9 
©OBE’S BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
m* |oulti[D-|m[(t. 
“A HEN THAT OVERLAYS.” 
Ox page 343 of the Rural New-Yorker 
is a communication by 14 Subscriber/' under 
the above head, asking “ for a remedy for 
hens over - layiug, or laying soft-shelled 
eggs,” Careful observation and experience 
has taught me that there is but ono cause 
for these irregularities aud imperfections, 
and that is weakness. T know that the 
cause is almost invariably attributed to the 
want of shell-making material. A well hen, 
shut up on a clean board floor, and fed on 
whole grain, or unbolted meal, with gravel 
and water, will continue to lay perfect eggs 
till she has laid her litter out, or, till she 
has become so reduced in flesh as to stop 
laying entirely. The only advantage in 
giving hens lime, bone, etc., is, it furnishes 
for their immediate use a shell-making ma¬ 
terial, and relieves the bodily energies of an 
exhausting demand. 
There are three principal causes for these 
weaknesses, all of which have their imme¬ 
diate effect on the ovarium. The tlrat and 
greatest cause among large fowls is compell¬ 
ing them to fly in getting to their perch or 
nest. Asiatic fowls among hens are what 
heavy weights are among men. Who would 
think of requiring a heavy weight, of two 
hundred and fifty or three hundred pounds, 
to jump or clamber up tho partition from 
the first to the second floor to retire, and 
then, if he appeared a little lame or strained 
the next day, wonder at the cause; and yet 
there is just as much propriety in tho one 
case as in the other. 
Largo fowls should not be allowed to fly 
at all; their nests should be on the ground 
or floor, and their perches should bo so ar¬ 
ranged as not to require any wing effort in 
getting on to them. Tt. is better to have 
them very low, than to have a boom to get 
on to them with (or from), as they are liable 
to fall off in the night. 
Tho second cause is the over attention of 
the cock, especially if he bo large and 
clumsy. 
A third cause is a strain in laying. Hens 
that are well fed, and provided with all the 
necessary egg-producing materials, are lia¬ 
ble to gel too fat to lay with ease; and if, as 
is frequently Hie case, a surplus of material 
accumulates, ft way must bo provided for 
its disposition, and doiible-yolked eggs are 
produced. This is unnatural, and should 
be checked, or deleterious effects will almost 
certainly be 1 lie result. 
I have given the causes, aud now for a 
euro: Take the hell away from the rest of 
the flock, and shut her in a warm, dry place, 
and keep her *n short allowance till she 
lays perfect eggs, and regularly, or stops 
laying entirely, when alio may be returned 
to the flock. 1 f she has become so weakened 
that her droppings are discolored aud lax, 
give her a strong dose of Cayenne pepper; 
the seeds of two peppers should be given 
fur one dose, and should be pushed well 
down the throat. Two or three doses will 
almost invariably effect a cure. 
Permit me to say a word in regard to lay¬ 
ing fowls. If they are shut up, keep them 
as quiet as possible; let them have a surplus 
by them, at all times, of the egg-producing 
material—especially feed and water; but be 
sure aud exclude all members of male per¬ 
suasion—that is to say, never allow a cock 
of any kind with them. Try this, and rest 
assured that soft-shelled eggs and sick hens 
will bo at a discount, for 1 have advanced 
no new t heories on unpractioed notions, but 
“speak that I do know, and testify of the 
things ” learned In the school of experience. 
Mystic Bridge, Conn. Farmer. 
-- 
CANKEROUS DIPHTHERIA IN FOWLS. 
I hef. in the Rural New-Yorker of 
April 13th, ult., an answer to the inquiry 
of a Texas subscriber in relation to a new 
disease in chickens, signed by Mr. Rowe, 
Tremout, N. Y. I notice in bis description 
of the disease he vhinks the affection 111 the 
head and throat the same. My experience 
this last winter, in a number of cases, leads 
me to think differently. The head swells in 
the canker cases; the matter assumes a 
globular form in the head, with a different 
color, and the whole constitution of the 
bird differently affected. The treatment in 
the canker case given is good, and, in most 
cases, sufficient. In the other case not so, 
as there is a great deal more to contend 
with. When first noticed a watery, foamy 
appearance comes in one corner of the eye; 
in a few days the side of the mouth, wattles 
and side of the face appear as if some one 
had thrown the yellow of a hard boiled egg 
at the fowl and small, cubical fragments at¬ 
tached the '.selves to the parts named. On 
opening the couth, I find tho same attached 
on the inner side of the throat; and if 
pressed upwards from the outside it will be 
found, as the windpipe comes near the 
mouth from said pressure, that the same is 
found around aud down in it also. The 
whole constitution is affected, and the dis¬ 
ease is quite contagloi '. and requires more 
than common care to keep it from going 
through a large poultry y -d. 
