December, 1911 
ee 
Srbadeisend Redicien 
grains. The old-fashioned plan of making wet mashes has 
been abandoned to a large extent. Feeding twice a day will 
be sufficient. Wheat, oats and barley may be given in the 
morning, and whole or cracked corn at least two hours 
before sundown at night. Beef scraps and bran or shorts 
may be kept in hoppers, where the fowls may eat when 
they desire. Oyster shells and grit should always be before 
the birds, and, of course, an abundance of fresh, pure water 
is a necessity, winter and summer. The water vessels should 
be kept in a sheltered place in summer, so that the sun will 
not shine on the water to heat it. The drinking vessels 
should be washed frequently. Dishes which will not break 
when the water freezes should be used in winter. Galvan- 
ized iron pails are excellent; if ice forms, it can be quickly 
removed by pouring water on the outside of the pail and 
inverting it. 
Green food is necessary the year through. In summer 
lawn clippings serve the purpose well, as does refuse from 
the garden. In winter clover or alfalfa hay is especially 
good if it is placed in a pail and boiling water poured on it, 
the hay being allowed to steam for several 
hours. Cabbage, carrots, mangles and 
other vegetables are eaten with relish. 
They may be spiked to a piece of wood or 
suspended by a string, but the hens should 
not be made to jump for them, at the risk 
of producing a rupture. 
Many families can feed their poultry 
largely on table scraps, although a little 
additional labor is involved. It is not a 
good plan to throw the refuse from the 
table into the henyards, allowing the hens 
to pick out what they like, for insanitary conditions are al- 
most sure to result. It is better to keep a kettle on the back 
SS 
* 
Se 
=o f 
College, is nearly ideal 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Pave White Leghorn Hen 
Portable poultry houses, two of which 
will accommodate twenty-five hens 
ee, SE, a Bc: ae 
The double house advocated by the Cornell University Agricultural An amateur’s poultry “‘plant.”’ 
447 
Raed 
4 
? P| 
eg. , ji spi se al Bea 
, Ka Bt 
‘ pe Black Wines Hen 
of the kitchen range and to throw into it whatever may be 
intended for the hens. All this may be cooked up together 
and enough bran added to make a mash which will crumble 
in the hand. Let this be given at noon, preferably; other- 
wise in the morning. It will stimulate the egg yield, and, 
of course, the amount of grain given should be reduced 
in proportion to the amount of mash fed. No more mash 
than will be eaten up clean should ever be given, and it is 
best that there should not be enough to satisfy the appetite 
of the fowls, or they will stand around for an hour or so, 
instead of scratching busily for grain. If there are enough 
bits of meat in the table scraps, it may not be necessary to 
purchase commercial beef scraps. 
The feeding of red pepper and other condiments is not 
to be recommended. If the pullets are backward about be- 
ginning to lay, they often can be stimulated by feeding a 
little raw meat or green bone. If there is a bone-cutter at 
hand, the latter will prove a cheap and satisfactory ration. 
When there is no bone-cutter, cheap pieces of meat may be 
ground in an ordinary meat-grinder, giving the fowls a little 
uncooked Hamburg steak, if you please. 
For the most part, however, the less cod- 
dling the flock receives the better the re- 
sults will be. 
Unless one is raising his own chicks, it 
will not be necessary to keep a male bird. 
Indeed, more eggs probably will be pro- 
duced when there is no rooster with the 
flock, and it is wasteful to feed a bird 
which gives no return. Certainly it is not 
neighborly to allow a loud-crowing chan- 
ticleer to break in on a peaceful com- 
munity’s slumbers at the appearance of the sun’s first 
morning rays, when windows are open in the Summer time. 
rar 
Bley chade and th 
The vines provide am 
hot-bed green food 
e 
