1693 
THE RURAI 
67 
“ Did you feed them after you put them up ? ’ 
“ Yes.” 
“ What made you do so ? ” 
“ Because I knew they wanted it.” 
“ How did you know they did?” 
“ Because their appetites showed very plainly that 
they needed it.” 
“Now how do you know that they did not want 
water after they had been fed just as much as they 
did fodder before it was given to them ? ” 
“ I don’t know.” 
“ No, sir, you are honest; you don’t know ? 
“ I was in that plight myself. Now that I know, I 
am glad to know. I would as soon allow my cows 
to go without fodder at night as without water. 
These are facts. Any one and every one can be con¬ 
vinced of the truth of my statements if they wish to 
be. If not, they should not forget that the cows are 
suffering all the same. Every dairyman should have 
water handy for his dairy stock twice a day at least. 
If possible it should be in the cow stable and the cows 
in winter should be kept constantly in the stable, ex¬ 
cept for a part of the warmest days. There is no 
necessity for cows to go out-of-doors for exercise. Let 
them be watered soon after they have been fed in the 
morning, and it is just as necessary that they should 
have water at night. o. h. smith. 
Cattaraugus County, N. Y. 
COCHIN BROILERS BY GAS POWER. 
SOMETHING NEW IN POULTRY. 
A Family Affair. 
To describe a poultry establishment in which all the 
members of a family are equally interested, a “ plant ” 
run on business principles with brooders heated by 
gas, and buildings fitted with burglar alarms, is the 
object of this article. The residence of Mr. Elston 
Hunt, with a few acres of land accompanying it, lies 
within the limits of the village of North Bloomfield, 
N. Y., and in sight of the foaming Honeoye Creek. 
Mr. Hunt is one of the proprietors of a woolen factory 
and has taken great interest in poultry raising. 
The latter rather extensive industry, like that at 
Sid way Farm, had its origin in the efforts of the wife 
of the proprietor to raise a few chickens. Mr. Hunt 
was also impressed with the excellence of the idea 
and put up experimental buildings; the daughter, a 
school teacher, helps in hatching the chickens, and a 
brother of Mrs. Hunt, who owns a tract of farming 
land, furnishes feed. An exact account shows the 
sales, cost of buildings and of feed. The business has 
passed the experimental stage, however. Four years 
ago the ground back of the house was occupied by 
barns and a small henhouse. Now two substantial 
two-story buildings 20 by 32, have been erected, an¬ 
other one-story 16 by 32 is completed along with two 
brooder sheds, each 32 feet long. There are 34 gas 
lights all told, and 34 corresponding brooders. A gas 
well company furnishes the fuel, which is burned in 
the house as well as in the stoves. The gas for the 
house costs $3 per month and when brooders are run¬ 
ning the outlay is $4 a month extra. The gas is 
cheaper than kerosene. Think of cleaning and filling 
34 lamps every day ! The gas brooder is far preferable 
to the hot-water pipe system, in that with the latter a 
fire must be kept burning and one line of pipe heated 
at least, though only one brooder is needed ; while 
with the other system an exact degree of heat can be 
secured and regulated to the size and number of the 
chickens. A new batch of chicks can be put in any 
brooder which happens to be vacant, while the saving 
of labor is a very large item. 
Houses That Make Hens Comfortable. 
The brooders (see Fig. 23), are simple in construc¬ 
tion and all alike. H, is the hover ; c, a small tin can 
with holes punched in the bottom through which the 
heat rises ; f , is the floor; b, b, the sides of the heat 
box; i, i, two pieces of sheet iron; cool air entering 
the openings e, e, is heated and rises at c. The 
brooder sheds are perhaps six feet wide and five high 
in front, and partially open and face, the south. There 
is a brooder for each of the six partitions. They are 
on a level with the floor, and the gas jets are reached 
from behind where an excavation has been made for 
the heat box large enough to allow its door to swing 
out. In front of each shed is a small yard formed by 
lath fences leading out from each partition. 
