1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
483 
HORSE SHOE FARM NOTES. 
DIFFICULTIES IN RAISING CHICKENS. 
The person who must have 500 pullets ready for lay¬ 
ing in November has no insignificant job and much to 
contend with. Until we can hatch a larger per cent 
of the eggs and raise them after they are hatched, the 
price of eggs will remain fully equal to other farm 
products. When the incubator has been going five 
days, the first loss is found. Testing reveals that 
from 10 to 60 per cent of the eggs are not fertile, 
according to season and condition of flocks. Early- 
hatched chicks are much the best; but unless the 
spring opened early so that the hens could get to the 
ground, one does well if one-half the March eggs are 
fertile, and the germ strong enough to produce a 
strong chick. Hope Farm Notes thinks one ccek for 
10 hens would make all right. I have had eggs from 
many flocks, kept under many differing conditions 
this season, and the best and most strongly fertilized 
eggs were from a flock of one cock and 60 hens. The 
poorest were from one Minorca cock and eight hens. 
Scarcely an egg would be fertile; no fault of the 
cock, either, for when he got out, into another yard 
of Brown Leghorns, half-bloods were too plentiful. 
Our average of 2,000 eggs, exceeds 20 per cent infer¬ 
tile. A study of the conditions under which the hens 
were kept does not enlighten one, except to indicate 
that exercise and free range aid, and that the latter 
part of the clutch is strongest. Why the eggs from 
a flock will vary from week to week is a problem. 
The second great loss is from chickens dying in the 
shell. Some will always die at all stages, but I have 
had, and known others to have, fully 50 per cent of 
the fertile eggs live until the 19 th and morning of 
the 20th day, even absorbing the yolk, but failing to 
pip. Since I have run my machine with ventilators 
wide open and used no moisture, I have had no chicks 
drown, or stick fast in the shell after pipping as be¬ 
fore ; still many die in the shell. Eggs set under 
hens within four feet of the machine, were compared 
every few days, and they seemed alike; yet the hens 
gave an average of 75 to 30 per cent for the incubator, 
of good chicks. One trial of a 350 egg machine gave 
the following results : 
Minorca Eoos, Skt Junk 15. 
First test—at 5 days. 18 not fertile. 
First test—at 5 days. 16 died after starting. 
Second test—at 14 days. 65 dead in shell. 
At 20 days.100 dead in shell. 
90 strong chicks. 
10 poor. 
329 eggs in all. 
Of the same eggs, three hens have hatched 32 chicks 
from 39 eggs. 
I am frank enough to say that our six trials this 
season have not exceeded 50 per cent of the total 
number of eggs put in. This seems small by the side 
of 96 to 99 per cent tests of which we sometimes 
read, but I believe it’s much nearer the actual average. 
A visit to three large poultry farms revealed the fact 
that not one of them had one-half as many chicks as 
the incubator capacity called for, although I was given 
startling stories of great hatches. The one thing I have 
learned is that I can put enough eggs extra on the 
trays to fill out the trays after the infertile ones are 
removed. We marked the “ extras,” and found that 
placing them on top of the others for five days, did 
no injury. This gives the full capacity for the whole 
hatch. 
A critical time is when the chicks are removed to 
the brooder, especially if very cool or hot. Taking 
them from a temperature of 103 degrees to one of 80 
degrees, will bring on bowel complaint. Good, 
healthy chicks, fed oat meal, fine ground bone, with 
pure water, will never have this trouble if the tem¬ 
perature is correct. A friend lost his whole hatch be¬ 
cause the chicks bunched to get warm. The bottom 
ones were smothered and the top ones cooked and 
sweat from the heat of the pile. The brooder lamp 
flamed up and overheated 200 last week. This weak¬ 
ened them so that the hot weather and the bowel 
complaint has finished them off. Two cases of fire 
have occurred, in which both brooders, fortunately 
outdoors, with contents, were consumed. A swarm of 
rats came from a neighbor’s, and in one night carried 
off 170 chicks four days old. In one instance, a weasel 
got into a brooder house and carried 125 quite large 
chicks under the floor. Without a hen, they are per¬ 
fectly helpless if anything gets among them. When 
it is as hot as it has been recently, brooder and house, 
if securely closed against rats, are simply ovens, un¬ 
less wire screens are used in doors and windows. A 
few have bowel complaint, some drag the wings, and 
the whole flock, if left indoors, will “ go light.” We 
can cure some of them of the bowel complaint by 
feeding scalded sweet milk, relieve them by clipping 
off the wing feathers, but the last, which seems like 
consumption, no man can cure. I believe it is caused 
by too much confinement and heat. None of our 
chicks has shown any symptoms of it except the late 
hatched. A noted poultryman told me last week, “I 
will not try late-hatched chicks again.” “ Why not 
outdoors ? ” may be asked. Our chicks were not off 
from board floors until nine weeks old, and there was 
no gapes. One chick learned to slip out when the 
door opened, and after the first rain, “gasped” well. 
