1472 
•Tht RURAL. NEW-YORKER • 
October 4, 1010 
Greater Economy for Any 
Country-Driven Car 
Whether it's a suit of clothes, 
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Cord or fabric, in ribbad and non-skid traads, and tharo’s on extra ply, hand- 
mado, Ford siz a Mohawk, too. Good dealers everywhere handle them 
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What Ails These Hens? 
What is the trouble with my Barred 
Rock chickens? Every year about Sep¬ 
tember or October some of them begin to 
drop off. The heads become either color¬ 
less or purple, the feathers, particularly 
those on the head, fluff up and are rough 
and ragged : the fowl loses weight until it 
seems as if it would almost float away on 
air. and some almost entirely lose the use 
of their legs before they die ; others simply 
curl up their toes and die. sometimes ou 
their back under the roosts, others out in 
the yard along the fence. The house is a 
long one. 140x12 ft., divided into seven 
pens; windows occupying about one-third 
the height, and practically the entire 
length of tlie front, are wide open most of 
the year, excepting during very stormy 
weather. Dropping boards, under which 
are the nests, are cleaned weekly, and 
fresh litter is put on the cement floors 
about every six weeks, or according as the 
hens are in the house much or little and 
foul the litter. A high-grade commercial 
dry mash is kept in hoppers always open, 
land scratch grains fed once a day in the 
| litter to about equalize the amount, by 
I weight, of the mash eaten. Clean, fresh 
water is always before the fowls, out¬ 
doors in Summer and indoors in Winter. 
I have thought the trouble might be roup, 
as some of the older fowls particularly 
have running or mattery eyes, which even¬ 
tually swell up, and I have had them once 
or twice to burst before the fowl died. 
I have washed eyes with boracic acid, 
have used potassium permanganate in the 
water, and have sprayed perches and the 
entire house with various coal tar and 
other preparations, but apparently I have 
not prevented the outbreak. I keep boxes 
of coal ashes or road dust in the pens for 
dusting, and the fowls also dust in the 
yards in dry weather. There may be some 
mites or lice, though I have failed to find 
any on examination. Many of our young 
stock refuse to learn to get upon the 
roosts provided, and continue to crowd to¬ 
gether on the floor of the house, while the 
perches remain nearly empty. I have 
thought they might be crowded, but T can¬ 
not make them understand there is plenty 
of room if they would only spread them¬ 
selves to the next pen. as the doors are 
open. To the young stock which has 
been confined to yards we have fid the 
lawn clippings every few days, and those 
that are on free range have had all the 
grass they wanted. Those that are con¬ 
fined are in the worst condition, but the 
others are also somewhat affected. The 
yarded stock has but little shade, which 
may account for trouble, and they have 
possibly been affected by the heat. I have 
been unusually successful this year with 
chickens, raising about 000 Rocks and 700 
Leghorns, but the Leghorns do not seem 
to be so much affected as the Rocks. I 
have not changed stock more than once 
in two or three years, thinking with so 
large a number, about 200 to 400 hens 
and a cock to each 1 •” hens, there was not 
the same necessity for bringing in outside 
blood. But to raise the. youngsters to 
Fall to be big. plump birds, and then 
have them droop and drop off one by one 
or more, is very discouraging. M. B. B. 
Pennsylvania. 
From your description.. I judge that 
these fowls are “going light’': that is. 
that they are suffering from some one of 
the infections characterized by progres¬ 
sive emaciation and weakness, finally end¬ 
ing in death. Tuberculosis is one of these 
infections and there are several others 
less well understood. Some form of germ 
life which the fowls have not sufficient 
vitality to resist is responsible for these 
diseases, whatever their distinctive char¬ 
acter. Such infections may be expected 
where fowls are compelled to range closely 
over the same ground year after year and 
to live in unsanitary buildings, but they 
are not confined to such flocks. Some 
Hooks seem to have lost their vitality and 
to be unable to reproduce themselves in 
strong, vigorous chicks. In your case, 
sanitation of buildings seems to have been 
well looked after, but it is possible that 
the ground used for the growing chicks is 
suffering from too constant, use for that 
purpose and needs a rest, with such culti¬ 
vation of growing crops as will enable it 
to clear itself of disease-producing germ 
life. It is possible, too. that this flock of 
Plymouth Rocks has deteriorated in vigor 
until it can no longer hold its own against 
the diseases which threaten all fowls. You 
evidently have in it some chronic, roup, 
another evidence of weakness and inabil¬ 
ity to resist infection. It seems to me not 
at" all unlikely that the final solution of 
your problem will lie in new and more.vig¬ 
orous stock, with, quite possibly, a fresh 
range for the growing youngsters. 
At. B. I). 
part of their own meat supply and all of 
their green stuff, and that, theoretically 
at least, more corn and buckwheat may 
be fed during cold weather than during 
the Summer. It is a question, however, 
whether this latter distinction between 
seasons is of anything more than theo¬ 
retical value. 
