288 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
April 15 
The Hen. 
RATIONS FOR LAYING HENS. 
The Value of Clover, 
We are anxious to learn the best nutritive ratio 
for producing eggs; also for growing young 
stock for breeding purposes and broilers. What 
are the most suitable foods for making up such 
rations? Is clover suitable feed, and how is it 
prepared—cut in short lengths, or ground into 
meal ? a. b. 
Picton, Ont. 
Ans. —There is no best nutritive ratio 
for producing eggs. A ratio of about 
one of protein to four of carbohydrates 
and fat is, probably, narrow enough, 
and the ratio must be narrow for egg 
production. For young stock, if pullets, 
and the object be to make good layers 
and breeders, a ratio of one to four or 
five will give good results. The same 
ratio would do for broilers the first few 
weeks, after which a somewhat wider 
ratio would be desirable. 
The following has given good results 
with Leghorn pullets at this Station: 
Ten pounds mash (composed of two parts 
bran, one part each of ground oats and 
corn, seasoned with salt, and a little 
red pepper occasionally); pounds 
corn; 14 pounds oats; 4 % pounds Al¬ 
falfa or Alfalfa leaves; 4 pounds cab¬ 
bage. In Summer, there was green Al¬ 
falfa in the outside yards. This is the 
total food per fowl for the year, and the 
production of eggs was 182 per fowl. 
The above is somewhat wider than 1 to 
4, but it gave good results. The mash 
was fed every morning warm, and it 
would improve it to add 5 to 10 per cent 
of its weight of dry Alfalfa Laves or 
clover leaves. The above weight in¬ 
cludes the water used in mixing the 
mash. The cut bones were fed three 
times a week. The more lean meat on 
the bones, the better. Fat is not an egg- 
producer. The corn should be fed dur¬ 
ing the Winter. The oats may be fed 
throughout the year. Wheat was al¬ 
ways the last feed of the day. The oats 
and corn were fed about the middle of 
the forenoon, and wheat, oats and corn 
alternated in Winter, and oats and 
wheat in Summer. But the heaviest 
grain food was at night. If cabbages 
are cheap, there is no better green food 
for hens ; they are easily handled. 
The local prices of the different poul¬ 
try foods must largely determine the 
ration fed. Rations can be varied with 
the same results. The same nutritive 
ratio can be made up in many different 
ways, if the poultryman knows, as he 
should know, the composition of the 
foods. For instance, if corn is expen¬ 
sive, or as high in price as wheat, I 
would feed no corn. If peas are cheap 
enough, it would pay to replace some of 
the wheat with peas. However, part of 
the ration should always be animal food, 
such a9 lean meat or dried blood. 
Clover, especially the leaves, is an ex¬ 
cellent green (or bulky) food for laying 
hens. It contains a high per cent of 
protein, and the leaves contain more 
than the rest of the plant. The dry 
leaves may be fed to advantage in the 
morning mash, as indicated above ; or 
the leaves may be scattered in the pens. 
I don’t know that it would pay to grind 
it into meal. If the whole plant is used, 
it should be cut into short lengths. 
Clover will take the place of cabbage, 
or any other green food, if fed liberally. 
The same will apply to Alfalfa. 
Utah Exp. Station. .r. dryden. 
Fresh Blood for Poultry Food. 
Is fresh blood from the slaughterhouse good 
food for chickens? If so, how often should it be 
fed, and how much ? w. c. p. 
Chest springs, Pa. 
Ans. —Fresh blood which does not con¬ 
tain too much hard or coarse matter, 
will make good food for chickens. Our 
choice would be to mix it with the regu¬ 
lar soft food or mash, using about one- 
fifth of the total weight of blood. Blood 
that has become offensive in smell or 
taste will not be satisfactory, but fresh 
blood used in this way will be quite sure 
to give good results. 
DUCKS THA T EAT EGGS. 
What will cure ducks of the egg-eating habit ? 
Munith, Mich. a. w. b. 
ANSWERED BY J. E. STEVENSON. 
We never have any trouble from ducks 
or hens eating their eggs, and never do 
anything to prevent it, with the ex¬ 
ception of trying to make up their bill 
of fare with such a variety that they 
will have no desire to add fresh eggs to 
the list. There are many remedies rec¬ 
ommended for breaking the habit, such 
as soaking egg shells in coal oil, throwing 
them into the yards or pens ; removing 
the contents from eggs by a small hole 
in one end, filling with plaster of Paris, 
and placing them in the nests or on the 
ground for the hens to pick at; filling 
the eggs with some substances that would 
be discouragingto the birds’ taste ; mak¬ 
ing the nests with an aperture in the 
center large enough for the eggs to drop 
through, and a cloth-covered frame 
under it for the eggs to drop on, slightly 
inclined so that the eggs will roll one 
side to prevent breakage ; darkening the 
nests so the fowls cannot see the eggs, 
and many others. 
