Mr. James Rankin who has used incuba¬ 
tors with success, said that there are a great 
many incubators in the market that claim to 
hatch chickens with perfect success. But they 
do not work well, and, hence deceive the pub¬ 
lic. Mr. Rankin commenced the poultry busi¬ 
ness over 30 years ago, and lias given a deal 
of tune to it. He can average $1.50 apiece 
clear profit on his hens. Since he has been 
using machinery in his chicken business, he 
finds he can double his profit from the same 
number of hens... 
Mr. Rankin’s experience has taught him 
that, in growing poultry artificially, a year¬ 
ly profit of 100 per cent, can easily be made 
ou all capital invested in the shape of build¬ 
ings, machinery, stock, etc. He has grown 
annually for the last 10 years from 3,000 to 
5,000 ducks and chickens, for the early mar¬ 
ket, all of which has been done in connection 
with, and supplementary to other farm work. 
No other part of farm industry, he thinks, can 
compare with it in profitable returns. 
The first 20 years of his poultry experience 
were confined to the natural method, using 
hens alone—the next ten years heus and in¬ 
cubators were used side by side in the same 
building. The first part of that decade the 
hens were victorous; the latter part of the 
time mentioned, the machines took the lead 
and kept it. For the past six years machines 
have been used exclusively, the hens being 
kept entirely for egg production. 
if he could make more money by using heus, 
he should do so. If he could not afford to 
raise <5,000 to 8,000 ducks and chickens by ma¬ 
chinery, rather than by heus, he should use 
the old-fashioned way... 
Below is Mr. Rankin’s balance sheet for the 
ypar ended September 1, 1833, on chicks alone 
as we find it in the Mass. Ploughman of March 
20th. 
Stock on hand September 1, 1882; 
814 pullets nt $1.15 eacli.*892.50 
Supplies amt fowl of all khuls. 754.81 
93 gollous oil... 7-60 
Total expeuscs. .§1,154.41 
Stock on hand September 1, 1883: 
Kit pullcia and chickcus.*536.50 
liiit, dozen eggs sold. 58S.;g 
802 hens sold... 814.75 
1434 chickens sold......1400.01 
Total receipts.82,731.54 
Net- profit-. l,6a).18 
This showing gives a clear profit per hen of 
$5.20. The labor of caring for them is not 
charged, nor is the manure credited. The 
care of this poultry devolved entirely on Mr. 
Rankin. While his men were milking and 
feeding stock in the barn, he cared for chicks 
and machines, and seven o’clock found him at 
work in the field. With the exception of a 
half hour iu the middle of each forenoon aud 
afternoon devoted to feeding chicks, he did 
his share of field work with the others. 
Mr. Rankin then gives an account of his 
duck venture for 1885, which is a trifle more 
startling thau the other: 
Stock on hand January 1, 1885: 
42 ducks and drakes nt • 1.50 each. §68 00 
Food of all kinds consumed. SS4.52 
68 gallons Oil at 8.U cents per gallon. 5.78 
Total expenses. #493.30 
Stock on hand December 1, 1885: 
206 ducks and drnlccs at $1.50 each. $309.00 
Ducks sold..... 
72 dozen eggs sold. . <d- 0 o 
121 lbs. feathers sold at 50 cents. 60.50 
Total receipts. #1,934.21 
Net profit. #1,580.91 
Mn. Rankin has some 10 or 18 cows in his 
barn, and the neighbors call them good ones. 
The milk is sold at reasonable rates at a village 
some three miles distant at remunerative 
prices. He tries to run the tiling economical¬ 
ly and superintend it himself. He inns it as 
economically as possible, and yet he can clear 
more money with one-tenth of the labor and 
capital from each duck than from the best cow 
that he has iu his barn. 
Mr. Rankin concludes that whereas poultry 
growers make only a profit of >1.00 to 81.50 
per ben in the old way, by the proper use of 
artificial means they can make from $3.00 to 
$5.00 per hen, not including the cost of labor. 
Mr. Rankin almdee to a hatch of ducks which 
came out iu mid-March. There were over 400, 
and 98 per cent of all the eggs hatched. 
It should be borne in mind that Mr. Ran¬ 
kin has given 30 years to his work. He is an 
expert. Anyone working with him for a sea¬ 
son or so, as Mr. Feleh stated, might learn his 
methods aud afterwards do us well. 
