1*00 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
6o3 
THE MOULTING HEN. 
Shall We Feed Sulphur or Tonics ? 
I do not think it pays to bother with 
sulphate of iron, tonics or powders; 
simply a variety of good food, and let 
nature take its course. While the mat¬ 
ter might be hurried somewhat, I don’t 
think it would pay for the extra trouble 
and time, excepting in a very few cases. 
D. A. MOUNT. 
I fail to see why a hen at moulting 
time needs any special treatment ex¬ 
cept to be kept comfortable and sup¬ 
plied with good food and pure water. 
Moulting is a natural process, and the 
new feathers are not created by the hen, 
but some of her food is transformed into 
feathers. Nature seems wisely to have 
provided that egg-production shall be 
suspended for a time while the process 
is going on. A somewhat parallel case 
occurs when the flow of a cow's milk 
ceases as the fetus calls for heavy 
drains upon her system. It is my be¬ 
lief that a hen at moulting time needs 
less nitrogenous matter in her food than 
she does when producing eggs instead of 
feathers. I am very positive that a 
flock of hens that is given an oppor¬ 
tunity to choose its own food from a 
variety, will choose a greater proportioy 
of carbonaceous food at such a time than 
when laying heavily. I have observed 
this many times, and it seems reason¬ 
able, since an egg contains more nitro¬ 
gen than she could possibly put in her 
new feathers during the time required to 
produce the egg. Better supply the 
necessary sulphur in some form of her 
food, as she has not the power to trans¬ 
form the sulphur from the shelves of the 
drug store into feathers, eggs, or bones. 
o. w. MATES. 
I think the best way to handle moult¬ 
ing hens is to hang them up by the feet, 
bleed them well, hasten the moulting 
process by removing the feathers and 
send them to market. As to the next 
best way, I am, like many others, “still 
guessing.” There appears to have been 
very little practical knowledge gained 
toward assisting or hastening the pro¬ 
cess of moulting. We hear all kinds of 
theories advanced, have been guilty of 
some myself but they usually vanish 
after a test, and thus far, after many 
trials, I have found nothing better than 
to allow the birds range if possible, 
plenty of corn, green food, meat, grit 
and fresh water. I would be very glad 
indeed to have someone show how to 
help hens through their moult quickly, so 
they would give us a good supply of eggs 
through the Fall and early Winter, when 
eggs are usually the highest price. The 
best way I have found to reach these 
good prices is to allow the fowls a liberal 
supply of ground meat, keeping them 
laying fairly well until September, when 
they should be replaced with early- 
hatched pullets which are already help¬ 
ing out the egg supply, and with good 
care will keep it up through the Fall 
and Winter, while the moulting hens 
may be either sent to market or kept for 
the good they have done, until well 
along towards Spring, when they will 
again begin to pay their board by in¬ 
creasing the egg supply. 
J. E. STEVENSON. 
FOOD FOR THE COWS. 
The cows are giving less milk than 
they did, and no wonder, when one takes 
a walk through the pastures, where the 
grass is so dry and brittle that it actu¬ 
ally breaks under one’s shoes. But the 
cows do not go hungry and they still 
give quite fair messes of milk. They 
have plenty of food and water, though 
we have no Summer silo, or Winter silo, 
either. Father says that we feed them 
on oat straw, not half thrashed. Now, 
this means that we raked the oat ground 
immediately after hauling the oats to the 
barn, and that we are feeding these oat 
scatterings to the cows. Pretty dry fod¬ 
der, perhaps, but the cows are in good 
condition, strong and hearty, and they 
will eat readily feed that poor, scantily- 
fed cows would not care much about. 
That is different doctrine from that we 
sometimes hear, but I believe it’s true. 
These oat scatterings might be given the 
hens to pick over, to good advantage, but 
this year the cows need them more. 
Thrashers do not like to put them 
through the machine, because of the 
small stones that might be in them, so 
we use them as mentioned. But that 
isn’t all the cows get. They find a small 
ration of wheat bran or bran and gluten 
when they come to the stable in the 
morning; the amount and the kind de¬ 
pending upon the amount of milk and 
the condition of the cow. Those that 
give but little milk, and particularly if 
inclined to put on fat, get nothing but 
bran, and only a little of that. After 
they have eaten the grain they have the 
oat scatterings, and are made to eat 
every spear. No waste allowed, both De¬ 
cause of economy and also because they 
will eat more and do better if fed just 
enough. By inis time we are through 
milking, and the cows are turned in the 
lower pasture where there is plenty of 
water. I suppose they get something, 
but I hardly know what. At about noon 
they are up by the bars, and we let them 
into the barn to a good feed of oats and 
peas, and at milking time they get an¬ 
other smaller feed of the same kind, 
after which they go into the yard to 
drink, and then to the back pasture, 
where there is little feed, but good water. 
In a day or two sowed corn will have to 
be substituted for oats and peas, and 
then I suppose more grain will be re¬ 
quired. The oat scatterings will not last 
many days. H. H. L. 
Bainbridge, N. Y. 
