070 
THE itURAE NEW-VORKER 
March 8, 
The Henyard. 
ABOUT LITTLE CHICKS. 
I have used lamp-heated brooders, heat¬ 
less brooders and the old mother hen to 
raise chicks; and I have come to think that 
the latter way is the best when limited 
numbers, say 500 or so, are to be raised. 
The heat does not run up in that kind of a 
brooder nor the lamp blow out. But don’t 
use hens with scaly legs, and look sharp 
for lice. Dusting the hen liberally with 
any good lice powder a few days before 
she is due to hatch, will usually get rid 
of the lice, but will not kill the “nits.” 
Any kind of grease will; but grease must 
not be put on a hen when she is sitting, 
because it will close the pores in the egg¬ 
shells and smother the chicks. So 1 wait 
until the chicks are hatched, and when they 
are well dried off. put them in large baskets 
and take them into the house. Then I go 
over the hens to see if any have nits on 
them ; if there are any they' will always be 
found at the base of the feathers under the 
vent. Sitting on a stool with the hen’s 
body, head down, between my knees, I 
can open the feathers with one hand and 
with a tin oiler filled with a mixture 
of half kerosene and half ftnseed oil, 
saturate every bunch of nits in a minute. 
Only a drop of oil is needed to kill the nits 
on three or four feathers. Then I put the 
hens in the chick houses and do not give 
them the chicks until three or four hours 
later, when the kerosene fumes have evap¬ 
orated. The trouble with lousy chicks 
to the fact that there is a larger percentage 
of pullets than there was last year. But 
other factors must also contribute to the 
greatly increased record. Last year in 
January they laid 3,203 eggs, this year in 
the same month they laid 7,016—more than 
double the number of the previous year. 
In three months last year the total was 
11,403: in 2% months this year the total 
is 12.970. The milder Winter may have 
something to do with it. Imt probably the 
birds are of better quality. It is stated 
that they are consuming more feed than 
last year. 
Thomas Barron's White Leghorns have 
the same peculiar habit out there that they 
do here; that is, they outlay all other 
birds of any breed. They won the silver 
cup for both December and January. Their 
record for the 2% months is 476 eggs; the 
next highest record is by a pen of Silver 
W.vandottes from Illinois, viz., 384. That 
makes Barron's Leghorns 92 eggs ahead of 
the highest scoring American birds. The 
totals of the 10 best pens for the 2% 
months are as follows: 
Eggs 
S. C. White Leghorns, England. 476 
Silver Wyandottes, Illinois. 384 
Silver Wyandottes, Iowa. 340 
Black Orpingtons, Canada. 332 
Barred P. Rocks, Illinois. 314 
Black Langshans, Missouri. 313 
White Wyandottes, Arkansas. 313 
S. C. R. I. Reds, Florida. 306 
White Wyandottes, Arkansas. 305 
White Wyandottes, New Jersey. 300 
One of the Black Orpington pullets from 
Canada laid every day in January, 31 eggs 
THE HEN BROODERS ON COSGROVE'S FARM. Fig. 120. 
starts mainly from the unbatclied nits on 
the body of the hen. 
I face the rows of coops squarely to 
the east. This is much better than to the 
south. The sun rises now a long way to 
the north of east, and the chicks have the 
full benefit of the suu when it is cool in 
the early morning and the heat is needed ; 
at 11 o’clock in the morning, when the 
sun just begins to shine in coops faced 
to the south mine have had six hours of 
sunshine, and as the sun gets too hot at 
noon, the inside of a coop faced east 
furnishes shade. I partitioned off part of 
my garden with a piece of chick wire 
netting, plowed the garden and sowed oats, 
wheat and barley, and covered it with the 
cultivator. Every morning, when it doesn't 
rain, I spend about 10 minutes turning up 
that ground with a spading fork; and it 
is 10 minutes of fun to see those chicks 
work and run with worms and eat the 
sprouted grain. As quick as a forkful is 
lifted 50 chicks are in the hole and care 
has to be taken lest a chick be impaled 
when the fork is put in the ground. This 
living food puts life into the chicks, and 
the exercise makes them grow strong and 
hardy. The sprouted grain takes the place 
of green food, and they dig and work nearly 
all day, and almost bury themselves trying 
to get it. I think the bare ground is' far 
better than putting the coops on grass. In 
a few days the grass gets trampled down, 
soiled with the droppings and useless as a 
source of green food. Of course the coops 
can be moved to a fresh spot; that is 
easy with two or three coops, but a big 
job if there are 20 or 30 coops to move 
every few days. geo. a. cosgrove. 
THE EGG-LAYING CONTEST. 
The fowls at the contest are “getting a 
gait on,” this fourteenth week, the output 
being 1275 eggs, a gain of 1275 over the 
previous week. The White Wyandottes laid 
484 eggs, making a gain of 151 over the 
week before. The Barred P. Rocks of 
Woodside Poultry Farm, and the Single 
Comb Rhode Island Reds of Homer P. 
Doming tie for the honor of first place this 
week, each having laid 25 eggs. Thomas 
Barron’s White Leghorns are second with 
24 to their credit. Dr. J. A. Fritchey’s 
Single Comb R. I. Reds and Edward Cam’s 
pen of White Wyandottes tie for third place 
with scores of 23 each. Woodman & 
Smith's Single Comb R. I. Reds are fourth 
with 22. 
Five pens laid 21 each, one of them being 
the pen of White Wyandottes from Mrs. 