In the opinion of Mr. Houdletlo, nothing 
will give fowls scaly leg so surely as sittiug 
down or roosting or walking over their drop- 
pears. A heavy mulch of the weeds which 
grow along the lanes and hedges is thrown in 
every Fall. This plan works very well. 
in enough hot water to make the mass of the 
right consistency. Apply hot. It will be 
dea th to vermin and disease. 
' The houses should be sprayed with kerosene. 
POULTRY STATISTICS. 
I In 1880 the number of poultry iu the United 
Rates was 125,507 These produced 450,- 
pi 0,010 dozens of eggs. Of this great flock 
102,272,135 arc classed as ordinary barnyard 
fowls,and 23,235,187 as improved or thorough¬ 
breds. The disposition among the various 
States was as follows: 
Alabama. 3.017.699, Louisiana. 1,490,907 
Arizoua. ‘22,356 Maine. 99S.741 
Arkansas. 2,711,562 Maryland. 1,4m,<25 
California. 1,510.167 1 Massachusetts. 922,968 
Colorado. 128.604 ! Michigan.4,087,014 
Connecticut. 783.6RT j a: Innosola. 2,266,SK5 
Dakota. 802.191 Mississippi.2,907, i33 
Delaware. 361.S99 Missouri.10,906,153 
Columbia. 6,982 • Montana... 60,804 
Florida . 544,980 Nebraska.. 1,839.1*92 
Georgia.$443,583 Nevada. 43,635 
Idaho . 96.021 New Hampshire.. 506,810 
Illinois .11,325.971 New Jersey. 1,173,765 
Indiana . 6,S’is,rt)i New York.6.915,292 
Iowa . 5535,714 North Carolina... 2.969,456 
Kansas.4.397.46.1 1 Ohio. 9,939,927 
Kentucky.5.976,<J6f, Oregon. 490,895 
Pennsylvania .... 7,S&J,$0rt Vermont. aC7 v 828 
Rhode Island. 269,759 Virginia.2.64t,167 
South C arolina. .. 1.417,62* Washington. 147.129 
Tennessee.5,404,721 W. Virginia. 1,607.201 
Texas. 4.295,867 
Utah. 232.616 
POINTERS, 
Pres. Needham stated before the meeting 
of farmers held a month or more ago in Bos¬ 
ton and fully reported iu the Massachusetts 
Ploughman, that he was talking with a young 
lady, a little time ago, and was astonished by 
her telling him that she had 50 hens, and that 
she could show him the figures by which it 
was demonstrated that she had netted 81.50 
from each of these hens, on an average, with¬ 
in the last year. She is a lady of culture, a 
lady of a great deal of broad reading, and de¬ 
votes herself to poultry as a matter of pas¬ 
time aud not as a matter of business. 
T. K. Felch, of Natick, Mass., said that 
Light Brahmas make as large broilers at nine 
weeks as other birds do at 13 weeks, aud give 
the largest number of pounds for food con¬ 
sumed at the age of eight months, the most 
profitable time to kill them for roasters. 
The late hatch, he thought, would pay a 
better profit for winter feeding, aud in March 
commanded a higher price for heavy weight 
poultry than any other breed. As winter 
layers, Mr. Felch gives them the first place. 
No other eggs rule as high in price, their large 
size and dark-colored shells commend them... 
Mr. Felch rates the Plymouth Rock the 
second in merit of all breeds, Its first merit 
is as broilers. He says that this breed Is a 
fair producer of eggs, aud with good care in 
small flocks will give 133 eggs a year. The 
greatest drawback, be thinks, is the death rate 
among laying stock. 
TnE Wyaudottes are susceptible to disease, 
Mr. F. thinks, far beyond the Asiatics. They 
may, however, be destined to rival Plymouth 
Rocks because their skin is more yellow, their 
bodies more plump and they carry more 
breast meat, which is appreciated in a broiler. 
The egg is as yet too small. 
Partridge Cochins, the most gorgeously 
attired iu plumage of all the Cochins, are 
good winter layers, if not allowed to get too 
fat.....*.. 
Mr. Felch’s formula for preparing meal 
for rearing chickens is, 20 pounds of corn, 15 
pounds of oats, 10 pounds of barley and 10 
pounds of wheat bran, to beground fine and 
well mixed. He asserts that, feeding this to 
chickens will give a pound extra weight in 12 
weeks.... 
