1902 
623 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
Feeding Experiments. 
PROTEIN MAD.—The writer never saw the inside 
of a college wall, and never had the opportunity of 
falling into the conventionalities of the class-room. 
School privileges were limited in my younger days to 
the district school in Winter, and helping on the farm 
in Summer, with the exception of a few months one 
Winter in a private school. What little knowledge of 
the scientific questions of the day I have has been se¬ 
cured by reading such journals as Tiie R. N.-Y. and 
the bulletins of our agricultural schools, and com¬ 
paring them with actual experiences on the farm. 
From my standpoint, it seems as though the scientific 
world had gone protein mad. I cite the feeding stuffs 
laws of New York and other States as an example. 
In these, the manufacturer or dealer in feeds is com¬ 
pelled to give a guarantee of the content of protein, 
while no mention is made of the carbohydrates com¬ 
prising the greater portion of most feeds. Can it be 
that this portion of the food of an animal or a man 
is of too little account to be reckoned? In the case 
of cattle feeds, the excuse is sometimes given that a 
farmer can raise on the farm a supply of carbonaceous 
feeds, and usually cares only for the protein in pur¬ 
chased feeds. What little force there is in this argu¬ 
ment is lost when we purchase poultry feeds. I con¬ 
tend that no farmer can intelligently compound a 
satisfactory ration, without taking into account the 
carbonaceous matter as well as the nitrogenous mat¬ 
ter. It is bad enough to be compelled to guess at the 
composition of his own home-grown feeds, 
without being compelled also to guess at 
part of the contents of his purchased feed3, 
so long as the State compels a partial guar¬ 
antee. Why not have the whole thing in¬ 
stead of only the protein and fat? 
BALANCED RATIONS.—When I first 
began the study of the question of balanced 
rations I applied to the “authorities,” in¬ 
cluding The R. N.-Y., and the Agricultural 
Experiment Station of my own State. They 
were all protein mad and gave me a nutri¬ 
tive ratio entirely too narrow. My own 
hens taught me better, but not until I had 
lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars, 
by acting on the advice given me by the 
protein-mad fellows. At one time, wheat 
could be bought as cheaply as corn, and I 
bought a whole carload, on purpose for my 
hens, supposing that I was doing a fine 
thing by substituting wheat for corn at the 
same price. Within a week after making 
tne change, disease broke out in my flocks, 
and the egg yield fell off sharply. It took 
months and years to regain the ground 
thus lost, and find out the explanation of 
it. C. H. Wyckoff, than whom the world 
has probably yet to produce a more suc¬ 
cessful “hen man,” wrote me in a private 
letter, under date of November 28, 1895, as 
follows: 
Now, Friend Mapes, with all due respect for 
our agricultural professors and their care¬ 
fully compounded feeding rations, I am going 
to say to you that the sooner you drop their 
tables and figures, and turn your attention to 
the hens themselves, carefully noting there the effect of 
the feed given them, the sooner you will solve the prob¬ 
lem of correct feeding for eggs, or at least come as near 
to it as can ever be done by any other means. Now, I 
am not one of the kind that goes back on education or 
scientific principles generally, not a bit of it, but I do 
believe that our scientific friends occasionally make some 
awful blunders, or get in a hole and guess their way out. 
That letter is one of my valued possessions. In¬ 
stead of “dropping their tables and figures” as he ad¬ 
vised, I decided to study both the hens and the tables. 
The process has been slow, and is still going on, but 
I feel amply repaid for the time spent in the work. 
Some of our scientific friends are getting away from 
the protein fad. Note the results secured at the Mas¬ 
sachusetts Station. They report 25 per cent more 
eggs in Winter, and 33.3 per cent more eggs in Sum¬ 
mer, on a ration with a nutritive ratio of 1:4.7 and 
1:5.6, in favor of the wider ratio. In a later trial they 
report from 23 to 91 per cent more eggs obtained from 
the hens fed the wider ratio, both Summer and Win¬ 
ter. It will be observed that this ration was almost 
identical in analysis with the balanced ration I am 
using. 
