1904, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
631 
THE PUREBRED BUSINESS HEN. 
P. Q. White, who has met with much suc¬ 
cess as a breeder, gives the following good 
advice: 
One of the questions continually asked 
by those thinking about trying to make 
poultry profitable is: “Would 1 not be just 
as successful with common fowls as with 
purebred or fancy stock?” If not, why? 
There are several reasons why it pays to 
keep purebred hens. First, your flock is 
uniform, and you can give the feed and 
care that your variety needs. With com¬ 
mon mixed flocks you are feeding some 
. hens fat, while others may not get what 
they need. Your chickens are much evener 
if all one kind, and if you are selling for 
broilers to a fancy trade, you would see 
a difference between a crate of nice pure¬ 
bred Wyandottes or Plymouth Rocks and 
a crate of red, white, blue and speckled 
scrubs. It might easily make a difference 
of two or three cents a pound. Now pick 
up the market quotations and note the 
prices on “fancy selected white” and the 
next grade, which means plain “fresh 
eggs.” There you find a difference again 
of two or three cents a dozen. Does it 
cost any more to raise these fancy broilers 
or fancy eggs? Not a cent more after you 
get started. Of course it costs more to 
get a start in any purebred stock than in 
mongrels. Careful breeders have been at 
work for years developing these different 
breeds, each for a specific purpose, and it 
stands to reason that they will fulfill that 
purpose better than those with only hit 
or miss or no breeding. 
We sometimes hear of some woman 
who is making money from common hens, 
but this only proves she understands her 
business and would make more if she had 
a good strain of purebreds. It is a well- 
known fact that eggs of different breeds 
do not hatch alike, and some arc much 
more difficult to hatch than others. One 
should take all these things into consid¬ 
eration and study their markets and their 
own likings, for anyone will make a much 
greater success with a breed he likes. 
After you have made your selection do not 
buy a male and try to grade up scrubs, 
and do not pay $25 for a show trio of 
fancy birds. First, get either a few set¬ 
tings or a hundred or more eggs of the 
breed you want from some breeder you 
can rely on to treat you fairly; then study 
your strain; find out its weak points, and 
buy males to correct those faults. This 
is when you want to buy a Standard and 
find what that breed should look like to 
win prizes. You will soon be proud of 
your flock, and you will want to show all 
your friends your birds. If your hens are 
inclined to be too short-backed you should 
buy a male with the opposite tendency. 
If they are weak in any point get a male 
strong in that point to breed them to. 
But do not sacrifice vigor and health to 
fancy or fads; leave that to the showman. 
Don’t try to keep more than one breed; 
you won’t know all there is to know about 
that in 20 years. It is more profitable to 
be known as a good breeder of White 
Leghorns, Wyandottes or Plymouth Rocks 
than it is to be able to advertise one hun¬ 
dred different varieties of poultry for sale. 
There is plenty of money in poultry if 
managed in a business-like manner. A 
dairyman would not keep Holstein cows 
for a fancy butter trade, nor would he ex¬ 
pect to get rich from selling Jersey milk, 
although there are good butter cows and 
good milkers in both breeds. So a poul- 
tryman should keep the breed that is 
adapted to his business; the heavy breeds 
for market poultry and the lighter more 
active breeds for eggs. You will have 
hens in any breed that do not pay their 
board, and these must be weeded out and 
got rid of by the “ax process.” It is a 
nice business to pick them out, and many 
a fine hen has been sacrificed because she 
was in such a ragged and generally dilap¬ 
idated condition, due to her persistent lay¬ 
ing. One trouble with scrubs is the lack 
ot a type and the extreme difficulty of cull¬ 
ing out the unprofitable birds. We have 
all seen where good breeds that have been 
bred for years true to type were crossed. 
The result was a reversion and any old 
tiling. Get purebred stock; keep it pure; 
strive to improve your strain constantly, 
and you will have a greater pride in your 
flock and give them better care, which after 
all is the secret of success in the poultry 
business. Whoever heard of a poultry- 
man with some fine purebred hens allow¬ 
ing them to roost on the rail fence or over 
the pigpen ? Take care of the hens and 
they will take care of you. 
NOTES ON SHEEP. 
Lambs as Breeders. 
I would lie glad to have your opinion as to 
whether it is wise to keep the ewe lambs lor 
breeders to maintain the flock or to sell them 
and buy mature ewes? a. l. w. 
Harford Co., Md. 
