234 
February  17,  1923 
equip  with  oil-burniug  brooders.  There  are  several 
good  brooders  on  the  market  at  the  present  time, 
both  coal  and  oil-burning.  Personally,  I  prefer  the 
coal  burner,  which  is  provided  with  both  top  and 
bottom  drafts,  both  of  which  are  automatically  con¬ 
trolled  by  wafer  thermostats.  These  brooders  should 
be  placed  in  a  room  not  over  10x12  ft.,  and  4*4  ft. 
high  in  back  and  7%  ft.  high  in  front.  In  a  larger 
room  during  cold  weather  there  is  liable  to  be  too 
much  air  space  to  be  heated  to  a  comfortable  degree 
for  young  chicks  with  a  single  stove.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  chicks  are  on  the  floor,  and 
that  the  floor  is  the  coldest  part  of  the  room,  except 
directly  under  or  near  the  hover.  Floor  drafts 
must  be  prevented  while  chicks  are  small.  Be  very 
careful  not  to  crowd  too  many  chicks  into  one 
brooder.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  is  enough  for  any 
brooder  in  cold  weather,  no  matter  what  its  rated 
capacity,  but  when  the  weather  is  mild  from  300  to 
400  chicks  can  be  successfully  brooded  in  one  flock. 
PREPARING  THE  FLOOR. — Either  board  or 
cement  floors  are  satisfactory  upon  which  to  raise 
chicks,  and  should  be  prepared  as  follows:  After 
setting  up  the  brooder  stove,  start  the  fire  and  place 
three  or  four  bushels  of  sand  or  sandy  loam  on  the 
floor  underneath  the  hover,  where  it  will  get  the 
full  heat  from  the  stove,  and  run  a  good  fire  for  at 
least  24  hours,  or  until  the  sand  is  thoroughly  warm 
and  dry.  Then  spread  it  out  over  the  floor  of  the 
house,  and  on  the  top  of  this  sand  scatter  cut  hay 
or  straw  or  chaff  about  an  inch  and  a  half  thick. 
Be  sure  there  is  plenty  of  both  sand  and  litter  under 
the  hover  and  near  it  where  the  chicks  sleep,  so 
they  never  touch  the  floor  with  their  feet. 
BROODING. — In  moving  the  chicks  from  the  in¬ 
cubator  to  the  brooder  be  very  careful  not  to  let  them 
get  chilled.  They  should  be  kept  covered  while  moving 
and  in  cold  weather  they  should  be  moved  during 
the  warm  part  of  the  day.  The  brooder  temperature 
should  be  100°  F.  2  in.  from  the  floor  just  under  the 
edge  of  the  hover.  Make  a  fence  1  ft.  high  out  of 
%-iu.  square  mesh  wire  netting,  and  place  it  18  in. 
from  the  hover  all  the  way  round.  This  is  to  hold 
the  chicks  near  the  heat  until  they  learn  how  to  eat 
and  where  to  go  to  get  warm.  Burlap  bags  hung 
on  this  fence  during  the  first  week  or  two  help  hold 
the  heat  and  prevent  floor  drafts  if  weather  is  cold 
or  stormy.  This  wire  fence  is  gradually  moved  back, 
so  that  at  the  end  of  a  week  or  two,  depending  upon 
the  weather,  the  chicks  have  the  full  run  of  the 
house.  The  heater  should  be  run  just  warm  enough 
so  the  chicks  are  comfortable  at  the  outside  edge  of 
the  hover,  without  crowding  close  to  the  stove.  A 
good  even  temperature  is  very  important  when  the 
chicks  are  young.  Coal-burning  brooder  stoves  fur¬ 
nish  a  forced  system  of  ventilation  by  drawing  the 
air  from  under  the  hover  into  the  fire  and  allowing 
the  smoke  and  gases  to  escape  up  through  the  3  or 
4-in.  pipe.  This  keeps  a  constant  supply  of  fresh 
air  without  drafts  passing  under  the  hover,  which 
seems  to  have  a  beneficial  effect  on  the  chicks. 
FEEDING. — Do  not  feed  for  48  to  72  hours  after 
hatching,  as  the  chicks  come  into  the  world  well  fed 
by  nature,  and  feeding  too  quickly  often  results  in 
much  harm  to  the  digestive  organs  of  the  chicks. 
