666 
BEET PULP AND BREEDING POULTRY. 
On page 342 Mr. Cosgrove in reporting 
the egg laying contest at the Storrs Station 
states that beet pulp is being used for 
green food. We should like to know the 
details. How is the pulp fed and how 
much? Do the station people believe the 
pulp will be all that is required for 
green food? While on the subject of green 
food I should like to ask your advice on 
the use of water cress. The last week 
in February we ran out of cabbage, and 
not wishing to use sprouted oats entirely 
we tried the cress, of which we have an 
abundance growing fresh and green all 
Winter, in brook leading from springhouse. 
We have but 175 chickens (White Leghorn 
pullets) as we have been here but little 
over a year. Forty-five of these pullets 
were hatched April 17 and the remainder 
May 5. We thought best to go slow with 
the chickens at first and bend our efforts 
to make the farm, which was badly run 
down, grow as much of our own feed as 
possible, and at the same time improve 
the quality of the birds, so when the time 
'•ame to enlarge the loafers would be culled 
out of the flock. With this in view we 
built five small houses 5x9 and selected 
by appearance our 75 best pullets, placing 
15 in each pen and the remainder of the 
flock in larger houses. We felt that trap¬ 
nesting would require too much time and 
Interfere with other work. Pens No. 1-5 
inclusive contain the selected pullets, Pen 
0 represents the remainder of the flock. 
The egg record follows: 
Pens No. 1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
Nov. 1911.. Ill 
0 
7 
0 
0 
0 
Dec. 1911... 192 
27 
48 
7 
0 
263 
Jan. 1912...105 
157 
150 
142 
6 
48 
Feb. 1912... 207 
March 1st to 
235 
179 
260 
187 
874 
to 11th.. 72 
67 
35 
85 
74 
402 
Total ...687 
486 
419 
494 
267 
1587 
The average production for last 10 days 
in February was 86 per day. Pen No. 1 
was made up of the first 15 birds to 
mature from the first hatch; they grew 
much faster than the others and started 
laying October 28, 1911; Pen No. 4 were 
the first to mature of the May 5 hatch. 
,Of course this record is not exceptional, 
I but it shows a marked difference in favor 
of Pens 1 and 4 compared with 2, 3, and 
!5. Do you think this method of culling 
Is sure enough to count on better produc¬ 
tion in the future if we breed only from 
Pens 1 and 4? You will note that the 
production from March 1 to date has fallen 
considerably under the last few days of 
February. Would you blame the cress for 
this? There are numerous creatures cling¬ 
ing to the cress which look like salt water 
shrimps and others like small jelly fish 
as well as snails. Pen No. 1 has made 
over $2 per head, gross, in 4 y 2 months. 
If one could get a large flock to do as 
well there would be a good margin of 
profit, and this with a low egg yield. We 
must confess that all of the consumer's 
dollar comes back to the farm at 60 cents 
per dozen. linwood farm. 
New Jersey. 
Answering the above query about beet 
pulp_ would say that hot water is poured 
on it and the pulp allowed to steam 
for an hour or two before it is fed. 
At present they are feeding it three 
times a week, giving a little over a half 
pint to each pen of five birds. It is 
giving very good satisfaction. Prof. 
Stoneburn writes. “If I were running 
a poultry plant of my own I would 
surely adopt this material for green 
feed, at least when my home supply was 
exhausted.. It is convenient to feed, it 
does not rot, and it is not expensive.” 
But the difficulty of obtaining it at this 
season of the year, owing to the -fact 
that it is made only in the Fall and 
early Winter, is too great for it to come 
into general use. It gives remarkable 
results when made part of the ration 
for cows. Mr. Wilson H. Lee, vice- 
president of the Connecticut Dairymen’s 
Association, who milks about 200 Jersey 
and Guernsey cows, and who gets 15 
cents a quart for the milk, told me that 
he got out of the beet pulp and his 
cows fell off 75 quarts a day. As Mr. 
Lee raises about 150 tons of Alfalfa, 
and has two immense silos and all kinds 
of grain, it is a pretty good demonstra¬ 
tion of the value of beet pulp as a feed. 
AVater cress does not grow around 
here, at least I do not know of any. 
I got some several years ago and tried 
to start it along the edge of my trout 
brook, but it failed to grow. It does 
not seem possible that it would have 
any injurious effect on fowls, and the 
animal life on it ought to make it more 
beneficial. I do not think the watjer 
cress is to blame for the falling off. It 
may have been the weather. 
