Vol. LXI. No. 2731. 
NEW YORK, MAY 31, 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
QUESTIONS ARE FIRED AT HIM. 
Great Value of Skim-Milk. 
On page 335 Mr. Mapes speaks of using 100 quarts of 
skim-milk to mix flic mash with. Does he mix it cold 
at all times? If not, how does he warm so large a quan¬ 
tity of milk without burning it? What system of brood¬ 
ing does he use? w. f. w. 
Rindge, N. H. 
HOT WATER.—We warm the milk in cold weather, 
lint not now. Water from a good spring runs to our 
buildings by gravity. In our feed room are two water 
boxes, large enough to hold six or eight 40-quart cans 
of milk each. One box is kept iced in Summer, the 
other is kept connected by pipes in Winter with a 
small coal heater, which keeps the water in the box 
always hot at a cost of one scuttle of coal every 24 
hours. We set our cans of milk in this box of hot 
water, and thus warm it easily without burning. The 
convenience of always having an abundance of both 
hot and cold water about the barn can be understood 
only by those who have once enjoyed it. Whenever 
we wish to butcher a lot of pigs, we start a little fire 
in the heater and the water in the box is soon hot 
enough to scald. The box is large enough to immerse 
an ordinary-sized pig and sdald both ends of the pig 
at once. We find that a temperature of about 155 de¬ 
grees gives the best scald. A scuttle of coal will hold 
it at that temperature (or hotter) all day. 
BROODER WISDOM.—Our brooders are homemade 
affairs, and very simple and inexpensive. The top 
of the tin lamp chimney sets so that the heat from 
the lamp enters a piece of common tin leader pipe. 
This tin pipe passes under the hover board, and over 
the backs of the chicks, doubles on itself, by using 
two elbows, then back the whole length of the hover 
board, and out at the end of the brooder. The heat, 
smoke, etc., from the lamp passes the whole length 
of the tin pipe, and is discharged in the hall. Radia¬ 
tion from this pipe keeps the air under the hover 
board sufficiently warm. The hover board is situated 
across the middle of the brooder floor, allowing the 
chicks to move out on either side if it gets too hot 
for them underneath. We place 100 chicks in each 
brooder, the floor of which is 3x4 feet, and have never 
had a case of sweating or smothering in them. The 
brooder floor is 12 inches above the floor of the house, 
and the lamp sets under the brooder. Six feet of the 
tin pipe and three elbows of the same material cost 
only about 75 cents, and constitute the whole outfit, 
except a tin shield four inches high, which protects 
the chicks and woodwork where the tin pipe passes 
down through the brooder floor to the lamp chimney. 
This, in effect, is a long tin lamp chimney passing 
over the chicks’ backs, and radiating heat down on 
them. We have had a lamp get to smoking a couple 
of times, causing a little nervousness, but there has 
THE TENT READY TO DROP. Fie. 146. 
been no damage as yet. The draft is pretty strong 
through such a long chimney, and the flame is some¬ 
times inclined to run up a little when it is allowed 
to burn 24 hours without attention. It would prob¬ 
ably be safer to trim every 12 hours. I presume it 
would be an improvement to fit up with a themostat, 
so as to be able to hold the temperature uniform. It 
could easily he done, but would add to the cost. 
Would the feeding system you follow be likely to work 
satisfactorily with the larger and less active breeds of 
fowls than the Leghorns? Where skim-milk is not avail¬ 
able, what in your opinion will best take its place in 
your system of feeding? b. 
So. Haven, Mich. 
GOOD BREEDS.—We have quite a good many 
White Wyandottes. and feed them just the same as 
the Leghorns, with equally satisfactory results. A 
breeding pen of six Wyandottes have been kept quite 
closely confined for nearly three months with noth¬ 
ing but two meals of mash a day. They are outlay¬ 
ing any other pen of Leghorns on the farm. They 
have laid six eggs a day very often, and sel¬ 
dom less than five, when none of them is broody. I 
have been looking for a long time for a hen that I 
can get to lay an egg every 24 hours, and keep it up. 