For  the  first  feed  we  use  a  mixture  of  about  equal 
parts  toasted  b$ead  crumbs  and  oat  flakes,  moistened 
with  raw  or  soft-boiled  eggs.  A  little  grit  and  char¬ 
coal  are  added  to  this  feed,  and  the  chicks  are 
allowed  all  they  will  eat  the  first  day.  After  that 
they  are  fed  five  times  a  day,  all  they  will  clean  up 
in  10  or  15  minutes,  alternating  with  fine  chick  feed 
after  the  third  day.  The  mash  feed  is  gradually 
changed  from  the  bread  and  egg  food  to  a  mixture 
of  three  parts  wheat  bran,  one  part  bonemeal,  one 
part  eornmeal,  one  part  fine  middlings,  one  part  oat¬ 
meal  (without  hulls),  one  part  hominy,  one  part 
dried  milk,  and  2  per  cent  charcoal,  ground  fine. 
■When  the  chicks  are  six  or  eight  weeks  old,  one  part 
line  beef  scrap  may  be  added  to  this  mash,  and  it  is 
kept  before  them  all  the  time  after  the  first  week. 
There  are  several  good  ready-mixed  starting  feeds 
for  young  chicks  on  the  market  this  year,  which  can 
be  used  with  very  good  results,  and  save  a  lot  of 
time  and  trouble  getting  all  the  different  ingredients 
and  mixing  them  by  hand.  Milk  in  some  form  is 
just  as  important  for  young  chicks  as  for  breeding 
stock,  as  it  is  nature's  best  food.  Personally,  I 
would  not  care  to  attempt  the  raising  of  a  large 
number  of  chicks  without  it.  Green  food  of  some 
kind  is  also  necessary  after  the  first  six  days. 
Sprouted  oats  or  barley  are  best  for  this  purpose. 
The  sprouts  should  be  cut  into  short  pieces  and  fed 
once  a  day,  all  that  will  be  eaten  in  10  minutes. 
After  the  chicks  are  10  days  or  two  weeks  old  it  is 
not  necessary  to  cut  the  sprouts.  Above  all,  give 
the  young  chicks  plenty  of  room  for  exercise  in  the 
open  air  during  pleasant  days,  and  guard  them  from 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
getting  chilled  on  cold,  windy  days,  or  early  in  the 
morning  or  late  in  the  afternoon ;  it  is  often  cold 
and  uncomfortable  for  the  chicks  outside,  so  they 
should  be  carefully  protected  from  the  cold  at  such 
times.  To  induce  exercise,  all  the  fine  chick  feed  is 
fed  in  the  litter  on  the  floor.  A  small  yard  about  10 
ft.  square,  inclosed  with  1-in.  mesh  wire,  2 y2  ft.  high, 
should  inclose  the  chicks  until  they  are  about  three 
weeks  old.  when  they  are  given  free  range.  There 
is  nothing  better  than  a  good  clover  or  Alfalfa  range 
which  is  mowed  occasionally,  so  the  chicks  do  not 
get  wet  and  chilled  in  traveling  through  the  wet 
grass  after  a  rain  or  before  the  dew  is  off  the  grass 
in  the  morning.  A  good  plan  is  to  have  part  of  the 
range  planted  to  corn  for  shade  during  the  hot 
Summer  days,  and  to  serve  as  a  protection  from 
hawks  and  crows,  which  take  a  large  toll  every 
year  from  the  young  flocks  of  the  country.  The 
colony  house  system  4'or  raising  pullets  for  laying 
has  come  to  lie  considered  the  only  practical  method 
of  obtaining  the  size,  growth  and  constitutional 
vigor  necessary  for  continued  high  egg  production 
during  the  Winter  months,  which  is  the  result  we 
are  all  looking  for,  and  which  usually  produces  the 
greatest  profit  of  any  branch  of  the  business. 
C.  S.  GKEENE. 
Muck  or  Peat  for  Manure 
EVERY  Winter  comes  up  the  old  question  of  using 
muck  or  peat  for  manure.  In  swamps  or  low 
places  in  the  woods  you  generally  find  deposits  of 
black,  sticky  stuff.  It  is  not  regular  soil,  but  a 
coarse  black  mass,  full  of  little  sticks  or  fibers  or 
decayed  leaves.  This  is  called  peat  or  muck,  accord¬ 
ing  to  its  condition  and  the  way  it  has  decayed  or 
This  is  Warren  John  Buck,  a  three-year-old  Long 
Island  boy — one  of  the  youngest  readers  of  Tiie  R.  N.-Y. 
lie  wants  the  first  look  at  the  paper  when  it  comes. 
