836 
THE RUHAt, NEW-YORKBR 
July 18, 
The Henyard. 
“ Swat the Rooster.” 
T HIS was the advice disseminated all 
over the State of Missouri by the 
State Poultry Experiment Station 
and June 6 was set as the proper date to 
perform the act. Director Quisenberry 
of the Station reports that practically 
all of the buyers and wholesale dealers 
in eggs and poultry cooperated with the 
Station in this work, with the result that 
the estimated number of roosters killed 
in that week in the State of Missouri was 
over a quarter of a million. These 250,- 
000 male birds killed by the farmers on 
“Rooster Day” mean an immense saving 
to the farmers of that State who produce 
eggs for market. Practically all the 
hatching for the season is now finished, 
and the male birds consume food and 
serve no useful purpose. But the saving 
of the food they would consume is a com¬ 
paratively small matter; the great saving 
is in the condition of eggs that reach 
the eastern markets. It is estimated by 
various authorities that this saving for 
the State of Missouri alone will be from 
one million to three million dollars. In 
eggs that have been fertilized by the 
male bird it is almost impossible under 
ordinary conditions to keep the chick 
germ from developing more or less in hot 
weather. Later this germ dies, and we 
have the “rots and spots” so often re¬ 
ferred to in the New York market. 
Director Quisenberry states that he has 
some eggs on his desk that are over a 
year old. They have never decayed; 
simply dried up, by evaporation through 
the shell. What an immense saving would 
be made if every State that produced poul¬ 
try would follow the example of Missouri. 
There is another feature worth consider¬ 
ing too; the farmer who has had no male 
birds all Summer and Winter will be 
more likely to buy well-bred males of 
some good laying strain in the Spring, 
and thus increase the laying capacity of 
his flock, and also avoid the ills of in¬ 
breeding. 
The report of the egg-laying contest in 
Missouri for the month of May shows 
20,418 eggs laid, an average of about 20 
eggs for each hen in the contest. The 
purebred hens in this contest, coming 
from all parts of the world, have aver¬ 
aged in six months about 15 eggs more 
than the ordinary farm hens lay in a 
year. The highest pen average has been 
made by the English White Leghorns, 
133 eggs per hen, in six months. The 
English pen also broke the record for 
May by laying exactly the number they 
did in April, viz., 257. Three hens laid 
every day in May, 31 eggs in 31 days. 
They are No. 2 of Barron’s White Leg¬ 
horns ; No. 502 of B. F. W. Thorpe’s 
Barred Rocks, and No. 1009 of the Lin- 
field Poultry Farm, New Zealand. This 
was a White Leghorn. The pen records 
of the different countries is as follows: 
S. C. White Leghorns, best English 
record, 1,330 eggs; S. C. Reds, best 
American record, 1,152 eggs; S. C. Reds, 
best Missouri record, 1.152 eggs; S. C. 
White Leghorns, best Vancouver Island 
record, 080 eggs; White Wyandottes, best 
Ontario, Canada, record, 040 eggs; S. C. 
White Leghorns, best New Zealand rec¬ 
ord, 042 eggs; »S. C. White Leghorns, best 
British Columbia record, 004 eggs; S. C. 
White Leghorns, best Australian record, 
S44 eggs; S. C. White Leghorns, best 
South African record, 707 eggs. 
In the contest just closed in New Zea¬ 
land the best pen of six pullets averaged 
278 eggs each. They do not trap-nest; 
they give the pen record only. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Enlarging Henhouse. 
I HAVE hatched out about 600 White 
Leghorns in incubators, ages range 
from 10 days to eight weeks; 
450 of these I have in a house 10x30 feet 
with shed roof seven feet high front, five 
feet back, one square foot muslin and 
one square foot glass for each 10 square 
feet floor space. These 450 are four to 
eight weeks old and have open hopper 
before them containing a commercial 
scratch food and a dry mash consisting 
of 50 pounds bran, 50 pounds wheat 
middlings, 50 pounds cornmeal, 25 pounds 
meat scrap. They also have sour milk 
before them at all times. All are on 
large free range, and from appearances I 
shall have at least 400 pullets to keep 
for layers this Fall and Winter. How 
much floor space shall I require for this 
number, the increase to be added right 
on the present house and to be of the 
same relative dimensions? Are my mus¬ 
lin and glass proportions correct? Should 
the house when completed be partitioned, 
or can I safely house 400 or 450 to¬ 
gether? Is my feeding method correct 
or what improvements would you sug¬ 
gest up to the time they attain their 
growth? They seem to thrive excellently 
on it, the larger ones crowing at seven 
weeks and weighing about one pound. 
