1866.] 
303 
AMEBICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Avoid Indian meal, is liis preventive. I cite 
these as specimens of how Doctors differ on 
this point; and let me say in passing to this 
last, that I feed with Indian meal always, and 
almost exclusively, and never have “gapes.” 
Now, to pass to the point: Did any one of 
your readers ever see a chicken with “gapes” 
on an absolutely new settlement—a place just 
built upon ? "We saw once a whole brood have 
it on such place, which, at ten days old, was 
brought from an old place infested with the dis¬ 
ease. Every one of the brood took it, after 
coming to their new home, or rather, brought it 
with them undeveloped. Not one took it that 
■v^as hatched after the removal. I was impress¬ 
ed with the fact, because, with great love for 
poultry as a boy, I had ‘ seen my fondest hopes 
decay ’ at the old place, without remedj\ 
“ Taking the hint, I have never allowed my 
chickens to remain for many successive years 
on the same ‘run.’ I plow up thoroughly the 
old yards, and spado the floors of houses; or, 
what is better, remove the j'ards to any ground 
on which poultry has not been confined before. 
It is their own accumulated filth, not that of oth¬ 
er animals, which poisons them. 
“ Of course, chickens must not be kept on 
ground retentive of moisture, nor required to 
drink filthy water; nor allowed, when quite 
young, to run through w'et grass; but with or¬ 
dinarily decent management, I believe ‘ clean 
ground,’ an absolute preventive of gapes,” 
^ < 1 ^ O — I > ^ 
Fattening Fowls. 
Many hundreds of thousands of fowls to be 
killed and eaten this autumn, are now run¬ 
ning about growing fast and picking up 
seeds and such insects as have survived the 
frosts. These are very good to eat, taken just 
as they are, if properly cooked; but the majority 
of purchasers think fat fowls much better than 
lean; therefore, as soon as chickens have nearly 
or quite their full growth, the best policy is to 
fatten them, for not only will the weight be 
much increased, but if properly marketed, they 
will bring much higher prices. We very rarely 
see thoroughly fattened poultry in our markets; 
certainly it is not because people will not buy 
them, for there are people in our large cities 
who will buy high priced things simply because 
high prices are the only indication they have of 
superiority. Fat poultry keeps, and bears car¬ 
riage and exposure to air, much better than lean, 
which alone adds several cents per lb. to its value. 
Some breeds of fowls are naturally disinclined 
to wander and take much exercise—these will 
fatten tolerably if allowed their liberty; but 
most will only get into a condition of good flesh, 
however much they be fed. Yet if these birds 
are confined in close quarters, so that they will 
have very little space to move about in, and 
are fed well, and have water, gravel, and some 
green food regularljq they will take on flesh and 
fat with astonishing rapidity. Fowls are profit¬ 
ably confined in fattening cages, set up a foot or 
two above the ground or floor, so that they 
shall have fresh air. Mr. Saunders, in his 
work on poultry, (sec our book list,) advises 
th* use of a cage for 24 fowls, 2 feet 
high, 3 feet long, 22 inches wide, stand¬ 
ing 2 feet from the ground. The entire coop 
is made of bars 1 ’]q inches wide, round or 
flat. The bars on the bottom should be I’la 
inches apart, the rest 3 inches apart. Several in 
the front and sides should be movable for con¬ 
venience in catching the fowls. There should 
be one or two plain board partitions to separate 
quarrelsome fowls, or make the coops smaller 
for a proportionally smaller number of fowls. 
There should be a board in front, or in front 
and rear both, with triangular feeding troughs. 
When the troughs are emptied, they may be re¬ 
moved, rinsed and filled with water, or. pans of 
water may be placed on the feeding boards, on 
which also gravel should be frequently scattered. 
The chickens are fed three times a day, at 
day light, at noon, and at dark. The feed is 
scalded meal of semi-fluid consistence, Indian 
meal being mingled with meal of other grains, 
or other soft food being occasionally substituted. 
Barley and buckwheat are excellent. The 
trough should be scalded out once every day, 
and the food given be always freshly mixed. 
Any quarrelsome bird, and any drooping one, 
should be removed at once, and others substitut¬ 
ed, so as to keep the coop full. If there are 
not enough birds to fill the coop, a partition 
should be inserted between the bars to contract 
the space. Such coops may best stand in open 
sheds, where thej’’ will have fresh air. Those 
who try them once will continue their use. 