May  he  live  to  read  5, (WO  more  issues. 
broken  up.  It  represents  the  accumulation  through 
many  years  of  leaves,  grass,  dead  plants,  rotted 
wood  and  similar  things  which  fall  down  or  blow 
into  a  low  place  and  slowly  decay.  The  water  stand¬ 
ing  in  these  low  places  has  prevented  any  rapid 
oxidation,  and  this  has  meant  a  slowly  rotting,  acid 
mass,  sour  and  with  unsoluble  plant  food.  It  does  a 
farmer  no  good  to  be  told  that  the  coal  beds  were 
formed  from  similar  deposits,  or  from  much  the  same 
thing  acting  slowly  through  thousands  of  years.  In 
some  countries,  notably  Ireland,  this  peat  in  certain 
formations  is  used  as  fuel.  During  the  war  efforts 
were  made  in  New  England  to  utilize  the  peat  de¬ 
posits  as  fuel  substitute  for  coal.  It  would  be  a  won¬ 
derful  thing  for  that  industrial  section  if  this  peat 
could  be  successfully  burned,  for  all  coal  must  be 
hauled  or  shipped  in.  Thus  far  experiments  with 
peat  as  a  fuel  have  not  been  successful  enough  to 
warrant  any  large  use.  We  think,  however,  that  in 
time  the  chemists  may  learn  how  to  make  it  more 
useful.  Possibly  through  the  use  of  certain  bacteria 
we  may  in  a  few  months  do  at  least  in  part  something 
of  what  has  required  ages  for  nature  to  change  peat 
into  coal.  The  Vermont  Experiment  Station  at  Bur¬ 
lington  made  very  complete  studies  of  peat.  The 
results  are  published  in  an  interesting  bulletin. 
But  farmers  are  interested  less  in  the  fuel  value 
of  peat  than  in  its  fertilizing  value.  We  may  remem¬ 
ber  that  peat  is  derived  from  grass,  leaves,  bushes 
and  decayed  wood,  while  manure  comes  from  hay 
and  other  plants,  with  grain  or  seeds.  Both  come 
from  organic  matter.  They  are  not  unlike  in  com¬ 
position,  and  can  be  made  near  alike  by  fermenting 
and  sweetening  the  peat  or  muck.  These  black  or 
brown  deposits  vary  quite  a  little  in  composition. 
In  some  cases  there  will  be  less  nitrogen  than  in 
manure,  while  in  a  few  exceptional  cases  there  will 
be  two  or  three  times  as  much.  There  are  several 
places  where  this  black  soil  is  so  rich  that.it  may  be 
simply  scraped  up,  dried  and  crushed  and  sold  as 
fertilizer.  There  is  usually  little  or  no  potash  in  the 
peat,  and  but  a  small  quantity  of  phosphorus.  The 
theory  of  making  full  use  of  it  is  to  sweeten  and 
ferment  it  so  as  to  make  the  nitrogen  available,  and 
add  potash  and  phosphorus.  Many  farmers  simply 
haul  the  muck  right  out  of  the  swamp  and  scatter  it 
over  the  ground,  or  leave  it  in  piles*  to  be  spread 
later.  Handled  in  this  way  it  dries  out  and  “weath¬ 
ers”  ;  that  is,  the  frost  and  sun  act  upon  it  and  make 
it  fine  and  crumbly,  so  it  can  be  easily  spread.  Then 
it  is  plowed  under  like  manure.  In  such  cases  it  is 
better  to  use  lime  after  plowing,  and  harrow  it  well 
in.  Then  potash  and  phosphorus  can  be  used  in  the 
hill  or  drill.  This  usually  gives  good  results,  but 
you  cannot  get  the  full  value  of  the  muck  or  peat 
until  it  has  been  fermented  or  sweetened.  The  plan 
of  hauling  it  right  out  on  the  land  saves  labor.  It 
is  the  quickest  and  cheapest  method.  Other  plans 
are  to  haul  the  muck  and  scatter  it  over  the  barn¬ 
yard,  and  let  the  stock  tramp  over  it  during  the 
Winter.  Tt  will  absorb  the  barnyard  liquids  and 
mix  into  the  manure.  In  the  Spring  all  can  be 
scraped  up  together  and  hauled  out  and  spread  on 
the  land.  Then  again,  the  best  part  of  the  muck  can 
be  dried  and  crushed  fine  and  used  in  the  stalls  and 
gutters  behind  the  cattle.  When  well  dried  it  is  a 
fine  absorbent  and  will  hold  most  of  the  liquids  and 
carry  them  to  the  manure  pile. 