STARTING AN EGG PLANT.—Here is a question 
from Oswego Falls, N. Y.: 
In October, 1902, we purpose buying 2,000 chicks fresh 
from incubators, 1,000 Plymouth Rocks and 1,000 Single 
Comb White Leghorns. Our idea is to sell all the cock¬ 
erels for broilers and keep all the pullets for an egg 
plant. Will Mr. Mapes tell us how to build a house or 
houses for our egg plant to accommodate 1,000 hens? 
How much land should we enclose for each lot of hens? 
Must the wired yards be enclosed overhead, or how high 
roust they be made to keep nens from getting out? 
This is a pretty big “bite” for beginners to take, 
but I am not sure but it is the way to make success¬ 
ful poultrymen, provided enough capital can be com¬ 
manded not to get swamped by a few partial failures, 
while the business is being learned. There will be 
enough invested in the plant to spur one to his very 
best efforts. The first thing needed will be buildings 
to put the chicks in. I should build for egg produc¬ 
tion, and place brooders in the henhouses, removing 
them as soon as chicks are old enough to dispense 
with artificial heat. Brooder manufacturers will tell 
you that there is no danger from fire with their make 
of brooders, but beware! Better not place your eggs 
all in one basket. I would suggest four different 
buildings far enough removed from each other so that 
if one burns the others will not be endangered. Each 
building should be 16x50 feet with a four-foot alley 
along the rear. This will make five pens 10x12 feet, 
or 20 pens in all, which will accommodate 50 hens 
each. Go to some good reliable manufacturer of 
brooders and place one brooder in each pen. If the 
brooders are 100-chick size tne four buildings will 
accommodate the 2,000 chicks. With October-hatched 
chicks there will be very little use for outside runs 
until Spring, when the pullets will have become hens. 
Where no attempt is to be made to grow green feed 
in the yards I should advise small low yards, with 
tops covered with netting. Two feet high is as high 
as the hens need, but it will be found thait occasional¬ 
ly a man or boy will want to enter them to pick up 
an egg or a dead hen, and on this account 3% or four 
feet high is better. A yard 10 feet wide by 24 feet 
long, is ample for 50 hens. By dividing the 1,000 hens 
in four buildings one flock in each building can be 
given free range each day, which will be ample for all 
purposes, as only four-fifths of the time will have to 
be spent in the runs. I regard October as one of the 
best months in which to hatch chickens. Here are 
some of the advantages to be gained: Good fertile 
eggs can usually be secured at a reasonable cost; 
chicks will be well feathered before the advent of 
severe Winter weather; lice are not likely to be trou¬ 
blesome; cockerels will be of salable size at a time 
when they will command good prices; and pullets 
will be sure to begin laying just as soon as they are 
old enough, as the natural breeding season will have 
arrived. I raised about 100 October-hatched pullets 
two years ago and they have verified every one of the 
above claims. They nearly all began to lay the fol¬ 
lowing March, although their eggs were small at first. 
They have been among our best layers ever since. 
They are about the only two pens that are laying 50 
per cent a day now. I presume they are more likely 
to moult late than Spring-hatched chicks, but do not 
state this as an assured fact. o. w. mapes. 
COLORADO POTATOES.—The outlook for potatoes in 
Colorado this season is not as good as it has been in 
former years, owing to shortage of water, and the crop 
will be light. We are not looking for high prices this 
season. On the early stock now being offered the farm¬ 
ers are realizing 00 cents per 100 pounds. . It is very hard 
to say what the late crop will be when it comes on the 
market, which will not be until about September 20. It 
seems that there is a good crop throughout the entire 
country, and no doubt low prices will prevail. 
Greeley, Col. it. patterson & son. 
THIS SOIL NEEDS NITROGEN. 
Feed the Grass Crop. 
I have a small field that has never produced satis¬ 
factory crops since I have owned the farm—12 years. 
In 1898 it was sown to buckwheat, and clover and 
Timothy seed sown at the same time. Nearly the 
whole field had a dressing of odorless slag phosphate. 
The buckwheat was the best crop I had seen on the 
field, and yielded 16 bushels per acre. It was no bet¬ 
ter where the phosphate was sown than where not 
fertilized. The clover and Timothy failed completely. 
