46 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
January 11, 
DOGS FOR PROTECTING POULTRY. 
Can you give me any information about 
the plan of protecting poultry by means 
of a good dog? The scheme is to build 
a high fence around the poultry and keep 
some savage animal at large over night 
inside the enclosures, so that when strang¬ 
ers come to handle the poultry that dog 
can make a meal of them. This plan has 
been suggested a good many times. In 
your judgment, is there anything to it? 
Can it be recommended, and what kind of 
a dog would you select from choice to 
guard the poultry over night? 
There are several difficulties to this 
plan in my mind; first is the expense of 
the fence, as an ordinary poultry netting 
will not restrain a dog fierce enough to 
worry thieves. Our big dog would go 
through any fence we had around our 
hens if he took the notion, and in fact did 
do lots of damage to our fences. Another 
thing is that sometimes a dog takes ft 
fancy to chickens, and a neighbor of ours 
had a big fellow to guard his chickens 
and found him eating them himself. But 
the principal reason in my mind is the 
ease with which a thief can get rid- of a- 
dog by giving him poison on a piece of 
meat. This has been tried more than 
once on our own dog. and was nearly suc¬ 
cessful once, when we thought we would 
lose him. The knowledge that we had a 
bloodhound who could track a thief home 
has saved us more chickens than anything 
else tried. f. q. white. 
We always keep dogs for the protection 
of our poultry, but we cannot keep them 
as man-eaters. We much prefer to scare 
hen thieves away, rather than kill them, 
for I do not consider a thief prepared to 
die. At the present time we keep three 
noisy collies. They will bark long and 
loud at a stranger after dark. The oldest 
dog will bark at me if I touch a hen or 
chicken during the evening. The puppy 
will snap at a stranger, but has never 
bitten anyone that I know of. We had 
one that would bite, and we had to dispose 
of him. These three dogs can roam all 
around the farm at night; they keep away 
skunks and other vermin. They will bark 
at anything unusual, day or night. To 
make this dog protection complete I would 
keep one or two small dogs, terriers pre¬ 
ferred, in the house at night, so as to 
bark and wake all sleepers when the watch¬ 
ers that were out around the place gave 
warning. Of course the dogs that are 
running at large will frequently bark many 
times during the night, ofttimes for nothing 
more than a strange or unusual noise. If 
they continue their notes of alarm we 
would perhaps get up to see if we could 
find anything wrong. If we had other dogs 
in the house they would know whether the 
barking outside meant trouble or only a 
nightly occurrence. When properly trained 
I consider the dog the poulterer’s best 
friend, and one that will help to prevent 
losses in many ways. d. j. Lambert. 
Rhode Island. 
I have never had any experience in this 
line and I really do not think there is 
anything in the plan, for the reason that 
the ordinary dog can be easily silenced 
if he can be gotten to by a little piece of 
“doped” meat. I have always thought 
that if a chicken thief is going to get 
your chickens, he is going to get them re¬ 
gardless of a dog. To have your houses 
wired with a regular burglar alarm sys¬ 
tem. and wires put in iron pipes under 
ground to house, would be far safer. And 
yet in our modern open-front house I can 
hardly see how even this could be done. 
It seems to me it would be a good plan to 
have a savage dog, penned in each poultry 
house at night, where no one could pass 
him any poisoned meat, and if he is any 
watch dog at all he will make enough 
noise to arouse the owner, and be can do 
the rest. The dog I would have would be 
a first-class bull terrier. a. l. v. 
New Jersey. 
I have a well-trained Scotch collie to 
guard my poultry day and night, although 
I have no enclosure. I think the enclosure 
would be needless with a well-trained dog. 
New Jersey. clarence h. fogg. 
This scheme would work all right if 
you could train the dog so that he would 
not eat poisoned meat that might be thrown 
over the fence to bin,. I have just poisoned 
two big Virginia horned owls that were 
feasting at night on my young chicks.. So 
far as I know I only lost two chicks; if 
I had been a taxidermist and had time to 
stuff the owls, the exchange would have 
been profitable. The question is asked 
what kind of a dog would I recommend. 
