1903 
245 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Feeding the Grass. —Our field of 
Timothy and Red-top, which was sown 
on a modified plan of the Clark system, 
comes through the Winter in good 
shape. 1 do not think there is a bare 
.spot in it “as big as your hat.” It will 
be remembered that a crop of millet was 
grown on it, while the old sod was rot¬ 
ting, instead of the intensive cultiva¬ 
tion, confined to a few weeks after hay¬ 
ing, practiced by Mr. Clark. The new 
sod will be fed with an application of 
nitrogen in its most available form- (ni¬ 
trate of soda) as soon as growth starts. 
We shall use more nitrate of soda this 
season than ever before. I believe it 
will pay to apply a light dressing of it 
on meadows that have been top-dressed 
with stable manure this Winter. It will 
be one of the very first of the farm op¬ 
erations of the season, taking pains to 
sow it as evenly as possible at the rate 
of 150 to 200 pounds to the acre. This 
will supply the grass plants with food 
that is at once available for use, while 
thereJs certain to be sufficient moisture 
in the soil to dissolve it. There is no 
certainty about the supply of moisture 
in an old sod after the heat of June ar¬ 
rives, so that the bacteria can get in 
their work on the organic nitrogen in 
the manure and the soil. 1 know of a 
housewife who is compelled to bake and 
cook on a stove that sometimes refuses 
to draw, with a high wind in a certain 
quarter. Suppose it is baking day and 
she gets up and finds the wind in the 
oast. Will she waste time trying to 
build her fire out of green wood, saying 
that there is just as much latent heat in 
the green wood as in the dry? Not a bit 
of it. She will, if she is wise, hurry up 
that fire with dry fuel and kerosene, in 
hopes to get her baking out of the way 
before the wind rises and gives her a 
smoky chimney and a poor draft. I 
doubt the wisdom of buying nitrogen in 
fertilizers, derived from organic forms, 
unless at a price very much lower than 
its cost in the form of nitrates. I know 
that the argument is that part of this 
organic nitrogen will become available 
during the latter part of the growing 
season, after that supplied from nitrate 
of soda has been exhausted. Would it 
not be more certain of good results to 
use all of the nitrogen desired in its 
most available form, giving two or more 
light applications during the growing 
season, instead of one heavy application 
at once? What is the sense of buying 
and applying plant food to the soil that 
cannot be used by the crop unless con¬ 
ditions are just right to change it into 
a certain combination. It is too much 
like taking chances in a lottery. There 
is enough plant food already in the soil 
that Is not in an available form. Are 
there not a good many chances that 
when decomposition does take place 
other combinations of matter will occur 
leaving the nitrogen as unavailable for 
plant food as it was before? 
I notice you seem to think that hens will 
do weli from April until moulting time if 
allowed to help themselves to anything 
they might want. Still, I get the impres¬ 
sion from your closing remarks that you 
think they would do fully as well or better 
in egg yield and keep healthier with less 
mortality if feed is put out two or three 
times a day in such quantities as they 
would eat clean and not be over or under¬ 
fed. and feed right kind, with hens on 
range. Is this what you think about the 
matter? 1 liave always fed my hens a 
mash in morning such as they would clean 
up quickly, and at night whole mixed 
grain. This is for Summer. In Winter 1 
make them work for grain in litter, with 
clover and vegetables, etc., and with very 
good results. Would you advise me to 
change from April to moulting time and 
put feed of all kinds where they could run 
to it? 1 notice you like milk to feed hens. 
If 1 feed milk even to mix their ground 
feed with, it causes my hens to have a 
diarrhoea or sort of cholera and I lose 
some this way, and if I put milk where 
they can drink it the trouble is much 
worse. Do you have any such trouble? 
I cannot feed my little chicks any milk 
at all without bowel trouble to greater or 
loss extent. Do you feed your hens any 
powders or medicines of any kind? 
c. N. R. 
Feeding Experience.—I believe that 
a 111 tie better results, both in egg yield 
and general health, can be secured by 
feeding two or three times a day, almost 
but not quite to the extent of the appe¬ 
tite, provided an intelligent combination 
of nutrients is used. Where a man does 
his own feeding and where the flock is 
small, or where flocks are kept separate 
by being yarded, this is easily done. 
\yhf re a large number of colonies are 
given free range, however, as we have 
them, it is very difficult to do this. That 
is (he chief reason why 1 have frequently 
allowed them to balance their own ra¬ 
tion. A scant foed supply is a sure pre¬ 
ventive of egg production. This dauber 
is certain to be avoided in the plan 
spoken of. Another advantage in its 
favor IS that no particular skill is re¬ 
quired to feed a flock where both corn 
and an anti-corn mash are always kept 
where the hens can help themselves. 
.Anybody can keep watch and renew the 
supply as often as exhausted. Too much 
of the mash should not be wet at one 
time so that it will sour before it is 
eaten. A month’s supply of corn can 
easily be arranged at once. The mash 
must be renewed once or twice a day. 
Milk for Hens.—I have fed thou¬ 
sands of cans of milk to hens and chick¬ 
ens, and never but once suspected that 
it injured them. In this case a number 
of remnants of cans, some of them much 
older than others, were mixed together. 
This apparently poisoned the hens, so 
that a number of them died. The first 
few feeds of milk will often have a laxa¬ 
tive effect on the bowels, but I do not 
believe this is injurious any more than 
is the laxative effect of the first few 
feeds of fresh grass upon a cow. We 
would hardly think of refraining from 
turning our cows out to grass, because 
of the laxative effect sure to follow. 
