248 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 4 
Part XIII. 
We have wandered about in discuss¬ 
ing this subject, about like a hen in a 
100-acre field picking up her dinner. 
The hen, under such circumstances, gets 
a pretty good “balanced ration,” and we 
have picked up more facts about our 
subject than we would have done by 
simply nailing the discussion down to a 
few scientific rules. So if we keep on 
wandering from this point to that, re¬ 
member that it is because we are 
attracted here and there by some new 
idea or thought, just as the hen is 
attracted from one point to another by 
a particularly juicy bug. 
The first point we wish to consider is 
one not often considered, and that is, 
How many hens should a man attempt 
to care for ? What is the limit ? Here 
is a note from the man who describes 
the $5 henhouse on page 235 : 
I have kept hens eight years; from a beginning 
of 40 hens in a house that cost but $2 in money, 
till at the highest point, 1 had, one fall, of old and 
young, 2,000 birds. For their breakfast they ate 
an even full, half hogshead of dough. No de¬ 
pendence can be placed on hired help in the 
poultry business, at least in the care of them ; 
the only man for a big poultry business is one 
who has children who can do a good deal of the 
work. As for myself, the constant strain of care 
wore me out, physically, and I was obliged to 
quit. At present I have only 100, choice P. Rocks. 
Five years will hardly enable one to learn the 
trade, even with a good subject to commence 
with. I have beaten the enemies of poultry, from 
those that wear feathers and hair, to those that 
wear pants. I have had a hen that laid an egg 
in the morning and another at night, and have 
got 39 eggs a day from 40 hens, and all the long 
string of bragging about what “ my hens have 
done.” I don’t care a fig for it. 
There is good sense in the idea that 
the average hired man is a poor hand to 
turn loose among hens. Our friend is 
right in saying that the best results will 
be obtained when the hens and all the 
members of the household belong to one 
big family. Another point well worth 
considering is the one relating to cheap 
houses. The cost of sheltering and 
warming each hen is almost as important 
as the cost of the food. 
Another thing that seems to have 
puzzled some of our readers is the state¬ 
ment made last week about early-cut 
grass. If pasture or dried pasture grass 
is a “ balanced” ration, why should not 
dry hay be the same, since both grass 
and hay grow from the same root ? The 
chief reason lies in the fact that grass is 
more digestible. The food in it is more 
easily assimilated by the animal. For 
example, in good green pasture grass, 
75 per cent of the muscle-makers, fat- 
formers and fat are readily digested, 
while in the same cured as hay 70 per 
cent were found to be digestible. In 
hay from mixed grasses cut late—as 
most hay is—only 50 per cent of the fat, 
40 per cent of the muscle-makers and 60 
per cent of the fat-formers were easily 
digested. Cut an ear of corn in the 
glazing stage, into the silo, and nearly 
60 per cent of the muscle-makers in the 
cob will be found digestible. Let the 
cob ripen and dry, and only 17 per cent 
of the muscle-makers will be digested. 
You might make a similar comparison 
between milk and cheese, which will be 
evident to any one. The digestible foods 
always contain a large amount of water 
and, as a rule, they run pretty close to 
the standard “ balanced ration” or are 
too narrow. 
Last week, Mr. Cottrell told us how he 
tried to make up a balanced poultry ra¬ 
tion by using “ animal meal.” The re¬ 
sults were not satisfactory until he had 
the meal analyzed and found that it did 
not contain the amount of muscle-makers 
that he had estimated from a printed 
analysis. After changing the amount of 
meal needed to give the desired muscle- 
makers, the hens quickly showed a bal¬ 
ance. Mr. Cottrell sends us the analysis 
of seven different “ meals” made of meat 
or bone : 
Breck’s. 
Preston’s. 
Bradley’s. 
Smith & Romaine’s 
Bartlett’s. 
Bowker’s. 
Liebig’s. 
Muscle- 
Pure 
makers. 
fat. 
.. 29.81 
10.95 
.. 33.70 
8 40 
.. 36.62 
11.37 
.. 38.00 
13.75 
.. 40.68 
11.50 
.. 41.75 
11.50 
20.73 
The second in the list was analyzed 
especially for the Ellerslie stock farm. 
