376 
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JUNE 46 
free and frequent feeding of cattle with meal 
(p. 310). Prof. Sanborn, late of the New 
Hampshire and now of Missouri Agricultural 
College, has, in his feeding experiments, noted 
the same points; and Mr. O. M. Tinkham, of 
Pomfret, Vti, an experienced dairyman, has 
lately expressed the opinion that ‘“many feed 
more meal than can possibly be digested and 
assimilated by the animal.” According to 
my own experience, it is profitable to dilute 
or extend corn-meal largely with shorts in 
feeding cows. 
No agricultural journal ever printed a more 
useful series of articles than those of Dr. 
Warder upon Forestry, in the Rural. That 
upon the management of the nursery (p. 312) 
has much valuable instruction. Will not this 
series be reprinted in book form? [It is Dr, 
Warder’s intention so to do.—E ds.] 
for Spring chickens early in the season with 
those who can afford them, becomes active 
enough to more than consume the supply—the 
retail price often reaching $3 a pair. 
Spring chickens of the best class are sup¬ 
posed to come from the neighborhood of Phil¬ 
adelphia, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is 
the nursery of the art of raising them, IV e 
have been able to gather some interesting 
items from Messrs. A. & E. Robbins, the large 
poultry dealers of Fulton Market. The name 
Philadelphia, they tell us, is used as a brnud, 
and indicates a certain quality of fowl, but 
has nothing to do with the location of its 
origin. Any chic ken brought to market weigh¬ 
ing from 12 to 24 ounces, that has been well 
bred aud well fed, dry-picked and not drawn, 
if it presents a fine appearance, is bought and 
sold as a Philadelphia chicken, though it may 
have been a native of Long Island, or, more 
probably, of New Jersey. All that have been 
scalded, badly handled or that for any cause 
present a bad appearance, are called ‘'Long Is¬ 
lands,” and sell at least 10 cents a pound lower 
than “Pbiladclphias.” It is the general opinion 
of epicures and caterers that scalding to remove 
the feathers injures the fine flavor of the fowl, 
as it certainly does its appearance. From two 
to three cents a pound more arc paid for dressed 
than live chicks, aud if they are drawn they 
will uot be received at all. As ordinarily 
raised, when the chicken passes the weight of 
IX pound.it becomes tougher and the market 
price per pound rapidly declines. 
The limited supply of Spring chickens or, as 
they are properly called “ broilers,” is alone 
due to the primitive methods in use for pro¬ 
ducing them. As a rule, the farmers leave 
the hens to shift for themselves with accommo¬ 
dations and treatment that are anything but in¬ 
centives to egg production, while the chicks 
are raised strictly upon the Darwinian theory 
of the survival of the fittest. For the last fif¬ 
teen or twenty years efforts have been made 
to supersede these old methods with the incu¬ 
bator and brooder. So hopeful of success 
with these appliances were some men, that 
companies were organized w ith large capital. 
One in New Jersey started with a reputed out¬ 
lay of $75,000, aud all the modern appliances for 
producing, as was fondly hoped, an unlimited 
supply of broilers. So far as we cau learn, uot 
one of these companies lias survived the test 
of a profitable production. 
Egg hatching is surrounded with so many 
difficulties that ehiekeu fanciers tell us some 
seasons the hens fail to produce chicks enough 
even to keep up the flocks. Captain S. A. 
Day, U. 8. A., a gentleman of thorough scien¬ 
tific attainments, has for the past thirteen 
years occupied much of his leisure time in 
perfecting au incubator, and has succeeded 
probably as w ell as, if uot better thau, any 
other worker in this field of scientific investi¬ 
gation, and he tells us that his machine is far 
from pefect. By aid of the pyrometer and 
an ingenious mechanical contrivance of his 
own invention, he has succeeded in produc¬ 
ing a perfectly uniform heat at any given 
point in the incubator, but a perfect distribu¬ 
tion has not yet been attained, while the 
amount of fresh air und moisture the egg 
should have at certain stages of the embryo 
development, is an unknown quantity. From 
long personal experience by the use of trained 
senses of touch und sight, he cau accomplish 
as good results as practical work would de¬ 
maud, but how to reduce the knowledge of 
these mutters to plain rules or mechanical 
* management so that the average chicken 
fancier can do the same, is the hard end to 
accomplish. C'apt Day is patiently endeavor¬ 
ing to overcome these weak points of the in¬ 
cubator by means of mechanical appliances, 
purpose in tbe narrative oi iacus mat mav w 
given. There are but few farmers who do not 
appreciate the improvements made in cattle, 
and who any lunger scout the virtues of pedi¬ 
gree and pure blood in their stock. But 
great as have been the results of tbe improve¬ 
ments in cattle, they fall far short of the in¬ 
creased value derived from this same careful 
breeding applied to poultry, until the yearly 
product of poultry aud eggs in the United 
States is now computed at six hundred m il¬ 
lions of dollars. And how a share of tbis 
large income may be yours, my hard-working 
mechanic or farmer, I shall endeavor to show. 