I have had a fair test o remedies this 
Winter, as the cases presoutsd themselves 
one after another, giving mo a good chance 
for experiment. T used, bot h externally and 
internally, nitrate silver, chlorate potash, 
bichromate potash, and others, such as the 
virus in such cases indicates, without effect, 
in proper doses. I finally found the follow¬ 
ing to cure perfectly: — l taken tcaspoou- 
ful of lard and twenty drops of carbolic 
acid, well mixed. I applied to the inner 
part of the air passage, or windpipe, with a 
swab made by rolling a few thicknesses of 
woolen thread round a small slick the size 
of a pipestem, removing as much as possible 
of this clieosy stuff, without creating much 
irritation. This 1 did once a day. T gave 
ateaspoouful of the following mixture twice 
a day, internallyOne-half dram iodide of 
iron mixed in au ounce of sirup, to which 
add ten drops laudanum, ten drops carbolic 
acid, and the balance of water to fill a four- 
ounce bottle. 1 fed ouo and a-balf ounces 
of fat salt pork to each fowl, in the day. 1 
disinfected the house and droppings with a 
half pound of chloride of limy in half a pail¬ 
ful of strong ashes, applied a part every 
day, keeping the house clean. Charcoal is 
also good to throw around, as it absorbs the 
foul gases and keeps the disease from 
spreading. 1 think this disease a cankerous 
diphtheria. T. W. Wood. 
McGregor, Iowa, May, 1871. 
POULTRY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Carbolic Acid and Poultry,—Dr. Em¬ 
erson says:—“ Put three ounces of carbolic 
acid into twelve quarts of lime water or 
whitewash; whitewash the walls of t he poul¬ 
try-house well with this wash, and no living 
parasites will be seen—their death is inevi¬ 
table. A weak solution may be made to 
wash fowls iu; one part of the acid to sixty 
parts of warm water; let it cool, then dip 
the fowHiu until the feathers become thor¬ 
oughly wet and the solution reaches every 
part of the body. Afterwards place the fowls 
on clean dry straw, wliftre the sun will reach 
them, until they arc dry. Another form In 
which it is recommended to use it Is a soap. 
These soaps art} for sale bv various manu¬ 
facturers, and have a high reputation for 
cleansing animals and the cure of skin dis¬ 
eases. A mode of making this soap is as fol¬ 
lows:—Dissolve three pounds of common 
bar soap in hot water, add two to four 
ounces of carbolic acid, according to the de¬ 
sired strength. Allow to Cool as usual iu 
making hard soup. As these preparations 
may be bought ready-prepared, aud as car¬ 
bolic is by no means a safe article to keep 
about the house, we would advise persons to 
buy rather than attempt to make them, ex¬ 
cept in the case of whitewash, when they 
must get the pure article aud dilute it.” 
Helping Chickens Out of the Shell, 
—The Illustrated Book of Poultry says: 
" We formerly made many attempts at 
such assistance iu vain, and, like many oth¬ 
ers rushed to the conclusion that chicks 
could not be thus saved; but an accidental 
discovery put another face, on the matter. 
Keep the ego in warm water (about 100 ) 
while the assistance is being rendered, and 
success may be hoped for. The shell must 
be cracked very gently, and the iiuier mem¬ 
brane very tenderly peeled off till the chick 
be at liberty, keeping all but tho beak un¬ 
der water until nearly clear. The operation 
must be performed in a warm place, and 
tenderly as if touching raw flesh; and it 
will be found that the water greatly facili¬ 
tates matters, liberating the membrane if 
glued to the chick, and enabling it to be 
separated without loss of blood. The lat¬ 
ter oecurrance nine times out of ten is fatal, 
but if the operation be completed without 
blood-flowiug, success may be anticipated, 
and the nearly dead chick may be put by 
the fire in flannel, or under the hen, if a 
quiet, good mother—under her at night, in 
nuy case—aud next day may probably be as 
well as the others.” 
Silver Hamburga vs. Leghorns.— Mr. 
A. Y. Van Epi»s, iu an article upon Silver 
Hamburg* in a late number of the Rural 
New-Yorker, says that they have every 
quality to commend them except size; and 
Immediately below says that they are non- 
sitters, thus giving them at least one defect. 