The analysis of Liebig’s is taken from 
the Massachusetts Station reports, and 
the others from the Connecticut reports. 
It is too bad that these foods vary so in 
composition. The best remedy would 
be for the manufacturers to mark and 
brand their goods with a guarantee of 
certain amounts of muscle-makers and 
fat. Unless that be done, it will be 
almost impossible to figure out an accur¬ 
ate ration with the use of these meals. 
Not only that, but you can see for your¬ 
self that, if this table is correct, some of 
these meals are worth from 30 to 40 per 
cent more than others. The trouble 
with most of them is that they contain 
too much pure fat. As a rule, you do 
not need to buy that substance—you can 
secure it cheaper elsewhere. What you 
want is lean meat that will furnish 
muscle-makers and little else. It must 
be admitted that the farmer who feeds 
grain and vegetables alone, is surer of 
the true “balance” in his ration, because 
the grains are far more uniform in 
analysis than these different meat meals. 
We have many other interesting points 
to bring up, but most of them must go 
over for another week. Here is just one 
letter that we shall print without com¬ 
ment : 
As I nearly always read “ Feeding a Hen,” the 
first thing when The R. N.-Y. comes, I have been 
greatly interested, especially in J. A. W.’s talk, 
and thought that some hens which I know that 
are worked on the same plan as J. A. W.’s might 
be of some interest. One cold January day, we 
went for a visit to a man that keeps 22 hens in a 
large, single-boarded barn, so open that the wind 
and snow can blow through it. I was greatly 
surprised to have him bring in 21 eggs that day, 
and he was expecting the other egg before night. 
I found that he had averaged 18 eggs a day since 
November 1. Of course, I inquired what he fed 
them. 
“ Corn and buckwheat, and I always keep old 
plastering before them. I don’t take any stock 
in meat, warm mashes and such fussing.” 
As I take a poultry paper, and read half a 
dozen agricultural papers, this went against all 
my theories; but you can’t talk theory to a man 
that has the facts, and such facts as 21 eggs from 
22 hens on a cold, winter day. He went on to say 
that the whole secret of having hens lay in the 
winter, was to feed them all the corn and buck¬ 
wheat they would eat while they were moulting. 
He keeps the grain before them all the time, and 
he always has eggs from what you would call his 
“ scrub hens.” l. 
Live Stock Matters. 
FORKFULS OF FACTS. 
“ Sicilian ” Poultry.— What informa¬ 
tion can you give regarding the breed of 
fowls known as the “Sicilians” ? Would 
you consider them as adapted to general 
purposes on the farm ? a. l. a. 
Reading, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—The Sicilians are more orna¬ 
mental than useful, are rare, and, prob¬ 
ably, closely inbred. They have no 
reputation, either as layers or for the 
table, and are not hardy in this country. 
They are not regarded as a desirable 
breed for practical purposes. 
Mixing tiie Meals. —Under “ Various 
Foods for Stock,” page 157, you say that 
cotton-seed meal is constipating, and 
linseed meal a laxative, and that four 
pounds of linseed may be fed. We feed 
linseed in connection with mangels and 
corn fodder, and find that we could not 
feed four pounds per day without mak¬ 
ing milch cows too loose. Would it be 
advisable to feed cotton-seed meal and 
linseed meal alternately, or mixed in a 
certain proportion, so as to balance each 
other? If anyone has had experience 
in this method of feeding, I would be 
glad to hear from him. r. l. h. 
Bellaire, Ohio. 
R. N.-Y.—We think that one pound of 
cotton-seed meal and two pounds of lin¬ 
seed meal will give better results. 
Raw Potatoes for Butter. —Don’t 
throw the potatoes away by feeding 
them to milch cows; sell them for 25 
cents per barrel if you can’t get any 
more, and buy wheat bran. Here is my 
experience: I was feeding 1% pound 
wheat bran, two pounds glucose meal, 
one pound cotton-seed meal, one pound 
corn meal, twice a day per cow to five 
(Continued on next pa/je.) 
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