1278 
C»« RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
November 9, 1918 
Poultry and Live Stock 
Feeding for Egg Production 
I just read an article of Mr. Cosgrove’s 
on poultry feeding, in which he states 
grain should be fed three times a day, 
just what they will consume without 
waste. I would like to know if he means 
to give them all they will eat at each 
meal? I have always been told to keep 
them hungry all day and give them all 
they want to eat at night; in fact. I only 
feed once a day, and that would be their 
night meal, but I always give them more 
than they will eat. and let them find it 
in the morning. They have mash before 
them all the time. I have ,300 pullets, 
and would like to know how much mangel 
beets they should be given, as I under¬ 
stand you can feed too much of them, 
and would retard their laying. J. A. s. 
New York. 
I presume the above is a deduction from 
my article on the number of yolks and 
whites of eggs in a hundred pounds of 
various feeds; but I did not mean to be 
understood as advising that hens should 
be stuffed with all they can eat of dry 
grain. It is perfectly safe to allow hens 
free access' to a “dry mash,” because a 
hen can only swallow a few mouthfuls 
at a time, as she cannot furnish enough 
saliva to w’et it. The proper feeding is to 
stop just short of where they would have 
enough; that is, to keep the appetite go(^ 
and not cloyed. At night, especially in 
Winter, they should go to roost with a 
crop full of whole grains, with more corn 
in it than in Summer, for the carbo¬ 
hydrates are the heat producers. 
Hens are often said to be “too fat lo 
lay”; it is the other way—they are so fat 
because they don’t lay. When this condi¬ 
tion obtains, cut out most of the corn 
and feed hailed oats, wet and warni. Hens 
that will leave half of the oats in their 
trough when fed dry. will eat every last 
one when they are fed as directed above. , 
As to mangel beets, I never knew of I 
their eating too much of them if they 
have sufficient other food. I used to si)lit 
the beets lengthwise with an ax and put 
them in a V-shaped trough, and not give 
any more until those were picked clean to 
the skin. Some hens would hardly touch 
them, others would eat a good deal of 
them. I never knew it to interfere with 
egg production. But I remember a woman 
lecturer saying “she fed beet pulp to her 
hens, and whenever they got out of the 
pulp there would be an immediate drop in 
egg production.’’ geo. a. oosgrove. 
Ailing Pullets 
I have a ffock of 175 White Leghorn 
pullets. They have a sanitary new build¬ 
ing with plenty of space. I feed them 
stock feed, mixed with cornmeal for 
mash, and one bag scratch feed, mixed 
with one bag wheat for grain. Under the 
wings the feathers sweat, and then they 
paste together; they keep on getting thin 
until they die. What treatment can you 
advise? B.z. 
Sullivan Co., N. Y. 
I know of no medicine that will cure 
these pullets, which I judge to be suffer¬ 
ing h-om tuberculosis or some other wast¬ 
ing disease. You should remove any that 
are evidently sick from the flock in order 
that they may not infect others. Their 
quarters should be ligkt and av ell venti¬ 
lated and with good sanitary conditions 
these wasting diseases are not usually se¬ 
rious in well-kept flocks of ordinarily 
healthy birds. 1>. 
Poultry House Construction 
What is the precise distance point in 
actual practice (as proper for comfort 
and safety and yet absolute economy of 
space) between roosts? What distance 
should the roosts be apart, center to cen¬ 
ter? I find 10. 12, 14 and 16 inches in 
the same book. Another point is the head 
room found most correct in the large, suc¬ 
cessful plants. How many inches should 
be left above the hens to insure maximum 
coolness in Summer and not too much in 
Winter? Another is the correct trajec¬ 
tory of the sun’s rays at different times 
in the vear. I can. easily imagine that a 
bouse facing south should have the front 
open enough to let a generous flood of 
sunshine strike back into the extreme rear 
of the house in Winter, but should not 
this tonic influence also flood the roosts 
in Summer? 
After a great deal of reflection on the 
subject, I feel confident that the house 
is the most important part of the plant— 
even the best stock cannot do well unless 
the conditions of ventilation, etc., are 
right. Would you name such books as 
are authoritative covering this subject of 
poultry house construction? E. A. c. 
New .Tersey. 
It would be pretty difficult to prove 
that a variation of a few inches in the 
spacing of perches had any demonstrable 
effect upon the fowls using them.. Poul¬ 
try care has hardly gotten down to so ex¬ 
act a science yet. From 12 to 16 inches 
is a good rule. I should leave all the 
head room above the perches that the 
building afforded, and this, of course, 
would vary with the height of the build¬ 
ing. Close roosting closets have gone out 
of fashion; it is better not to confine the 
fowls in a space so small as to compel 
them to re-breathe the air about them. 
Too much sun cannot be admitted to a 
poultry house, though too much glass dis¬ 
sipates too much of the animal heat. 
Windows should extend from within two 
feet of the floor nearly to the plate; this 
will admit as much of the sunlight as falls 
upon them at any season of the year. Ab¬ 
solutely perfect ventilation has not yet 
been achieved, in poultry houses or else- 
w'here. The “open front” system seems 
to have become fully establi.shed as, in 
the opinion of most poultrymen, the most 
satisfactory. 
