1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
119 
MAPES. THE HEN MAN. 
Winter Egg Records.— On page 79 of 
The R. N.-Y., January 31, 1903, O. W. 
Mapes tells of the remarkable success of 
Mrs. Crawford with 330 hens. Is this 
woman meeting with like success this 
Winter? Does Mr. Mapes know of any¬ 
one during the last three months who has 
had such success, and if so, under what 
circumstances? w. e. t. 
Massachusetts. 
I have not seen Mrs. Crawford recent¬ 
ly, but think she is having about the 
same success as last Winter, and feeding 
on about the same plan. Her husband 
told me about January 1 that she was 
keeping about 100 hens less than last 
Winter, but that from these she had got 
not less than 50 eggs daily since Thanks¬ 
giving. Mr. Turner was getting 50 eggs 
a day on December 17 from 150 hens, all 
fed as one flock. He feeds wheat morn¬ 
ing and night with all the cooked cut 
meat and bone they will eat each day, 
shortly before the evening feed of wheat 
Is given. Nothing else is given except a 
very little cabbage. An account of his 
last Winter’s experience with 500 hens is 
given in Bulletin 212, Cornell Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station. Page 76 of 
The R. N.-Y. gives the record of Mrs. 
Cook’s flock, showing that the “possi¬ 
bilities” with hens are very promising. 
Feather Duster Brooders.— Will Mr. 
Mapes tell how Mrs. Fuller succeeded with 
her feather dusters? It seems to me that 
not enough allowance is made for the heat 
of the chicks. I have often kept 25 In a 
box with an old garment thrown over 
them and they would be all right in the 
morning. e. a. g. 
Connecticut. 
Mrs. Fuller only had moderate suc¬ 
cess, I believe, with her feather dusters. 
Still I think she did as well as many of 
us sometimes do with brooders. She 
says she got a lot of experience that will 
help her another year. She made one 
mistake in trying to keep too many 
chicks in one box. It has been my ex¬ 
perience that a few chicks will pass the 
night safely in mild weather, covered 
with an old garment as suggested, but 
when 40 or 50 are put in one box there 
is great danger that they will huddle 
for mutual warmth, and those in the 
bottom of the cluster suffer for want of 
good air, often being suffocated out¬ 
right. 
A Six-acre. Hen Farm.— Will Mr. Mapes 
tell how many hens can be profitably 
raised on six acres of land? What kind 
would he recommend as the most profit¬ 
able? -w. G. M. 
Pennsylvania. 
I do not know how many hens can be 
profitably kept on six acres. So much 
depends on the man, and on the location 
with reference to markets, etc. With 
suitable buildings and yards I should 
not hesitate to keep 2,000. If eggs are 
to be the main source of income the 
Leghorn breeds will be found good, 
though Mrs. Crawford says she never 
can get as good results in Winter from 
Leghorns as from larger breeds. Where 
roasting birds are wanted Leghorns are 
simply “no good.” The American or 
Asiatic breeds will be found more satis¬ 
factory for such uses. 
Early Moulting.— I notice that my 
nen s wear their overcoats all Summer and 
lay eggs until cold weather, about No¬ 
vember 1; then shed their coats. Now, 
January 1, they begin to lay. Can Mr. 
Mapes tell how to make the hens change 
their moulting season to August and Sep¬ 
tember? i c 
Quincy, Ill. 
Various expedients have been recom¬ 
mended for hastening the moulting sea¬ 
son, but there is none that I can recom¬ 
mend. Semi-starvation for two weeks 
in August, followed by liberal feeding, 
seems to have some effect in hastening 
the feathers to fall. I have tried this a 
number of times, but cannot say that 
the hens commenced to lay any earlier 
than others that were not so treated. 
Trouble with Pigs.— On page 30 Mr. 
Mapes speaks of “fits in pigs" and asks 
Whether it i s common. I think the trouble 
is known a s “spasm of the glottis” and is 
usually caused by heavy feeding and too 
warm quarters, especially where the pigs 
are red in open air in cold weather in cold 
fe ®f _ , c. e. w. 
From the best information obtainable 
the trouble we had with our pigs was 
evidently what is known as “spasm of 
the glottis,” as stated by this corre¬ 
spondent. The symptoms and condi¬ 
tions were the same, except that our 
pigs are fed warm slop instead of cold. 
