{CULTURE 
EXCELSIOR 
41 Park How, New York, 
82 Buffalo St., Rod tester 
NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y 
$3.00 PER YE Alt. 
Single IVo., Eight Cents 
WHOLE NO. 10L8 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, FEDRUARY ID, 1870 
in the Clerk’s Office oi the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New YorU.j 
f Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870. by D. D. T. Moo kb, 
EGGS IN WINTER 
very or slaty gray, anti free trom any ten¬ 
dency to redness; the tail a dark gray, the 
inside nearly black. 
Dorkings, like other breeds of fowls, are 
apt to degenerate very fast from interbreed¬ 
ing, therefore care should be taken to intro¬ 
duce fresh blood frequently or disappoint ¬ 
ments are sure to follow. 
strain of Brahma blood. No breeder, how¬ 
ever, can look upon this group of fowls with¬ 
out being favorably impressed with the beau¬ 
ty of their plumage, and their graceful ap¬ 
pearance in stylo of carriage; and if proper 
care is taken in breeding them they will 
prove superior in many respects to the orig¬ 
inal White Surrey Dorkings. 
about fifty bens and pullets, and removed all 
my old stock, keeping nothing but Brahmas. 
Niagara Co., Jan., 1870. X. Y. Z. 
Being very much interested in, and also 
having, as 1 am vain enough to think, had 
considerable experience with poultry keep¬ 
ing with a view to profit from the production 
of eggs in winter, and knowing by such 
experience that it is profitable when properly 
managed, I think, perhaps, my Ideas of the 
best method of obtaining this result may not 
be uninteresting to the readers of the Rural. 
First, the building must he dry, and sufii- 
cicntly enclosed to prevent the free circula¬ 
tion of air or wind about the fowls, but must 
be well ventilated from the top, ami have as 
much of the south side glass as possible. 
Place tin! perch sixteen inches above the 
floor, and the nest boxes on the floor, have 
the entrance to the latter on the side, and 
only large enough to admit, the hen ; then 
take pullets, hatched ns early ns May, from 
slock that has not been bred in-and-in. The 
breed is not material, hut 1 consider Light 
Brahmas preferable, as most of the other 
good laying varieties have large combs or 
wattles, which are apt to freeze. Allow one 
to every four square feet of floor surface. 
Give them all the corn they will eat. Keep 
it. before them all the time, but not where it 
will be trampled on and become filthy. 
COLORED DORKING FOWLS. 
Among the breed of colored Dorkings 
which are now attracting attention in this 
LIGHT BRAHMAS—MANAGEMENT, 
I have kept fowls for thirty years past, 
simply to supply my family with eggs and 
the table with poultry. I paid very little at¬ 
tention to their management, leaving it to 
the hired members of the family. In 1804 I 
thought I would attend to that branch ot do¬ 
mestic alTairs and see if l could not produce 
better results and have a sufficient supply of 
fresh eggs. I commenced on the fith ot Feb¬ 
ruary, 1864, to keep a daily account of eggs 
gathered and fowls consumed or sold. In 
live years passed 1 have gathered 34,859 eggs 
—an average of nearly 7,000 eggs annually. 
My hens averaged about sixty-five—con¬ 
sumption of food, equal to one bushel of 
From this it ap- 
com per head per annum 
pears that one bushel of corn, or its equiva¬ 
lent, produced one hundred and seven eggs- 
As my hen-house is made of matched 
inch-hoards, sides and roof, with a floor of 
coal ashes eight inches deep and large win¬ 
dows on the southwesterly side, the drop¬ 
ping make a superior poiulrette, and pay j. 
for a little trouble by the increased value of 
the vegetables from the garden, which this 
valuable manure enriches. 
I feed wheat screenings soaked in boiling 
water in winter and cold water in summer; 
dry corn and screenings are before them all 
the time in feed boxes so constructed that the 
grains slide into a trough as eaten and can¬ 
not be fouled. As I feed the soaked screen¬ 
ings in the morning and renew the supply of 
water in ample quantity, 1 have no further 
trouble that day, only to gather the eggs. 
Twice a week 1 give the hen-house floor a 
thorough coating of ashes, especially under 
the roosts, and as I clean it out in the spring, 
mid-summer atul fall, 1 then give it a new 
supply of clean ashes. My fowls havo never 
been troubled with lice or disease. I feed 
also the scraps from the butchers, and clam 
shells and bones from the kitchen, broken 
fine as corn with a hatchet, the edge of 
which I use in cutting up the scraps. Pota¬ 
to and turnip parings, with cabbage stumps 
cut up, I boil and feed with the offal from 
the kitchen, together with lettuce, cabbage 
leaves, weeds, &c., from the garden, thus 
cleaning up all the refuse from the kitchen 
and garden. Since feeding broken clam 
shells, I have had no soft-shell eggs. 
In 1867 my stock consisted of Black 
Spanish, White Leghorn and the mixed 
breed generally seen in Western New York. 
I then for the first time saw a trio of light 
Brahmas, and as I found it difficult to keep 
my fowls out of my garden even with very 
long pickets around my hen yard, I thought 
I would try this, to me, new breai. I pro¬ 
cured eggs and succeeded in raising sixteen 
pullets, which, with three roosters, I con¬ 
fined in a hen-house, six by twelve feet, and 
yard twenty five by twelve feet, fence four 
and a-lialf feet high, and they remained in 
this inclosure from November, 1867, till 
August, 1868. They commenced laying De¬ 
cember 19,1867, were hatched May 16,1807, 
and from January 1,1868, to January 1, I860, 
they laid 2,324 eggs. One of the pullets was 
killed in November, and the fair average of 
eggs laid by each pullet for one year is one 
hundred and forty ; the average of my mixed 
breed with Spanish and Leghorn was ninety, 
showing a difference of fifty in favor of the 
Brahma. 
This fact determined me to keep nothing 
but the Brahmas. These Brahmas, how¬ 
ever, were all pullets, and no doubt laid 
more eggs than if they had had a proportion 
of hens old and young. My opinion is that 
| the Brahma will lay twenty-five per cent. 
more eggs than the mixed breeds now gen- 
v erally kept, and are vas 1y superior for the 
L. table both a» to size and quality of flesh. 
In 1868 I increased my stock of Brahmas to 
ICags Imported to England.— From 18t» to 1817 
the Imports amounted to 73,000.000 of eggs'. dur¬ 
ing the next five years, 103.000,000 on mi average; 
in the following year, M7,000,000, and 1" 18W* 
430,87S,880 eggs; value, 01.007.107. The greatest 
part came from Prance, and the harbors from 
which the greatest export takes place are Calais. 
Cherbourg and Honlleur. At Calais the eggs 
...... ......in cheats and straw, 1,100 in ouch 
Food for CHicUena.— Nothing is gainod by 
lending chickens poor food. Give plenty of 
good fond, and it will make a good return In 
health and vigor on their arriving at maturity. 
