1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
221 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
L Which do you consider the better, a 
board floor or a dirt floor for poultry 
houses? 2. Does It lessen egrg production 
to let the fowls run on the frozen ground 
In the sunshine, provided there Is no snow 
on the ground? 3. Under favorable condi¬ 
tions and with good care, how many eggs 
per year ought Leghorn hens to lay? 4. 
How many fowls should be In one flock 
and housed together to Insure the best re¬ 
sults? 'W'. A. w. 
Riverhead, N. T. 
Benefits of Board Floors.—1. There 
are several good reasons In favor of a 
board floor in poultry houses In prefer¬ 
ence to dirt floors. One is that they are 
more easily cleaned. The litter and ma¬ 
nure can be removed from a board floor, 
and the workman can easily tell where 
to stop. With a dirt floor. It Is some¬ 
times hard to tell where the floor be¬ 
gins. Another and better reason In fa¬ 
vor of a board floor Is the liability of 
rats, minks, etc., to burrow under the 
walls, and come up through a dirt floor. 
A mink Is most decidedly out of place 
inside a poultry house. Many and many 
a case have I known, both at home and 
elsewhere, where a mink has killed 30 
or 40 good-sized birds in a single night. 
That was one of my first lessons in the 
poultry business. My wife and daughter 
got me Interested In hens In the first 
place. They started in one Winter to 
see whether they could not earn enough 
in that way to buy an organ. By Sep¬ 
tember they had saved nearly enough 
cash, but lacked a little, so bantered me 
to buy a lot of half-grown chicks from 
tliem. I think it was 20 cents apiece I 
paid for the birds, thus enabling them to 
pay spot cash for their organ. In less 
than a week a mink got among those 
chickens and bled about 50 of them. 
Since using tight board floors, well up 
from the ground, with plenty of room 
for cats under the floor, I have had ab¬ 
solutely no trouble from rats or minks. 
OrtTDOOR Run in Winter. —2. I should 
say no to this question, provided they 
have free access to their regular quar¬ 
ters when they care to go inside. At 
the same time I doubt whether it is any 
particular advantage to let the hens out, 
v'here care is exercised to supply them 
with. grit and other essentials inside. 
Violent changes of environment always 
check egg production; at least that has 
been my experience. When mating our 
breeding pens I have often noticed this. 
Hens that were in the pink of condition 
have often been lifted direct from the 
nest and carried to new quarters and 
new companions, with the almost in¬ 
variable result that egg production 
would be checked for a time. In sections 
where snow covers the ground much of 
the time I should advise close confine¬ 
ment until the season for snowstorms is 
about past. 
Leghorn Egg Yield.—3. The number 
of eggs a Leghorn hen which is never 
broody ought to lay may be 200 or over, 
but inducing her to do it is quite an¬ 
other thing. If you succeed in getting 
above 120 eggs I believe you are getting 
over the average, especially where large 
flocks are kept. 
Size of Flock. —4. I think that the ac¬ 
cepted limit is higher than it was a few 
years ago, and that it is still rising; 50 
hens in a flock seems to be about as high 
as most practical men now attempt to 
keep. Labor is one of the most expen¬ 
sive items to be reckoned with in egg 
production, and the smaller the flocks 
the greater the labor bill will be. In the 
house described last week, doors are 
opened between the sections in Summer, 
thus practically making one large flock, 
and I have seen nearly a thousand in 
this flock a whole season, giving very 
satisfactory results in eggs. H. E. Van 
Dreser keeps his on much the same 
plan in one long house with no yards. 
I do not know whether they are fed out¬ 
side as one flock or not. 
Need of Grit. —Let me emphasize the 
necessity of providing a good supply of 
oyster shells for the hens at this season 
of the year. When one sees the eager¬ 
ness with which a laying hen will de¬ 
vour a quantity of them, whether she 
has been deprived of them for a couple 
of days only, he will hardly have the 
heart to refuse to supply them plenti¬ 
fully, Their cost is inconsiderable, es¬ 
pecially along the eastern sea coast or 
near it. It hardly pays to crush them by 
hand, where the crushed shells can be 
bought for 40 or 50 cents per 100 pounds. 
In many places where there is a fish 
market the whole shells of oysters and 
clams can be secured and dumped on 
some roadway near the hens, and the 
crushing will be done by passing wheels 
as fast as needed for use. I have fre¬ 
quently known a hen to get a large 
piece lodged in the back of the mouth 
or throat, however, and cause trouble. 
For this reason the prepared shells 
which are screened to a uniform size are 
preferable. 
Egg Prices. —The outlook for high 
prices for eggs does not appear to be as 
good as it was a year ago. The exten¬ 
sive use of cold storage eggs of late has 
had a tendency to make prices higher 
during the flush of production, and 
lower during the time when production 
is least. The Winter of 1901 and 1902 
furnished an exceptionally good mar¬ 
ket for cold storage eggs, with the re¬ 
sult that most packers made money on 
their goods. This made them all anxious 
to enlarge their packings a year ago, 
and the sharp competition among such 
buyers held prices well up during the 
flush of the season. As is often the case 
the business was rather overdone, and 
cold storage eggs have been a drug on 
the market during much of the past 
Winter. Persons who have lost money 
in the business during the year just past 
are not likely to be very enthusiastic 
buyers this Spring, and I look for a 
lower run of prices than last year. 