Well, the dog ought to be immune to 
poisons, so I would recommend a good- 
sized cast-iron dog, say of about 50 pounds 
weight, though a lighter one would answer. 
To answer the question seriously, I would 
say that dogs have been trained to refuse 
to eat anything from a stranger, and if 
such a dog could be obtained, the pro¬ 
posed plan would work. But I think a 
better plan is to wire the poultry plant 
with the closed circuit electric system. 
Then if a door or window is opened, or 
the wire cut anywhere, the alarm is given 
in the house; and as you sally forth, shot¬ 
gun in hand, it is a great advantage then 
to have a live dog to nose out your chicken 
thief. One reader of The R. N.-Y. wrote 
vears ago that he simply attached a bell 
to the hen house door; when the door was 
opened it rang the bell, and the thief 
never stopped to think that the bell was 
In the henhouse. The noise scared him 
so that he left as quickly as possible, his 
guiltv conscience being an efficient aid to 
the bell. geo. a. cosgrove. 
The best method would depend much 
on local conditions. We live some why 
off the main road, but for the last six 
years, owing to Catskill aqueduct construc¬ 
tion. we have had three camps of negroes, 
Italians and mixed races within 500 yards 
of our house. We have not depended upon 
one dog, but have kept five collies. At 
first they treed a few darkies and tore the 
trousers’of some others, but our reputation 
was soon established and we have not been 
troubled since. I think for a large plant, 
a night watchman in connection with dogs 
would be advisable. thank hyde. 
New York. 
“ Forcing Moult” a Farce. 
I would like to give you a statement of 
two experiences which I have had in at¬ 
tempting to govern the moulting of poultry, 
in the hope that my failures may be a 
help to ‘those with less experience, and in 
the hope that those with more may come 
forward and help to put me straight. A 
well-known advertiser (not in The R. 
N.-Y.) claims to have developed a strain 
of poultry which has been bred from 
Spring moulting hens, his claim being that 
the chicks hatched in the Winter from his 
strain will moult in the Spring and there¬ 
fore lay during the months of October, No- 
wember and December as naturally as 
others lay in the Spring. Wishing to try 
this, I purchased 25 day-old chicks early 
one season. I had moderate success with 
them, and raised a few very vigorous pul¬ 
lets. Two of these I chose for the experi¬ 
ment. The success of this Pall hatching 
from pullets’ eggs was very interesting to 
me and I sent you a report of the result, 
which you published during the past Sum¬ 
mer. But as far as controlling the moult 
it was a failure, as they moulted in the 
Summer, as did their mothers, who were 
advertised as Spring moulters. This ex¬ 
periment may not have been a fair test, 
as the original pullets w r ere mated with a 
cock of a different strain. However, the 
chicks hatched resembled their mothers 
very closely, and reproduced all of their 
characteristics. The influence of the cock 
bird only showing in increased vigor and 
size in the second generation, and as the 
original pullets also moulted during the 
Summer, I am led to doubt *the veracity of 
this advertiser. 
My second failure was of a more serious 
nature, and cost me many dollars. Be¬ 
sides this method of controlling the moult 
is advised by one of the State stations. If 
others have met with the poor success 
which I have experienced, it 'would be ad¬ 
visable to warn others from attempting the 
experiment. This method is to stop egg 
production in the Spring, when eggs bring 
very little, by gradually reducing the feed 
until the hens are merely on a mainten¬ 
ance ration. This, it is claimed, will start 
the moult. After the moult is well under 
way the hens are fed heavily on a feather- 
forming ration ; thus they w r ill quickly get 
their new plumage and begin laying during 
the Fall months. Last Spring, as soon as 
the price of eggs dropped. I reduced the 
feed and saw the egg production dwindle 
and finally cease. It took nerve, but as 
the hens began to lose their feathers almost 
immediately, I cheered myself with the 
thought of a full sorting table in the Fall, 
when eggs would bring the unusual prices 
which all indications promised. My hens 
did moult, there is no doubt about that. 