Some Red-top came in naturally, but too thin to 
amount to anything. The next Summer, 1898, I 
plowed it, and in September sowed part to wheat and 
part to rye, and all to Timothy, no fertilizer being 
used except a heavy coat of good ashes on a narrow 
strip across the field, and a few loads of barnyard 
manure on a knoll. Clover seed was sown the fol¬ 
lowing March. The wheat was a failure and the rye 
a very ordinary crop. Where the ashes were put 
there was a fair stand of clover, which made a mod¬ 
erate growth: where the farm manure was put there 
was a fair “sod”—mostly White clover. The re¬ 
mainder of the field was practically bare. 
Last Fall I thought I would spread my manure 
from the cow stables on it and try to raise a crop of 
corn, but before I got two acres covered I changed 
my plans and let the field lie. The few Timothy stools 
that were there last year grew about 18 inches high, 
with heads from one-fourth to one inch long. This 
year, where the manure was put, the Timothy stalks 
were four feet high with heads from four 
to six inches long, and Red-top as thick as 
I ever saw it. I mowed where the manure 
was put and as I rode the machine 1 
thought it would make fully three tons of 
well-cured hay, but I found that dried Red- 
top was not very weighty, and it may be it 
did not make more than two tons per acre. 
I also mowed part of what was not ma¬ 
nured, and it yielded less than one-fourth 
ton per acre. Where the manure was ap¬ 
plied there is now a good second crop 
nearly ready for mowing. These facts con¬ 
vince me that the success of the Clark 
method of grass seeding depends far more 
more on the application of fertility than 
preparation of seed bed or amount of seed 
sown. I would line to know whether any 
amount of commercial fertilizer would 
have produced equally good results if it 
had been applied to that unplowed field. 
There was no chance for plaintain to grow 
where the manure was. Can I profitably 
apply commercial fertilizer to the rest of 
that field without replowing and reseed¬ 
ing? If so, what kind, and how much? 
Vail, N. J. g. a. g. 
R. N.-Y.—We interpret these results as 
showing that the soil needs soluble nitro¬ 
gen more than anything else. That is true 
of most old meadows. The slag contains 
lime and phosphoric acid, and buckwheat 
usually responds freely to it. Had phos¬ 
phoric acid been the element most needed 
the buckwheat would be much better where 
the slag was put. The ashes are useful mostly for the 
lime and potash they contain. Clover is in peculiar 
need of both these elements, but as the grass was not 
benefited we conclude that potash was not the thing 
most needed for success. Manure produced a good 
crop, and we naturally ask what the manure added 
that was not contained in the ashes or the slag. 
Neither of these substances contains nitrogen, which 
the manure does, therefore it seems clear that nitro¬ 
gen is most needed for the grass. Mr. Mapes has 
made the point clear that grass must be fed prop¬ 
erly, and no one believes that Mr. Clark could raise 
such crops of hay as he reports unless he used large 
quantities of soluble plant food. The thorough prep¬ 
aration gives a fine stand of grass roots, but what we 
cut and cure for hay represents the plant food which 
these roots utilize. Yes, we feel sure that a heavy 
dressing of high-grade fertilizer applied early in tne 
Spring, or with the potash and phosphoric acid in the 
Fall and nitrate of soda in the Spring, would have 
given results equal to those from the manure. You 
must remember that a good share of the plant food in 
the ashes and the slag remained inactive in the soil 
until the nitrogen in the manure balanced the ration. 
The various grass and grain mixtures ought to pro¬ 
duce good grass. A mixture of 400 pounds of nitrate 
of soda, 400 pounds of ground bone, 800 pounds of acid 
phosphate and 400 pounds of muriate of potash would 
come close to the fertilizer used by Mr. Clark. Since 
your soil responds to nitrogen so readily we would use 
600 pounds of nitrate and 200 of bone. It might pay 
to try this mixture on part of the field without re¬ 
plowing, but our own experience is that it pays to 
break up and reseed. For a good crop you should use 
at least 700 pounds per acre. 
YELLOW TRANSPARENT APPLES. Fig. 232. 
Half Natural Size. See Ruralism.s, Page 610. 
