THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 11 
6c 6 
Live Stock Matters 
AILING ANIMALS. 
ANSWERS BY DB. F. L. KILBORNK. 
Weak Ankle in a Colt. 
C. F. L., Lyons , N. Y.—A colt foaled July 6 , has 
a weak ankle, right forward leg. It turns to the 
front, and the colt almost waiks on it. Can any¬ 
thing be done for it? I arranged a boot with an 
iron stay, that covers his leg to the knee ; it does 
not appear to improve. So far, I have applied 
witch hazel. 
Continue the use of the boot and stay. 
If there is a tendency for the stay to 
chafe the leg, apply a cotton bandage to 
the leg before binding the stay on. Re¬ 
move the stay daily and bathe the leg 
with soap liniment, after which irub 
actively with the hands for several 
minutes. If the colt is otherwise strong, 
it should recover from this weakness 
after a few weeks. But it is very essen¬ 
tial that the joint be supported until 
able to bear the weight without support. 
A Lame Horse. 
O. M. YV., Elsinore, Val.-bly horse has been 
lame two months. After being worked or driven, 
it is lame in the left fore leg. There is a sore 
spot about two inches back of the shoulder blade, 
and two inches below the top of the spinal 
column. What is the trouble, and what can be 
done for it? The horse is in good flesh, and has 
not been hurt in any way known to me. 
I am unable to locate the seat of lame¬ 
ness from your description. You should 
have described in full any peculiarities 
in the gait, as well as the position of the 
lame leg when the horse is at rest; also 
the location of any enlargement or ten¬ 
derness about the leg. The sore on the 
withers, evidently, has nothing to do 
with the lameness as is implied in the 
letter. If the skin is unbroken, paint 
once a week with the compound tincture 
of iodine ; but if a running sore, sponge 
off daily, after which dust with iodoform. 
A Case of Swine Plague. 
,/. 11. E., UapUola, Mo.— One of my hogs is sick. 
It refuses to eat, is very weak in its legs, has 
difficulty in breathing, with a white substance 
running from the nose; the eyes get stuck to¬ 
gether, and I think it is going blind. Many are 
dying through this section, of the same disease. 
What is the trouble and the remedy ? 
The symptoms indicate a case of 
swine plague. The hog should be at 
once removed from the herd, and any 
others taken sick should, likewise, be 
immediately isolated. If possible to do 
so, it would be best to remove the 
healthy hogs to new quarters. Treat¬ 
ment is usually unsatisfactory. Beyond 
a light, laxative diet, and dry, comfort¬ 
able quarters, there is very little that 
you can do for the animal, unless it 
were personally treated according to the 
symptoms by a competent veterinarian. 
THE EARLY-LAYING PULLET. 
WHEN SHOULD SHE BEGIN BUSINESS ? 
Will It Pay to Force Her ? 
At what age do you generally start your pul¬ 
lets into laying ? Is there very much difference 
between breeds in this matter, and do you find 
that the Leghorns and Minorcas are very much 
ahead of Brahmas or Plymouth Rocks of the 
same age ? With pullets hatched in Mav, what 
treatment, feed and care would you consider 
best from now on for puslilngthem into laying at 
the earliest possible period ? Do you think that 
a pullet will be injured by forcing her to begin 
laying too early in the fall ? 
Do Not Feed Too Much. 
I have had pullets laying at four 
months, but these are only exceptional 
cases ; it will generally be five, and often 
six months before they will begin to 
lay. The Leghorn will come to maturity 
a little earlier than the Plymouth Rocks, 
and next come Brahmas ; the last being 
larger, it takes longer for them to come 
to maturity. For chicks hatched in May, 
if they have had a good start, one can 
give some good meat scrap to hurry them 
along ; but I would not feed too heavily. 
A too concentrated ration acts on chick¬ 
ens the same as it does on human beings, 
it gets the digestive organs out of order 
and weakened, and puts them back 
rather than forces them along. As to 
these patent egg foods for making hens 
lay, I have very little faith in them. I 
have tried a good many kinds, and do 
not think that I ever got enough more 
eggs to pay. I do not think a hen’s in¬ 
testines were ever intended for a medi¬ 
cine chest. I would feed for morning, 
a mash composed of corn and oats 
ground together two-thirds, and one- 
third brown middlings. Add about one 
ounce to every six hens of ground meat, 
and a little salt added ; feed this every 
morning. At noon, a little millet seed 
is good, and at night, I like dry grain— 
wheat, buckwheat, corn, and a few oats 
now and then. I think wheat the best 
for a steady ration, but a change is good. 
Illinois. J. H. SEELY. 
Minorcas and Leghorns Earliest. 
I have had pullets lay at about three 
months old, that had been forced as broil¬ 
ers, and had never been out of the brood¬ 
ing house and runs, which are 5x12 feet. 