Breeding from the pens that have 
produced the most eggs would likely 
give better results than breeding from 
the poorest pens, but nothing can be 
determined with any certainty without 
using the trap-nest and with the trap- 
nest used faithfully for nine years in 
succession at the Maine Agricultural 
Experiment Station, and the best laying 
females only used as breeders, no male 
being used whose mother had not laid 
200 or more eggs in her pullet year, 
the result showed a declining egg pro¬ 
duction from the dock as a whole. It 
is too deep a subject to be gone into in 
an article like this. Send to Dr. Ray- 
THK rural NEW-YORKER 
April 27, 
mond Pearl, Orono, Maine, for bulletins 
No. 192 and No. 193, in which the mat¬ 
ter of breeding for egg production is 
very thoroughly treated. As my flock 
of White Wyandottes, R. I. Reds, and 
White Orpingtons, which are mainly 
old hens, consists of about the same 
number as the White Leghorn pullets 
of Linwood Farm, I was interested to 
know how the egg output compared. 
Footing it up for the four months and 
11 days I find mine have laid 5,579 eggs, 
as against 3,953 for the pullets. It has 
been found that the 200-egg hen trans¬ 
mits her laying qualities through her 
sons and not through her daughters. 
Dr. Pearl told me he would rather 
breed from a 160-egg hen for pullets, 
than from a 200-egg hen, mating her 
with a male whose mother was a high 
producer. geo. a. cosgrove. 
RAISING RUNNER AND PEKIN DUCKS. 
The comparison between Indian Run¬ 
ner and White Pekin ducks which so 
many seem inclined to make is, in one 
sense, unfair to both. This is because 
each has a special place to fill, the Pekin 
being essentially a* market duck, and 
the Indian Runner essentially a producer 
of eggs. The Runner has an official 
record of 200-217, three years in suc¬ 
cession, and I have received reports of 
many private records going much, 
higher, one of which I feel positively 
sure touched 200 before the end of the 
tenth month. The Pekin has held for 
years the rank of “the only” market 
duck; but the Runner is being used to 
some extent in this field with satisfaction 
by those whose trade is private, large¬ 
ly, and calls for a smaller duck than 
the Pekin. I do not know that there is 
any special difference in raising them, 
except that, as the Pekins fatten much 
more readily, the grower would need 
to take special pains not to feed his 
breeding and laying ducks much fatten¬ 
ing feed. 
The basis of all duck feeds is good 
bran and clover or other green feed. 
Millet, growing oats, sweet corn stalks 
(sowed, so as to be small), etc., are 
good feeds for ducks that must be 
yarded. If on range, they do not need 
much feed; a little bran and corn for 
mature ducks once a day, at night, in 
order to call them home, being about all. 
The young are raised on a mixture of 
bran, a little middlings, a little corn- 
meal, some meat, charcoal, and fine grit 
or sand, if penned up. Stale bread, 
soaked in milk, is a fine starter. The 
housing is of the simplest, a slied be¬ 
ing about all they need. What they 
do need is shelter from cutting winds 
and plenty of soft, clean bedding. They 
seem to suffer more from getting their 
feet cold than in any other way. They 
will not lay in the Winter unless they 
have this bedding and shelter. I think a 
barn basement would suit them admir¬ 
ably, and I have one letter from a 
northern man who got abundance of 
eggs through December and January, 
while feeding only corn. But ducks 
do need shell as much as hens do, un¬ 
less they are getting an abundance of 
such feed as would supply bone. Duck 
raisers like to use charcoal at least 
twice a week. I suppose the reason for 
this is that a duck’s worst enemy is in¬ 
digestion, and charcoal absorbs gas and 
sweetens the undigested feed. 
I think every writer who has ever said 
a word about ducks has insisted that 
they are not troubled with lice. Now 
that depends on what you mean by 
“troubled.” Scientists tell us that 
there are at least.two kinds of mites 
and two kinds of lice which are pecu¬ 
liar to ducks. But as they mention at 
least 65 pertaining to hens, water-fowl 
and pigeons, far the larger part of 
which belong to the hens, you will see 
that ducks are very little “troubled” 
with these parasites. As a matter of 
fact, though more or less familiar with 
handling ducks all my life, I have never 
seen but one duck infested with lice. 