’’''Cramming" has been written down and talked 
about in this countiy, a^ if it were one of the 
most horrid and cruel things that cotfid be done 
to poor dumb things. The truth is, the birds 
are higbly pleased with the operation. They 
are not hurt in any way, and like their food 
so, as well as in the natural way. A fowl is 
held in the lap, and rolls of meal, mixed stiff with 
milk and a little suet, are taken by the crammer 
in one hand, and dipped in milk and dropped 
down the throat, w'hile with the other hand the 
mouth is held open. The little finger is used to 
help the cram well down into the throat, and 
the bird swallows it with satisfaction. Some¬ 
times it is well to stroke the throat gently to as¬ 
sist the swallowing. The crop should be empty 
before one begins to cram, it should be well fil¬ 
led, and in 3 hours it should be all digested. A 
little Cayenne pepper aids digestion, and is good 
to give now and then. Crammed fowls fatten 
much more rapidly, and may be made much 
fatter than those which pick up their food; and 
if the process is successful, as it usually is when 
the fowls are kept quiet and clean, gently 
handled and supplied with gravel and fresh 
water regularly, no evidence of disease can be 
discovered. If, however, it be long continued, 
and they do not fat fast, nor disgest all of one 
meal before the next is given them, and the 
water is stale, and they quarrel, etc., before they 
become very fat, they will be likely to show by 
white combs and droopy looks that they are 
diseased. Such fowls must be given their liberty, 
for they wall not be fit for the table, and should 
never be sent to market unless in perfect health. 
Imperfections of Forced dueens. 
BY BIDWELL BKO’s, ST. PAUL, MINN. 
The system adopted by American bee-keepers, 
during the last several years, in attempting to 
Italianize their apiaries in compelling the bees to 
replace their queens removed, by rearing them 
from worker eggs or larvae, is one of oft repeat¬ 
ed disappointment and numerous failures. The 
only apparent exception to it is after, by long 
experience, one learns the evils to be avoided. 
A deficiency of honey and pollen as food, or a 
want of bees to furnish, and warm weather to 
help prepare it, produces a dwarfed or imperfect 
growth, which even an abundance thereafter 
can not wholly replace. The essential condi¬ 
tions necessary to natural queens which attend 
natural swarming are, an excess of mature 
bees, maturing brood to take their place, an 
abundant yield of honey and pollen with fair 
and warm wmather. By repeatedly placing a 
swarm under these circumstances, we have 
swarmed them out 6 times in 64 days, obtaining 
48 natural queens. In forcing queens, one or 
more, or all the previously mentioned condi¬ 
tions are wanting, which materially affect the 
forced queens, leaving you one or more queens 
poorer than the one you take awa}^ A worker 
larva 6 days old, which is not until then trans¬ 
formed into cbiwsalis, can not be converted into 
a queen after that, because only 5 days are 
allowed a queen larva before transformation 
and sealing, nor can a worker larva 5 days old 
be altered to a queen, as some time is required 
to effect the change; hence, the longer time 
would produce the more perfect change, as in 
the natural queen they arc started from the egg. 
We have repeatedly tried the different days of 
development of the worker larvre for forced 
queens, and found those started nearest the egg 
the largest and best, those taken in the later 
part of the fifth day seldom hatching, those on 
the sixth never maturing. In their desire to re¬ 
place their queen they strive to do it in the 
shortest possible time, and the worker being but 
an imperfect queen, which is dwarfed by cold, 
or imperfect food and reared in a small cell, 
one or more in an advanced stage is taken; they 
enlarge the cells and alter the food, and one or 
more of the youngest larvae are taken, until as 
many queens are started as their time and re¬ 
sources admit of, covering all likely failures. 
Now the queen from the most advanced worker 
larva hatches first, and having been fed and 
dwarfed for a worker longest, is the poorest, and 
only one being needed it is allowed to kill the 
rest, which are the best. For natural queens the 
cell is built first, and the egg, or larva, not being 
in the way, the base of the cell is made broader 
and larger, while the base of the forced queen’s 
cell is unavoidably contracted. 
There is still another difiiculty that must also 
be avoided. In their selection of eggs or larvae 
(on account of the size of the cells, as both are 
fed alike and are similar in appearance), they 
choose occasionally drone eggs or larvae instead 
of the worker eggs, and failure thereby occurs. 
A natural queen ordinarily hatches in clear and 
warm weather, and in two or three days flies 
out to meet the drones, and in two or three days 
more commences laying, but if retarded two 
or three weeks she gradually looses her desire 
to meet the drones. Each day’s delay then, 
to say the least, reduces her prolificness, and as 
she only flies out when the temperature is near 
summer heat, many days often elapse (even clear 
ones) at the time of year when forced queens are 
ordinarily reared — cai lv or laie in cool weather. 
