The RURAL NEW.YORKER 
295 
THE HENYARD 
* 
The Langshan and the Black Giant 
I want a word concerning Black Lang¬ 
shan poultry. Jersey Giants are just be¬ 
ginning to be raised in this locality, and 
what I have seen are not particularly 
large and show many yellow and gray 
feathers on the back and hackles, and 
they all have what Langshan breeders 
call green legs. Why not raise a stand¬ 
ard breed, one that will breed true? 
Langshans will lay well if properly fed. 
While the eggs are very dark, dark eggs 
are at a premium in this locality; also 
they dress more like a turkey than any 
other fowl. I have known them to be 
taken for small turkeys, and they some¬ 
times go to 10 lbs. Langshans are a very 
quiet breed, so being suitable for the 
backyard and other places where Leg¬ 
horns or such could not be used. To me 
a Jersey Giant is largely Langshan, get¬ 
ting their green legs from Black Cochin, 
their other colors from no one seems to 
know what. By the way, what has be¬ 
come of the Black Cochin? If you wish 
size, there it is. Now, who will speak a 
good word for my breed. 
A FRIE.ND OF LAXGSIIAX8. 
Our own Black Giants are well-bred 
and carefully selected for several genera¬ 
tions, yet each year from 10 to 15 per 
cent of the birds show red, yellow or gray 
when fully feathered. We attribute this 
to an outcrop of the color of Light Brah¬ 
mas and Barred Rocks, both birds evi¬ 
dently being used in the making of some 
strains of the Black Giants. All the 
small Giant chicks show white feathers, 
but these disappear as the birds mature, 
and in the great majority the plumage is 
solid black. As a practical bird we think 
the Black Giant is superior to the Lang¬ 
shan. 
Roup; Line-breeding 
1. I have 100 pullets in a space of 
about 10x30 ft., with a concrete floor; 
always keep litter on it, but it gets damp 
often, and then is changed. The front 
of house faces*the south, with two rows 
of windows. I took out every other win¬ 
dow and tacked up a feed sack outside; 
on inside I have drop curtains, which I 
let down nights, to keep draught off the 
hens and morning roll them up. I am 
feeding equal parts, by weight, of corn- 
meal, ground oats, bran middlings and 
beef scrap, and 1 lb. of fine salt to each 
100 lbs. of feed; also from 1 lb. to 1% lbs. 
of charcoal to each 10 lbs. Mash, and 
all the water, grit and oyster shell they 
want. I keep this dry mash before them 
in hoppers at all times, and in addition 
I give them a wet mash at noon and also 
a feeding at noon of sprouted oats, which 
I sprout in a homemade oat sprouter 
heated by a kerosene stove. Recently I 
found one of my Buff Orpington pullets 
on the roost with head all swollen up; 
her eyes were swollen shut and there 
seemed to be a thin matter of watery dis¬ 
charge. I at once separated her from 
the rest of the flock, and have been put¬ 
ting liniment on her head around the 
eyes. The swelling has almost gone, but 
there seems to be matter around eye. 
She does not act right. Her crop feels as 
though there was wind in it, and nothing 
seems to go out of it, and there is a lump 
in her throat. What is it, and what can 
I do for her? Should I take out every 
window above and fix them like the rest? 
2. I have heard some discussion about 
breeding. I want to line-breed. If I 
breed the pullet back to her father and 
the pullet again to the best sons pro¬ 
duced, would that be line breeding? What 
is your best method to line-breed and yet 
have good, vigorous stock? c. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
1. Your description suggests roup, in at 
least the beginning stage. The affected 
pullet should be removed from the flock, 
together with any others showing evi¬ 
dences of “colds.” Dipping the head of 
the affected bird for a few seconds in 
some antiseptic solution, like a 2 per cent 
solution of creolin, holding the beak up 
and mouth open to permit the fluid to 
enter the nasal passages, may be effective 
in stopping further progress of the dis¬ 
ease. * If your poultry-house is damp in 
cold weather, it indicates the necessity 
for better ventilation. The use of burlap' 
over windows and curtains in front of 
perches is very apt to cause dampness in 
a poultry-house, with resultant colds and 
roup. In general, they are not to be 
recommended. The test of efficient ven¬ 
tilation is dryness of the air within the 
building. If it is damp and moisture col¬ 
lects upon the walls, open windows until 
the dampness disappears. 