Mu. Felch reckons that a bushel of corn 
expended in a variety of food will produce 
nine to 11 pounds of live iioultry. 
He further says that to make the produc¬ 
tion of broilers a business, the incubator be¬ 
comes indispensable. But for all that, to say 
incubators up to this time have been success¬ 
ful, is not a fact, and the greatest drawback 
in their success has come from the manufac¬ 
turers of them, iu that they have sold to 
whomsoever would buy, without regard to the 
purchaser’s conveniences or ability to run 
them. They have asserted that any woman 
or child could run them. As the result of such 
want of suitable contrivances to care for the 
chicks when hatched, aud want of experience, 
iu the operator, four-fifths of them have failed 
and to-day there are hundreds of incubators 
abandoned and stowed away among the rub¬ 
bish of uuused machinery. 
* To run an incubator successfully the opera¬ 
tor must become master of the machine. He 
or she must learn how to control the evapora¬ 
tion to secure the requisite amount of moist¬ 
ure; he must learn to mn it with the lowest 
flume that will secure absolute control be¬ 
tween 08 aud 103 standard degrees of heat.. If 
the machine constantly fluctuates to a dogiee 
nine weeks of age? Mr. F. replied that a pair 
would usually weigh four pounds. Mr. Hawk¬ 
ins said that he had broilers from Plymouth 
Rocks and Wyandotte* last season that at 10 
weeks old would dress pounds to the pair. 
He asks if Light Brahmas make more desirable 
broilers as regards breast meat‘at that time? 
Do uot the Wyandotte* and Plymouth Rocks 
have fuller breasts all the way down from five 
to ten weeks of age? The Light Brahma can be 
killed for broilers when nine weeks old, but 
from the time they weigh two pounds, they 
have rather long legs aud are thinner iu the 
breast. Plymouth Rocks aud Wyaudottes at 
that age are very plump, with short legs and 
clean from feathers. 
Mr. Felch agreed with Mr. Hawkins’s state¬ 
ment that the Light Brahma can never be 
profitably killed during a falling market 
when from tliree to six months old; but the 
Plymouth Rocks and Wyaudottes can be killed 
any day and profitably sold in the market. 
Oftentimes these breeds when four months old 
will bring more money thau Light Brahmas 
at five months. But Mr. Felch insisted that 
no other breed is more profitable to keep 
through all seasons than the Light Brahmas.. 
If Mr. Hawkins could have all his chickens 
hatched in one week, he would select the first, 
week in April. Then by the time they are 
nine or ten weeks old—say the 20th of June— 
thev will bring 45 to 50 cents a pound dressed. 
He believes they can be raised for 20 cents a 
chicken, and if they will weigh 2 1 J pounds 
each they will bring 75 cents per chicken 
easily.. • > .. 
Mr. Hawkins’s best food for chickens is 
composed of corn and oats ground together 
and cooked iu milk and broken crackers 
soaked iu milk, using one-half of each. He 
gives this in a rather moist condition with ro 
drink whatever for four weeks. 
Mr. Felch says that one Leghorn is on 
record as haring laid 301 eggs in a year. He 
knew of one Leghorn that laid 150 days in 
succession. Mr. Fetch commends the White 
Leghorn for warmer, more equable climates— 
California for example. The moment we 
strike the small breeds, unquestionably, Mr. 
the best breed for 
Wisconsin.3,815.726 
Wyoming. 10,167 
The number of fowls to each inhabitant was 
about three, or nine dozen of eggs. Illinois is 
the great poultry .State, having 11,525,017, yet 
this vast number gives but 330 to every square 
mile, or four fowls aud 12 dozen of eggs for 
each inhabitant. Ohio produced the greatest 
number of eggs, 43,092,201 dozen. The New 
England State*, where one would suppose the 
poultry business would be made the most of, 
had only some 37 per cent, of the fowls in the 
single State of Illinois, yet they produced 
nearly SO per cent, of the number of eggs. 
Rhode Island had but 200 fowls ou each square 
mile, or a trifle over six dozens of eggs for 
each inhabitant. 
