1913. 
THE RURAL ME W-YORKER 
811 
MANY CHICKS IN ONE BROODER. 
How the Colony Plan Is Operated. 
On a recent visit to the poultry farm of Mr. A. M. 
Pollard, the superintendent of the egg-laying con¬ 
test at Storrs, Conn., I saw for the first time the 
Hall colony brooders in actual operation. In an 
8 x 14-foot house with three large windows on south 
side which had been taken out and openings covered 
with poultry netting, Mr. Pollard had put 519 chicks 
under one brooder, and at the time of my visit, when 
the chicks were six weeks old. he had lost only 12. 
These are all White Leghorn chicks. The cut which 
has the cover raised shows these chicks all settled 
down for the night. No heat is furnished them 
now. and they run in and out of the house at will, 
their yard being a large one with 
plenty of shade from both trees and 
bushes, and abundance of grass. I 
was surprised to see so many chicks 
together, without a single one showing 
“big wings” or any sign of weakness. 
They were feathered out nicely, and 
were as happy and thrifty a lot as I 
ever saw. The heat is furnished by 
a coal burning stove; this had no regu¬ 
lator, but a later design has. Mr. Pol¬ 
lard says he would just as soon use 
the one without a regulator, as the 
chicks adapt themselves to the tem¬ 
perature by getting out to the margin 
when there is plenty of heat. Small 
pea coal is burned, and the expense is 
only a fraction of what oil would cost. 
There are absolutely no fumes, the 
stove pipe going straight up through 
the roof. With the draft closed there 
is abundance of heat. The three win¬ 
dows have been entirely open day and 
night all the Spring, and the chicks 
perfectly comfortable. On stormy days they were 
kept in the house, other days they ran in and out 
at will. Mr. Pollard takes pains to shake the drop¬ 
pings out of the litter and carry them away, keep¬ 
ing the floor clean and sweet all the time. Hay 
was t«sed for litter and abundance was supplied, so 
the chicks had a soft, comfortable bed to lie on 
at night. 
In the slightly larger house where the hover is 
shown down on the floor, there are over 000 chicks. 
These were only about two weeks old when 1 saw 
them, and they were also a bright, thrifty-looking 
lot. The same care to maintain cleanliness was 
evident here. Most of the chicks were less than 
two weeks old. but they had no difficulty in finding 
their way outdoors and back to the 
brooder. Sometimes a hundred or 
more all in a bunch would rush out to 
the furthest end of their yard and in 
a few minutes they would all he hack 
to the brooder. 
Here are over a thousand chicks 
cared for effectually by only two 
brooders. Anyone can easily see how 
much this reduces the time and labor 
required. In this case Mr. Pollard's 
time is fully occupied every day at 
the egg-laying contest plant, which is 
in plain view from his house three 
miles from the plant. During the day 
Mrs. Pollard and her daughter take en¬ 
tire care of the chicks and poultry, and 
find it an easy matter. I failed to 
mention that the hovers are raised by 
a rope and pulley clear to the roof if 
desired, so that it is entirely out of the 
way when one wants to clean out the 
litter, or fill the stove. 
CEO. A. COSGROVE. 
The pictures, Figs. 2S6-2S7, show 
the brooder with the hover in position 
and raised for cleaning and filling 
built stacks had to be partly or wholly torn down, 
dried and rebuilt, which caused much loss; many 
poor stacks that were not re-dried and re-stacked 
suffered to the extent of an almost total loss. My 
grain was not thrashed until late in the Fall, and 
the kernels were almost as hard as shot and of a 
good color. I gained at least one grade and I am 
satisfied that I gained in weight and saved in waste 
by proper stacking. 
I have stook-thraslied several seasons and found 
that the grain lost in color and quality to the 
amount of one grade. I also lost a good deal of 
grain through waste by way of loose stuff left in 
the field. Pitchers will not take up the loose grain 
about the stooks due to the mice cutting the bands, 
etc. All things considered, I am fully convinced 
the bottom to the top is kept well tramped and high. 
Above the eaves I keep the center filled so as to 
slant the outside layer or round at about 45 degrees. 
The sheaves are laid like shingles and when the 
stack settles the shingled sheaves are so steep that 
the most driving rain is baffled. 
Many stacks are made useless by drawing in 
above the eaves too abruptly. Draw in slowly at 
first, increasing until the top is reached, giving the 
top an egg-shape from eaves to peak. Carry the 
ends of the long stacks perpendicularly up to the 
peak. Lay two or three layers of sheaves along 
and crosswise of the ridge so as to make sure of no 
rain getting into the center of the top of the stack. 
To keep the cap sheaves from blowing off, a double 
strand of binder twine, to the ends of which are 
attached weights of wood or stone and 
laid on top of the caps will generally 
keep them on. If a stack should slip, 
the builder will know that he either 
did not tramp the foundation enough, 
or has made his stack project out too 
far- w. ii. u. 
Illinois. 
