1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
643 
EGG PEDIGREE FOR HENS. 
I don’t know that it has ever been dem¬ 
onstrated that a hen transmits through 
the egg her laying qualities to the off¬ 
spring. Wouldn't it be a reversal of na¬ 
ture's plan if she did not? It takes 
years to demonstrate it because the male 
must be “reckoned with.” In my two or 
three years’ work at the Utah Station 1 
think I can sec evidences in the records 
that the hen does transmit her laying 
qualities. Then, if she does, 1 believe 
that “breeding for eggs,” trap-nesting 
hens, will do more than any other one 
thinp; to make the returns from the hens 
mori certain and profitable. I he first 
diffii ulty we meet with in trap-nesting is 
to get a trap nest that is reliable. 1 have 
tried a number of different kinds. The 
one i have used at the Utah Station for 
two years is simple and accurate when 
properly made. The second difficulty is 
the time it takes to attend to the nests 
It is not practicable for every person with 
a flock of liens to trap-nest his layers any 
more than it would be practicable for 
every corn-grower in the United States to 
go to the expense of plant breeding in 
order to improve his corn. In either 
case it will be done by men who are in the 
poultry business and in the corn-growing 
business on a large enough scale to make 
it pay. and the neighbors will get the 
benefit. There are few keepers of poul 
try who do not at some time or another 
buy and import a rooster and pay a good 
price for him just because he happens to 
have feathers of a certain color. Would 
it not pay him many times over to buy 
his rooster from a reputable breeder or 
an experiment station, one that was guar¬ 
anteed to be from heavy laying stock or 
200-egg stock, or ]50-egg stock, which¬ 
ever he was willing to pay for? As it is 
now, lie is just as likely to get a rooster 
from a 20-egg hen, like the one illus¬ 
trated ill the Utah bulletin, as from the 
241-egg hen illustrated in the same bulle¬ 
tin, because the robber hen lays, when she 
lays at all, during the hatching season. 
The trouble is to know who the reputable 
breeders are, because, though poultrymen 
are a little better than other people, there 
are, 1 am afraid, some would-be poultry- 
men, who in order to get-rich-quick, 
wouldn’t hesitate selling a cockerel to a 
confiding purchaser on his guarantee that 
it was from a hen that laid 200 eggs in 
one year when for the life of him he 
couldn’t tell whether the cockerel was 
from his best layer or from one that never 
laid an egg. Rut the robber hen must go, 
even though the robber poultryman flour¬ 
ishes in the meantime. james dryden. 
SULPHURED BONES FOR POULTRY. 
I know that by putting fresh bones In a 
tight box and burning sulphur therein ilie 
bones will not decay. Is there anything in¬ 
jurious to fowls in bones prepared that way? 
Of course sulphur In itself is not, but how 
about tlie gas caused by burning it on tlie 
bones and meat? w. c. E. 
Auburn, N. V. 
The method has not become very popu¬ 
lar among poultrymen, because too much 
sulphur makes the fowls more liable to 
catarrhal troubles. On general principles 
it is better to avoid all drugs for fowls 
that are healthy. 
REVOLUTION IN THE CREAMERY 
BUSINESS. 
It Is reported that the recent organization 
of creameries into a combination under con¬ 
trol of one management lias had tlit* effect of 
crowding the small local creameries out of 
business. We are told that the large cream¬ 
eries are able to squeeze out the little ones. 
Is tliis report correct? 
There are hundreds of creameries in 
existence that make 20 to 30 tubs per 
week. We think it is only in certain 
sections of Minnesota, Nebraska and 
Kansas that the controlling spirit pre¬ 
vails. c. O. TAYLOR. 
Chicago, 111. 
Our observations lead us to believe that 
in the Middle West territory the large 
creamery combinations have driven out 
the small local creameries, or at least have 
made it impossible for such local organiza¬ 
tions, under doubtful management, to pay 
anywhere near as much in money to the 
farmers for their milk or cream as the 
larger institutions. In the East, however, 
there has been no attempt toward cream¬ 
ery organization, outside of large milk 
shipping interests, 
THE HE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
There has certainly been a change in the 
mode of handling the milk through the 
West in the past live years and to-day 
farmers are using farm separators and 
shipping their cream long distances. We 
know of instances where they have been 
shipping from Colorado to Omaha, and 
from western Kansas to St. Joseph, Mo. 