House No. 3 is really composed of two buildings 
which were built separately and joined together by 
building sides and a roof between them. The roof 
slants but little and is covered with roofing felt laid 
upon matched boards. A person can stand erect any¬ 
where in this building. The gas jets are placed close 
to the ground and are reached by an alley-way. The 
floor inside the partition is of earth, and is raised to a 
level with the brooders. Any division can be entered 
through the alley by means of a lath door. The two- 
. NEW-YORKER. 
story buildings, costing about $200 each (see Fig. 24), 
are constructed on a plan which is unusual and novel. 
The lower story has an earth floor and is partitioned 
off with wire nettings, for hens ; just under the floor 
of the second story, near the large south windows, is 
a line of gas pipe and a row of burners and heat boxes. 
The hot air rises through “ registers ” in the floor, and 
the hovers stand upon the latter. There are eight 
brooders in these houses, and the upstairs portion is 
divided into an alley-way and eight compartments 
opening from the alley. There is of course a row of 
windows in each story. 
The doors of these buildings are not locked at night, 
but are all connected in an electric circuit, and when 
the current is turned on the opening of any door even 
not more than two inches will set a bell in the house 
ringing. The advantages of this method of construc¬ 
tion are that upstairs the chickens are always dry and 
warm. The floor is kept well sanded. Chickens do 
well from the first, and have been kept in the upper 
story until six months of age. 
Big Hens and Big Feeding. 
Much of the success of this “ ranch ” is due to the 
breed kept. This is the big-boned, hardy, peaceable, 
A 
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1 [ 1 
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H 
1 1 
M 
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|i l 
u 
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ii 
-Of 
B 
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jodS 
Brooder Heated by Gas. Fig. 23. 
sleepy Buff Cochin. The flock, which at one time in 
early autumn of this year numbered over 1,500, origi¬ 
nated in a few eggs which came five years ago from L. 
E. Benedict’s poultry yards. These great, handsome, 
quiet birds are preeminently good feeders. The firm 
is happy in the possession of a member in the person 
of Mr. Richardson. His convictions are sound. He 
furnishes a great deal of the feed and metes it out 
with a lavish hand. He declares with emphatic 
gesticulations that if there is money in feeding grow¬ 
ing chickens at all it will come from feeding them all 
they can eat. These chickens grow faster than any I 
had before seen. They continue to put on flesh at 
the rate of half a pound per week for weeks after 
new stock of other breeds have stopped growing. 
About 300 bushels of corn in the ear have been used 
this fall. The ration is fed three times a day without 
variation. It is composed of three parts of bran, two 
of corn and oats ground at the custom mill four rods 
distant across the creek, and one paid of fine middlings. 
The mixture is made damp but not wet. All needed 
for the day is mixed in the morning by the use of a 
shovel. Every available foot of floor space was 
occupied with chickens or grown fowls when I visited 
the place a few days ago, and over $400 worth of broil¬ 
ers and old stock had already been sold. Thirteen 
hundred chickens were hatched this season out of 
nth 
AUf T 
- *oo$ts 
- 1 
Three Styles 
of Brooder Houses. Fig. 24. 
which 1,100 were raised. Three hundred hens were 
wintered last season. This “ ranch ” was started for 
broiler raising, but an unexpected by-product came in 
the shape of 1,900 dozens of eggs, many of which were 
sold out after the hatching season. The only incubator 
used is the big, motherly Cochin hen. The nests as 
well as the roosts are low down, so that the birds do 
not have to climb, and in the breeding season from 60 
to 80 hens are sitting at the same time, many of them 
hatching three broods before they are liberated. 
Reason for Success; Should They Change? 
There are several reasons why chicken raising is a 
success at the Hunt place. The hardiness of the breed 
is one contributor. The young Cochin is a lusty fellow 
“able to hoe his own row ” where any other chicken 
can. He endures confinement and heavy feeding. 
