Sept. 6, 1906 



763 



American Ttee Journal 



320 chickens and only raised 200. Now. a man who doesn't 

 know any more about raising chickens and hens than that, 

 ought not to go in the busine He ought to keep oul 



of the poultry business and go to something else. Now, 1 

 say you must make the poultry comfortable and the first 

 essential of comfort is a comfortable home in which the 

 poultry can live. I experimented a little the winter before 

 last to see if it were possible to increase the egg-production, 

 and have a simple house that was inexpensive. 1 prepared 

 the roost so that I could drop a curtain right down in front 

 of it. They say hens should have air. I believe they should 

 have some air. Every night I went out to my biddies, just 

 like the mother puts the babies to bed ; I went out with the 

 lantern, and found them all lined up on the roost in a nice 

 row, and they would talk to me, and I would pull down 

 the curtain and they would stay there perfectly quiet till I 

 went out in the morning; and in the morning one old hen 

 was the first one to begin, and she would talk in hen fashion 

 and get down off the roost ready for her food. I don't 

 suppose they knew any different, and I don't suppose they 

 appreciated it. The fool hen hasn't got sense enough to 

 know wdien she is warm, but every day she laid an egg. 

 The average farmer expects a hen to lay eggs under average 

 conditions. I presume in Illinois 9-10 of the hens roost 

 in trees, and 9-10 of the men think hens ought to roost 

 about 40 feet, more or less, from the ground in the tree; 

 and when the mercury is down 20 degrees below zero, that 

 she ought to come out of the tree and hunt around in the 

 snow for a dry place and lay an egg as a return for the 

 kindly treatment she gets ! Do you know what I would do 

 if I was a hen and got that kind of treatment? I would 



EMERSON T. AHBOTT. 



swear by the eternals I would never lay an egg. You can't 

 expect the hen to lay under such conditions. She couldn't 

 lay if she wanted to, for it takes all of the hen's vital 

 energy to keep herself warm and live, and she hasn't any 

 extra vital energy for eggs. 



Then a word about the hen-roost. The old-fashioned 

 roost was built up on an angle of 45 degrees, and the 

 poles ran one above the other. In the evening when the 

 hens went to roost those poles were loose at one end or 

 the other, and, of course, if they are loose like that at both 

 ends every hen will like the middle best; and every hen 

 wanted to get on the top pole. Hens are a good deal like- 

 men, they want to get on the top pole, and when they are 

 trying to get there they don't care a continental whom they 

 knock oft. And so the hen-, start up one after the other, 

 climbing up one on top of another, and you hear them 

 squealing and screeching, and all sorts of noises, and it 

 take- the hens from one to two hours to get settled down, 

 every time. Now, that kind of roo-t is not the kind of 

 roost to build. The hen-roost ought to be on the level, 

 just as all men ought to be on the level If 1 could get the 

 men reduced to proper hen-roost style I would accompli-h 

 more for humanity than anything else. We are always try- 



ing to climb up above some other. If we all had roosts and had 

 to come home at night and get down on a level, can't you 

 imagine what it would mean for humanity? 



Now, then, if you want a hen to lay eggs you must keep 

 omfortable all the time, and I will tell you one of the 

 things you must do. The a\ 11 mer likes a chicken for din- 



ner, lie doesn't have to cook it. he doesn't have to pick it ;_ and 

 lie doesn't care how much hi- wile has to work on Sunday, if he 

 1 out to the corner and tell yarns and chew and smoke and 

 1 good time, and come back at half past one or two o'clock 

 with half a dozen of his neighbors and have a good chicken 

 for dinner and have a good, jolly time. He always wants 

 a chicken for Sunday, but he never thinks of catching that 

 chicken, lie never thinks about getting the chicken ready. 

 But Sunday comes and he says, Well, we better have a 

 chicken to-day; John Smith is coming over from the store 

 with me. and I think we better have a chicken. 



Well, mother says, it is all right; she don't want to cross 

 him; she knows what will come. She goes out; and every 

 farmer in the country has two or three dogs— a little dog, 

 a big dog and a dog between; the old lady picks out the 

 chicken and savs to the boy, "Do you see that old, yaller- 

 legged hen; I want her for dinner." The boy says, All 

 right I'll have the chicken." And he blows a whistle. The 

 little 'dog comes, and he says, "Sick him, Tige. Do you see 

 that hen." The hen starts, the boy starts, and the dog starts. 

 Did you ever know one dog to start without all the other 

 dogs joining with him? The middle dog joins in and the 

 big dog and they run through the orchard, and through 

 the barn, and through the cow-shed, and then run back and 

 forth and finally the old man joins in the chase, and the 

 old woman comes rushing out, and the little dog is hot on 

 the trail, and the hen comes to the fence, and she tries to go 

 through a crack in it. and the old woman grabs the hen by 

 the legs, and she whirls around, and she takes hold of the 

 hen by the head and goes "whizz." 



I take what she has done seriously. She has spoiled 

 one hen for Sunday dinner, because a hen that is chased 

 that way isn't fit to eat; and while the chase was going 

 on do you know what she has done with the rest of the 

 helis in the place? There is the old hen looking out from 

 behind a box, and there is the old rooster over there that 

 looks out and cackles. Now if they have 300 hens they 

 have done something more, they have lost 300 eggs, for a 

 hen has the most delicate, nervous organism of any animal, 

 almost, in existence, and under such circumstances she can 

 hot lay eggs. She won't stop right away, but that will be 

 because she can't. If the farmer had 300 hens, the Sunday 

 dinner has cost him 300 eggs, and if they are worth a cent 

 a piece, he has paid $3 for the hen he had on Sunday that 

 was not fit to eat. , .,, , T 1 . 



The way to kill a hen, if you must kill them— I hate to 

 kill my chickens-is to take her quietly off the roost in the 

 morning, and when it is daylight, cut her head squarely off 

 and drop her into a barrel out of sight and coyer her up. 

 Mv printing shop is right next to the hotel and they have 

 chicken every day for dinner. Two brawny women come 

 down there and they take those chickens and hack their heads 

 off and thrash them around 111 such a cruel way that it 

 makes the chills run over me, and I feel sometimes as though 

 1 will never eat another chicken. 



Now about the diseases of poultry. When I used to 

 lecture in the Farmers' Institute they were always asking 

 me about the diseases. There is only about one disease in 

 poultry that is very dangerous. About the only disease we 

 have in Missouri is roup; that is. the catarrh of the head 

 and it gets more aggravated until it gets mto the lungs and 

 finally into the blood, and poi-,,ns the hen so that she is 

 really not fit to eat: but if taken at the proper time it can be 

 vers" easily cured. I can tell you how to cure roop. I say 

 it is a disease of the lungs and bronchial tubes, and about tin- 

 only way to tr.at it is wholesale. You can't afford to doctor 



le hen- unh - they tluable. 



You find the hens are getting diseased, and the way to 

 tell is if they are snuffing. They call it pip, sometimes. 



You hear it on the r night. That is the danger signal. 



You want to get busy. Get you some sulphur and a kettle, 

 and put some coals in it. Have your hen-house reasonably 

 tight, and when your hen- all get to roost put the kettle 

 in the center of the house where you wont hum it up, and 

 throw about half a pound of sulphur onto those coals, and 

 then go out unless you feel the necessity of the treatment 



