144 
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VIGOROUS 
STRONG CHICKS 
Mating time is the time that your 
breeders should be in the pink of 
condition 
—so that they can impart health and 
vigor to their offspring—the chicks. 
Begin now to condition your breeders. 
Dr. Hess Poultry 
PAN-A-CE-A 
Then you get chicks that are strong and 
livable. x 
Gfhicks that can resist the attacks of dis¬ 
ease—the little-chick ailments. 
Pan-a-ce-a is not a stimulant, mark you— 
it’s a tonic that does its good work nature’s 
way. It insures fertile eggs for hatching. 
Tell your dealer how many hens you have. 
There’s a right-size package for every flock. 
100 hens, the 12-lb. pk?. 200 hens, the 25-lb. pail 
60 bens, the 5-lb. pkg. 500 hens, the 100-lb. drum 
For fewer hens, there is a smaller package. 
GUARANTEED 
DR. HESS & CLARK Ashland, O. 
l spent SO 
pears in perfect¬ 
ing Pan-a-ce-a. 
Gn.BERT Hess 
M.D.. D.V.S. 
Dr. Hess Instant Louse Killer Kills Lice 
KILLS LICE 
ordinary Mites, Sheep Ticks, Fleas; 
drives away Flies and Mosquitos. 
MEPH is used for treatment of ordi¬ 
nary Mange, Scab, Ringworm and 
many other skin diseases. 
MEPH is used upon Poultry, Horses, Cattle, Hogs, Dogs, 
Sheep, Goats and pet stock. Contains soluble sulphur 
which helps to prevent infection and re-infection. 
MEPH disinfects, cleanses and deodorizes. 
Satisfaction Guaranteed or Money Back 
If your dealer can’t supply you write and we will send 
you a gallon, charges prepaid, for $2.50. 1 gallon makes 
from 50-100 gallons of a satisfactory dilution. Order Now. 
MEPH CO., 160 South St., New York, N. Y. 
L Y. 
My Engine MU Do the Work 
for facts about this wonder engine. Same engine gives Ito 6 
H- P- Gasoline or kerosene, portable, ifllbt and free from vibration. 
No cranking. Pumps, saws, grinds and does all chores. Plenty of 
I>owcr for every purpose. Elasy to operate. 
Low Factory Price—Special Offer 
Price now lower than before war. Tremendous value. Write at 
once for catalog and special offer on this amazing engine. 
The Edwards Motor Co., 433 Main St., Springfield, O. 
American Agriculturist, February 17, 1923 
Shall I Buy or Hatch? 
What Baby Chick Experiences Have Taught Us 
9 
I T is only a few years By W. E. 
since we knew prac- 
ally nothing of the* baby chick indus¬ 
try. It was comparatively slow in 
starting. But when it did start, it 
grew by leaps and bounds and has not 
ceased, growing, or even slackened its 
pace. There will be new hatcheries 
each year, and each year some will 
pass out of existence. What has been 
true of other industries is true of the 
baby chick industry. Auto factories, 
radio companies, baby chick hatcheries 
sprang up like mushrooms after a 
warm rain. Many factors enter into 
the cause of hatcheries ceasing business 
operation, but there are standard hatch¬ 
eries to-day just^as there are standard 
companies manufacturing plows, sep¬ 
arators and typewriters. 
A Great Convenience 
We find many advising the use of 
hens as means of incubation rather 
than purchasing chicks. Each one 
should exercise good, sound judgment 
when deciding, but it surely is an ad¬ 
vantage to get a bunch of husky chicks 
from a reliable firm and start them on 
a brooder, over and above the trouble 
occasioned by fussing with a lot nf. 
troublesome hens. I tried it and found 
the chicks from the hatchery far more 
convenient. 
An additional bunch of chicks may 
be obtained from the hatchery to swell 
the nunber when the incubator batch 
comes off. As a rule, when a 50 per 
cent hatch is obtained, it is considered 
pretty good. An incubator holding 250 
eggs, after testing out infertile eggs 
and counting those not hatching, rarely 
brings over 150 chicks. Usually the 
orcoder capacity of a small poultry 
business can handle moi’e birds than 
this. 
Here the hatchery chicks come in 
handy, for an order ,may arrive the 
day the hatch comes off. If you like to 
use hens or an incubator, use them, by 
all means. It is a grand thing that we 
have a right to do as we plpase in such 
matters, but if you like to raise chicks 
and detest the hatching part of it, then 
thank Providence that the baby chick 
industry has come to stay. 