H. F. Haynes of Idaho, the birds that 
started for the contest on horseback. The 
White Leghorns from Thomas Barron of 
England still maintain their monotonous 
habit of leading all other pens in the total 
number of eggs laid, their score to date 
being 291 ; and Edward Cam’s pen of the 
same breed come next with a score of 271. 
Geo. II. Schmitz’s little Buff Leghorns have 
passed the Whites of Braeside Poultry 
Farm, which have held third place until 
now. Mr. Schmitz’s pen have laid 225, 
Braeside pen 219, giving them fourth place 
in the total score. Edward Cam’s White 
Wyandottes have laid 217 ; the Rose Comb 
It. I. Reds from Glen View Poultry Farm, 
215 ; and Dr. J. A. Fritchey’s Single Comb 
Reds, 202; 38 pens have records between 
100 and 200. The total number of eggs 
laid to date is 9,595. Every pen of White 
Leghorns laid this week, though one pen 
only laid one egg. Every pen' of every 
breed daid except the White Laced Red 
Cornish, and the Buttercuns. 
The fowls at the Mountain Grove, Mis¬ 
souri, contest, are making a far better rec¬ 
ord than they did last year; owing partly 
in 31 days. Of the 11 highest individual 
records made in the 2% months, the Eng¬ 
lish White Leghorns stand first and second 
with scores of 63, 62, and tenth and 
eleventh with 55, 55. Making four out of 
the eleven highest scores. 
Feeding Tests.— Where they are keep¬ 
ing 28 different kinds of feed before the 
birds all the time, they are getting the 
best results. The birds are allowed to help 
themselves. In such circumstances it is in¬ 
teresting to learn what they will select. 
They have eaten exactly the same amount 
of wheat as they have of corn, 44 lbs. 
of each. They have eaten about three times 
as much corn and wheat as of any other 
one kind of feed. Rolled oats, millet, and 
sunflower seeds, come next. Very little 
ground feed of any kind was eaten. They 
have buttermilk and water to drink, and 
they drink about equal quantities of each. 
The above is what 10 hens have eaten when 
they could select for themselves. It ought 
to give us a pointer as to what is a good 
feed for hens. Also it shows that the hen 
prefers to use her own grist mill, rather 
than to have her grain ground for her. The 
advantage of the ground grain is, that we 
can feed a greater variety of feed in that 
form. GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Sweet Clover for New Jer*ey. 
Last Spring I moved with my family from 
Ohio to this place, and purchased a some¬ 
what run-down farm with the intention 
of. converting it into a fruit and poultry 
farm. The land needs “building up,” as 
do most of the farms around here. I also 
desire to keep as much stock as the place 
will support. I have read a great deal 
of late in the agricultural papers in re¬ 
gard to the value of Sweet clover for pas¬ 
ture, hay, green manuring, etc., in short 
it seems that it would just about “fill the 
bill” in my case. It grew along the road 
ways in Ohio and we considered it a bother¬ 
some weed. Give me your advice in regard 
to its value, also how and when to sow 
the seed in this latitude. Should it be 
sown on top of ground in Winter or har¬ 
rowed in in Spring? Does it need a nurse 
crop? c. e. c. 
Vineland, N. J. 
Sweet clover is a crop that will grow on 
very poor land and will, under favorable 
conditions, enrich it in nitrogen and vege¬ 
table matter. In the Middle West Sweet 
clover has come in along the roadbeds 
of railroads, and in many instances, there 
is a solid mass of it on land that but a 
few years ago had been excavated and had 
lost its surface soil. There is no dowbt, 
therefore, that Sweet clover is a crop 
capable of growing under conditions that 
would not suit most other crops. It is 
true, at the same time, that for the en¬ 
riching of sandy soils or sandy loams 
there are other crops like Crimson clover, 
Winter vetch, cow-peas or even Soy beans 
that would prove, on the whole, more sat¬ 
isfactory and more effective. 
Where Alfalfa can be grown, it should 
be given preference to Sweet clover as a 
forage crop. In our experience Sweet 
clover cannot compete with Alfalfa either 
in the yield of total nutrients per acre, or 
in the quality and palatability of the for¬ 
age produced. Under ’certain conditions 
Sweet clover might be more desirable than 
Alfalfa. This is true particularly of very 
heavy land inclined to be wet and inclined 
to heave in the Winter. Land like this 
is unfit for the growing of Alfalfa, but 
would produce good crops of Sweet clover. 
Information concerning Sweet clover could 
no doubt be secured from the Agricultural 
Experiment Station of Lexington, Kentucky. 
J. G. LI PM AN. ' 
N. J. Experiment Station. 
-■■"•A *; 
to make roofing 
W waterproof \\ 
Roofings made of various compositions give ^ 
protection and service only till their “compositions” disin¬ 
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THE TRINIDAD-LAKE-ASPHALT 
Many substitutes are manufactured products whose oils of value 
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Get Genasco Roofing of your dealer. Smooth or mineral surface. 
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Trinidad 
Asphalt Lake 
Every Boy or Girl Going to College 
TECHNICAL OR NORMAL SCHOOL 
should send their name on a postal to 
EDMUND KETCHUM, Lock Box 58. ROXBURY, MASS. 
B Need little attention and pay big profits 
^ K you are Interested in them send for a 
sample copy of Gleanings In Bee Culture, 
for the A l®° a bee supply catalog. 
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rami Box 350. Medina, Ohio. 
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218 N. W. St. 
A NEW HOLSTEIN, WIS 
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from all Transfer Points. 
