SEPTEMBKK l.">, lOlC 



879 



back and forth, lie bought my big- wiiifl- 

 mill j-ears ago, and jiaid me for it in bives 

 of bees. Well, one of his daughters is not 

 a beekeeper, but she is a ^'chivken woman." 

 She has now something like 2000 Leghorns, 

 l)ig and little, and 900 laying hens. These 

 laying hens are shut \\\) in rather close 

 quarters, and never get out to liave tlie run 

 of the farm— -that is, after they commence 

 laying. No males are permitted among 

 her laving hens. Miss Blakeslee has one 



Baskets th;it brought the nine chicks from Bradentown. Fla., to 

 Medina, Ohio. Three of the chicks were four weeks old, and the other 

 six only one week old. 



pullet that began to lay, I think, when it 

 was only four months and five days ild. 

 Well, as many pullets begin to lay when 

 four or five months old, how old mu>t a 

 brother of hers be in order to do his ])art 

 in the way of ''replenishing and multi})ly- 

 ing " the "fowls of tlie air"? This w-as a 

 query, so I purchased two two-yeai'-old 

 hens of Miss Blakeslee, hens that practical- 

 ly had never seen a male bird since they 

 began to lay. I put the two bens among 

 the Eglantines. They are close to that 

 young rooster there on the perch. You 

 will notice they are apparently "good 

 friends." At this date they have laid 1.") 

 egg's, and these 15 eggs are under a sitting- 

 hen. When she has had them five days T 

 can tell whether they will hatch or not. If 

 it were not counting chickens before they 

 are hatched I might go on and tell you that 

 1 am planning to ship the whole outfit, 

 chickens and all, down to P'lorida about 

 the first of November. JMeanwliile some 

 veteran poultryman might tell me if chick- 

 ens from those two old hens mated witli 

 that cockerel, four and half months old, will 

 produce good strong chickens.* 



pullet of the same ago wliicli I c.Npcct to la.v soon. 

 Of course I shall keep a record of tlic e^ss laid by 

 each of the.se two pullets, and we sliall soon know if 

 she promise.s to bo a " chip of the old block." 



SHU later, Sept. 5 — The companion to the pul- 



.\ (iLIJMPSE OF THE CH TOKEN BUSINESS AND 

 GARDENING DOWN" IN FLORIDA IN JULY. 



The letter below is a rather long one, I 

 admit ; but so many jjeople are Avanting to 

 know about Florida in summer time, espe- 

 cially in regard to chickens, gardening, etc., 

 I liave thought best to give it entire. 



ill-. .1. /. Root: — The last issue of Gleanings 

 las .iust arrived. I was 7nuch interested in reading 

 nl out ycur little Eglantines, and had been wondering 

 l.ow they were coming on. I am glad you are hav- 

 ing such good luck with them, 

 I iised to be very enthusiastic 

 over White Leghorns ; but as I 

 am not as spry as when young- 

 er, and have a lame back, my 

 enthusiasm has waned. A 



chicken that is easy to handle, 

 and that will "xta'i put" suits 

 me better now, so I have taken 

 np the Buff Orpingtons and like 

 them first rate. They are quiet, 

 and good layers. I am trap- 

 nesting a pullet that I caltl 

 "Lady Valentine" because she 

 d her first egg on Saint Val- 

 uitine's day. She has now, in 

 a little over five months, laid 

 one litmAred ' anid twent>'^five 

 etrgs, and is still pegging away ; 

 so it looks as if her year's 

 record were likely to be pretty 

 good. 



About two weeks ago I took 

 oft' a brood of little Valentines. 

 They are husky chaps, and are 

 doing finely so far, tho I believe July is considered 

 the least favorable month of the year for raising little 

 chicks in Florida I feed plenty of thick sour milk, 

 and that he'ps -wonderfully to keep them healthy and 

 growine. I suppose the greatest danger that threat- 

 ens them is that they may get beaten down in one of 

 our dashing sum.ner rains some time when I am not 

 around to hustle them under shelter. I am getting 

 quite a few esgs now from my earlv spring pullets. 

 I have thirty that were hatched February ?., so they 

 are not six months old yet, but nearly half of them 

 are laying. One began when she was just four 

 months" and eighteen days old: several others when 

 they were about five months. I have never had pul- 

 lets of any of the large breeds reach maturity quite 

 as soon as these. Their mother did not lay till they 

 were seven months old. I attribute their early de- 

 velopment to special care in raising them. One thing 

 in particular was — no crowdinn. I weeded out the 

 cockerels for eating purposes when they were from 

 two to three months old. Then the liens have scarce- 

 ly known what it was to feel hungry. Plenty of 



let mentioned has also cominenrcd laying, as has also 

 one of the pullets hatched three weeks later: or. 

 in other words, this last-mentioned pullet laid an 

 egg when four months and eight days old: and not 

 only that, she laid an egg the next day, and still an- 

 other the third dav, and .iust now promises to lay an 

 egg every day. Of course, the egg is small, but it 

 is an eg<j. .just one thing more: This pullet has 

 a comb so large, standing straight up, that I fear- 

 ed she was going to be a rooster; and, in fact, she 

 looked like a rooster as she sat there on the nest. 

 Her .juvenile cackle (no "rooster") when she comes 

 off tlic nest is genuine "music" to your old friend 

 A. T. Root. 



* T am sorrv to tell you that the sifting hen T 

 put on those fiVteco eggs proved to be unfaithful to 

 her task, and not an egg turned out fertile. But 

 in a serond setting of ]3 eggs, everv one proved fer- 

 tile, so my 5-monthsold cockerel is O. Iv. so far. 