It is my opinion that it is the need of 
something in the way of variety, or lack 
of drinking water, rather than habit, 
that is the cause of fowls eating their 
eggs. No one will have use for any of 
the before-mentioned methods if he gives 
his fowls proper care, a good variety of 
food, and plenty of freshwater to drink. 
Many people are very careful not to al¬ 
low their fowls to get at a broken egg, 
for fear of the egg-eating habit, and I 
have frequently been cautioned by visit¬ 
ors. when I threw out to the flock an 
egg that had been accidentally broken ; 
but I have done so for years, also thrown 
infertile eggs into the feed troughs, 
breaking them, of course, so they can be 
readily eaten, -yet have had no trouble 
with their eating eggs that have not 
been broken. 
As an instance of the animal instinct 
to make the best of the situation they 
are placed in, I have a cow that will in¬ 
variably suck herself if placed more than 
half a day in any place where she can 
get no water to drink ; but if there is 
plenty of clean water within reach, she 
seldom attempts it except during long 
days when her uider becomes full and, 
I fancy, painful. 
We feed our ducks one part of corn 
meal, one part of wheat bran, one part 
of cut clover hay, 10 per cent of the 
whole mixture of ground meat, and about 
three per cent each of ground charcoal 
and fine grit, or coarse beach sand, thor¬ 
oughly mixed with enough water to 
moisten. We feed this mash morning 
and night, a light lunch of whole corn 
at noon, and keep fresh water before 
them all the time. 
Wile Poultry Thrive on Grain 
Alone? —The New York Experiment 
Station (Geneva) has issued a bulletin 
giving an account of experiments with 
a view to answering this question. The 
problem is to get cheaper nitrogenous 
foods. Will the cheap protein of pea- 
meal, oatmeal, wheat bran or linseed 
meal answer instead of the animal meal 
and similar products. Experiments were 
made with chicks, pullets, cockerels and 
ducklings, and the results of these seem 
to prove conclusively that pars of the 
protein must be drawn from animal 
sources to secure the best results. With 
ducklings in particular, some form of 
animal food in addition to skim-milk or 
curd seems essential for the mainten¬ 
ance of health and vigor. Several ex¬ 
periments were made, the details of 
which are given in this bulletin, and the 
results show that the gain per pound 
was made at less expense with meat than 
without it. Not only this, but chicks 
receiving animal meal reached two 
pounds in weight more than five weeks 
before the others, three pounds in weight 
more than eight weeks sooner, and 
three pullets of the lot began laying 
four weeks earlier than any among the 
grain-fed birds. The second lot of chicks 
gave the same results except that the dif¬ 
ferences were not quite so striking. With 
ducks, the results with those receiving 
animal meal were somewhat startling, as 
these were far and away ahead of the 
others in every respect. In rapidity of 
growth and in cost of production, the 
protein supplied by animal food gave 
much more economical results than ra¬ 
tions drawing most of their protein from 
vegetable sources. 
POULTRY 
O We keep everything in the POULTRY LINE, O 
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■ I_ 
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Everybody wants this poultry book. Send Six cents in stamps. 
B. H. GKEIDEK. ELOBIN. PA. 
A local paper states that one of its readers 
purchases old copies for the purpose of feeding 
his hens. He tears the paper into shreds, soaks 
it in sour milk until the whole becomes a pulp, 
and then feeds it to the hens, claiming that this 
ration adds greatly to the egg yield. We should 
think that this would be an admirable scheme 
for a manufacturer of papier maehe nest eggs. 
A reader says that he wants to keep from 100 
to 150 hens through the Winter, chiefly for egg 
production. The surplus roosters and old hens 
are to be disposed of at market prices For this 
purpose, we would select either Barred Plymouth 
Rocks or the White Wyandotte. The Buff Leg¬ 
horns are claimed to be a little larger than other 
Leghorns, and fully equal as egg producers; but 
for a general-purpose fowl, we have found noth¬ 
ing ahead of the Ba-red Plymouth Rock. 
