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VOE. XXIX. No. 14 
WHOLE No. 1262. 
NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER N. Y., APRIL 4, 1874. 
PRICE SIX CENTS. 
$2.50 PER YEAR. 
[Entered accordtnK to Act of Congress. in the year 1874, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
weather ; but this, the only system of keep¬ 
ing poultry on a large scale, finds no favor 
with any class of poultry fanciers. 
Gentlemen with nicely-kept pleasure 
grounds wish their chickens and, other fowls 
confined to one particular place ; Indies pre¬ 
fer to have their flocks all together, so that 
few steps are necessary to view them ; own¬ 
ers of fancy and valuable poultry must huvo 
theirs near at hand lest they should be stolon; 
and in the vicinity of towns it is unsafe to 
have hen houses out of hearing of the house 
of the owner or his work-people, so that the 
majority of would-bo great poultry raisers 
cannot follow their inclinations. 
To be completely prosperous with thou¬ 
sands, space must be had ; and if there arc 
thieves there must be a watchman with 
faithful dogs to accompany him, and under 
the circumstances of poultry being thus 
spread, ouch family far enough from its near¬ 
est neighbor to prevent interference, the 
range over fresh ground would enable them 
to get more than half their living, thus re¬ 
ducing cost of feeding. But this will not suit 
the ideas of the owners or those attending 
the scattered roosting-places, for most poul- 
trymen and all women like to stand still, call¬ 
ing, '* Chick ! chick 1 ” so that old and young 
can tumble over each other and peck each 
other as often as they pick up corn. So good- 
by to breeding or keeping poultry on a large 
scale 1 A Working Farmer. 
Perhaps my anguish was more severe on 
account of really modifying the common 
dung-hill fowl to a pore Brahma. On ac¬ 
count of limited means 1 purchased full- 
blood Cockerels, and by severe culling and 
changing of Cockerels I could at last say Ne 
plus ultra, when the cholera made its ap¬ 
pearance and made such a havoc among xny 
pets. I tried everything 1 could think of 
for a remedy, so that when the scourge was 
abated I could not tell what the preventa¬ 
tive and cure was. 
The fall of 1874 they commenced dying off 
again, and having read in the Rural or 
some other paper that capiscum was good 
for cholera, i thought I would experiment 
on my chickens. I fed bran mash, in which 
was a liberal dose of the common garden 
pepper, and fed every other day for two 
weeks, and have no more loss from chicken 
cholera. Whenever I see a ehichen appear 
droopy I give it a dose of pepper, and all is 
well. One old biddy was determined to die. 
She was crouched away in an out -of-the-way 
place. I sought her, 
gave her a whole pep¬ 
per In doses, an hour 
apart, kept her in a 
warm place, and in 
the course of a few 
days Miss Biddy gave 
notice that she could 
take care of herself. 
I should never have 
f given my experience 
if 1 had not noticed 
one of your corre 
spondents criticising 
another for using salt 
for a cure. Well, 
whether the salt cured 
or nut, I would prefer 
making an attempt to 
cure rather than to 
fold my hands supine¬ 
ly over a shovel, with 
a stolid indifference 
and “I-can-bury-as- 
fast-as-you-die” style. 
—Young Farm Ma¬ 
tron, Pioneer, O. 
DERBY GAME FOWLS. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of March 14, 
page 171, wo made mention of the arrival of 
a Black-Red Derby Game cock and two bens 
from the young Karl of Derby’s yards, im¬ 
ported by Mr. Isaac Van Winkle, Green 
ville, New Jersey. A history of these fowls 
and sundry articles thereupon have already 
appeared in these columns—hence we need 
not repeat here the information they con¬ 
tain. We, however, thought the advent of 
this trio here of sufficient interest to our 
readers to warrant us in sending our artist, 
Mr. Edwin Forbes, to sketch them. The result 
of his skill and experience as an artist is seen 
in the portraits of these fowls on this page. 
CHICKEN CHOLERA 
As so much is being said on this subject 
through the medium of the Rural New- 
Yorker, I shall give my experience with 
this much-dreaded scourge. The winter of 
1873 I had nearly one hundred white Brahma 
fowls. The cholera attacked them, and be¬ 
fore the scourge abated fully one-half of my 
pets were dead and I helpless to save. None 
but those that have a special hobby, for 
chickens can realize my feelings when, upon 
visiting my hennery, I found my chickens 
so rapidly disappearing by this fell disease. 
BREEDING POULTRY ON A LARGE SCALE 
On the plans hitherto adopted, there has 
been no success. If 
those who have so hu¬ 
miliatingly failed in 
their attempts had 
the candor and cour¬ 
age to give the public 
the benefit, of their un¬ 
fortunate experience, 
it would prevent many 
of the repeated follies 
of crowding great 
numbers in small 
space. But, instead of 
doing so, there are 
some who exaggerate 
their receipts and hide 
some of the expense. 
There have several 
failures within my J&S mKHy 
knowledge, and who- jfppjy' 
ever keeps hundreds ifiujr Br 
of old fowls together W 
on one homestead and W B 
attempts to raise thou- 
fail; for there are laws 
of nature which no 
amount of cleanliness 
will permit of being 
There are many 
tracts of land in every gpu 
State which cannot |m| 
be cultivated, some __ _ 
from being mountain- 
ous and rocky, others 
tn>m causes making 
the difficulties of cul¬ 
ture too great to pay ^ 
for farming ; and yet £ v! 
these are spots and -r5 EggfBj j 
spaces which would 
fowls of various*breeds 1 . - 
might be located in 
small families; and ~ 4a 
where ponds or 
streams of water were 
there might be ducks ^ 
and geese, and on hily _ 
grounds rain water VP ' 
sufficient for common ju J) 
fowls, turkeys, &c., Jr 
could be caught and IV,Y. 
contrived to be avail¬ 
able through drv 
WHAT AILS THE 
CHICKENS 1 
Noticing on page 
iSs, Rural New- 
Yorker, March 21, 
entitled, “ What Ails 
the Chickens?” ask¬ 
ing for a remedy, and 
having had the same 
disease last fall, I will 
give my experience. 
After losing about 
one-half of my chick¬ 
ens a friend recom¬ 
mended two table- 
spoonfuls of Venetian 
red, dissolved in 
enough water to mix 
four quarts of meal— 
half corn and half 
wheat bran — and in 
this proportion to be 
fed to the flock once 
a day, say morning, 
all they will eat clean ; 
and some wheat bran 
iu the evening, wet 
with water. I used 
this, and iu about ten 
t 
