44 



$100.00 IN GOLD: HOW MR. S. D. FOX WON IT. 



Some years ago the manufacturers of a well-known con- 

 dition powder advertised a "Gold Coin Premium Contest" 

 for the best egg record during the winter months, in which 

 $200.00 in gold was to be given to sixteen contestants. There 

 was one first prize of $100.00, five prizes of $10.00 each, and 

 ten prizes of $5.00 each. The contest was open to the world. 

 The conditions were that each contestant must keep not less 

 than twelve hens, must buy at least one dollar's worth of 

 condition powder, and must make a full four months' trial. 

 The time for the close of the contest was set at April 1st. The 

 first prize was won by Mr. S. D. Fox of Wolfeboro, N. H. 

 Unfortunately Mr. Fox kept no records other than those he 

 sent in, and in a general clearing up of the central office a 

 short time since all records relating to the contest were de- 

 stroyed. Consequently I am unable to give the figures, but 

 it mayr be enough to state that out of the hundreds of con- 

 testants Mr. Fox won the first prize. I will give his methods, 

 as nearly as possible in his own words : 



"That fall," said Mr. Fox, "I had a master fine lot of hens 

 White Wyandottes, with just a dash of Leghorn blood in 

 'em to make 'em lay. They were hatched early, and I began 

 to get eggs from them in October. When I saw the contest 

 advertised I thought I would enter. I didn't expect to get the 

 first prize, but thought possibly I might get one of the others. 

 So I bought a dollar's worth of condition powder of C. W. 

 Hicks, who then kept the Wolfeboro Drug Store, and started 

 in. I remembered reading in an old book the following sen- 

 tence : 'There is nothing that will make hens lay equal to 

 cayenne pepper and milk.' I had a cow that came in in the 

 fall, which was giving about sixteen quarts of milk a day. I 

 made up a pen of the likeliest looking pullets, and started in. 

 I fed them in the morning a mash made of equal parts of corn 

 meal, ground oats and bran. I didn't know anything about 

 meat meal or ground bone in those days, and so I put in in- 

 stead a handful of linseed meal and what scraps we had left 

 from the table. I mixed this mash up with warm skim milk. 

 Two or three times a week I shook into the milk a teaspoon- 

 ful of cayenne pepper. I gave the hens all the mash they 

 would eat up clean. At noon I fed oats and at night corn. 

 I gave the hens all the milk they would take. I gave it to 

 'em sweet ; I gave it to 'em sour ; I gave it to 'em in the form 

 of curd. There were days when they had no water nothing 



