80 



tHE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ May, 1880. 



latioD,etc. A comfortable house has never injured 

 any family, and has never been blamed to have 

 brouicht disease and death into the family circle; and 

 just as little has a convenient and comfortable poul- 

 try house harmed the floeU that was placee within 

 its preciucls. To liouse comfortably from 80 to 125 

 fowls requires a rather spacious house, and as I have 

 said before, we know nothing of its dimensions, etc; 

 but it may be presumed that his house was only one- 

 fourth large enough for the large flock he kept in it, 

 and thus the way was opened for the affliction he 

 speaks of. Again, from SO to 125 fowls are entirely 

 to many for one flock. Not more than 50 at most 

 ought to he permitted to run together. It is far bet- 

 ter to have only 25 than even 50 to one flock. In- 

 stead of one flock he Ought to have had at least, 

 three, four or five, and his success would certainly 

 have been all that could be desired. 

 Died of Apoplexy. 



There is one thing of which he speaks, which 

 shows indisputably that the care and attention was 

 not what it ought to have been. He speaks of his 

 hens dropping from the roost at night. This shows 

 that they were gorged with food and died suddenly 

 of apoplexy. 



Wrong Again. 



In speaking of hardy breeds, he is wrong when he 

 asserts that the Black Spanish and Domiuiques are 

 among the hardiest. The Light Brahmas and 

 Cochins take the lead, and will thrive much better 

 under poor treatment and with poor shelter than 

 almost any other variety. 



How to Keep Fowls Healthy. 



In summing up, let it be understood that in rear- 

 ing poultry, either fancy breeds or the more com- 

 mon varieties, and to succeed in the business, we 

 need first of all a splendid poultry house. This is 

 rarely found. A house ought to be roomy, and the 

 best apparatus for proper ventilation should be had 

 in it. Whether you breed the finest or the com- 

 monest varieties, divide them up into small flocks — 

 if possible, not more than twenty-five to a flock, 

 rather less than more. Clean up the house two or 

 three times a week, and keep such disinfectants in it 

 as will keep the air pure and sweet continually. 



Let the whitewash brush be applied to all the 

 insides — not onl}' walls, but partitions, etc. Exer- 

 cise the greatest scrutiny in feeding your flocks; not 

 by kindness in giving them a good warm house in 

 winter and a comfortable and clean one in summer, 

 are our fowls made to suffer— but improper feeding 

 destroys as many birds, if not more, in my humble 

 estimation, than cholera or any single disease that 

 bears a name . Give them enough to eat, but not a 

 particle more. This requires your personal atten- 

 tion and not that of an indiflferent servant, who 

 for the sake of getting out of and through with his 

 work, dispatches it in the shortest manner possible. 

 This being done, and well done, the success is guar- 

 anteed. 



If you will institute a comparison between the two 

 sides of Mr. S., viz: his first mode of having them 

 run and roost at will on the one hand, and that of 

 keeping them in his "approved house," sick,mopin<>- 

 and dying on the other hand, and the final results in 

 receiving more eggs under the first than under the 

 second mode of treatment, seems plausible enough. 

 But have you ever heard that two wrongs make one 

 right ? If the premises are false, the conclusion will 

 be accordingly. I don't think that they paid for 

 their feed in either case, for either condition was a 

 very hard one indeed, and I do hope that the time 

 will soon come when more attention of the right 

 kind will be bestowed on our feathered pets. One 

 word more and I have done. If Mr. Smedley's ill 

 success can be attributed to any one thing, leaving 

 out of sight all others that might be named, it is 

 this — bad feeding. If, as his friend remarked, he 

 was "killing them with kindness," his kindness run 

 in the direction of killing them with food. This 

 produced disorder, and was Ibllowed by a lack of 

 appetite, which brought on a moping condition, and 

 finally the bird ended its existence by dying. Others, 

 again, gorircd themselves and died suddenly of apo- 

 plexy. Discouraged and faint-hearted at his ill suc- 

 cess, he cleared them out of the hout^e, and they 

 sought shelter on trees, fences and the like. 



I repeat that in iny estimation among young and 

 old fowls more are killed by feeding them irregularly 

 and immoderately than are carried off by disease. 



Way down South trei s, fences and outdoor shelter 

 in general does well enough, but with us we need the 

 best houses and the best care that can be given them, 

 if our labors shall be crowned with success. 



Breeding for Shape and Style. 

 In breeding for shape and style, I always look to 

 the hen ; a dumpy hen may breed fair pullets, but it 

 is a hundred to one against their throwing reachey 

 cocks ; the hen has also most influence on the color 

 of the stags and the breast and body of the pullets. 