Sweet milk seems to have a more pro¬ 
nounced effect than thick or loppered 
milk. With young chicks in brooders 
any looseness of bowels is objectionable 
if it can be avoided. We use no medi¬ 
cine of any kind. 
Hen Records.—1 ran across an oid 
record on the door of one of my old 
buildings to-day that is still legible, and 
may be of interest at this time. A friend 
of mine offered to sell me 50 hens on 
three months’ time at 50 cents each, 
about four years ago, and I took them 
and placed them in this old building on 
March 11. Corn was placed before them 
at once and kept there, while their 
trough was filled every morning with 
practically the same anti-corn mash 
given on page 176. They were generally 
kept in the house (12x16 feet) until 
afternoon, when they were allowed to 
roam at liberty the remainder of the 
day. They were a mixed lot, with Barred 
Plymouth Rock blood predominating. 
By March 20 they had commenced to lay 
well, and by the time the three months’ 
note was due, had laid enough eggs to 
pay the note, and at the end of the 
fourth month had also settled their feed 
bill for the four months. I think three 
of the hens died in the meantime, so 
that I had 47 hens to show for the labor 
of caring for them during the four 
months. The pen of pullets bought in 
New York City market last August 
makes a very good flock, equal in ap¬ 
pearance to the average hens to be found 
on the American farm. Those which 
had roup have all recovered and they 
are laying about as well as the rest (20 
to 25 a day), but the eggs spoil the looks 
of our basket of White lieghorns. They 
are smaller in size and of all shades of 
brown and buff. A good many of them 
have already been bi’oody, and some are 
very persistent about it. Jesse is going 
to take full charge of the incubators 
this Spring for the first time. He just 
reports as I write this (March 14) that 
his first batch of eggs tests out 298 fer¬ 
tile eggs from 380 placed in the incu¬ 
bator five days ago. It is a 360-egg ma¬ 
chine, but he piled a few on top of the 
trays. That is a fair percentage of fer¬ 
tile eggs, since we have only one rooster 
to 50 hens. o. w. t^iapes. 
I 
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COOPER SHEEP 8HEAU1NO .UAOIIINEOO. 
148 Illinois OhIeaKo. 
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a very short time. We don't 
ask you to take our word— 
we send the machine for 
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i'ou taArnorixAr-weassume 
It all. If it does not meet 
your expectations, send it 
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■ Our catalogue tells more 
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National Dairy Machine Co., Newark, N. J. 
Gomhautt^s 
Caustio Balsam 
The Worlds Greatest and Surest 
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HAS IMITATORS BUT NO COMPETITORS! 
SAFE, SPEEDY AND POSITIVE. 
Supersedes All Cautery or Fir¬ 
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FOUNDER, 
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Every bottle sold Is warranted to give satisfaction 
Write for testimonials showing what the most promi 
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Sold by druggists, or sent by express, charges paid, 
with full directions for Its use. 
The Accented Standard 
VETERiNANY REMEDY 
Always Reliablem 
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Jf'onegenuine witTioutjth^ si'^natareof^ 
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~ CANADAS. i CLEVELAND, 
CAUSTIC BALSAM IS THE BEST 
Your Gombault’s Caustic Balsam Is the best 
liniment I know of. I have bought four bot¬ 
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have cured a s ween led horse with the Balsam. 
—iouis Miller, Sharon, Wia. 
GOMBAULT’S JAUSTIC BALSAM 
IS EXCELLENT. 
Having read an advertisement In Wisconsin 
Agriculturist about your Gomhault’s Caustio 
Balsam, I hare tried some of it and think it 
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Sole Agents for the United States and Ganadam 
The Lawrence~Williams Co. 
TORONTO, ONT. GLCVELANO, OHIO, 
HARD FACTS 
ABOUT CR EAM SE PARATORS. 
The HARD FACTS which concern the in¬ 
tending- purchaser of a cream separator—whether 
for factory or farm use—are briefly these: 
That a DE LAVAL Cream Separator is as 
much superior to imitating machines as such other 
separators are to gravity setting systems. 
That protecting patents make and keep them so— 
together with far greater experience and superioi’ facili¬ 
ties in every way for cream separator manufacture. 
That every big and experienced user of cream 
separators knows this and uses De Laval machines 
exclusively—both in factory and farm sizes. 
That it is as foolish to-day to buy other than 
a Do Laval separator as it would bo to buy an 
old-fashioned mower if an up-to-date combined reaper 
and self-binder could be had for the same money. 
The De Laval Separator Co, 
Randolph & Canal Sts., 
CHICAGO. 
1213 Filbert Street, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
217-221 Orumm St., 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
General Offices: 
74 CORTLANDT STREET, 
NEW YORK. 
■ 21 Youville Square, 
MONTREAL. 
7S & 77 York Street, 
TORONTO. 
248 McOermot Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
f “Slow-Feed Manger” 
Makes a horse eat slow. 
Prevents waste. Price, 
$1.60 complete, having 
seven pockets of it, and 
17-inch, 25 lbs, vanes, etc., etc. 
Send for List. 
BROAD GAUGE IRON STALL WORKS, 
53 Elm Street. Boston, Mass. 
A Milk Cooler 
is a device for cooling milk quickly 
just after it is taken from the cow. 
S Tlie object is to expose every par¬ 
ticle of it to tile air. thus cooling 
it and driving out all l>u<l utiur. 
and geruiH which s^oil milk very 
quickly and reduce its value. 
The P^^tlon Nllk Cooler and Aerator 
does this quicker and better than any other. 
Rend for prices ahd free circulars. 
L. K. LEWIS, Manfr., Box 12, Cortland, N. Y. 
nream 
dairr aotl creame 
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Milk not mixed with water. Ke- 
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New and original faficet; impos- 
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