A good molting and laying mash, to bo 
fed with green stuff of some kind and a 
mixture of such whole grains as are avail¬ 
able for scratch food, may be made by 
combining in equal parts by weight, wheat 
bran, wheat middlings, gluten feed, ground 
oats, cornmeal and. beef scrap. If skim- 
milk is available in such quantity that 
the hens may have all that they will eat. 
the beef scrap may be partially or wholly 
omitted from the mash, and wheat feed 
may be substituted for wheat bran and 
middlings used separately. m. b. ». 
Trouble with Caponizing; Native and 
Foreign Leghorns 
1. Is there any way of keeping capons 
from swelling up with wind like blisters 
around the wound? I made three 10 days 
ago and they swelled up and sucked wind 
in and out of the wound, air getting 
under the skin. I let it out with a needle 
and thread, but it came back again in a 
few minutes. I made the tools myself 
out of a window curtain rod, it was about 
2-lOth inch hollow brass tube; some hay 
wire, and an inside calipers kept the 
wound open. The cost was only 10 cents. 
Two of the three birds I used to learn 
on got well quickly, but one must have 
been poisoned from the brass or bay-wire 
tools. Ilis side got black. I put car¬ 
bolic on it. He is nearly all right now. 
2. Are the highest-scoring White Leg¬ 
horns at the egg-laying contests of Eng¬ 
lish breed, or do the American-bred do 
equally as well? j. j. 
New York. 
1. It is not uncommon for capons to 
have wind puffs after the operation, bub 
the better the operation is performed, as 
a rule, the less trouble you will have of 
this nature. No doubt much of your 
trouble comes from improper tools and 
lack of experience. With a good set of 
tools and a little more experience you 
should have but little trouble in this way. 
2. So far as I know it is an open ques¬ 
tion at the present time which are the 
best layers, the English or American lyeg- 
horns. A few years ago Tom Barron 
came over here with his English Leghorns 
and showed his Yankee cousins how to 
do it. Since that time there has been a 
great deal of this English blood mixed 
into the flocks of this country, while some 
flocks have been kept purely American 
and have been bred for egg production to 
a great extent. Probably the only way to 
decide which are the best layers would be 
to average up all the birds of each strain 
in all the egg-laying contests. This, how¬ 
ever, would not be an easy task, as there 
are so many mixtures it would be almost 
impossible to arrive at any correct result. 
C. S. GREENE. 
Why a Fresh Egg Sinks 
I am told a strictly fresh egg has air 
in it; that egg will sink to the bottom 
of a pan of water; an egg not strictly 
fresh will not sink to the bottom of the 
water, and a positively had egg will float 
at the top of water. If the strictly fresh 
egg has air in it why does it sink? 
New York City. c. B. 
A freshly laid egg contains air, but 
only in small amount, not enough to 
cause it to float. As the egg increases 
in ago. the fluid contents of the shell 
evaporate through its pores and the space 
thus left becomes filled with air, or, in 
the case of the decaying egg, gases. With 
the decreasing weight of the egg, due to 
the loss of water, and the increasing 
buoyancy, due to the replacing of this 
water by air or gas, a stage is finally 
reached when the egg displnees more than 
its own weight <>f water ami floats. Any 
substance, even lead, will float, if its form 
is such that it displaces when immersed 
more than its own weight of water. Iron 
battleships and eggs are alike in this 
respect. At. b. d. 
Feed for Molting Hens 
Will you give desirable feed for liens 
that are molting, to keep up their laying, 
and what to feed hens in Winter? 
AIKS. E. C. W. 
It is not necessary to change the food 
of hens with the season or the condition 
,>f their plumage; a food that is suitable 
for the production of eggs is equally 
suited to liens while molting, and a well 
balanced Summer ration will lie equally 
well balanced for Winter, taking into 
consideration that hens upon free range 
in the Summer may be able to provide a 
Fattening Cockerels; Fertilizer for 
Potatoes 
1. I have some nice Wyandotte cock¬ 
erels I want to fatten for roasting chick¬ 
ens. I have a house 6xH and about 20 sq. 
ft .of yard. What do you consider a good 
ration ? j. weles. 
T know no better fattening food than 
finely ground cornmeal, though ground 
buckwheat, barley and oats, with or with¬ 
out wheat middlings, are valuable addi¬ 
tions, and may well be used if ou hand, 
or if comparative prices make them eco¬ 
nomical. Sour milk used with these 
grains multiplies their efficiency as fat¬ 
tening rations. 
"I Can't find any old clothes for the 
scarecrow,” said the farmer. “Use some 
of the fancy things the boy brought home 
from college,” said his wife. “I’m trying 
to scare crows—not make ’em laugh ’em 
selves to death.” said the farmer.—Van¬ 
couver Daily Province. 
