VOL. LII. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 21, 1893 
PRICE, THREE CENTS 
$ 1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE CH'AMPION EGG RECORD. 
BROWN LEGHORNS GO UP HEAD. 
The Pay-Side of “Way-Side” Poultry. 
Mr. W. E. Bassler, of Middleburgh, N. Y., invited 
me to go and see his famous fowls. Mr. Bassler is a 
practical man, and believes that no business should be 
run without a careful and accurate account of receipts 
and expenditures. The result of his figures for the 
past year is very flattering. His fowls have paid for 
themselves, for the rations consumed, for one setting 
of eggs, 85; for another, 82 50; for one cockerel, 
81155 ; for two pullets, 87; and, in addition, over and 
above all this, have returned him for his labor 81-74 
each. The average gross receipts were 84 73 per hen. 
Of course this fine showing is due somewhat to fancy 
prices received for fowls. Deducting the amount re¬ 
ceived for eggs sold for sitting, he still makes a show¬ 
ing of 81-50 profit on each hen kept. 
Mr. B. has Brown Leghorns for eggs, Plymouth 
Rocks for table use, and Light Brahmas for large 
eggs, when other breeds are taking a vacation. To 
be profitable, a hen must be a 
good layer, and Mr. B. has 
striven to improve these pure 
breeds for egg production. 
The fact that his Brown Leg¬ 
horns averaged 240 eggs each 
last season is proof that 
neither time nor expense has 
been spared to bring these 
strains to the highest perfec¬ 
tion. If any one can show a 
higher average I would be 
pleased to see it! If fowls 
are wanted for eggs alone, the 
Brown Leghorn is the breed, 
beginning to lay early, and 
keeping at it. They seldom 
want to sit, until they are two 
years of age. The Leghorns 
are good sitters and the best 
of mothers when they get a 
little age, notwithstanding 
the “ authorities” to the con¬ 
trary. 
The Plymouth Rock will 
stand more abuse and cold, 
being heavier-feathered and 
a hardier fowl. When not 
laying, they take on fat read¬ 
ily, and are much sought 
in market for the table. The Light Brahmas have 
their admirers, who claim them to be good winter 
layers, gocd sitters and excellent mothers. One cock 
weighing 15 pounds, and some hens weighing 12 
pounds. He seemed to me to be too big for profit. 
Hard to Photograph Good Birds. 
The engraving, Fig. 226, represents “ Pride of Way- 
side Home ” and the pullet “ Bessie B.” Unless one 
has had experience, no idea can be had of the trouble 
it is to get a good picture of live poultry. These fowls 
were taken to the gallery, and more than two hours 
were spent in vain in trying to get a satisfactory pic¬ 
ture. Mr. B. says: “ When I got him home and 
dropped him down, he shook himself and straightened 
up as proud as Lucifer. I would have given 810 for 
his picture then ” 
There is a good deal of pleasure in watching fine 
fowls, and it’s “three square meals” to Mr. B. to 
watch his birds. His henhouse is lathed and plastered. 
For the first three feet cement was used, which pre¬ 
vents the fowls picking off the plastering. Each pen 
is 10x12 feet, and usually has 10 hens in it; sometimes 
with the Leghorns 15. In answer to a question he said: 
“Two things I study to do—keep the fowls healthy 
and to mate them especially for eggs. While I like 
to see fine, well-marked birds, I will sacrifice beauty 
any time for a good layer; but as a general thing I 
do not have to do so.” 
Talks About Feeding and Care. 
“ What is your idea about feeding a full meal in the 
morning ? ” 
“ Early in the morning I scatter a couple of hand¬ 
fuls of grain in the chaff, that the hens may com¬ 
mence the day with work. • An hour or so later I give 
them a hot mash consisting of a quantity of cut clover 
boiled in milk or water. To this is added cold, boiled 
potatoes chopped uo fine, and ground grain, consist¬ 
ing of two parts wheat, one part oats and one part 
corn. By putting the potatoes and ground grain into 
the kettle of hot clover, the mixture is cooled just 
right to feed. The cooked vegetables are given twice 
a week. About two hours before dark they have all 
the grain they will eat clean. I think very much of the 
clover, and my hens have growing clover in summer.” 
