1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
487 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
The Will of the Hen; Brooding. 
The following extracts from a letter from Mr. Turner, 
who owned and fed the banner flock of 500 White Leg¬ 
horns in the Cornell co-operative feeding experiments 
two years ago, are given to show that exact and scien¬ 
tific knowledge on the subject of feeding for Winter 
egg production is yet lacking. Here is a man who made 
his hens lay uncommonly well during the whole of one 
Winter, outdoing all his competitors by far. Now he 
comes forward and acknowledges his inability to repeat 
his success. He recognizes the division of the hen’s 
year into two periods (the natural laying season and 
the barren season) just as T have frequently done. He 
claims that during the unnatural season for egg-produc¬ 
tion laying is “subject to her will,” while I claim it can 
be made "subject to the will of man,” when we learn 
how. 
I have succeeded in pulling through another cold and rigid 
Winter, and have the pleasure (?) of reporting a barren 
period for eggs during the same time. I fed no wheat after 
November, 1904, but abundance of barley with ail the cooked 
meat and bone the fowls would eat. Their condition was 
very fine; combs cherry red, happy and musical, a mental 
condition not existing with their keeper. They would not 
lay, although I experimented with some to the effect of giv¬ 
ing them protein matter in extra abundance. They simply 
ate, sang and “loafed." Thus matters were until the latter 
part of February, when I bought some western corn, and 
have given them that to the exclusion of any other grain 
since. When they were in confinement I cracked and ran 
it through the fanning mill. Now on account of pressure 
of business I am feeding if whole. They commenced laying 
decently about the middle of March, and to the present date 
have been very productive. I have had to reduce my stock 
by 500, to make room for the young fry, of which 1 have 
1,200 in 15 brooders, and they are the strongest, heaviest, 
healthiest lot of babies I ever raised. I am experimenting 
with them, and flatter myself that the cause of the “droopy” 
wing problem has been discovered; at all events I have suc¬ 
cessfully passed the first and most critical of these periods of 
which there are two, i. e., at three 
and six weeks of age, the former by far 
the most fatal. The latter occurs when 
the feathers crop out from the back 
of neck, near the head. For years 
back much anxiety has accompanied 
the advent of these periods in the life 
of the respective flocks, and to under¬ 
stand my joy, in at last passing one, 
and the most dangerous of these pe¬ 
riods so successfully must be experi¬ 
enced. This year until the third week 
was reached and past I gave the birds 
nothing but corn which I had cracked 
in my mill and thoroughly screened to 
the size of a large pin head ; thrown in 
finely cut straw. I am now feeding 
cracked wheat and corr in equal pro¬ 
portions hidden in finely cut straw, 
with one ration of cooked meat daily 
(at noon), sand before them constant¬ 
ly ; in fact, sand must be indispensable 
from the hour they enter the brooder 
until they enter the pot. I have used 
up about 20 head of stock (horses and 
cows) to my hens through the past 
Winter, so you will see meat will not 
compel the hen to lay. I am foolish 
enough to think that, to a certain time, 
the laying conditions of the hen are 
subject to her will, and that if we 
want Winter eggs we must influence 
that will power to get the hen to lay¬ 
ing before cold weather sets in, for I am persuaded that 
if this is not accomplished Mr. Roosevelt with his big stick, 
nor Mr. Russia with his big navy, can fully persuade the 
hen to be fruitful. henhy turner. 
It is interesting to note that corn is giving such good 
results, both with his laying stock and young chicks. 
I put myself on record long ago (see “The Business 
Hen”) as saying that two-thirds of a hen’s grain 
ration can safely be corn. 
We very foolishly placed our 60-foot brooder house 
near our other buildings when it was built, so as to 
have it convenient. I have never slept quite so soundly 
when all those brooder lamps were in operation, and a 
change in our insurance arrangements led us to hesitate 
about putting them in use this season. Recently, how¬ 
ever, we decided to move it back 100 feet from the 
dwelling house, and try what we can do with a thou¬ 
sand June-hatched chicks; 600 are already domiciled in 
it, and we expect 400 more before the close of the 
month. 