However small may bo the stock with which 
we mav commence in this industry, we may 
enlarge our operations as means will enable 
us to furnish quarters, and this leads us to the 
question wbat are 
SUITABLE QUARTERS. 
The best location, when it is in one’s power 
“Narcisse’s” objection (p. SIS) to Cay- 
wood’s grape trellis may bold in the wanner 
sections of the country: but the trellis is de¬ 
cidedly advantageous in Northern New Eng¬ 
land and Canada. The method is not uncom¬ 
mon among amateur growers, as it especially 
favors the protection of large vines in Winter, 
when the supports ai'e hinged. 
Beets and turuips that have grown a crop 
of seed stall, to a cursory glance, retain their 
structure, but a cow knows tbe difference be¬ 
tween them and a root of the same season 
“mighty quick.” So of a potato. The set may 
seem to be sound after producting a plant, yet 
microscopic examination shows no starch, and 
chemical tests no albuminous matter. I once 
had a crop ol half-grown early potatoes 
ripened off and dried up by a drought that was 
soon followed by lain, causing those small 
new potatoes to sprout and produce a second 
crop in the ground. Iu digging it was often 
difficult to distinguish the tubers of tbe two 
crops by sight, but cooking revealed the differ¬ 
ence every time. This is apropos of Dr. 
Sturtevant's statement (p. 313) that “in no 
case has he found seed potatoes broken down 
through absorption.” The absorption occurs, 
nevertheless. 
Ground Plan of I. K. Felch’s Poultry House, 
augmented to any extent that tbe means oi 
desire of the breeder might induce him to 
have. This I call the model fowl house of the 
age. It is made of planed stock matched. 
The roof is tarred; frame need be only 2x3, 
in all but the sill, which should be 8x4 joist, 
laid in cement underpinning. By this mode 
of building it will be seen that the cost of 
housing is $1.50 per head. It is a safe plan to 
reckon $2.25 as the cost of building and buy¬ 
ing the bens to commence the enterprise. 
tion by the use of cement at a very small out¬ 
lay, thus, as in Fig. 333, making a building 50 
by 15 feet on tbe groimd floor, which is con¬ 
verted at will into two rooms, 25x15, or two 
rooms, 15x15, and two opOD sheds, 10x15 each, 
as shown in the ground plan. Fig. 33-1. 
In Fig. 333 one of the shells is represented, 
minus the roof, for the purpose of showing 
how the double door serves the purposes of a 
partition between the roosting room aud shed, 
or forms the front of shed when, in bad or 
exceedingly cold weather, we wish to convert 
both room and shed into one apartment. The 
fact that fowls should have the open air where 
it can be enjoyed out of a draft makes this 
arrangement necessary if we would have eggs 
that will hatch in the early part of the season; 
but we will speak more in detail on this ques¬ 
tion under Effects Upon Incubation—the 
proper place for treating of tbe subject. 
While I have described the above location as 
the best, I know that all cannot have such a 
situation. I was obliged to use very springy 
land with a clay subsoil, and houses like that 
here described, built wholly above groimd, of 
lumber, at a cost of $155 each. 1 made these 
dry by filling a trench under the sills 18 inches 
deep with stone. The earth from the drains was 
thrown inside and covered with a sandy loam, 
which raised the building aud earth floor 
eight inches above the level of the land. 
Each house is banked up with gravel all 
around, by which means the rains keep all clean 
about the premises. The glass keeps down 
the dampness insido and keeps out the frost, 
so that all W r inter the floor can be spaded-up 
and all droppings bo in this way de- 
SPRING CHICKENS AND INCUBATORS 
Rural, May 26.—The Netherland (“Low 
Dutch”) cattle, so preposterously mis-named 
“Holsteins” in this country, are, for dairy 
purposes, upou rich meadow lands, unsur¬ 
passed, and oven unequaled, as a race. Messrs. 