While  these  plans  are  followed  by  many  farmers, 
if  you  want  to  make  the  most  of  the  muck  and  are. 
willing  to  pay  the  price  in  labor,  a  compost  heap  is 
best.  Now,  a  compost  heap  is  really  a  small  fer¬ 
tilizer  factory  in  which  a  farmer  may  induce  nature 
to  do  some  of  the  things  which  tlier  manufacturer 
does  in  his  factory.  This  manufacturer  will  take 
ground  leather,  rough  tankage,  phosphate  rock  and 
other  tough  substances,  and  put  them  in  a  concrete 
“den”  or  small  room  with  a  quantity  of  powerful 
acids  added.  When  the  “den”  is  closed  a  fearful 
heat  is  generated  by  these  acids,  and  these  tough, 
inert  substances  are  “cooked,”  and  thus  made  far 
more  available  as  plant  food.  In  somewhat  like 
maner  a  farmer  may  build  a  compost  heap  and  start 
in  it  a  series  of  ferments  which  will  “cook”  or  make 
available  peat,  old  sods,  weeds,  or  much  of  the 
organic  stuff  found  on  every  farm.  There  are  vari¬ 
ous  ways  of  making  a  compost  heap,  but  the  theory 
is  somewhat  like  that  of  building  a  large  fire  of  coal 
or  big  logs.  This  fuel  is  well  mixed  with  various 
forms  of  kindling,  so  that  when  the  fire  is  started  it 
will  work  up  through  the  small  pieces  and  get  them 
going  into  a  strong  heat,  which  will  ignite  the  larger 
fuel,  and  thus  work  all  through  it.  In  the  same  way 
with  a  compost  heap  we  mix  in  with  the  muck,  sods 
and  trash,  such  things  as  lime,  manure,  and  other 
“fuel”  which  will  start  fermentation  and  heat. 
Usually  the  muck  or  peat  is  hauled  out  to  a  dry, 
well-drained  place,  and  dumped  in  a  long  manure 
pile.  We  take  off  the  box  and  put  long  planks  on 
the  wagon  body.  The  load  is  thrown  on  this.  Then 
we  can  drive  right  on  the  pile,  turn  up  the  planks 
and  drop  the  load  without  using  the  forks  at  all. 
As  a  load  of  muck  is  dropped  on  this  heap,  about 
50  lbs.  of  burnt  lime  may  be  scattered  evenly  over  it. 
Wood  ashes  would  be  very  good  for  this  purpose,  as 
they  supply  lime  and  potash.  A  small  quantity  of 
manure  may  be  scattered  over  each  layer  of  muck. 
Horse  or  hen  manure  will  be  best  for  this,  as  these 
manures  heat  quickly.  Old  sods,  trash  of  all  sorts, 
can  be  put  in  with  the  muck,  layer  by  layer,  with 
the  lime  and  manure  in  between.  Thus  the  heap  is 
built  up  like  a  pile  of  fuel,  with  the  light  kindling 
in  between  the  coarser  parts.  Within  a  short  time  a 
high  heat  will  start  inside  this  compost  heap,  the 
sour  muck  will  be  sweetened  and  broken  up  fine, 
and  you  will  have  a  pile  of  stuff  quite  equal  to  good 
manure.  In  England  it  is  reported  that  some  farm¬ 
ers  use  a  form  of  bacteria  with  this  compost  heap  to 
quicken  the  work  and  make  a  finer  compost  heap, 
but  this  does  not  seem  to  be  very  practical  yet. 
Some  farmers  scatter  ground  phosphate  rock  in 
through  the  compost  heap,  thinking  that  the  chem¬ 
ical  action  in  the  heap  helps  to  make  the  phosphate 
available.  In  some  parts  of  the  West  stockmen 
scatter  ground  phosphate  rock  in  the  silo  as  it  is  be¬ 
ing  filled.  They  think  the  chemical  work  inside  the 
silo  affects  the  phosphate  and.  anyway,  it  is  a  good 
way  of  getting  it  into  the  manure.  On  the  whole,  we 
think  it  pays  better  to  use  the  potash  and  phosphate 
in  the  hill  or  drill — separate  from  the  compost. 
