1072 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
August 29, 
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I| The Henyard H 
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Drooping Chicks. 
I HAVE a flock of about 300 White Leg¬ 
horn chicks; they were hatched about 
June 1 and grew well until about a 
week ago, when some of them would drop 
their wings and sit around with their 
eyes closed and in a day or two die. I 
feed them the Cornell ration and they 
are free from lice. What is the trouble? 
Eoscoe, N. Y. L. s. 
There is nothing that can be done for 
these chicks in the way of curative treat¬ 
ment ; the least vigorous of them will 
die from the effects of the intestinal in¬ 
fection while the more vigorous will sur¬ 
vive, some of the latter to the detriment 
of the mature flock and subsequent broods 
of chicks. Sour milk, fed early and con¬ 
tinuously, seems to have a very definite 
beneficial influence in preventing intes¬ 
tinal infection and promoting growth and 
vigor; this, in connection with care to 
hatch only from vigorous fowls whose 
progeny has not shown marked tendency 
to diarrhoeal infections, and clean, sani¬ 
tary, surroundings with proper feeding 
and general care comprises about all that 
can be done to guard against serious loss¬ 
es from this source. Chicks that are evi¬ 
dently affected, and yet which survive, 
should not be allowed to enter breeding 
pens next year; they are apt to transmit 
their weakened vitality if nothing more 
and may perpetuate the trouble. True 
white diarrhoea is directly transmitted by 
hens whose ovaries contain the germs of 
this disease and while your chicks may 
not have this particular form of infec¬ 
tion, the others are so closely related to 
it as to require much the same treatment. 
M. B. D. 
Tom Barron and “Practical” White Wyandottes 
T HE controversy over the great-laying 
White Wyandottes which Mr. Bar¬ 
ron has in the international egg-lay¬ 
ing contest, at Storrs, Conn., is very 
amusing to those who have long noted 
(and disapproved), the purely artificial 
qualifications called for by the American 
Standard in “show” birds, and the claim 
made by some extremists that Barron’s 
birds are not purebred White Wyandottes, 
with his straightforward and manly de¬ 
fence of them, will help to clear the air. 
It certainly is true that Mr. Barron’s 
White Wyandottes at Storrs are not 
“standard” White Wyandottes, are not 
the “dumplings” which you describe the 
show Wyandottes as being; but that they 
are purebred White Wyandottes, and 
bred from straight American stock birds, 
every one who met Mr. Barron at the 
Storrs meeting, and heard his plain 
statement of how he became interested 
in White Wyandottes, and how he selects 
and breeds them for great egg production, 
will readily believe. 
Mr. Barron’s first White Wyandotte 
hen was given to him by a friend but she 
was so ragged from the molt and so dirty 
he took a dislike to her, and asked an¬ 
other friend to take her off his hands. 
This friend put the ragged, dirty hen in 
with a pen of Minorca pullets, and a few 
days later asked Mr. Barron : “Do Min- 
orcas lay tinted etrgs, m orn?” Mr. Barron 
told him : “No. Minorcas lay white eggs, 
but those pullets of yours are not laying 
yet, anyway.” A little while later' the 
friend was at him again: “That dirty 
white hen you gave me laid us six eggs 
last week!” And then Tom went over 
and shamefacedly asked the friend : “Will 
you kindly let me have that white hen 
back again?” He had begun to “sit up 
and take notice!” 
Tracing up the history of this dirty, 
ragged-looking lien he found that she was 
a straight American-bred bird, of Arthur 
Huston’s stock ; Barron bought 10 other 
White Wyandotte hens, of another Amer¬ 
ican strain, and bought a male bird of 
still another American strain. “And,” 
said Mr. BaiTon. “there has never been 
one drop of blood of any other strain or 
stock introduced into my strain of White 
Wyandottes.” 
The lengthening of the body of Tom 
Barron’s birds is entirely due to his 
breeding them for egg production only; 
he breeds from his best layers, mated to 
sons of his greatest layers, with never a 
thought of the artificial requirements of 
the American Standard, and, further¬ 
more, this lengthening of the body of 
White Wyandottes by trap-nest testing 
for great egg production is nothing new. 
That is the most amusing part of the 
matter. 
