1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
827 
The Chicken Yard. 
A TALK ABOUT BONE. 
What is green bone? 
Fresh bones such as the butcher has 
left after cutting the meat. 
Is it clear bone? 
No, the bones have some fat, lean 
meat and gristle left on them. 
What is cut bone? 
These fresh bones cut or sliced by 
a special machine. 
Does it grind them? 
No, it slices or gouges little shavings 
or chunks off one end of the bone as 
it is held in a vice. 
Is this hard work? 
Yes, it takes muscle to run the ma¬ 
chine. 
Does it pay? 
Yes, we think so, for the shavings of 
cut bone are very useful for feeding 
poultry. 
Why useful? 
Because they supply the minerals in 
large degree, and also the muscle-mak¬ 
ing food. 
Can it be made to cheapen the grain 
bill? 
Yes. We know a man who once 
thought he mudt feed wheat regardless 
of cost. He found that by feeding cut 
bone, corn and bran he got just as 
good results, and saved 25 per cent on 
feeding. 
What costs the most in a hen’s ration? 
The protein or muscle-making food. 
It costs several times as much as the 
fats and fat formers. The latter are 
most easily raised on the farm. The 
muscle-makers can usually be bought 
in bones for half what they would cost 
in wheat. 
How would you feed cut bone? 
We would scatter it over the ground 
and let the hens pick it up. We like 
this better than to try to mix it with 
other foods or to keep it in a dish be¬ 
fore them. 
Any bad effects from its use? 
Too much of it will prove a laxative. 
It must be fed with judgment. So too 
must corn or even water! 
Is it good for other stock? 
Yes, hogs do well on it. When .me 
weather is cold the entire carcass of a 
dead horse or cow can be run through 
the bone cutter, and gives useful feed. 
A SPICY HEN TALK. 
My largest henhouse is in the form of 
an L, and 10 feet wide, giving 640 square 
feet of ground room, with ventilation in 
all weathers. I calculate to have 150 
hens and pullets in the house in Novem¬ 
ber. Up to the last two or three years 
I kept B. S. C. Leghorns, with a free 
run, about one-half old hens and one- 
half pullets. From the middle of No¬ 
vember to January 1 the egg crop is 
usually quite light, but not always; the 
best record I ever had was in February, 
when I got 96 eggs from about 127 act¬ 
ual layers, nearly seven-ninths of the 
flock. So you see December and Febru¬ 
ary, although Winter, are very different 
months; then the seasons are so differ¬ 
ent. We had a very roupy Fall two or 
three years ago, and then it was dead 
hens, and for two or three months from 
November 1, but very few eggs. Leg¬ 
horns start laying five to seven months 
from hatching, Plymouth Rocks about 
a month more, Brahmas longer still. A 
few old hens commence to moult in 
July, and some that had chicks in the 
Spring, lay until January before they 
begin to moult. A Leghorn’s moulting 
period is from six to 10 weeks. 
I usually house the pullets soon after 
they are weaned when raised by hens, 
and the others when they outgrow the 
brooder. I reea the chicks liberally from 
the start with what I judge to be a well- 
balanced ration, giving the benefit of 
the doubt to the nitrogenous rather than 
the carbonaceous foods. I think that at 
this time of the year a little Douglas 
Mixture is a good thing. I tried condi¬ 
tion powders once, with disastrous ef¬ 
fects. My hens were too fat. If we feed 
liberally of milk, meat and muscle we 
shall get all the fat we want—unavoid¬ 
ably. I don’t take any stock in At¬ 
water’s theory of fat as a source of en¬ 
ergy. If that theory were true, then 
corn would be a better feed for a driv¬ 
ing horse than oats. But we all know 
that corn makes a fat, lazy horse. A few 
doses of ginger develop a great deal 
of energy in some horses; while two 
quarts of blubber a day doesn’t develop 
a vast amount of energy in the Eskimo. 
Hanover, Mass. a. h. m. 
THE BUSINESS HEN IN FLORIDA. 
Do hens moult In the extreme South 
where the trees retain their foliage nearly 
the year around? 
Down here in Florida, below the 
twenty-eighth degree of latitude, which 
is in the extreme south of the United 
States, hens shed their feathers annual¬ 
ly, and I should think in about the same 
proportion as at the North. The sea¬ 
son of moulting here, as far as my ob¬ 
servation goes, is in September and Oc¬ 
tober. I believe, however, that fowls 
raised here for several generations are 
less heavily feathered than they would 
be in the North. Our own birds are 
purebred White P. Rocks exclusively, 
and as we import fresh blood every year, 
generally a cockerel from the North, 
this fact is not so apt to show in them 
as it would be in others, or natives 
raised here exclusively. We have kept 
at times the native mongrel fowl and 
find they moult annually and at the same 
season of the year. In the moulting sea¬ 
son the egg supply diminishes here as 
elsewhere. This year we had our grove 
planted with cow peas, and they have 
furnished the fowls with an abundance 
of food. The leaves, buds, etc., were 
first eaten, and since the peas have ri¬ 
pened they have had no other grain 
given them. That has now been about 
two months. They have flourished and 
apparently needed or wanted nothing 
else. The moulting season this year 
has been shorter, the hens have come 
out of it in better shape and we have 
had more eggs during that time than 
I ever remember before, when they were 
fed on grain, etc. The peas were plant¬ 
ed only for the purpose of shading and 
improving the land, but they yielded so 
abundantly that we thought of sowing 
the seed, hut as at Hope Farm, other 
matters prevented. Meanwhile the hens 
were gathering the crop, saving us that 
expense and also the price of grain that 
would have been necessary to buy for 
them. The peas will be left on the 
ground, and the hens allowed to work 
over them all Winter and then what is 
left of the vines in the Spring will be 
plowed under for humus. 