 The cock has most influence on the color of the pul- 

 let's hackle ; that is to say, a cock that was well 

 striped of his chicken feathers will have a tendency 

 to throw heavily striped pullets ; do not imagine 

 that I advise breeding from a cock striped in hackle ; 



when he has got bis adult plumage, the brighter he 

 is then the better, but if you want heavily marked 

 pullets, be sure that your cock was striped as a 

 chicken. I have proven this lots of times in black 

 reds, piles and brown reds, but have never had a 

 chance of trying it on duckwings. I first got the 

 idea from noticing two yards of brown reds ; one 

 yard had hens with copper-colored hackles, and the 

 other the brass hackles. I noticed that in both 

 yards the majority of cockerels were like the hens in 

 their immature plumage, though they both turned 

 out much alike in the end. I do not put any faith in 

 the adult plumage : it is the chicken plumage I want 

 to see in a cock to breed pullets. 



When you have got your birds let them run to- 

 gether till the hens show signs of laying, and then 

 take away the cock and feed him well — cayenne, 

 meat, bread, all in turns — and let him in with the 

 hens for half an hour every morning, you will then 

 have very few clear eggs. One of njy cocks is cer- 

 tainly an old one — I don't know quite how old, but 

 not under four years — and, treated like this, there 

 was not a clear egg from fair hens, while other peo- 

 ple were complaining of their bad luck. I give no 

 corn, but meal mixed with the stimulant. When the 

 season for breeding is over he must be well physiced 

 and kept low for some time, or he will most likely 

 die of apoplexy. If one is attacked souse him into 

 a pail of cold water for a minute, and then hold his 

 head under a running tap of cold water, give hiin a 

 dose of castor oil, and put him in a cool place ; this 

 will seldom fail in effecting a cure if taken in time. — 

 From "Exhibition Games," in Fanciers' Journal. 



Milk as a Poultry Food. 



The American Agriculturist says we have been 

 trying milk as poultry food during the winter and 

 can confidently recommend it to villagers and farm- 

 ers who keep one or more cows for family use. 

 Where butter is made and skim milk is plenty, it is 

 a very valuable addition to the fare of the poultry 

 yard. One main difference between winter and 

 spring laying is owing to the absence of animal food 

 in winter. The milk supplies this, and is devoured 

 with eagerness. The skim and buttermilk may be 

 poured into the feeding trough, and kept constantly 

 by the fowls, or it may be mixed with scalded meal 

 of various grains. Indian meal is agood ration once 

 a day, but it should be varied with oat or rye meal, 

 and whole grain of wheat, bucwkheat or barley. 

 In a warm room with a good southern exposure, 

 and plenty of light, there is no difficulty in 

 getting plenty of eggs from early pullets, 

 and this is the time when eggs are of great 

 market value. Later in the season, when the 

 broods come off, milk, which will then be more 

 abundant, will be an excellent feed for chickens, 

 turkeys, and all Wnds of young poultry, and will 

 give quite as good returns as when ted to pigs. 



Literary and Personal. 



Burned Bones for Hens. 



You can hardly give too much burned bones to 

 your hens to provide the necessary amount of lime 

 for egg-shells, and the next best thing for that pur- 

 pose is oyster shells, which can be obtained by the 

 barrel (and generally without cost, except taking 

 away at hotels or restaurants in your nearest town.) 

 My new tenant goes eighteen miles for them, and 

 considers them cheap at that. The hens eat them 

 when pounded into fragments as easily as they pick 

 up the shelled corn, and they furnish the needed 

 material for the egg-shell more completely than 

 anything else. I do not quite believe in giving 

 broken earthenware as some propose doing. The 

 sharp corners are more likely to cut or otherwise in- 

 jure the crop than than the more easily digested 

 oyster shells. — Poultry World. 



Chicken Cholera. 



When fowls do not have access to sharp gravel or 

 coarse sand, being fed too much whole corn, will 

 sometimes produce cholera. New damp corn, or 

 grass which has become succulent after protracted 

 rains, if fed mostly to fowls, will produce cholera. 

 The gas from fermented manure piles will cause it. 

 If fowls drink filthy, stagnant water for a length of 

 time, it will produce it. Wheat screenings contain- 

 ing much smut will get fowls out of condition, if it 

 will not produce cholera. Sometimes when too many 

 potatoes are used with cornmeal and wheat bran 

 dough, cholera will be produced. In using potatoes, 

 add a tablespoonful each of salt and cayenne pepper 

 to two gallons of meal and bran and potatoes. 

 ^^ 



Fattened Poultry. 

 Nicely fattened poultry always sells quick. When 

 offered for sale it should not have crops filled with 

 feed ; the bird should fast at least twelve hours 

 before being killed. They may have water in the 

 morning before killing time, but no feed. 



The Fattening Process 



Will be assisted by the use of some condiments, as 

 Poultry Powder, Spratt's Food, Parish's Chemical 

 Food, etc. These act as Tonics, improve the appe- 

 tite and digestion, and are otherwise of use. 



Circulars op Information of the Bureau of 

 Education, No. 1, 1880. College libraries as aids to 

 instruction, Washington, D. C. 27 pp., royal S vo. 

 Very instructive and highly useful to all libraries, 

 public or private, large or small. 