My breeding pullets usually begin laying 
at about five months old ; the Minorcas 
usually begin a little younger. There 
is no great difference as to early laying, 
between the Minorcas and Leghorns, 
and the P. Rocks and Wyandottes, but 
the Asiatic breeds are usually a month 
or so later. From now on, I would give 
May-hatched pullets all the range possi¬ 
ble, and feed on wheat, oats and corn, 
twice daily, and give them all the ground 
meat, or green cut bone, they would eat 
about three times each week. I would 
feed all food dry. With this treatment, 
they should be laying well before cold 
weather, and would not be injured in the 
least for future laying. 
New Jersey. j. e. stevenson. 
•' The Law of Compensations.” 
Whether a pullet will be injured by 
forcing her to lay at an unwonted age, 
should depend upon two conditions, viz., 
the means employed to do the forcing, 
and the sense in which the term injure 
is understood. The law of compensa¬ 
tions applies wherever any departure is 
made from the fixed or normal type. 
Early maturity checks the bodily growth, 
and conversely, whatever checks growth 
without a corresponding loss of vigor, 
tends to precocity. To force by means 
of healthy nutrition, should not injure 
for future usefulness in egg production. 
To feed heavily with condiments in order 
to hasten development, would neces¬ 
sarily shorten the layer’s career. An 
imoortant consideration is whether the 
flock under treatment is to be used sub¬ 
sequently for breeding. If the stock is 
of desired type, as is presupposed with 
fancy or purebred fowls, to hasten ma¬ 
turity is to cause a departure from the 
breed requirements as to size, shape, or 
color points, one or all. 
The mo3t typical specimens are those 
produced in middle spring or at the 
natural breeding season. An unnatural 
temperature, whether of cold or heat, 
checks the growth. The winter chick 
gets dwarfed by the cold, and frequently 
lays at a younger age than the spring- 
hatched. The fall chick likewise is met 
by unfavorable cool weather, and often 
lays when quite young, if proper con¬ 
ditions are met when sent to winter 
quarters. I would not expect success¬ 
fully to reproduce typical characteris¬ 
tics from these unseasonably hatched 
pullets; but they often prove prolific 
layers. Again, the summer chicks may 
fail to acquire a satisfactory growth, the 
result of heat or depressing conditions 
of some sort, often traceable to the tired 
feeling that comes over the hens, as the 
spring advances, the natural outcome of 
long-continued egg-production. 
As my poultry keeping combines eggs 
for food purposes at most seasons and 
the cultivation of fancy points as well, I 
do no forcing for precocious develop¬ 
ment. The earliest hatched Mediterra¬ 
neans will, generally, start in to lay 
during autumn ; however, much depends 
upon sun and shelter during inclement 
weather. A good long Indian summer 
means much for the pullets, and they 
must not be allowed to roost in trees 
during autumn rains. 
The principle of compensations steps 
in as to the difference between the egg- 
type and flesh-type breeds. The latter 
have the better makeup to withstand the 
winter’s cold, while the former have the 
advantage of greater tendency toward 
eggs. The Plymouth Rock pullet which 
has matured in time for autumn laying, 
is quite prone to moult like an old hen, 
after a short season of eggs. I am not 
troubled by having my stock act in this 
manner. f. w. proctor. 
Massachusetts. 
Hold the Breeders Back. 
To get pullets laying as early as pos¬ 
sible, I would give good care. I feed in 
the morning to my chickens, stale bread 
soaked in milk, then mixed with bran, 
shorts and corn meal, with a ration of 
Bradley’s meat meal with it. I give them 
yards with plenty of grass, or let them 
have their liberty. I feed at evening all 
the corn they will eat clean. I have 
some S. C. Brown Leghorns hatched the 
very last of March, that are now laying, 
but no others of the same age are laying 
yet. As to breeds, I think the Leghorns 
will commence laying at an earlier age 
than most other breeds, although I have 
had Plymouth Rocks lay before they were 
five months old ; but, as a rule, I would 
prefer them to be six months old before 
beginning to lay, especially my breeders, 
as very early laying retards growth, 
especially of the large breeds. I do not 
think that pullets would be injured by 
forcing them to early laying, excepting 
that it would reduce the size of the 
birds, also the eggs wonld be a little 
smaller in consequence. These are the 
reasons why I prefer my breeding birds 
to get pretty well developed before be¬ 
ginning to lay. Sometimes I change 
their quarters to keep them back until 
they are of a suitable size. 
New Jersey. d. a. mount. 
Let the Hens Make Growth. 
We expect to have Leghorn pullets 
begin laying when about six months old, 
and those of the larger breeds when 
about eight months old. For a strain 
running up to the standard in weight, I 
should not expect them to lay much 
younger. I cannot say just what the 
relative productiveness and profit are 
from fowls commencing to lay younger, 
but my personal preference is not in 
favor of Leghorn pullets that begin to 
lay earlier than five months of age. I 
think that the eggs are likely to be 
fewer in number, as well as smaller, 
from the under-sized birds. Of course, 
rapid development and early maturity 
are very important things to secure, but 
I should not prize a pronounced gain in 
this direction at the expenseoof under¬ 
sized stock and small eggs so much as a 
very moderate improvement in the nor- 
(Continued on next page.) 
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