BRABAZON’S POULTRY-CATALOGUE 
IT D r C V It’s a beauty; over 50 eolored plates. IUua- 
* E E i trates and describes fine Turkeys, Go*o«l 
' \Ducks and chickens; gives prices of fowls <k eggs. Flaeet 
-'Buyer** Guide published. Inclose 10c. for postage, etc. 
J. R. Brabazon, Jr. & Co., Box 57, Delavu, wii. 
Blanchard’s White Leghorns, 
The leading strain of heavy layers. Eggs for hatch¬ 
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1.200 hens. 15, $1.50; 30, $2.25; 00, $4; 100, $0. Send for 
cir. II. J. BLANCHARD, Croton, Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
WHITE WYANDOTTES and standard- 
bred. Hens prolific layers. None better. Low prices. 
Write for egg cir. Ralph Woodward, New Rochelle, N.Y 
200 
C. F. 
young Barred P. Rocks; also Eggs. Clronla 
free If you mention this paper. 
G1FFEN, Lock Box 85, 8t. ClalrsyiUe, Ohio. 
If the blood In sufficient quan¬ 
tity leaves the body because of 
a wound or hemorrhage of the 
lungs the result is death. 
Life depends on the blood 
because the blood carries to all 
parts of the body the nutritive 
elements necessary to sustain it. 
What if these nutritive ele¬ 
ments are absent ? 
What if they are supplanted 
by poisonous, effete matter and 
disease germs? 
The first result is disease—par¬ 
tial death. The final result is the 
same as from loss of blood. 
All disease is traceable to im¬ 
purity or weakness of the blood 
and that is the reason the 
“Golden Medical Discovery” 
cures so many different diseases 
—it purifies and vitalizes the 
blood — makes it rich, red and 
healthy—fills it with nutriment 
for the starving nerves and 
tissues. 
Consumption is properly a dis¬ 
ease of the blood—so is scrofula 
—so is rheumatism. They look 
like different diseases but one 
medicine will relieve all three. 
“ I am using a good many of your 
medicines in my practice," writes 
Dr. Joseph Fike, of Lost Springs, 
Marion Co., Kansas. “ Ten years 
ago a patient of mine was badly af¬ 
fected with that dreadful disease, 
scrofula. Her mouth and throat 
were in an awful condition, and 
there were lumps on the outside be¬ 
low the jaws the size of a hen’s egg. 
Other doctors said it was a fatal case. 
1 felt confident that none of my 
remedies would benefit her any. It 
came to my mind that Dr. Pierce’s 
Goldeu Medical Discovery was rec¬ 
ommended for such cases, so I gave 
it to her as directed. Five bottles 
cured her and she is well to-day. 
She is married now and has three 
healthy children." 
Dr. Pierce’s Pellets cure biliousness. 
BROODERS. 
Oleutangy Brooders given np to be the best to raise 
chicks by 10,000 people using them. Send for cata¬ 
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Special 60 Day Discount Sale 
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Flower City Inc. Co., Rochester, N. Y 
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114 to 122 S.6th St., Qiilnoy, III. 
qn Varieties Poultry. Eggs. Pigeons and German 
3U Hares. Natural Colored Descriptive 60-page 
book, 10c. J. A. BERGEY, Telford, Pa. 
ft C PREMIUMS on 85 entries, Barred and White P. 
03 Rocks,Wyandottes. Brown Leghorns, R. I. Reds, 
Javasand Minorcas. Some Boston Winners. Eggs, 
$1.50. Circular GEO. A. CHAPIN, Hampden, Mass 
White Wyandottes —Send for circu¬ 
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Best Fabm Breeds.—B uff Rocks, Buff 
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nm|| TBy-Ten Leading Varieties.—Larg- 
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CllAS. McCLAVK, New London, O. Box GOO. 
Selected Matings in Standard-bred 
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Write wants. Spencer's Poultry Farm, Phenix, R. 1. 
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Imperial Pekin Ducks Selected breeders at 
$1 each. Kggs for hatching, 15 for $1; 100 for $4; 
1,000 for $36. 
S. C. White Leghorn Eggs, 100 for $6. 
Limestone Grit, 100 pounds, 50 cents. Stamp for reply. 
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We offer, at reduced prices to Introduce stock. Eggs 
from Barred Plymouth Rocks. Singie-Comb White 
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oughbred stock and heavy layers. Get Prices. 
BfiOOKSIDU POULTRY CO., 
Importers and Breeders, Box 36, Everlttstown, N. J. 
U. S. Grant Cooley, General Manager. 
LOUSY SITTING HENS 
will leave tlielr nest* at every op¬ 
portunity, grow thinner and thinner— 
often die before hatching time. 
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