Fighting Pigs. —We have been trou¬ 
bled several times this Winter with 
fighting among our pigs. Possibly we 
had them in too close quarters for 
safety. I have often heard of pigs fight¬ 
ing when strange individuals have been 
introduced into the pen, but this has oc¬ 
curred several times with us among pigs 
that have been reared together since 
birth. When 25 thrifty pigs get into a 
romp among themselves in small quar¬ 
ters some of them are liable to get out 
oi wind, and pant pretty hard. The 
long-winded chaps seem to pick on such 
a one, and just as soon as he gets down 
and begins to squeal the whole crowd 
jump on him, biting ears and tail, and 
raking the whole body with marks of 
sharp teeth. We have had to remove 
several cases of this kind, and have not 
been able to persuade them to allow such 
pigs to be returned to the pen after they 
have recovered their wind. They all 
pitch upon him again, as soon as an 
opportunity is given. o. w. mapes. 
Best 
Results 
in feeding for milk are 
obtained by adding some 
Buffalo 
Gluten 
Feed 
to balance the ration. 
Sample and booklet 
*^Feed Your Stock for 
Best Results^*^ 
Sent free. Write to-day. 
Address Department T 
THE GLUCOSE SUGAR REFINING CO., 
The Rookery, Chicago, III. 
BUYING A 
CREAM SEPARATOR. 
To make no mistake in this is of the utmost importance. 
You don’t buy one very often and it is not only a question 
of first cost but of daily profit or loss, daily operation, and 
daily wear and tear. 
The right choice is really simple. In reality 
the De Laval machines are in a class by themselves—head 
and shoulders above all imitating- machines. 
Protecting patents make and keep them so—together 
with far greater experience and superior facilities in every 
way for cream separator manufacture. 
Every big and experienced user of separators knows 
this and uses De Laval machines exclusively—both in 
factory and farm sizes. 
But you may be without separator knowl¬ 
edge or experience. Therefore take steps to see and 
try a De Laval machine for yourself. It will cost you 
nothing to do so. That is part of the local agent’s business. 
If you don’t know him write for his name and address. 
Try imitating machines too if you will and can get 
them, but don’t put your name to an order of any kind 
until you know the facts about the De Laval machines 
and have tried one. That means your buying one. 
The De Laval Separator Co, 
Randolph & Canal Sts.. 
CHICAGO. 
1213 Filbert Street, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
2 17-2 2 I Drumm St. 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
General Offices; 
74 CORTLANDT STREET, 
NEW YORK. 
121 Youville Square, 
MONTREAL. 
75 & 77 York Street, 
TORONTO. 
248 McDermot Avenue 
WINNIPEG. 
How’s This For a Record? 
Emporia, Kans., Jan. 2nd, 1903, 
Empire Cream Separator Co., 
Bloomfield, N. J. 
Dear Sirs: Have used one of your Empire 
Cream Separators for the past eight years, 
during which time 1 have been milking at all 
times from twelve to fifteen cows. The cost for 
repairs in the eight years has been only sev¬ 
enty-five cents. I have had experience with 
other separators but consider the Empire 
superior to any other, as it never caused me 
any bother. It is easy to clean and has prov¬ 
en very durable. It does good work at all 
times. L. H. VAHSHOLTZ, 
Rural Route No. 4. 
The Empire Cream Separator turns more 
easily, is more easily cleaned, does better 
work, and costs less for repairs than any 
other, because it is the simplest separator 
made. Don’t buy a separator until you 
have investigated the merits of the Empire. 
Send for our new book on Makinjj Milch Cows Pay. 
Empire Cream Separator Company, 
Bloomfield, N. J. 
Eight Years 
T3he 
Rmpire 
Fifleen Cows 
MclKcs 
CoteJS 
TcLjr, 
Fifteen Cows^ 
Eight Years 
Big Profit 
in Cows 
Is but a question of getting all the eream 
(butter fat) out of the milk. With the old 
setting system your loss Is over • 
80 per e.ent greater than with a I 1 
NATIONAL 
Hand Separator 
A valuable machine you can 
test iu your own home or dairy 
10 Days Free 
If you like—buy it; If you 
don’t, we take 11 back and pay 
all expense—you have notlt- 
ing to risk. Our catalogue 
gives full particulars. 
National Dairy Machine Co.. Newark, N. i. 
Perfect Butter 
—the kind which brings the highest 
price in any market can only be made 
, from perfect milk. All bad odors 
land flavors of animal, feed oi 
stable must be removed, 
THE PERFECTION 
MUR Cooler and Aerator 
will do It quickly, cheaply and perfectly. Made In Tart- 
>ufitM from I to !t00 cows Send for prices and free eircniars. 
UR. LEWIS, Manfr., Box 12 . Cortland, N, Y. 
Pat. May 21.1901. 
THE ARRaS 
Cream Extractor 
The leading Cream Extractor 
on the market because milk and 
water are not mixed. You al¬ 
ways have pure, sweet milk for 
homo use and not diluted for 
feeding. The most convenient 
extractor made for handling 
your milk iu Winter as well as 
in Summer. It saves all can 
lifting, skimming and washing 
of crooks. It is easily kept 
clean. Write for descriptive 
catalogue and special introduc¬ 
tory prices to THE AKKA.S 
(!KEAr.I SEPAUATOK CO. 
BLUFSTON, OHIO. 
