1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
863 
HOTHOUSES FOR HENS. 
There have been numerous plans of poul¬ 
try houses illustrated in The R. N.-Y., but 
none shown with artificial heating arrange¬ 
ments. Has anyone used hot water and 
found it profitable? If so, would he be 
willing to give us his plan? I should think 
that coal would be more agreeable to the 
hens for warmth than stuffing laying hens 
with corn. e. a. c. 
Ohio. 
I have had no actual experience in 
heating houses for fowls, but I don’t 
t’hink it 'is practical. In the first place, 
the expense would be too great to be 
equaled by the gain. If confined to the 
house all the time, a flock of say 500 
hens should have a building at least 300 
feet long by 20 feet wide, and to heat 
such a building would require a vast 
amount of fuel and piping, and unless 
carefully managed I doubt whether one 
would get enough eggs to pay for fuel 
alone. The fowls would take cold very 
easily, and therefore be more subject to 
roup and other diseases, and it would be 
necessary to confine them day as well as 
night during cold weather. It might 
possibly be practical to heat a small por¬ 
tion of the house, just slightly, say keep 
the temperature to about 45 degrees or 
50 degrees, something on the order of 
brooders for young chicks, and the re¬ 
mainder of the house kept above freez¬ 
ing by the escaped heat from trie roost¬ 
ing apartment. This would necessarily 
require a very tightly-built house, and 
if one has a house built in such a man¬ 
ner, I candidly believe he will get near¬ 
ly, lif not quite, as many eggs, and have 
healthier fowls without the heat than 
with it. It is possible to keep fowls 
much closer confined than above men¬ 
tioned, but to keep them in a healthy, 
thrifty condition will require so much 
extra labor that there will be less profit 
in keeping 1,000 fowls than in keeping 
500 in the same space. 
If buildings are double-walled all 
around and built in a good substantial 
manner, with no chances for outside air 
to get in except when doors or windows 
are opened, the windows should be 
opened during the day in pleasant 
weather, kept closed during stormy and 
severe weather, except when positively 
necessary for ventilation. This the at¬ 
tendant should understand, and if prop¬ 
erly attended to, I believe he will get 
as many eggs without artificial heat as 
with it, and many more unless the arti¬ 
ficial is carefully applied. 
J. E. STEVENSON. 
COOKING SOUTHERN STOCK FOOD. 
t cook cotton seed, corn and bran and 
shucks. I have a large patch of turnips, 
and will commence on them soon. I find 
it a great saving. I feed the same food 
dry, and it takes double the amount re¬ 
quired when cooked. I make more butter 
and get more milk from the cooked food 
than I do from the same dry. The butter 
is much better from the cooked food than 
from the dry. I have customers who buy 
butter from me and from another person 
who feeds dry food, and they say that they 
like the butter that I furnish; they can 
tell the difference. a. m. 
Texas. 
R. N.-Y.—In our own experience we have 
not found it profitable to cook grain or con¬ 
centrated foods. This plan of cooking cot¬ 
ton hulls is new to us and seems very rea¬ 
sonable. 
I have had 16 years’ experience in cook¬ 
ing feed, for stock principally. I consider 
that it pays me well for all kinds of 
roughage, roots, etc., and especially clover 
hay and cotton-seed hulls, to steam them 
over night, adding a great deal to the 
value. The experiment stations give a 
very low feeding value to the cotton-seed 
hulls, and Prof. Henry, author of Feeds 
and Feeding, says that the digestible 
materials are less than in oat straw. He 
says that when hay was fed dry 46 per 
cent of protein was digestible and only 
30 per cent when cooked. I have no means 
of determining the per cent of protein, 
either before or after cooking cotton-seed 
hulls, but from practical experience for 
many years, I am well satisfied with the 
results of steamed cotton-seed hulls, not 
only on my own place, but also the feed¬ 
ing by others. In feeding well-steamed 
clover to fowls, they eat it more readily, 
and I never have crop-bound fowls when I 
steam the hay. e. w. amsden. 
Florida. 
SCRAPS. 
The National Provisioner says that a 
hide dealer in Quincy, Ill., has contracted 
to furnish a German concern with 1,000 
horse hides per month. 
The Farmer says that a barrel of dish¬ 
water is not worth a pound of corn for 
fattening hogs, and that the soap and salt 
in it are dangerous elements. That is no 
reason why a poor family should throw 
away the dishwater. During the past year 
the swill and dishwater at Hope Farm 
have made over 300 pounds of good pork. 
The New York Commercial states that 
the Armour Packing Company is going 
quite largely into the business of separat¬ 
ing the whites and yolks of eggs, canning 
and freezing them. Tt is said that there 
is a great demand for the new product. 
Bakers frequently have to break and sep¬ 
arate 30 or 40 dozens of eggs a day, and 
they find these separated and canned eggs 
very convenient. 
