1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
299 
amount that a farmer can receive for young 
cockerels sold, is limited only by his capa¬ 
city for raising them. Somewhere within 
the anatomy of the hen there are a certain 
number of egg germs, probably the germs 
of all the eggs she will ever lay. A hen 
can average only four or five eggs a week 
at her best, and if she is neglected until 
the required egg food can be picked up out- 
of-doors she will not make up for any lost 
time. Her owner will see summer go by 
and the moulting time come without hav¬ 
ing received half the benefits of the hen’s 
capacity. To be made profitable hens must 
be made to lay in winter, and four ques¬ 
tions enter into the doing of this—buildings 
and their care, water, feeding and breeds. 
Hens Appreciate Good Homes. 
Good results from fowls cannot be ex¬ 
pected unless they are surrounded by the 
conditions of warmth, good housing, fresh 
water and proper feed, that are essential to 
success in dairying or sheep husbandry. In 
preparing for the business it will pay to 
put up a hen house that equals the best 
cattle or horse barn in stability and com¬ 
fort. Build to last a life-time. Roof with 
good shingles. Use matched siding when 
possible. Line the interior with some good 
material, the added warmth will largely in¬ 
crease the contents of the egg basket. I 
use tarred paper or felt for this; it is very 
durable, and is a preventive of vermin. By 
all means make a platform just under the 
roosts, and clean it off frequently. Several 
barrels of valuable fertilizer will be saved 
during the year, and as the floor will ba al¬ 
ways clean the capacity of the house 
will be about doubled. Running over 
piles of droppings is a fruitful source 
of disease in poultry. Nowhere out 
side of the dwelling house is strict 
cleanliness more essential than in the hen 
houses. Id building I use large stones at 
the corners and under center posts, then lay 
a sort of wall between them under the sills. 
A load or two of small stones are thrown 
Inside, and covered with gravel or coal 
ashes. The house is banked up with dirt 
from a trench dug all around it. Three of 
my houses are 9 x 24 feet, and accommodate 
100 fowls with unrestricted range. Two 
others, 8 x 15 feet, are divided into three 
compartments each, and open into separate 
yards. Fifteen hens are kept in each for 
breeding purposes. Better results are 
claimed from a number of small flocks than 
from the same number of hens running all 
together, and a close record of feed and 
eggs is being kept. 
Layers Are Heavy Drinkers. 
I found it profitable to give warm water 
in cold weather. Boiling water put into the 
troughs melts any ice that may have formed 
during the night, and the water quickly 
cools enough for drinking. In summer 
a hen nips at a blade of grass, or a 
clover leaf; next a bug. a worm, or a 
bit of gravel enters her crop, then a 
seed or kernel or grain. She picks at 
an apple for a while, samples the rasp¬ 
berries, and if the garden gate is open she 
will help herself to cabbages, tomatoes, or 
young squashes. The hen is doubtless lay¬ 
ing well all the time. Contrast this variety 
with the monotonous diet of corn some 
hens receive in winter. It is no wonder 
that they do not lay. Hens have been 
known to lay fairly well upon a diet 
of mixed grain, corn and barley being 
chiefly given at the last feeding, and in 
the morning a warm mash of bran with a 
small quantity of corn and oatmeal added. 
The grain should be thrown among straw 
or similar litter, to make them scratch for 
it. If economy in feeding is desired, give, 
three or four times a week, boiled turnips, 
beets, potatoes, carrots, or any vegetable 
that may be in the cellar; all will be 
relished. It will help out wonderfully if 
cabbage is kept before them constantly. 
Raise an extra load for the hens this sum¬ 
mer. A cheap food is clear clover hay cut 
fine, scalded and left overnight. Feed it 
with a little bran. Clover is rich in egg 
food. Boiled beans are excellent. In the 
future I shall use my wheat crop for feeding. 
Hens Ahead of Pigs. 
I have given up keeping pigs. I can get 
far larger results by feeding milk and 
refuse to hens. These will consume almost 
anything edible, even to portions of the 
straw thrown down for them to scratch in. 
An exclusive diet of the above tends to 
keep the hen healthy and warm, but in¬ 
duces fatness and cannot produce an 
abundance of eggs. Meat, in some form, 
is always an essential part of the successful 
poultryman’8 scheme of winter feeding. 