I have usually attended personally to the hatching and 
rearing of the young stock, though it has been the 
most undesirable job of the whole year, principally 
on account of so heavy a percentage of loss, 
never less than 20 per cent, and some years 
running up to nearly 50 per cent. This Spring 
Jesse consented to try his hand at it. His first 
hatch of 200 was placed one-half in a brooder and the 
other half with six hens. All were fed alike, being 
given a good proportion of shrunken wheat, and both 
lots died in great numbers, until at four weeks two- 
thirds at least were dead. This looks as though the 
trouble is with the feed rather than with the brooders. 
The next 600 were placed in six small brooder houses, 
and have been fed largely on cracked corn and corn- 
tneal. Probably two-thirds has been corn, and the re¬ 
mainder either oat flakes or wheat middlings, with 
thick skim-milk for drink most of the time since they 
were a week old. This lot is thriving wonderfully well, 
with very few losses. The cockerels are now beginning 
to crow, and the critical point seems to be safely past. 
If he can succeed as well with June chicks I will take 
off my hat to him, and, with Mr. Turner, say, “Hurrah 
for corn in the poultry yard.” Don’t understand me 
as recommending an exclusive corn diet. Two-thirds 
may safely be corn, with wheat, oats, meat and milk to 
balance it up. o. w. mapes. 
AN OLD NEW ENGLAND KITCHEN. 
Nothing shows more fully the change in methods of 
living within the last century than the alterations about 
the kitchen hearth, the heart of the home. A modern 
cook would shrink appalled before the difficulties of 
that open fire shown in P'ig. 204, first page. No oven 
to bake in, no bed of glowing coals for broiling, yet 
the Colonial cook surmounted these difficulties and 
made wonderful dainties that can only be imagined in 
these days of ready-cooked and predigested provender. 
Of course there was a great brick or stone oven for 
use on baking days apart from the kitchen, and various 
forms of bread and biscuits were cooked in a bake ket¬ 
tle, which could be used at the kitchen hearth standing 
in the hot coals, while the spit and jack took care of 
the roasts. But while we have improved on the cook’s 
battery we can hardly improve on the real beauty of 
many plain articles of furniture or household gear 
which have come to us from those long-past days. The 
individualism that made every artisan an artist is shown 
in the conscientious working out of every detail, which 
causes modern manufacturers to go back to this period 
for suggestions of high art in homely living. The 
kitchen shown in Fig. 204 breathes this spirit com¬ 
pletely; in such rooms was nurtured the love of home 
that developed into the broader love of country, and 
the virtues that there found expression in simple do¬ 
mestic life have ever been the strongest forces in the 
development of the Republic. 
GROWING CARNATIONS AND PANSIES. 
I wish to get some reliable work on growing plants, both 
indoors and out, particularly pansies, Asters, carnations and 
\ erbenas. This is quite a market for these plants every 
Spring, and I may want to try for the trade later. Take 
the pansy for instance; we get them here in baskets in May, 
all in bloom, and I wish to get at the details of growing. 
Maine. g. r. r. 
My impression would be that Practical Floriculture, 
by the late Peter Henderson, will give as full particu¬ 
lars as any work in print. A later work by the noted 
florist, Wm. Scott, Buffalo, N. Y., is entitled Scott’s 
Manual, and costs $5. The most recent book on car¬ 
nations is by C. W. Ward, and is called The American 
Carnation; price $3.50. G. R. R. does not mention 
glass in his inquiry, but I presume he understands that 
growing carnations without a greenhouse is impractica¬ 
ble. Pansies, as commonly grown, are started in August 
and carried through the Winter in cold frames. Ver¬ 
benas and Asters can be started in hotbeds in early 
March, if one does not have a greenhouse. While much 
information can be gleaned from books, my suggestion 
to G. R. R. would be, if he intends growing plants 
commercially, to visit several establishments where the 
particular line of plants he is interested in is grown. 
