1828 
•P* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Vineland egg-laying contest closed 
its first year on October 31. The best 12 
hens in each pen were selected for a breed¬ 
ing test for this coming year, and the 
remaining birds were sent home. We 
sent 20 Red pullets to this contest one 
year ago. We thought we never had bet¬ 
ter stock. They were well bred—most 
of them from record-making hens. • We 
never selected pullets with greater care, 
and when these 20 birds left for college 
we felt that they would “do us proud.” 
The sad truth is that pride traveled 
toward its usual destination. Those pul¬ 
lets came very near winning two leather 
medals. Seven of them died, which was 
almost a record for deaths. At the end 
of the contest, my birds stood No. 95 out 
of 100 in number of eggs laid. We might 
as well face the facts and get them over. 
For some reason my birds flunked and 
disgraced both their ancestors and their 
trainers. There is no use making com¬ 
plaint or hunting for excuses. In some 
way our pullets failed to perform. 
* * * * * 
I might, find satisfaction in the fact 
that five of them died on the nest of honor. 
When they finally started these birds 
seemed anxious to make up for lost time, 
and practically laid themselves to death. 
There are those who might find some 
consolation in such news, but I never 
cared much for a dead hen. It is evi¬ 
dent that in order to make even a fair 
record at such a contest the birds must 
be strong and in the best of health. I 
think the five of ours that died on the nest 
had the egg-laying habit well developed, 
but they lacked the bodily vigor to endure 
the strain. The 13 birds left alive at 
the end of the contest made the following 
records: 
Bergen County Belle. .. 102 
Hope Farm Beauty. 153 
Wearimus Rose . 195 
Pollvanna . 148 
Scarlet Runner.132 
Red Head .183 
Isabelle . 70 
Jersey Belle.114 
Patience 120 
Charity 100 
Cave Girl. 139 
Crimson Rambler. 128 
Queen 104 
I 
You notice these 13 birds laid 1.700 
eggs, or an average of 131. If they had 
all lived and done as well, the pen would 
have laid 2,020-—not a bad record. 
* * * * * 
Of course, I know plenty of men will 
start up and say that a hen that will not 
lay over 130 eggs in a year ought not to 
five. This will be said by men who do not 
know how many eggs their own hens lav. 
They think their birds will average 200 
a year, when the record will bt? much 
nearer 100. I know that a hen that 
lays 10 dozen eggs a year is a good h n n-— 
considerably above the average, in spite of 
the great records we hear so much about. 
Some of these dead hens of ours left a 
fair monument behind them, while others 
deserve a nameless grave. Take Faith, 
now. She laid 20 e°rgs and then lost her 
name as applied to the egg business. Then 
came Hope. She did a little better, lay¬ 
ing 01 eggs before she gave up. With 
Faith and Hone out of it. the other mem¬ 
ber of the “bb-sed three,” Charity, kept 
on and laid 100. It is hardest for me to 
understand the behav’or of the first three 
pullets in this list. They are own sisters 
from the same brood. We had a poultry 
meeting here at tlm farm before the con¬ 
test, opened, and I showed these three 
pullets and had a vote as to which was 
the best one. As I remember it. the ma¬ 
jority picked Bergen County B“ n e as the 
winner. As my children say, “Now look 
at her!” The ancestors of these herds 
some years ago made a record of a little 
over 1 400 eggs for 10 pullets at the Stores 
contest. .We all thought that was good 
at the time. You, will notice that the 
best 10 even of my disgraced and halting 
birds average 142 eggs. We may be mak¬ 
ing progress after all. 
***** 
They seem to have sent < >ueen back 
from the Vineland contest. On her rec¬ 
ord Isabelle is a poorer bird, but she 
seems to have better shape, and she may 
come back with a run during this second 
year. In fact, they may all do better as 
hens. They were young when they en¬ 
tered, and slow to start. Here is their 
chance to show what they can do as 
matrons after failing as “young folks.” 
A« for the misnamed “Queen,” the proper 
treatment for her is to remove her crown 
about an inch or so below her head, and 
let her rule over the destinies of a chicken 
pic. Royalty without useful performance 
shop’d be classed with tin* rnblvsh of life. 
