April 20 
294 
The Chicken Yard. 
EARLY LAYING PULLETS. 
How Grown in a Cold Couniry. 
For two reasons I try to have my pul¬ 
lets begin laying early, having found 
that yearling hens rarely get over 
moulting in time to lay before cold wea¬ 
ther. The first reason is that Fall and 
Winter eggs bring the highest prices, 
the second that from pullets which have 
laid well all Winter I can select my eggs 
for hatching, and secure strong fertility. 
One must begin with the hatching to 
accomplish anything. The chicks must 
be March or April hatched, whether by 
hen or incubator matters not. I, how¬ 
ever, have never been fortunate enough 
to get mine hatched before the middle 
of April and oftener the end of the 
month. The eggs set must be from vig¬ 
orous, healthy stock, and of as good a 
strain of layers as is procurable. When 
the chicks are hatched, if by a hen, then 
the trouble begins. No need of feeding 
them first thing. If they are not fed for 
24 or 36 hours they will be all the better 
for it. If brooder chicks it is much 
easier to attend to them. For the first 
few days, or even a week, I feed stale 
bread soaked in water and squeezed out 
so it crumbles. Then gradually give 
rolled oats, wheat, millet, johnny cake 
and dry bran. Have coarse sand acces¬ 
sible at all times. One lot of chicks I 
gave no drinking water till they were 
two weeks old. Late-hatched ones, how¬ 
ever, can have water when a day old. 
Chicks should be fed what they will eat 
up clean four times a day for the first 
two weeks, then three times till two 
months old. 
Young chicks should be kept warm 
and free from lice. If hatched by the 
incubator the matter is very easy; hav¬ 
ing been free from vermin at first it is 
simply a question of keeping the brood¬ 
er clean. If taken care of by the heq 
it is much harder, as the hen and chicks 
will have to be dusted with some lice 
powder every week or so. Chicks should 
be kept warm, especially in early Spring 
If brooder chicks they must be taught 
to run into the brooder, which may be 
much cooler than at night. With brood¬ 
er chicks the mistake must not be made 
of getting them used to too warm an at¬ 
mosphere at night, as it makes them 
more susceptible to cold when out doors. 
At about four weeks I began' to 'give a 
mash of one-quarter middlings, one-half 
cornmeai and one-quarter bran mixed 
with skim-milk or water for one feed a 
day, and cracked corn and wheat sev¬ 
eral times a day. At first chicks had 
only a limited range, but as they grew 
older they had the run of a nice lawn, 
and later the gardens, somewhat to 
their detriment. 
When the chicks were about 10 weeks 
old I fed only one meal a day, and that 
merely to keep them tame and in the 
habit of looking for feed from the house. 
All table scraps were thrown out to 
them, and as they had access to the 
barnyard and barns they did not lack 
for grain feed, and gathered up much of 
what would otherwise be loss. Water 
was placed where they could get at it 
at all times. A very good drinking 
fountain for young chicks was made 
from baking powder cans notched a lit¬ 
tle on one side and set into a saucer or 
tin-pail lid. 
One year I was forced to buy about 
50 April-hatched chicks when they 
weighed 1% to two pounds apiece. They 
were put into the barn to sleep, as we 
had no suitable house for them. From 
that they began following the cows to 
pasture, and particularly into a small 
marsh. Here they found plenty of grass¬ 
hoppers, and I never had such healthy 
chickens, or any that grew so well as 
they did. When I began to feed corn in 
the Fall they had to be taught to eat it. 
About the last week of September I be¬ 
gin to feed an evening feed of grain, 
usually corn, and as the days get colder 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
a morning mash of middlings, ground 
corn and oats. Pullets and cockerels 
roost in trees till the cold weather comes 
on, when I usually succeed in capturing 
them and putting them into the hen¬ 
houses. For the past two years this has 
been about the middle of November, but 
it is far the best to have them in Win¬ 
ter quarters about November 1. My 
chickens were incubator and brooder 
chicks the past year, and so tame that 
the handling necessary to get them 
from roosting places and into coops did 
not disturb them in the least, for the 
pullets began to lay the next day. I had 
found an occasional egg at odd times 
for a week before housing, so that they 
were ready to lay by the middle of No¬ 
vember. When I get them housed I like 
to feed whole wheat for one feed a day, 
and the mash is then composed of one- 
half middlings, one-half cornmeai and 
oats ground together with any kind of 
scraps, vegetables or whole grain as a 
relish, and sometimes I add a little oil 
meal to the mash. We usually raise 
oats and wheat together, cutting and 
curing when ripe, then stacking till 
Winter, when it is thrown Into pens for 
scratching material. The way to get 
Winter eggs, I find, is to feed regularly, 
keep plenty of fresh drinking water or 
skim-milk, grit and wood ashes contain¬ 
ing charcoal before them at all times, 
and give them plenty of scratching to 
do. MBS. G. n. ROSS. 
