THE RURAL N E VV -YORKER 
£*-i& 
191."». 
The Henyard. 
THE EGG-LAYING CONTEST. 
The thirty-seventh week ended July 17. 
The egg record for the week shows a 
drop in production of SO eggs; the num¬ 
ber laid was 1,952 as against 2,032 the 
previous week. The White Leghorns 
are responsible for this entire loss and 
more; their output for the previous 
week was 1,072; this w r eek it is 981, a 
loss of 91 eggs. But the week’s total 
of 1,952 is 147 more than were laid last 
year in the same week. It is gratifying 
to know that succeeding contests show 
gains in egg production. That has been 
the result of contests held in other coun¬ 
tries. notably so in Australia, where the 
leading pen of six birds averaged 264.8 
eggs for each birds. That is ahead of 
anything yet done in this country, but 
they have been holding egg-laying con¬ 
tests for 10 years, while we have just 
begun to hold them. The efforts to win 
put forth by breeders, leads to more trap¬ 
nesting, to weeding out the poor layers, 
to more care in mating, to keeping rec¬ 
ords, and ultimately to a general in¬ 
crease in the average number of eggs pro¬ 
duced. 
Poultry shows are all right for those 
who breed fowls to look at, and they 
serve a useful purpose in standardizing 
breeds; but the hundred millions who 
have to be fed every day are better 
served by the man who increases egg 
production than by him who perfects the 
feathering on the middle toe of a Brah¬ 
ma, or the under color of a. Rhode Island 
Red. White Leghorns fail to make the 
high score this week; that honor goes 
to the 8. C. Rhode Island Reds of Co¬ 
lonial Farm, their score of 30 being the 
highest. W. L .•Sleegur’s pen of White 
Leghorns are second with a score of 28. 
Edward Cam’s White Leghorns laid 27 ; 
A. I*. Robinson’s White Leghorns 27; 
Frank Toulmin’s White Leghorns 27; 
Iugleside Poultry Farm’s White Leg¬ 
horns 27, and E. S. Scoville’s It. C. R. I. 
Reds 27. The one pen of Columbian 
Wyandottes laid 26, and six pens of 
White Leghorns laid 26. 
Tom Barron’s pen laid 25 and their 
total now is 907. Edward Cam's White 
Leghorns total 824; O. A. Foster’s 7S1; 
Frank Toulmin’s White Leghorns 690; 
these four pens are all English birds. W. 
L. Sleegur’s White Leghorns 751; Ed- 
Cam’s White Wyandottes 735; W. P. 
Canby’s White Leghorns 714; Braeside 
Poultry Farm’s White Leghorns 710; 
Geo. II. Schmitz’s Buff Leghorns 697; 
Frank Toulmin’s White Leghorns 690; 
Ballock & Burrows’White Leghorns 694 ; 
Colonial Farm’s S. C. R. I. Reds 688; 
F. A. Jones’^ White Leghorns 687 ; J. J. 
Barclay’s White Leghorns 681; Beulah 
Farm’s White Wyandottes 673; Mrs. H. 
F. Ilaynes’ White Wyandottes 670; and 
27 other pens have laid 600 or over. 
Someone has written that “a man re¬ 
sembles in some degree the animals with 
which he is most successful.” Comment¬ 
ing on this a correspondent in Maine 
writes in regard to the picture of Mr. 
Barron, “he seems to lack the first char¬ 
acteristic of a Leghorn, viz., a good 
comb.” I admit that his hair was 
tousled up a bit, but it was a hot day, 
and Mr. Barron had been busy catching 
and selecting the good or poor layers; 
and as everyone knows he isn’t paying 
much attention to hair or feathers; he 
is after performance —the “efficiency” we 
read about so much nowadays— and lie 
(jets it. My near neighbor, editor of the 
Connecticut Farmer, says of Mr. Barron, 
"he is one of the most approachable men 
we have ever met, cordial, open-hearted, 
willing to tell anything and everything 
about his methods, and withal a* jolly 
good fellow.” Which is all very true. 
GEO. A. COSGKOVE. 
CONN. STATE POULTRY ASSOCIATION. 
Every year our poultry association 
holds a meeting at the Connecticut Agri¬ 
cultural College in midsummer when the 
students are away. President Beach 
gives free use of the dormitories and all 
the college buildings, and meals can be 
had at the dining hall for 25 cents. We 
commenced seven years ago with one-day 
meetings; then for several years held 
two-day meetings; now we have three- 
day meetings, and we fill the college 
buildings to overflowing. Members bring 
their wives and sometimes the children 
also, and we all have a jolly good time. 