I claim that no one breed has perfection iu 
all points. Again he says that they will lay 
more eggs than any other breed known. I 
am not prepared to say that they do not lay 
as much, but. I am prepared to say that 
they do not lay a greater number of eggs, 
the year round, than the Leghorns; and as 
Leghorn eggs arc a third larger than Ham- 
burgs it. is the same as the Leghorns laying 
a third more eggs. Again he says “their 
flesh is full as good as tho much lauded 
Brahma.” This I deny; for where is the 
blue-legged, bluc-flcshcd fowl that can com¬ 
pare with the yellow-legged, yellow-skinned 
fowl? In my opinion the only good quality 
of Hamburga is their production of eggs. 
In regard to beauty they arc far eclipsed by 
the Sebright Bantams.— B. R. e. 
Incubatora. — A correspondent asks 
where ha can purchase an incubator, and if 
we know of any which can be operated suc¬ 
cessfully by anybody however unskilled. 
To both questions we must answer no. We | 
have no doubt that some, incubators are 
used successfully to hatch chickens by those 
who have invented them; but we do not 
know of any that are used profitably by 
poultry breeders. When we do we shall be 
glad to name it. 
Packing Eggs in Salt.—I put down 100 
dozen last Friday, in brine made t hus:—One 
pint of lime, slaked; one pint G. A. salt; 
two gallons of water. I set tho eggs on one 
(which?) end previous t«» pouring the brine 
over them. They require to be weighed 
down to prevent them turning sidewise. 
This is an old recipe. I presume there is 
some easier way. I would like to know if 
it is really necessary to pack on t he end. 
It is a great deal of labor. (See Rural June 
L— Ens.J— W. TL B., Jackson, AT. C. 
Lice on Chickens.—£ am a farmer’s 
wife, and am very fond of raising poultry. 
1 have always found the following to be a 
sure cure for the above malady. When the 
chickens are two or three days old, take a 
little salt butter and rub the top of their 
heads with it; once will be sufficient,. This 
will prove a preventive also. If “ Constant 
Reader” will try the above, I think he or 
she will feel indebted to a reader of the Ru- 
ral.— S. A., Newmarket, Ontario. 
Jntetnial Stofics. 
EIGHT-HOUR SYSTEM FOR FARMERS. 
In the Rural New- Yorker of June 1st 
FarmerGarrulous talks of tho eight-hour 
system as adapted to farm work. I know, 
from my experience, and from what 1 have 
learned from others, that it is the only right 
way to hire hands on the farm. But there 
are but few farmers who know what it 
means. They think that if they bin a man 
to work eight or ten hours, when that time 
is up he will quit; but they are wrong. The 
way is to hire a man, pay him a certain 
amount—whatever it may be—for a certain 
number of hours' work, aud then, if you are 
in a hurry, whatever time he makes over 
that, pay him extra for. 
In this way, most men are willing to work 
almost any number of hours if they know 
they will get pay for it. The present way 
is to hire a man b.y the month, and have him 
begiu work by four o’clock in t he morning 
and work until seven or eight at night. It 
is all wrong; and as long as we continue to 
do that, wo will bo obliged to take such 
hands as wo can get, and let the best work 
in tho shops or factories, where t hey know 
when a day's work begins and when it. will 
end. Sooner or later we shall have to adopt 
this way of hiring our farm hands, and, in 
my opinion, the sooner we do so the better 
it will be for both farmers and their hired 
men. Reformer. 
Johnstown, Fulton Co., N. Y. 
-♦♦♦- 
Mending Roadways.—I hope a sugges¬ 
tion made in the Rural New-Yorker, 
sometime lost year, 1 think, will be repeat¬ 
edly acted upon this spring, to wit:—That it 
is cheaper aud better to haul gravel to re¬ 
pair a road, after the road-bed is properly 
constructed, than to plow and scrape aud 
pile up dirt In the center thereof. A few 
loads of gravel, a few furrows to let the wa¬ 
ter off, leaving the grassy roadsides undis¬ 
turbed, is the best way of mending high¬ 
ways that I have ever known. If it is a 
stony country, stune broken fine may be 
substituted for gravel. There is a great 
deal of labor wasted on roads and not half 
enough applied as it should be. Provide for 
keeping the water out of tho roadway, and 
a bed of good wearing material for it. and 
we may soon have good roads at all seasons 
of the year. 
<4jai[m ^autumn. 
UTILIZING STRAW FOR FODDER. 