There is a tendency on the part of cream¬ 
eries that have been handling whole milk, 
to oppose the taking in of cream, and this 
in many instances causes the farmer to 
look for an outlet away from home. After 
shipping once or twice lie finds he makes 
more money, and this in a short time dis¬ 
rupts the home organization. We should 
judge from the report of our Dairy Com¬ 
missioner that the small creameries were 
to some extent going out. 
IOWA DAIRY SEPARATOR CO. 
It is a fact that large creameries have 
in some localities succeeded in driving 
smaller concerns out of business, though 
this is not true of all localities. However, 
our experience has been that the large 
concentrating factory has had the effect 
of lowering the grade of butter marketed 
from the territory over which it operates. 
One of the principal causes of this is that 
the large factory drawing its supply of 
cream from an extensive territory has to 
have it transported by wagon or train a 
considerable distance, thus in many in¬ 
stances allowing the cream to arrive at the 
factory in a condition not calculated to 
produce a high grade of butter. We do 
not think that the small local factory will 
ever be driven out of business entirely. 
For the good of the butter business at 
large we hope that it will not be. 
Chicago, 111. j. H. white & co. 
It is true that in the Central West a 
large number of the small butter factories 
have gone out of business as separate in¬ 
stitutions, but in most cases they have sold 
out to larger concerns at a satisfactory 
figure. The advent of the hand separa¬ 
tor has worked a revolution in the cream¬ 
ery business, and in some communities 
where the local creameries have doggedly 
hung on to the old system of skimming 
all the milk at the creamery and sending 
the mixture of skimmed milk, water, etc., 
back to the farmer, such creameries have 
been forced to close because of the fact 
that larger concerns, operating on the 
hand separator plan, were able to, and 
did, pay the farmers more for their butter 
fat than the local creameries could pay 
under their plan of operation, at the same 
time giving the farmer the advantage of 
the fresh, warm skimmed milk to feed im¬ 
mediately after milking and separating. So 
far as our observation goes, none of the 
smaller creameries has been squeezed out 
because of size as compared with the larg¬ 
er organizations, but because of the fact 
that they have . persistently refused to 
adopt modern methods, which pay the 
farmer more for his product. Through¬ 
out Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebras¬ 
ka, South Dakota and Iowa, we would 
say that fully 75 per cent of the butter 
product comes from hand separators. In 
Minnesota it is about an even break, while 
in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana 
and Ohio, the hand separator creameries 
tire securing a firm foothold which is 
bound to become stronger from year to 
year, until the same conditions which pre¬ 
vail further West will control the manu¬ 
facture of butter in those States. East¬ 
ern creamerymen are beginning to recog¬ 
nize the advantages of the hand separator 
system and are working into it gradually, 
and it is only a question of time when the 
smaller creameries in Eastern States will 
adopt this plan of operation or else the 
farmers who now give them support will 
ship their cream to some centralizing plant 
which operates exclusively on the hand 
separator plan, and is in position to pay 
them more for their butter fat than the 
local creamery can pay while operating on 
what is known as the whole milk plan. 
THE SHARPLES SEPARATOR CO. 
MOST PROFITABLE OF 
ALL FARM MACHINES 
This is what the De Laval Cream Separator has proved 
to be,—proved to be a necessity to anyone owning 
three or more cows. Twenty years of experience on 
the part of hundreds of thousands of De Laval users 
bear witness to this fact. Likewise lias the De Laval 
proved to be the most profitable of all cream separators. The 
superiority of De Laval construction is responsible for 
this fact. In the first place, of equivalent capacities 
the De Laval is actually cheapest, —then the use of the 
“Alpha” or “Disc” and patented ‘ Split Wing” skim¬ 
ming device, enables the De Laval to gain and save 
twice as much as the best of imitating separators, 
while the simple, mechanically correct, low speed 
gearing of the De Laval makes it capable of lasting four times 
as long as other separators. And again its operation is 
accomplished with the greatest possible ease and 
economy, all of which in addition to a hundred other 
features of superiority make the De Laval separator the 
best that money can produce. As for the first cost, if you 
have the ready cash there is a fair discount for it, 
but if not, any reputable buyer may buy a De Laval on 
such liberal terms that it means securing the best of 
separators actually free of cost, for it will earn its cost and 
more while you are paying for it. Write for new 
catalogue and full particulars. 
The De Laval SeparatorCo. 
Randolph & Canal Sts. , 
CHICAGO. 
1213 Filbert Street, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
9 & I I Drumm St., 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
General Offices: 
74 CORTLANDT STREET, 
NEW YORK. 
121 Youville Square, 
MONTREAL. 
75 & 77 York Street, 
TORONTO. 
248 McDermot Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
