1880. 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



i63 



prdspfiily (li'pciuls oil till' (l;iiry. Why is it 

 that the iiiajurily of thi'in si'i'in to be so con- 

 stituted tliMt it appears to l)e a moral impossi- 

 bility for them to attend to tlie small tliiiii;s 

 incident to farm-life i* I have known (iood 

 farmers, men eaiiahle of eilltivaliii^' premium 

 llelds of corn, wheat, and potatoes, who were 

 utterly imal)le to miderstand the value of a 

 good garden and had none worthy of the 

 name. 



This peculiar quality of the minds of our 

 fiirniers is mos( eiuiihalically shown liy the 

 altitude the majniity of them (jcciipy toward 

 the poultry iiidiislry. I do not know a single 

 firmer who lakes any special interest in poiil- 

 liy. Many of them (,'ive llie proeeids of tliis 

 (h partment to their wives and daii};hters for 

 "pin-uioney." I do not liiid any fault with 

 this ; it is at should lie ; hut even then they 

 Sliould take some little interest in the matter. 

 Fowls need eonifortahle (juarters and suitable 

 food. If (U'prived of either they will not 

 thrive. The supply of both these necessaries 

 of fowl life depends .somewhat upon the good- 

 will of the liirniej-s. 1 know that some of these 

 argue that t'owls do not amount to much, and 

 that they are not "worth the trouble." Let 

 us see. I think one important diHicully in 

 making them ilainly iirolitable lies in the 

 manner fowls are usually fattened. The ap- 

 pearance of dressed fowls in our meat markets 

 is often enougli to frighten even not very fas- 

 tidious ]ioiiltiy -eaters. 'J'lie chickens (V) weigh 

 from one-half pound to one iiouiul and a half. 

 The latter is considered a good weight and is 

 rarely reached. They are jioorly picked, and 

 the skin tears in many places. ]}iit it is the 

 size of a large iimportion of the chickens in 

 market to which I would call attention. They 

 are almost all under two pounds in weiglit, 

 itceitainly does not ]iay to raise siidi chickens. 

 I think 1 can hear the great majority of farm- 

 ers say : "I told you -SO." IJiit there is a 

 remedy for the evil, and the fiiult is so great 

 that it is worth some little trouble to seek a 

 remedy for it. 



If farmers aimed to keep the best breeds of 

 fowls, as they do of swine and sheep, the 

 lioultry interest of the country would make a ' 

 long stride in advance. I do not propivse to 

 discuss in this place the merits of thedilferent 

 breeds of poultry. If the country folks were 

 to feed their young chicks as they do their 

 calves and )iigs, tlie chickens .would weigh 

 much more and be much more nrolitable than 

 under present treatment. Talk to any enter- 

 prising farmer about his calves, and the 

 chances are ten to one that he will ventilate 

 Ills peculiar views al)out rearing calves, in 

 something like the following style: "Calves 

 must be kept growing fill the time from birth 

 imtil maturity. If they are starved for a few 

 days it is .so much growth lost, and it is 

 growth that the calves cannot regain." 

 Across the way from the calf pasture there is 

 a ehicken-cooii, with a brood of young 

 chickens that liave had no feed since yester- 

 day and no water since the day liefore. But 

 these young chickens are very different from 

 j'oung calves. Were I to enlarge on the 

 pro(ier treatment of growing chickens, this 

 letter, intended to be very brief, would grow 

 to the dimensions of a treatise on poultry- 

 rai.sing. I jiropose to call attention as brielty 

 as possible to a few hints on fattening poultry. 

 It is a mistake to suppose that a fowl one or 

 two years old cannot be fattened so as to be 

 tender. Above two years or thirty months 

 V)irds sliould not be kept. On the other hand, 

 the chickens should be kept long enough to 

 have the proper aninunt of tlesli or lean meat. 

