44 



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



Some years ago the manufacturers of a well-known condition 

 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 16 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 12 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 i. 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 destroyed. 

 Consequently I am unable to give the figures, but it may be 

 enough to state that out of hundreds of contestants 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 sentence : 'There is nothing 

 that will make hens lay equal to cayenne pepper and milk.' I had 

 a cow that came in that fall, which was giving about 16 quarts of 

 milk a day. I made up a pen of 20 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 any- 

 thing about meat meal or ground bone in those days, and so I 

 put in instead 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 teaspoonful 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 but milk. Lay? You 



