J 913. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
-410 
A BRAN SACK CHICK BROODER. 
Good Results With Little Cost. 
We think that we reduced fireless brooding to about 
its lowest terms last year when we raised 300 chicks 
under two bran sacks. I say we, though the primary 
superintendent might be inclined to claim most of the 
credit, and insist that the chief help she got from the 
man was in the way of suggestion. Suggestion, how¬ 
ever, is conceded to be a powerful force in these days 
of psychological study, and the man isn’t going to be 
tamely shelved. 
Early in June we found ourselves in possession of 
about three hundred chicks which had been hatched 
during the last week in May and kept in large dry- 
goods boxes in the house until they had made a good 
start in life. Our large brooders had long been filled, 
and the only shelter we could find for these late 
youngsters was two small brooder houses of a type 
once much used, and still popular. These brooders 
are six feet long by three feet wide, and are divided 
by a partition through the centre into two rooms, one 
of which contains a lamp heated hover. The fronts 
are about two feet high and are fitted with two large 
glass doors, while the tops or roofs are removable. 
The heating apparatus of these brooders had long 
since found its way to the junk 
pile, and only the brooder shells 
remained. We might have made 
some fireless hovers to place in 
them, but the weather was warm, 
and we decided to try an easier 
way; at least one of us did, for 
finding easy ways to do things 
has always been a strong point 
with the man. He has made some 
useful discoveries along this line, 
too, and considers that lie who 
makes two blades of grass grow, 
with the labor formerly bestowed 
upon one, is a public benefactor. 
About 150 chicks were placed in 
each of these brooders after all 
the interior fittings had been re¬ 
moved and the floor covered with 
nearly three inches of soft litter 
from under the hay 'mows. The 
brooders were placed in the yard, 
facing the south, and care was 
taken to raise the roof a little in 
front after the sun came up, for 
a very few minutes of sunshine 
through these glass doors will 
heat the interiors to an intoler¬ 
able degree unless they are well 
ventilated. Here the chicks ate 
and drank, and played leap-frog 
through the day, happy in their 
greater freedom, and cozy shelter. 
When the sand man peeked 
through their doors, and they be¬ 
gan to huddle in the corners, and 
change their tone Tom a happy 
twitter to a plaintive peep, the su¬ 
perintendent called the man and 
the cover was lifted bodily from 
the brooder, and a bran sack 
which had been ripped along the 
seam was spread out over the 
chaff in one end. The edges of 
this sack were fastened to the 
sides of the brooder about two 
inches from the floor by means of 
tacks pushed into the soft wood, while its centre lay 
upon the chaff beneath. One edge of this sack across* 
the middle of the brooder was free. The man lifted 
this while the superintendent shooed the chicks be¬ 
neath. A stick laid upon this end then confined the 
e 1 licks to their shelter, and the cover was replaced. 
On a few nights which promised to be unusually 
cold, an extra cover of the same kind was laid upon 
the first, but this was seldom required. Their blanket 
was not removed in the morning until after the sun’s 
rays had reached the brooder, or at least had had 
time to do so if the morning was cloudy. Frequently 
a few sturdy adventurers crawled from under cover 
and tramped over their fellows while waiting for 
bieakfast. None of these ever seemed to suffer from 
c °Id, however, and no great pains were taken to keep 
them from rising early if they wished to. When the 
blanket was lifted in the morning, the chicks rushed 
hath with a whirr of wings, and with sparkling eyes 
that betokened an abundance of vigor; there was none 
“t the sleepy or mussed appearance so frequently seen 
when chicks have artificial heat at night. Through 
the day the chicks had no cover, and seemed not to 
wish any. Sometimes they might be seen huddled 
down sleepily in the chaff, but for the most part they 
were busy and actively moving from morning till night. 
After a few days they were given a small run 
upon clean fresh grass, though on wet sour days 
they were confined to the brooder. Here they stayed 
till Fall; the cockerels were removed early, and 
after the pullets were well feathered out and needed 
no cover at night they spread themselves out over 
the brooder floor until the roosting instinct taught 
some of them to perch on the cover, or fly into a 
neighboring apple tree. Before this time they had 
been given the freedom of a nearby corn field, and 
they used their brooder through the day only as a 
shelter from storm or as their dining hall. Bran sack 
hovers would probably not be found practicable upon 
large poultry plants, and in the early Spring brooders 
might not be warm enough through the day, but upon 
farms where only a few hundred chicks are to be 
raised, and these are not hatched early in the season, 
these sacks may be made to replace lamp heated 
hovers, and usually with better results in health and 
vigor of the chicks. Far less time is required to 
cover and release the chicks than the care of lamps 
necessitates, and many more chicks may be brooded 
together. 