Breedng fowls to their progeny is line¬ 
breeding. To avoid the dangers of this, 
mate only healthy, vigorous stock, free 
from defects that may be transmitted and 
accentuated, particularly defects that 
show in both sexes of those bred together. 
The safety in line-breeding lies in careful 
selection of breeders to avoid transmis¬ 
sible defects. yi. b. v. 
A $100,000 Poultry Farm That Is Run for You 
Did You 
Know— 
THAT some widely used feeds lack as many 
as three of the five properties required for 
hens to lay well or even to attain normal size 
and strength? 
That a slight change in housing birds and 
different proportions of the same foods can 
almost double the number of eggs? 
That mechanically predigested food cuts 
down feeding loss of baby chicks to less than 
one in two hundred and fifty ? 
That extra eggs through scientific care of 
hens cost you less than a quarter of a cent ? 
AND the largest experiment poultry farm 
in the world broadcasts valuable information 
to poultry raisers all through the year—free? 
[By William R. Durgin] 
Some Interesting Discoveries 
About Chickens — Methods 
That Make Poultry Raising 
Pay Better—Practical Sug¬ 
gestions on Care and Feeding 
And everything learned about the 
most successful, profitable way of rais¬ 
ing poultry can be your knowledge for 
the asking. 
I will try to give you an idea of the 
useful and practical things gained from the 
observations made on this model farm. 
How They Learned to 
‘Regulate’ Hens 
In the old days a strain of 
heavy layers was largely luck. 
If now and then there were 
light layers there wasn’t much 
to be done about it. But the 
Pratt organization determined 
by hundreds of tests just what 
vitamins and minerals were de¬ 
ficient in feeds but were neces- 
young chicks prove the food values in this 
mash. I saw chicks less than two months 
old that weighed 22 ounces. This grow¬ 
ing mash has fish meal, bone scrap, bone 
meal and dried buttermilk, all digestible, 
growth-giving animal proteins. 
It is the older birds that offer best proof 
of how scientific care is rewarded. There 
were groups that had been fed differently 
to measure the value of balanced ration, 
and you could scarcely believe them the 
same breed and age. The same differ¬ 
ences show in the hens that have been 
regulated and those that were not. It is 
apparent in their heads and eyes, and in 
I MAGINE two hundred acres of fine, 
gently rolling land in eastern Pennsyl¬ 
vania dotted with splendid flocks of a 
variety of good breeds of poultry! My visit 
to the Pratt experimental poultry farm was - --- 
something I shall never forget. Thousands saryas egg-producing elements, 
of happy, healthy birds. A dozen well- Finally they were able to corn- 
equipped buildings. Veteran poultrymen bine them all in a single prepara¬ 
making a scientific study of poultry raising tion. Groups were brought up 
—and making it pay. with these regulating elements 
I learned more practical things about P “j in ” i,h * e usual feed ' al “ ng - 
poultry in my two days’ visit to this model s ' de of °‘ h = r , 
farm than all I ever gained through my regu a a ? lm f ouera ™ t 1 '“V 
own experience or in reading. One secret re e ula,ed ? ro “P showed one-third more 
about pullets will be worth hundreds „( egg s latd; in most cases there were half 
The Difference Cost Exactly 9 Cents! 
Two groups of Barred Rocks were fed the same araoun ts 
of mash for a period of three months. On the left is one 
of those receiving a generally accepted mash made of best 
grades of grains and scrap. On the right is one of the 
hens that were fed Pratts mash. 