If near to a market, scraps of meat and 
bone can be obtained, chopped and fed raw, 
or meat and bone boiled up together. 
Refuse from the annual butcherings, and 
parts of any animal that has been accident¬ 
ally killed, can be utilized. If sufficient 
meat cannot be obtained in this way, it can 
be found in the market dried and prepared 
for the purpose, and at 2 to 2% cents per 
pound this is cheaper than grain. Do not 
be afraid of feeding meat to fowls There 
are in England large egg farms where hens 
are fed almost entirely upon It. Having 
power and a gieen-bone mill, I grind scrap 
meat and bone from the butcher’s, and 
feed them raw. I have found it quite nec¬ 
essary to place ground oyster shells, or 
some similar material, in the houses to 
make up any deficiency of the shell-forming 
material in the food. Grit in the form of 
gravel or pounded crockery a hen must 
have to digest grain, also a dusting place 
for wallowing, as in summer. The raising 
of chickens seems to be pretty well under¬ 
stood on most farms, and there is little 
trouble in hatching a large number of 
chicks if the right course is taken. Only 
small success may be expected if the hens 
are allowed to sit hap-hazard wherever 
they choose, getting food as they can. It 
will pay to partition off a place in the hen¬ 
house, or some outbuilding, put in five to 
eight nests, a dust bath, a dish of grain 
(mostly corn), and some clean water. Place 
a broody hen on a ne3t at night, and the 
eggs can be put under, and there will be no 
more trouble with her. Keep the grain 
dish full and the hens confined within this 
inclosure. They can be set twice, or even 
three times, if hot weather and vermin do 
not combine to make them restless. Put 
sulphur in the nests before the eggs are 
set; dust the hens with it, and put some In 
the box where they wallow; it keeps ver¬ 
min away. The chickens from two hens 
can usually be put with one for rearing. 
What Breed Shall I Keep? 
In conversation upon the merits of the 
respective breeds of fowls, a shrewd and 
successful farmer said: “ Any kind of a 
hen will lay well if she is properly fed I” 
He was partihlly though not wholly right. 
If farmer A’s little flock of dunghills lay 
three eggs a day, and farmer B’s thorough¬ 
breds lay six eggs, but little is thought of 
it; but if farmer A’s common stock of cat¬ 
tle gave 300 pounds of milk in a day, while 
a purebred herd of the same size produced 
600 pounds a day, the benefit would be at 
once apparent. I like the smaller breeds, 
as Leghorns and Minorcas, because the 
young cockerels bring us as much in our 
market as any other. The hens have been 
bred for hundreds of years as layers, are 
not inclined to waste time sitting, lay more 
than others upon the same amount of feed, 
and do not get into a fat, non-laying con¬ 
dition as easily as do the larger birds. If 
good-sized, meaty birds are wanted, which 
are almost always good sitters and moth¬ 
ers, and good layers as well, there may be 
some as good as, but none better than the 
Plymouth Rock. It is true that some ex¬ 
perienced poultry keepers claim that cross¬ 
bred fowls are more desirable; but the 
only foundation for this appears to me to be 
because occasionally breeders have mated 
fowls that are closely related until vitality 
has been destroyed, and many who buy a 
pair or two of purebred birds at a high 
price to experiment with pursue the same 
ruinous course. It is, then, that new blood 
of any kind will Improve the laying quali¬ 
ties. But if any farmer will obtain a few 
thoroughbreds, getting at the same time a 
copy of the Standard of Excellence to see if 
he has value received in his birds, even if 
he never exhibits at a poultry show, or 
tries to sell any stock at fancy prices, he 
will benefit the community and find for 
himself an abundance of satisfaction and 
profit. ARTHUR D. WARNER. 
Livingston Co., N. Y. 
POULTRY AND ASPARAGUS ON 
CAPE COD. 
Last Tuesday I visited the farm of Philip 
Smith and his son Luther B. in Eastham. 
Tue crops raised are poultry and eggs by 
the father, and asparagus, turnips and 
cranberries by the son. Last year 1,200 
bushels of rutabagas were grown for the 
Boston market; all are not sold yet. 
My interest centered on asparagus (of 
which 12 acres are cultivated), and the 
fowls. The first field of five acres was just 
plowed and laid down by the use of a side- 
hill sulky plow and a riding cultivator with 
harrow teeth attached. One pair of horses 
weighing 2,400 pounds furnished the motive 
power and also served for family driving. 
