1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
7i9 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Stale Bread for Hens and Pigs.— What 
do some of The R. N.-Y. family think of 
stale bread as a feed for poultry? At $1.25 
])cr 100 pounds, is it a cheap food or not? 
What do our scientific people say of it, 
and how do practical feeders regard it? 
How would it be for pigs? h. a. 
Mew Jersey. 
Assuming that by “stale” bread is 
meant “dry” bread, such as has become 
too dry for table use, I should regard it 
a.s a good investment at the price named, 
for either pigs or poultry. If *it has 
been wet so as to become moldy, I 
should say “don’t.” While there would 
be more moisture and less dry matter in 
it than in many kinds of dry mill feeds 
that can be bought at that price, the 
fact of its being cooked, and having a 
certain portion of milk, etc., added, 
would be in its favor. The value of 
bread crumbs for young chicks is gen¬ 
erally conceded. There is a State insti¬ 
tution for insane near me with upwards 
of a thousand inmates. On the refuse 
from the dining room and kitchen, con¬ 
sisting very largely of bread, a good 
many tons of pork are made annually. 
The late Dr. S. H. Talcot, who founded 
Lhe institution and superintended it 
sjccessfully, once told me when I asked 
why so much bread was allowed to go 
to the pigs, that he considered it a cheap 
pork producer, since the flour is con¬ 
verted into bread on the premises. At 
any rate, I doubt if there is another 
place in the State that can show as 
fine a pen of pork as is shown every 
year by this institution at our Orange 
County Fair. 
Catarrhal Roup.— We have a flock of 50 
Plymouth Rocks—good layers. Occasion¬ 
ally one is affected with water in the eyes 
and yellow lids, with swelled head. Within 
a day or two several more will be troubled 
the same way. Such hens often get to 
laying, but are subject to a second attack. 
Should such hens be killed or separated 
from the flock? The hens live in good 
fRiarters, but the house is not cleaned 
< ften. Four of our best hens are awaiting 
your answer. i.., m. s. 
Brunswick, Me. 
Here is every symptom of catarrhal 
roup. My own experience has been that 
a hen that once fully recovers is not sub¬ 
ject to a second attack. If the case gets 
so severe that the head or face swolls 
ladly, kill and bury or burn. It will do 
but little good to remove Infected birds 
from the flock. Some of the others will 
generally become infected before the 
trouble is noticed, thus perpetuating the 
infection. The germs are pretty sure 
also to become scattered through the 
building. 
Rofp IxFKPTio.N'.—Here is another 
man far removed from the above local¬ 
ity, who recognizes the importance of 
getting rid of the infection, and also 
the profitableness of hens: 
I asked your advice last Spring about 
buying incubator and brooder, and foilowod 
it, buying a Cyphers, which 1 Jt,m very well 
pleased with. Now 1 have something 
harder. We were clear of the roup for 10 
years after I came here. Two years ago 
1 .sent East for some pure Black Minorca 
roosters. They came and estabiishod roup 
in the flock. I can stop it at times with 
the old, or rather the only time it bothers 
them is in Winter when our building ge.s 
a little too damp and birds are confined a 
little too closely. We use fires at such 
times, but in very cold weather it wiil be 
damp. The young sfock keep taking it at 
any season, white there has not lieen a 
case in the old flock for six months. I 
have not found any medicine that will cure 
it. The best way I have found to keep it 
down is to have the flock in as near per¬ 
fect condition as is possibie. Does warm 
mash encourage its outbreak on account, 
as some claim, of making them more liable 
lo cold? Hav'e you found any remedy that 
will jirevent or cure it? Should T move 
uiy entire flock away from the building 
one-tiuarter mile (being across a stream), 
keep them there this Winter and fumigate 
everything very carefully and at different 
limes, and in Spring hatch everything in 
incubator and raise in brooder? Fould we 
have any assurance of being clear of roup 
in the future, never allowing an old 
chicken back in the flock again? I would 
give a good deal to be free from the dis- 
ease again, and you may trust me I would 
never bring a live fowl on the place. Wi!l 
what meat or ground bone hens will eat 
greedily do them any damage? I use pota¬ 
toes and bran with scraps from house for 
morning most of time, with wheat and 
skim-milk for balance. Some times we are 
low on skim-milk and finish out on water. 
There is more money in chickens here, 
counting Investment, than anything else 
one can do. T have a flock of sheep and 
200 head of cattle, but the chickens beat 
the rest when it comes to dividend. We 
are situated close to a mining camp and 
another good town; eggs are worth 35 cents 
now and usually 50 cents most of Winter. I 
am fearful that roup may lurk in some 
places outside where one cannot fumigate. 
Deerfield, Mont. t. h. 
I have always thought that I bought 
my first case of roup along with some 
stunted stock which I thought I was 
buying cheap. They proved to be the 
dearest birds by far which I ever pur- 
cha.sed. The plan of keeping the flock 
in as near perfect vigor and health as 
possible, corresponds with my experi¬ 
ence as a preventive. The grounds 
and buildings where our young stock 
is raised must be well stocked with roup 
germs, yet I have not seen a symptom 
of it this season in a flock of a thousand 
or more, all fed as one flock. If T. H. 
will try the plan he proposes, we shall 
all be glad to hear his report. My own 
belief is that the open ground will be 
purified by the elements in six or eight 
months, but that buildings will harbor 
the germs for a longer time. I would 
suggest a thorough saturation of all in¬ 
side works with a strong solution of 
blue vitriol, instead of fumigation. This 
can easily be done with a compressed 
ail spray pump. I used this plan two 
years ago in some houses which had 
been infected with cholera, and have 
seen no symptoms of that disease since. 
