1204 
December 16, 
THE RURA.I* NEW-YORKER 
HOW THEY SAVED THE CHICKS. 
It Was “Malnutrition.” 
On page 601 I mentioned the fact 
that I was preparing to try the ex¬ 
periment of placing a thousand chicks 
all in one flock in my mammoth 
brooder. 
Well, I tried it. 
From the four incubators, three of 
them 360-egg size and one of 240-egg 
size, I succeeded in hatching 970 chicks, 
early in May. This was as near to 
the thousand as was anticipated. 
The brooder was warmed up, and the 
whole batch dumped in the middle of 
the floor at once, with hurdles sur¬ 
rounding them so they could not get 
far away from the source of heat at 
first. They certainly made an interest¬ 
ing sight, and I had visitors galore, 
some of whom, particularly the ladies, 
fairly went into ecstacics over the white 
beauties. I don’t think there was a 
colored feather in the whole crowd. 
Did they live and thrive? Well, that 
is another story. On the start they 
did. My coal lire, which warmed the 
water for the hot water radiator, 
around which they congregated, was 
handy, and whenever one died, or I 
found one with symptoms of bowel 
trouble, the carcass was promptly cre¬ 
mated. They arrived at the age of 
four weeks in very good condition, the 
mortality up to that time being a little 
less than 10 per cent. 
From that time on there was trouble 
in the camp. The same old symptoms 
appeared. They appeared to be sick 
and cold, were inclined to huddle for 
warmth, feathers looked rough, wings 
drooped, bodies' grew emaciated, and 
my crematory was not of sufficient ca¬ 
pacity for the work demanded of it. I 
had to go hack to the old-fashioned 
cemetery. It was not unusual to carry 
out 20 to 30 dead chicks of a morning. 
Was I discouraged? 
Well, I had been through just such 
experiences before, and had the satis¬ 
faction of knowing that 1 had lots of 
company. 
The first thing I did was to send a 
Macedonian cry to Prof. Rice of Cor¬ 
nell, “Come over and help me.” He 
agreed to send his first assistant, Prof. 
C. A. Rogers, at my expense, as the 
department’s funds for such work were 
exhausted. He was delayed in coming, 
however, and by the time he got here 
my cemetery was the recipient of 
corpses by the hundred. We went over 
the situation carefully, performing post¬ 
mortems on many subjects. I fully ex¬ 
pected to hear the stereotyped verdict, 
“Want of vitality in parent stock.” 
Prof. Rogers finally confessed that lie 
could find no evidence of coccidiosis, 
baccilliary white diarrhoea, or of any 
other known disease. I leaned to the 
belief that it was some germ disease, 
possibly unidentified as yet, while lie 
leaned to the belief that it was a case 
of “malnutrition.” In order to settle 
this point,. I proposed that I should 
hatch another smaller lot, and test out 
his theory. 
I moved my heater and hover back 
into the smaller house, 20 by 30 feet, in 
which my chicks had the same trouble 
last season, which has since been used 
as a laying house, removing the hens 
in August, and disinfected the house. I 
set two incubators with eggs from the 
same stock as before, and succeeded in 
hatching 483 chicks on September 5. 
These were all placed in one flock as 
before, in the smaller house, and have 
never yet been outside of it. Professors 
Rice and Rogers furnished me with the 
following feeding directions, which 1 
have carefully followed: 
Instructions For Handling Chicks. 
Feeding. —Forty-eight hours to four day* 
old. equal parts by weight of bread crumbs 
and oat flakes, moistened with sour 
milk or buttermilk. The milk should always 
be sour. Feed morning, noon and night, 
what will be cleaned up In 20 minutes 
time. Also feed, in the middle of the fore¬ 
noon and afternoon, the following mixture. 
Kix pounds bran, three pounds cracked 
wheat, three pounds cracked corn, one pound 
oat (lakes, % pound granulated bone, 14 
pound fine oyster shell, 14 pound fine grit. 
This should be fed in shallow trays in such 
quantities as the chicks will thoroughly 
clean up before the next feeding. Fresh 
water should be supplied at all times. 
Fifth dav to two weeks old : Mash, two 
pounds bran, two pounds cornmeal, two 
pounds wheat middlings, 114 pound sifted 
meat scrap, one pound oat flakes. 14 pound 
bone meal, moistened In sour sklm-mllk or 
buttermilk. Use this mash Instead of the 
one given above and feed It as before. 
During this period scatter the mixture of 
grain, three parts cracked wheat, two parts 
racked corn, one part oat flakes in the litter 
once in the middle of the morning and once 
In the middle of the afternoon. Have fine 
oyster shells and grit In boxes. Provide 
fresh water at all times. When feeding the 
mash mixture, cut up beet leaves and small 
beets fine and mix some in with the mash 
and feed some In small trays or on the 
Poor. Give them about all they will eat 
of green food. After two weeks, feed the 
moist mash at 6 a. m, and 2 p. in., and 
the same grain ration at 10 a. m. and 6 
p. m., all they will eat tip between feeds. 
When five weeks old feed grain morning 
and night, using whole wheat instead of 
cracked wheat and wet mash at noon. 