Smiths & Powell deserve the highest credit for 
their liberality and energy in importing so 
many fine specimens; and the Rural portrays 
,hem very naturally as individuals (though 
not so picturesquely as in some of its other 
large engravings) on p. 325. 
big dish of broiled chickens. Strange to say 
the exaggeration of youth is seldom dispelled 
in later years when another sharp appetite 
comes in contact with another big dish of 
broiled chickens. There is a perennial fresh¬ 
ness about the dish that time cannot -wither 
or custom stale. Every household recognizes 
its value, and we believe no mau has yet been 
found bold enough to wager that any man 
could not eat an unlimited number of Spring 
chickens a day for any reasonable leugth 
of time. 
This bird is probably the highest accomplish¬ 
ment of the art of domesticating animals for 
the purposes of human food. It belongs high 
up on the menu of every condition of life If 
we remember correctly the meat that sup¬ 
plemented our first milk diet, was the gristled 
end of a chicken bone. When with pain and 
anguish we are confined to the sick room 
nothing ministers more kindly to the sensitive 
stomach than broth made from a Spring 
chicken. To the well-appointed and substantial 
dinner or the highly finished aud ornate 
m&nu, the toothsome broiler is equally well 
adapted. 
I opened the last Rural in the store of a 
man who sent his two sons to Dakota with 
$10,000, about two years ago, aud read “A. E. 
H.’s” remarks (p. 330) to him. He said, “You 
wore right, Doctor. When the raib oads have 
worked off the bulk of their land grants, and 
the wheat crop begins to fail, the Dakota 
boom will be over. My boys can sell their 
land at a profit now. and I have advised them 
to do so and invest in Iowa or Missouri.” He 
added that when the hard times strike those 
boreal prairies nobody there will be rich but the 
railroad men and the money lenders, and their 
wealth will be in property bard to get into 
money again. 
Elevation View.—Fig. 333. 
In view of this fitness of the Spring chicken 
for supplying so many important demands, the 
question naturally arises, why is the supply so 
meagre that only the purses of the rich can 
afford the luxury ? The wholesale price in New 
York markets for the best cluss known as 
Philadelphia Spring chickens, is GO cents a 
pound at the present time. As the season ad¬ 
vances, if the Supply proves abimduut, the 
price may fall to 40 cents a pound, but it is 
mox-e apt to advance, and iu February aud 
March it generally reaches $1 to $1.25 a pouud 
wholesale. The orthodox*Spring c hicken must 
uot weigh over IX pound, oi, as they are 
usually quoted, throe pounds a pair. The first 
ftpring chickens rnuke their appearance in 
market about the first of March and rarely 
weigh over a pouud-and-a- half to two pounds 
a pair. They are geuerally raised iu the cel¬ 
lars and bed rooms of fanners, and poor people 
who live on the outskirts of villages, aud only 
a very few are raised by any one family. As 
the season advances, eggs become plentiful, 
POULTRY THE BEST FARM STOCK 
odorized, aud by Spring the earth to the 
depth of six inches becomes a most excellent 
fertilizer for corn or root crops, the value of 
which, with the guano taken from under the 
roosts, will pay 10 per cent, on the invest¬ 
ment for all buildings necessary for the use 
of the fowls. 
In Fig. 338 we have tbe elevation, the 
jxiste in front being seven feet, and those in 
the rear five feet, with a short front roof, 
the boards for the same being cut six feet 
six inches, allowing six inches for the eaves, 
the rear roof extending I2X feet, which 
will make ten feet eight inches from sill to 
peak in gable. The bouse can afford still 
more room by layiug a floor five feet wide 
from just over the windows, six feet from the 
I am aware tbat many farmers will take ex¬ 
ceptions to the fact stated in the heading of 
this article, yet with 30 years’ experience 1 
am convinced that there is no stock which, 
with the same care and expense, will return 
anything like the same pereentage of profit. 
In discussing the question I concede the right, 
as in all enterprises, to consider the cost, and 
ask no one to take my assertion. Aud on the 
basis of poultry and eggs for market pur¬ 
poses, 1 propose to show that flocks of 12 to 50 
will pay, or have paid, from $4 a head, de¬ 
creasing in proportion as the flocks increased, 
to $1.25 net per head where the numbers have 
reached into the thousands. In the series of 
articles that shall follow I propose to give in 
detail the best breeds to keep; the mode of 
constructing suitable quarters; feeding aud 
management; fattening and marketing. 
D 
X 
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1 
15 xJ5 
/5Xl* 
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