1874.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
179 
propriation having been obtained from Con¬ 
gress, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, U. S. Fish Com¬ 
missioner, took stock in the enterprise, 
operations were enlarged, and 1,500,000 eggs 
were secured, at a cost of about five dollars a 
thousand. This last fall there was a still larger 
investment in salmon, and about 2,250,000 were 
secured, at a reduced price per thousand. 
These eggs will be hatched and distributed 
mainly in the rivers of New England. Beside 
these over a million of eggs of the Sacramento 
salmon were taken by Livingston Stone, Esq., 
under direction of Prof. Baird. These, we 
learn, are destined for the Delaware, and Sus- 
queliannah, and streams farther south, to 
which this species is thought to be adapted. 
The country is to be congratulated upon this 
early and abundant supply of salmon spawn 
within our own borders. The main difficulties 
in the way of stocking our barren rivers with 
this delicious fish are already overcome and 
cheap salmon are not far in the future. 
Care of Young Chickens. 
F. J. Kinney, Worcester, Mass., sends us his 
method of raising chickens as follows: The 
eggs are placed beneath the hens in boxes in 
the bottom of which dry earth is placed six 
inches deep. In very cold weather a newspaper 
folded two or three times is placed upon the 
earth. Then two or three inches of fine chaff is 
laid in the box, and the eggs are placed upon it. 
As the chicks are hatched they are removed, 
and fresh eggs are placed in the nest. Some 
hens thus hatch 45 chickens each. Five or six 
hens are set at a time, which bring out eight 
to eleven chickens each. Fifty of these chicks 
are put together into a cheese-box which will 
hold a 50 lbs. cheese. A hole is cut in the box 
to let them in and out after they are four days 
old (see fig. 1), and one inch in depth of clean, 
dry, coarse plastering sand is scattered in each 
box. The chicks are fed with thin cakes made 
of sifted corn-meal and sweet skimmed milk 
and baked hard. The cakes are pounded fine 
Fig. 2.—RUN FOR CHICKENS. 
in a mortar, and with each pint the hard-boiled 
yolks of two eggs are mixed. This quantity 
serves to feed 50 chicks each day for the first 
two days; the next two days l£ pint and four 
yolks are given, and the next two days one 
quart and six yolks. After this some boiled 
meat, wheat screenings, cracked wheat, and 
corn are given four times a day, in addition to 
the pounded cakes three times a day, until the 
chicks are a month old. No soft feed is given. 
When six weeks old the pullets are separated 
from the cockerels, and they are each placed 
25 to 50 together in separate runs. These are 
made of dry-goods boxes about four feet long, 
2i feet high, and two feet wide. One side and 
one end are knocked out from each box, and 
two are placed together so as to form one open 
box (shown at figure 2). These are covered 
with tight roofs of matched boards, and in 
front of each is placed a fence made of boards 
sixteen feet long and six inches wide, to which 
are nailed, one inch apart, common plastering 
laths cut in two. These runs can easily be 
moved about, and dry earth, charcoal, feed, or 
any other thing is easily put into them. Earthen 
fountains containing two quarts are used, are 
emptied every night, refilled each morning, and 
the saucer rinsed out each noon. Holes are cut 
in the tops of the boxes, so that by removing 
the roof the chickens may be gathered into a 
small compass when necessary. 
For early chickens a frame may be used 
(fig. 3). It is made like a hot-bed large enough 
for three sashes, thirty inches high at the back 
and fifteen inches at the front. The center 
only is covered with a sash, the rest of the top 
Fig. 1.—CHEESE-BOX FOR CHICKENS. 
is covered with a roof of matched boards. The 
frame is placed at the south side of a tight 
board fence, and the ground inside is raised 
four inches with dry clean sand and gravel. 
Fifty early chickens may be raised in this bed 
without trouble, and if they are brown Leg¬ 
horns, and are hatched in March and April, 
they will bring at eight weeks old 50c. to 75c. 
a pound for broilers, and the cockerels will 
weigh two pounds each on the average. 
The following is the account for 50 chickens 
hatched April 27th, 1873, and sold at eight 
weeks old: 
50 chickens, at $1.25. 
