632 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 22, 
The Henyard. 
RHEUMATIC AND YAWNING HEN. 
Will some one tell me the trouble with 
a hen that yawns all the time, and sug¬ 
gest a cure? What can be done with hen 
that has rheumatism? I have a valuable 
hen with both the above named troubles. 
Gasport, N. Y. j. c. H. 
Canker in the throat or windpipe may 
be the cause of the “yawning” 0 f the 
fowl as described by J. C. H., or it may 
be something else. By looking down the 
hen’s throat the canker can be easily 
seen—if it is that. Dip the point of a 
feather in a solution of one part chloro¬ 
form, two parts camphorated oil, and 
swab the canker spots with it, then burn 
the feather. This is a good liniment for 
cuts, bruises, etc., on man or beast, and 
if the hen which is mentioned as having 
“rheumatism” really has it, instead of 
leg weakness, which may be determined 
by the leg joint being swollen and hot 
if it is rheumatism, then the above lini¬ 
ment is also excellent to use to allay 
the rheumatism. One of the best in¬ 
formed poultrymen I know of told me 
that what is often thought to be rheu¬ 
matism in fowls is really spinal trouble 
and incurable, and the best use for such 
a bird is to put it in the pot. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
CLOVER HAY AT $30 PER TON. 
Iu these days of ready-mixed and much 
advertised poultry feeds, we are liable to 
pass by many home-grown foods and by¬ 
products. This was recently called to my 
attention by a question from a reader in 
one of our leading farm journals, who wrote 
to inquire where he could buy cut clover, 
stating tbat his hens liked it much better 
HENS AT CLOVER CHAFF. Fig. 181. 
than ground Alfalfa, which he had been 
forced to buy for the last two or three 
years, not being able to find the cut clover 
for sale. This question contains much food 
for thought. We hear and read so much 
about Alfalfa, are we neglecting and min¬ 
imizing the value of our reliable clover? 
Do we properly appreciate its worth? 
In a recent bulletin by the New Hamp¬ 
shire Station, Alfalfa meal is reported as 
containing 14 per cent, protein by their 
analysis, while good dry clover hay is re¬ 
ported as containing 12 per cent, protein in 
the same bulletin. Alfalfa meal has been 
retailing in this State at $1.78 and $2 a 
hundred weight, or $35 to $40 per ton. 
Clover hay in comparison is worth $30 to 
$34 a ton. Think of selling clover hay for 
that price. I wonder how many farmers 
have been selling their clover hay at one- 
fourth or one-half of that price and enrich¬ 
ing some one else by buying Alfalfa for 
their hens. You say you have no clover 
cutter. What of that? You don’t want 
one. If you are feeding clover hay to stock, 
quantities of the leaves and heads contain¬ 
ing considerable seed perhaps will be scat¬ 
tered out on the feeding floor. This is the 
most valuable part of the hay, much better 
than cut clover, and I will venture to say 
even better than Alfalfa meal. Carefully 
scrape up and save all this clover chaff. It 
may be fed in several ways. I feed it dry 
In a large box so constructed that the hens 
can reach their heads in but cannot scratch 
it out. A strawberry crate would do well 
with boards nailed around the bottom. It 
can be scalded and then fed. or it can bo 
mixed with ground grains and be fed as a 
wet mash. If you do not get enough chaff 
from the feeding floor, do as I have done 
this Winter; spread the clover hay on the 
barn floor and take a flail and thrash it out 
like grain, and then rake off the coar.ser 
parts for the cattle. If you have never fed 
this to hens, you will be surprised to see 
how they will eat it. Mine will often leave 
corn for the clover when both are carried 
to them. 
One hundred hens, when confined, will 
consume nearly if not quite a bushel of 
clover chaff a' day, and, being so rich in 
protein, it is an invaluable aid in the pro¬ 
duction of eggs. It also effects a consider¬ 
able saving in the amount of grain a flock 
of hens will eat and is to that extent the 
cheapest food available. If you don’t have 
the chaff prepared, carry them out a fork 
full of the hay and let them eat it as mine 
are doing in the picture. 
New Hampshire. Alfred c. durgin. 
POOR LAYING HENS. 
I have three pullets and four hens culled 
from a purebred flock of Buff Wyandottes. 
I feed whole wheat, buckwheat and corn 
(1-1-2), feed a good formula of dry mash 
in hopper, grit iu hopper, and try to feed 
hot wet mash in morning with table scraps 
and parings of vegetables. They eat so 
little, except the dry grains, that it seems 
no use to try, as the waste is great. Flock 
has been lifeless and dull color, now get¬ 
ting brighter and combs reddening. How 
can I get them to eat more green stuff, or 
will they do well on what they get? 
H. J. D. 
The fact that you have three pullets, 
and four liens, culls from a flock of 
pure Buff Wyandottes, is sufficient rea¬ 
son why you should‘not expect many 
eggs. This variety of fowls has been 
bred for color and type (not the laying 
type), allowing their laying characteris¬ 
tics to take care of themselves, until 
they are almost purely a fancier’s fowl. 