If you wish to make a study of poultry 
house construction, you will find the fol¬ 
lowing publications of intere.st: “Build¬ 
ing Poultry Houses and Working Plans 
of Cornell Poultry Houses,” by the Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture. Ithaca, N. Y.; “Poul¬ 
try House Construction,” from Storrs 
Agricultural Experiment Station, Storrs, 
Conn.; “Poultry House Con.struction.” 
from State Agricultural College, New 
Brunswick, N. J., and “Housing of Chick¬ 
ens,” from Oregon Agricultural College, 
Corvallis, Ore. These are all experiment 
station bulletins sent upon application. 
M. B. D. 
bedding for horses, cattle, and pigs with¬ 
out ever having observed any such effect. 
A horse formerly owned by me had an 
annual Spring attack of mange of the 
skin, his bedding frequently being buck¬ 
wheat straw for months at a time. If I 
had not known that he was subject to the 
same attacks for several years previous 
to the use of buckwheat straw, I should 
have been inclined to agree with those 
who say that that bedding is injurious. 
Perhaps it is any way ; I do not know, hut 
I doubt it. 
Incidentally, it may interest some to 
know that this mange which occurred in 
patches and spread rapidly over the horse 
each Spring, was quickly cured by the use 
of a strong solution of “liver of sulphur” 
in water. Two or three good applications 
of this were ordinarily sufficient for each 
attack. The disease was probably of para¬ 
sitic origin, with which the buckwheat 
straw had nothing to do. m. b. d. 
Blood In Milk 
We bought a cow in .Tune which was 
then six weeks fresh. For the past two 
months we have noticed blood in the milk. 
What can be done about it? s. G. 
New' Jersey. 
Grow'ths in the milk duct of the teat 
probably bleed from irritation at milking 
time. If they are at the tip of the teat 
they may safely be removed by operation 
if the surgeon is skillful and careful. If 
they ai’e high up, better leave them alone 
and either allow a calf to suck or dry up 
the milk secretion in the affected quar¬ 
ters. The cause of the.se warty growths 
is unknown. In some cases the blood 
comes from diseased tissues following a 
severe attack of garget (mammitis), and 
there is no cure. a. s. a. 
AILING ANIMALS 
Buckwheat Straw as Bedding 
Is there any reason why buckwheat 
straw should not be put in the barnyard? 
Many neighbors say it will make cows 
lousy. Will it? av. s. d. 
New' York. 
There is a popular notion that buck- 
Avheat straw used as bedding for farm 
animals causes a skin eruption and itch. 
It could not, of course, make cow's lousy, 
since lice cannot be producetl from buck- 
Avheat straw. In the face of this ap¬ 
parently somewhat widespread belief. I 
hesitate to say that there is nothing in it, 
though I have used buckAvheat straw for 
Death of Hog 
I had a fine white pig about six months 
old, w'eighing about 160 lbs. He seemed 
to be in excellent health until one day he 
began to squeal and vomit; from his nose 
to the back of his shoulders he turned a 
deep purple and then seemed to he very 
weak and in great pain, dying in a few' 
hours. I fed him on house garbage and 
plenty of clean Avater, fed three times a 
day. D. c. w. 
New York. 
The fact that the skin turned purple 
suggests the fact that the hog died of an 
acute attack of cholera, but a post-mortem 
examination should at once have been 
made by a qualified veterinarian. If he 
found cholera present other hogs should 
have been vaccinated. Indeed we should 
advise you, on general principles, to have 
other hog.s vaccinated at once. A. s. A. 
Fouls 
r 
What is a good remedy for a cow that 
has a sore foot? The sore SAvells in be- 
tw'een her hoofs and then breaks open 
into a sore. The coav get« very lame and 
run doAvn. I haA-e had that happen to 
seA'eral cows last Summer. Is it con¬ 
tagious? AV. T. 
Ncav York. \ 
The trouble comes from lodging of for¬ 
eign bodies, such as cornstalks, between 
the toes or w'ading in w'et and filth and 
then in grit, or through coarse grass. 
Try to remoA’^e the cause. Perfectly 
cleanse the foot, remove foreign objects 
and cut aw'ay loose or rotten horn. Then 
immerse the foot for a minute or so in 
hot Avater containing two ounces of sul¬ 
phate of copper (bluestone) to the pint, 
and afterward cover the sore parts with 
oakum or cotton saturated with a five per 
cent solution of coal tar disinfectant, and, 
kept in place by means of a narrow band¬ 
age. Renew the.latter dressing once daily 
and keep coavs in stable. U.se the copper 
solution every three or four days if it 
seems to be necestjary. a. s. a. 
fMm 
You should use 
UNICORN DAIRY RATION 
Because —it will make more milk and cut down your 
milk costs. 
Because —you can save from 10 to 20% of 
your feed costs through the use of fewer pounds of 
grain per cow and the increase in milk or fat per cow. 
Because —there is 10% more available food 
material in Unicom than in any ration on the market. 
Because —it saves labor and the mistakes of 
mixing and feeding. It is always uniform and reliable. 
Because —Unicorn Dairy Ration is suitable 
for feeding alone, or can be fed with home-grown 
com, oats or barley. Unicom contains ample pro¬ 
tein and may therefore be used either as a protein 
feed or as a complete ration. 
Ask your dealer or write 
CHAPIN & CO., 
Dept. R, Chicago 
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