1912. 
1HH: KURAb NEW-YORKER 
^11 
HONEST POULTRY REPORTS. 
PRICES IN CENTRAL NEBRASKA. 
Referring to Mr. Dougan's article, page 
1224 , to one acquainted with incubating 
and brooding, such honest statements as 
he made in regard to what George G. Hop¬ 
kins, Jr., terms “bad hatching record" are 
something very unusual. We hear all 
about “big hatches,” large egg yield, etc., 
but very little from the failure side. The 
following is my 1911 record: From 230 
White Leghorn eggs set March 9, I got 
75 chicks on April 2; 27 of these cither 
died or were killed inside 24 hours, they 
being deformed. These eggs tested 80 per 
cent fertile, but from some unexplained 
cause the fully developed chicks were dead 
in the shell. These eggs were shipped to 
me from good stock. I raised all of the 
remaining 48 and finer, healthier birds 
would be hard to find. A second hatch 
of 248 eggs, hatched 81 chicks. They, too, 
were healthy. My later hatches were 
about the average. From 400 day-olds 
bought from some of the largely adver¬ 
tised poultry plants I succeeded in fertil¬ 
izing young trees; they developed diar¬ 
rhoea, and every poultry keeper knows the 
result. From 821 chicks, home-hatched and 
day-olds, I raised to laying size 225 pul¬ 
lets and 135 cockerels, less than 50 per 
cent of those I hatched, and I know of 
dozens of poultry keepers who did not do 
as well. If there were more honest re¬ 
ports printed there would be fewer poul¬ 
try farm enthusiasts. The large plants 
advertising day-old chicks get your money 
for orders and cannot fill them when the 
date comes. Why? Because with all their 
big advertisements they have “poor 
hatches” just as we do. Poultry raising 
is a pleasant occupation for a man or 
woman who likes work and plenty of it, 
but its the advertising what you have to 
sell and demanding the big price for it 
that makes the big profits. m. e. m. 
New Market, Pa. 
A Hen Story. 
I send a truthful statement of my poultry 
account. We purchase all the grain, etc., 
fed to our fowls so we can keep an accurate 
account quite easily. We have a Corning 
type house, 15 feet wide by 33 feet long, 
not built up on posts. We -can see no need 
of this; it costs more to build, is colder, 
and is much more expensive to keep in re¬ 
pair. During the year 1911 we had an 
average of 55 White Wyandotte yearling 
hens and pullets in this building, and at 
times as many as 125 ; this number included 
many cockerels in the Fall. Our system of 
feeding follows: At night after the birds 
are on the roosts, we scatter one quart of 
equal parts of cracked corn and whole oats 
to every 10 birds, in 10 inches of oat straw 
litter, and rake this in with a garden rake. 
This is then ready for them to start work¬ 
ing in the first thing in the morning, and 
keeps them busy until about three o’clock 
p. m., when they have a mash of two 
parts (by weight) of wheat bran, one part 
wheat middlings, one part ground oats, one 
part cornmeal, one part gluten, four parts 
good beef scrap, moistened just enough to 
make a crumbly mash with water in which 
a little salt has been dissolved. Oyster 
shell, grit, charcoal and plenty of pure 
water are kept before them at all times, 
and sprouted oats are fed once daily. The 
fowls are shut in this house in November 
and are not let out till May ; then they have 
only a small yard of 59 by 120 feet to 
run in. 
We give below our accounting for the 
year: 
Dr. 1911. 
January 1, to 125 birds on hand 
at 75c. $93.75 
January 1, to feed on hand. 9.23 
June 1, to two settings eggs. 10.00 
June 15, to bone cutter. 8.4(5 
June 15, to 593 our own eggs set.. 10.51 
December 31, to feed bills, supplies, 
etc. 143.72 
Cr. 1911. 
$275.67 
Dec. 31, by 8068 eggs produced.$184.03 
Dec. 31, by fowls sold . 29.20 
Dec. 31, by roasters sold . 40.77 
Dec. 31, by 157 birds on hand, at 75c. 117.75 
Dec. 31, by feed on hand. 4.85 
$382.60 
Net profit . 100.93 
The above shows a net profit per hen per 
year of $1.94 and an average egg produc¬ 
tion of 140.7 eggs per hen (55 hens). 
1 might add that in expense is an item 
of $10 for two settings of eggs from a 
reputable breeder, just to tone up the 
flock, and we cannot see why we should 
credit this to the hens, as one of our 
friends has in his report. We charge this 
against the account just as we would a new 
piece of machinery placed in our factory, 
and the net returns from the output would 
very quickly show if it was a good invest¬ 
ment. We also credit the hens with every 
egg produced, whether sold or consumed, 
also does this rule apply to the broilers, 
roasters, etc. It is what the hens produce 
above the amount of what she consumes, 
that tells the story. We are up in the 
Adirondack Mountains, where a temperature 
of 30 below zero is not uncommon, but by 
making Winter conditions as near as possi¬ 
ble like Summer, has made poultry keeping 
profitable for “the mountaineer.” 
Horses, good, sell for $200 to $250 : good 
xnllch cows, $60 to $80 apiece, and last 
Spring there was a carload of Holstein 
cows sold for from $80 to $129. Milk 
sells at five cents to seven cents, and 
eight cents in some places. m. e. b. 
Kirkwood, Ill. 
