94 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 8 
FEEDING A HEN. 
Part V. 
Last week we tried to pick the Mapes 
hen ration apart, and see how it bal¬ 
anced. This figuring is excellent prac¬ 
tice, and it will pay any poultryman to 
follow it out whenever he can get exact 
weights to go by. One trouble is that 
too many farmers feed by measure — 
without ever weighing a ration. Now 
here is a report of a ration that will be 
hard to pick apart: 
I am keeping about 100 liens, and think it best 
in our climate to keep them confined for two 
months. I have finished off one end of my barn 
into two apartments, each about 8 x 20 feet, so 
they have considerable room. I give them five 
quarts each of oats and buckwheat early in the 
morning ; then after an hour, a thick mash of 
boiled potatoes and bran or meal, and at night 
live quarts of corn. During the day I generally 
feed them two cabbages, which I slice up some¬ 
what with a knife, and hang up within six inches 
of the ground. I cut meat scraps and pieces of 
bone and feed them : I generally get my meat 
here for nothing. This year one of my sows, be¬ 
ing rather too fat and clumsy, Killed her litter of 
pigs when they were from one to three weeks old, 
and I cut them up, bone and all, and the hens ate 
them greedily. I have no floor in my henhouse, 
but litter lightly with fine straw for convenience 
in cleaning. The ground is not packed under¬ 
neath, but was worked up finely in the summer, 
and makes a fine dusting place for the hens ; it 
seems to me that this is better than a floor. I 
give, for drink, skim-milk slightly warmed, and 
for grit, ground oyster shells. L. k. 
Augusta, Wis 
Now with those foods, a man could 
make up a ration with almost any pro¬ 
portion to it. It depends largely on the 
amount of meat that is fed. The meat 
being the richest in muscle-makers, of 
course, will quickly determine the pro¬ 
portion of the ration. Our impression is 
that, if we could obtain the exact 
weights, we would find that this ration 
averages about one part muscle-makers 
to five parts fat-formers. This is a little 
wider than the Mapes ration, and the 
amount fed per hen will also be greater. 
This ration is, probably, the cheapest 
that can be found in that part of the 
West. Mr. Mapes, you will remember, 
built his ration up as he did, because he 
was able to buy pot cheese and malt 
sprouts at a low figure. 
In fact, we wish to keep on repeating 
that the chief value of this knowledge 
of analyses of foods, is the fact that we 
are able to pick them apart and learn 
where to buy muscle-makers for the 
least money. That is the great object 
in preparing our economical poultry ra¬ 
tion, because the foods rich in muscle- 
makers are usually highest in price. The 
fact is that, in almost every neighbor¬ 
hood, it is possible to pick some cheap 
food that will enable us to save money 
if we only know what there is in it. It 
may be cut bone or cheap meat or pot 
cheese or fish or something that is con¬ 
sidered a waste because its true feeding 
value has not been found out. Many a 
farmer has gone on for years paying 
high prices for nitrogen in manures and 
fertilizers, without realizing that clover 
and cow peas would find that nitrogen 
for him. In just the same way, you will 
find some poultrymen who are buying 
high-priced grain to make up a hen ra¬ 
tion, while the butcher is throwing 
away bones and meat scraps that could 
be used to provide muscle-makers that 
would save that grain. Therefore we 
advise every poultryman to acquire the 
habit of figuring out these rations. 
Compare foods and combinations of 
foods, and see where you can save money 
in trying, or wherein some other ration 
differs from yours. 
Do we give that Mapes ration as a 
model ? No, but it is a good one to 
start figuring on. It may be best for 
that place, but our opinion is that, for 
the younger hens, we would feed more 
meat or cheese so as to narrow the ration 
down to one to four, or even lower. We 
would also change the method of feed¬ 
ing if possible, and avoid giving the 
warm mash so early in the morning. 
We will give some reasons for these 
changes next week, when we can have 
space to tell it all at one time. 
Of course, the question of producing 
the cheapest possible egg, is only one 
side of it. Undoubtedly, the flavor and 
color of an egg are controlled, more or 
less, by the food which the hen eats. 
Throwing out several foods which are 
known to be objectionable, the average 
poultryman will try to make up a cheap 
ration from the foods at hand. 
You will notice that Mr. Mapes 
strongly urges the use of meat in some 
form, both as a stimulant for egg pro¬ 
duction, and as a matter of health. 
Next week we expect to tell about a 
flock that is kept on grain and grass 
only—not divided into small flocks, but 
kept all together. This will make an 
interesting story, and will make us all 
very careful about laying down any ex¬ 
act rules to govern poultry keepers. 
Live Stock Matters. 
THE BEST HOG TO FATTEN. 
The most profitable hog to fatten here 
is obtained, by mating a finely bred, 
quick maturing male with a coarse, vig¬ 
orous sow. This practice is not followed 
by our best hog raisers, for the reason 
that we would have to buy all of out¬ 
breeding stock. As it is, we buy only 
the males. It is not true that the prac¬ 
tices which must be followed by the 
average farmer in raising hogs for gen 
ei-al market, would cause any breed to 
run out. Our best hog growers have 
held to one breed for the past 18 years 
and our hogs are rather better than 
ever before. o. k. french. 
Iowa. 
Thoroughbreds after one gets started 
are the most profitable for fattening. 
Select that hog that experience has 
shown, where pork raising is made a 
business, will produce the most pork 
from a bushel of corn. We would 
always select vigorous males and females 
as well. We believe that the Poland- 
China possesses the vigor, productive¬ 
ness and fattening tendency (they are 
always pork) more than any other breed. 
It is true that the practice of the aver¬ 
age farmer will cause any breed to run 
out. To apply the remedy, draw fre¬ 
quently new blood from the best breed¬ 
ers in the country. We know that it 
pays us. and think that it will pay any 
one to do it. We breed purebred Poland- 
Chinas, drawing our blood from some of 
the best herds in Ohio, Illinois, Michigan 
and Kansas. f. h. gates & sons. 
New Y^ork. 
FORKFULS OF FACTS. 
Frek-martin Heifers. —Will a twin 
heifer breed ? Its mate was a male. 
St. Catherine, Ont. a. d. b. 
R. N.-Y. — Such heifers are called 
free-martins. As a rule, they do not 
breed, though we have been told of in¬ 
stances where they have done so. 
Hay Once a Day. —I have never, for 
the past eight years, fed my cows but 
twice a day—grain while being milked, 
and hay immediately after. I use noth¬ 
ing but the best grain and solid clover 
hay. The first of the winter, I decided 
to try the cows on one feed of hay a day 
(about 12 or 15 pounds), and two feeds of 
grain. To my utter astonishment, they 
gained on their milk and are holding on 
like good ones. One of them I have been 
milking two years, and all over one. 
Now I am kicking myself for all the hay 
I have wasted. . g. w. s. 
Wollaston, Mass. 
Man vs. Horse. —Does the man who 
feeds his stock but twice a day, limit 
himself and family to two meals a day ? 
If not, why not ? If such a system of 
feeding is good and even fattening for a 
horse, it ought to be excellent for man, 
his organization and that of a horse be¬ 
ing somewhat similar. Then according 
to the theory, if all the families in the 
United States would rigidly confine 
themselves to two meals a day, chewing 
(Continued on next pope.) 
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