5o3 
1U04. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
TALKS WITH A HEN MAN. 
PART II. 
“Why not use pullets for breeding 
stock ?” 
“The hens are mature, and we know 
more about their quality. No one can 
Icll what a pullet will do from her ap¬ 
pearance, or the way she starts off. The 
chief reason is that by the time hatching 
eggs are wanted the pullets have been 
laying for a long time. They are not as 
vigorous as when they started, and their 
eggs arc not so fertile. We all know that 
after a hen has been laying for a long time 
the eggs do not hatch as well. The hens 
start later than the pullets, and their 
eggs are most vigorous when hatching 
time comes.” 
“Would it not pay to hold the older 
hens back, so as to start them laying when 
eggs are wanted for incubation?” 
“This is sometimes done with breeds 
like the Plymouth Rock, but it does not 
pay to put a check-rein on a Leghorn.” 
“How long do you keep your laying 
hens ?*' 
“As long as they do well. Some pullets 
are rejected early in the season, and some 
hens are kept till they are four or five 
years old. It is entirely a matter of per¬ 
formance. An older hen, if she is a good 
one, is more likely to transmit her good 
qualities.” 
“Do the Leghorns ever want to sit?” 
“Yes, but they do not keep at it as 
other breeds do. Some hens can be car¬ 
ried around by the legs and thrown about 
and still remain broody, but a Leghorn 
is too ‘scary,’ and is quickly broken up.” 
“Do you believe in crossing breeds?” 
“Not at all. You lose in a single cross 
the points that have taken years to estab¬ 
lish. Mate two White Plymouth Rocks, 
and you will have a majority of white 
chicks. Cross a White Leghorn on a 
White Plymouth and the chicks will be 
all mixed up in color. This desire to 
cross breeds has disgusted many poultry 
keepers.” 
“Are nest eggs necessary?” 
“Probably not, but they prevent hens 
from laying on the floor. The hen sees 
the china egg in the nest, and goes where 
the egg is. So far as number of eggs 
goes the nest egg will not induce a hen 
to lay more.” 
“Is it true that infertile eggs will keep 
longer than fertile ones?” 
“There is not much difference in cold 
weather, but in warm weather, where the 
eggs are exposed, the infertile ones cer¬ 
tainly keep longer. We must remember 
how rapidly the chick is formed inside 
the egg when the temperature is high 
enough. We keep no roosters except 
those in the breeding pens. The surplus 
roosters that run in so many yards are 
worse than useless. We sell many of our 
eggs to private customers, sending a 
week’s supply at a time. This trade is 
very satisfactory when you are in a posi¬ 
tion to guarantee the goods.” H. w. c. 
Defective Cows.—Before you start to 
raise a calf it is a good plan to examine 
her and see if she has four well-shaped, 
perfect teats. If you don’t you may be 
like two women who asked advice last 
week as to a heifer just about to come in. 
She has two teats grown together, so that 
she is not much better than a two-teated 
cow, and besides they said she was “a 
confirmed sucker, just like her mother,” 
and has to wear a muzzle constantly. Be¬ 
tween this and the bad teat we should 
beef the animal. If the teats were sep¬ 
arate enough it would be possible to cut 
between them and by plasters heal them 
up separately, but even then they would 
be apt to be rather close for comfortable 
milking. _ h. g. m. 
Hawk Bait. —On page 444 C. L. L. asks 
how to protect young chickens against hawks. 
Best tiling 1 ever tried is strychnine. Mix 
it with small quantity of syrup or molasses 
and at night (he sure at night) apply small 
quantity to top of each attle chicken’s head. 
For three seasons I have used this success¬ 
fully. After killing one or two hawks tlie 
others invariably stop coming. I usually try 
to have few extra early chickens hatched out 
for “bait,” and the ones coming later are not 
molested. H. D. L. 
Rockford, N. C. 
STORY OF A MICHIGAN SILO. 
I have used a silo three years, and saw 
the bottom of it last week, the first time 
since September, 1901, and very sorry to 
now, as I find the older silage is the 
better it is. I cannot say exactly how 
much the silo has added to the income of 
the farm, only that I sell about $200 
worth of hay and grain, which was for¬ 
merly fed, and keep double the number 
of stock I did before buying the silo, 
therefore increasing the receipts' from 
cows and fat stock. I feed silage to 
cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, and sometimes 
chickens morning and night, and one feed 
at noon of hay, dry corn fodder or straw. 
In most instances I find that after the 
stock have once got used to the feed I 
can give them all they will nicely eat up 
clean, which is about 20 pounds or one 
bushel to grown cattle or horses. I have 
never had a sick horse or cow since feed¬ 
ing silage, and work the horses as the 
average farmer does during the Winter 
months. The horses get silage from No¬ 
vember 1 to March 15. I have never 
used anything but corn in the silo, but 
know from seeing others using them 
that Alfalfa and June clover make fine 
silage. It should be cut and packed same 
as corn when filling, and will be found a 
great help when the pastures get short 
in July and August. I am to cut the 
corn about the time it is denting, but 
could not the past year, as corn did not 
mature at all, but whatever condition the 
crop is in, when we have to take care ot 
it to avoid frosting, I find it will keep 
all right in the silo and get lots more out 
of the crop that way than any other. 
