104 



California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



doors and posts is almost useless. We 

 want the shade of living uudergroth, l>e- 

 ueatli which the chickens can creep and 

 rest. Chickens, again, mnstbe occulted. 

 Those runs which are only a few yards 

 square, and which are daintily swept 

 over every daj' to make them look tidy 

 for visitors, are useless for chickens. 

 Nothing can grow or keep healthy in 

 those smooth billiard-table-like runs. 

 Chickens want to be occupied and must 

 be kept busy. The runs must be dug 

 up and piles of the loose dirt thrown up 

 one day on another, and the chickens 

 will delight in leveling these. A capital 

 way to keep chickens on the scratch is 

 to throw their whole corn always down 

 among loose dirt or a lump of straw. 

 The sexes, too, must be separated in 

 good time. Some breeds are more pre. 

 eocious than others, and so we can fix no 

 reliable date for their separation; it must 

 depend on the breed and breeder's expe- 

 rience. There is, however, another 

 point which we think quite as important 

 — namely, moving every little while the 

 pullets of the larger breeds, where size is 

 a desieratum, from yard to yard, for we 

 are convinced it retards maturity and 

 laj'ing at an early age, and so greater size 

 is produced." 



Cuke or GjIpes. The Lancaster Var- 

 mer saj's: "In a recent conversation with 

 an experienced chicken raiser, he inform- 

 ed us that he had been very successful 

 in conquering the gapes in young fowls 

 by the application of air slaked lime. 

 As soon as a manifestation of the gapes 

 appears, he confines his chickens in a 

 box one at a time, and jilaces a coarse 

 piece of cotton or linen over the top. 

 Upon this he places the pulverized lime, 

 and taps the screen sufficiently to cause 

 the lime to fall through. This lime dust 

 the fowl inhales and it makes it sneeze, 

 and in a short time the cause of the gap- 

 es is thrown out in the form of a slimy 

 mass of worms, which had accumulated 

 in the windpipe and smaller air vessels. 

 This remedy he considei's superior to any 

 he has ever tried, and he seldom fails to 

 effect a perfect cure. He has abjured all 

 those mechanical means by which it is 

 attempted to dislodge tfie worms with in- 

 struments made of whalebone, hog bris- 

 tols or tine wire, alleging that people are 

 quite as apt to push the creatures further 

 down the throat of the fowls as to draw 

 them up. 



An Eog-Pkeseeving Pickle Recipe. 

 Throe quarts lime, tablespooeful cream 

 tartar, one cupful salt, and water enough 

 to fill a five gallon tin can, after seven- 

 teen dozen eggs have been carefully put 

 within the can. To the water add the 

 other ingredients, stir up well and pour 

 it on the eggs and keep them in a cool 

 place entirely covered by the pickle. 



The lady subscriber who furnished the 

 above keeps her eggs perfectly sweet 

 with the above treatment, and by special 

 request, after writing the above recipe, 

 she boiled me an egg that had been in 

 pickle four months, and I found it per- 

 fectly sweet and free from all shadow of 

 taint or any objection of any kind, and 

 would trust them fully as soon as the 

 freshest eggs in any of cur markets. 

 She usually gets the highest price ol 

 fresh eggs, and does not sell till they are 

 about fifty cents a dozen. 



Feeding Fowls pei'per.^I witnessed 

 for the first time, at the late Crystal 

 I'alaco bird show, the results of [lepper 

 feeding, and was greatly pleased, as well 

 as surprised, at the wonderful improve- 

 ment in color of the numerous specimens 

 so treated. I look upon the treatment 

 as fair and legitimate, and in no way 

 deserving the name "triek." which, I 



am sorry to say, has been applied to it; 

 such a term of rej^roach should be re- 

 served for all dishonest interference with 

 the outside of competing birds, such as 

 drawing, trimming, or staining feathers. 

 Whatever can be effected through the 

 medium of the secreting organs of any 

 bird cannot fairly be termed artificial or 

 unnatural, unless everything be so nam- 

 ed which difi'ers from the mode of life 

 and food of the bird in its original state. 



The object aimed at in the treatment 

 of all domestic animals is an improve- 

 ment upon their natural or wild state; 

 and in the case of the canary bird bred 

 in confinement, cayenne pepper, volun- 

 tarily eaten, is no more unnatural to it 

 than the egg and cake with w'hich show 

 birds have been regularly fed for years. 

 The system of maulting birds in close, 

 warm cages, feeding them at the same 

 time on more stimulating food than sim- 

 ple seed, has long been recognized as a 

 necessity, where depth and richness of 

 color are desired. 



