1900 
93 
Ailing Animals. 
ANSWERS BY DR. F. L. KILBORNE. 
Cows Do Not Come to Their Milk. 
I am feeding eight quarts of bran and 
corn meal and middlings to each cow, and 
am not getting sufficient milk. When my 
cows first drop their calves they do not 
come to their milk as they should. I am 
feeding cut stalks and straw twice a day 
and hay at midday, with middlings on the 
straw, which is cut fine. What can I do 
for them, and how should I change the 
food? J* D. L. 
Croton-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
The failure of your cows to come to 
their milk after calving may be due to 
feeding too mucfh straw, to stalks or hay 
of inferior quality, or to neglect in the 
care and management of the cows. 
Straw should not be fed in any quantity 
to cows in milk. The hay and corn fod¬ 
der should be of good quality if a good 
flow of milk is expected. The eight 
quarts of mixed feed is only a moderate 
ration, so that the trouble cannot be due 
to the corn. Allowing the cows to run 
out of doors much of the time during the 
Winter; irregularity or neglect in water¬ 
ing and feeding; rough or boisterous 
treatment of the cows, or any failure to 
make them comfortable and contented, 
will greatly reduce the milk flow. 
Impaction in a Cow. 
I have a Jersey cow four years old which 
was taken sick four weeks ago with im¬ 
paction of the rumen, caused by eating too 
much coarse hay. In 10 days she com¬ 
menced to improve, then had a relapse, 
caused, I think, by giving a little steamed 
hay. Now she has come to her appetite 
again, and appears to be much better. 
What would be the proper treatment when 
first taken, and what would be proper food 
and drink when recovering? p. t. n. 
Meredith, N. H. 
The cow should have received a pound 
each of Epsom and common salt, with 
two tablespoonfuls of ginger and a tea¬ 
cupful of molasses, dissolved in two 
quarts of warm water, and administered 
as a drench. If there was no effect in 24 
hours, 60 drops of croton oil should be 
given, shaken up in one quart of raw 
linseed oil. Teaspoonful doses of pow¬ 
dered nux vomica every six hours, with 
stimulants if the animal was weak, 
could be given to advantage. Rectal in¬ 
jections of warm soapsuds every two or 
three hours are also very desirable in 
obstinate constipation. During recovery 
the cow should have a light, laxative 
diet, and drinking water with the chill 
off. Bran mashes with boned flax seed 
or oil meal will be especially desirable. 
Also beets, carrots, or other roots in 
moderate quantity. Good hay, corn- 
fodder or silage, should be fed sparingly 
until the bowels have recovered and 
have resumed their normal functions. 
Chronic Indigestion from Windsucking in a 
Horse. 
In regard to my horse subject to reten 
tion of urine, at times it becomes scant, 
and almost black in color, and of an oily 
or ropy consistency. There is also at such 
times considerable internal commotion, 
sounding like water running through a lot 
of pipes. The horse is somewhat hide¬ 
bound, and it is almost impossible to make 
him sweat with work. He is a confirmed 
wind-sucker. h. p. 
Bay Shore, N. Y. 
The additional facts you give put a 
very different light on the case. There 
is evidently no real retention of urine, 
as you supposed, but a bad case of 
chronic indigestion from wind-sucking. 
The scanty, high-colored urine is one of 
the results, and not the cause of the gen¬ 
eral debility. Unless the serious vice of 
wind-sucking can be corrected, treat¬ 
ment will oe of little or no benefit. If 
the horse is also a cribber, as is com¬ 
monly the case, the habit may possibly 
be prevented by confining him in a box 
stall, or a single stall, but so boarded 
up on both sides and in front, that there 
is nothing upon which the horse can 
crib. Then feed from the floor, or a 
rack or box not higher than the horse’s 
knees. But if the horse sucks wind 
without cribbing, it can be prevented 
only by a strap buckled around the 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER! 
throat close behind the angle of the jaw. 
The following powders may improve the 
horse’s condition, but the wind-sucking 
should first be corrected, if possible; 
powdered gentian, nitrate of potash and 
ginger, of each eight ounces; powdered 
nux vomica and dry sulphate of iron, of 
each four ounces; mix. Give a large 
tablespoonful in the feed twice daily. 
Rub the loins with ammonia liniment 
sufficient to blister moderately, and re¬ 
peat two or three times at intervals of 
about four weeks. 
THE FAT HEN AND HER LAYING. 
Will a hen fed on a balanced ration ever 
get so fat that she can’t lay? If a hen fed 
on corn gets too fat, would a change to a 
balanced ration make her lay, or would she 
have to get poorer first? 
