PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
can properly assimilate and pass by the balance. 
Of course tainted and partly decayed meat 
foods should be rejected without question. 
Boiling and cooking helps them, but does not 
restore the good that they originally contained. 
So much of the poultry-man’s prosperity de¬ 
pends upon the health of his flock that any step 
which may bring up the general tone should be 
eagerly sought and rigidly adhered to, once 
found. We do not think there is a case of 
failure in the poultry kingdom where the birds 
were kept healthy that was not due to causes 
entirely outside of the business; either the 
owners were radically unfitted for the business 
end of it, and would have failed at any under¬ 
taking which they might have ventured into, or 
they were hampered by improper help. 
Other animals seem to recover from a severe 
fit of sickness and apparently are as vigorous as 
ever, but we have yet to see a bird of any kind 
which was thoroughly sick for twenty-four hours 
or more that fully recovered. The} r may look 
all right, eat well, and be apparently healthy, 
but sometimes they are found dead under the 
roost and we wonder why. A hen in health 
is about one of the hardiest of farm animals. In 
the other condition she is anything but that. 
In closing we would say that milk, if avail¬ 
able, makes one of the best foods, used as a 
drink, that can be found for growing stock, fed 
either sour or sweet. We prefer it sour for the 
reason that you can always get it sour or make 
it so, and cannot always have it sweet, and the 
change from sweet to sour or vice versa is rather 
injurious to young chicks. They seem to adapt 
themselves to a constant diet of sour milk or do 
equally well if it is always sweet, but a mixture 
seems to produce ill results. 
Try a pen each way, if you have milk at a 
reasonable price, one pen with water to drink 
and the others give nothing but milk in connec¬ 
tion with our methods, and carefully note 
results. Some object to it, saying that the 
birds get all “stuck up.” If the dishes are 
never empty, the birds then do not get over 
thirsty and crowd around when a new supply is 
brought on, and if each one has a chance to drink 
by himself, they do not then become fouled. 
Reliable Poultry Journal. 
Feeding Clover for Eggs. 
Of all the vegetables and grasses, clover and 
cabbages seem to be the ones that poultry de¬ 
light most to indulge in; and yet, notwith¬ 
standing so much has been written upon the 
value of clover as a green food, and finely cut 
clover hay as a winter green food, few poultry- 
men realize its value. 
It has great value as a “ food ” pure and 
simple, it being rich in both nitrogen and lime, 
two most important food elements. Its nutri¬ 
tive ratio is 1:6.1; while that of wheat is but 
1:6.5; corn 1:8.9; barley, 1:6.1; potatoes 
1:17.3. It is easy to see, then, that clover has 
as high a nutritive value as barley, and almost as 
high as wheat, our two most valuable grain 
foods. Of lime clover contains 1.3 per cent., 
ranking next below green bone in the food 
value tables, and contrasting with the common¬ 
ly used grains as follows: wheat, .2; barley, .1; 
corn only a trace; in other words, clover has six 
and one-half as much lime as does wheat, and 
thirteen times as much as barley. 
Clover has even greater value as a bulky food, 
as extending, diluting the food ration, reducing 
the too concentrated grain food, and preventing 
the accumulation of internal fat. Grass or 
some green food should be fed to extend (dilute) 
the grain food, increasing its digestibility; and 
for that purpose there is no better article than 
clover. When it is understood that clover is 
the best of all grasses for extending the food 
ration, and is, itself, a most excellent food, 
rich in nitrogen and lime, its surpassing merit 
will be conceded. 
One of the great advantages of clover is that 
it is so easily and conveniently cured and 
stored in summer for winter use; in fact, once 
well cured and housed, it will keep indefinitely. 
We esteem second crop clover (or “ rowen,” as 
many call it), to be the best, and it should be 
cut when well in blossom; we let it mature until 
the first blossoms are just beginning to turn 
slightly brown. At that time the nutriment 
intended for perfecting and ripening the seeds 
is all in the stalks and leaves, and the plant is at 
its best. The goodness in the clover is best pre¬ 
served if it is mired in the shale; but as that is 
inconvenient, the usual method is to let it stand 
in the swath for three or four hours, until the 
top is considerably wilted; then turn and leave 
for three or four hours more, then cock it and 
let it stand for two or three days, until it 
“ sweats,” then open the cocks and dry lightly, 
put in the barn, and stow away. Cured in this 
manner, the “ life ” of the plant is not all burned 
out of it, and it comes out in the winter as sweet 
as new-mown hay. 
106 
Farm Poultry. 