Some Personal Experiences Years Ago 
The first experience we had with the 
purchase of baby chicks was soihe 
years ago, when we purchased a hun¬ 
dred R. I. Red baby chicks. We raised 
them with pretty fair success. They 
were, to be sure, pure-bred R. I. Reds, 
although we never knew from what 
flock the eggs came.* We always doubt¬ 
ed seriously the pure-bred part, for 
they did not show it very strongly. 
Following the R. I. Red experience, 
we obtained a start with Anconas. 
From a near-by breeder we obtained 
eggs from his pure-bred flock of An¬ 
conas. These were set under hens, 
hatching out about 175 chicks. Of 
these we raised about 155, losing some 
by accident, but none through disease. 
This man’s flock was free of disease. 
We needed more chicks to grow the de¬ 
sired number of pullets, and could not 
depend on hens to hatch them, having- 
no incubator at that time. So we or¬ 
dered 200 Ancona chicks from a reli¬ 
able firm. They treated us squarely, 
although we lost out to a certain extent. 
Immediately after arrival the chicks 
began dying and continued till less 
than a hundi-ed remained. Three other 
parties living near us purchased chicks 
from the same hatchery, and had expe- 
FARVER rience identical with 
ours. We hardly knew 
what course to pursue, so we enlisted 
the aid of our county agent. He was 
not ■ certain whether it was bacillary 
white diarrhoea, or not, but expressed 
the opinion that the chicks lingered 
longer than if it were the diarrhoea. 
He advised a post-mortem examina¬ 
tion to determine the nature, of the 
disease. 
Several afflicted chicks were shipped 
to the State College. The report read 
“coccidiosis,” a bowel disease of poul¬ 
try. We never had any of this trouble 
befoi'e, nor did the chicks hatched from 
the eggs obtained from our neighbor- 
breeder. This pretty well convinced us 
tliat the chicks received from the hatch¬ 
ery brought it along. We had the 
same trouble later on when using the 
eggs from fliese fowls for hatching. 
The other three parties who bought 
chicks from the same place, and all 
Anconas, too, had the same disease in 
their chicks, and with disastrous expe¬ 
rience, too. This has firmly convinced 
us that the flock of Anconas laying the 
eggs used by the hatchery to produce 
these chicks was infected with cocci¬ 
diosis. 
Authorities at Columbus advised us 
that mature fowls may have this dis¬ 
ease, disseminating it in the droppings, 
and yet ndt showing any evil effects 
therefrom. Also, that the germ may 
be on the shell, and the chicks pecking 
at the shells may contract it before 
they leave the incubator. Some of qur 
chicks have shown symptoms of it be¬ 
fore we took them out of the incubator. 
It appears to us that a law requiring 
examination and testing, or licensing 
the certification of flocks from which' 
eggs are used by hatcheries or other¬ 
wise sold for hatching purposes. This 
would avoid Inuch needless distribution 
of disease, I believe. It is possible to 
detect bacillary white diarrhoea in old 
stock by making tests. Enforced tests 
of this kind is the only way in which 
bacillary white diarrhoea will ever be 
eradicated. Like tests find examinations 
would help much in other diseases. 
Where One Fault Lies 
A practice of some pi-oprietors of 
hatcheries is to go out and buy eggs 
from any one who happens to have a 
flock that looks like good stock regard¬ 
less of what the condition or breeding 
is. Before me is the following adver¬ 
tisement: “WANTED.The. 
.... Hatchery pays a premium for eggs 
H’om all varieties of unmixed flocks. 
Send name and address. ” 
Is there any likelihood that any stock 
of high-grade qualities will be secured 
at this hatchery? Another incident that 
happened here not long ago was this: 
An Ancona breeder living near by was 
approached by the proprietor of a 
hatchery for Ancona eggs for hatching. 
The breeder had not yet made up his 
breeding pens and had a few Brown 
Leghorns in the flock. He explained 
this to the hatchery proprietor, but 
stated he would remove the Leghorns. 
The proprietor replied, “Oh, that don’t 
matter.” Had this Ancona breeder 
been as careless and dishoflest as the 
hatchery prop^-ietor apparently was, the 
purchasers of those baby chicks would 
have suffered. 
There is a class of poultry keepers 
who are not particular whether chicks 
are pure bred or not. To these the 
careless and dishonest hatchery pro- 
in-ietor works little harm, but he may 