Other White Wyandotte breeders who 
breed for egg production only have done 
the same thing, as witness the birds of 
Mr. Richardson, of Massachusetts, told 
about on page 709 of the Reliable Poul¬ 
try .Journal for August. And the under¬ 
signed noted the same result in the trap- 
nest tested White Wyandottes bred by 
Mr. Candee, of New Tork, and told of 
the lengthened bodies of Candee’s birds 
in an article written for the American 
Poultry Advocate about eight years ago. 
All of this discussion of Tom Barron’s 
White Wyandottes is a good thing for the 
“practical” side of the poultry business— 
for those poultrymen who are working 
for greater egg production. It will help 
to clear the air! 
“Let the heathen (standard makers) 
rage, and imagine vain things!” They 
are simply beating the air! Utility poul¬ 
try is steadily gaining ground ; it is sure¬ 
ly coming into its own. A. F. hunter. 
Ailing Chicks. 
O N June 1 I hatched 5G chicks with 
hens, since then have lost 10 with the 
following symptoms: They seem to 
be taken suddenly with drowsiness, sit 
around for a day or two with eyes shut, 
and die. They were fed on chick feed 
for the first two weeks, then changed to 
commercial scratch feed and dry mash 
and sour milk, with all the green food 
they will eat. such as lettuce, Swiss chard 
and clippings; are confined to a yard 26x 
40, coops strictly clean and not a louse 
in sight. G. R. F. 
New York. 
These chicks have succumbed to some 
infection, very likely of a diarrhoeal na¬ 
ture, to which they have been exposed, 
and which they did not have vitality 
enough to resist. Late hatched thicks 
seem less able to resist infectious dis¬ 
eases than those hatched earlier and from 
hens whose vigor has not been depleted 
by long continued laying. Of these dis- 
e. "os, white diarrhoea is the most preva¬ 
lent and serious but other infections 
abound and take their toll yearly from 
the flocks of young chicks. There is no 
cure after the trouble Iks developed; 
losses from this source should be pre¬ 
vented by hatching only from vigorous 
stock and giving proper care to the young 
chicks. Early and continuous feeding of 
soured skim milk does much to prevent 
the inroads of various infections and con¬ 
tributes to the growth and vigor of young 
stock. True “bacillary white diarrhoea” 
is transmitted from parent hens through 
the eggs and any flock whose chicks show 
marked tendency to this disease should 
be discarded as breeders. M. B. D. 
Shall We “ Swat the Rooster?” 
W HAT is your opinion of this “Swat 
the rooster” crusade now being 
given so much publicity by the poul¬ 
try press and the Federal Government? 
Personally I am convinced it will, if not 
moderated, mean the end of farm poultry 
and the building of a race of degenerate 
fowls. Only today I read of 250.000 
roosters being killed in one day in one 
State. How many of the owners kept a 
year-old male for a breeder next Spring? 
Mighty few, I bet. Of the 250.000 fully 
75 per cent, were breeders, as the buyers 
are not going to pay market prices for 
senile wrecks. It all sums up to me the 
fact of pullet and cockerel matings next 
Spring and the resulting poor fertility, 
dead-in-the-shell chicks and weaklings. It 
will be a heyday for that old nightmare 
“white diarrhoea.” 
Much better if we would plan a swat 
one and save the other policy. It will 
pay any farmer to keep a year-old male 
for breeding, even if he has to place him 
in a separate yard and spend a few min¬ 
utes each day attending his wants. My 
plan is a suggestion to keep a mated 
breeding pen all the year around. I find 
after careful experiment a male kept from 
his mates for a period of two or three 
months is not as active rs when left with 
them. When yarded by himself a male 
will take on flesh or else worry himself 
into a state of physical debility, unless 
he is carefully attended, and few farmers 
are going to give him the care a fancier 
or real poultry breeder would. Separa¬ 
tion is against the laws of nature. A 
male takes a rest during the molting per¬ 
iod and then nature repairs his vitality. 
If you wlil notice at the molt a male 
seldoms mates, and fertility during this 
period is always bad, at least that has 
been my observation over a period of four 
years. Fads and fancies go at times, 
but I think all breeders should be warned 
against some of the ideas of theorists. 