Every florist has his own methods. Because one sys¬ 
tem is successful, it does not follow that another may 
not be equally so, and he will obtain more valuable in¬ 
formation by personal inspection and an opportunity 
to ask the many questions which will occur to him than 
he can possibly get from reading. He will make fewer 
mistakes, and know the up-to-date methods used by 
successful florists. We had an amusing experience with 
pansies some years ago. Many of our customers were 
anxious for us to grow them pansy plants which 
would be more satisfactory than the August cold- 
frame plants, many of which did not survive, 
being dug out of baskets, and gave an unsatisfac¬ 
tory amount of bloom. We therefore started the plants 
in January and transplanted to two and 2^-inch pots. 
They made splendid plants, and sold quickly for the 
higher price necessary to grow them in that way. The 
next season we prepared an equally nice lot in the same 
manner, and to our surprise there was practically no 
sale for pansies, and we threw out nearly the entire 
lot. As our customers came in from day to day the 
reason became evident. The vigorous plants had seeded 
and reproduced .themselves so freely, and made such 
strong seedlings, that all had pansies for themselves 
and all their neighbors, and it was three years before 
we had any inquiry. It is needless to say that we had 
eliminated the pansy. j? o curtis 
MORE ABOUT “HORTICULTURAL ADVICE." 
I am interested in your article entitled “Samples of 
Horticultural Advice, on page 438. The writer who 
exploits the opinions of various people who were appealed 
to confuses suggestion with fact. He asks for infor¬ 
mation on a purely opinionative subject, and he 
finds fault with people because they differ in their 
opinion of what would be wise to do under the circum¬ 
stances. If the advisory board had been gifted with 
second sight, and could absolutely foresee what those 
900 Ben Davis trees were going to do as to vigor, pro¬ 
ductiveness, and how the market was likely to receive 
Ben Davis in the years to come, the councillors might 
have been able to reply with suffi¬ 
cient precision to satisfy the scien¬ 
tific desires of the questioner. But 
anyone who asks questions about 
plants and animals, associated as 
they are with constantly varying 
conditions, must not expect that a 
reply can be given in terms of 
mathematical exactitude. Anyhow, 
in the case before us the whole 
matter is speculative, and one 
might expect nearly as many 
opinions as persons appealed to. 
I am often impressed with this 
phase of the query problem; that 
is to say, the wish of the questioner 
to have positive and precise an¬ 
swers rendered. It is needless to 
say that the man who replies to 
questions of this kind is the man 
who is not chary of his reputation 
as a horticulturist or a scientist. 
JOHN CRAIG. 
R. N.-Y.—It seems to us that 
if there is any one proposition in 
apple culture upon which an ex¬ 
perienced grower ought to have an opinion it is as to 
the future of the Ben Davis apple. Surely such a man 
ought to know what he would do if he had 900 trees 
of Ben Davis! 
SILO OUTSIDE OR IN ? 
In building a new dairy barn is it not better and cheaper 
in the long run to add the few feet necessary to the length 
of the barn so that the silo or silos may be entirely inside 
the barn, covered with the barn roof and enclosed within 
its sides? The greater convenience in feeding from the silo 
inside the barn is a big saving, and there will not be any 
freezing around the outside in severe weather. It seems 
to me that counting the roof for silo outside, the painting 
and chute between silo and barn, etc., that it is fully as 
cheap in building a new barn to make it large enough to 
contain the silo. Sfios put up where stables are already 
built are of course put outside for want of room. I should 
very much like to have the experience of some practical 
dairyman who has handled silos for a number of years, re¬ 
garding the advantages and drawbacks connected with both 
methods of silo construction. reader. 
New York. 
My 22 years’ experience with silos has been with those 
built both inside and outside; those inside built square 
and as a part of the barn. I would not do so again, 
preferring the round silo outside. If the building was 
used and simply boarded up inside for the silo, the 
cost would not be materially different, as near as I can 
figure, but if a round silo was to be built inside the 
expense would be nearly double. The silo would have 
to be complete except the roof. The freezing offers 
no objection whatever; unless the corn is allowed to 
be exposed to the air for a time after thawing there 
will be no loss in feeding value. If one had the barn 
room and it was of no use, then a saving could be 
effected if built inside. h. e. cook. 
