133 
THE RU R.A.L NEW-YORKER 
Januarj 24 
The Henyard. 
Chicken Figures Once More. 
On page 25 you have an article, entitled 
“A Chicken Man’s Arithmetic,” which 
proves to me that you can prove anything 
with figures if you do not think too deep¬ 
ly. If B. II. C.’s figures were correct, 
there would be no breed in existence ex¬ 
cept the White Leghorn; but anyone who 
knows anything about poultry knows 
that it is pure theory, and not very 
good theory at that. If you want to 
prove this, simply put some heayy breed 
in with a pen of Leghorns, and you will 
find that though the Leghorn is more 
active, and so gets more than its share of 
the food, the heavier breed will soon be 
over-fat. I will take a pen of chicks of 
some of the heavier breeds, and the food 
tnat is used for an equal number of Leg¬ 
horn chicks, and in 10 weeks I will de¬ 
velop them to three-quarters of a pound 
apiece more than the Leghorn. 
Then in the case of the adult bird I 
will produce eggs on less food per egg 
than he can with Leghorns simply be¬ 
cause of the Leghorns’ food going to make 
muscle and sinew. His figuring is some¬ 
what like the figures often used for heavy¬ 
laying hens: If a hen lays an egg a day 
for a week, and there are 52 weeks in the 
year, by jinks! that is a 365-egg hen. 
Tommy-rot! This is the kind of figuring 
that leads so many people into the chick¬ 
en business, and through the chicken 
business to failure and disgust. Let us 
get away from such extravagant theories 
and we shall be on the road to business 
stability. j. f. c. 
New Jersey. 
Feed and Care of Winter Layers. 
The following is the regular routine 
of work as practiced on a successful 
poultry farm: Their laying stock was 
mostly early-hatched S. C. White Leg¬ 
horn pullets of a good-laying strain. Not 
only were they early hatched, but they 
were raised on free range and under nat¬ 
ural conditions. They were kept growing 
every day in the year, so by the time 
they were put into Winter quarters they 
were fully matured. 
The first thing in the morning was to 
raise the muslin curtains, unless the 
weather was exceptionally severe, or the 
wind, accompanied by rain, was blowing 
from the south. In that case they are 
left closed. They next fed each pen a 
scanty feeding of a mixture of equal 
parts of corn and wheat. This grain 
mixture they scattered well over the lit¬ 
ter, and with the aid of a fork work it 
well down into the same. Next they re¬ 
plenish the drinking dishes with clean, 
fresh water, with the chill taken off. 
Then the roost platforms were cleaned 
and a little sand sprinkled on the same 
to facilitate cleaning the next day. The 
grit and oyster-shell hoppers were next 
inspected to make sure they were in 
working order. At about 10 o’clock the 
attendant fed a supply of Alfalfa hay, 
about an armful to a pen of 100 fowls. 
The eggs were also gathered at this time. 
At noon the eggs were gathered, a sup¬ 
ply of greed food, either cabbage or man¬ 
gels, enough to last them until four 
o’clock, fed ; the drinking dishes refilled, 
the dry mash hoppers opened, and a little 
green cut bone—about one ounce per fowl 
—•fed. The dry mash hopper contains the 
following mixture: 100 pounds middlings, 
50 pounds bran, 100 pounds cornmeal, 
10 pounds oil meal, and 75 pounds beef 
scrap. At two o’clock the eggs are gath¬ 
ered again to prevent getting chilled and 
dirtied. At four o’clock the eggs are 
gathered again, the dry mash hoppers 
closed, a feeding of a grain mixture of 
equal parts of corn and wheat is fed. 
This feeding of grains is very liberal, so 
all get a chance to fill up and leave a lit¬ 
tle over for the next morning. The mus¬ 
lin curtains and all open windows are 
closed at this time excepting on very 
warm nights. Just before locking up at 
night the drinking dishes were emptied to 
prevent freezing. They renewed the lit¬ 
ter often enough to keep it loose and dry. 
Bach pen was equipped with a dust box, 
with the following dusting mixture: equal 
parts of road dust and fine sand. 
Ithaca, N. Y. f. w. icazmeier. 
Poor Laying. 
Can you tell me why my hens and pull¬ 
ets do not lay better? They seem per¬ 
fectly healthy, have practically unlimited 
range, have a dry mash—I think the Cor¬ 
nell formula, scratch feed at noon in lit¬ 
ter, and corn on the cob at night; seem to 
be in good condition, neither fat nor thin, 
and not ragged. They have green feed, 
shells, of course water, occasionally milk, 
but still decline to lay any to speak of. 