ALLEN IRWIN. 
R. N.-Y.—Our hens have not taken 
readily to cow peas. We tried them with 
the Early Black variety. They might 
take better to Whippoorwill or Black 
Eye. 
INCUBATOR CHICKS; THEIR CARE. 
We use a hot-water 300-egg incubator. 
This is the third season we have used 
it; we get from 225 to 286 chicks at a 
hatch. My advice to beginners would 
be for one person to make a specialty 
of attending to it. We run on 102 de¬ 
grees temperature first week, 103 degrees 
second week, and 104 and 105 degrees 
third week. The operator should take 
great pains with the lamp, and note 
carefully about how much blaze it re¬ 
quires to produce the desired tempera¬ 
ture. Use plenty of moisture; while 
eggs are pipping do not be afraid of 
using too much. It prevents stifling 
from the shell getting dry and sticking 
to the chick. The chicks are as healthy 
and strong as those hatched under hens. 
We do not use brooders; we have a room 
with sand floor heated by stove. We 
put them in common slat baskets of 
nights and cover them well with cloths 
for first week. They should be kept 
warm, not be allowed to chill at all. 
This can be determined by their being 
noisy or quiet. If they are noisy rest 
assured that they are hungry or cold. 
Do not be afraid to feed after 48 hours 
old. Keep dry. After a week or so 
old we keep them in shallow boxes 
nights. We cut woolen cloths in strips 
and tack on lids to cover boxes; let 
them hang down in box just far enough 
for chicks to tuck their heads up among 
the strips; put about 25 in each box, 
and, of course, as chicks get larger de¬ 
crease in number. After they are sev¬ 
eral weeks old be careful in putting them 
away nights or they will pile in boxes 
so fast that they will smother some 
down. p - s - 
Sumner, Ill. 
SCRAPS. 
Yesterday Thanksgiving went by here 
In the shape of a drove of turkeys number¬ 
ing near 850. In a day they were not able 
to make as much as five miles. The 
weather was very wet. 
Ohio. JOHN M. JAMISON. 
We are getting orders from all over the 
country for our bacon pigs. A good sale 
of Short-horn cattle was made here this 
wee k—70 animals fetching $15,000, the fe¬ 
males averaging $245. They were all two 
years old and under. One 11-months calf 
sold for $500; the highest price was $1,000. 
The most remarkable feature about it was 
that while the terms offered were cash or 
notes at three, six and nine months with 
interest, they were all paid for in cash, 
except $750 in notes. c. hills. 
Delaware, O. 
Saltpeter for Turnip Taste. —I notice 
what is said in a recent issue about Cana¬ 
dian farmers using saltpeter for turnip 
taste in milk, and would say that my 
father always fed a bushel of turnips a 
day to each cow, and a liberal supply of 
the tops until they were gone. When we 
went to milk we put a piece of saltpeter 
the size of a marrowfat pea in the pail. 
The butter had no taste whatever of the 
turnip, and it nearly all went to private 
customers. We fed about 500 to 600 bushels 
each Winter of ruta-baga or Swede variety. 
Clarendon, N. Y. A - v> 
This season I raised more ferrets than 
usual, and the market at home was not 
quite as good on account of the new game 
laws in this State. It is natural for ferrets to 
hunt, and they will hardly ever give any 
trouble if they are tame and will come to 
the call or whistle. I never have used 
them for hunting, only for rabbits and 
rats. Some say that they will drive out 
other game as well. In hunting rabbits 
one is all that is necessary, but for hunt¬ 
ing rats In barns, mills,warehouses, etc., 
more should be used. w. j. w. 
Ohio. 
Cooking for Hogs.— I have used a cooker 
less than a year. Within that time I have 
used cooked food for two lots of hogs, 
about 20 each. I had fed these hogs on 
corn from the time they were large enough 
to eat it. At about 100 pounds weight they 
lost their appetite, and refused to gain. I 
ground together equal parts corn, oats and 
wheat, cooked well, and fed same twice a 
day in form of slop. In a few days the 
hogs regained their appetite for corn, 
which I fed freely, along with slop. I 
never had hogs grow and do better. 
Pana, Ill. a. s. p. 
Kill the Crows.—I was much interested 
in the article on crows in The R. N.-Y. a 
few weeks ago. I never expect to be as 
wise as the writer, but I think perhaps if 
he had one year a piece of potatoes ruined 
by crows, another year saw them eating 
his young chickens (not so very young, 
either), every year had them pull his corn, 
not only the first planting but the second 
and third, then had them harvest all they 
could in the Fall of what remained, then 
for weeks and months was wakened about 
every morning by their musical notes, he 
would not consider it a very great pity if 
some of them should die by accident. b. 
Some Animal Remedies.— By what I read 
several months ago in The R. N.-Y., I see 
that some inquirers want a cure for corns 
in horses, and you gave them a rather com¬ 
plicated recipe. Here is one which does its 
work in 48 hours, and is very simple; I have 
tried it with complete success: Put five or 
six drops of carbolic acid into a teaspoon¬ 
ful of vaseline, and rub it well on the corn, 
tying a pad under the hoof, if necessary, to 
prevent contact with stone, etc., in the 
stable. In two days the corn in gone for 
good. A good remedy for caked udder in 
a cow: Give a pint of ground white beans 
mixed in her food once a day for three or 
four days; repeat again a few days later, 
and the obstruction will disappear. I have 
tried this with success in a very bad case. 
Florida. _ j. l. n. 
Keep Your House Warmer at one-half the cost 
for fuel by using the Rochester Radiator.— Adv. 
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