We are located near the center of Ne¬ 
braska, 200 miles west of Omaha. When I 
came here 27 years ago from Madison Go., 
N. 1'., the best river land could be bought 
for. from $5 to $15 per acre; it is selling 
now at $125 per acre, with very little 
offered for sale. In 1896 shelled corn sold 
for nine and 10 cents per bushel, oats the 
same, and prairie hay $1.25 per ton in the 
stack. But there is a great change since 
that time. Now, on account of a two-year 
drought the farmers are shipping in corn in 
carloads at 68 cents per bushel. Practically 
no oats raised the past year in Nebraska 
and they are shipped in at 53 cents per 
bushel. Prairie hay is also shipped in at 
$13.50 per ton, bailed. Farmers plant 
from 100 to 300 acres of corn, but do not 
raise enough to breed their horses, hogs 
and cattle. One sheep feeder is feeding 
600 bushels per week to about 5,000 sheep 
and steers. This is a great Alfalfa country 
on the bottom lauds ; cut four crops a year. 
It sells at $8 to $10 per ton ; it is a good 
feed for cattle and sheep, but we do not 
like to feed it to horses in the barn. There 
are a great many horses raised in Nebraska. 
Many farmers are now raising purebred 
Pereherons (from stock imported from 
France) ; big ones 1800 to 2000 pounds. 
Buyers come here from all parts of the 
Eastern States to buy horses, and prices 
are high this Winter, especially for the 
big draft horses, and with such a good de¬ 
mand farmers think horses will be higher. 
Good draft horses are selling for $200 .and 
up. Big mules are also bringing a good 
price; there are a great many beef cattle 
being fattened here on 08-cent corn. One 
of my neighbors sold two carloads, about 
40 head, last week in Omaha for $7.25 per 
100 pounds live weight, so you see this 
meat must sell for a big price when it 
reaches the consumer in the Eastern States. I 
Farmers are selling their hogs just as soon j 
as they are largo enough for the shippers 
to buy them, as they are losing money 
every day feeding high priced corn. Omaha 
received 24,500 hogs one day last week. 
Many farmers who usually raise 200 to 300 ! 
hogs a year will raise very few if any the 
coming season as they think corn will go 
to 75 cents per bushel before we raise an¬ 
other crop. 
We plant our corn mostly with two-rowed 
listers, which are'double mold-board plows 
and drop the corn in the bottom of the 
furrow. One man with six big horses can 
plant 15 to 20 acres in a day. They cul¬ 
tivate the corn with two-row cultivators and 
four horses. There are uo stones in the 
soil; one man can cultivate and keep clean 
100 acres of corn if not too much rain 
when the corn is small. All crops are 
planted and the ground prepared with rid¬ 
ing machinery; all cultivation and har¬ 
vesting is done with riding machines. 
The Alfalfa hay is also cut, raked and 
stacked by riding machinery, except the 
stacker. The hay is stacked very fast. You 
will see that the short corn, oat and hay 
crop in the great West has a good deal to 
do with the high cost of living, but with 
the price of land going up by leaps and 
bounds it looks as if the days of cheap 
corn, wheat, pork and beef had passed and 
gone. The cattle here are all beef breeds. 
Anyone can get hundreds of loads of 
manure from any of the feed yards for 
hauling it away and no questions asked. 
We do not raise any Timothy or clover; all 
we want is rain at the proper time and we 
can feed the world. T. J. Q. 
Miller, Nebraska. 
Draught in Open Front Houses. 
I have been interested in reading your 
article on page 1231 by George A. Cosgrove 
on the open-front poultry house, and note 
what he and others say in regard to uo 
drafts no matter how hard it blows, etc. 
Now this may be true in a house 21 feet 
long witli one or two openings in the front, 
but in a house 100 or more feet in length, 
my experience has been the opposite—the 
use of them by well-known plants not¬ 
withstanding. My house is 125 feet long 
and 18 feet wide, facing south, every side 
except the front being absolutely air-tight. 
In the front are six open windows 3x9 feet 
3% feet from the floor and extending to 
the plate, the front being seven feet high 
inside. These openings are provided with 
the usual muslin-covered frames hinged at 
the top. The spacing between these openings 
averages 10 feet. The house is designed 
after the Corning style except that it is 
two feet wider. 
In i - egard to drafts, on any moderately 
windy day, no matter if the wind comes 
from the northwest, it will sweep in the 
windows at one end in gusts, sweep down 
and through the house and out through the 
windows at or near the other end. One 
need not stand up close to the front to 
feel it, it is distinctly felt and observed 
as far back as the front of dropping boards, 
and even on the floor as far back as the 
mildle of the house. If the wind is from 
the southwest it is even worse—goes down 
through it like a chimney. Fowls catch 
cold in the daytime. Can Mr. Cosgrove 
point out the defects in the construction 
of this building? It seems to be exactly 
tbe same as used by Corning, L. B. Thatcher 
and others, and yet is drafty as I have 
described. As before stated, this house 
is 18 feet wide, and if these conditions 
obtain at that width, they would neces¬ 
sarily be worse at 14 or 16 feet. 
Long Island. J. m h 
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Service Bureau 
The purpose of 
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worthy question 
concerning soils, 
crops, pests, ferti¬ 
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Bureau and learn 
what our experts 
and others have 
found out concern¬ 
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