i89i 
587 
years ago, and neither personally use, nor 
give to any animals drugs of any kind, ex¬ 
cepting when actual sickness may need a 
simple remedy. Fowls that are moulting 
are perfectly healthy, and why they should 
need Douglass Mixture, red pepper, and 
other stimulants so frequently recom¬ 
mended by many writers, is bard to tell. I 
believe animal ■ are often doctored in propor¬ 
tion to the tendency of the owner himself 
for using drugs. Nature supplies all the 
food and tonics necessary without having 
recourse to the apothecary’s mortar and 
pill-box. A hen that has been forced for 
laying needs rest if she is to moult quickly. 
Growing feathers and producing eggs at 
the same time are not calculated to hasten 
moulting. 
I turn out my hens to roam over the pas¬ 
tures and in the orchards, feeding them 
oats or wheat once a day, but feeding the 
grain rather sparingly. All know the bene¬ 
fit a milch cow receives when she is allowed 
to run dry for a month or two before calv¬ 
ing. The drain on the system caused by 
milking is removed, and corresponding Im¬ 
provement is made in the growth of the 
body and fetus. Treating hens on the 
same principle will carry them through 
their monlt rapidly. They will, if not 
stuffed with grain, soon become active for¬ 
agers, and the exercise they get in roaming 
over the fields picking up innumerable 
grubs, etc., a ds greatly to their health and 
strength. Such fowls turned out in July, 
will often begin laying again in November, 
and sport a new set of feathers. This has 
been my experience. Breeders of fancy 
fowls, who shut up their hens, experience 
more difficulty in having the latter moult 
properly, and they must resort to stimulat¬ 
ing foods to pull the birds through In good 
shape. Fowls that are closely confined and 
have no range moult badly. This is easily 
seen by visiting dealers who keep on sale 
in small cages fowls that often moult in 
the latter. The feathers lack luster and 
are rough and curled. In such cases, stimu¬ 
lating foods such as hemp seed, sunflower 
seeds and raw meat, may help them, but 
nothing can put on the beautiful luster and 
well grown feathers that birds at liberty 
possess. 
I once sent a lot of Golden Spangled Ham- 
burgs to a show, and a number of fanciers 
were surprised at their fine, glossy plum¬ 
age. They wanted to know the secret of 
preparing birds in such fine condition. 
The secret was no secret at all. The birds 
had the range of the farm and woods, 
roosted in the evergreen trees, and received 
Indian corn and wheat once a day in addi¬ 
tion to what they picked up. One of our 
Partridge Cochin breeders pursues the same 
plan, and his birds are evidence that Nature 
does her work beautifully. 
With Leghorns, Games and Spanish 
moulting is harder than with our hardier 
breeds, and for such a farm range is al¬ 
most indispensable. Leghorns are apt to 
lay well into their mouliing period, but 
the above treatment will help them 
through the critical time. One thing must 
be borne in mind—that the age of a hen in¬ 
fluences her moulting greatly. Old hens 
usually moult later in the season, although 
feeding and handling will hasten the 
process, but three months is the average 
time required for the moult. 
J. H. DREVEN8TEDT. 
Get Flesh on the Birds. 
My theory for hastening the moult is to get 
flesh on the birds. After hens have been 
laying and sitting all summer, they get 
thin in flesh. The better the layer, the 
thinner she gets, so, after I am through 
breeding, I feed mostly corn and other fat¬ 
tening foods. Hens thin in flesh will moult 
late—sure. I should suppose that moulting 
is harder on the small birds because they 
don’t have flesh enough to hurry the pro¬ 
cess along. p. williams. 
Prizes for Table Poultry. 
At the late English Royal Show there 
were 38 entries for the prizes given for 
table poultry. The birds were entered alive 
and killed, weighed, plucked and examined 
by the judges. For cockerels, the prize was 
won by Indian Games, with Dorkings 
second and third. The winners were not 
the largest, but had the best shape, and the 
largest amount of breast meat. The pullet 
prize was won by a Plymouth Rock, to the 
surprise of the public. “If Plymouth Rocks 
can be fed to look like the winner, the 
breed will become much more popular,” 
says the London Live Stock Journal. In¬ 
dian Games were second and third. In 
crossbred cockerels most of the birds 
shown were crosses between Dorkings and 
Indian Games. The first prize went to 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
chicks from an Indian Game cock and 
Dorking hen, with a bird the exact reverse 
of this breeding, second. The same result 
was reached.with crossbred pullets. There 
can be no doubt as to the value of the In¬ 
dian Game for crossing on common stock 
for table birds. 
Lick on Chicks. —The greasing of chicks 
as a remedy for lice may be objected to by 
some. It certainly leaves them in a mussed 
up condition, and they will remain so until 
a new coat of feathers comes out. Another 
method is to dip a cloth in kerosene, place 
the chicks in a box upon half of it, fold the 
other half over them, and spread a dry 
cloth over this. Let them remain so for an 
hour, looking in occasionally to see if they 
are all right. If there are any lice they 
will be found upon the cloth. To clear a 
brooder of lice, shut the chicks out, close it 
tightly after placing inside a dish of burn¬ 
ing sulphur. Fumigate in this way for an 
hour. This should be repeated once in two 
weeks. Arthur d. warner. 
A Chicken Cholera Cure —Among the 
many different remedies for chicken chol¬ 
era, I have never found anything so effec¬ 
tive as ground black pepper. Many of our 
fowls have been cured by feeding it to them 
in bran or corn meal, well moistened with 
water; if they are too sick to eat, it is 
stirred into sweet milk and poured down 
their throats in small doses. But I have 
learned that it is better to use pepper as a 
preventive than as a cure. I think it should 
be fed to the hens (and a very little to the 
chickens) often, especially during the spring 
and summer months, when, to my know¬ 
ledge, cholera is the most prevalent. Ido 
not say that it will always cure or prevent. 
but it is the be3t remedy that I know of, 
and if poultry raisers used it more freely, 
I am sure there would ba fewer cases of 
cholera among their fowls. Frances. 