Hatches averaged only 60% but losses 
only 7)4% to date. What are the feed¬ 
ing values of the curds and whey in sour 
milk? I notice that the chicks will gorge 
themselves with the curd parts if the 
whey is strained off but being ignorant 
of its relative feeding values I have kept 
it stirred up but they would consume 
double the amount if strained. This is 
my first experience in chickens and I 
have practically taken all my information 
from your columns. I wish to endorse 
the sour milk (lactic acid) theory for 
white diarrhoea. I was of course com¬ 
pelled to purchase all my eggs, and one 
lot of 100 were badly infected, but having 
read the symptoms I immediately recog¬ 
nized it and filled the little chicks up 
twice daily with sour milk, using an eye 
dropper. Of 58 hatched I lost 17, but 
did not start treatment until they were 
four days old. Another lot of 124 I lost 
but one and they are now four weeks 
old, but these I treated immediately on 
removal from incubator and twice daily 
until they began to eat lots of it them¬ 
selves. I have no doubt, however, that if 
treated as advised in a recent issue of 
The R. N.-Y. losses could be reduced to 
a minimum. c. B. H. 
l’attersonville, N. Y. 
Your results in artificial hatching and 
rearing have been excellent, and there is 
nothing to criticise in your methods of 
feeding. The same mash moistened with 
skim-milk and fed once or twice daily, 
in addition to keeping it, dry, before them 
would hasten the development of the 
chicks if that seemed advisable; they will 
do well, however, on the dry mash alone. 
A flock of my own being fed in the same 
way are doing splendidly, though a small¬ 
er flock that is getting milk moistened 
mash twice daily is outstripping them. 
It is a question, though, whether the more 
rapid development is of any particular 
advantage, except in the case of late 
hatched chicks. Whey has about one half 
the feeding value of whole skimmed milk, 
containing most of the carbohydrates but 
practically none of the protein and fat. 
Where the supply is at all limited, I 
should feed whey and curds together. 
Chicks on free range with a pan of sour 
milk and an open hopper of dry mash 
constantly before them will eat a surpris¬ 
ing amount of the latter. 
Your new house may be in one com¬ 
partment or divided, as you prefer. 
There is no reason why 500 fowls may 
not well run together if they have room 
enough, from three to four square feet of 
floor space per fowl. I would not build 
10 feet deep; sixteen to twenty is bet¬ 
ter in every way and more economical. 
The more nearly square a building of 
given floor space, the less material re¬ 
quired for the walls. A deep house with 
open front, with or without muslin cur¬ 
tains, is superior to a narrow one, and 
cheaper to build. Your results while 
feeding sour milk would seem to confirm 
the growing favorable impression of its 
value. M. B. D. 
Poor Egg Yield. 
W E have about 50 chickens, Plymouth 
Rock, and only get about five to 
seven eggs each day. They are 
from a good laying strain and did well 
for a while. We feed them all they can 
eat, but to no effect. l. w. ii. 
Iowa. 
Without knowing anything about the 
methods of care and feeding used, it is 
difficult to suggest any reasons for the 
poor performance of a flock. They may 
be fed all that they will eat and yet 
not have a suitable ration for egg pro¬ 
duction. Their food should consist of 
mixed whole grains, not corn alone, and 
a mash of mixed ground grains, fed either 
wet or dry; to which should be added 
some animal product like meat meal, beef 
scrap, cut bone or skim milk. The large 
breeds, particularly, should be made to 
exercise, either by feeding their grain in 
deep litter or by being given free range; 
they should also have crushed oyster 
shells and grit, as well as fresh water, 
always before them. Some care needs to 
be taken that they be not overfed and 
allowed to become excessively fat and 
sluggish. M. B. D. 
Early Moulting. 
I HAVE about 800 Leghorn layers in 
one of the Corning type of houses. 
My hens have laid heavily all of the 
season, giving a 70% yield for several 
weeks. Just now and within, the past 15 
days they have fallen off to less than a 
50% yield. I have 40 setters or over’, 
shut up and a number do not keep to the 
nest permanently, but go clucking around. 
Also, and here is where I wish informa¬ 
tion, perhaps as many as 150 of the hens 
are molting. Is not this too early, or is 
it as it should be? Is it a good or bad 
thing? What effect will it have upon 
the Fall laying? C. E. S. 
Pennsylvania. 
