June 15. 1911 



shorts to be used with the egg-tonic. Be- 

 fore the 25-cent package was used up I or- 

 dered a 25-lb. pailful from the C'renshaw 

 Brothers, of Tampa, Fla. As they had only 

 the 2.5-cent Conkey tonic, they sent me a 

 liail of Manda Lee's egg-tonic or egg-food. 

 Tills was sold with tlie same guarantee — 

 "money back," etc. Now, Manda Lee 

 claims his tonic is composed largely of dried 

 blood, and I have every reason to think it 

 is true. He says that, given according to 

 the directions, it will take the place of beef 

 scrap, ground bones, etc. Now, I am great- 

 ly in favor, especially here in the North, of 

 bones and sera]) from the butcher's, to be 

 ground u]); but in Florida the greater part 

 of the scrai)S for chickens smells badly; and 

 even if it is given to the fowls as speedily as 

 possible after being ground, I very much 

 dislike to use it. Of course, you can pur- 

 chase beef scrap; but the i)oultry-journals 

 are now all cautioning against moldy or 

 musty beef scrap. A year ago a very suc- 

 cessful young poultry-keeper in our town all 

 at once had trouble from his chickens dy- 

 ing. I went dowm to his place, and saw lit- 

 tle white I^eghorns, fully feathered out, 

 scattered all about dead in his lot and yards. 

 He let them loose in the fields, but it did 

 not make much difference. At the time, 

 no one could even suggest what the trouV)le 

 was. This spring he informed me it was 

 probably caused by the poor quality of beef 

 scrap he had used! When he stopped feed- 

 ing the beef scrap, there were no more dead 

 chickens. Now, if dried blood is a safe sub- 

 stitute for animal food I think it may be a 

 ])retty good thing; but even if all our good 

 friend Suavely tells us is true, are there not 

 circumstances where it is advisable to use 

 an egg-stimulant? 



Just before I left Florida I had an ofTer of 

 15 cents a i)ound for all my old hens. Now, 

 if you decide toVlispose of a lot of laying 

 hens, to be sold to the butcher, is there any 

 objection to giving them a tonic so as to get 

 as many eggs as possible before they go to 

 the market? 



I sui)i)ose the readers of (Jleanings know 

 how heartily I am in accord with every 

 movement to discourage the use of drugs, 

 and, I might almost say, medicine of any 

 sort, either for mankind or domestic ani- 

 mals. Right in tliis connection I take great 

 pleasure in submitting to your attention a 

 1911 bulletin from the North Carolina De- 

 l)artment of Agriculture, entitled "Condi- 

 mental Feeds, Stock and Poultry Tonics, 

 and Conditioners." This bulletin gives us 

 the result of a large list of experiments with 

 all kinds of farm stock, including chickens, 

 and they make two very imiwrtant points. 

 The first is that, even granting that these 

 medicines are a benefit to domestic animals, 

 the ]n'ices charged for such drugs are extrav- 

 agant and even outrageous. You may re- 

 member what I said about ]wiying 50 cents 

 for a little box of salve that should not have 

 cost over a nickel. Secondly, after careful 

 exjjeriments with almost every tonic and 

 condition powder on the market they de- 



381 



cided that the gain or imi)rovement is so 

 slight that the small cpiantity of medicine 

 given can hardly have had any thing to do 

 witli the improvement. As I said at the 

 outset, the mash in which the medicine is 

 placed would of itself be a benefit to the 

 stock. This North ("arolina experiment 

 station has gone to the exjjense of analyzing 

 almost every medicine in the market. They 

 give a list of the drugs generally used. For 

 instance, if they are right about it, Conkey's 

 egg-tonic, of which we have been si)eaking, 

 is composed mainly of dried blood and lin- 

 seed meal, and the drugs added are fenu- 

 greek, charcoal, glauber salts, and sulphur. 

 Now, there is something in the above that 

 puzzles me. There is no mention of Cay- 

 enne i)epper, mustard, nor any of these i)un- 

 gent substances. Fenugreek I do not know 

 much about; but J hardly think that this is 

 what made me sneeze when feeding it to my 

 chickens. Is it i:)Ossible that they have 

 made a mistake in their analysis? 



There are several sides to this question. 

 In some reports I saw recently, two lots of 

 fowls were fed just alike, with the exception 

 that one had plenty of strong pungent mus- 

 tard put in their mash. They gave the 

 poultry all they seemed to want. Well, 

 this pen that had the mash not only made 

 a much larger output of eggs, but the eggs 

 were more strongly fertile than the other. 

 We all know that poultry have a great lik- 

 ing for mustard, pepper, and all such pun- 

 gent vegetables. Down in Florida they 

 have two varieties of mustard, used espe- 

 cially for greens — the Chinese and the Flor- 

 ida mustard. These mustards i)ut out great 

 leaves as big as rhubarb, or even bigger, 

 and it grows as high as one's head. I sowed 

 some seed; but when even the little chicks 

 got a taste of that mustard they would get 

 through the jwultry-netting, and I hardly 

 succeeded in getting a i)iant to grow to ma- 

 turity. Pepper-grass, young peppers, and 

 every thing along that line, seem to be 

 eagerly ai)propriated by tlie chickens, little 

 and big, and I am sure it is good for them. 



Before I close, let me mention that this 

 bulletin I have mentionetl advises farmers 

 and everybody else to go to their druggist 

 and get whatever medicine is wanted — that 

 is, if they are sure they need it, instead of 

 paying ten times or sometimes almost a 

 hundrecl times the real value of the stuff for 

 the much-lauiled stock-foods. I ha\e for 

 some time been strongly i in) pressed that the 

 condition powders so vehemently advertised 

 are but little short of a swindle because of 

 the efforts the venders make in giving pre- 

 miums, etc., to get people to try them. 

 Please keep in mind that you may be swin- 

 dled, even if you are promised "your money 

 back if not satisfied." When ym get the 

 wonderful new thing you straightway give 

 more careful attention to your cattle, sheep, 

 hog<, and ijuultry, and, as a natural conse- 

 quence, they show im])ro\ement. In the 

 opening letter, brother Suavely sugge.^ts 

 that these things are stimulants, something 

 like tea, coffee, tobacco, and strong drink. 