Gt course the egg-laying contest plant is 
one of the first objects examined. The 
meetings were held July 28-29-30. Every¬ 
one knew that Mr. Barron had spent 
three days at my house recently, and 
my neighbor, Geo. V. Smith, editor of 
the Connecticut Farmer, and I were kept 
on the floor all the afternoon of the first 
day^ answering questions about Mr. Bar¬ 
ron s methods, and explaining how he 
had succeeded in breeding birds that were 
such good producers. A pleasant feature 
is the attendance of so many ladies. One 
woman had raised 1,200 White Leghorn 
pullets this year, another had sold 10,000 
chicks, which was hardly half 
her usual business, a long sickness in 
he Spring interfering. Another woman 
keeps 1,000 White Leghorn layers. 
Monday evening Prof. James E. Rice, 
ot Cornell, gave an illustrated lecture on 
Recent^ Advances in Poultry Hus¬ 
bandry. ’ No comment is necessary on 
'»ne of Prof. Rice’s lectures—there isn’t 
anything better. From Storrs he went 
"ii to Amherst College, where a tliree- 
'luy meeting of poultrymen of Massacnu- 
M 'tts was being held on same dates as 
purs. I have heard that there were 800 
in attendance at the Amherst meeting. 
Tuesday, Prof. Geo. II. Lamson gave an 
address on “Artificial Incubation.” Prof. 
Lamson has invented an apparatus to 
measure the amount of air supplied, the 
carbon dioxide, moisture, temperature, 
etc., and has been experimenting at 
Storrs for several years. This was a 
valuable lecture. Mr. Fred B. Skinner, 
of Greene,^ N. Y„ lectured on “Managing 
a Commercial Egg Plant.” Mr. Skinner 
runs a big plant himself, and what we 
got from him was the solid, practical 
facts that we all wanted. Prof. Kirkpat¬ 
rick, head of the poultry department at 
Storrs, gave an address on the “Third 
International Egg-laying Contest,” to be¬ 
gin at Storrs November 1 next. At 3 
I*. M. Prof. II. II. Lewis, of the New 
Jersey Agricultural Experiment Sta¬ 
tion at New Brunswick, gave an address 
on “Profitable Egg Production.” This 
lecture was a gem, one of the very best 
I ever listened to. 
Wednesday morning we heard Mr. O. 
W. Mapes on “Problems of Poultry Hus¬ 
bandry Solved and Unsolved.” This was 
a treat. We had saved Mapes until the 
last, and gave him the whole morning 
so as to have plenty of time to fire ques¬ 
tions at him, and we did, and had more 
fun than a circus. Mapes enjoyed it as 
much as we did. Old readers of The 
R. N.-Y. will remember how Mr. Mapes 
shut up “Old Speckles” in a little coop 
and got 136 eggs out of her in 136 days, 
or something like that. Well, Mapes 
told us how he did it. lie had a lot of 
little dishes around the coop containing 
all the things he could think of that a 
hen might need to make eggs, then, for 
fear that he might have omitted some¬ 
thing, he fed her an egg every day! How 
the audience did roar when that came 
out! GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Gapes. 
Some of my chickens have the “gapes.” 
Is it necessary to plow the ground in 
order to prevent the spreading of this 
disease? Won’t it do just as well to 
spread air-slalced lime thoroughly over 
it? What is the cause of this disease, 
and what is the best way to prevent it? 
What is the best way to cure it after 
the chickens have it? Will it kill four- 
months-old pullets or yearling hens? 
Maryland. d. e. c. 
The “gaping” of young chicks is caused 
by the presence of a small worm, known 
as the gapeworm, in the trachea, or wind¬ 
pipe. It is usually found in chicks 
under four weeks old. Where infected 
chicks have once run the grounds and 
buildings may have numbers of these 
mature worms or their, eggs or embryos 
scattered about where they may be picked 
up by healthy chicks, and it has been 
found that earthworms also hold the 
embryonic gapeworms in their digestive 
tracts and may convey them to the chicks 
which eat them. These worms may be 
removed from the chick’s windpipes by 
means of a feather or horsehair loop 
dipped into turpentine and carefully 
twisted about in the trachea of the in¬ 
fected chick, but it is far better to pre¬ 
vent the infection by keeping the chicks, 
if possible, on ground that has never 
been contaminated. If this is impossible, 
the infected buildings may be thox-oughly 
cleaned up and together with the eating 
and drinking vessels be thoroughly dis¬ 
infected by the use of boiling water, car- 
bolized whitewash, etc., while the ground 
may be plowed and well covered with 
slaked lime, or sprinkle with a dilute 
solution of sulphuric acid, one part of 
acid to a hundred of water. Preventive 
measqres are better than curative, and 
all infected chicks should be promptly 
removed from the flock, and the carcasses 
of those dying should be burned. Con¬ 
siderable time, patience, and thorough 
work will be necessary to rid infected 
premises of the parasite. M. b. d. 