Wisconsin. 
A CITY MAH TURNS FARMER. 
Part "VI. 
When the peach trees came I had 
abundance of room to spread out the 
roots and had to half fill the holes with 
good loam to prevent getting them too 
deep. Of course all this was fine for the 
young trees, and they made a growth in 
the next three years that was the as¬ 
tonishment of all who saw them. An 
old fruit grower from New Jersey said 
he never saw it equaled. Branches six 
to seven feet long, five-eighths to three- 
quarters inch in diameter as the result 
of one season’s gi’owth were common. 
I planted sweet corn and garden stuff 
among the trees, and that clover sod, 
with the cultivation, did the business. 
I was very proud then of my trees, and 
used to take pains to show them to call¬ 
ers; fiow I know that a much smaller 
growth would have been better for the 
trees. Although I pruned heavily, cut¬ 
ting away half of each season’s growth, 
ice storms in Winter have pruned still 
more heavily, splitting some of the trees 
down to the ground, and breaking great 
limbs off others, until there are not 20 
whole trees left out of the 35. Still, al¬ 
though last year there was only a par¬ 
tial crop of peaches, we got about 50 
baskets from those six-year-old trees. 
We had planted some potatoes on a 
small piece at the bottom of the same 
lot, which had been cultivated several 
years, and when they came up and got 
big enough to hoe, a rainy season set in, 
and the ground was too wet to work for 
a couple of weeks. When it became dry 
enough, and I started to hoe them, not 
a potato plant could be seen, nor a 
square inch of bare ground. The whole 
piece was a mass of charlock, a weed 
with a large leaf something like turnip. 
Cultivating it was out of the question, 
as it was impossible to see where the 
rows were. I had to pull the weeds with 
my hands until I could find the potato 
rows, and then it required slow and cau¬ 
tious work to hoe them. It was a back¬ 
breaking job, and I have never allowed 
a crop to get away from me like that 
since that first experience. 
Our first calf was a wonderful crea¬ 
ture. How the children would run out 
the first thing in the morning, and as 
soon as they returned from school, to 
fondle and pet little Buttercup, as they 
named her! Nothing was too good for 
her, and we spoiled her with good feed¬ 
ing, so that when she was two years old, 
and began to give milk, she was a fat 
beefy creature with a neck so thick that 
I had to widen the space in the stan¬ 
chions two inches, although it was wide 
enough for any of the cows. When But¬ 
tercup was about eight weeks old we 
had her tied out where she could get 
grass and run as far as the rope would 
allow. One day she got loose, and went 
down the road with about 30 feet of rope 
trailing after her. As it chanced, my 
wife was the only one who saw her, and 
she went out and got hold of the rope 
when the calf was the length of a city 
block away from the house, and turned 
her toward home. Now, of ail the things 
the Lord ever made that can pull, it 
seems to me a young calf is the worst. 
When they neared the house the calf 
started to run. Mother was too “game” 
to let go of tne rope, and she came up 
the hill, taking steps nearly 10 feet long, 
eyes protruding, hair fiying and scream¬ 
ing, “Stop her! stop her!” while the 
children just laughed until they fell 
down on the grass. We put the calf in 
the barn at night, and I remember hav¬ 
ing hold of the end of the rope when 
Buttercup started to run. I braced my¬ 
self and when the rope straightened out 
the calf shot up in the air and turned a 
complete somersault, while I went down 
on my face. After that the children 
were out every evening to see me take 
in the calf. We were compelled to sell 
Buttercup for beef, as she gave so little 
milk, and never would have made a 
good cow. Here was another lesson for 
us in farming. The mother of Butter¬ 
cup was an extra good cow, but we had 
spoiled the calf with what we thought 
was kindness, as many a child is spoiled. 