This record goes to show that it is not so 
easy after all to develop a permanent 
strain of bieh-produe ! ng hens. The an¬ 
cestors of Bergen County Belle and Wear¬ 
imus Ro«e were from good laying families. 
Their mother laid 214 eggs in a year, and 
their fath«r came from a family of good 
layers. They are both strong and well¬ 
shaped birds, had exactly the same treat¬ 
ment and feeding, yet one lays nearly 
twice as many eggs as the other. I think 
most people would select Belle as the 
better bird. The general opinion seems 
to be that the egg-laying habit is bred 
into the pullets, from the male side. That 
is, the son rather than tie daughter 
seems to transmit the superior powers 
of the mother. I think a son of Belle 
would prove stronger and handsomer than 
a son of Wearimus Rose. The average 
poultryman, without knowing the exact 
parentage, would be most likely to select 
a son of Belle- Yet by so doing he would 
be likely to set back his breeding im¬ 
provement for one season at least. 1 now 
think that was one thing which caused 
my pullets to flatten out at Vineland. I 
think their grandmother on father’s side 
was more or less of a drone. 
***** 
We can afford to be philosophers when 
our hens make a failure at college. The 
ax will quickly put such failures iu their 
proper place—where they can hold their 
own with any of the winners. For the 
frying-pan makes all birds equal. My 
neighbor, who breeds Games and the 
Black Jersey Giant men, will deny that, 
for it is true that some hens were born 
to grease the frying-pan. But, in a way 
of speaking, you can always cook the 
feathered drone and forget her failures 
on the nest as you gnaw her bones. That 
is the satisfaction you can easily get out 
of hen college students, but there is little 
consolation when the human students go 
wrong. There are men and women who 
would think life had turned dark because 
Queen and the various Belles on my list 
have proved unworthy, but that is a very 
small matter beside the tragedy which 
comes when John or Mary fail to make 
good at college. Many a man and woman 
have received the most crushing blow of 
their lives when the young folks take op¬ 
portunity and throw away everything ex¬ 
cept the first letter of the word. In 
many cases people toil and slave and en¬ 
dure in order to save money with which 
to educate John and Mary. Somehow 
they think you can buy such education 
and what goes with it—that it is only a 
matter of paying the price. The trouble 
is they do not make the children pay their 
share of the price, which must be counted 
out in drops of sweat and hard self-denial 
and mastery of selfishness. You cannot 
send children to college as you would se¬ 
lect pullets for an egg-laying contest, 
though some people seem to think they 
can. You can make use of your pullet 
failures aud forget all about them, but 
what can you do with the drones and mis¬ 
fits at school or college? The college fac¬ 
ulty will quickly trap-nest them and send 
them home if they fail ; but when they 
come home—what then? If you can an¬ 
swer that, you will help solve a great 
problem. 
***** 
Thanksgiving found us in reasonable 
shape on the farm. There are still many 
apples to be sold, and the pork and sur¬ 
plus poultry will be worked off in early 
December. With the fall in pork prices 
pigs are not paying as they did, and we 
shall not raise as many next. year. 1 
think there is to be a good demand for 
poultry. The new Bergen County egg- 
laying contest is located near us, and lias 
already stimulated great interest. I think 
(he rougher part of this section will 
finally come to orchards and poultry. 
Wh’le I doubt if this section will excel 
in Winter egg production, 1 think it will 
prove a great place for raising pullets. 
As I see it, more and more in the future 
(he production of eggs and milk will be¬ 
come special work—located on the right 
soil and in the most .convenient pluces 
for shinning. One set of people will pro- 
duee t h e egge or the milk, while another 
set, farther back, on cheaper land, will 
produce the cows and the pullets and sell 
them to the men who are nearer market, 
hi connection with our orchards 1 think 
we can raise pullets with a small outlay 
for labor, and sell them in October vhb 
greater profit than we ever could find in 
Winter eggs. There will surely be great, 
changes in farming all over the East. It 
will mean an adjustment—each man find¬ 
ing what is best suited to his soil and 
conditions, and then developing that as 
well as he can. Do I think our young 
men will come back to the farm? Many 
will, but it will depend largely upori the 
girl, and what she is willing to do. 
