NEW YORK, MAY 6, 1893. 
PRICE, THREE CENTS 
$ 1.00 PER YEAR. 
A BIG CHICKEN BUSINESS. 
BUTTER, BROILERS & CO. 
The Hen Mates the Guernsey Cow. 
Some weeks ago when we described the Guernsey 
cattle at Ellerslie stock farm we promised to tell about 
the poultry. When it was decided to make dairying 
the chief business feature of this farm, the next study 
was to decide what sort of live stock would best work 
in with it. The wastes of butter-making—skim and 
buttermilk—have considerable feeding value. The 
question was : what animal will make the most profit¬ 
able use of these wastes all things considered? The 
decision swung between the pig and the hen and the 
hen won. Not exactly the 
hen, but that intermediate 
stage of life between the 
egg and the egg-maker that 
was known as the broiler. 
One reason that went to s 
give the broiler this decision 
was the fact that there is a 
home demand on this farm yX'' 
alone for 1,500 broilers and 'wV 
uncountable eggs every 
year. Like a good farmer, v'yxb 
Mr. Cottrell decided to sup- 
t-ly the home tables as far /, in, | | 
as possible first and then A^wth- /' 
sell the surplus. J-\ !, 
A business as big as this j 
promised to be, needed a Ji 
head to run it. They want ill 
experts at Ellerslie and Mr. II / f •—* 
Jas. H. Seeley proved the (§^ ;/ 
man for the hour in this w/S 
case. He started with noth- 
ing, to build up a poultry ' '\ , 
department that would do j ^ /JjW(/l 
so well on skim-milk that nUy \ A/vA\ v /// M \l( 
the Guernsey cows would V ' \ Sh 
be shamed into giving even J // V 
a richer product. When I /#! 
visited the place the in- \ \ \\ • I... 
cubators and brooders were I ■ YJ| l/jm ~ 
in good running order and NtJ 
about 1,500 little chicks 1 
were stuffing themselves v w 
for the frying-pan. We \^Wv 
shall let Mr. Seeley tell, in ~—\ 
his own words, the story of 
his practice and plans. 
No Chance for the Old Hen. 
“ How much of a business 
do you plan to do, Mr. 
Seeley ? ” 
“I expect to sell 20,000 
broilers a year. There is a 
market for 1,500 on the 
place. The balance w e 
send to New York where we 
can get the hens. At present we buy all our eggs— 
which is one reason why we need so many.” 
“ Where do you get them ? ” 
“We buy of farmers who bring them to us. We 
pay three cents a dozen above the market price for 
those we think will suit us. We try to get select eggs, 
that have been handled as we direct. At present we 
get all the eggs we need, but in the beginning we 
could not get enough to run us.” 
“ What regulations do you have to guide farmers ? ” 
We want eggs that are gathered every three hours 
in this cold weather. [This interview took place in 
early March. R. N.-Y.] There must be a good sup¬ 
ply of cocks with the hens, and they must be well 
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“A Hog Bite.” Fig. 118. 
Farmhb: “ But where do I come In on that ? ” 
Politician: “ Oh. you’ll get the core—If there w any 
“ Never give a scrub man a pedigreed animal—that 
is all I can say about that. A scrub man will make 
a scrub of everything he touches.” 
The Eggs and What Comes from Them. 
“How do such eggs turn out, anyway ?” 
“ You can see that the chicks are all sorts and kinds. 
Every breed seems to be represented from Brahmas 
to Brown Leghorn 3. Many of the chicks are evidently 
too closely inbred and are weak from the start. One 
great fault in the average farmer’s flock is that new 
blood is seldom put in, and the birds are inbred too 
closely.” 
“Asa rule, however, the eggs hatch out something, 
— don’t they?” 
/ \ “Yes; but of course now 
/ \ and then we get a lot that 
\ is a clear loss. For in- 
/ stance, one man sent us a 
*° r w ^ cl1 we paid $42. 
, ’ The total hatch from these 
fyj) e S S 8 was six chickens. 
Seven dollars a bird is too 
much 1 ” 
“Given an egg, how do 
you make a broiler ? ” 
“After standing long 
enough to ‘ settle, ’ the egg 
t Foes into an incubator. We 
\\ USe Prairie state aa d Pine- 
W m land incubators—10 in one 
p oom. The incubators are 
r nn in the usual way. 
c When hatched, as soon as 
Wel1 dried ’ the kittle chicks 
t v are pnt in brooders, which 
are heated by hot water 
Pipes that keep the little 
'mlf 1 / fellows a good deal more 
\\\L comfortable than an old 
Iffl hen could.” 
fffi I, I-) IE, “About all that get to 
\ l /) '"III \w\Jl tlie brooder live, do they ?” 
jVjil “ We expect to lose about 
vV\\ I ' ■ one-fourth of those put in 
U |A l|i iiEe brooders, from one 
1\ A \ j cause or , another. They 
Mm \ .!( have all the skim-milk they 
||! | will drink, and are fed 
» t crackers, oatmeal, bread 
®| | crumbs and cracked wheat 
, \ I 1 the first week, grad- 
i ^1 ually getting so they eat 
| soft food of bran, corn 
ll| V. meal, shorts, etc., with 
meat and ^ reen fo ° d - The 
idea is to keep them grow- 
i n F all the time and feed 
them all they will eat.” 
“Ever feed cotton-seed 
meal to chicks ? ” 
shall work up private markets at the better restaurants 
and clubs.” 
“ Any special season ? ” 
“ No, we shall run right through the year and thus 
be able to supply our customers at any time. Our 10 
incubators have been running steadily since June and 
will have no rest this year.” 
How many eggs will you need ? ” 
About 40,000 to produce our number of broilers. 
1 f we can raise one chick from every two eggs put in 
the incubators we shall do well, considering the eggs 
we have. Our incubators have a capacity of 3,000 
eggs, which is about right for 20,000 broilers a year.” 
“ You don’t breed your own eggs, then ? ” 
“ no > not yet, though we shall do so when we 
housed and sheltered. We would prefer them in 
small flocks and to have them fed on wheat instead 
of corn.” 
‘ Take farmers as a rule, what are their greatest 
mistakes in providing such eggs as you want ? ” 
“ They keep too many hens in a flock. Generally 
all run together and roost in a big house. The stock 
is generally all mixed up—with no uniformity. They 
do not keep their houses cleaned and many hens are 
lousy. Most farmers feed altogether too much corn. 
We have settled the fact in our own minds that corn- 
fed eggs will not hatch so well as those from hens fed 
on wheat.” 
•‘Would you advise farmers to get thoroughbred 
stock to improve their flocks ? ” 
“ Yes, a little is good. It 
is somewhat constipating, and the tendency of all 
chicks forced as these are is to looseness of the bowels. 
We believe that a small amount of the cotton-seed 
meal corrects this. We also feed a little salt now 
and then.” 
“ What meat food is best ? ” 
“We propose to experiment and find out which is 
better for us, cut bone or dried meat. That is a ques¬ 
tion we have not fully settled. The proper feeding of 
a broiler is a science that can be learned only by long 
experience and observation. You can’t possibly tell a 
man just how to do it.” 
“ When does a broiler graduate from your house?” 
“ At 10 to 12 weeks old. A good bird should then 
weigh IX pound, dressed, The average price of a pair 