The liens are mostly yearlings, and none 
more than two years old ; the hens and 
most of the pullets It. I. Reds. E. s. b. 
Torrington, Conn. 
Perhaps hens can be made to lay, but 
I doubt it. They may be furnished with 
all the materials necessary for their bod¬ 
ily wants and the production of eggs, and 
given surroundings congenial to their 
tastes, and yet, until that mysterious 
vital force within them sets in motion 
the reproductive functions, eggs will not 
be forthcoming. That activity of the re¬ 
productive organs may be increased by 
selection in breeding, and by proper feed¬ 
ing, no one doubts, but outside of the 
comparatively narrow limits of this con¬ 
trol, no one can “make” a hen lay. Your 
care and feeding of your hens seem good, 
assuming that they are comfortably shel¬ 
tered, but their age is such as to make it 
improbable that they will lay much be¬ 
fore Winter begins to merge into Spring. 
One and two-year-old hens are pretty apt 
to take a rest in early Winter, regardless 
of their care, and if eggs are wanted then, 
early pullets must be depended upon. 
M. B. D. 
I have about 05 six and seven-months- 
old White Leghorn pullets in an open- 
front house, 7x15 feet, with a 7x18 
scratching shed attached. I feed a quart 
of wheat in the litter in the morning, 
three quarts of milk thickened with bran, 
about 10 o’clock a half gallon of oats and 
eight or 10 heads of sorghum just after 
noon, and all the whole corn they will 
eat at night. They have access to milk, 
water and crushed oyster-shell at all 
times; have been cutting green sod and 
cabbage for them. I am getting very few 
eggs. Can you suggest the reason and 
make out a ration that will suit better. 
How much sprouted oats should he fed 
daily to a flock of that size? Should I 
feed meat scrap in addition to that ration 
or does the milk take the place satisfac¬ 
torily? a. 
Brookville, Ind. 
I would suggest a mote simple method 
of feeding as one that should give equally 
good results and save you labor. A dry 
mash kept constantly before your fowls, 
in hoppers, and mixed whole grains fed 
twice daily in the litter will supply the 
grain that they need, and green food, 
milk, etc., can be added according to their 
needs. With an unlimited supply of 
milk, I should not give them meat food 
in their mash, though a small percentage, 
say, one-eighth part by weight, would un¬ 
doubtedly help. Sprouted oats, in layers 
from one to two inches deep, are usually 
fed in about the proportion of one square 
inch per fowl, daily. They are not need¬ 
ed where other green food is available. 
A good dry mash formula consists of 100 
pounds each of corn meal, wheat bran, 
wheat middlings, gluten feed, and beef 
scrap. Where milk is fed, the meat scrap 
may be much reduced in quantity, or 
omitted. m. b. d. 
Roup. 
Recently I purchased 20 hens which I 
put in with other birds. The new ones 
now have swollen heads and mucus runs 
from eyes and nose. The first one taken 
sick made a rattling sound when breath¬ 
ing. I removed that hen to separate 
quarters, but each day since one or more 
hens have shown symptoms of cold or 
rcup. They have been removed from 
the general pen. None of the stock 
which I had previous to buying this lot, 
has been affected. I have disinfected the 
drinking water with permanganate of pot¬ 
ash, and sprayed the roosts with pine tar 
to try to break up the gathering in the 
head. What is the trouble and how can 
I stop it? l. L. 
Worcester, N. Y. 
You have evidentlv had the misfortune 
to introduce the infection of roup into 
your flock, probably with the newly pur¬ 
chased fowls. Isolate at once all fowls 
showing evidence of “colds.” and unless 
they are birds of more than ordinary 
value, you had better kill and bury all 
that are seriously sick. While they may 
recover, they will be more than likely to 
spread infection to your other flocks and 
be a source of continuous damage to you. 
As a disinfectant for internal use, dis¬ 
solve an ounce of permanganate of pot¬ 
ash in three pints of water and use a 
pint of this stock solution to every two 
quarts of water given the fowls for drink. 
You can also dip the heads of the af¬ 
fected fowls for a few seconds into the 
stock solution, causing them to snuff up 
a little of it into their nostrils. It will 
be well to give (he permanganate solution 
to the healthy flock that lias been exposed 
to infection for a while as a preventive, 
for, after all, prevention is better than 
cure, and the ax is (he best remedy. Do 
not permit healthy fowls to use utensils 
that have been in the infected pen until 
these utensils have been disinfected with 
boiling water or chemical disinfectant. 
