THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



205 



farmers make square boxes of half inch 

 lumber and set them round the trunks .of 

 their choicest trees. The rabbits frequent- 

 ly manage to get in regardless of all pre- 

 cautions and destroy the trees. 



Western commission merchants are be- 

 sieged every winter with letters from Chi- 

 cago asking for shipments of rabbits. No 

 attempt has been made yet to create a 

 market except for a few thousand in Salt 

 Lake City, Butte City and other points. 

 Usually the trophies of great hunts are 

 given to the poor. The result of one hunt 

 in which I participated was 1,800 rabbits. 

 After counting the two wagon loads we 

 dumped the game into a frozen slough by 

 the roadside. An enterprising widow liv- 

 ing near by had her boys haul the carcas- 

 ses to her house where she dressed and 

 sold them on the city market for fifteen 

 cents each. The days hunt netted that 

 woman $270, while we enjoyed our oysters. 



An enterprising Chicago firm contem- 

 plates the erection of a rabbit meat can- 

 nery in Utah, Wyoming or Idaho. The 

 cannery will be constructed on very elab- 

 orate plans with a capacity for dressing, 

 cooking and canning several hundred rab- 

 bits daily. A fair -price will be paid per 

 dozen for the animals. It is calculated 

 that scores of men and boys can be em- 

 ployed by the day, week or month to kill 

 the game. Others will seek a market at 

 so much per dozen, and thus the meat will 

 no doubt become a luxury enjoyed by the 

 wealthiest families of this country and 

 Europe. 



It is said that a branch of the Brother- 

 hood of the Co-Operative Common-wealth 

 has been ocganized at Battle Creek. Mich., 

 it being the first of its kind in the state. 

 A colony has been started in Skagit coun- 

 ty, Wash., known as "Equality", named 

 from Bellamy's latest book. Everything 

 is to be owned in common and it is to be 

 hoped that the colonies will be more suc- 

 cessful than similar ventures have been in 

 the past. 



THE HEN AND HER FRUIT. 



The Agricultural College of Utah Exper- 

 iment Station conducted experiments the 

 past year in the raising of poultry, to de- 

 termine the relative value of old and young 

 hens, as egg producers; the value of exer- 

 cise and the value of crossing breeds. 

 Among other features of the experiment 

 were the determining of the annual cost of 

 food per fowl, of the different breeds, the 

 yearly production of eggs per hen and the 

 value of eld eggs and fresh eggs for hatch- 

 ing purposes. 



Those interested in poultry raising may 

 find their conclusions (given below) to be 

 of value: 



There is little profit in keeping hens 

 three and four years old at the market 

 prices of food and eggs in Utah. The pro- 

 fit in feeding young hens, or pullets, was 

 six times greater than in feeding old hens 

 three and four years old. This conclusion 

 does not apply to two-year old hens and 

 hens more than four years old. 



Leghorn pullets hatched in April gave 

 better results than those hatched in late 

 May. The profit was about one and a half 

 times greater from the April hatched than 

 from the May hatched. 



Of the six pens of fowls, three pens 

 were exercised and three were not. Those 

 exercised produced 26 eggs per fowl more 

 than the other pens, at a food cost of 5.3 

 cents per dozen eggs against 6.5 cents 

 per dozen eggs in the non-exercised 

 pens. Thus the three exercised pens aver- 

 aged a profit of 84 cents per fowl during 

 the year, and the unexercised 58 cents per 

 fowl. Exercise had, apparently no influ- 

 ence on the weight of the fowl, neither in- 

 creasing or decreasing it, but the results 

 of the experiments led to the belief that 

 exercise aids digestion and assimilation of 

 food, and thus prevents a waste of food; 

 22 per cent less food being required to 

 produce a dozen eggs with exercise, than 

 without it. 



As to the money in hens, pen 1, repre- 

 senting egg production under the most un- 

 favorable conditions, except as to ration 