With all the hens that I have handled, I have not 
yet found her. I think one of these White Wyan- 
PUTTING IN THE CHEMICALS. Fia. 147. 
dottes is possibly the hen I am looking for. I have 
separated her from the rest in order to see what she 
can be made to do. 
SKIM-MILK.—Those who have investigated the 
subject, tell us that only one egg can be found in the 
oviduct at a time. When we consider that both the 
white and shell of an egg must be added to the yolk 
in the short space of time between the laying of two 
eggs, usually 24 to 30 hours, we can readily under¬ 
stand that she must have a supply of albumen in its 
most available form. Skim-milk furnishes this, in 
addition to all the mineral salts, etc., required to 
build a complete chick. The only feed which I have 
ever tried which equals it, is the white of an egg. 
This, of course, is impracticable, on account of cost. 
Fresh lean beef comes next to it, then green cut bone, 
animal meal, etc. 
A HAPPY PIG.—Billy Gormand, the pig that is to 
be allowed a chance to injure himself eating skim- 
milk, as the college-bred pigs do, was weaned May 9. 
He was placed directly in a pen where is Kept more 
skim-milk anu corn than he can eat all the time. His 
weight was 26 pounds. He is still alive, and weighs 
33 pounds at the end of the first week. A pound a 
day the first week of removal from the dam is not a 
bad showing. I shall watch his career with interest. 
Some of his mates are in our feeding pens, and some 
were sold to a neighbor, who will do his best I have 
no doubt, to outdo Billy Gormand. 
TURNING EGGS.—Is it necessary to turn the eggs 
in an incubator twice a day? I said a while ago that 
THE TENT READY T FOR BUSINESS. Fie. 148. 
I was feeling my way to an answer. My plan is to 
stand the eggs partly on end, thus putting in more 
eggs, hoping to have the incubator well filled with 
fertile eggs after testing. They are not turned at all 
for the first five days, before testing, and only once 
a day from 6t.h to 17th day. The first batch showed 
more dead germs than common at testing time, other¬ 
wise they hatched as well as usual. The next lot was 
treated just the same, except that for the first five 
days the trays were pulled out and tilted several times 
quickly, as near an angle of 45 degrees as possible. 
The trays being packed full, this was easily done. I 
reasoned that this would prevent the germs from ad¬ 
hering to the shell, and have the same effect as turn¬ 
ing the eggs, while it is much more quickly and easily 
done. This batch showed only three or four dead 
germs at fifth day, and is hatching at this writing, 
May 17. Appearances indicate a very good hatch. A 
third batch was tilted the same way the first five 
days, with no more dead germs than usual. We usu¬ 
ally air the eggs twice a day, while only turning them 
once. If this plan continues to be satisfactory, it will 
lessen the labor of caring for the incubators some¬ 
what. o. w. MAPES. 
CABBAGE AND CAULIFLOWER MAGGOTS. 
Tuttle early cauliflower has been grown on Long 
Island in the open field for the past few years be¬ 
cause of the difficulty of protecting the plants from 
the Cabbage maggot. In the section known as 
“Jamaica South” the growers practice hand treatment 
as soon as the plants show signs of wilting, which 
indicates injury from maggots; they put workmen in 
the field to remove the soil from around the plants, 
in this way exposing the maggots to bright sun and 
drying winds, a combination which they cannot stand. 
This method requires plants of good length of shank, 
set deeply to allow of removal of soil without disturb¬ 
ing the roots, and is more applicable to light sandy 
than to clay soils. Its application means considerable 
expense for labor, as the dirt must be removed during 
the heat of the day and replaced by hoeing. In the 
section known as “Middle Village” the growers use a 
disk of tarred paper around the plants, which, prop¬ 
erly applied, prevents the young maggots getting into 
the soil around them. As a rule, the adult fly lays its 
eggs on the leaves and portions of the shank above 
ground; as soon as the maggots hatch from the eggs 
they slide down the plant into the moist earth before 
they commence feeding; the tarred disk of paper pre¬ 
vents their getting into the ground, and they soon 
perish. To work successfully the soil around the 
plants must be free from clods and stones so that the 
disks will fit close to the ground; care must also be 
exercised in cultivation not to cover them, or the mag¬ 
gots will find moisture enough to live and work above 
the disks. The method of cutting and applying these 