Every remedy I ever heard of was tried, but without 
avail. If I put them out, one-half of them will be 
killed by the pest. 
With the hen, lice claim their share. Very careful 
people can keep them off, still the loss from this cause 
is large. “I would rather hatch 1,000 than raise 
100,” remarked one who is foremost in the art. The 
day I saw him, he was losing 15 to 20 per day. What 
is the loss where no care is taken, if such results 
occur among the professionals ? Then, to cap the cli¬ 
max, when you sort the flock in September, they will 
be half males. And now The R. N.-Y. is adding to 
our trouble by suggesting that some of those left will 
be robber hens. Good old hens sell for 40 to 75 cents 
each, which indicates that they are not easily grown. 
There is no cause to worry over a market for pure, 
clean, fresh eggs, just yet. c E. chapman. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Crimson Clover Experience. —I read about Crimson 
clover for a year before trying it. I then sowed 12 
acres of vineyard, one row to Crimson and one to Red 
clover alternately. I have never sowed any Red since. 
The next year, I sowed 10 acres, the next year, 22 
acres, last year 22 acres, and expect to sow 25 acres 
this year. I was the first to sow clover in a vineyard 
around here ; the practice was to keep it clean all the 
season—harrow all summer. I do not want land that 
weeds will not grow on, as not much of anything will 
grow on it. So the first year that I had a vineyard, I 
sowed three acres to clover (I had only five acres) and 
have missed but one year since, and then clover seed 
was $11 per bushel, and I thought I could not afford 
it; but I have got over fhat. I begin sowing about 
July 1, sow four to six acres a week, and then plow 
about that part in the spring. The first 12 acres 
blossomed last fall, so I plowed that first this spring. 
I go twice in a row with a spring-tooth harrow, then 
sow the seed, then once in a row with a light drag 
like the tool shown at Fig. 203. p. c. 
Crosby, N. Y. 
Wheat Growing in France.' —I think it will not 
pay anywhere to sow winter wheat in rows 18 to 20 
inches apart; at least, it has been a regular custom 
in this country for many years, to drill wheat in rows, 
and all the manufacturers of agricultural implements 
have adopted the distance of eight to ten inches be¬ 
tween drills. I think that the best distance to sow 
wheat on land in a high state of cultivation is 10 
inches between the rows. This distance has been 
chosen after repeated trials in the agricultural col¬ 
leges, as being the best to insure a heavy crop Fur¬ 
ther, I am persuaded that drilling wheat in rows 18 
to 20 inches apart would not give good results. This 
is our plan for growing wheat: We sow it in Novem¬ 
ber in drills 10 inches apart; in the beginning of 
spring, we harrow it lengthwise, out and back if the 
land is clean, to loosen the soil; this must be done 
in fine, dry weather. If the wheat is full of weeds, 
which happens only too often, we hire men or women 
to hoe it by hand. Labor is cheap here ; we give $1.50 
to $2 per acre. I usually sow from 2 % to 2% bushels 
per acre, but many farmers sow as much as 3 and even 
3}£ bushels to the acre, which I consider as a waste 
of seed. Raphael barbk. 
France. 
Mysterious Barn Fires.— While it is, probably, 
true that the great majority of so-called mysterious 
barn fires have their origin in the spark from a to¬ 
bacco pipe, or the sudden blaze of a carelessly-dropped 
match, I believe that, in your comments on this sub¬ 
ject in a recent R. N.-Y. you omitted to mention one 
important cause of such fires, namely, the sun’s rays 
focussed upon some inflammable material by means 
of bright metal surfaces, or glass dishes filled with 
water. A dozen years ago, one bright morning, I 
found a neighbor’s wood pile afire. This wood, so 
close by house and barn that the fire would soon have 
spread to both, consisted partly of half-rotten, 
“ punky” stuff, and on it I found a brightly-scoured 
tin milk can, with its shiny concave bottom turned 
sideways toward the bright glare of the morning sun. 