HALL COLONY BROODER WITH HOVER RAISED. Fig. 280. 
that it pays to stack well in any season and thrash 
any time after the grain has been in the stack about 
two weeks. 
In selecting a site for the stacks, any level spot 
high enough that water will not. lie in case of rain, 
will do very well. Care should be taken to see that 
the ground is level, otherwise the separator, unless 
much trouble is taken in the setting, will waste 
grain. The shorter the haul from The stooks to the 
stack the better. It is not an easy matter to make 
a man a good stacker by just telling him what to 
do. Showing him is better, and yet only actual 
experience will make him proficient. I build my 
stacks about two-thirds as wide as they are long, 
endwise to the separator and in fours just wide 
the stove. 
STACKING VVHIiAT AND OATS. 
Liking into consideration the difference in price 
between stook and stack thrashing, I think every 
grower of wheat and oats can at least make good 
"ages by stacking the grain. It is to be definitely 
understood, however, that the stacking must be 
properly done. Throwing the- sheaves into a heap 
in a careless manner is a waste of time, energy, 
and in the advent of wet weather, very disappoint¬ 
ing with considerable loss. I have had a good many 
Mm is of experience in stacking, and during the 
pioeess exercise the utmost care to see that the 
"pm ation. is properly executed. Last season I put 
'I-" last load of grain on the stack in the beginning 
"l a big rain that did a great amount of damage to 
stacks and stooks in this vicinit\ 
Ly. Many improperly 
BROODER WITH HOVER IN POSITION. Fig. 2S7. 
enough between the inside ends to let the feeder and 
belt in, with the inside sides as close as possible, 
only leaving room enough for the drip of each stack 
to reach the ground. About 10 good even loads are 
put in each stack. I begin by making the bottom 
somewhat smaller than the bulge of the stack, grad¬ 
ually swelling until the eaves are reached. The 
eaves are made by shoving the eave sheaves out 
about six inches. Two-thirds of the grain I put in 
the body of the stack and one-third in the top above 
the eaves. Stook the first or ground layer: then 
begin laying the rounds from the outside, lapping 
butts to the band of the under layer. I put extra 
layers in the center so that all the sheaves incline 
outward until the eaves are reached, but do not 
thread the outside round. When the eaves are 
reached and topping is being done, I do not tramp 
either of the two outside rounds. The center from 
PROSPECTS IN SOUTHERN NEW 
YORK. 
When it comes to the 20th of June it 
is time to know whether our best crop, 
that of hay, is to be good or poor. This 
year it promises poor. It is doubtful 
now whether it will be possible to get a 
good growth even with a lot of rain. 
There have been instances of much 
growth after this date with an abund¬ 
ance of rain, but it was when there 
had been a fair start made. Now it 
seems doubtful if a good crop can be 
had in any way. Moreover there ap¬ 
pears to be no prospect of rain in the near future. 
We will cut some grass, and it may be doubted 
whether any localities can present any better ap¬ 
pearance in a dry time than that which we now 
have. That is small consolation, however, when the 
mow is only part full. The fact that we had so 
good hay crops for several years and that our mows 
are well started with old hay is an item of encour¬ 
agement for us at the present moment. I am not 
entirely discouraged over a possible growth even at 
this date, but the prospect is not encouraging. 
Pastures are feeling the effects of the dry weather, 
too. but the amount of stock is not very large, and 
there is considerable feed, although not of the usual 
appetizing sort. It is becoming dry and is not 
sought for as was the case with more 
rainfall. We are feeding our cows a 
little at this date; it seems in one 
way unnecessary, but on the whole 
I think it pays. I notice that simi¬ 
lar conditions extend for a long 
distance out from here. The growth 
of grass, whether in meadow or pas¬ 
ture, is too slow for comfort to the 
farmer who wants to feed a good deal 
of stuff next Winter. At a distance of 
a hundred miles or more I found con¬ 
ditions similar to ours. It is not an 
ideal time for a man from the West 
or elsewhere to come on here to buy a 
farm, as we hope many will do, as fast 
as we can find places for them. A 
small amount of money will go a long 
way in that proposition. It may be a 
better time for them to see how bad 
the unfavorable seasons are than for 
our farmers to convince them that the 
conditions at their worst are not so 
bad as in many other sections of the 
country. I would not discourage any 
one from coming to see at this time, 
but would warn that things are not at the normal 
as compared with an average season with a fair 
amount of rain. H . ii. l. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
At Amenia, N. Y., they have an annual field day. It 
is a free day for farmers with no objectionable features 
—a good thing of its kind. This year it will be held 
August 16. 
You might think from reading of the scientific metli 
ods of flour making, that the old-fashioned millstone 
had seen its day. Yet last year $71,414 worth of them 
were produced—more than in any year since 1888. 
II. E. Van Deman writes from Central New York: 
“The whole of Onondaga and Cortland Counties that I 
have seen are swarming with Tent caterpillars, the ap¬ 
ple and cherry trees being bare of foliage and the worms 
crawling all over tlw ground hunting for more things 
to eat. I never saw them one one-hundredth as bad.” 
