PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 83 



per barrel, which \Vas more than double the price they would have brought 

 when stored awaj^ 



Prof. Mapes. — I hope the Club will at a future meeting- discuss the sub- 

 ject of detention houses. I think all the pears can be brought up to tho 

 proper period of ripening. I have seen fine Bartlett pears on the first of 

 Februar}^ 



Gapes in Chickens — How to Prevent Them. 



Solon Robinson read the following letter from a farmer in Mansfield, 

 Tioga county, Pennsylvania: 



"In the discussion of the Farmers' Club of May H, on the subject of 

 gapes in chickens, there seemed to be a lack of interest in trying to trace 

 out the cause. One ounce of preventive, &c. This doctoring the effect 

 witli a horse hair, or trying to make a chicken less than a week old eat 

 cracked corn, does not remove the first, if it does the secondary cause. 

 How is it that nearly all our farmers are very particular to not breed in 

 and in with horses and cattle, and partially with sheep and swine, while 

 with fowls there is no attention paid to it, as though they were so small 

 that it made no difference. I presume through the country not one farmer 

 in ten even thinks of crossing or changing his breed of fowls, unless for 

 some new large breed, like the miserable Shanghae or Bramah-pootre, never 

 thinking that the medium or small size, like the creepen or bantams, are 

 the best layers, and far the most profitable. How few farmers ever think 

 of changing the place where their fowls roost, or where their chicken-coops 

 stand, from what their fathers or grandfathers had them. Some thirty 

 years since I occupied a place where my chickens were sorely afflicted 

 with the gcipes, and nearly all died. My fowls roosted in the same place 

 of those owned by former occupants, or rather I had the fowls with the 

 place. Perhaps these and their progenitors had occupied the same place 

 for thirty or forty years. I just tore away the roost, and constructed 

 another some rods from it that was open and airy, the six or seven warmest 

 months, and could be easily closed the remaining part of the j^ear. I am 

 particular to remove all the manure every year, and to change the site of 

 the I'oost once in three or four years; and also to change my male fowls 

 every three or four years. I feed with Indian meal and water until 

 the chickens are large enough to eat whole corn. My chickens, with- 

 out exception, have been healthy for thirty years. }>ly fowls never trouble 

 me b}^ scratching in the garden or elsewhere, for the simple reason I always 

 give them corn enough to eat." 



Rev. Mr. Weaver, of Fordham. — All that won't cure this disease, neither 

 are these frequent changes of the roosting place necessary. If the room is 

 kept clean there will be no need of change. Whitewashing and cleaning 

 should be practiced often. As for breeding in and in, it is the fault of all 

 poultry keepers. It is a fault of all fairs that they do not offer prizes for 

 pure breeds. Prizes are more frequently taken by those who produce the 

 largest fowls or the greatest assortment, and prize poultry is often of very 

 poor quality. It is vovj difficult to get pure breeds when a number of 

 varieties are kept together. I tried three years to get pure Dorkings, and 