Fertile eggs must be had to reproduce 
the race, and while infertile eggs can 
be had only by separation of sex, yet the 
farmer should be taught the value of a 
breeding pen and educated to care for it. 
I am against a wholesale swatting of the 
rooster, and hope to have the su]V Vt of 
other breeders. allen jenkins. 
Virginia. 
R. N.-Y.—We do not believe this com- 
paign for killing off tb' surplus rooster 
will cause any such trouble as Mr. Jen¬ 
kins fears. Anyone who would be in¬ 
terested enough to “swat” would be in¬ 
telligent enough to use improved males in 
his flock. We think this “swatting” will 
develop a better business for the breeder 
of improved stock. Only a very small 
proportion of the useless roosters will be 
killed, and we think their loss will be a 
gain to the poultry industry. The fact 
is some of the scientists now find that 
sterile eggs are as subject to some forms 
of “rot” as are the fertile eggs. What 
Mr. Jenkins says about the breeding pen 
is all right, but killing off the drones 
would not interfere with that. 
Trap Nest; Broody Hens; Sour Milk. 
I T seems to me there should be some 
rule-of-thumb method whereby the busy 
farrner-poultryman could pick his best 
laying hens for breeders. My idea is that 
there ought to be some characteristic 
traits and habits of good layers, although 
it seems to be disproved that there is 
any uniform physical type. I wish you 
would submit the following points to 
some of the observant trap-nest operators, 
for comparison with their findings accord¬ 
ing to the records. If anything definite 
along these lines can be determined, it 
would be valuable to many of us. I be¬ 
lieve that a hen having these traits should 
be an extra good layer, or at least extra 
profitable. 
(1) A hen that lays during Fall and 
early Winter. (2) A late molter. (3) 
One that lays during molt. (4) One 
that is active and always next to the feed 
pail. Good eater. (5) Not much given 
to broodiness. (G) One late to roost. 
Likewise, that these traits indicate a 
poor one: 
(1) A poor eater. (2) One lazy or 
sluggish. (3) A wild one. One that 
scoots around the farthest corner when 
you appear. (4) One frequently broody. 
(5) One not laying in Fall or early Win¬ 
ter. (6) One going early to roost and 
not coming at the feed call. All these 
points with due allowance for the breed 
and condition at different seasons. 
Here is the very best method of break¬ 
ing up broody hens. Put in a strange 
pen, without nests, with a lively young 
cockerel to keep them stirred up (the kind 
that digs you in the leg when you pick 
up a hen, if you have such a one.) Feed 
plenty, and make them work for it, and 
water. Starvation is most illogical. You 
want the hen to make eggs; then give her 
the “makin’s.” She is fortified to starve 
by the week if necessary, anyhow. If a 
week of this doesn’t change her conduct, 
then ax her to lay; she’s not worth keep¬ 
ing. 
I must protest against this comparing 
of the sour milk pen in the contest at 
Storr’s with the other pens. To anyone 
who has fed sour milk to poultry, and 
knows how the egg record bounds up 
(and also how it slumps when discontin¬ 
ued)_ it is most absurd. Why, the poorest 
pen in the lot would have laid at least 100 
more eggs by now. if they had all the sour 
milk they wanted. Compare them with 
their own four check pens, from 260 to 
396 eggs behind them, and you will see 
what a handicap the rest of the pens 
work under. Where might any of the 10 
pens that have passed 1.200 now be if 
they had the spur milk? There is no 
basis of comparison without a handicap. 
New York. leo a. mates. 
Early Moulting. —We read with in¬ 
terest, last Fall and Winter, the many 
reports of pullets moulting as we had 150 
White Leghorns, hatched principally in 
May, drag through a four month moult. 
These pullets are again moulting—the 
building is full of feathers. Would you 
feed heavy of bran, bone meal, etc., or 
keep them on their regular laying ration? 
They are on free range with running 
water. Maine formula of dry mash al¬ 
ways before them with wheat, oats and 
corn twice daily. f. b. n. 
Ohio. 
“My new dog ignores me.” “If you 
had a pedigree as long as his you’d be 
exclusive, too.”—Louisville Courier-Jour¬ 
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