Trap-nesting. 
Are 30 or 40 liens too many for one 
flock to trap-nest? Are there any auto¬ 
matic trap-nests being used successfully? 
Would it be practical to move the trap- 
nested flock from a large laying house, 
in Spring, to colony house, which is roomy 
and has a good-sized yard? The reason for 
wanting to move them from the laying 
house to the colony house in Spring is 
on account of not having room for a 
good run. l. j. h. 
New York. 
Any number of hens may be trap- 
nested in one flock, it being necessary 
only to provide sufficient nests so that 
one or more shall always be vacant. 
These should be installed some time be¬ 
fore it is expected to use them to permit 
the hens to become accustomed to them. 
I do not know of any automatic trap- 
nest that can be depended upon, and 
would not advise their use. There is 
no reason why a flock cannot be moved 
from one house to another in the Spring, 
though it will probably temporarily cut 
down the egg record. it. b. d. 
,A Summer Henhouse. 
I have tour gasoline brooder houses 
with shed attached in which I can place 
120 hens. I wish to keep these hens 
through this Summer, but must provide 
a place for them. Will you give me 
advice as to the kind of building to erect? 
Y on understand it is for Summer use 
only. Of course, I wish it to be durable 
and to put it up with the least expense, 
but not at the sacrifice of convenience 
and the welfare of the hens. I have 
thought to use for siding one-plv roofing 
paper, protected by two-inch ‘ chicken 
fencing. Pei’haps you can suggest some¬ 
thing better. e. s. 
A henhouse exclusively for Summer use 
may be built very cheaply as a tight roof 
will be the most essential part of it. The 
sides may consist entirely of wire poul¬ 
try netting if you wish, though it would 
be well to have the north and perhaps 
the west sides made tight by boarding 
or by covering the poultry netting with 
tarred paper or roofing. Posts of the 
desired height might be set into the 
ground and the netting stretched upon 
these, while 2-inch by 4-inch plates to 
support the rafters of the roof could be 
spiked to their tops. The roof could be 
made of cheap boards covered with pre¬ 
pared roofing. Such a house 20 feet 
square would hold 120 fowls and should 
make a pleasant bungalow for their Sum- | 
mer use. m. b. d. 
Ailing Chicks. 
My young chickens go to sleep in their 
coops well and healthy, and in the morn¬ 
ing some are unable to move even from 
one place to another, and some are be¬ 
coming blind. Others are both blind 
and crippled and must be hand-fed. What 
is the trouble? s. o. 
New Jersey. 
I regret that I cannot tell from your 
description what ails your chicks, though 
I suspect that they are sick longer than 
you think. You may find on careful 
inspection that the apparently healthy 
chicks are suffering from some form of 
diarrhoea and are gradually losing flesh 
and strength until they seem all at ; 
once to become helpless and die within ! 
a few hours. I should look the flock over 
very carefully and remove all that seem 
droopy and place them by themselves, 
doing this every day until the trouble 
has disappeared. Then clean up their 
brooders, or coops if they are with hens, 
and disinfect all the dishes and drinking 
fountains used by them with boiling 
water. Burn or bury the carcasses of all 
that die, and see to it that the healthy 
chicks get no food that is musty or spoiled 
and are not kept in dirty quarters or 
compelled to drink dirty water. There 
is nothing that you can do for those 
actually sick but the above precautions 
may limit the fatalities to a small por¬ 
tion of your flock. m. b. d. 
Poor Results With Chicks. 
I have been caring for chicks, both 
hen-hatched and from incubators. 
Hatches were poor in incubators, as low 
as 60 from 250 eggs. Feed supplied me 
was chick feed, and cracked corn and 
wheat; the bedding floor sweepings and 
latex - dry sand. The chicks were grow- 
ing fairly until they got five, six or seven 
weeks old; then they started to drop 
their wings and were getting poor, and 
always liked to stay inside the brooder 
in an heap in the corners. They were 
drinking more than usual, so it seemed 
to me they were feverish. It was the 
same way with them raised by hens. 