What do you mean by that? 
Well, the boy is a freshman at college. 
There was a great football game, and the 
entire country around about turned out. 
The boy did not play-—as a freshman he 
had to wear a little cap and stay in the 
background. The seniors and juniors 
were out in great style. It was their 
day, and they came with the girls as part 
of the celebration. The boy says that 
some of these seniors acted as of they 
owned the world. You could imagine 
them looking over the crowd and thinking 
“the world in mine!” 
“And.” says the boy, “when I saw some 
of the gilds they had with them, I didn’t 
blame them for thinking so !” 
That comes to mind as I glance across 
the fireplace and see a gray-haired woman 
darning a pair of socks. It’s usually the 
girl who settles such things, and that is 
what, you may call a “wise dispensation 
of Providence.” My grandfather and 
grandmother would willingly go off into 
the woods or on some lonely prairie aud 
spend their lives fighting for a home. 
That “girl” would have been content to 
do a full man’s work for years if by the 
time she and her husband were 50 they 
could have a home of their own. Can 
the modern boy ask the modern girl to do 
that? Is it fair to the girl to expect her 
to do it. in these modern times? That is 
the problem today, and that is why I say 
it will depend on the girl. When farm 
life can offer opportunity (in botli fact 
and imagination) equal to towu life, the 
girl will quickly settle it. . it. w. c. 
Various Poultry Questions 
Blackhead; Spreading Limestone 
.1. Is the following remedy for black¬ 
head in turkeys safe, and is it anything 
that might .help in checking the disease, 
which last year almost entirely destroyed 
our flock of turkeys? The article that I 
read said the disease was one of the in¬ 
testines and liver. The remedy given 
was this: “About November 1 coufine 
each bird to lie usd for breeding and give 
each bird three doses of castor oil, two 
tablespoonfuls to a close, and three days* 
interval between doses. Also put enough 
permanganate of potassium into the 
drinking water each day to make it. a 
deep pink.” This permanganate of potas¬ 
sium being used as a strong germ-killer, 
and is to be kept in the water from No¬ 
vember fo February, when if. must be dis¬ 
continued, as it destroys fertility of eggs. 
What, is your opinion of this remedy? 
2. Is it. practical to put ground limestone 
on fields in Winter; that is, would the 
results he just as good as those obtained 
by working the ground limestone into the 
Soil? D. Ct. B. 
Mechaniesville, N. Y. 
1. Blackhead is a disease of the liver 
and intestines caused by a minute or¬ 
ganism that is picked up with food and 
drink, and is so widespread where poul¬ 
try is raised as to make it practically im¬ 
possible to guard turkeys from infection. 
The measures you speak of are evidently 
taken in the hope of ridding the intes¬ 
tinal tract of the organism and prevent¬ 
ing its gaining a.further foothold. These 
measures would probably be of some ben¬ 
efit to the birds treated, though no intes¬ 
tinal antiseptic has yet been found that 
possesses any marked value, and potas¬ 
sium permanganate, in the form in 
which it lias to be administered, is a mild 
rather than strong germ-killer. But. even 
granting that the breeders were them¬ 
December 4, 1920 
selves rid of the infection, this would not 
protect the young birds hatched from 
them, and unless these birds could be 
reared upon uninfected ground, they 
would in all probability pick up the dis¬ 
ease-producing organisms, and a consid¬ 
erable portion would succumb to them. 
Not all infected turkeys die, but the losses 
are so heavy in nearly all flocks as to 
make turkey-raising a rather discourag¬ 
ing venture. 
2. Ground limestone may be spread 
upon the fields at any season of the year, 
as it leaches from the soil but slowly, but 
the greatest benefit from it will be ob¬ 
tained where it is worked into the surface 
by harrowing the limed furrows. 
\r. b. p. 