 It will be but a sorry job to undertake to 

 fatten a growing chick, or one that has been 

 starved. If chickens have been fed as they 

 ought to be fed. Ihey are ready lo fatten at 

 the age of four or live months. For my own 

 table, I prefer to tak(! them from the yard 

 just as they are at that age, without any extra { 

 fat ; but for the market a different mode must 

 be adopted. From their habits, chickens do 

 not take on flesh raiiidly, unless confined. A 

 friend of mine is in the habit of building a 

 large pen of rails, like a stock-pen, six or eight j 



feet high and covered. In this Ik^ conlines 

 from twenty-live to fifty clnckens while they 

 are being fattened. Although it is much 

 better than allowing them to run at liberty, 

 still it is very objectionable, as affording too 

 much exercise. My own plan, which is very 

 satisfactory for feeding a small nmnher of 

 fowLs, is to provide as many coops as there 

 are birds to be fattened at one; time, .so that 

 each one may be conliued alone and out of 

 sight of all olliers. Each (len is as neat as 

 may be, about one foot wide, eighteen inches 

 long, and twenty inches high, clo.sed on all 

 sides except tlie front : w-ith no llrmr, but 

 cleats so |ilaced that a wooden platter, cov- 

 ered with fresh earth, may be ii.sed for the 

 floor. The front of the IX'U should be of a 

 few slats, nailed n]> and ilown. The feed and 

 water-tins should be placeil oiilside. as, with 

 pens of the dimensions I have deserilicd, there 

 is no room in the pen for anything except the 

 fowl. The water-tins should he replenished 

 twice in the day, and the food-tins at least 

 four times. 



The most desirable food for fattening fowls 

 is Imekwheat flour. The French i)oultry- 

 ra'sers esteem it very highly, and it is nmcli 

 in vogue in all large establishments. Farmers 

 can usually iirocnre it for this puiposi^ at as 

 little cost as any other grain. If, for any 

 reasons, it cannot be obtained, a mixture of 

 equal |)arts of {•ornmeal. ground oats and 

 barley Hour will be found very satisfactory. 

 A little fresh meat, chopjied line and given 

 daily, will not come amiss. .\nd, as iioultry 

 are at all times fond of vegetables and green 

 leaves, they should not be neglected in this 

 particular. A few cabbage leaves, if nothing 

 else olfers, will snswer the jiurpose. They 

 will do much to insure good health, 

 and an unhealthy fowl will feed to but 

 poor purjiose. Every possible means should 

 be adopted to insure a good digestion. For 

 this piirjiose a handful of gravel should be 

 thrown into the pen or a few broken oyster- 

 shells. For the same reason the fowls must 

 be kept perfectly (jniei, and their coojis he 

 darkened for a short time, say a couple of 

 hours, after each feeding. This may be ac- 

 comiilishedby dropping a cloth over tlu^ front 

 of the pen. If these few sugi;estions are 

 adopted and the feed is abundant and good, 

 the lu-oeess of fattening fowls for market will 

 not necessarily take more than two or three 

 weeks, at the farthest. 



Care should be taken to prevent the pens 

 from becoming infested with vermin. Before 

 any fowls are jtlaced therein the pens should 

 he thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed. 

 This should be repeated every time a bird is 

 removed and before another is placed in the 

 jien. If one should become infested with 

 vermin a little sul]ihnr rubbed on at the roots 

 of the feathers will he pretty sure to work a 

 cure. All these suggestions nnist be adoiited 

 and properly carried out, and the result will 

 be a great increase in the weiglit of the fowls 

 and a corresponding improvement in the 

 quality and appearance of the bird. When 

 the fowls are sent to market they will not 

 only command a higher price per imund, but 

 the greater weight acquired at less cost than 

 the smaller weights of fowls not half fattened, 

 while running at large, will net the farmer a 

 much larger profit ))er pound, in proportion 

 to this outlay, than if the poultry W'ere fat- 

 tened in the old way. 



If extra fatness is desirable, the fowls, if 

 there are not too many of them, may be 

 crammed during the last week. A mixture 

 of buckwheat and barley flour or cormneal is 

 made into dough, and fashioned into rolls 

 about the size of a pencil. Cut these into 

 sections about two inches in length, and dip 

 the ]iieces in milk before placing them in the 

 bird's mouth. The inoiier quaiilit v to feed a 

 fowl at one time will luobably lie learned 

 after a few have been stuffed to death. 



The French jieasants are such adepts at 

 this, one of the fine arts, that they use a .sort 

 of a ramrod to assist the fowl in swallowing. 