I should fear to give a hungry flock of 
hens a chance to gorge themselves with 
meat or bone containing much fat, but if 
given after a good meal of grain, there 
is no fear of their eating enough to in¬ 
jure themselves. ‘ 
Does warm mash favor the outbreak, 
on account of making them more liable 
to colds? Until I obtain more evidence 
that such is the case, I am inclined to 
doubt it. Still there is a possibility that 
the conditions of heat and moisture, 
which are very favorable to germ devel¬ 
opment. may favor the development of 
the roup germs. A remnant of ma.sh 
left in the trough, especially in warm 
weather, is probably a good culture-bed 
for the germs of disease. 
O. W. MARKS. 
BOG SPAVIN. 
Due of my team hor.ses gut hl.s leg 
wrenched last Spring, and has been lame 
ever .since. It has formed a swelling on 
the hock joint; some call it a bog spavin. 
The bunch is soft. 1 was told I could cure 
it by blistering. Is a bog spavin curable, 
and what shall T do for it? i. R. F. 
Somers, Conn. 
I cannot tell for sure that your horse 
has bog spavin; from what you say I 
think he has. Whether it can be cured 
or not I cannot say, for I do not know 
the condition that it is in. I would ad¬ 
vise you to have a veterinary fire and 
blister; progress is too slow with spavin 
to blister without firing. 
LIVE STOCK PROSPECTS. 
l think prices for good cattle and hogs 
will be better yet. Farmers and feeders 
arc inclined to iet go of stock as fast as 
they are in fair condition, as the corn crop 
in this section is far from being as good 
as usual, not over half and late. Very few 
cattle will be fed here as compared with 
other Winters; hogs plentiful. c. j. s. 
Mechanicsburg, O. 
Hogs are being marketed freely at pres¬ 
ent iirices, the general impression being 
that the crop of new corn hogs will .^-ell 
much cheaper than the present price. 
About the same condition prevails with re¬ 
gard to cattle. 'I’he erop of old corn is 
pretty well exhausted and the growing crop 
will not be up to the average, even if frost 
stays off 10 days or two weeks yet, hence 
feeders arc disposed to market cattle as 
soon as in condition rather than risk a 
further decline. If the corn crop gets 
through without frost there will 'be the 
usual number of cattle put on feed for the 
Winter and Spring months. 
Malta Bend. Mo. Houston bros. 
450,000 Farmers 
Scattered all over the World 
are finding a 
De Laval Cream Separator 
the best investment 
they ever made in dairying. 
MIGHT NOT THIS BE TRUE WITH YOU TOO? 
Let tlie nearest local agent bring yon a 
macliine to see and try for yourself. 
That is his business. It will cost you 
nothing. It may save you a great deal. 
If yon don’t know the agent send for his 
name and address—and a catalogue. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
Randolph & Canal Sts., 
CHICAGO. 
General Offices: 
121 Youville Square, 
MONTREAL. 
1213 Filbert Street, y . OnDTi Awm- C-roc-ir-r ” & 77 York Street. 
PHILADELPHIA. /4 OORTLANDT STREET, TORONTO 
9 & 11 Drumm St. 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
NEW YORK. 
TORONTO. 
248 McDermot Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
In the past three years the actual weekly 
sales of the 
EMPIRE ^*^^^ARATOR 
have increased 
more than 1000 per cent. 
In other words, we are selling more than 
ten times as many separators as we 
sold three years ago. 
And the demand still increases. 
Not strange. Every EMPIRE sold in a 
neiMiborhood sells a dozen more. It’s 
o 
the kind of separator folks like. 
Our book tells why. 
Don’t buy a separator on anybody’s “say so.” 
Investigate for yourself. 
EMPIRE CREAM SEPARATOR CO., 
Bloomfield, N. J. Chicago, Illinois. 
End Your 
Butter Troubles 
with a National Hand Separator 
and make more and better butter from 
same quantity of milk. The 
National will do it easier, 
quicker and pay its cost in 
a very short time. We don't 
ask you to take our word— 
we send the machine for 
10 Days’ Free Trial 
and let it prove its worth 
right in your own dairy. 
You take no riiA-we assume 
it aU. If It does not meet 
your expectations, send it 
.back—we pay the costs. 
' Our catalogue tells more 
—write for it, it’s free. 
National Dairy Machine Co., Newark, N. 1. 
SHARPLES 
TUBULAR 
FARM 
Separator 
Why does every sensible 
farmer who examines a 
TUBULAR 
buy it in preference lo any other separator? 
Because he can plainly see tiiat it is worth 
twice as much as other separators. You will 
understand why if you will let us tell you of 
its many tine points, too numerous to mention 
here. Write for free catalogue No. 153 
THE SHARPLES CO., 
Chicago, III. 
P. M. SHARPLES. 
Woat Chostor, Pa. 