Leave dry mash before them all the time. 
At seven weeks, feed dry mash and grain In 
hoppers, open at all times. The mash, 
after seven weeks, should consist of two 
pounds bran, four pounds cornmeal, four 
pounds wheat middlings, five pounds meat 
scrap, one pound linseed oil meal, one 
pound Alfalfa meal. The grain, equal parts 
of cracked corn and wheat. All changes 
in rations should be made as gradual as 
possible, taking a couple of days to change 
the rations rather than making the abrupt 
change, according to the periods as cited. 
Temperature. —Start with a temperature 
of 100 degrees under the hover, three Inches 
above the floor and midway between the 
beater and edge of hover. Gradually lower 
to 95 degrees at the end of the first week 
and 90 degrees at the end of the second 
week. After the third week keep the tem¬ 
perature at 85 to 90 degrees until the chicks 
are eight weeks old. It can then be re¬ 
moved. 
T he results seem to explode the germ 
theory higher than a kite, also the 
usual thory of “want of vitality in the 
parent stock.” During the first five days 
13 died or were removed on suspicion. 
Since then not a chick has died a na¬ 
tural death, and only 10 more have 
been removed and killed for want of 
thrift. At this writing, November 5, 
they are two months old and are prac¬ 
tically out of danger. There are 460 
of them left, or about 95 per cent. 
Many of them weigh 1% pounds each, 
and the whole bunch is very uniform 
in size. I have been amazed at the 
quantity of mangel wurzels eaten. I 
did not chop up the leaves, etc., ac¬ 
cording to directions, hut threw in 
whole beets, leaves and all. They 
began first to pick at the tender heart 
leaves, and soon began picking at the 
solid part of the beets. By the time 
they were four weeks old they were 
eating 30 to 40 pounds a day of the 
beets. The beet juice stains the bead 
and neck feathers of the white chicks 
quite badly, as the little gourmands 
often burrow into the heart of a large 
beet before eating much of the skin. 
It seems to me now that we have 
been paying too little attention to a 
ration that furnishes just the nutrients 
needed, and in just the right propor¬ 
tions. A chick whose blood becomes 
thin and cold from malnutrition may 
come through the critical period of 
feathering, if with a mother hen, or 
in a small flock in a good brooder. In 
a larger flock, however, there is likely 
to he huddling for warmth, with its 
accompanying sweating, asphyxiation, 
colds, etc. I succeeded in saving about 
45 per cent of the first hatch of 970. 
They have been doing nicely since they 
were about seven weeks old, those that 
survived. Our success with these Sep¬ 
tember chicks w' I give me confidence 
to try again next Spring with 1,000 or 
more in one flock. o. w. mapes. 
Ration for Horse. 
Will you state what amounts of the fol 
lowing feeds should be fed to a horse of 
about. 1,100 pounds, doing very light work 7 
W T hole or crackl'd corn. oats, wheat bran 
or middlings, oat hay, Timothy hay. What 
Is the best order and plan of feeding the 
above? I have noticed several farmers 
cut up Timothy hay very fine and mix with 
grain for evening meal. Is there any ad¬ 
vantage in this? Have carrots value for 
Winter feeding? ITow often and how much 
should these be fed? I wish to feed linseed 
meal for keeping coat glossy and hide loose. 
What is your opinion of this? How much 
and how often should It be fed? o. o. 
New York. 
In feeding horses, as with other kinds of 
live stock, so much depends upon the indi¬ 
vidual animals to he fed and the conditions 
under will eh they are working, it is Im¬ 
possible to give any exact rules as to the 
amounts or proportions of the different In¬ 
gredients to use In all cases; but general 
advice, to be modified according to the best 
judgment of the man who does the feeding, 
Is about as far as one can go along this 
line. I would not advise feeding whole 
corn or middlings unless there Is some 
Bpeclal reason for their use, ns the whole 
corn requires too much mastication, and 
the middlings are so line they pnste up In 
the mouth If fed in any great quantities. 
Neither can I advise the use of cut hay 
except in very small quantities mixed with 
the grain for the purpose of compelling 
horses to eat slowly and masticate their 
feed more thoroughly. I would much prefer 
to cut the oat hay into slio'-t lengths and 
feed the Timothy In its natural condition. 
By mixing the grain feed with oat hay 
which has been cut and slightly moistened, 
horses are not liable to contract the heaves. 
This method is therefore especially recom¬ 
mended for wind broken horses or those 
which have extra heavy or fast work to 
perform. Following Is a good average ra¬ 
tion for a horse doing light work: Eight 
pounds Timothy hay. four pounds oat hay, 
eight pounds whole oats, 2% pounds 
cracked corn, one pound wheat bran nnd 
one-half pound oil meal. As a rule we 
feed the grain in about equal quantities 
three times a day, and at least half of the 
hay at night, the other half being divided 
between the morning nnd noon meals. On 
Sundays and holidays when horses are not 
working their rations are reduced about 
one-third. Oil meal is valuable to feed in 
small quantities, hut great care slould he 
exercised not to feed too much, as It Is 
liable to be too laxative. Horses should 
always be watered before feeding, and salt 
bricks kept constantly before them. c. s. o. 
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