Cooking Food.— We use a cooker for all 
refuse of the garden, also for boiling oats 
and barley for a change in feeding young 
hogs. This being a corn country, boiled 
oats, barley and all vegetables not used 
are much relished by hogs as a change in 
feed, more so than when fed raw. We 
never boil mill feeds, as we slop them 
with the skim and buttermilk from the 
dairy. a. j. a. 
Galena, Ill. 
Goat Breeding. —We recently referred to 
a pamphlet issued by the Agricultural De¬ 
partment on Keeping Goats for Profit. 
This pamphlet is reprinted from the year¬ 
book of the Department for 1898, and gives 
the facts favorable to the feeding and 
breeding of goats. The author, Mr. Almont 
Barnes, states that in the year ending 
June 30, 1898, $15,776,601 worth of goatskins 
were brought into this country. He says 
that practically all the goatskins used here 
are imported. He says there are about 
500,000 goats now in the country, mostly in 
the dry lands, west of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains and in Texas. He gives a state¬ 
ment of the products that may be obtained 
from the goat, and it must be said that 
the list is exceedingly large. He also says 
that there is hardly a State in the Union 
where the Angora goat will not thrive. 
We know personally of one herd in Con¬ 
necticut that Is giving good returns, and it 
has proved very useful In keeping pasture 
land clear of brush and young timber. 
Certainly, the arguments advanced in this 
pamphlet are plausible and forcible, and it 
may be that there are places in the coun¬ 
try where the Angora goat would prove 
profitable, perhaps more so than sheep. It 
must be said, however, that Americans 
have not taken kindly to goat breeding, 
and it will probably be many years before 
this country supplies all the goat products 
it consumes. 
Children’s Hen Report.— 1 send report 
of poultry for year 1898: 
Dr. Cr. 
Nine roosters & 61 hens® 30c.. $21.00 _ 
Three small chickens @ 15c.45 _ 
29 bushels corn. 12.27 _ 
21 bushels wheat. 16.85 _ 
825 lbs. bran. 6.06 _ 
225 eggs for hatching. 2.87 _ 
Nine roosters & 57 hens @ 30c. $19.80 
50 hens sold & used in family. 14.05 
Value of manure. 2.50 
5 <07 eggs gathered. 80.59 
Net amt. for labor and care.... $57.44 — 
Total .$116.94 $116.94 
Two of the children in partnership: 
Dr. Cr. 
One rooster and 19 hens @ 30c.. $6.00 — 
10% bushels corn. 4.68 — 
11 bushels wheat. 8.90 — 
300 lbs. bran. 2.15 — 
Meat scraps .06 _ 
41 eggs for hatching.57 — 
One rooster and 20 hens @ 30c. $6.30 
16 hens sold (old and young). 4.30 
Value of manure. 1.00 
2,146 eggs gathered. 32.33 
Net amt. for labor and care_$21.57 — 
Total . $43.93 $43.93 
The number of eggs laid per month dur¬ 
ing year is as follows: 
January, 141; February, 245; March. 298; 
April, 306; May, 214; June. 188: July, 166; 
August, 174; SeptemDer, 105; October, 109; 
November, 120; December, 80. Total. 2,146. 
The children sell the eggs, buy all the 
feed out of the proceeds, and have the re¬ 
mainder for spending money. Their stock 
was kept up by raising young chickens, 
some of which were sold, also some old 
hens. The eggs paid for the feed during 
the Winter months, with a little left for 
Christmas money. The breed is Leghorns 
and Minorcas, confined all the time in a 
yard 21x33 feet. t. h. s. 
Dunbar, Pa. 
A Dairyman’s Profits. 
There is more money 
in working your head 
than your hands. 
There is more butter 
in running a Little 
Giant Cream Sep¬ 
arator than in skim¬ 
ming by hand—25 per 
cent more. The Little 
Giant costs no more 
than the pans will in 
the long run. It will pay you to adopt 
modern, up-to-date dairy methods. Send 
for Catalogue No. 25. It’s free. 
THE SHARPLES CO., P. NT. SHARPLES, 
Canal and Washington Sts., West Chester, Pa., 
CHICAGO. U. S. A. 
Siut/ y Your RtoughaSIf 
ProS„ the P ro P°rtions of fat, carbohydrates>* 
P r otei n '/‘^ruons ot tat, en iz<- 
feed j? a fr^ va y s employ some highly hit ^. , oU nds 
live w5jL\° ns are figured to a cow of i.ooc. pou i£ 
tb e yield if p vin £ 20 pounds of milk per c { ^ ore 
increase le J» ini * the eyeoTthe 
master seeding is an art. 1 116 ,) e ^ e rs 
wTtoh ^. teneth «s cattle.” Successful feeo ^ 
Quaker °n ° n 8' the nlilk P ai <- but tiie - nta \ns. 