Here in the focus the fire had started, and after we 
had put it out, in order to convince the neighbor and, 
especially, his good wife, who had placed the milk 
can there to dry, 1 put the can again in the position 
in which I had found it, and started the fire afresh. In 
the way of experiment, anybody can easily convince 
himself that it is possible to start a blaze by means of 
a clear bottle or glass filled with water, this device 
acting as a lens ; although I have to confess that I 
have no conclusive evidence, except in a story told 
me in my boyhood days, of a barn fire actually 
started in this way. Thus, to your own good advice 
concerning tobacco pipes and matches may be added 
the warning against the careless disposition of any¬ 
thing bright that might serve to focus the sun’s rays. 
Niagara County, N. Y. t. greiner. 
SUGGESTIONS REGARDING CREAM RIPENING 
WHAT CAUSES “OFF-FLAVOIi” CREAM? 
(Concluded.) 
Churning Sweet Cream. 
During the past year, we have had many inquiries 
about the churning of sweet cream. Some creameries 
have a trade which they supply with sweet-cream 
butter. In order to get an exhaustive churning of 
sweet cream in a reasonable time, and to provide 
against a rich buttermilk, the cream should be rich, 
containing 35 per cent or more of fat, and be churned 
at a low temperature. Fifty degrees F. is not too low 
a temperature for churning sweet cream, and if the 
churning can be done so that the buttermilk is 50 
degrees F. when the churning is completed, there will 
be very little butter left in the buttermilk. If a rich, 
sweet cream be churned at a higher temperature, 
such as 55 to 60 degrees F., the buttermilk will, prob¬ 
ably, be very rich and the butter soft. The same re¬ 
sult would be obtained if thin sweet cream contain¬ 
ing 15 to 20 per cent fat were churned at this high 
temperature. On the other hand, it is impossible to 
conjecture what the buttermilk would contain if a 
thin sweet cream were churned at a temperature as 
low as 50 degrees F., because we are not generally 
able to churn cream at this temperature. The butter 
will not come under such conditions. The most satis¬ 
factory results with sweet cream are obtained by hav¬ 
ing the cream as rich as possible, and churning at as 
low a temperature as possible. 
Churning Gathered Cream. 
Gathered cream is almost always thin, and seldom 
sweet, especially if it is collected from a route 40 
miles long, and includes a collection taken up from 
40 or more farms. It is seldom, if ever, we hear of 
sweet-cream butter being made at a gathered cream 
factory. When the cream arrives at the factory, it is 
generally sour, and in warm weather, ripe enough to 
be churned at once ; but because of its being a mix¬ 
ture of so many different contributions, it is all 
poured into one large vat and allowed to stand, at 
least, six hours. If left in the ripening vat for a few 
hours and well stirred occasionally, the mixture will 
become more evenly soured and a thinner buttermilk 
be obtained than if it be churned when first received. 
Gathered cream usually contains from 10 to 20 per 
cent fat, and is churned at about 60 degrees F.; 
churning at a lower temperature would require too 
much time and, probably, would not improve the but¬ 
ter or the buttermilk to any great extent. 
Separator Cream. 
Separator cream is what the buttermaker at cream¬ 
eries usually has to deal with. It is somewhat purecr 
than the milk from which it has been obtained, as 
can be seen by examining the contents of a separator 
bowl after it has skimmed a few thousand pounds of 
milk. The milk has, also, been quite thoroughly 
aerated by .the separator, and although this aeration 
and the sediment removed from the milk by the sepa¬ 
rator help to make the cream purer than the milk 
from which it was obtained, many of the taints and 
bad flavors of filthy milk are still retained in the 
cream. 
The necessity of cooling the cream as soon as it is 
obtained from the separator is so commonly known 
that it is hardly necessary to mention this fact. The 
fat in cream cools much more slowly than the serum, 
consequently it is necessary to keep the cream at a 
cooling temperature long enough for the fat to solidify 
or crystaiize. It is the common practice at cream¬ 
eries to leave the cream in the ripening vat about the 