It should be remembered, however, that these chicks 
were all of practically the same age and size, and 
BROOM-CORN MARKET IN LIBERAL, KANSAS. Fig. 135 
CLOTHES BASKET OF CHICKENS. Fig. 136. 
that they had been kept in a warm room of the 
house until they were at least two weeks old. Having 
the entire field was planted to pea beans. Years ago 
the two garden spots were by far the most fertile 
parts of the field. But these spots have had very 
little fertilization since they were used as garden, 
while the rest of the field has had frequent dressings 
of stable manure. The result has been that the farm 
crops—potatoes, oats, hay, etc.—have, in recent years 
been quite uniform over the entire field. 
It was a matter of great surprise, therefore, to see 
the beans last season on the garden spots growing 
right away from those in the rest of the field. At one 
time they seemed fully three times as large on these 
spots at the ends of the field as in the middle. On 
investigation we found bacteria nodules in great num¬ 
bers on the roots of the beans in the garden spots, but 
could find very few or none at all on the roots of 
those making the poor growth in the center of the 
field. Now when we remember that crops other than 
beans have for many years been quite uniform over 
the field, it is difficult to account for the in¬ 
creased growth of beans on the old garden spots, 
otherwise than by the inoculation theory, and I think 
this may fully account for it. 
There are two things of special interest to me in 
this experience. The first is that this particular form 
of bacteria should have persisted in these spots all 
these years (30-40) with no beans 
whatever to work upon, and the 
other thing of interest is that they 
had not been spread throughout 
the field by the many cultivatings. 
The question which I would like 
light upon is this: What were 
those bacteria doing all these 
years? Were they of any benefit 
to the soil as nitrogen gatherers? 
The fact that they lived and re¬ 
produced themselves is evident. 
This of course means a certain 
amount of activity. Was this life 
and activity worth anything to the 
soil? It seems as though an ar¬ 
gument might be deduced to show 
that their presence was a benefit 
The crop-producing power of 
these particular spots has been 
maintained at an average quite 
above the remainder of the field, 
although receiving very much less 
in the way of fertilization. I am 
not sure but that, if it were pos¬ 
sible to get at the facts, it might 
be shown that these old garden 
spots have received less total fer¬ 
tilization, since cultivation and 
fertilization began, than the rest 
of the field, and that their larger 
crop-producing power is due, in 
a measure at least, to these ni¬ 
trogen gathering bacteria (and 
perhaps others), introduced more 
than a generation ago. 
There is a lot we do not know 
yet about soils. Why are some 
soils so disappointingly poor ? Why 
do soils in certain locations wear 
so unexpectedly well? How does 
it come that certain soils at 
Rothamstead which have been 
cropped for 60 years with no fer¬ 
tilization whatever, contain as 
much nitrogen to-day as in the 
beginning of the experiment? 
Is it just possible that we do not yet fully appreciate 
the work of nitrogen-gathering bacteria, and that by 
never had any other cover than a bran sack, this • introducing these organisms into our soils, we might 
looked motherly to them, and they soon learned to 
run beneath it at night, almost before it could be put 
in place. Plenty of dry soft litter beneath them was 
also found necessary, and a little of that instinct 
in the caretaker which enables one to know when 
chicks are happy and comfortable. m. b. dean. 
receive a benefit from them, although the crops gen¬ 
erally considered necessary to their growth and activ¬ 
ity do not form a part of the general rotation? 
Ohio. F. L. ALLEN. 
NITROGEN-GATHERING BACTERIA. 
We had a little experience on the farm last season 
which may perhaps be of general interest, and which 
raises a question which I should like to see discussed. 
We have on the farm a long narrow field, at either 
end of which, 30-40 years ago was a garden. These 
former garden spots are about 80 rods apart. It is 
presumable that in their garden days, beans were 
grown in these garden spots, thus introducing the 
particular form of bacteria which grows upon and 
works with the garden bean. Until last season no 
beans have ever been grown upon this field except 
those grown 30 or 40 and more years ago in the 
garden spots at the ends of the field. Last season 
The Board of Trade and Grange of Billerica, Mass., 
offer a prize of $1,000 for a yield of corn which will 
beat the present record in New England. The winner 
will be obliged to raise some corn, for L. S. White 
of Connecticut, has a record of 112.68 bushels of corn 
figured down to 12 per cent of moisture! We have 
had much to say about this “two blades of grass” 
theory but “two ears of corn” is a good thing for New 
England. The town of Billerica alone produces about 
1,000 bushels of corn and consumes about 10,000. The 
shortage in Middlesex County is estimated at 300.000 
bushels. At the average retail price this means over 
$200,000 sent away for corn—every bushel of which 
could be grown at home. Thus it becomes a great 
problem—this working for increased corn yields. The 
Billerica people are good sports. Plere is a town 250 
years old of about 3,000 people putting up $1,000 in 
cash for a corn prize! Keep that spirit up and New 
England will soon produce all the corn her people 
need. 