Observations at the Cornell Agricul¬ 
tural Experiment Station have convinced 
the authorities there that the early molt¬ 
ing fowls should be discarded as unprofit¬ 
able, it being an indication of lack of 
sustained laying power. Such hens are 
apt to lay a few eggs during the natural 
reproductive season and then go into 
molt with a cessation of production. My 
advice would be to cull these out and 
dispose of them lest their sleek appear¬ 
ance in the Fall when the really good 
layers and late molters are ragged should 
lead to their retention as breeders. 
M. B. D. 
White Diarrhoea. 
I S there any remedy for white diarrhoea? 
I keep losing hens with it. 
Maine. a. r. bodge. 
Questions of this kind are almost im¬ 
possible to answer, without seeing the 
dead chickens, examining the ovaries and 
knowing something about the plant. I 
have never had any experience with old 
hens dying from this disease, but have 
been told by one of our State experts 
that hens do at times die of white diar¬ 
rhoea. The only suggestion I can make 
is for Mr. Bodge to send to Storrs Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station, Storrs, 
Conn., for Bulletin No. 77, in which there 
is a very fine cut of an infected and nor¬ 
mal ovary; cut opep and examine the 
ovaries of a few dead hens, or send a few 
ovaries to some experiment station for a 
bacteriological examination; then he will 
know if he has white diarrhoea or some 
other trouble. As you know, there is no 
cure for hens that are affected at present. 
EDW T ARD S. PARSONS. 
A Lice Pow der. 
H EREWITH I enclose a sample pack¬ 
age of “Absana,” represented as the 
best possible "lice powder” on poul¬ 
try; the price being 25 cents for 2*4 
pounds. m. 
This material appears, from an ex¬ 
amination, to be much the same thing as 
the Cornell lice powder. Here is the 
formula for making that powder, which i 
costs about five cents a pound: 
One-fourth pint of crude carbolic acid, 
mixed with three-fourths pint gasoline is 
thoroughly stirred into 2)4 pounds plast- \ 
ter of paris. The whole is forced through 
a sieve to break up the lumps. It is then 
allowed to dry in the air and when dry is 
tightly bottled. The stock mixture re¬ 
mains effective indefinitely. To apply 
this powder, make nail holes in the top 
of a tin can and use the can as a shaker. 
The fowl should be held by the legs with 
its head down. 
Chicks Poisoned by Salt. 
H AVING recently lost a number of 
chickens from eating a mixture of 
corn starch and salt used for mak¬ 
ing beads, I would like to know if there 
is anything that can be done to save 
them, if the like should happen again. 
The first died in three hours after eating 
the mixture, and some lived two days and 
then died. Most of them died within 12 
hours after eating. ii. s. j. 
Ohio. 
In this, as in the case of having eaten 
any poisonous material, the proper rem¬ 
edy would be to administer a quickly 
acting cathartic to flush the deleterious 
matter from the intestines. Two tea¬ 
spoonfuls of castor oil. given as soon as 
it became known that a considerable 
quantity of salt had been eaten, would 
probably be as efficient as anything. 
When sufficient poison of any kind has 
been absorbed from the digestive tract to 
cause death a cathartic would, of course, j 
do no good, but given sufficiently early, it [ 
will save many cases. h. b. d. 
A Louse Exterminator. 
MAKES HENS LAY 
MORE EGGS 
L\?v 
Si 
m 
11 
/J 
LBS. 
100 
MANUFACTURED BY 
TIOGA MILL ft mill 
WAVERLY, N.Y. 
ANALYSIS 
PROTEIN 10.70* 
FAT 2.08% 
pinr.n _4-7 9 % 
CRACKED CORN.WhfAT.BUCWMtAT, KAFFIR CORK. 
OAT5MRl[Y.SUNflOW[R5KD 
WHEN FID TO HEHS THEY CANT HELP LAY1NC 
TIO-GA 
POULTRY GRAIN 
IT INCREASES THE CAPACITY OF 
GOOD HENS, AND MAKES EVEN 
A POOR HEN DO HER LEVEL BEST 
YOUR MOULTING HENS 
need the proper diet for crowing Feathers 
Orr’s Digestible Mash 
is just fitted for that work. Our chick and poultry 
feeds are always fresh and always the same- We 
solicit Grange buyers correspondence. 
Send for booklet 
WM. ORR & SONS, Box I-R, Orr’s Mills. N. Y. 