It is results like these that accounts for a line of feeds 
so good that sixty thousand dealers sell them on direct 
promise of satisfaction or money back. 
about pullets will be worth hundreds of 
dollars even to one who raises chickens 
on the small scale that I do. And you 
need not journey to Philadelphia to get 
this valuable information; the farm is 
conducted for the benefit of 
poultry raisers everywhere, and 
through its free bulletins (which 
you can start receiving now) 
it gives out a wealth of useful 
suggestions. 
A Big Help 
No one interested in chickens 
could see this vast poultry in¬ 
stitution and not enter his name 
for the bulletin service that 
keeps poultrymen posted on 
new discoveries and develop¬ 
ments in this field. Proof that 
their methods are practical is 
the tremendous commercial suc¬ 
cess this experimental farm has 
achieved. It markets enormous 
quantities of eggs. They have 
orders for birds of their raising 
from almost every state in the 
Union. I saw one order for 
2500 to go to Colorado. 
Ail over the property are special flocks 
of birds —‘groups’ they call them—and 
each group is under certain conditions of 
care, treatment, feeding, etc., of which 
daily record is kept. Fowls are measured 
and weighed; eggs are counted, analyzed, 
classified. Costs are kept to the penny. 
again as many eggs, 
double the number! 
and in some cases 
Above is a photograph 
of the head of aBarred 
Rock from a flock fed 
15 weeks on a good, 
well-balanced farm 
feed. Below, head of 
same breed, fed the 
same kind and quality 
of food with which 
regulator was mixed 
daily. Was it worth 
the price of what you 
get for half an egg to 
get the result 
be low? 
Then, as to baby chicks. It is a pity more 
folks don’t know the Pratt method of 
raising them! It's the feeding 
that brings them through; the 
superintendent showed me 
where the average loss in 
hatched chicks was only twenty 
in a thousand when all around 
that section there would be 
regular epidemics of the 
diseases and pests that mow 
down the young baby birds. 
Regulating 
Did This 
The Things All Baby 
Chicks Need 
Here is what baby chicks get 
from their very first meal on 
the Pratt farm. It’s a long list, 
and I wouldn’t advise prepara¬ 
tion of such a feed at home. 
Pratts gather and prepare 
these things on such vast 
scale that it is made upand 
distributed for less than any 
home-mixed feed would cost. 
The principal items these are: 
Powdered buttermilk wheat middlings 
corn meal ground rape 
bone meal oat meal 
ground millet cooked wheat 
After twenty days the chicks are put on 
a special growing mash —and how they 
grow! The feathers and bodies of these 
their actions. You can tell at a glance 
which groups are doing the heavy laying. 
Over in one corner of this big farm are 
the various buildings. One is a labora¬ 
tory. Another is where ailing birds are 
treated and remedies studied and tested. 
In another building they mail bulletins 
and answer questions which every mail 
brings from poultrymen who know that 
this practical advice is available. 
What I saw at the Pratt experimental 
poultry farm cured me of ‘going it blind.’ 
I am through with home-made feeds and 
through trying anything except what this 
organization with fifty years’ experience 
approves. They prepare every food needed 
for birds of any breed or age, and they 
draw on fifteen foreign lands for the right 
seeds, herbs, barks, and other things that 
beget healthy birds and plenty of eggs. 
They also make every remedy you want 
on hand, and their own flocks have shown 
them to be right. I am through guessing. 
Special Notice 
If you will drop a line now to the Pratt 
Food Company, 197 Walnut Street, Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa., your name will be placed 
on the list to receive 
these interesting and 
highly informative bul¬ 
letins. 
There is also a very 
valuable book of practi¬ 
cal pointers on the care 
Of poultry and this, too, Cover design of a 
will be sent you without very u * e ful illus- 
. ... . .- trated book on 
cost or obligation if you poultry that read- 
aelf fm- if ers ma V obtain 
asKiorit. -without cost. 
A View on the Pratt Experimental Poultry Farm Where Poultry Raising is a Science 