Experience has taught us that skim- 
milk is better than whole milk for the 
calf that is to become a cow, and that 
great care must be taken that the fiesh- 
forming habit is not fastened upon it 
during its young life. We have found 
that skim-milk and a gruel made of 
common wheat middlings thoroughly 
cooked by boiling for 15 minutes will 
fatten a calf for the butcher without any 
trouble from scours, and fatten it so 
well that the butcher would scarcely be¬ 
lieve me when I told him it was not a 
whole-milk calf. An orainary cow will 
make a pound of butter a day during its 
best fiow of milk, and in eight weeks it 
amounts to 56 pounds at 25 cents, ?14. 
As the price of a skim-milk calf is only 
a cent a pound less, the loss on a 200- 
pound calf is only $2, showing a gain of 
$12 to pay for the trouble of butter¬ 
making, warming skim-milk for the 
calf, etc. G. A. c. 
FIABBY FH.tOWS| 
Al^COHOL,. 
WHO WANT TO BUILD UP 
THEIR BODIES 
WILL FIND THE 
"one thing needful” 
The body is built up from th* 
food we eat. But before food 
can be assimilated by the bodjr 
it must be prepared for assimi- 
Ihtion by the stomach and other 
organs of digestion and nutri¬ 
tion. Food does not feed when 
the stomach is “out of order." 
The result is, weak muscles and 
flabby flesh. “Golden Med¬ 
ical Discovery” heals diseases 
of the stomach and digestive 
and nutritive system. It works 
with Natme to make manly 
muscle and form firm flesh. 
In a letter received from A. D. 
Weller, Esq., of Pensacola. Es¬ 
cambia Co., Fla. (Box 544), he 
states : “ I have, since receiving 
your diagnosis of my case, as 
stomach trouble and liver com¬ 
plaint, taken eight bottles of the 
’Golden Medical Discovery ’ and must 
say that I am transformed from a walk¬ 
ing shadow (as my friends called me) to 
perfect health.” 
TRUK'ey 
Temperance Medicine. 
yFNfllFIIHI Ticks, Mites, Fleas, Etc., 
00 all kiuda ot auiinals and poultry. Gt?en 
Internally it drives out worms. Cures all cuts, wounds, sores, etc. 
Non-poisonous. Endorsed by leading veterinarians. “Veterinary Ad- 
vlser** free. Zenner Ulaiufectant Co. 100 Bates St. Detroit, silch. 
lleaskAk Asa I Ssasa Hens and Chicks 
UwHlII 10 LIvO 64-page Book FBBB. 
D. J. IiAMBBBT, Box307, Apponaug, B. I. 
Fowls of W. 4. Bd. Bock, W. & Bn. Leg.,W.WyaH.vars., 
Eggs $1 & 1.50 26. Stamps. Mrs.J.P.Helllngs,Dover,Del. 
S. C. White Leghorn Eggs, 26 for $i. 
MAPLES POULTRY YARDS, New Britain, Conn. 
PPIJO—20 for *1; $3 per 100. White Wyandotte 
CUIIO and 8. C. Buff Leghorn. Belgian Hares, 
$2 per pair. JOHNSON & ORB, Collins Center, N.Y. 
0—100 Eggs. $4; 45, $2; 15, *1. Thomp- 
El V* son’s strain Barred Rocks. 
WILLIAM PALMER, Grooms, N. Y. 
Dlanchard’s White Lieghorns.—The leading 
^ strain of heavy layers. Eggs for hatching from 
Onest stock. Ill.cir.free. H. J. Blanchard.Groton.N.Y. 
■p'GGS for hatching, 6 cents each. First-class stock. 
Rhode Island Reds, Brahmas, Hamburgs, and 
Rocks. W. Sherman, 25 Boulevard, Middletown, R. I. 
Barred P. Bock, W. P. Bock and S. 
C. Brown Leghorn. 26 eggs, tl; 
100 eggs, $3. J. W. KILLEN, Felton, Del. 
H. H. Mohr, Quakertown, Pa., breeds 
all varieties thoroughbred P. Bocks, Wyandottes, 
Brahmas, Leghorns. Langshans, Cochins, Mlnoroas. 
Hamburgs. Eggs, 15, $1; 40, $2. Catalogue. 