Henry Co., O. 
RABBIT FARMING. 
On the menu of the agricultural banquet 
at Cornell, described in a late issue of The 
R. N.-Y., “Domestic Rabbit” held an hon¬ 
orable place. Well it might. A well fed 
rabbit is not only good eating, but will 
sell well when properly put on the market. 
The English are inclined to ridicule the 
idea of growing tame rabbits for sale, yet 
the French and Belgian peasants fre¬ 
quently send 200 tons of rabbit meat to the 
London market. On the small European 
farms the rabbit is considered about as 
necessary as the pig, the sheep or poultry. 
In an article recently printed in England 
by Major Morant, an authority on rabbit 
breeding, we are told that during the 10 
months ending last October, over $1,370,000 
worth of rabbit meat was sent to England 
from Europe against $1,185,000 worth in 
1889. It is not likely that Americans will 
need any such quantity of rabbit meat right- 
away, still we believe it possible for an en¬ 
terprising man to develop a good market 
for well fed, fat rabbits. Major Morant 
says this of the rapidity with which rabbits 
multiply: 
“ It would probably surprise a good many 
people to be told that a couple of doe rab¬ 
bits weighing from seven pounds to eight 
pounds each will produce In a year a greater 
weight of meatthanacoupleof ewes weigh¬ 
ing from 60 pounds to 70 pounds each, but 
It is quite a common thing for the two does 
to rear 50 young in a year, which if kept 
till they weigh six pounds each, will weigh 
300 pounds, while the two ewes will be for¬ 
tunate if they rear three lambs, which when 
a year old will weigh 70 pounds each. We 
had a doe once that reared a litter of 11 
young, which weighed 60 pounds when 14 
weeks old, and they were sold at 3s. 9d. per 
couple. This doe and her young were fed 
almost entirely on grass and clover, having 
had in addition only sufficient oats and 
bran to keep them in health. It is quite 
common for does to rear eight or ten young 
in each litter. If a doe has less than six 
more than once, she should be got rid of. 
It is no more profitable to keep does which 
are bad breeders than cows which are bad 
milkers.” 
He says that in 1883 he had eight does. 
In 1885 the entire stock was over 2,000 
rabbits. 
The Convenience of Solid Trains. 
The Erie is the only railway running 
solid trains over its own tracks between 
New York and Chicago. No change of cars 
for any class of passengers. Rates lower 
than via any other first-class line.— Adv. 
jl HcmaWIe Test ot Fertilizers 
AT THE 
Connecticut Experiment station. 
In the Report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station for 
1890, the Director, in commenting on the “great and unusual discrepancy 
between guarantee and actual composition” of a certain brand of goods, 
illustrates the possibility of uniformity of composition in the manufacture 
of commercial fertilizers, by giving the results of three analyses made from 
twenty-nine different samples of Bradley’s Superphosphate, 
drawn in the State of Connecticut in 1890, and states that these analyses 
“ show satisfactory agreement, and demonstrate 
the ability of the manufacturer to turn out a 
thoroughly uniform product.” — (Seepage 49, Annual 
Report of Connecticut Agricultural Expertnicnt Station for 
1890.) 
In the analyses of these twenty-nine samples of Bradley’s 
Superphosphate the greatest difference, expressed in money value, 
was 56 cents per ton. The samples were all drawn from stocks in the 
hands of local agents, and without notice to the manufacturers. 
As farmers cannot afford to risk their crops by using fertilizers of 
uncertain or unknown value, they will do well to insure their crops 
by using Bradley’s Fertilizers, which have for the past thirty years 
maintained their reputation as the most reliable and uniform ferti¬ 
lizers in the market. 
The Bradley Fertilizers are for sale by local agents in 
Ijp 3 nearly every farming town ; but if ?iot readily found, a postal "VBH 
card sent to us will bring you the name of our nearest Agent. "Vj-jg 
Bradley Fertilizer Co., 27 Kilby St., Boston. Rochester, N. Y. 
We are enabled to offer our readers a most attrac¬ 
tive combination, by which all may obtain a copy 
of the modern Cook Book,” which contains 
320 Pages, Over 1,200 Recipes and 
Hundreds or Illustrations. 
The recipes are the choicest selections from 20,000 that 
were received from practical housewives living in all parts 
of the United States, to which were added hundreds of the 
newest, best and most practical recipes of this progressive 
age, all of it set in new and large type, and the whole book 
handsomely illustrated. 
COOK BOOK FREE. 
IT IS A PRACTICAL, ROOK. 
It is an admirably arranged volume of recipes for practical, everyday 
use. Among Its points of excellence are the following: 
Practical Suggestions to Young Housekeepers, Necessary Kitchen Utensils, Suggestions 
and Recipes for Soups, Fish, Poultry, Game, Meats, Salads, Sauces, Catsups and 
Relishes, Breakfast and Tea Dishes, Vegetables, Bread, Biscuit, Pies, Puddings, 
Cakes, Custards, Desserts, Cookies, Fritters, etc. Also for Preserves, Candles ' 
and Beverages; Cookery for the Sick, Bills of Fare for Family Dinners, 
Holiday Dinners, etc. A Table of Weights and Measures; Chapters on ' 
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Any person accepting our offer will receive this paper nearly a year, and also that charming home 
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by aspecial editor. It gives the latest Fashions, arranged for practical use ; timely hints to Housekeepe. 
cheering and helpful talks wilh Mothers; valuable information for lovers of Flowers; a pretty and nieasa 
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