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153. 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



Mat 



Baising Chickens. 



Let the hen run with her chickens if possible; 

 she will provide for them a great deal of ins( ct 

 food. Take a hint from this and afford tbem a 

 great deal of animal food, of which no'hing is 

 better than ground worms. I had occasion once 

 to examine the crop of a chick about a fortnight 

 old, and there found about fifty insects thai had 

 been devoured in the course of a few hours. 



Nothing is more mournful than the continu-us 

 monotonous peeping of a sick chicken ; whoever 

 has raised chickens during the cold storms of 

 spring, had doubtless found one or more of the 

 pitiful subjects among their brood that would die 

 in spite of the best houisng and nursinp, thus 

 breaking the hearts of all the little ones of his 

 family. You connot but feel very badly your- 

 self when you think with what a contented, trust- 

 ing cry, it nestles in the hollow of jour baud 

 and what confidence looked out of the little eye* 

 when you took it up from the cold ground ! From 

 a little successful experience in curing such sub- 

 jects, I will suggest what the chicks need, that 

 appear fiickly, standing by themselves, draWn up 

 into a little roand ball of down, from which comes 

 forth a monotou3 unceasing peeping, during the 

 prevaledce of a storm, or the blowing of the 

 chillins: wind of some raw day, is neither food 

 nor medicine, but warmth. 



Thi mother hen, true to the great law of seek- 

 ing the greatest good of the greatest number, 

 still scratches away with an occasional brooding 

 over her little ones, though the weakly chick is 

 dying in the comer. Give such chicks what they 

 are dying for the want of, warmth during the 

 prevalence of the storm, and they will, if not too 

 far gone, rally and recover. I may note that 

 these weaker chicks are usually the females, and 

 hence the saving of them is the more important 

 to the poulterer. 



What degree of warmth does a sick chicken re- 

 quire? Herein lies one great mistake of those 

 attempting to rear poultry ; they take their own 

 wants as regards the purity of air and tempera- 

 ture as the meaenre of what poultry need. Fowls 

 require the purest of air and the natural temper- 

 ature of their bodies is far higher than that of 

 the human body. As an illusLation of the first 

 position I will refer to the instance above given, 

 of the chickens carried through the winter, a 

 portion in an open coop, ^nd the remainder in 

 an apparently well ventilated and cleaoly kept 

 apartment. I will recall to the minds of many 

 readers how often their carefully protected fowls 

 will come through the winter with weak eyf s, the 

 sniffles,. lustreless feathers, and a generally dilap- 

 idated appearance ; note also how common dis- 

 ease is among the poultry kept in the fancy bird 

 stores of the cities, and how sensitive caged 

 birds are to degrees of purity in the air which 

 appear to pass unnotioed by their fellow human 

 bipeds. 



I would, by far, prefer to have my fowls pass 

 the winter, goodly number of them together, in 

 an open coop, protected but on the northwest, 

 that has afforded them gratis the protection that 

 much of the more valuable kinds receive. 



To illustrate the second position, the degree 

 of warmth a sick chicken requires, place your 

 fingers a moment under a setting hen, or a ben 



with chicks, and from the almost burning heat 

 you feel there, learn a lesson; nim to give the 

 weakly chick as high a temperature as that, to 

 do which you must do far more than wrap it in 

 cotton or wool. Place it for a W'ile in a cotton 

 lined basket over the stove, in a temperature 

 which, judged fron our own leelings, woald ap- 

 pear to come pretty near the grade. " tremen- ' 

 dous." Let the chick remain in this temperature 

 until it appears to be thoroughly revived, then 

 gradually accustom it the heat of the room, and 

 when the weather returns warm, give it again in 

 charge of' the parent hen. 



To some this may appear to be the wasting of 

 words over a little matter. I c 'nuot agree with 

 such while I have reasons to believe that not fit 

 from one-half of the young chickens lost each 

 season die, not from positive disease, but from a 

 lack of vital heat sufficient to carry them through 

 one or two cold storms. As to the trouble ne- 

 cessary, give the little folks b.ut one lesson, and 

 they will find,no trouble in the future; indeed, 

 to be frank, I write this more because I would 

 save the feelings of the littie ones than that I 

 value the life of the chicks. 



James J. H. Greqokt. 

 — Mass. Plowman. ' :vvtj 



•i. 



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Take Care of Your Harness. — More damage 

 is done to harness durins the rainy weather of 

 early and late weather than during all the rest 

 of the year. Saturated with water, covered with 

 mud,and often frozen so as to almost break when 

 bent in necessary handling, unusual care should 

 be taken to keep it well oiled and hungup in pro- 

 per shape when not in use. Thus treated, it will 

 not only last many times longer, but look infin- 

 itely better than when neglected in the usual 

 manner. 



As to the kind of oil, we know of nothing bet- 

 ter than neats-foot, or the daubing used by tan- 

 ners. To give the black color characteristic of 

 new leather, a little lampblach may be added 

 without detriment, though it is better not to use 

 it until the second going over. Before putting 

 on the oil, however, there are two important con- 

 ditions which must be observed — cleanliness and 

 dampness. The necessity of the first is obvious, 

 and the last is not less important since the all 

 cannot penetrate the leather, and make it sofi 

 and pliable, if put on when it ts dry and hard. 

 One of the best ways to give the leather the re-* 

 quisite degree of moisture, is to wrap up the sct- 

 eral warts of the harness in a wet cloth a few 

 hours previous to oiling. But this trouble is un- 

 necessary where washing has been resorted to 

 for cleaning, as the oil may then be applied be-^ 

 fore the leather is entirely dry. The oil should 

 be rubbed in briskly with a brush or cloth, so as 

 to insure its absorption. 



Varnish shbiild never be used, as it closes the 

 pores and renders tlie penetration of oil mOre 

 difficult. Vegetable oils are hardening in their 

 effects, and should never be used for that reason. 

 Finally, let the application of oil be as frequent 

 as need; not once a year, as is the rule with 

 some, or almost never, as is'the practice of manj. 

 — Wisconsin Farmer. 