__M. B. D. 
injured Foot. 
I have a fine Buff Plymouth Rock cock¬ 
erel which has lost his nails completely I 
on one foot. Scales on lower part of leg 
and toes are somewhat distended and ex¬ 
posed toes where nails are off seem to 
have bled. Legs do not have appearance 
of usual scaly-leg, but it may have not be¬ 
come visible much on surface yet. I ex¬ 
pected to show bird at exhibition but can¬ 
not on account of foot, and would be 
glad to receive any suggestion from you 
as to treatment. l. T. R. 
Schenectady, N. Y. 
Don’t Take Chances With Chicks 
You can eliminate guess-work and 
reduce feeding to certainty by using 
H-O Steam-Cooked Chick Feed. It 
contains the right grains in the right 
proportions. And the steam-cooking 
makes it more easily digested and assim¬ 
ilated than any other chick feed made. 
H-0 Steam-Cooked 
Chick Feed 
is a scientific mixture of Corn. Cut-Oatmeal, Cracked 
Wheat, Kaffir Corn, Peas and Millet— steam-cooked by 
a special process in our mill. 
Sold only in 10-lb., 25-ib., 50-lb. and 1001b. bags, 
with tag showing guaranteed analysis. If you cannot get 
H-O Steam-Cooked Chick Feed, Intermediate Scratch, 
Scratch Feed, Poultry Feed, Dry Poultry Mash or Chick 
Feed from your dealer, write for sample and prices. 
The H-O Company 
Mills: 
BUFFALO, N.Y. 
John J. Campbell 
General Sales Agent 
HARTFORD, CONN. 
Coal-burning, Self-regulating 
Safest, Most Economical 
NEWTOWN 
Colony Brooder 
fpr 300 to 1,500 chicks. Fill coal maga¬ 
zine every other day. Fuel costs eight 
cents a day. Gives chicks correct tem¬ 
perature all the time without attention. 
Ask vour dealer or write to-day for Col¬ 
ony Brooder Circular. 
NEWTOWN GIANT INCUBATOR CORPORATION 
' i4 Warsaw Street Harrisonburg, Virginia 
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j Keep your heng 
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MAKE HENS LAY“I 
IB more eggs: larger, more vigorous chiclcsj 
heavier fowls, by feeding cut bone. 
I latest model 
I "■Allll ® BONE CUTTER 
cuts fast, easy, fine; never clogs. 
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Give Your Chickens Teeth 
Feed Grit—give the chicken something that grinds 
the grain in the crop and prepares food for proper 
assimilation. Oyster shells and bone are too soft 
and won't do what Maka-Shcl Grit will do. Maku* 
8hel Grit will increase weight and egg-laying, by 
helping the chicken digest all she is led. 200lbs. 
for $1.00 f. o. b. cars. One ton at $7.00 f.o. b. care. 
Edge Hill.Silica Hook Co., Box J,\eu Bruns wlcli v \. J- 
As scaly-leg of sufficient degree to 
cause loss of toes would be very marked, 
I think that there must have been some 
injury or other cause for the trouble in 
this cockerel. Perhaps the foot was 
stepped upon by some larger animal; or 
the bird may have injured his foot iu 
jumping from a high perch, or in scratch¬ 
ing for food. Without more definite 
knowledge of the cause, the only treat¬ 
ment that I can recommend is to clean 
the foot thoroughly with soap and warm 
water, and if there is no pus formation 
or other evidence of a foreign body in 
the foot, to anoint the raw surfaces with 
some simple antiseptic ointment, like 5% 
carbolized vaseline, and place the fowl in 
a coop by itself with clean soft litter to 
walk upon. m. b. d. 
IViacKellar’s Charcoal 
For Poultry is best. Coarse or fine granulated, also 
powdered. Buy direct from largest manufacturers oi 
Charcoal Products. Ask for prices and samples. Est. 1814 
R. MacKELLAR’S SONS CO., Peekskill, N.Y. 
COOK YOUR FEED and SAVE 
Half the Cost—with the 
PROFIT FARM BOILER 
With Dumping Caldron. Empties 
its kettlein one minute. The simplest 
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food forstock. Also make Dairy and 
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for particulars and auk for circular J 
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When you write advertisers mention 
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An Incu¬ 
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to $1.25 | 
Every 
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Why not study into this incubator matter 
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