James A. Whitney read the following 
paper at the last meeting of the Farmers’ 
Club of the American Institute, on the 
above subject: 
In American fanning oat straw, especially 
when cut somewhat green and kept in bright 
condition, is fed to stock with but little loss, 
but wheat, rye, and barley stvaw are main¬ 
ly used for bedding, and thus practically 
wasted, for sawdust, forest leaves, &e M cost¬ 
ing nothing, could be readily substituted for 
such uses. The English are further advan¬ 
ced than we. in the utilization of cheap for¬ 
age, and the present season, when the pros¬ 
pect of a scant hay crop lends unusual inter¬ 
est to the subject, some of their methods of 
preparing straw for feeding merit more than 
Ordinary attention. But in considering 
these wo must remember that an essential 
contrast exists between tho moist summers 
of England and the dry harvest periods of 
this country, which doubtless makes much 
difference in the condition of the straw; 
and also that processes feasible on the lurgo 
farm of an English tenant will bo difficult 
to oftViy out oil the smaller acreage of many 
American homesteads. Modifications must 
therefore be made in the foreign practice, 
and in these tlm fanner will need to exer¬ 
cise his own judgment with skill and cure. 
ft is found by far the most profitable to 
out the straw into “chaff,” as It Is termed 
abroad, the cutting being very tine—from 
t hree-sixteenths to three-eighths of ail inch 
in length. This “chaff,” instead of being 
fed out at once, is kept for some months in 
bulk in dry barns provided for tho purpose, 
and from the moisture contained in it at 
the time of storing, undergoes a slight 
change which renders it more palatable to 
cattle. To extend this limited fermenting 
process during many years (since iu common 
use) is the object of the more recent im¬ 
provements to which the present paper 
more especially refers. This consists in min¬ 
gling with the straw about 5 per cent, of 
green and succulent material, together with 
a certain proportion of salt, and then by 
storing in mass, causing the flavor of the 
green forage to be communicated to the dry, 
and the nutritive elements of the latter to 
be rendered more soluble and digestible by 
the solvent action of 1 he fermentation. The 
method has been tried on a large scale and 
is recommended by Prof. Voelck eR, chem¬ 
ist to the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng¬ 
land. The inodnis opcra iuH is as follows; 
A power straw Cutter Is so connected with 
a steam-driven thresher that the straw, af¬ 
ter the separation of the grain, passes direct 
to t he cutter and U converted into chaff. 
Before entering tho cutter, however, tho 
green si nil’(for example, rye cut before t he 
kernels have formed) is added to it at the 
rate of 100 polluds to the ton of st raw, aud 
a bushel of salt to the aamu quantity of straw 
is sprinkled in. The chaff full ■ into sacks in 
which it, is carried to tho place of storage, 
where it is left for a number of weeks before 
feeding. The expense of cutt ing aud storing 
is about one shilling, or twenty-five cents 
fur the product of an acre. But here tho 
cost would be more, not only because of tho 
higher rates of labor, but for the reason that 
the English trials were made on a farm of 
4,200 acres, which permitted tho use of a 
twelve horse-power steam engine, and all 
the economy resulting from tho use of tho 
best machinery. 
Boiled feed of any kind, poured hot upon 
this prepared chuff is round to give excel¬ 
lent. results, and by the use iu connection 
therewith of oil-cake, corn meal, or other 
concentrated food, tlm real nutritive value 
may bo made to equal or exceed (lint, of tho 
best meadow hay at an expense little or no 
greater. For this purpose ground cotton 
seed-cake has been found especially effica¬ 
cious,used iu the proportion of two hundred 
weight to the ton of fermrnted straw-chaff. 
The avidity with which cat t le consume this 
prepared fodder, arising from the delicate 
flavor given It by the green material great¬ 
ly iucjeases its value as compared with or¬ 
dinary out straw, to say nothing of the 
greater case with which its elements of nu¬ 
trition are assimilated in the processes of 
digestion. 
Green-corn fodder, unknown in England, 
would doubtless be preferable to rye for 
mixing with tho cut straw, owing to tho 
greater quantity of saccharine matter it 
contains, but green oats or the aftermath of 
Clover or meadow grasses would be well 
adapted to the purpose. The chief obstacle 
to t rio immediate adoption of the method iu 
many parts of the country will be found iu 
the practice of deferring the thrashing un¬ 
til winter, when green forage is not at hand, 
but in such cases crushed or rasped carrots, 
turnips, sugar beets, ami tho like might per¬ 
haps bo substituted for tho green forage, al¬ 
though success would bo less assured at tho 
outset than with the succulent, material pre¬ 
viously mentioned. In those districts where 
thrashing is done in the field nothing but 
the need of suitable machinery need stand 
in the wav of the most extensive tests of a 
method of utilizing comparatively waste 
fodder, which abroad has proved valuable 
in practice, aud which certainly seems fault¬ 
less in theory. 
