1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
539 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN . 
An Experience With Dry Mash. 
The ciaim that it schoolboy or girl can easily pet- 
form the labor in connection with the daily care of §00 
hens in a pfoperiy arranged licit hard, Otit of school 
hours, proves to have been well within the bounds of 
truth. My granddaughter, Bessie Mapes, IS years old, 
had the misfortune td contract the whoopitig cotigh 
this Spring, sO that she was prevented front attending 
school, but Oh May i she began to take full chafge Of 
my 500 hens in the new hen barn, devoting Only such 
time to the work as could have been secured had she 
been a regular attendant at our district school, which 
is only two or three minutes walk from our home. 
The work proved to be ‘mere play” for her, and helped 
to pass the time during her quarantine. The picture, 
Tig. 265, was taken the first day of June, and speaks for 
itself as to whether she has been overworked. During 
the mouth of May 6,263 eggs were laid by this flock. 
We received 26 cents per dozen for our market eggs 
the first half of the month, and 25 cents per dozen the 
last half of the month; 521 dozen at 25 1 /§ cents per 
dozen amounts to $132.85. Thirty bushels .of droppings 
were sold at 30 cents per bushel, making 
$141.85 total sales. I paid out $36.63 for 
feed, grain, etc., leaving just about $100 bal¬ 
ance for the month, after deducting the 
value of the feed and the few that died. 
My man spent two half days cleaning out 
the building. I figure that the fertilizer 
obtained in this wav from the lower floor, 
and from the four-foot floor space surround 
ing the perches oil the upper floor, amply 
pays for his time. This was used on the 
farm, while the clear droppings under the 
perches was sold at 30 cents per bushel. 
What is the first work of the day? 
About 7.30 she turns the key and finds 
most of the flock on the lower floor in 
waiting for their breakfast. They have 
been busy since daylight scratching over 
the litter on the floor for stray kernels left 
over from the previous day’s supper, or 
helping themselves to dry mash from the 
hoppers, that is always at hand. First on 
the programme she takes a pail of cracked 
corn from oiie of the barrels of grain ill 
the alley near the door, and scatters it in 
the litter on the lower floor. The pail 
holds 15 pounds. Next she fills the pail 
with oats and wheat, dipping a quart of 
each alternately from the two barrels be¬ 
side the one containing cracked corn. 
This she also scatters over the floor. The 
whole proceeding takes possibly 10 min¬ 
utes. Next in order comes the filling of 
the drinking trough. This holds about 50 
quarts, and as the water has to be carried 
from the water box at the barn, 75 feet 
away, is the heaviest part of the work. 
A small pail and frequent trips brings it 
well within her strength, and by eight 
o’clock the morning work is done. 
At noon time she puts six pounds of the 
dry mash from one of the hoppers in her 
pail, pours upon it four quarts of water, 
and with a big iron spoon stirs it well and 
distributes it in the V-shaped troughs about 
the floor. This is repeated three times, 
making 18 pounds of the mash for dinner. 
The hens devour it as fast as she can place 
it in the troughs. By the time she has 
opened the four small doors on south 
side of building the hens are ready to rush 
out of doors for a free range during the 
afternoon, and the troughs are ready to be inverted in 
order to keep them clean. A half hour’s work at noon 
is ample. At 5 p. m. the whole grain and cracked 
corn is scattered upon the floor the same as for break¬ 
fast, and the eggs gathered from the nests, carried to 
the house, cleaned and packed. This requires about an 
hour’s time, making two hours work for the day. 
As soon as hens are on the perches, the plug is pulled 
at the low end of the drinking trough, to allow any 
water remaining to be drawn off, the small doors closed 
and the key turned in the lock, making all secure for 
the night. 
The dry-mash system of feeding has not been very 
satisfactory with us this season. I did not get the hens 
to laying at all well until after I began to wet some 
of the same mash at noon for them. The eagerness 
with which they eat it after it is wetted for them, 
in preference to dry mash indicates that they are not 
inclined to eat sufficient of the dry mash for good re¬ 
sults. Other people claim to have got good results 
from the dry mash system, so on May 20 I told Bessie 
we would cut out the wet feed at noon and watch re¬ 
sults. I watched the egg basket dwindling down from 
^that time until the close of the month to my satisfac¬ 
tion, and June 1 the wet mash at noon was restored to 
them. Here is an interesting egg record from May 20, 
when the wet mash was withheld, to June 1, when it 
was restored, and up to date, June 12: 
May 20, 243 eggs; May 21, 230; May 22, 213; May 23, 
200; May 24, 174; May 25, 155; May 26, 145; May 27, 
130; May 28, 120; May 29, 89; May 30, 95; May 31, 99; 
Jutle 1, 8a; June 2, 78; June 3, 86; June 4, 90; June 5, 
Si; June 6, 105; June 7, 123; June 8, 123; June 9, 132; 
Juris 10, 151; June 11, 163; June 12, 184. 
It will be seen that there was a steady decline in egg 
yieid nftef the wet mash was withheld and a steady 
gaiii since it was restored, at a time of year when a 
steady egg yield is Usually secured. This experiment was 
rather an expensive one, and hurts the May and June 
receipts to quite an extent. 