FENCE WIRE FOR A SILO. 
I intend to build a round silo this S'm- 
mer, 14 feet In diameter and 24 feet high. 
I would like your own and some of your 
readers’ advice in regard to hooping. Can 
I use crimped fence wire, and if so, would 
it be just as good, or better, than Iron 
rods and couplings? How much wire 
would it require; how should it be 
stretched, and what is the best way to 
fasten at the ends? J. g. 
Proctorsville, Ill. 
There are now so many silos in use 
which are hooped with fence wire that 
it has been fully demonstrated that the 
fence wire can be made to take the place 
of steel rods. There is made, at the 
present time, a fence wire on purpose 
for silo use. If a small silo were to be 
plates made on the same curve as the 
silo, and long enough to extend across 
four or five staves. This piece was put 
under the oak pieces so that when the 
pressure was brought to bear it was dis¬ 
tributed over several staves and they are 
thus kept in place. The Cornell Univer¬ 
sity Experiment Station at Ithaca, N. Y., 
has published a bulletin giving infor¬ 
mation as to how a stave silo should be 
constructed. This bulletin will be sent 
free upon request. l. a. c. 
THE BULL ON THE TREAD POWER. 
I am thoroughly impressed with the 
value of giving bulls exercise. Our old 
Jersey bull, Thrifty Lad, who sired 
many remarkably good cows, was used 
in the tread power nearly every day in 
Winter, and at least twice each week in 
Summer. I tried using him to run the 
cream separator, but he was not a bel¬ 
lowing success at that; still for running 
a bone cutter, a feed cutter, and many 
other machines that did not require 
steady power, he was right. We occa¬ 
sionally had some trouble to get him 
into the tread, but in a general state¬ 
ment, I believe he relished the exercise. 
I kept this bull until he was 14 years old, 
when he injured his hip, and had to be 
killed. He was strong and vigorous to 
the last service, and while his opportu¬ 
nities were limited, he stamped himself 
on a very large per cent of his daugh¬ 
ters. I have five of them left (purebred 
Jersey) with butter records ranging 
from 18 to 21 pounds in seven days. 
One made for Mr. E. L. Parker about 340 
pounds of butter in a year beside the 
milk used in the family; one made for 
Mr. Osborne over 400 pounds in a year, 
and last year at the State Experiment 
Station one made 515 pounds in the 12 
months. Among the grade cows that 
came from him, there are but few that 
do not make more than 14 pounds per 
week, when in flesh. I believe much of 
the ability of this bull to impress him¬ 
self on his get came from the vigor be¬ 
gotten of the treadmill exercise. The 
bull that followed him has not been put 
in the tread, but was turned out in a 
paddock made of Page fence every day 
in the year—as long as I owned him. I 
now have two mature bulls, but do not 
use either in the tread, depending on the 
paddock and leading for exercise, as the 
man who cares for them prefers these 
methods. If I were doing my own work 
every day, as i was when I was handling 
Thrifty Lad, l should certainly exercise 
the bull in the tread. f. e. dawley. 
Cured Hemorrhage of the Lungs. 
Mrs. ANNA K. PENNICK. Oakford, Bucks Co., Pa., 
March 15,1898, writes : 
Forty-four years ago I had hemorrhage of the 
lungs. At that time I was seventeen years old. and 
I took Jayne’s Expectorant and likewise inhaled the 
pure tar, which was heated for me three or four times 
a day, and the two cured mo. Jayne’s Expectorant 
is a wonderful medicine. Dr. JOHN SCHKACK, OUR 
FAMILY DOCTOR, ALSO HIGHLY RECOM¬ 
MENDED IT. My mother ( Mrs. Sarah J. Shapley ) 
used It In our family before that time.— Adv. 
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constructed with a diameter of less than 
12 feet I would recommend the use of 
steel rods, unless the staves are slightly 
beveled or made of 2x4-inch material. 
In using fence wire on a silo the staves 
should first of all be set in place. Then 
take a tape line or a string, and get the 
exact distance around the silo. Unroll 
the fence wire upon the barn floor, or 
upon a level plot of ground, and cut off 
a length about four feet shorter than the 
circumference of the silo. Fasten the 
ends of the fence wire by means of 
staples to pieces of 4x4 oak, each piece 
being in length equal to the width of the 
fence wire. The success of the whole 
thing depends upon having tne wire 
stapled so securely to the oak pieces 
that there will be no give. Two holes 
should be bored through each oak piece, 
and through these holes the five-eighths 
steel rods are to pass, which are to 
serve for making the silo tighter or for 
loosening. 
When the length of fence wire has 
been brought around the silo a chain or 
strong rope may be made to do service 
in bringing the oak pieces close enough 
together so that the rods may be put in 
place. Frequently when the hoops are 
tightened the staves directly uack of 
the oak pieces will tend to buckle in¬ 
ward. This may be prevented by put¬ 
ting a brace across the inside of the silo 
and bracing the staves which are in¬ 
clined to buckle. In one silo I con¬ 
structed the buckling of the staves was 
obviated by having some 14 -inch iron 
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