Lots of my neighbors husked corn in 
April this year and got nothing out of 
their fodder and little out of their corn, 
while I saved all I raised, and at a time 
when it was at its best, and when the 
days were long and fair. We change 
work filling silos as in thrashing; own 
our machine together (four neighbors), 
renting it to others, and fill a 100-ton 
silo in a day easily, with a cash outlay 
of about $10, the corn yielding about 15 
tons per acre on an average. We use 
low-down platform wagons, piling the 
bundles on like cordwood crosswise, us¬ 
ing corn harvesters to cut the corn and 
a large size pneumatic silage cutter to 
fill the silo, with two men in the silo to 
keep the feed level and tramped thor¬ 
oughly. Some commence to feed at once, 
but I prefer waiting two weeks or more, 
and never have lost over 18 inches; from 
that down to six inches of the surface, 
according to how well it was tramped 
when it was heating. I have had but 
very little silage spoil, and that from 
changing sides in the Summer, as I keep 
one-half covered with hay or straw to 
help keep the air from it, and feed from 
the other half until down two feet or 
more; then throw the covering over, 
losing a little each time, but nothing in 
comparison to the great help it is to short, 
dry pastures. Mine is a round stave silo, 
14 x 30 feet, made of 2-inch white pine, 
matched and beveled; a continuous door¬ 
way, which I consider very necessary, 
hooped with round steel hoops and 
roofed, and I am so well pleased with it 
1 am thinking of erecting another. 
Washington, Mich? j. m. p. 
Salt on Chicks. —I want to give my mitt 
of experience to help pay for what I have 
got from your columns. Yesterday there was 
a heavy rain which flooded one of my coops 
that had chickens about a week old in it. A 
few of them were drowned and a few others 
nearly so, hut their hearts stin were beating. 
My wife had had experience in such cases 
and took those that had a faint sign of life 
and sprinkled them with salt and put them 
in the oven for a little while. They soon 
got on their feet and we put them with the 
hen before night. J. w. t. 
Avondale, Pa. 
Soft Shelled Eggs. —We know hens will 
occasionally lay soft-shelled eggs even when 
they have plenty of shell and grit before 
them. This generally occurs when hens are 
in the height of their laying season, and 
when they are highly fed with strong feed, 
such as blood meal and beef scraps. They 
make eggs faster than they can make shell. 
Reducing their feed and giving more exercise 
will help it, unless some of the hens have a 
constitutional weakness. white * bice. 
lERGtNCIES 
IN THE FAMILY 
OR ON THE FARM 
FORMAN 
OR BEAST 
SLOANS LINIMENT 
KILLS PAIN h-AVfeoe 
KILLS GERMS DEALERS 
A Boon to 
Farmers’ Wives 
Why not save half the standing- 
lifting—washing? Make your dairy 
work twice as easy—twice as profit¬ 
able. Our friends call the Tubular 
Cream Separator the “Easy Way.” 
Try it. Catalog J-153 describes it. 
The Sharpies Co P. M. Sharpies 
Chicago, III, Wtsi Chester. Pa. 
DE LAVAL 
Cream Separators 
Save $3.- to $5.- Per Cow 
Every Year of Use 
Over the Best of 
Imitating Cream Separators 
and last from two to ten 
times as long 
Send for catalogue and name of 
nearest local agent. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
Randolph & Canal Sts. 74 Cortlandt St 
Chicago. New York. 
Cure For 
Galls 
While you work 
the horse. 
Above tnule mark on every box. 
!i!!>BICKMORE’S 
Dealers selling it everywhere are authorized 
to refund money if it fails to cure all Gails. 
Scratches, Cracks. Wire Cuts. etc. The stand¬ 
ard horse remedy for many years. Sample 10c. 
BICKMORE CALL CURE CO., Box 619, Old TowiCMi. 
MORE 
than feed is required to develop 
the perfect hog. Highest re¬ 
sults presume perfect health 
from birth to slaughter. Get 
at once to the root of the mat¬ 
ter. Insure perfect health to 
your herd by creating absolute¬ 
ly sanitary conditions. The 
way lies through the use of 
lenoleumi 
(This standard remedy of the 
stockman destroys the disease 
germ, prevents cholera, purges 
the stomach and relieves all 
intestinal worms, kills lice, 
cures mange and gives a clean, 
healthy skin,a healthy vigorous 
system. Don’t wait until chol¬ 
era strikes—you may lose your 
all. ZENOLEUM insures the 
hog’s health. 
"The Great Coal Tar Carbolic Dlsinfeciant Dip” 
Sample gallon of Zenoleum by ex¬ 
press, prepaid, §1.50; five gallons, 
freight prepaid, $6.25. Two Zenole- 
um hand books, “Veterinary Adviser’ ’ 
and “Biggie’s Troubles” are full of 
value for stockmen. Ask for them. 
„ ZENNER DISINFECTANT CO. 
100 Bats* St. Detroit. Mich. 
j® 
3lidVlID /LE „ N c 8 u w 
rnmlflr, . V SL?* 0 * ,nr ® •(’“▼In OUre. 
( HiR ff lIVAIIA Thousand* cured bjr this 
UilVU UJ UUC wonderful 46-minute method" 
_ _ . . Guaranteed always. Free 
/K-fniflHTO 5°«k about Spavin, Ourb, 
illlUIMv Ringbone, Splint, eto.Wrlte. 
., . . _FLEXING BROS., Chrml.U, 
lie dim cfll *22 Union Stork I d». Chicago, III. 
MACHINERY 
C IDE 
Beat aivl cheapest. 
Send for catalogue. 
BOOMER & BOSCHERT 
PRESS CO., 
1X8 West Water 8t*, w ‘ 
HIIUCCSl, N. I. 
A Milk Cooler 
la a device for cooling milk quickly 
just after It la taken from the cow. 
The object la to expose every pa,- 
tide of It to the air, thus cooling 
it and driving out all bud odor* 
and germ* which spoil milk very 
quickly and reduce its value. 
The Perfection Milk Cooler and Aeratoi 
dea* this quicker and better than any other. 
Send for prloes add free circulars. 
L. R. LEWIS. Maafr- Baa 12 . CartUnd. N. V. 