The new mode of feeding on cayenne 

 pepper is simply an extension of this 

 rule, and whether discovered accideutly 

 or as the result of an experiment, is, in I 

 my humble opinion, the great improve- 

 ment in the treatment of our favorites 

 that I have witnessed. If it could be 

 shown that the health of the birds was 

 injured by such food, there would be 

 some ground for objection on the score 

 of cruelty; but, as from all I can learn, 

 such is not the case, but rather the con- 

 trary. I, for one, hail the discovery with 

 great satisfaption. Depth of color has 

 been the point chiefly aimed at in many 

 varieties of canary, and here it is beyond 

 the expectation of the oldest fanciers, 

 and permanent or not, according to the 

 continued treatment of the bird. I would, 

 in conclusion, lay down one simple rule 

 for all, viz: Put whatever you like in- 

 side the bird, that it willingly takes with- 

 out injury; but forbid, under the strict- 

 est penalties any interference with the 

 outside. — Cor. Poultry Eei'kv (Enqlaiid). 



Poultry Profits. — Every year poul- 

 try keeping grows more profitable. We 

 do not refer now to the rage for fancy 

 fowds, but are speaking of the profit in 

 raising fowls and eggs for the city market. 



As the progress of civilization creates 

 great cities, and sets apart extensive 

 classes of dwellers indoors with appetites 

 for articles of food less hearty and gross 

 than the pork and beans, and cornbeef , 

 and rye and Indian bread of our ances- 

 tors, the demand for the products of the 

 poultry yard increase. 



Farmers who have been heretofore in 

 the habit of despising poultry-keeping 

 as "small jiotatoes, " are waking up to 

 the fact that there is sometimes greater 

 profit in it than in more pretentious op- 

 erations of the farm. 



The valuable importations of fowls 

 made in late years are encouraging to 

 the pursuet, and the study given to im- 

 prove management augments the profits. 



Eggs by Weight.— We have advocated 

 the plan of selling eggs by the pound 

 for years, and now we see an opening to 

 Viriug the thing about. We think it as 

 unfair to sell eggs by count as it is to 

 have short weight in raisins: On testing 

 the difierence we find about this result: 

 Small eggs will weigh say one pound per 

 dozen, medium one three-fourth pininds, 

 while large will weigh two ono-fourth 

 pounds. We think that one three-fourth 

 pouuds is about a fair average. We buy 

 about fifteen hundred dozen \WY month 

 from producers, and wo find all the above 

 ditt'erence in the weight. I'arties claim 

 that the hens that lay the snndl eggs will 

 lay the greatest number. Now just see 

 wluit a premium we are paying for the 



pi'oduction of an inferior article. We 

 still notice, and this by experiment, too, 

 that the shells of two pounds of meat 

 from the small eggs weigh nearly double 

 that of the large eggs. We will try to 

 explain our idea: For instance one wo- 

 man brings us four dozen eggs that weigh 

 four pounds; we pay her eighty cents for 

 them; she says nothing; it is her due, 

 twenty cents per dozen for her eggs; an- 

 other comes, has two dozen eggs, we pay 

 her forty cents, weigh her eggs, and find 

 she has four pounds, and she does not 

 complain — twenty cents per dozen for 

 eggs. Now, we say justice demands that 

 we Jjay at least as much for the two 

 dozen that weigh four pounds as we do 

 for the four dozen that weigh four 

 pounds, while the shells of the four doz- 

 en weigh much more than the shells of 

 the two dozen. Difference in these fig- 

 ures are intended for extremes, yet it is 

 of every-day occurrence that we find 

 them both. Our opinion is that the 

 price should be based on the rate of ten 

 pounds to the lOU eggs. — Cor. Ameri- 

 can Grocer. 



r 



Poultry DouciH.--We disagree with 

 those who recommend a thin batter of 

 oat, or corn-meal for fattening fowls. 

 Better moisten the meal just enough 

 to keep it together and then give the 

 drink by itself. It is well known- that 

 dyspepsia may be induced in the human 

 subject by an exclusive diet of thin soups. 

 The philosophy of the matter is, that the 

 gastric secretions are so diluted, that 

 they are not strong enough to properly 

 dissolve the nutritious portions of the 

 food. This reasoning will apjily, at least 

 with partial force, to poultry. Their 

 digestive powers are very strong, but 

 this is no reason why they should be em- 

 ployed at a disadvantage. — roultry Jour- 

 nal. 



(Khc fliiitn. 



fs 



A Ct-ood Cow. 



Long in the face, she's flue in the horn, 

 Quickly gets fat without cake or corn; 

 Clean in the jaws and full in the chine. 

 Heavy iu Hunk and wide in loin. 



Broad iu the ribs and long in the rump. 

 Straight and flat-backed, without e'en a bump; 

 Wide in the liips and calm in the eyes, 

 Fine in the shoulders and thin in the thighs. 



Light in the neck and small in the tail. 

 Wide in the breist and will fill the milk-pail; 

 Fine of the boue and silky of skiu. 

