60 
ve, (For Fanciers’ yout 
WHAT FOWLS PAY THE BEST. 
ARTICLE ITI. 
My experience in golden-spangled Hamburg was also a 
decided success. I spared neither trouble or expense to pro- 
cure the best stock in the market. My breeding stock was 
selected from three different strains. I took first premiums 
at the different exhibitions held in Philadelphia under the 
auspices of the Pennsylvania Poultry Society; in fact, my 
stock of silver and golden-spangled Hamburgs were con- 
sidered by competent judges to be second to none in the 
country. I have always considered it cheapest in the end to 
feed well. Many a bushel of good wheat have I purchased 
when the prices have reached $2.50 per bushel. This, in 
addition to buckwheat, oats, corn, and a plentiful supply of 
animal food, kept my fowls in a healthy condition. As I 
remarked, in a former article, my pens were ten feet square, 
in each pen were placed ten hens and one cock. They were 
allowed the range of the yard on alternate days; conse- 
quently, as I seldom kept less than three different breeds at 
a time, each kind had but two days in a week for exercise, 
but on days of confinement they had all that fowls could 
wish for in the way of food, cut grass, ground bone, and 
oyster shells, and well they repaid me for what would per- 
haps seem to some people unnecessary trouble and care. 
Many a day I would receive, as a reward for my devotion to 
their health and comfort, ten eggs from either one of the 
coops. When the breeding season was over, I would place 
all the hens in one large coop, and they would lay equally 
as well as when running with the cocks, besides they had 
the yard to themselves constantly. The cocks kept over for 
the next season were placed in movable coops, without any 
bottom, and set around the yard (at a proper distance from 
one another of course to prevent any pugilistic fancy they 
might see fit toindulgein). I always had the birds hatched 
on my own premises, and when about three or four weeks 
old would send them out on a waik, to be returned in time 
for fall sales. For fecundity, the Hamburgs as a class can- 
not be beaten, at least not as far as my experience goes. In 
settings of fifteen eggs (I never placed more under one hen), 
I invariably got from twelve to thirteen chicks, and some- 
times the whole fifteen. From eggs furnished to other par- 
-ties the same results have followed. 
For beauty nothing can surpass a flock of Hamburgs, of 
either one of the varieties. Fanciers of the clumsy Asiatics 
may differ in the beauties of their huge pets as long as they 
please, but nothing could change my opinion as to the 
merits of my favorites. Hamburgs are no more to be com- 
pared to the larger breeds than the graceful antelope to the 
ugly rhinoceros. Tuomas 8. ARMSTRONG. 
TRENTON, N: J. 


(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
CHICKEN CHOLERA. 
In the copy of the Fanciers’ Journal which you sent me 
(for which accept my thanks), I see a piece about this great 
scourge of almost every section of our country at present. 
The writer, like almost every other whose opinions I have 
read, attributes the disease to uncleanliness. This cause has 
been harped upon until it has about worn out the patience 
of all those who try to keep their fowls in fine condition, and 
know that the disease arises from some other cause than this. 
A dissection of a number of fowls at different times proves, 

FANCIERS JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

beyond a doubt (besides the other signs), that the disease, 
instead of being cholera at all, is neither more or less than 
a bilious intermittent fever, joined with an inactive state of 
the liver, which is greatly enlarged, and, in nine-tenths of 
the cases, very much congested. Prior to the introduction 
of the Asiatic varieties this disease was entirely unknown, 
and it may safely be set down as introduced by them, or 
that they are not as yet acclimated here. This last I believe 
to be the cause. But let the cause be what it may, it is not 
uncleanliness that breeds it alone. Having been a number 
of years troubled with the cholera among my fancy fowls, 
causing much loss, I thought that, like all other diseases, 
there must be some preventive or cure, or both. I searched 
for some remedy which would prove successful in treating 
it, and, after many failures, [ hit upon the following, which 
I think will surely prevent it, and cure nine-tenths of those 
that may have it: To 1 tb. pulv. alumadd } th. B. antimony, 
2 oz. Epsom salts, 2 oz. flowers of sulphur, 2 oz. pulv. cam- 
phor, with a handful of linseed meal. Mix two tablespoon- 
fuls in meal dough for every ten fowls; increase the dose 
for sick ones. Once a week is enough for prevention; twice 
a day for sick ones. 
Hoping the above may be of benefit to the fowls, and to 
the poultry fraternity in general, I am, respectfully, 
JoHN RUMBOLD. 
+ 2 oe + 
HOW TO PLUCK POULTRY. 
I HAVE known persons on market-day to go out and 
kill twelve or fifteen fowls, and to bring them into a room 
where there would be half a dozen women and boys pulling 
afew feathers at a time, between thumb and forefinger to 
prevent tearing them. Now, for the benefit of such, I give 
our plan: Hang the fowl by the feet by a small cord; then 
with a small knife give one cut across the upper jaw, oppo- 
site the corners of the mouth; after the blood has stopped 
running a stream, place the point of the knife in the groove 
in the upper part of the mouth, run the blade up into the 
back part of the head, which will cause a quivering and 
twitching of the muscles. Now is your time, for every 
feather yields as if by magic, and there is no danger of tear- 
ing the most tender chick. Before he attempts to flap, you 
can have him as bare as the day he came out of the egg.— 
Journal of Horticulture. 

Tue Rules and Price Lists for the Third Annual Exhibi- 
tion of the Massachusetts Poultry Association, to be held 
February 4th to 11th, 1874, in Boston Music Hall, are in 
press, and will soon be ready for distribution. Copies will 
be mailed to persons who make request by letter addressed 
to E. H. Hartshorn, Corresponding Secretary, P. O. Box 
2725, Boston, Mass. 

POULTRY SHOWS. 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, January 26th to 31st. 
Pennsylvania, Doylestown, first week in February. Thos. 
Walton, Secretary. 
Western New York, Buffalo, January 15th to 20th. G. W. 
White, Secretary. Entries close January 5th. 
New England, Worcester, January 20th, 21st, 22d. 
Northern Ohio, Cleveland, January 23d to 29th. 
Massachusetts, Boston Music Hall, February 4th to 11th. 
New Hampshire Poultry Society, Manchester, Feb. 24th 
25th, and 26th. Wm. G. Garmon, Secretary. 
? 