The new feathers started and the hens felt 
like porcupines, so covered were they with 
sprouting quills. But for some reason un¬ 
known to me they kept right on growing 
feathers. Some of them grew feathers for 
about four months. Some of them got their 
new plumage in six weeks, and then in¬ 
stead of laying when the Fall came on, 
they started the moult all over again. 
After nearly five months of idleness they 
were not as far advanced toward real busi¬ 
ness as, I believe, they would have been 
had I not attempted to force the moult. 
These hens were not confined during the 
Summer, but had the run of a large or¬ 
chard. I believe that close confinement 
will sometimes have this effect, but in this 
case thp hens were on range. 
Maryland. haynsworth baldrey. 
Spontaneous Combustion. 
There have been two large barn fires 
with loss of over .$60,000 in this vicinity 
recently, and in each case the heating of 
green corn fodder, moist hay and green 
oat hay has been given as the cause, claim¬ 
ing it was spontaneous combustion. I con¬ 
tend that the heating of such roughage 
could not cause combustion. Am I right? 
Lebanon Springs, N. Y. G. a. Ti 
There have been a number of cases of 
spontaneous combustion traced directly to 
green clover hay. Stacks have been set 
on fire and hay mows have been found 
badly charred. The trouble occurs mostly 
with clover or Alfalfa hay when put in 
quite green and not packed down hard. 
Some years ago the Pennsylvania Experi¬ 
ment Station issued a bulletin describing a 
case of spontaneous combustion which oc¬ 
curred in the station barn. 
Want to Know. 
Horizontal Sawing’ Gear. —I am told 
there is a sawing gear made for adjust¬ 
ment to a gasoline engine, which will saw 
on a horizontal plane so that it can be 
used to cut down a tree, instead of cutting 
the tree with an axe. If any of your cor¬ 
respondents can give information on this 
subject it will be appreciated. J. b. 
I bought two tons of rowen hay in Oc¬ 
tober, delivered from the field on November 
8. I received a bill for $21 per ton, which 
•was reduced to $18. If $21 per ton is the 
value, of hay from barn, how 7 much should 
I pay? What is the estimated shrinkage 
between field and barn hay? a. m. d. 
Connecticut. 
Pulling Beans by Hand.—I am told 
there is a way to pull beans by hand bet¬ 
ter than stooping to do the work. Perhaps 
one of your readers will describe the tool 
or hook. I want to sow 7 rye and vetch 
in the beans at last cultivation, and would 
rather not use a bean puller drawn by 
horses. s. e. russell. 
Michigan. 
Filling Silo with Gasoline Engine.— 
I would like to hear from those who have 
had experience in filling silos with gasoline 
engines. Please state size of engine, cut¬ 
ter used, capacity, height elevated, whether 
elevated with blower or carrier, and ap¬ 
proximate cost of outfit. F. z. 
Dawson, Pa. 
“Cholly received a letter this morn¬ 
ing from Gladys Maud. He consumed 
an hour in reading it.” “Was the letter 
very long?” “Not very long. He spent 
most of the time looking for page two.” 
—Birmingham Age-Herald. 
-trade 
tX)\ 
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THE MOLASSINE CO.» Ltd., London, England, 
Sole United States Distributors 
L. C. PRIME CO., 326 Board of Trade Building 
BOSTON, MASS. 
95 
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New Scientific No. 20 Mill 
Heavy steel legs and steel 
hopper. Most efficient 
ana strongest small 
power mill ever built. 
Will grind cob corn, 
shelled corn, oats and 
all other small grains to 
any desired grade, from 
hominy feed to meal. 
Sava 
High 
Lifts 
AGENTS— $24 A WEEK 
New Patented Automatic Curry Comb, 
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power up to 20 horsepower. 
They grind fast, easy and with 
very little power. Write for 
prices, guarantee, free catalog 
and catalog ot Standard Farm 
Supplies at reduced prices. 
The A. W. Straub Co. 
Dept, E 0 710 Filbert St. 
Fhiladelphia, l’n. 
Dept. T 3700 g. Ashland A>». 
Chicago, 111. A 
