i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
699 
‘■IF I COULD BE YOUNG AG UN.” 
With the light I now have I would begin 
the life work of the farm, the nursery, or 
the growing of orchard and small fruits, 
by preparation for it by taking a course in 
one of our real agricultural colleges where 
the natural sciences are taught in connec¬ 
tion with their practical application to the 
purposes of life. Admitting the fact that 
our best American agricultural colleges do 
not teach the boy to plow a straight furrow, 
or to manage agricultural machinery and 
help to the best advantage, the fact remains 
that a bias is given to the agricultural pur¬ 
suits,|snd habits of close analytical thought 
and investigation are fixed for life. That 
this is needed for solving the problems of 
the farm, the nursery, the orchard, the 
social and commercial life, and the general 
adaptation of means to ends, few will deny. 
I was not able to take such a course, as in 
this country \ve then had no such facilities. 
But the decision was made in early life that 
I would try to own and manage systemat¬ 
ically, a good farm, and I used the first 
available means, after my school days, in 
securing some of the best agricultural and 
horticultural papers and some of the best 
American and foreign books on the theory 
and practice of agriculture, horticulture 
and forestry. In addition to this, I lost no 
opportunity to attend county and State fairs 
and aided—before . owned a farm—in start¬ 
ing a neighborhood club for the discussion 
of social, political and agricultural ques¬ 
tions. Even then I believed, as I do now, 
that the farmer or horticulturist needed 
familiarity with the thoughts, modes an l 
methods of his associates in his line of 
work over the world fully as much as does 
the lawyer, the doctor, or the special scien¬ 
tist. I looked at such knowledge then as a 
stock in trade to bring returns in after life. 
Looking backward I firmly believe it 
was a good investment. In 15 years I was 
able to pay for a good farm of 240 acres, to 
erect first-class buildings, to put the place 
in attractive shape, and to clear about 
$25,000. In this there was not a trace of 
speculation. The gains were the proceeds 
fairly and squarely of the farm, the or¬ 
chard, the garden, and the nursery, at a 
time when there was much talk of hard 
times. This is the first time I have ever 
referred to personal matters; but I am anx¬ 
ious to impress the motto of the Iowa Agri. 
cultural College “ Theory with Practice.” 
“ The agitation of thought is the beginning 
of wisdom ” on the farm as it is in the 
learned pursuits and professions. 
Iowa Agr’l Coll. [PROF ] j. L. budd. 
Poultry Yard. 
Feeding Light Brahmas.— I should not 
feed Light Brahmas as I would Leghorns 
at all seasons of the year. It is natural 
for the former to put on flesh, and if eggs 
are wanted in the winter the hens must be 
fed food that is not fattening; while 
Leghorns are naturally egg producers and 
one can feed all the corn they will eat and 
they will not get too fat. I think green 
food is necessary for all breeds of poultry, 
but Asiatics will eat more grass than other 
breeds, and they should always have a 
grass run. It may be possible to give a 
“ standard ” ration to a flock containing 
several breeds, but don’t think I’d u^e it. 
Bristol County, Mass. p. williams. 
The Making of an Egg— Eggs are pro¬ 
duced from what may bo termed surplus 
food, by which we mean such food as is not 
absolutely required for the sustenance of 
the bird, and if the food be given in excess 
or of too stimulating a nature, the result 
is, in the one case, that the organs are 
clogged up with fat, and the egg-laying 
machinery stopped, or, in the other, that 
the ova are produced too rapidly. In the 
ordinary course of things, only one ovum 
should be generated in 24 hours, and the 
fowl ought not to lay more than five or 
six times a week. If two ova are produced 
in one day many eccentricities are the re¬ 
sult, which puzzle the poultry keeper. 
Sometimes the two ova pass into the ovi¬ 
duct together, and then a double yolked 
egg is formed. If this egg is set, and the 
yolks have been fertilized, then come some 
of these freaks of nature which are com¬ 
municated as great wonders. Occasionally 
two perfect chickens are developed and 
hatched out of one shell, but as a rule one 
ovum comes to maturity, and thus we get 
four legged or two headed monstrosities. 
Another result of over-feeding is the pro¬ 
duction of one perfect egg within another. 
