450 
THE RURAL NEW*YORKER 
March 22, 
The Henyard. 
Poultry Questions. 
Have a henhouse 12x20 feet, about eight 
feet to eaves with a gabled roof. About six 
feet above the sill there is a false ceiling 
made of boards placed about an inch apart 
and this loft is bedded with straw. In 
the south side three feet above the sill there 
is about 12 feet of window space 150 inches 
wide, which is fitted with muslin frames. 
There is a good wall (tile) under the sills 
all around, and a three-inch concrete floor 
covers the bottom. The roof has been newly 
covered with roofing paper. The studs are 
boarded up with cove siding on the outside, 
but as it is old it is not wind-proof. Would 
you advise covering the outside with roof¬ 
ing paper, boarding the inside and using 
another layer of paper to cover this? 
Would there be any objection to placing 
the tarred paper next to the fowls? I 
have been told that hens will wear off 
their toenails on a concrete floor, so have 
always kept it covered with sand. But 
this mixes with the straw and in a few 
weeks there is a mass of rubbish on the 
floor in which grain can easily be lost. I 
have heard of putting a coat of asphaltum 
over the concrete. Would this remedy the 
case? If so give particulars concerning its 
composition and application. My breed is 
the S. C. White Leghorn. About how many 
could be wintered in this house? Would 
the temperature of the house be sufficiently 
warm and would a small lamp under the 
water dish help any? Pas's criticism and 
make suggestions wherever you see fit for 
1 am after facts and figures. Is a board 
floor Jn a henhouse cheaper (in the long 
run) or better than one made of concrete? 
About how many square feet each of yard 
room should a flock of 100 Leghorns have? 
If 3,000 were kept in one flock how many 
would be needed per bird? IIow many 
inches of perch room should a Leghorn 
pullet have? Would a 2x2-inch perch nine 
feet long supported 18 inches in from either 
end be heavy enough ? IIow many breeding 
hens would a house 7x12 feet accommodate? 
Should the breeding males run with the fe¬ 
males throughout the year? If not how 
should they be housed? F. m. g. 
Andover, O. 
There would be no objection to placing 
the tarred paper next to the fowls, but, if 
you wish to sheath the building, you will 
make a better job by removing the cove 
siding and sheathing upon the studs; this 
sheatiling may then be covered with build¬ 
ing paper, and the sidilig replaced, you 
will have a permanently tight wall. I 
have never been able to keep straw litter 
from matting down upon any kind of floor, 
as it is soon broken into fine pieces by 
the fowls. Using asphalt upon the floor 
would make no difference, and I should 
much prefer concrete covered with loam. 
Coarsely cut cornstalks make a litter that 
is not easily packed down, and is superior 
in this respect to straw. This building 
should house 75 to 80 fowls, and if air¬ 
tight, except in front, should be sufficiently 
warm for Leghorns. We should not depend 
upon muslin for light and ventilation, but 
would have nearly one-third of the front 
in glass, with enough open space in addi¬ 
tion to keep the building dry. A drop cur¬ 
tain in front of the perches will save the 
fowls’ combs in zero weather. There is 
little choice between a well-made board 
floor or one of concrete. The latter, being 
permanent, would probably be cheaper ‘fin 
the long run,” if the run were long enough, 
but a board floor, placed well above ground 
so that it will not rot underneath, should 
last many years. A dirt floor, properly 
drained and cared for, is cheaper yet, and 
very satisfactory. 
Leghorns should have about six inches 
each of perch room, and a 2x2-incb perch 
would be superior to a 2x2-inch. Allow 
three to four square feet for each fowl in 
either breeding pen or laying house, the 
former amount of floor space being probably 
the minimum amount advisable. Males 
should be given separate quarters after the 
breeding season is over, as infertile eggs 
keep much better than fertile ones, and 
hens lay fully as well if no males are in 
the flock. m. B. D. 
Effect of Buckwheat; Asafetida for Turkeys. 
1. There is a belief prevalent here that 
a crop of buckwheat, allowed to ripen, 
‘‘runs down” the land, that grass or other 
crops following it will suffer, even though 
fertilized, and the land show the injurious 
effect of buckwheat for several years. Is 
this true? Could the growth of buckwheat 
cause a chemical or physical change in 
sandy loam? 2. A neighboring turkey 
raiser advocates giving the young poults a 
monthly does of asafeitida. She thinks 
it acts beneficially upon the liver. Is 
there any basis for this idea? R. G. D. 
Connecticut. 
1. Any crop taken from the land “runs 
it down” to the extent that it removes 
plant food from it, and a plant that is al¬ 
lowed to ripen its seed removes more plant 
food than it would if cut in the green 
state. Further than this, some crops seem 
to exert a deleterious effect upon those 
immediately following them, and to a great¬ 
er extent than can be accounted for by the 
removal of plant food. It is believed that, 
in the process of their growth, plants not 
only remove plant food from the soil, but 
that they discharge certain waste products 
into it, and that these waste products are 
inimical to their own welfare. It is one 
of the functions of the soil, particularly 
of its contained humus, to neutralize these 
waste products, and plants further protect 
themselves from re-absorption of their own 
excreta by means of an impervious coat 
which forms over the feeding rootlets in 
old ground as fast as their tips extend 
into new. It is a plausible theory that 
the accumulation of these poisonous waste 
products in the soil is partially respon¬ 
sible for the steadily decreasing yield when 
the same crop is continued year after year 
upon the land, and it is also quite possible 
; that the effluvia from one plant may exert 
a harmful influence upon certain others. 