1 bushel screenings. 
2 dozen eggs. 
1 bushel meal. 
60 quarts skimmed milk. 
X bushel onions. 
5 bushels small potatoes 
100 lbs. cabbage. 
1 bushel cracked corn... 
6 dozen eggs set. 
Feed of hens... 
$62.50 
$1.00 
80 
1.00 
1 50 
, 1.50 
2.00 
. 3.00 
50 
2.40 
, 1.00 
-$14.70 
Profit. $47.80 
The manure pays more than the cost of 
frames and care. 
The hens need to be carefully managed. 
They require green feed, meat, a variety of 
grain daily, with pure fresh water, sand, crushed 
shells, and bones, dry ashes or earth to wallow 
in, and plenty of light and ventilation. Ten 
hens with one thorough-bred cock may be kept 
in a room 18 by 6 feet perfectly clean and free 
' from unpleasant smell, and each hen may be 
made to hatch out 45 chickens. Of the chick¬ 
ens hatched nine out of every ten may be 
raised by using the plan previously described. 
The yellow Western corn, cracked, is the best 
standard feed. Shorts scalded with the water 
the meat is boiled in, and fed warm, should be 
given to the laying hens. Full grown fowls 
should get two ounces of meat a day, all at 
once, in the morning, during the cold weather, 
and in two portions in the summer. Onions 
Fig. 3.—FRAME FOR CHICKENS. 
are very desirable feed, and every day some 
should be given along with raw potatoes or 
turnips pounded fine. Cabbage is excellent 
but costly. Fowls should be fed thrice a day, 
and in warm weather fresh water should be 
given as often. 
The following is an account of the expense 
and receipts of 28 hens with their progefiy, in¬ 
cluding the present value of the chickens 
raised, during the past year. All the figures 
are taken from the account book except those 
relating to the manure, which are estimated: 
22 Biown Leghorn and Worcester Co. fowls, at 
$5.00. $110.00 
6 mixed hens, at $1.25. 7.50 
100 bushels grain. 100.00 
2,000 lbs. meat, at lHc. a lb. 30.00 
3,000 lbs. vegetables, at lc.... 30.00 
Care, at. 30c. a day. 109.50 
House rent and incidentals. 30.00 
$417.00 
Cr. 
407X dozen eggs, at 40c.. $163.00 
Eggs sold to hatch.. 27.50 
Chickens sold for poultry. 98.78 
Chickens sold to breed from. 262.00 
100 B. L. hens in yards. 500.00 
18 crowers, at. $5.00 . 90.00 
5 Worcester Co. crowers. 25.00 
20 Worcester Co. hens. 100.00 
33 mixed hens for sitting, at $1.25. 41.25 
2 tons manure, at $60.00. 120.00 
-$1,427.53 
The Sod House. 
The sod house of the prairie or the plains is 
the counterpart of the log house of the back- 
woods. Each is the rough-and-ready dwelling 
made of such material as comes most easily to 
the hand in a locality where the settler has 
nothing but his own skill and the native re¬ 
sources of the country to help him. Each is 
the home of a hardy, industrious, worthy repre¬ 
sentative of the spirit of adventure and enter¬ 
prise, who carves a home for himself out of the 
wilderness, Each frequently shelters beneath 
its roof a settler who is poor in everything but 
hope and determination to succeed, but yet in 
each we have seen a home where an intelligent 
family has lived for a time in comfort and has 
enjoyed many of the advantages of what is 
called civilized life. Books, pictures, and music 
are sometimes seen in such habitations, occu¬ 
pied by well-educated and intelligent settlers, 
who for the sake of advancing the interests of 
their children have chosen to undergo many 
privations and some temporary hardships. In 
the interiors of some such houses as the one 
here pictured,well-filled book-shelves, a musical 
instrument, newspapers and magazines may be 
seen, and yet the floor may be of earth and the 
chimney of sticks plastered with mud. Yet 
the hopeful anticipations of future prosperity 
keep the tenants of these rough habitations in 
cheerfm spirits, and each field broken and 