Liberal feeding and comfortable quarters are two 
others. A clean home is another. But, after all, the 
vigilant supervision over the young stock by the 
ladies of the firm contributes chiefly to success. Under 
their watchful care the rearing of so many hundreds 
of chicks becomes, not a survival of the fittest, but a 
survival of all that is possible. The brooder answers 
all the purposes of a hen. Chickens are sometimes 
helped out of their shells, and placed under the hover, 
wet and scrabbling. In a few hours they are dried 
out into downy yellow balls, with an eye for the main 
chance at the feeding board. The first feedings con¬ 
sist of bread crumbs, hut a great deal of dependence is 
placed on pure corn meal, both wet and dry, for sub¬ 
sequent use. As soon as possible the bran and mid¬ 
dlings ration is introduced. The health of the chickens 
and fowls is looked after. Pure water, plenty of cab¬ 
bage and some meat and bone are supplied during 
winter. Mr. Richardson thinks that the best way for 
storing cabbage before the breaking up of winter is to 
pile it out-of-doors, after scanty trimming, on the north 
side of a building. The indications are that the 
broiler farm will be turned into an egg farm eventu¬ 
ally. The raising of so many chickens to get a given 
amount in cash returns is getting to be a burdensome 
task. I am of the opinion that Mediterranean breeds 
lay more the second and third years than in the pullet 
year. The Hunts are convinced that the Cochins lay 
more the second and third years than they do in the 
first. This is exactly contrary to the sell-your-pullets 
idea. They will probably adopt a smaller breed—one 
that lays white eggs and more of them. The stock on 
hand if sold now would bring perhaps $700. If the 
thousand or more head were all hens of a distinctly 
egg breed they would lay at a low estimate $1,500 
worth of eggs within the coming year, and the hens 
would be still on hand. Which pays best, broilers or 
eggs, or a combination of the two ? A. d. warner. 
BLOOD AND BONE. 
THEY BACK UI’ AN ILLINOIS GRAIN FARM AND GIVE LIVE 
STOCK A REST. 
Western Farmers are Coming to Chemicals. 
The use of chemical fertilizers, so long considered 
essential to the successful cultivation of many of the 
farms of the Eastern States, and the discussions 
through the leading agricultural papers of the merits 
of the different grades and brands of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, have attracted, more closely each succeeding 
year, the attention of farmers further west; until 
now, many thoughtful farmers of the Mississippi Val¬ 
ley are asking themselves if the use of chemicals will 
not allow them to sell their grain and hay without 
decreasing the fertility of their farms, and thereby 
relieve them of the necessity of adding to the business 
of grain production, that of manufacturing. Although 
the farms of this section are not impoverished or 
exhausted as compared with those of the New England 
States, they do not respond to cultivation alone as 
they did 30 or 40 years ago, and some system whereby 
the present fertility and capacity can be maintained, 
has for some time been recognized as a necessity. The 
feeding of grain to live stock on the farm was for a 
time a profitable operation in several ways; a better 
price was realized for the grain fed, the farmer was 
profitably employed during the winter months, and the 
manure from the grain thus fed was a check on the 
drain of fertility from the farm. The conditions have 
now become so changed that it is no longer profitable 
to use these four-footed machines in converting the 
grain into finished products for sale in the markets of 
the world. 
These prairies seem specially adapted to the use of 
all the improved implements and methods for the pro¬ 
duction of maximum crops of grass and grain at a 
minimum cost of time and manual labor, and the idea 
is dawning on the minds of many farmers who own 
their farms, that the use of a little concentrated fertil¬ 
izer will enable them to grow large successive crops of 
grain for sale in successful competition with all the 
world, and also to settle the labor question which is 
yearly growing more perplexing. Many who aban¬ 
doned the practice of feeding grain for meat produc¬ 
tion, turned their attention to dairying, which requires 
still more capital, closer application and greater skill, 
but now the impossibility of securing competent and 
reliable hired help is forcing them out of the business, 
and the movement toward chemical farming has 
already begun. 
History of an Illinois Chemical Farmer. 
Wishing to learn how the Western methods and 
results of this way of farming compare with those of 
our Eastern brothers, as described by The Rural New- 
Yorker, I recently visited the farm of Mr. E. McAllis¬ 
ter, the first man in this part of the country to take a 
long step in this direction. He owns and occupies a 
fine farm of 160 acres of black prairie loam underlaid 
with a clay subsoil, in which he has buried over $3,000 
in drain tiles, and every acre is now pleasant to culti¬ 
vate in any kind of a season. A new and commodious 
house, well appointed for the comfort and happiness 
of himself and interesting family, substantial and con¬ 
veniently arranged barns, granaries, etc., surrounded 
by sufficient shade and fruit trees, combine to make 
this farm a most attractive home. Mr. McAllister has 
owned it over 30 years, and early decided that 