“ What meat do you use ? ” 
“I have used 300 pounds of Bowker’s Animal 
Meal.” 
“ What whole grain do you feed ? ” 
“ A mixture of one bushel of wheat, one-half bushel 
of oats and one-half bushel of barley oftener than any 
other. It’s not always the same, varying according 
to the season.” 
From what I saw and heard, I conclude that success 
is reasonably sure if pure-bred poultry and common 
sense are used to begin with; that comfortable hen¬ 
houses are a necessity to avoid dampness which 
causes roup, and give warmth in winter, without 
which there will be no eggs ; that hens do best in 
small flocks, which is practicable, as wire netting for 
partitions costs but little. Each hen can get enough 
to eat without being jammed around by a hundred 
others, and I think more grain is fed. Keeping a 
flock in fair order is one thing, and judicious stuffing 
to increase the number of eggs is another. Mr. B. 
and myself do not let our Lcghorn3 stop laying in 
February. His 10, in one flock, laid 152 eggs that 
month. The breed and the time of year must be 
studied carefully before mixing the grain ration. 
Foods which are cheaper can to a certain extent be 
substituted for grain. C- s. chapman. 
UNIFORM ENSILAGE. 
A SILO THAT IS ALWAYS THE SAME. 
Not a Bit of Waste About It. 
The R. N.-Y. has had quite a good deal to say about 
the patent ensilage made by Mr. S. M. Colcord, of 
Dover, Mass. On page 489, we gave an interview with 
Mr. Colcord and his successful plan of plowing under 
rye for ensilage corn. Since then we have been ask¬ 
ing him some questions about his patent ensilage or 
silo governor. 
“ You are not satisfied with the ordinary silo and 
ensilage ? ” we asked him. 
“Not by any means. I tried the usual way for 
some years, but I found that the product was not uni¬ 
form. For several years I tried to find out what the 
trouble was, and tried to improve upon other methods. 
This led me to invent a method entirely different from 
anything in use, and to make a device that produces 
perfect ensilage, uniform every time, without heat, 
fermentation, foul odor, rot or mold, and without any 
waste. The device I call the silo governor, because it 
not only tells me the tempera¬ 
ture and exact condition of 
the ensilage at all times, but 
governs those conditions.” 
“ What were the chief trou¬ 
bles of which you com- 
p’ained ? ” 
“ When corn is cut, or even 
uncut, and put into a silo, it 
commences to wilt and heat 
whether you press it or not, 
and the heat continues to in¬ 
crease, decomposition takes 
place sooner or later, and a 
variety of fermentations takes 
place, according to circum¬ 
stances, or rather conditions, 
in various parts of the silo. 
Some of it is cold, some warm, 
some warmer, some hot and 
some hotter. These conditions 
exist in nearly all silos, with 
less or greater intensity; some 
of the ensilage is fed to cows 
in pretty fair condition, and 
some of it goes to destruction. 
Hardly any two silos are alike; 
there is every shade of quality 
of ensilage, from pretty good 
to very bad. The best test for 
the quality of ensilage that I know of, is how much 
cows will eat of it in a week, by actual weight, weigh¬ 
ing it out to them and deducting by weight what they 
leave. In this way Dr. Goessman found that in one 
set of experiments his cows would eat an average of 
29 pounds daily ; the next year he published a state¬ 
ment that it averaged 30 pounds. At the same time 
I was feeding 75 pounds and 85 pounds daily, without 
having to deduct anything, and I never found out how 
much they would eat.” 
“ What did you seek to do ? ” 
“In a word, to make a device that would keep air 
and heat out of the silo, and thus prevent all fermen¬ 
tation.” 
“ How does your ‘ governor ’ do this ? ” 
“ There is a picture of it at Fig. 228. It is really a 
set of one-inch iron pipes, with one-eighth-inch holes 
six inches apart, within three to four feet of every 
part of the ensilage. These pipes convey the air 
under the bottom of the silo to the outside. We also 
put another governor upon a skeleton platform 
through the center of the forage, with a perpendic¬ 
ular pipe coming up through the forage to the top. 
It is all shown in the cut. Fig. 1 shows the pipes at 
the bottom which are joined in a frame, with an out* 
