1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



497 



our happiness and enjoyment of life? Now 

 we come to lesson No. 3. 



We can not very well whistle and sing 

 (and do a good job at it) unless we are in 

 good health. The chicken doesn't Hop its 

 wings and make its legs spin, and cut up all 

 sorts of antics, to show how it enjoys life, 

 unless it is robust and strong. If chilled, or 

 even if its toes are cold, that wonderful buoy- 

 ancy of spirits is gone. My reading for the 

 past winter has been largely in regard to 

 poultry. I have read the poultry papers, 

 and studied the incubator catalogs, and I 

 have been impressed with the fact that the 

 best authorities are beginning to agree that 

 dry uncooked food is best for chickens, 

 young and old. A year ago I said the best 

 medicine in the world for chickens was "a 

 pocketful of wheat;" and later I said I might 

 almost have added, for human beings as well 

 as for poultry. A year or two ago much 

 was said in print about "mashes" for fowls 

 — hot mashes or wet up cold. Now all are 

 being dropped, or mostly so. Give them, 

 young and old, dry grains with plenty of 

 water to drink, and many if not most of the 

 diseases will be averted. If I am right, 

 cooked food for all farm stock is pretty much 

 abandoned. Very well in theory, but not in 

 average practice. Now think of Terry's 

 teachings — grains and nuts iiwookcd. Can't 

 we get some lessons in health from chickens? 

 I don't like to disagiee with Terry, and may 

 be I shall not very much. Let us see. 



Several years ago my neighbor Hilbert, of 

 Traverse City, Mich., hatched a lot of chick- 

 ens with an incubator. He sent word he 

 had something to show me. When his chick- 

 ens were a week or two old they kept chirp- 

 ing for something; but as they had plenty of 

 grain and water he couldn't make out what 

 the trouble was until he got them out on 

 some rich ground and jpaded up some angle- 

 worms. At the sight of them there was al- 

 most a panic. It was the "long-felt want." 

 I told you about it in Gleanings. A hen 

 with a dozen or more finds insects, etc.; but 

 incubator chickens without a hen are a dif- 

 ferent proposition. Ours were in the same 

 fix. When I began to chop up one of the 

 coons I told you about, my chickens, little 

 and big, were almost crazy. They chased 

 each other round and round the yard as if 



fone wild, for just a morsel of animal food, 

 gave them all they wanted. Then they 

 were satisfied and happy. My brood of 30 

 went and sat in a row on a crooked tree, 

 perfect pictures of contentment and satisfied 

 appetites — something I had never seen them 

 do before. Since then, every time I give 

 them all the animal food they crave they go 

 and sit in a row on that very log. Fresh 

 fish or ground bones fi'om the meat market 

 will produce the same result. I have recent- 

 ly purchased a Mann bone-cutter, and with 

 it came a little book, "Worms and Bugs." 

 The book is an advertisement of the bone- 

 cutter, of course; but for all that I think it 

 is boiled-down common sense, and it is about 

 the cutest advertising circular I ever got 

 hold of. The book doesn't say it, nor even 



hint it, but I say that the same reasoning 

 will, I think, apply to humanity the world 

 over. Thousands of people are not happy, 

 not thanking God and enjoying life, just be- 

 cause they do not have for daily food a ''bal- 

 anced ration."' The great reason why they 

 don't "sit on a log in a row, " contented, 

 happy, and thankful, like the chickens, is 

 because — not because, dear reader, they 

 don't have "angleworms," or even "coons," 

 but because they don't have enough animal 

 food in some foi'm to make a "balanced ra- 

 tion." Here is where Terry and I may not 

 see things alike. He has, it is true, said but 

 little in favor of animal food, but he may 

 have no objection to milk and eggs. 



I have no quarrel with those who hesitate 

 to take animal life for food, for I confess I 

 should very much dislike to use my pet 

 "biddies" for foi)d, even if they were too 

 old to be profital)le layers; but I do think 

 eggs and milk are among God's greatest 

 gifts to mankind. Now that we have fowls 

 giving us over 200 eggs a year, why shouldn't 

 we use eggs for medicine, if we can't afford 

 them in any other light ? What you pay for 

 drugs and doctors would buy a good lot of 

 eggs. 



In Cleveland, O., they have a sanitarium 

 for consumptives, antl 1 have been told they 

 have much success, and that their patients 

 are on a diet largely of eggs. Here is a clip- 

 ping from Poultry Success for February, 

 1907: 



An Indiana man claims to have eaten more than 

 20OO egKS within a year to ward off consumption. He 

 says he is well now. This may look like a big story, 

 but we know of one woman, threatened with con- 

 sumption, or having the disease, as some doctors 

 claimed, who ate six raw eags a day. She was very 

 weak and thin at first, but after a time gained flesh, 

 color came back to her cheeks, and she is now pro- 

 nounced entirely cured. This is eating eggs with a 

 vengeance, and, of course, might not be beneficial in 

 all cases. The one who sent in this item says she can 

 not eat even two eggs without distress, yet suggests 

 it might help others. Of one thing I am certain, how- 

 ever, and that is, we should most of us consume mere 

 than we do, instead of buying so largely of the 

 butcher. 



I have eaten more eggs during the past 

 winter than ever before in my life in the 

 same time, and my health has been remark- 

 able. When I am on "grains, fruit, and 

 nuts," I need about one egg at each meal to 

 make a balanced ration. 



Now, grains and meat alone do not make 

 a complete balanced ration for poultry. 

 The need of green stuff of some kind is al- 

 most as great as that for meat. Here in 

 Florida, if it is not provided, the chickens 

 will destroy every living thing. This is es- 

 pecially the case when fowls are confined. 

 In my yard are some small papaya-trees 

 { the tree that bears ' ' muskmelons " ) . Well, 

 my White Leghorn rooster was springing 

 up and pulling the leaves from trees about 

 as high as my head. In fact, I haa to pro- 

 tect the trees with some old rusty stove-pipe 

 or there would not have been a leaf left. 

 Now I give them sea kale that grows in the 

 salty sand along the Gulf. When 1 bring up 

 an armful there is animation and rejoicing 

 among all the poultry, little and big. This 