The belief that hens stop laying be¬ 
cause they get too fat is one that is 
widely prevalent, and there must be 
some foundation for it, or it would not 
get so firm a hold on the public mind. 
I have had quite an extensive experience 
in feeding hens, and must candidly say 
that I have never yet known a case from 
actual experience Where I thought that 
a hen stopped laying because she got too 
fat. More than that, I do not believe 
that a hen fed on a balanced ration can 
be made too fat to lay. Some of the 
reasons for my belief are given, in or¬ 
der to put the matter in a stronger light. 
I noticed years ago that when a flock 
of hens had the run of a wheat stubble 
after harvest, where wheat and insects 
were abundant, they always got ex¬ 
tremely fat, but laid right along. I have 
fed over 1,000 hens from March 1 to 
October 1, keeping a balanced ration 
constantly before them, in the form of a 
wet mash, and they kept right on lay¬ 
ing satisfactorily all that time. I have 
raised pullets hatched in March by keep¬ 
ing food constantly before them, and 
they got very fat, but commenced to lay 
in July and August. 
I have shut up a hen in a berry crate, 
and kept food outside of the crate (in¬ 
cluding whole corn) so that she could 
put her head out through the slats and 
eat whenever she felt like it, and she 
kept right on laying as regularly as a 
clock, although she was very fat all the 
time, and got practically no exercise. 
She laid 136 eggs in one continuous lit¬ 
ter before she stopped. She was nearly 
naked from moulting within a week af¬ 
ter she stopped laying. I have kept corn 
and the Yankee poultry food constantly 
before a flock of about 40 hens for 17 
months, and some of them laid every 
day during all that time. Perhaps they 
would have grown too fat to lay if I had 
kept it up long enough, but they did not 
in 17 months. Of course they did not lay 
many eggs during part of that time, but 
they held their own with my other 
flocks. I am sorry I did not keep a 
record of their eggs. 
I have a hen now. which I call Lady 
Wonders, thalt laid 230 eggs between 
October 15, 1898, and October 14, 1899, 
and she had food constantly before her 
for at least eight months out of the 
year. She moulted in September, and 
began to lay again on October 14, mak¬ 
ing a record of 230 eggs and a new coat 
within the year. She has been kept in a 
small room by herself, and has had 
practically no outdoor exercise. These 
are some of the facts on which I base 
my belief that a hen fed on a balanced 
ration cannot be made too fat to lay. 
In spite of all this, there are certain 
seasons of the year when the average 
hen will not lay, whether I give her lit¬ 
tle or much of a balanced ration, or of 
any other kind of a ration, all of which 
goes to prove that there is much to be 
learned yet about hens. o. w. mapes. 
THE PULLETS MAIDEN EGG. 
I have four poultry papers to read, 
but I manage to keep my eye on the 
Hope Farm hen man. and I have been 
wondering whether he would go into his 
boots gracefully when the poultry men 
of New Jersey put in their 200-eggs-a- 
year hens in the contest he suggested 
last year. Strange they wait so long. 
But now I have got a twist in another 
direction. M. K. Boyer—we all know 
Uncle Mike, of Southern New Jersey, 
who is trying to find out whether one 
can make a living on a two-acre poultry 
farm—'has stocked his farm with high- 
priced fowls from some of the famous 
laying strains of the country, and in the 
latest issue of A Few Hens he has given 
the laying records of his May-hatched 
pullets. The dates when he received 
the first egg from some of the different 
breeds are given as follows: Rose Comb 
Rhode Island Red, December 4; Silver 
Wyandotte, December 8; Light Brahma, 
December 16; White Plymouth Rock. 
December 20. 
Now, I have some very ordinary pul¬ 
lets, none of them hatched before May 
10, and from then along into July. I 
have just been looking up their records, 
and find them as follows: Single Comb 
Brown Leghorn, first egg, November 1; 
Barred Plymouth Rock, November 13, 
Light Brahma-Buff Cochin cross, Decem¬ 
ber 14. Those pullets were not forced 
for egg production. They were given 
free range until November 1, and, al¬ 
though well-bred and pure enough for 
practical purposes, they are just such 
stock as almost any farmer could ob¬ 
tain without any special effort or large 
expense, and as they have gained 
steadily from the first I am looking for a 
good record by the end of the season. 
Do these records 'indicate that the 
famous high-priced birds are the 
“onliest” ones for profit? I am keeping 
careful records so to know more about 
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How to Drain Land Profitably. 
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Hardwick, Vt. 
R. N.-Y.—We made our challenge fair¬ 
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ia reply. Our bens are not now in train¬ 
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Bees and Mice.—A. R. Phillips, on page 
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