

 I could in the shortest possible time, regardless of 

 future results. So we kept them laying all winter, 

 during the summer, and late into the fall, when I 

 thought it best to dispose of them. A sufficient 

 number did not get into good feather at one time 

 to make a shiimient, so they were allowed to live, 

 and about the middle of January -the "remedy" 

 was applied, and they commenced laying again 

 with the exception of a few which were killed for 

 home use, and laid steadily until disposed of early 

 in September. I doubt if, without the use of a stim- 

 ulant, these hens would have proven a paying 

 proposition; but as It was. I secured two seasons of 

 good laying out of them. 



I have discovered this: It makes no difference 

 how many eggs a hen lays during the winter, she 

 will lay just as many during the spring and sum- 

 mer as though she had been idle all winter, and 

 the winter eggs are all clear gain. If the number 

 of eggs a hen lays is limited, the sooner we get the 

 bulk of these eggs the better. It saves feed. It 

 adds to the expense to feed this preparation : but 

 the additional expense is more than met by the in- 

 creased production, and It is not necessary to teed 

 the dope all the time. Get the hens started and 

 feed right, and they will keep going. When there 

 Is a let-up in the egg yield, feed more dope. This 

 seems to me a logical wa.v to treat hens not good 

 enough for breeders. If they last only one season 

 we know that is all they are good for; and if the 

 hens have any constitution at all they will last two 

 laying seasons, and lay heavily all the time except 

 after the molt. 



He also adds the following from a letter 

 he received: 



I am at a loss to know whether to approve or oth- 

 erwise your action in publishing in the Journal for 

 Dec. 6 the mustard formvila for egg-production. I 

 Immediately invested in five pounds of mustard, 

 one pound of saltpeter, one pound of sulphur, di- 

 luted with fifteen pounds of meat meal. At that 

 time I was feeding every imaginable tidbit to 400 

 yearlings, and getting four dozen eggs per day, 

 which hardly more than paid feedbills. In ten 

 days I was getting 12 dozen, and in January aver- 

 aged 65 per cent for the flock — lame, halt, and blind. 



Evidently all the Joiirnal's subscribers took the 

 bait, for to-day the price of eggs has reached the 

 hitherto unheard-of low price of 24 cts. on Feb. 24. 



I have been using mustard during the 

 past winter, and have never had our hens 

 lay so well before. Besides the ground mus- 

 tard we are now feeding green mustard. A 

 year ago my neighbor Rood had a plant of 

 Florida mustard about as high as my head, 

 with great crinkled leaves, of which the hens 

 were exceedingly fond. He let it go to seed, 

 and my plants were grown from this seed. 

 It is a very rank grower on our sandy soil, 

 and the hens just fight for it. Can we not 

 " kill two birds " by giving them the "mus- 

 tard tonic" and green feed all at one time? 