If this be true, it accounts for some crops 
failing to do well when immediately fol¬ 
lowing certain others. It is believed by 
some that oats and corn do not do well 
after buckwheat, but, so far as the writer 
knows, this has never been proven, and is 
doubtful. In buckwheat growing regions 
it is found that this grain may be con¬ 
tinued upon the same ground, without di¬ 
minution in yield, for much longer periods 
than any of the other commonly grown 
crops. It has the reputation, therefore, of 
not “running” the land, and has, also, the 
characteristic of leaving the soil upon which 
it is grown in a markedly mellow condi¬ 
tion. 
2. Asafetida has no effect, so far as is 
known, upon the human liver, and the 
writer knows of no reason for thinking 
that it has upon those of turkeys. 
M. B. D. 
Portable Chicken House. 
What in your opinion is the cheapest 
and best portable chicken house for a farm 
that does not follow any exact system? 
New York. r. b. 
You do not say whether you desire a 
portable house for young chickens, or old 
fowls. If the former I know of nothing 
more satisfactory than the Cornell colony 
brooder house. This will hold 200 chick¬ 
ens until the cockerels are removed for 
broilers, and will then house the pullets 
until time to place them in their Winter 
quarters. For permanent quarters for lay¬ 
ing fowls I should use a little larger build¬ 
ing, say 10x12, with a shed roof, and built 
upon skids, or runners, so that a team 
could draw it from one place to another. 
These may be built of rough boards covered' 
with tarred roofing paper, or of a single 
thicknesslof matched stuff, placed vertically. 
In use, they should face the south, and 
should be ventilated through open fronts. 
M. B. D. 
Line-breeding and In-breeding. 
I wish to call your attention to the arti¬ 
cle on page 146 dealing with line-breeding 
and inbreeding. I disagree with W. E. D. 
in regards to inbreeding being breeding 
sire or dam to their offspring, as I under¬ 
stand that breeding sire or dam to their 
offspring constitutes line breeding, and that 
breeding the offspring of the same sir*, 
or dam to each other constitutes inbreed¬ 
ing. I would like very much to have your 
opinion on the above question, d. o. t. 
New Hampshire. 
I agree with you that line breeding is 
breeding the offspring of a mating back to 
the sire and grandsire, in the ca^e of the 
female offspring, and to the dam and 
granddam, in the case of the male offspring. 
Inbreeding consists in mating the offspring 
of the same, or closely related, parents, not 
back to the parents, but to each other, 
thus mating brothers and sister*, half 
brothers and half sisters, cousins, etc. Line¬ 
breeding is inbreeding, but inbreeding is 
not necesarily line-breeding. Breeding in 
the direct line of descent, or line-breeding, 
is usually carried down in two lines, one 
from the male, and one from the female. 
The further down the line the breeding is 
carried, the greater the concentration of 
blood of the original male or female in 
the progeny, while a cross between those 
two lines, at any generation, promptly 
re-divides the original blood, equally again. 
By means of this latter cross, a third line 
of descent from the original pair may be 
Started at any time. I think that W. E. 
D._ probably also understands the matter in 
this way, but through one of those curious 
pranks which our minds sometimes play 
«us, wrote line-breeding when he meant in- 
breeding, and vice versa. m. b. d. 
Testing Out Infertile Eggs. 
Could a way be found of so testing eggs 
to be hatched, and improving the incubators, 
that there would be no trouble of testing 
and taking out infertile eggs, but that every 
egg would hatch? What would it be worth 
to the average man per 100 eggs for the 
taking out beforehand of all infertile eggs? 
Would a way of picking out hens from 
roosters he of value to many? By that is 
meant, the choosing of eggs that would 
hatch hens. It would be good for those 
who only wanted layers. j. w. b. 
New jersey. 
It would be difficult to fix the exact 
value to poultrymen of a method that 
would detect infertile eggs before incubat¬ 
ing, or of one that would enable them to 
tell which eggs would hatch pullets, and 
which roosters. It is enough to say that 
such methods would be extremely valuable, 
and will probably never be found. Na¬ 
ture has placed the control of sex in all 
animals beyond the reach of man, and 
though there are ingenious theories con¬ 
cerning the matter, it is not known what 
factors determine the sex of the unborn 
foetus. If you contemplate the formula¬ 
tion of such methods as you speak of, we 
would suggest that you first make a care¬ 
ful study of embryology, with special ref¬ 
erence to the Mendelian theory. It may 
save you trouble and disappointment. 
M. B. D. 
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