On page 329 our friend, James E. Rice, advanced 
this theory as to the size of eggs influenced by the feed: 
‘‘The more rapidly the yolks are formed and deposited 
in the oviduct, the more demand for the secretion of 
the albumen and the shell to complete the perfect egg, 
the more likely the eggs are to decrease in size.” This 
sounds very plausible as a theory, but unfortunately it 
does not correspond with the facts as they have been 
noted in my experience. I have frequently noticed that 
the largest eggs are produced at such times as my hens 
have been depositing a completed egg in the shortest 
possible time. Whenever anything occurs to check egg 
production, giving the egg more time in passing through 
the oviduct, there is sure to be a decrease in the size of 
the egg. This was very noticeable during the time cov¬ 
ered by the above record. We had to cull out a good 
many more eggs than usual as being too small for our 
market, and still the grocer who handles the eggs no¬ 
ticed the difference in size of eggs, and wrote to know 
if I was setting all the big eggs and sending him the 
culls. After June 1, when the egg yield began to im¬ 
prove again, the size also quickly increased to normal. 
o. w. MAPES. 
CANADA THISTLE; HOW TO KILL 
From what John Jeannin, Jr., has to say about Can¬ 
ada thistles on page 79 one would be led to think it 
impossible to eradicate them. But the fact is they are 
as easily killed as any other perennial plant, in any 
ground that can be plowed and cultivated. In order to 
kill any plant it is necessary to know the nature of the 
plant, and how it grows and propagates. Canada thistles 
spread but very little from the seeds, but mostly by a 
system of underground creeping rhizomes or root stalks. 
These are not true roots, but really a system of stems- 
filled with joints every inch or so, and from these: 
joints in the Spring, as soon as growth commences,, 
stalks start chat come to the surface and form the 
thistles 'that we see, and from these stalks put out the 
true roots. From the beginning of growth in Spring up 
to the formation of seed, the growth of stem and 
leaves is mostly at the expense of material stored up 
in the rhizomes the previous season, and by this time 
it is nearly exhausted. From this time on new rhizomes 
are forming and being filled with material for the next 
season’s growth, and the rhizomes of the previous year 
all die. To kill Canada thistles then easily we must 
take advantage of this fact. How will it be done? I 
can tell it no better than to give a little personal ex¬ 
perience. 
Years ago we bought a farm on which was a field 
so badly filled with thistles that we had to put trousers 
on the horses to cut the wheat, what little there was. 
The thistles stood up to horses’ shoulders, and so thick 
that but very little wheat could grow. We seeded the 
field to clover, and the following Summer got a splen¬ 
did crop of thistles with a sprinkling of 
clover amongst them. Just as the thistles 
were coming into full bloom we mowed 
them, and, by the way, when cut at this 
time and well cured they make better sheep 
feed than Timothy hay, ton for ton. As 
soon as the crop was off we sowed plenty 
of plaster, and this helped to start the 
clover into a quick, rank growth; but the 
strength of the thistles was so much ex¬ 
hausted that they showed very weak and 
yellow. As soon as the clover had made 
a growth of about one foot we put in the 
plows with chains on them so as to put 
all tops underground, and were very care¬ 
ful to plow every inch of that field. We 
followed the plow with a roller every day, 
so as to press the soil down as flat as pos¬ 
sible. As soon as the field was plowed we 
harrowed and cultivated it so as to fill all 
spaces between the furrows and leave the 
surface level. By this method the clover 
was packed flat between the plowed ground 
and the soil beneath, forming an almost 
unbroken shield sufficient so that the thistles 
from below could not come through. 
From this time till late in the Fall we 
cultivated that field over often enough so 
that no thistle was allowed to form a full 
leaf. The next day after each cultivation 
we went over with a sharp hoe and cut off 
every thistle that escaped the cultivator, 
and, by the way, these grew rapidly less 
and less at each time over, so that by the 
middle of October none appeared. 
Late in the Fall we plowed that field, and 
the next Spring sowed it to barley, and 
from that day to this never a thistle has 
been seen in that field, except such as may 
have come from a stray seed. With a field 
that can be all plowed, and with this treat¬ 
ment faithfully followed I will give a dol¬ 
lar each for every thistle surviving. But 
there must be no half-way work about it. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. J. s. woodward. 
EXPERIMENT WITH VETCH.— 
Six years ago I selected one-fourth acre 
of very poor ground, so poor indeed that 
oats the previous year were hardly long 
enough to form a bundle that could be 
bound with the machine. Upon this plot 
I sowed one-half peck of Winter vetch and one 
peck of oats. These were sown in the Spring and 
allowed to remain on the ground, and the next year 
turned under, and oats sown again upon the whole 
field. I did not see the field until September, when 
I was asked how much manure I had applied to 
“that patch” the previews year. My questioner would 
hardly believe that no’ manure had been applied. I 
should have been nearly as skeptical myself had I not 
known the circumstances, for the boundary of that plot 
was indeed clean cut. Where the oats and vetch had 
been the oats were so heavy that the whole plot lodged, 
while all around it the oats were very short again. 
The oats were sown with the vetch to hold it up, but 
this they utterly failed to do. Not having had previous 
experience with vetch, I kept waiting for the crop of 
seed to mature, but found that a few pods at a time 
ripened, and by the time the later pods had ripened the 
others had burst open and dropped the seed. But judg¬ 
ing by what I was told of the oat crop the following 
year and from the stubble which I saw, the vetch cer¬ 
tainly proved a very profitable investment upon this 
particular kind of soil, gravel with a sandy subsoil. 
Ohio. J. D. PRICKETT, 
ENTRANCE TO A COUNTRY COAL MINE. Fig. 264. 
THE MAPES “HEN BARN” AND ITS KEEPER. Fig. 265. 