AA Varieties Choice Poultry. Eggs, Pigeons 
7 11 and Belgian Hares. All combined and infor¬ 
mation In 60 page book, 10 cents. J. A. BER- 
GBY, Telford. Pa. 
ILVER WYANDOTTES WANTED AT $8 EACH 
See Rural New-Yorker. March 30, page 234. 
BEAVER HILL B'ARM, Beaver, Pa. 
S. C. Brown Leghorns kT'HZ 
hlghBcorlngyaras,$1.50per*^15. Poor hatches dupli¬ 
cated. D. P. GROFF, North Star, Ohio. 
^ AMA—Fertility guaranteed. By the sitting 
f n H 3k or hundred. 23 varieties of prlze-wln- 
ning land and water fowls. Big Cata¬ 
logue free. Our guarantee means something. 
PINE TREE FARM, Box T, Jamesburg, N. J 
\Jir Wyandottes (210-egg strain), B. Bocks, 8. C.W. 
• Leghorns, bred from stock which won at N.Y. 
and Boston 1899 and 1900. D. Brahmas and Pekin 
Ducks won in 1898. Eggs, 15, $2; 100, $5. Satisfaction 
guaranteed. I). H. COLT, Elmwood, Conn. 
from choice heavy laying 8. C. 
White Leghorns, Silver Wyan¬ 
dottes and Buff P. Bocks. $1 00 
per 15; $2 per 30. Safe arrival and good fertility guar¬ 
anteed. T. D. GOODWIN, Columbia Station, Ohio. 
EGGS 
Partridge Wyandotte Hens. 
The Largfe Money Makers. 
Write for circular. C. G. LOKING, Dedham, Mass 
DEOOKSIDE’S WHITE WYANDOTTES please 
every one because they are carefully bred for 
business as well as fancy. Eggs that hatch from the 
choicest matings, $2.00 per 13. Almost their equals 
for business, $1.00 per 13. $5.00 per 100. 
J. B. STEVENSON, Columbus, N. J. 
S. C. White Leghorn Hens That Lay 
We breed only from the large true egg type. Six 
hundred to select from. Only one breed. We try to 
make that the best. You get the benefltof our years 
of careful selection and feeding. 
WHITE & BICE, Lock Box A, Yorktown, N.Y. 
M. Bronze, Buff Leghorns, 
IIJIflLE.Id UnfT P VtnnkA. Alnn Olrcu* 
50VARIETIES. 
I breed fine poultry on one of the befit oqulppedpoultry 
farmfi In the world. Send 8c In stampe for new 1001 Book, 
telling nllfibont 50 varletlofi, with fipeclel prlceeonfowli 
•ndeggt. OREIDER, Florin, Pa. 
IE BANTAM HATCHER 
60 egg $5 machine that hatchea ©qualU 
priced made. Has 
:b from WeegBhnndredeof 
INCUBATORS 
From BS.OO Up. 
BBOODEBS FBOM 18.80 UP. 
Free Catalogue. 
I.. A. BANTAfi Llgonler, Ind. 
WICTOR 
W INCUBATORS 
Hatch every fertile egg* SimpUit, 
most durable, oheapeet flrst*olase C 
hatcher. Money back if not poeitiTsly ^ 
as repreeented. Oirealar free; eata- ^ 
lognede. eB0.1BTlLOO.»Qmlaey,IU. t 
200-Egg Incubator 
for $12.00 
Perfeot. in oonstmotion and 
action. Hatches every fertile 
lexK. Write tor oatalogne te-day. 
SEO. H. STAHL, Oalney, III. 
CHARTER 
Gasoline Engine 
I Tf3r*I\ -Any Place 
I I ^ Ih I 1 'Kv On 
StaHonarieB, Portable, JBngineB 
and Pumps, Hoisters 
State your Power Needs. 
Charter Gas Engine Co., Box 26, Sterling, III- 
THE MIETZ & WEISS 
Kerosene Engines 
Cheapest and Safest 
Power known. For 
Pumping water, grinding 
corn, separating cream, 
sawing wood, a/nd all powef 
purposes. Send for Catalog. 
A. MIETZ, 
128 Mott Street, New York 
SPECIAL PRICES 
for next 80 davs on HATCH-ALL INCUBATORS 
and WARM-ALL BROODERS. Send at once 
for free Catalog No. E-33; It will surprise you. 
Hatoh-AII Incubator Co. Toledo OhiOi 