Most of them died. For the last two 
hatches and in a few coops, where the 
hens_ with the youngsters were roosting 
at night I used that sawdust for bedding 
instead of sweepings and sand, but didn’t 
make any difference. The owners 
blamed it on the sawdust. What was 
the matter with those chicks and what 
was the cause? k. k. 
From your description of the case, I 
judge that you are innocent of the deaths 
of these chicks, and I do not believe that 
the kind of litter used was responsible 
for the trouble. If the incubators were 
properly run your exceedingly poor 
hatches indicate lack of vitality in the 
breeding stock, and such chicks as did 
hatch started out in life with too little 
vigor to carry them through the period 
of infantile ti’oubles. These troubles in 
chicks are apt to be digestive disturb- j 
ances, and it is better to use soft food 
as part of chick rations than to depend 
entirely upon cracked gnxins. I do not : 
know how skilful y*ou wex*e in caring for 
these chicks, but it would require rather ! 
more than an ordinary amount to bring ; 
to maturity any large proportion of 20 i 
per cent hatches. Without knowing far 
more of the circumstances, it would be 
impossible to properly apportion the 
blame for these results, but I should be 
inclined to bestow a good portion of it 
upon failure to so care for the breeders 
as to insure vigorous progeny. It is also I 
quite possible that the quarters in which 
these chicks were kept are infected with 
germs of white diarrhoea or other con¬ 
tagious disease, or that infection came ! 
from some other source. In either case, ; 
lack of vigor renders chicks more sus¬ 
ceptible to such infection and decreases j 
the number of survivors. m. b. d. 
Turkey Advice. —On page 864 is an 
article on ailing turkeys. As I have 
been raising turkeys for the past 25 years 
I take this opportunity to state my ex¬ 
perience. I find that lice appear on 
young poults at about three weeks after 
hatching, unless the mother has been 
dusted several times with insect powder 
during the sitting period. If you will 
look in between the wing quills you will 
always find them, and under the vent; 
and the young poults fall over, as this man 
says, and die. I feed my turkeys wheat 
(good wheat not screenings), give them 
plenty of grit and clean fresh water 
where they can get it at all times, and 
free range. MRS. E. J. rider. 
Jefferson Go., N. Y. 
and learn why these fas¬ 
teners are being installed 
in the stables of many 
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Lice Murder Chicks 
check laying, stunt growth, ruin ] 
the plumage, torture the hens | 
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25c, 50c. Guaranteed. Pratts 160- | 
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At all dealers, or 
PRATT FOOD COMPANY 
Philadelphia Chicago 
2,000 S. C. W. LEGHORN PULLETS 
HATCHED MARCH—APRIL 15th. 
JOHN l.OKTON LEI.', - Carmel, N, Y. 
SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 
2,000 yearling hens and early puliets. Quality 
kind at right prices to make room. 
SUNNY 1111,1. FARM, Flemington, N. J. 
S. C. While Leghorns3 r “;‘;’;;;i“e s ,S r 
Pinehurst Poultry Farm, Levauna, N. Y. 
MAPLE COVE POULTRY YARDS 
«. 24. Allans, Pa. LtaSgeilg; 
PULLETS Early HatchetLS’SLK; 
White Leghorns and Barred Rocks that will lay 
Early this Fall while Eggs are High. Strictly 
Pure-Bred to Lay Strains. Catalog on request. 
THK MACKEY FARMS, - Gilboa, N. Y . 
WE HAVE FOR SALE A QUANTITY OF EARLY HATCHED 
Pekin Ducks at SI-50 each 
Also 100 Breeding Dnexs at $2 each. 
WHITE HORSE FARMS, - Paoli, Pa. 
F OR SALE—To make loom. 500 WHITE INDIAN RENNER 
OH KS. early hatched, "Fisher - direct, flue, Jl.r.o apiece: satis¬ 
faction guaranteed. Marsh Creek Poultry Farm, Gettysburg, Pa. 
R. I. Reds, Houdans, Indian Runner Ducks 
High-class stock for UTILITY, SHOW or EX¬ 
PORT. ICggs for hatching. Mating list on request. 
SINCLAIR SMITH. 602 Fifth St.. Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Austin’s 200-Egg Strain 
high record stock. Old and young stock for sale. 
AUSTIN POULTRY FARM, Box 17, Centre Harbor. N. H. 
Pfllil TRYMFN - ’Send 2c stamp for Illustrated 
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EAS T DONEGAL POULTRY YAROS -:- MARIETTA. PA, 
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1KERELS for sale. Ad- 
L. MURTFELDT, R. 0. 2. Ncwburoh, N. Y. 