There are, however, exceptions to this 
rule where some strains have been se¬ 
lected and bred for egg production in¬ 
stead of fancy, but you have evidently 
invested in the former class. You feed 
too much fattening food, like buckwheat 
and corn, without compelling the birds 
to exercise properly. These two causes 
combine to produce the overfat, non-lay¬ 
ing condition the birds are in at the 
present time. The remedy suggests it¬ 
self. You must keep the birds hungry 
and exercise them. C. s. G. 
EGGS KEPT IN WATER GLASS. 
Wil you give recipe for preserving eggs in 
water-glass? h. h. s. 
West Virginia. 
You must first secure absolutely fresh 
eggs. It will not do to take stale eggs, be¬ 
cause this treatment cannot improve their 
quality. Get absolutely fresh eggs and wipe 
them clean ; take a wooden tub or a stone 
crock, measure nine parts of water by 
weight • and one part of the water-glass, 
pour the water-glass into the water and stir 
until fully dissolved, then drop the eggs in 
gently, being careful not to crack the shells. 
A good way to do is to put them into a 
wire dipper or scoop, lower them to the 
bottom and gently roll them out. Put on a 
cover and be sure that all the eggs are cov¬ 
ered by the solution. That is all there is 
to it, fresh, clean eggs in a wooden or stone 
vessel fully covered by the solution. They 
will keep six months or more in good condi¬ 
tion with this treatment, but do not expect 
the glass to improve the quality of the 
eggs. 
Clipping Hens’ Wings. —Clipping the 
flight feathers of hens that fly over the 
fences is often recommended as an easy 
way to keep the offenders within bounds, 
but the method is not advisable during the 
hatching season. The wings form an im¬ 
portant part—one might say an indispen¬ 
sable part—in holding the warmth of the 
hen’s body about the eggs, and in excluding 
drafts of cold air, while hatching is going 
on, and. after the chicks come out of the 
shells, the hen needs full-feathered wings 
for sheltering her brood, if she has had a 
full hatch. It sometimes pays better to 
put up higher fences than to clip the hens’ 
Wings. WM. It. FISHER. 
Our hens paid us one year $1.22 net 
profit. Last year they did not do quite as 
well, as feed was higher. They paid us 98 
cents clear profit. The Virginia Experi¬ 
ment Station, after careful research, found 
that $1 per hen was a very good average 
profit, and so we feel very well satisfied 
with this. Besides, we have had plenty of 
eggs and poultry meat for the table that 
was not figured in. Everything fed off the 
farm is counted in at the market price, 
just as though it was bought at the feed 
store. The work was not counted in, for 
we figured that the products used would 
fairly balance that. I once heard a man 
in talking on poultry at a public meeting 
state that his hens paid him $14 and some 
odd cents per year per hen. After he was 
closely questioned he finally had to state 
that he sold the hens at the close of the 
year for $10 each, and so that shows some¬ 
times how figures accumulate. In my case 
I still have the hens. c. c. m’curdy. 
Crawford Co., Pa. 
Weasels and Wire Mesh. —Most of us 
rely upon one-inch mesh poultry wire to 
protect the young growing chickens, in 
coops and colony houses, from the enemies 
that prowl about at night to prey upon 
them; but it won’t keep out weasels. 
Poultr.vkeepers who live in parts of the 
country where weasels abound should guard 
their birds by using half-inch mesh wire. 
One night I suffered the loss of 23 half- 
grown chickens through the visitation of a 
weasel that had no difficulty in entering 
the house through the one-inch mesh wire. 
He killed them all in the same manner, 
biting each one in the back of the neck 
just below the head, and, strange to say, 
after gorging himself by sucking the blood 
of all these victims, he was able to squeeze 
himself again through the wire mesh and 
to get away in safety. The weasel is a 
butcher. When he gets into a flock of 
chickens he kills right and left until he is 
satiated with blood, and seldom leaves a 
single survivor. Yet he has a good side as 
well as a bad one. He much prefers rats 
and mice to chickens, when he can find 
them, and he does more good than harm to 
the farmer by helping to keep down the 
grain-eating rodents. But the poultrykeeper 
can see no good . in this little snake-like 
animal, whom he dreads as his most dan¬ 
gerous and bloodthirsty enemy. 
WM. R. FISHER. 
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Fences cost almost nothing compared 
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A farm of 160 acres fenced into five fields, as shown in the diagram, takes 1,040 
rods of fence. At fairly reasonable prices the year’s yield from this farm is: 
Wheat.$600.00 
Oats. 157.50 
Hogs. 400.00 
Cattle. 1000.00 
Market value of year’s crop.$2157.50 
Cost of complete fence.$350 
Or, in ten years, value of yield $21,575— 
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