The plant food applied per acre was as fol¬ 
lows : half a ton of dry ground fish scrap, 
five to eight hundredweight of kainit, 300 
pounds of dry ground whale meat, and 200 
pounds of bone-black. These were applied 
with a Kemp manure spreader, the bottom 
being covered at each load with a sandy 
fish-compost. The fertilizer was in store for 
the other seven acres which were ready for 
the plow, the tops having been dragged off 
and collected with a horse rake. The 
“ grass ” is shipped by express freight, leav 
Ing about 6:30 or 7 P. M. 
The egg department is very successful, 
though in it one of the cardinal principles 
of the books is set at naught. The sitters 
were just beginning to receive eggs, and 
the chicks to be colonized on the fields to 
help care for the asparagus beetles. Sev¬ 
eral good-sized houses were vacant, the 
hens being gathered in winter-quarters, 
consisting of 14 apartments (besides a grain 
and cook room) and forming a “hollow 
square ” on three sides. From 30 to 35 
fowls were allotted to each room and all 
run together outside in pleasant weather. 
They are fed warm mash in the morning, 
and small grains at noon. Among the lit¬ 
ter in each room there is a self feeding corn 
bin and for night feed this is simply un¬ 
covered and the fowls are allowed to help 
themselves. Plymouth Rocks predominate, 
and breeding eggs are selected from the 
whole crop. Broken crockery, glass and 
ground bone are used, two hand mills be¬ 
ing in use. A windmill, with a tank In 
the barn loft, furnishes water, the building 
being heated by steam and piped for 
water. 
Mr. L. B. Smith has “ done time ” as a 
city business man, but prefers the farm 
and so does his wife, a very intelligent 
lady. One family cow is kept, but no other 
stock, unless the dogs are Included. D ucks 
and a trio of tame wild geese are also kept 
for sporting usos. Hay is procured from 
the salt meadows near by. K. L. s. 
Cape C d Mass. 
In writing to advertisers please always 
mention The Rural New-Yorker. 
ECLIPSE CORN PLANTER. 
Will plant seeds In Hills. Drills and Cheeks. 
Will distribute all fertilizers, Wet or Dry, In dif¬ 
ferent Amounts and Distances, each side of seed. 
“ Send for circulars.” 
ECLIPSE CORN PLANTER CO.. 
Enfield, Grafton Co. New Hampshire. 
WHY PAY RETAIL PRICES 
When you can buy hand-made oak loath, 
er llarueHN. single $7 to 880. Double 
$18.50 to $40. Illustrated catalogue free. 
Order one. KING & CO.. Hfrs. Owego. N .Y 
“HAIL COLUMBIA!” 
• 
The Columbia Chillei Plow Is the lightest draft- 
easiest to handle, strongest and most durable, does 
better work in all soils; In short the best plnw In the 
mirket. First premium every year 1889-1890, Inclus¬ 
ive at Berkshire County Fair Plow Trials. Don’t fail 
to try a Columbia before purchasing any other. 
Address-COLUMBIA. PLOW YVOBK-S, 
Copake Iron Works, 
Mention this paper. Columbia County, N. Y 
fl hampion E vaporator. 
For MAPLE, SORGHUM, CIDER, JBl 
and FRUIT JELLIES. 
Corrugated pan over firebox, donb!ingzTWBWKMMftSi 
boiling capacity. Small interchaiiga/Miai!IKiff97 I 
able syrup pang (connected by 
phone) enHily handled for cleans izy j i SS V 
mg and Btoring and a Perfcc vM//fWyMWA 
Automatic Regulator. 7a//ffirwf 1 
The Champion is as great \7//// ffTy ////g// \ 
an improvement over the / Ay/////////l 
Oook Pan as the latter 
was over the old iron kot-^fcijjjrrr- / \ fjata. 
tie, hung od a fence rail.pjiipJogue, 
Th®C. H. Free. 
^ MFC. CO. Mention 
Hudson. Ohio and Jutland. \/t_ " van*"-- 
formerly called by 
ut “TRIUMPH." 
SPADING 
HARROW 
Antjle of Teeth. Adjustable ’Br 
to work at desired depth. 
LATEST AND GREATEST 
For SUMMER FALLG.V, 
FALL SEEDING and 
STUBBLE GROUND. 