With any decent care, there will be no 
need to think about lice at all in con¬ 
nection with duck growing. As to other 
troubles, ducks are so tender of body 
and soft of joint, especially when young, 
that, as we say, we can almost put our 
finger through them. This means only 
that they need careful handling not to 
break or unjoint a leg or wing. They 
are best caught by the neck, if one can¬ 
not manage a net. The head being 
rather large, one can circle the neck 
with thumb and forefinger, get a good 
grip, yet not pinch the neck in the least. 
Water must always be supplied with 
feed. I hardly want to say here who 
has the best stock, but think the White 
Runners and the Penciled stock bred 
to English Standard the only ones I 
could recommend. c. s. valentine. 
New Jersey. 
Know the make-up 
of roofing you buy 
On the make-up de¬ 
pends how long it will 
last, and how little it 
costs you in the end. 
is made of genuine asphalt, 
produced by Nature in 
Nature’s slow sure way. 
It has the lasting life that 
gives it greatest resistance 
to weather. 
Genasco costs about the 
same as ordinary roofings 
in the beginning, and costs 
less in the end, because it 
lasts so long. 
Comes in rolls with either mineral 
or smooth surface. Ready and easy 
to lay. Ask your dealer for Genasco. 
Write us for the valuable Good Roof 
Guide Book and sam¬ 
ples—free. 
The Kant-leak Kleet, 
for smooth-surface roof¬ 
ings, does away with 
cement and prevents 
nail-leaks. 
The Barber Asphalt Paving Company 
Largest producers of asphalt, and largest 
manufacturers of ready roofing in the world. 
Philadelphia 
New York San Francisco Chicago 
WISNER’S SEPARATORS 
Skim Closer, Ran Easier, 
Last Longer and Clean 
Easier Than All Others 
Let us send one on 30 Days Trial 
WISNER MFG. CO. 
230 GREENWICH STREET. NEW YORK 
Everything for Dairymen Alwayt 
in Stock 
When you write advertisers mention Thh 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
CHR. HANSEN’S 
DANISH BUTTER COIOR 
MAKES PRIZE-WINNING BUTTER 
Purely Vegetable and Guaranteed under all 
Pure Food Laws, State and National, 
RENNET TABLETS and CHEESE 
COLOR TABLET8 for Cheese 
Making on th« Farm 
JUNKET TABLETS for dainty milk 
desserts and ice cream 
JUNKET BRAND BUTTERMILK 
TABLETS 
Manufactured and put up only by 
CHR- HANSEN’S LABORATORY 
Box 1106, Little Falls. N.Y. 
THE PARSONS MILK WAGONS ARE 
Leaders of Quality 
High-Grade and “Low-Down” ! 
Ash for Catalog “O" 
Built Exclusively lor Milkmen, Bakers and Butchers 
THE PARSONS WAGON COMPANY 
EARLVILLE, N.Y. 
■ 
i 
i 
Ready-Mixed Home & Bara 
PAINT. 
Highest Quality 
over sold direct to the con¬ 
sumer. All middlemen’s pro¬ 
fits saved. 
Write for FREE Color Card, 
Price List and Booklet which 
tells the whole story. 
YUMA PAINT CO. 
842 E. Monument Ave., Dayton, 0. 
J 
I Pure Milk 
p 
k< 
The SterlLac Milk Pail keeps it 
ure, just as drawn. Dirt shelf 
_eeps out hair, dust and filth—no 
chance for contamination. Heavy, 
strong, and easy to wash. Sent on 
approval ( if not at dealer’s ). Pri 
$2.50. Free circular. Address 
STERILAC COMPANY. 
6 Merchants’ Bow, Boston. 
I 
AND UPWARD 
SENT ON TRIAL 
FULLY 
GUARANTEED. 
=AMERICAN= 
SEPARATOR 
A brand new, well made, easy running, easily 
cleaned, perfect skimming separator for $15.95. 
Skims one quart of milk a minute, warm or cold. 
Makes thick or thin cream. Thousands in use 
giving splendid satisfaction. Different from this 
picture, which illustrates our low priced large 
capacity machines. The bowl is a sanitary marvel 
and embodies all our latest improvements. Our 
richly illustrated catalog tells all about it. Our 
wonderfully low prices and high quality on all 
sizes and generous terms of trial will astonish you. 
Our twenty-year guarantee protects you on every 
American Separator. Western orders filled from 
Western points. Whether your dairy is large or 
small, get our great offer and handsome free 
catalog. ADDRESS, 
AMERICAN SEPARATOR CO., 
BOX 1075, 
BAINBRIDGE, N. Y. 