 Airy without, a meat market withm. 



cheese are made. Better-conducted but- 

 ter dairies than some of them it would be 

 difficult to find in California, or any- 

 where else. The land is rolling and 

 hilly, rising to mountains in places. The 

 herbage seems well adapted to produce 

 good milk, while the ocean breezes that 

 blow almost every day give a temperature 

 admirable adapted for butter making. 

 Gradually the land is being seeded to the 

 best grasses adapted to that locality, and 

 I was shown several enormous iron cases 

 filled with Australian rye grass seed, im- 

 ported by Mr. Howard. Mr. Evans has 

 been watching the experiment of intro- 

 ducing this grass for two or three years, 

 and is very enthusiastic in its praise. 



The gener:rl arrangement of the dairy 

 houses and the apparatus used in the 

 same in all but one of the dairies, and 

 the form of molding the butter into two- 

 pound rolls, is alike in all. The butter- 

 worked used is the best one I have ever 

 seen. It consists of a circular board, 

 about four feet in diameter, raised about 

 two feet from the floor, and having a 

 deep groove cut near its edge, with an 

 outlet at a point on the board slightly 

 lower than any other point. About four 

 inches above is another circular board, 

 some six inches less in diameter than the 

 lower one. This upper boai-d revolves, 

 and upon it the butter is worked, the 

 butter milk and brine dropping to the 

 lower board, and thence away. The 

 lever of paddle used is flat and not heavy. 

 Milk is set in pans; the various milk 

 rooms having a capacity of 900 to 1,300 

 pans. In slumming, the edge of the 

 cream is loosened with a blade of horn or 

 wood, the pan tilted a little and the 

 cream poured olf. In most dairies the 

 cream is kept one day before churning, 

 and is worked, salted and molded the 

 same day it is churned; the bleached cot- 

 ton wrapping for each roll of butter be- 

 ing put on one day later. No coloring 

 is used, though it would at times be an 

 advantage to use a little, in my judgment. 

 When market prices are satisfactory, the 

 butter is shipped twice a week by rail or 

 by schooner, being packed in flat boxes 

 holding about sixty rolls. The Point 

 Keyes dairymen are now packing their 

 butter to hold until autumn. The rolls 

 are placed perpendicularly in barrels, and 

 a clear brine poured in until the cask is 

 full. 



I question the wisdom of all the dairy- 

 men in California running in one rut as 

 to style and form of putting up their but- 

 ter, simply because their commission meu 

 tell them "that the market will take noth- 

 ing but two-pound rolls. I hear of no 

 gilt-edge dairies — of none who are able 

 to command a fancy price — and until 

 some of them get out of this rut of uni- 

 versal uniformity of form and package, I 

 sh.all not expect to hear of any. Most of 

 the butter which I saw at Point Keyes 

 was very good indeed; some of it was of 

 superb quality, having solidity, perfec- 

 tion of grain, and a fragrance and aroma 

 that left nothing to be desired. 



Among the very choicest dairies was 

 that of Mr. T. B. Crandell, who milks 

 250 cows, and gives his own personal at- 

 tention to the management of the affairs 

 of his ranch. He has been a long time 

 resident on Point Reyes, and is one of 

 the most intelligent agriculturists whom 

 I have met in this State. Mr. Henry 

 Claussen, a Swedish gentleman, rents 

 two of Mr. Howard's ranches and dairies, 

 keeping on one 200 cows, and on the 

 other about 180. Atone of these dairies 

 Mr. C. has tidion a "new departure," for 

 the Pacific Coast. He discards the use 

 of pans, and although he has a very in- 

 adequate supply of water, yet he puts 

 the milk into large and deep cans, which 



DAiRYINC IN CALIFORNIA. 



Anionj; the Oiiiries Jit Point Reyes. 



1 of the butter dairies at Point 



Reyes that I iutend to write, and as 



750,000 pounds of butter are every 



year shipped to market from there, 



it is surely a point worthy of notice. 



hour's ride by steamer from San 

 Francisco to San Queutin, and thence 

 two hours in the narrow gauge cars of 

 the North Pacific Coast R. R. brings one 

 to Olema. Here I met Mr. Wm. Evans, 

 the gentlemanly superintendent in charge 

 of the enormous ranches belonging to 

 Charles Webb Howard, Esq., and the 

 estate of Judge Shiifter. These ranches 

 aggregate nearly 70,000 acres, and there 

 are at present nearly 3,000 cows upon 

 them. I rode with Mr. Evans two full 

 days, spending the time iu visiting the 

 dairies on one jjart of Mr. Howard's 

 place. Of these there are nine, with 

 from 150 to 250 cows on each. Butter is 

 made exclusively at all these dairies, ex- 

 cepting one, where butter and skimmed | are placed at once in the tank of water 