Style A has two gangs. 
Style II has four gangs. 
. Leaves No Furrows or Ridges. 
PULVERIZER 
IN THE WORLD. 
WiU do work no other can . 
AGENTS 
WANTED 
and testimonials, write D. S. MORGAN*, CO., Brockport, N.Y 
Mention this paper. 
No. 1, Farm Harness, For 18 Years have dealt direct with consumers, No. 3, 
$24 50 at wholesale prices, saving them the. dealer's profit, nnr. 
'Ht We. sliii> anywhere, with privilege o f , 
m examining before buying. We pay freight S' /K 
JXjr \ charges both ways if not satisfactory. War- / /\4li ; 7 A /'/jKo/hJihA 
1 /Ifl rant everything for two years. Any one who can f 
I I if write can order a Buggy or Harness from us, as l 
I 5/ K \TT we d as pay $10 to $»0 to some middle-man to yy// y / 
// \ ))ff\ )]J order for them. Wo give no credit, and have 'Nl / \'z - / 
ONE PRICE ONLY .Y 
Platform, 3-Spring or Combination ** ' t "Jj 
Wagons, ; same as others sell at $86. [ 
Top Itiiggies *<>5; good as sold at $90. __ I 
Ours at * IOO fine as sell for * I '.id. A yijrl AtHis 
Phaetons, Si 1 ID; same as sell at $160. Wj f- 
Fine Road Cart—with dash—S> 15. / )¥< n W/L i iJpSkrl , 
takeall risk of damage in shipping. Boxing free / 
>UR HARNESS : 
Single, SO to *20. X jyX lX 7 < \Jf\ \ 
Light Double, *20 to *40. si- 
logue Free. AddresB W. B, PRATT, Secretary, ELKHART 
^No. At 
1 Nickel Harness, 
$10 
UNIVERSAL WEEDER^CULTIVATOR 
Greatly improved for 1891. Endorsed by leading agri¬ 
culturists throughout the country. 
“ I must have two next year.”—T. B. TERRY. 
“ I regard Breed’s Universal Weeder as one of the most valuably 
implements a farmer can afford to employ.” J. J. THOMAS, inventor 
of the Smoothing Harrow. 
“ We are using the Weeder to-day on a field of potatoes a foot high, 
and does the best work it has done yet.”—WALDO F. BROWN. 
“ Your Weeder is about all that can be asked for as a weed killer 
and surface pulverizer." " 
Send for 
Circular 
and 
PriceList 
_ -JOHN GOULD. 
THE UNIVERSAL WEEDER CO., North Weire, N. H. 
Where we have no Agents, Machines will be DELIVERED at retail price. 
‘Planet Jr/^ 
Improved Farm and Carden ^ ’ 1 Jy /s' 
Tools for 1891. 
BETTER, Roth.Horse & Hand, THAN - EVER; X 
better and more money saving. We cannot describe them 
here, but our new and handsome catalogue is free and in- 
teresting. A goodly number of new tools will meet your eye io "^8 
there. Among these. Gardener’s Harrow, Cultiva- r J 
tor o£Pulverizer, combined,adjustable teeth; Market / ff 
Gardener’g & Beet Grower’s Special Horse Hoe “ 
with Pulverizer: Special Furrower, Marker and Ttidger, adjustable wings*; Sweet Hot a toe Horse 
Hoejour tooth with vine turner; Heavy Grass ISdgcr and Path. Cleanerrnew Niue Tooth Cultivator 
ana Horse Hoe combined: Special Steel Leveler and Pulverizer combiner!; all interesting, nothing we have 
'Ver made so practical or perfect. Some improved things too are grafted upon our older favorites. A capital LEVER 
VVHEEL, instantly adjustable for depth, is a great feature; put on all ’91 goods unless ordered otherwise. Nc 
have our Hand Seed Drills been forgotten in the march of improvement, nor our Double and Single Wheel Hoes, Gai 
den Plows, Grass Edgers, Ecc. Some of them are greatly altered for the better; yet do not forget that no novelties ai 
adopted by w> without artual and exhaustive tests in the field. We therefore guar- Q T ITT T?lj 0. ?IA 1107 Market 8t. 
antee everything exactly as represented Send for Catalogues now. U. L. ALLJjfl CL W* j Philadelphia, P», 