Scorched Wheat for Poultry 
We have bought some wheat that was 
in a barn that burned down. The wheat 
is not burnt much. Would you advise 
buying such wheat for chicken'feed when 
it can be bad? There is some charcoal 
in this wheat from the burnt timber, 
some as large as a hulled walnut, or 
larger. We are thinking of running it 
through a mill and using it for poultry 
charcoal, or should special wood be used 
for this purpose? \y. p. 
Maugahsville, Md. 
Scorched wheat is a valuable food for 
poultry, if not so badly burned as to have 
lost more in food value than the reduc¬ 
tion from the market price compensates. 
I should presume that the wheat of which 
you speak would be an excellent purchase. 
Scorched elevator, wheat is sometimes 
open to the. suspicion of having mixed 
with, it weevily or other low-grade wheat 
seeking a market under the guise of hav¬ 
ing met with misfortune. I know of no 
reason why this charcoal should not be 
fed to poultry, though that offered by 
dealers is called willow charcoal. 
M. B. D. 
Pullets Mature Slowly 
I am in need of advice with regard to 
feeding of pullets. I have 500 pullets, 
one-third being hatched May 10 and oth¬ 
ers May 20. The majority of these are 
of good size aud apparently in good con¬ 
dition, but still seem very slow in maturr 
ing. Probably 75 per cent show red 
about the eye and comb, and wattles are 
also red. Of this number there are 75 
or 80 birds with lopping combs and seem 
to be at the laying stage. I am feed¬ 
ing a scratch grain of 100 lbs. each buck¬ 
wheat, heavy oats, wheat, with 200 lbs. 
cracked corn, adding one-tenth rye. I 
should have put it “have been,” as I 
could not obtain wheat for my last mix¬ 
ing. The mash has been for past month 
and a half, with exception of last mixing, 
100 lbs. each bran, middlings, cornmeal, 
ground oats and beef scrap. At last mix¬ 
ing I added to the above 100 lbs. corn- 
meal. The birds have free range, with 
access to green rye and vetch, as well as 
one acre of'corn standing and in the shock 
and buckwheat before harvesting. I 
would like to know wherein I am wrong. 
NOVICE. 
Your pullets are evidently a little slow 
in coining into laying, but not sufficiently 
so :itj to indicate anything wrong with 
their feeding or care. If Leghorns, they 
should begin to lay very soon after reach¬ 
ing an age of five months, some especially 
precocious birds beginning before that 
time. You are feeding the mash recom¬ 
mended by the Cornell Agricultural Col¬ 
lege, and I know of nothing better. A 
larger amount of meat scrap, fed through 
.Summer, or an addition of skim-milk iu 
liberal quantity would have hastened the 
maturing of these pullets and brought 
about earlier laying, but thin measure 
would have been of questionable value in 
the long run. I should not make any rad¬ 
ical changes in their rations or care iu 
the hope of forcing egg production. You 
would in all probability do much more 
harm than good by such an effort. The 
pullets should have all that they will con¬ 
sume of mixed grains and mash, in about 
equal proportions, and the mash should 
contain one-fifth, part meat scrap. Any 
radical change in their feeding or en¬ 
vironment . would delay, rather than 
hasten, laying. In handling these birds 
make all necessary changes slowly, as 
these fowls are peculiarly creatures of 
habit, and of habits that they do not take 
kindly to having suddenly changed. 
M. B. D. 
Plucking Geese 
Will you advise me about my 10 Tou¬ 
louse geese, when and how to nluck them? 
Eight of them are April hatched. 
New Jersey. ii. F. T. 
Some goose raisers pluck their geese at 
some, time prior to molting. In some cases 
tins is as often as every six weeks during 
the Spring. Summer and early Fall, but 
probably the majority pick only once or 
twice a year. Feathers are considered 
ripe for picking when the mulls appear 
dry and do not contain blood. Geese 
should not he plucked during the breeding 
season. I have always rather hesitated fo 
advocate the practice of plucking geese, 
ns it is more or less cruel and injurious. 
The feathers plucked at the time of killing 
should be saved, of course. You would 
probably find Farmers’ Bulletin 707. is¬ 
sued. by the United States Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. O., a very 
interesting and valuable circular. v 