 Could they a.ssist the bird in digesting its 

 food, the whole thing would be mastered. 



But the process ot cranimiiig is wholly un- 

 neeissary. and in the hands of the unskillful 

 is not seldom cruel and too often the oecasior 

 of loss to the |)oultry-raiser. I think this 

 matter of fatti'uing poultry for market is a 

 suhjei^t well worthy of the earnest considera- 

 tion of thinking farmers. AVhen it is known 

 that poultry can be produced as cheaply as 

 jiork or beef (for such is llie fact,) more far- 

 mers will turn their attention to the iudu,stry, 

 breed anil fatten birds worth shipping, and 

 ship such ]ioultry to our large cities, at a 

 good profit to tliemselves. And, what is much 

 more to the purpo.se in a financial point of 

 view, by SI doiiiL.' a demand for good poultry 

 may be enlarged or created at remunerative 

 prices. — Tlie liural Xeic Ymkcr. 



AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, 



The (iermans, Ihrongh their agricultural 

 colleges and "experimental stations," have 

 done more, iierhaps, than all other nations 

 combined in elii: idating the sciences as ap- 

 plied to agiiciillure, and in paving the way 

 toward rendering this information of value to 

 the farmer. The editor of the Loudon Ar/ri- 

 cullural Gazette, having returned from a visit 

 to some of the jirincipal agricultural stations 

 in that country, gives a description of what 

 he saw, from which we extract the following: 



"Theagriculluial stations of Oermanv may 

 be divided into several classes. Those visited 

 by us were either 'versuch-stationen' — estab- 

 lishments for investigation, and employed as 

 laboratories for the analysis of commercial 

 nianures and other agricultural materials— or 

 agriitullural academiesor institutes, where the 

 teaching of scientilii^ agriculture is the main 

 object, the total number of stafion.s in Ger- 

 many being aliont forty. Many of the 'ver- 

 suchs-stationen' take up a sjiecial subject. 

 Thus we Ibnnd the station at Wiesbaden de- 

 voted to the subject of wine; other stations, 

 as that at Kuthurm, conline their attention 

 to animal chemistry. This concentration of 

 study on a single subject is, of course, at- 

 tended with great advantage. We are told, 

 indeed, that agricultural chemistry was be- 

 coming so large a field for investigation in 

 that country that it was rapidly being subdi- 

 vided into three distinct branches — the soil, 

 the plant and the animal — and tliat chemists 

 were conlining themselves to one or the other 

 of these divisions. 



"The field experiments with manures con- 

 ducted at the various stations were few, and 

 ap]ieared poor in (inality. But if great results 

 have not as yet attended their field experi- 

 ments, this at least cannot be said of their 

 investigations by means of water culture — 

 i. e., sni>porting a seedlinir )ilant over a vessel 

 containing water, into which the roots of the 

 plant dip. the water being supplied with pot- 

 ash, lime, phosphates, nitrates, and other in- 

 gredients of ])lant-food. By this means a 

 number of ipieslions concerniii'j the nutri- 

 tion of plants have been succe.ssfullv solved. 

 .Vinous the most striking results may be men- 

 tioned the fact that silica, which forms so 

 large a iwrt of the ash of cereals, is really un- 

 essential to their growth, and that corn, or 

 oats with a perfectly stifl' straw, may be 

 grown without any silica being supjilied. On 

 the other hand, the very small quantity of 

 iron present in the ash of jdants has been 

 shown to be essential, and that in the absence 

 of it growth .soon comes to an end. 



"At the physiological station at Knthurm 

 we saw one of the famous respiration cham- 

 bers, where evervthing taken into the animal 

 system from the air is determined. Here, 

 again, we have a method of research peculiar 

 to German investigators, and which has 

 yielded a rich harvest of results. We were 

 fortunate enough to see the chamber in action. 

 It is built of iron, with glass windows, and is 

 perfectly air-tight. The aiiparatus connected 

 with the chamber admits of air being slowly 

 drawn through it, the air as it leaves the 

 chamber being meisnred, and the amount of 

 water, carlionic acid and other gases con- 

 tained therein determined, in orderto find out 

 what it had lost during the process of respira 



