4io 
.Tune 13 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FEEDING A HEN. 
Pakt XVIII. 
“A Mush-maker's ” Views and Doings 
J. A. W.’s courteous, though decisive, 
notice of my volley of wonderments, on 
page 208, nodouht, ought to be a settler; 
hut some things will not down. Still, 
when a man changes the face of his 
published figures 3160 worth, it is mani¬ 
fest .that he is a hard one to argue with. 
Ilis .answer to the question, “ Does 
‘ cared for at one-fourth the expense ’ re¬ 
fer merely to care, to housing, or to feed, 
or to all three? ” makes it plain that one 
main supposed cause for controversy 
was a misconception. His first use of 
the word “ expense ” misled me; I under¬ 
stood that he expected to prove more of 
a saving than the mere expenditure of 
labor. It was because of this that I made 
inquiries about fencing, buildings, etc. 
Does any one think it fair to say that 
the barn was cheaper than the small 
houses by their cost, simply because the 
barn was on hand ? Both were on hand, 
and it would be about as sensible to add 
the receipts from the small houses sold, 
to the profits of the flock, to prove that 
there is profit in poultry. Doubtless, it 
may have been a desirable thing to use 
the barn, since it called for no added ex¬ 
pense ; but this has no bearing whatever 
on the comparative cheapness of big 
barns and small houses, in general. If 
J. A. W. would simply say that it suited 
his case better to care for his poultry 
after the present fashion, no one could 
then object. 
As he explains it, J. A. W. has two pet 
aversions : small flocks, and mashes and 
meat; both conducing to extra and un- 
paid-for work, in his estimation. Aside 
from this, he feeds wheat; so do “ the 
theorists.” He gives plenty of green 
stuff and makes 'em scratch ; so do the 
theorists. And he furnishes that ideal 
of the theorists, an open, sunny scratch- 
ing-shed. Now, if we only knew that 
his hens had hay to scratch in, we could 
prove J. A. W. pretty orthodox and 
scientific after all; his preference being 
merely for something aside from meat 
to furnish nitrogen while he has a little 
more of that tired feeling when waiting 
on his fowls. Let that go, however, 
since we don’t know. Hut we do know 
of shells and grit, which the “unortho¬ 
dox ” ought never to use, especially with 
five acres of range at command. 
I trust that J. A. W. will not think my 
object is merely to differ with him, or 
to criticise. Like all who use brains, 1 
am a learner ; one who has been trying, 
through many discouragements, for 
years, to work up to real, scientific care 
of fowls. I want to know the facts, as 
earnestly as J. A. W. himself, and am 
working for the money there is in 
poultry. 
What have I, for one, done ? It is dif¬ 
ficult to tell fairly what “our firm” has 
done, because circumstances have never 
yet allowed us to keep our flocks just as 
we would like. That is, I cannot stand 
as a fair exponent of the scientific system. 
For instance, we have no small houses, 
much as we would like to have them. 
The housing of our flocks is far from 
ideal, the building being just an old- 
timer of a barn, which Washington may 
have had his headquarters in ; though I 
never heard that he did, even when we 
found a rusty old bayonet in the earth ! 
There were cracks in number equal to 
the boards, and rats and dampness ; 
while there is no apology of any kind 
for a scratching shed. It will be seen 
that we work at much disadvantage. 
In one end of this shell, is housed a 
flock of 40 fowls. There is room enough 
—probably 400 square feet, or 10 square 
feet to a hen. Between January 1 and 
the present time (March 18), these 39 
hens have laid about 900 eggs, say, 11% 
a day for the 78 days. This is a trifle 
over 29 per cent of their number, for 
each and every day. As nearly as I can 
get at our friend’s receipts for the cor¬ 
responding time last year, they amount 
to 36% eggs per day, or a trifle over 18 
per cent of their number. We feed, as 
he does, largely of wheat, with a little 
corn and oats, but in addition give a 
daily mash and a little meat. Our grain 
costs us a little more than he pays for 
the same quantity. We have also used 
a little cut clover, but so very little as 
to be scarcely worth mentioning, and 
we don’t run a bone mill. 
One great value of a mash, to my 
mind, lies in the fact that it can be made 
so largely from waste. Our mash has 
consisted of waste squash and potatoes, 
with 2% cents’ worth of meat-meal, and 
about one cent’s worth of bran daily, for 
55 fowls. For 200 fowls, this meat and 
bran would cost 12 cents, which is less 
than the value of a grain feed like J. A. 
W.’s, while it includes that expensive 
meat. 
Looking at the value of the meat in 
another way, we shall see this: At 25 
cents a dozen, which is, perhaps, a fair 
average near the eastern cities, our daily 
receipts from eggs, would be about 41 
cents more than J. A. W.’s, provided we 
had 200 hens. If we can keep up this 
average difference throughout the year, 
the difference in receipts would be, on 
this basis, nearly 3150. If the meat were 
entirely an added cost (it is not), it would 
be at the rate we are using it, nearly 333 
The clear balance, in that case, is about 
3117. 
J. A. W. will not admit, I know, that 
my case is a strong one, because of that 
one “f/”; he believes that I cannot keep 
up my lead throughout the year. Time 
will show, perhaps. 
Scientific feeders will not need to 
figure so hard as some people might 
think, on that 86 cents per year per hen. 
J. A. W.’s 136 eggs per year, produced at 
a cost of 86 cents, are a trifle more ex¬ 
pensive than 165 eggs produced at a cost 
of 31. Moreover, at present rates, our 
(Continued on next page.) 
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