This is caused by an Irritation of the 
oviduct, which contracting in front of the 
perfectly formed egg, instead of behind it, 
forces it back until it me ets.another yolk. 
when the two join company, and again 
being coated witn the white and the shell, 
produce the wonder spoken of. Soft eggs 
result from too much fattening and too 
little exercise, the ovum passing down the 
oviduct too rapidly for the secretions to be 
properly made, or, on the other hand, they 
may be caused by absolute want of lime, 
without which, as we have already seen* 
the shell cannot be properly made. None 
of these Irregularities are found in wild 
birds, and these must be put down as 
among the penalties of domestication. But 
knowing what dangers to avoid, it is then 
not very difficult to so feed and manage 
the birds that their organs may work in 
their proper natural order. Birds when 
wild lay very few eggs, and it is only by the 
handiwork of man that they have been 
brougnt to their present state in this re¬ 
spect, but It has been gradually done, and- 
with no apparent Injury to them. It must, 
however, be borne in mind that overstep¬ 
ping the boundary soon brings its own pun¬ 
ishment, and therefore the greatest care 
needs to be taken in the feeding of poultry, 
so as to maintain them in full health and 
vigor.—Farmers' Gazette. 
A Chicken Bucket. 
A much larger proportion of the chick¬ 
ens hatched in the spring would be raised 
if greater attention were paid to their diet. 
When a fowl, or any other young animal, 
is not properly nourished while in a grow¬ 
ing condition, not only will it be unable to 
develop into a vigorous, robust adult, but 
it will be much more liable to fall a victim 
to some of the various diseases with which 
little chickens are threatened. I am sure 
that I have killed many by feeding raw 
dough, yet writers on poultry constantly 
advise the use of this. One evening I came 
home late and not having any bread con¬ 
venient, mixed up some corn meal with 
water and gave it to the little chickens. 
Next morning about one third of them were 
dead in their coops, and the others were 
drawn up in little knots looking perfectly 
miserable with their crops tightly packed 
with fermenting dough. 
I knew they would all die, so just as an 
experiment I cut open the crops of two or 
three, took out the sour food and sewed the 
openings up again, but the experiment was 
a failure. Now I have for the benefit of the 
young chickens a convenient receptacle 
called the “ chicken bucket,” which vi¬ 
brates between the dining room and the 
kitchen and catches all the bits of broken 
bread, cold biscuits, scraps of meat, and 
cold vegetables. The mass is then soften¬ 
ed by pouring pot-liquor over it; care must 
be taken, however, to empty the bucket 
every day, else the mixture will become 
unwholesome. It is a good plan to give 
this at noon and at night, and their break¬ 
fast should be either of cracked wheat or 
bread. A farmer’s daughter. 
R. N.-Y.—We would like to have our 
friend see some of our chickens that have 
eaten plenty of raw dough. They are 101 
degrees removed from death. 
Cold Eggs In Cold Weather. 
Nature makes no mistakes, but we some¬ 
times think she does, and try to set her 
straight. When she gives a hen the desire 
to sit five days without leaving the nest, at 
the beginning of incubation, it is because 
that is the critical time for the future 
chicken. 
In the first days of March, 1885, I gave 
my hen Topknot 10 eggs, in a box filled to 
the depth of a foot with earth, wood ashes 
an i sawdust, with a little straw on top. 
The month was very cold. For five days 
she sat there, and then, though the ice did 
not thaw a bit In the sun, I lifted her off to 
ba fed, intending to set her back in 20 min¬ 
utes at the farthest. Company came in, 
and I forgot her till we were sitting down 
to dinner, when the head of the house said: 
“ Mrs. Topknot has gone on the wrong 
nest.” I started on the run followed by 
his voice, saying, “ Oh, you needn’t run ; 
the eggs are as cold as a wedge.” So they 
were, as cold as the pavement to the touch, 
but I put the hen back and she never made 
the mistake again. Probably she would 
not have done so then had I allowed her to 
get off herself. 
In the days that followed came such re¬ 
marks as, “ How are your frozen eggs ? ” 
and “ What will you take for the brood ?” 
and other cheering questions. To all I had 
but one answer; “ I am over 40 years old, 
and I never had a hen fall to hatch. I can 
afford one failure.” Wnen her time was 
up she had seven strong chickens, and l 
presume the three eggs which yielded none 
were not fertile. The hen was away from 
the nest an hour and a quarter. 
M. J. KIMBALL. 
Readers of The R. N.-Y. will please the 
advertisers and benefit the paper by always 
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