It is somewhat surprising to learn that the 
great bulk of our poultry lies in the West, and 
that it cau lie raised so cheaply there that 
dealers can ship to the East aud realize a 
fair profit. In the space bounded ou the 
south by Tennessee, tne west by Kansas 
and Nebraska, north by Canada, and east 
by the Ohio River, may be found 50 per cent. 
ofalltbefowLs in the country, while 43 per 
cent of the eggs were produced ou the same 
area, which contained 14 per cent of the to¬ 
tal area of the country, and 32 per coat of the 
total population. These facts are contrary to 
general belief. If western fowls were, as a 
rule, as productive as fowls in New England, 
or if New England had the fowls that are 
found in the single State of Illinois, one can 
readily see what the result would be upon our 
markets. 
In the single State of New York, in 1880, 
there were 6,046,292 poultry;610,358 horses; 
1,437,655 milch cows; 001,866 other cattle: 
1,715,180 sheep, and 751,007 swine. She pro¬ 
duced 111,932,423pounds of butter; 8,302,500 
pounds of cheese, 31,058,730 dozen of eggs; 
while 231,965,533 gallons of milk were sold 
or sent to butter or cheese factories. There 
were 241,058 farms, and a population of 5,083,- 
810, This gives an average to each farm of 
29 poultry, five cows, four beef cattle and 
three swine, or a trifle over one head of poul¬ 
try, six-dozen of eggs, 22 pounds of butter, 10 
pounds of cheese and 46 gallons of milk for 
each inhabitant through the year. 
The value of the hen manure from a single 
bird for one year has been quoted at 15 cents. 
This is, we think, a very low estimate, and 
yet, even at this rate, the total value of the 
manure from all the poultry in the country 
in 1880 would be $10,000,000. The total val¬ 
ues of the fertilizers manufactured during the 
same year was $23,650,705. 
If we allow one egg every t wo days for each 
adult, aud one egg every four days for each 
child, we would have with the population of 
1880. as a basis, a home consumption of 050,- 
000,000 dozens, so that our home product must 
be increased nearly 50 per cent, in order to 
supply our own wants. We must increase the 
number of the present stock of poultry, or in- 
the productiveness of the present stock 
^^jroved blood and better cure. The 
re' >1. ■ -re.-.- rapidly iurrea.vh from 
Jfv ■ 'll, • i .ii' 1 ■ an .glc* i 
B 
BBudiug increase of stock The egg 
re Bicver be adulterated. There is as wide a 
BKtinction growing between fresh and stale 
B^ggs as there is between “gilt-edged” and com- 
* mon butter. What department of the farm 
offers better returns for care aud enterprise? 
Felcli says, the Leghorn is 
eggs, but in the cold North they are not good 
winter layers. 
Mr. Hchtdlette estimates that $1.25 to $1.50 
is a liberal allowance for the cost of keeping 
one hen for a year where everything is pur¬ 
chased of the best quality and at the highest 
price. This is in confinement. 
If be cared only for eggs, he would cross a 
Wyandotte cock on Plymouth Rock hens. A 
friend of his has kept that cross for several 
years with the most remarkable results. Most 
of the pullets of this cross arc a lustrous black 
and the best layers he knows of. They have 
clean, dark legs, yellow skin and plump 
bodies... 
Mr. Houdlette favors also a cross of 
White Leghorn cock on Light Brahma hens. 
He would always use females of the larger 
variety. The fancy for yellow skin and yel¬ 
low shanks is purely American and without 
any good reason; the white-legged and white- 
skinued Dorking is the English standard, you 
know. The Dorking, Houdan and Game are 
admitted the world over, when cooked, to 
have no superiors. Yet neither has yellow 
skin or legs. 
Egos are as sensitive as butter or milk, and 
as easily uffeeted by the food or water. Feed 
your heus onions today, and to-morrow’s eggs 
will have the onion flavor and odor. The 
same occurs when hens feed on the manure 
pile and drink barnyard water. 
Mr. H. A. Manhkjkld is surprised that 
young men do uot secure small farms, that can 
be nurchased at a moderate cost, a short dis- 
At the Rural New-Yoricker Farm on 
Long Island, we aim to keep about 75 head of 
poultry. These are allowed to range about 
the farm during the cold season, and during 
the growing season are confined in a yard 200 
by 50 feet, in this there are a dozen dwarf 
apples (true Paradise stock) and 20 dwarf 