The TonR.jEE Tourist, Boston, No. 1, Vol. 1, 

 April, 1880. A 12 pp. quarto, devoted to the inter- 

 ests of tourists and travelers, and yet interesting to 

 "stay-at-homes." Published by E . Tourjee, monthly, 

 at one dollar per year. 



We would here respectfully ask what has become 

 of the "Woodruff Expedition, revised?" and the pic- 

 torial journal "Around the World?" Although not a 

 member, we have a collateral interest in it and would 

 like to know thereof. 



The American Entomologist is at hand, for the 

 month of May, filled with matter appropriate to 

 the season, and we are right glad to see it again 

 while sight is vouchsafed to us; for not having re- 

 ceived a visit from it since February last, so sensi- 

 tive have we become through an unrequited experi- 

 ence in publishing, that we had feared the "Ent." 

 unhappily might have been compelled again to /i»6er- 

 Ho(« for a more propitious season. But as the pres- 

 ent number is marked "5" we infer that .3 and 4 

 may have, by this time, reached Bombay or Alaska. 

 Report Upon the Condition of Crops and 

 Live Stock to April 1880 (and also for that month) 

 being the 23d special report of the Department of 

 Agriculture. On the whole the report is quite 

 favorable, and corresponds with the local reports 

 made to the Lancaster society at its May meeting. 

 The report exhibits an increase of about 13 per cent, 

 in the acreage of wheat, over that of last year, and 

 that the condition of the crop for the whole country 

 is precisely the same. True, there is some "Hessian 

 fly" in the South, and from other sources also some 

 "Tobacco fiy," but on the whole, at this date, things 

 look hopeful . 



Rates of Postage and classification of mail mat- 

 ter, compiled from the Postal Laws and Regulations, 

 and from Rulings of the Post Office Department 

 with suggestions to the public by James H.Mar- 

 shall, Postmaster, Lancaster, Pa. We are under 

 obligations to the compiler of this neat little 12 mo. 

 of22 pp. which contains in a nutshell all that any 

 outsider of ordinary intelligence need know about 

 the practical working of his local post office, and yet 

 blunders are continually made in the stamping, non- 

 stamping and mailing of letters, just as if a certain 

 amount of ignorance, illiteracy, and sometimes abso- 

 lute dishonesty, must forever remain in the world. 



Twenty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the 

 Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, to be held 

 in the .Main Centennial Building, Fairmount Park, 

 Philadelphia, September 6th to 18th, IhSO. Prelimi- 

 nary abstract for a list of premiums for horses, 

 cattle and swine. 



^^The complete list of premiums,with the prizes 

 in this department increased, will be published at an 

 early day. 12 pp. royal octavo. Immediately after 

 the close of the State Fair (October 20, 1880) the 

 International Exhibition of sheep, wool and wool 

 products, will be opened in the same bull ling and on 

 the Centennial grounds; thus rendering the two ex- 

 xhibitions continuous, closing on Saturday, September 

 25th. Go and see. 

 The first anniversary long-talk ever delivered before 

 the Improved Order of Red Men, on St. Tammany'i 

 day. Way 12, 1837, in the Trinity Church, Baltimore, 

 Md. by Past Sachem John F. Weishampel Sr., also a 

 few facts concerning the origin of the Order, and 

 an account of the death of its founder. Published 

 upon resolution of Can-as-sa-te-go Tribe of Lancas- 

 ter, Pa. by A. Z. Ringwalt, K. W., 205 W. King St., 

 Lancaster, Pa. Price 10 cts., post paid, or Jl.OO per 

 dozen. We are under obligations to the venerable 

 author and printer of this interesting little work, 

 and value it chiefly as a coming from him, and as a 

 local historical relic of the past. No doubt it will 

 abundantly answer the questions who? where? and 

 what? are the Red Men. 18 pp., 8vo., including the 

 covers, the last of which contain a poem dedicated 

 to the Order by the author aforesaid. 



The Sugar Beet— Devoted to the cultivation and 

 utilization of the sugar beet, Philadelphia, April, 

 ISSO, an illustrated copy of vol. 1 No. 2, of this 

 splendidly gotten-up journal has been received, and 

 if the success of the beet-sugar enterprise is at all in 

 harmony with the quality of this, its most prominent, 

 able and progressive champion, it is bound to suc- 

 ceed. In the reports from foreign countries where the 

 enterprise has been the longest and most presever- 

 ingly pursued the result seems to have been most 

 successful. Germany produced for 1879,80, 410,000 

 tons; France, .70,000; Austria, 385,000; Russia, 285,- 

 000; Belgium, 60,000, and Holland 25,000 tons of 

 sugar. The business is increasing and a new re- 

 finery of sugar is to be established in Switzerland 

 the present year with a capital of $250,000. It is 

 possible that the subject of beet sugar will only gain 

 a footing in Lancaster county when tobacco begins to 

 lose its footing. Other localities may then have th« 

 start of her. 