Improved Parcel Post Egg Boxes 
SEND 15 CENTS FOR SAMPLE 
New Flats and Fillers and Egg Cases 
CATALOGUE SENT FREE ON REQUEST 
H. K. BRUNNER, 45 Harrison Street, N. Y. 
Poultry Netting excelsior^wire 1 mf<l 
BARBED WIRE CO., 5 Corilandi Si. N. Y . 
f»HOICIC. Lnrgre, Prolific THR1CIC-HAND 
w ITALIAN QUEENS —untested,$1; tested, $L50. 
Ready to mail. W. K. ROCKWELL, Bloomfield, Connecticut 
4Q FAWN AND WHITE YEARLING RUNNER DUCKS-Pme 
” u white egg layers. Low price for quick sale. 
Inquire, PATTERSON'S POULTRY FARM, Clayton. N. ¥. 
R. I. Reds, Indian Runner Ducks 
Eggs for hatching. Breeding stock. 
Sinclair Smith, 603 5th St., lirooklyn, N. Y. 
Utility American Dominiques— Eggs, $2.00 per 30. Breed- 
w ors and 8 week-old chicks. Herbert D. Rooks, Mills. Pa. 
THE FARMERS FAVORITE WINTER LAYERS- WHITE ORP'NG- 
■ TON EGGS AND CHICKS Square Leal Guaranteed. 
Catalogue free. W. R. STEVENS. Culver Road, Lyons, N.Y. 
N OT long ago I received the circular 
of ;i “louse exterminator” for which 
great things are claimed. The 
price is 82.25 per pound. It has the ap¬ 
pearance, to me, of being nothing more 
than the ordinary blue ointment or mer¬ 
curial ointment, with a little red color¬ 
ing matter to disguise it. They claim in 
their circular that one application of this 
the size of a pea, applied to the part 
directly below the vent will rid the bird 
of lice and keep them entirely free for 
six months. Last Summer I procured a 
33)4 per cent, solution of mercurial oint¬ 
ment and mixed it half and half with 
vaseline and applied it to some very lousy i 
hens, and up to date they are entirely j 
free from lice. I also applied it to my 
pullets before sending them to the con¬ 
test, and while at Storrs sometime ago, 
looked my birds over and found them 
entirely free from body lice. 
I have no doubt the claims are correct 
and that the salve sent out at $2.25 per 
pound will do what is claimed for it. 
However, I buy the blue ointment in five- 
pound lots at 50 cents per pound, and 
mix a pound of it with a pound of vase¬ 
line at 10 cents per pound, making two 
pounds cost 60 cents or one pound 30 
cents. All of the vermin in the poultry 
business are not on the poultry; some of 
them are on the poultrymen, and while 
blue ointment is tin admirable eradieator 
of vermin from the hen. The R. N.-Y. is 
equally as good an eradieator of the ver¬ 
min from the poultrymen. 
FRED’K M. I’EASLEY. 
Chicks Eating Droppings. 
D O you know of anything to stop chicks 
from eating their droppings? The 
chicks are S. C. White Leghorns, 
two months old, and are fed growing 
mash and beef scrap mixed together with 
oil meal and bone meal; have plenty of 
green food thrown to them, also grit; 
sour milk twice a week aud fresh water 
at all times. w. s. Y. 
New York. 
With plenty of litter on the floor of the 
brooders I have never known chicks to 
eat enough of their droppings to cause 
any trouble, though they will pick at 
them, more or less. I can only suggest 
that you use plenty of litter and give the 
chicks as much outdoor range as possible. 
Close confinement conduces to vicious 
habits of all kinds, many of which could 
be avoided if the chicks were given more 
liberty. M. B. D. 
ANCE lfl sALE Efl oF S- C. Buff Orpington Breeders 
including leading pen this variety at second Inter¬ 
national Egg-Laying Contest. 
CHERRY LANE FARM CO.. (Desk Bi. Oak Hill, West Viromia 
Burnett’s Black Beauty Minorcas ^, e profit! 
If you are breeding chickens for recreation or for 
egg-profit have the best. Our strains have for 12 
years produced the most satisfactory results with 
the least amount of resistance. Send for two of our 
year old birds, a special, $10. If not satisfied money 
returned. Pekin Ducks, year-old, only, $G.OO a trio. 
Beautiful stock. Trios of White Turkeys also for 
sale. COLDENHAM POULTRY YARDS, MONTGOMERY. N. Y. 
You Need Not 
Invest 
in our subscrip¬ 
tion agency 
work. All you 
have to do is to 
drop a postal to 
Department “M’’ 
T 
The Rural New-Yorker 
333 West 30th Street 
New York City 
26 and ask for details 