The above is a very practical as well as 
important question, and while like all ques¬ 
tions, there is something to be said on 
both sides, the writer is “fully persuaded 
in his own mind” that it is decidedly bet¬ 
ter to keep the lambs if we keep the best 
ones. I think one reason why so many 
have condemned the practice is because 
they have first sold the “first born” and 
best; then kept the culls, too small to sell 
for a fair price. These did not breed till 
they were two years old, and because they 
were small and often thin sheared a light 
fleece and made a poor sheep. As the 
flock is usually kept, with the ram al¬ 
lowed to run with the ewes continually 
from the time he is first put in, lambs 
born from such mating arc “born slack” 
and never make the best sheep. That is 
one reason why I say the “first born.” 
These also are more mature, and if well 
kept most of such will have lambs at 
from 12 to 14 months of age, so they will 
not have to be kept a year for their wool 
and manure, not enough to pay their feed 
bill, a serious objection to keeping lambs 
for breeders. At first glance it would 
seem as if when a lamb could be sold for 
$4 or $5 and a mature ewe bought for that 
price it would be better to sell the lambs. 
I used to believe this, and when I could 
buy first-class ewes, just when and what 
I wanted, it was true. But 1 have found 
it increasingly difficult to do this, partic¬ 
ularly those that would grade with my 
flock. Then, too, there is always the 
danger of buying in disease, a most serious 
and expensive purchase. From this I 
have suffered severely. The yearling as 
a breeder is always inferior the first year 
to a good mature ewe, but at the end of 
the second year I have always had the best 
sheep from the ewe lambs 1 had saved. 
My plan is to select as above the earliest 
and best ewes; those that conform to a 
type for which I am breeding; then breed 
them to their sire, if lie is a mature sheep. 
If well kept nine out of 10 will have lambs 
the first year, and by this system 1 get a 
flock of grades uniform in appearance, 
good breeders and shearers. Such ewes 
are good for five or six years, when ma¬ 
ture ewes purchased usually have to be 
turned after the second year. This will 
much more than offset the loss on the 
yearling. 
When to Wean Lambs. 
What do you consider the proper time to 
wean lambs? 'the old practice, and one still 
followed by many, was to leave the lambs 
with the ewes till late in the Kail. It. has 
always seemed to me as though this was an 
unnecessary drain on the ewes. t. a. f. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
The questioner is right; it is a “drain” 
on the ewes, and in no way compensated for 
by a gain in tue lambs. For the first three 
or four months there is nothing equal to, 
or that will take the place of the ewe’s 
milk for the lamb. After this time the 
milk supply becomes scanty, and does not 
cut an important figure in the lamb’s main¬ 
tenance, for he is fully able to digest solid 
food. Then, too, they depend on the ewes, 
and will not feed as readily as when they 
are away from them. I like to separate 
about the first ot August. By this time 
there is usually some fresh after-feed 
where the lambs can run. I have always 
noticed a marked improvement in them 
from that time on. The ewes will do well 
on the old pasture, and after the “drain” 
of milk is stopped will make the growth 
necessary to put them in the best shape for 
breeding again. It may not be generally 
known, but it is a fact, that if there are 
no old sheep among them, at this season 
lambs may be turned next to a piece of 
growing corn, and they will not harm 
it. The ewes should have a little atten¬ 
tion at this time. If possible they should 
be separated so as to be out of hearing 
of the lambs’ bleating. Either put them 
in a field where the pasture is very short 
or shut them up in the barn, where they 
get only dry hay and water. This will 
lessen the milk flow. The second or third 
days catch each one, and after setting it 
on its rump in the position one would 
have it to start shearing milk Hiem out. 
This is not as slow or difficult as it might 
seem to one who had never tried it. If 
attended to it will not only save the sheep 
much discomfort, but prevent broken 
udders and defective beats next season. 
The milking should be repeated at the end 
of a week. 
Homemade Mutton. 
Now that the meat strike is on, the 
farmer who has a flock of sheep to draw 
on for his meat supply can snap his fin¬ 
gers at the butcher, and also be sure that 
he is eating no "embalmed” meat. It re¬ 
quires no great amount of time or skill 
to dress a sheep or lamb, and where there 
is an icehouse (which should be on every 
farm) it can be kept for a week. We 
have an ice box, made by a local carpen¬ 
ter under our direction, that does this. 
Where the tamily is not as large as the 
writer’s, and a whole carcass cannot be 
eaten in that time, there is no difficulty 
in getting neighbors to take the extra 
quarters. 1 find they are generally glad 
of the opportunity; or two or three can 
exchange. For years an uncle and 1 each 
killed a sheep every other week during 
the Summer and divided the carcass. 
Even when they are not kept for profit 
a few can be bought in the Spring, and 
run in the orchard or some convenient 
place nd make a meat supply to draw on 
for the Summer and Fall. 
E. VAN ALSTYNE. 
“BE GOOD” 
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_ , Our Claim 
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