Dairy Feed produces and ma 
Quaker dairy feed,,, 
of Oats—^ lr Kj Feed is made entirely of K rail J. .^"nplete 
for the nr , ” binetl scientific proportions. It tpna nce of 
tl, e ° f milk and the proper ma,nt 
Y IN SEALED AMO BRANDED. SAOji- 
Clover h Spcc/rncn Balanced Ration nds 
Corn Stn^.10 pounds I Gluten Feed...- • E^ u nds 
" Sto y er .5 pounds I Quaker Dairy Feed 6 poun 
Calculated for a cow of 1,000 pounds live weight. 
tifi2ny? >r *f 1 a,lr y ^©©dliUGT—An invaluable book, containingbcien 
evu-r/v rat >ons! Including every form of r 0 Hg p || vlC e 
Sen t postpaid on request. Scientific adv. 
V a K 1 REE. Address 
® c *K.VCE nRPT nil.- .HVKir t V CKKK'h 
100% a Year is Big Interest 
but that is what many users of the 
IMPROVED UNITED STATES SEPARATOR 
are receiving on the money invested. 
It is nothing unusual to receive letters front users of the U. S. 
stating that it has produced enough more cream in a year to pay for 
the machine, to say nothing of the improved quality of the product 
and the saving of time ana labor. Our 1900 or “New Century” 
Separators, with increased capacities, are better than ever. 
We also manufacture 
A Complete Line of Dairy and Creamery Apparatus. 
Write for our latest illustrated catalogues,—Free. 
VERMONT FARM MACHINE CO., - Bellows Falls, Vt. 
NEW 20TH CENTURY 
CREAM SEPARATORS 
Sept. 1st marked the 
introduction of the Im¬ 
proved 20th Century 
“Baby” or “Dairy” sizes 
Of De Laval Cream Sepa¬ 
rators and these newest 
“Alpha” disc machines 
are simply unapproach¬ 
able by anything else in 
the shape of a cream sepa¬ 
rator. Overwhelming as 
has been the conceded su¬ 
periority of tho De Laval 
machines heretofore their 
standard is now raised still 
higher and they are more 
than ever placed in a class 
h)i themselves as regards all 
possible competition. 
Send for new catalogue. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR GO. 
Randolph & Canal Sts., I 74 Cortlanot Street, 
CHICAGO. I NEW YORK. 
Mr. Dairyman: 
Are you getting all the cream from your milk 
by your present method ? 
We should like to put an 
Empire 
Cream 
Separator 
in your dairy and com¬ 
pare results. If you do 
not make enough extra 
butter to pay for it in 6 
months, we will not ask 
you to keep it. 
The Empire is as much in advance of the old 
style separators as the latter are of the setting 
system. 
Six sizes of hand machines ranging in price 
from $40 up. Catalogue free. 
U. S. Butter Extractor Co., Newark, N. J. 
10 Days Free Trial 
We have so much confidence in the merits 
of d our U,,eri . 0 ‘: it . y .. “AQUATIC” 
Cream Separator.—know it to be the best 
and most simple to operate, on the mar¬ 
ket that we are willing to submit a pro¬ 
position enabling you to give It a fa i r a nd 
impartial trial at your own home, before 
you invest one cent in it. 
ACENTS WANTED EVERY- 
WHERETO WHOM WE OFFER 
SPECIAL INDUCEMENTS. 
Write quickly for free catalogue and 
full information of this grand new offer. 
AQUATIC SEPARATOR CO., 
I '•! Fuetory Square, Watertown, X. Y. 
Top Price Butter. 
THE 
WILLARD KNAPP 
Cow Tie 
Insures Cleanliness 
Health and Profit, and is 
the most durable device for 
fastening cows. We have 
never had a dissatisfied cus¬ 
tomer. We quote below a 
sample letter from a user. 
From James H. Webb, Spring Glen Farm New 
Haven, Conn.: “We have just completed one dozen 
stalls, using your ties and following your plan. We 
are going to equip another barn with them, and want 
20 more immediately.” 
Send for Circular and Testimonials from the best 
dairymen. 
WILLARD H. KNAPP & CO., 
404 Groton Street, Cortland, N. Y. 
The kind that a fancy private 
trade demands, is colored with 
Thatcher's Orange Butter Color — 
the color that does not contain 
any poison. Send for a sample. 
THATCHER MF8. Q0., Potsdam, H.Y. 
WILDER’S 
Swing Stanchion 
Improvement over Smith's. 
Steel latch; Automatic 
lock. Adjusts itself when 
open so animal cannot turn 
it in backing out. Safest 
and Quickest Fastening 
made.Send for testimonials 
J. K. WILDER & SOS8, 
Monroe, Mich. 