\\e found them most liable to an at¬ 
tack when roused suddenly from their 
warm nest, and permitted to rush out at 
once to the trough in the yard on cold 
mornings. Their slop is fed in the open 
air, and shelled corn afterwards in racks 
inside the building. Since reversing the 
order of feeding and permitting them to 
eat their corn first before going out of 
doors for their slop we are having very 
little trouble. I tried this, thinking it 
would be good to get the glottis “lim¬ 
bered up” before going out to the 
rough. A near neighbor has recently 
lost two in the same way out of a pen of 
three. His were fed inside a warm pen, 
on warm feed, showing that a sudden 
cnui is not entirely responsible for the 
spasms. He kept his in a warm base¬ 
ment stable which does not freeze at all. 
Feeding Questions.— Are you feeding 
the anti-corn mixture this Winter, and 
how many eggs do your hens average per 
day at this time? Do you feed any green 
feed in Winter, as cut clover, cabbage or 
other vegetables? When you feed a mash 
in the morning, do not your hens sit 
around without exercise until noon, and 
do you consider this sitting around all 
huddled up as good for egg production as 
when the hens are scratching for wheat 
at morning and again at noon with wheat 
again at night and corn fed twice a week 
for night feed and with this ration cut 
clover in boxes all the time with beef 
scraps in boxes before them? c. a. b. 
New York. 
I believe I have never taken any pains 
to conceal the fact that an ability to se¬ 
cure a big Winter yield of eggs is not 
one of my strong points. “Physician 
heal thyself,” as a term of derision, has 
been familiar to man for centuries, yet 
the fact that doctors sicken and die is 
no excuse why earnest men should not 
enter the medical profession and do 
their best to combat disease. There 
comes a time every Winter when I have 
to consult our record of sales for the 
year in order to keep up my courage. 
Our books show that the cash sales from 
our poultry (mostly eggs) for the year 
just passed have been over 52,900. Just 
about half of this was required to pay 
for feed supplied. Most of the balance 
represents the pay for our labor In car¬ 
ing for them. This is hardly one man’s 
work, as we care for them, except for a 
short time in Spring when we are hatch¬ 
ing and raising young stock, when part 
of a second man’s time is needed. The 
hens do not interfere with the produc¬ 
tiveness of the farm along usual lines 
in the least. We are still using the 
anti-corn mixture for all our older 
shotes with satisfaction, but for the 
hens we are carefully feeling our way 
towards some system that promises to 
produce more Winter eggs. Our pens of 
50 are laying at this writing (January 
27) all the way from two or three up to 
10 or 12 eggs a day. Some pens that are 
four or five years old are doing but lit¬ 
tle yet, but all are laying some. We are 
using no green feed whatever. Critics 
may lift their hands in horror, but I 
stuffed a pen with cabbage last Winter 
until it fairly smelled of sauerkraut, and 
got no more eggs than from other pens 
which had no green feed. When hens 
“sit around huddled up in a bunch most 
of the time” the outlook is not favorable 
for eggs. Because a hen has had a full 
meal of “mash” in the morning is no 
reason, however, why she should thus 
“sit around.” 
We are certainly getting more eggs 
now from those hens that get more 
mash in the morning than they will eat 
in an hour, than from those that clean 
their trough quickly. My cousin’s pen 
of 20 hens that I was privileged to see 
when they were laying from 16 to 19 
eggs a day in the month of January were 
fed a mash in the morning, more than 
they would eat. Their trough was gen¬ 
erally cleaned, however, by 11 o’clock. 
I have never tried the plan of keeping 
cut clover and meat scraps before them 
all the time, with grain three times a 
day as spoken of above, but it recom¬ 
mends itself to my judgment as a prom¬ 
ising system of feeding, o. w. mapes. 
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———— 
$4.45 
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e*ery- 
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for the 
horse. 
$14.60 
We 
sell 
1 inch 
Buckles 
10c doz. 
buys this single harness, 
complete with I hitch rein. 
%in. bridle withslde orover 
check. Folded breastcollar.l 
In. traces, 2}£in.saddle,Hnes 
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snaps 
14c doz. 
1)4in.33c 
harness; l'A 
s. Foie 
$12.45 
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sell 
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repairs of 
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inch traces, 18 ft. lines._ 
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