178 FANCIERS’ 
JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGH. 

spoonful of ground bone, also a slight sprinkling of pepper ; 
mix thoroughly before wetting. If it can be afforded, milk 
is excellent to wet it with. After the ingredients are well 
mixed, stir in milk or water enough to make into a stiff 
dough. Some writers advise mixing it so that it will 
crumble and fal] apart when thrown on the ground. I 
prefer it with more milk or water, and think the chicks do 
too. I like to see the little fellows make a dive for it and 
get a chunk as big as they can swallow. Now then, sup- 
pose you give them their first feed at six in the morning. 
When first hatched their appetite will return about every 
two hours. They should be fed as often as this until two 
weeks old, and then change to every three hours till four 
weeks old; then feed them every four hours until six 
months old. Up to this time it will be next to impossible 
to over-feed them. My manner of feeding is to take a dish 
containing the food, and a teaspoon; then visit every brood 
in rotation, giving each a little at a time, being sure that 
each and every one is satisfied, and being equally sure that 
no food is left to be uneaten. Change the feed as often as 
possible. That is, if you give corn meal first ia the morn- 
ing, let the next feed consist of soaked bread, wheat mid- 
dlings, corn and oats ground together, &c. I think the 
last feed at night should consist of cracked corn, which 
should be moistened with milk or water. They should be 
fed meat of some kind once a day. I usually feed mine 
scrap-cake or chandler’s greaves. It should be chopped fine 
with a hatchet, put in a pot or pan filled with water, and 
allowed to soak over night, which softens it and enables the 
chicks to eat it much better than if fed dry. Sheep’s or 
bullock’s liver boiled and chopped fine is excellent. Now 
then, to all those who are situated as I am, and are com- 
pelled to rear their fowls on bare yards, entirely destitute of 
grass, comes the most important part of feeding, which is 
to supply your chicks with an unlimited quantity of green 
food, which should be grass. It is useless to attempt to rear 
fine birds without it. I give it to mine in addition to their 
other food twice daily. It does not matter how long the 
grass is, provided it be fresh and sweet. Lay it on a block 
or board, and with a hatchet chop it into fine chaff, say 
about one-fourth of an inch in length. To get extraordi- 
nary fine large birds this constant care and regular feeding 
is absolutely necessary, though ordinary-sized ones may be 
had without. The ground bone should be mixed with their 
food once aday. It is very beneficial in preventing leg- 
weakness in the cockerels. It causes full and profuse feath- 
ering; also prevents early laying in the pullets by keeping 
them raw and unformed until their frame has devoloped. I 
feel satisfied that it adds greatly to the size of birds reared 
in small, bare yards. For the knowledge of its value I am 
indebted to “‘ Wright’s Brahma Fowl,’ a little book which 
ought to be in the hands of every Brahma fancier. With 
regard to putting. salt in the food: In former years, before 
I commenced to use it, I often had chicks that would stop 
growing at about six or eight weeks old. Sometimes two 
or three in a brood would be affected in this way. They 
would eat voraciously and did not fledge at all, being bare 
nearly all summer. I killed several, and on dissecting them 
found the gizzard filled with small white worms, from one- 
half to an inch and a half in length. They had eaten holes 
throughout the gizzard in all directions. I immediately 
commenced to put salt in the soft food, and have not had a 
single case since. W. E. Flower. 
SHOEMAKERTOWN, PA., March Ist. 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
POOR POULTRY v. POOR JUDGES. 
Amonce other things that result in considerable harm to 
the poultry dealers and their business is the indiscriminate 
awarding of premiums where there is no merit to justify, 
and the subsequent injury which follow such awards. At 
perhaps a majority of the State and county fairs through- 
out the country there is offered premiums for poultry, and 
in most cases the judges of poultry at these fairs are any- 
thing but posted. When one sees some of the stock which 
has ‘‘ won the first premium,” he will be forcibly reminded 
of an inquisitive gentleman who wrote to one of the papers 
out West inquiring why the award for fruit in water colors 
was given to an ov painting? 
I recently saw a trio of Buff Cochins, which were awarded 
the highest premium at a large county fair, and one of the 
hens would have been totally disqualified at-a regular poultry 
exhibition. Another case: I obsérved when the judges (?) 
passed their opinion that a trio of S. P. Polish were ‘all- 
right, give ’em first prize,’’? when doth of the hens had five 
toes, and the cock would not have counted thirty-five points. 
I will give still another case, where a cock was entered as a 
Dominique, when there was no such blood in him. I could 
mention many similar cases. If this was the end of the 
blunders, simply errors in judging, it would not be quite so 
bad, but it is not; there is yet greater damage done. In 
many cases parties receiving such premiums advertise ‘‘ prize 
blood stock,’’ and purchasers are thereby deceived, and lose 
faith in all poultry breeders, which deters many who would 
otherwise purchase were not some one’s unfortunate venture 
held up to them asa warning. There isa difference between 
a foul dealer and a dealer in fowls. 
Low price is a doubtful merit in most any article, and 
especially suspicious when offered as one of the best recom- 
mendations of good poultry. “Every one will find in the 
end that it is cheaper to pay a good price for good stock to 
some reliable dealer than a poor price for poor stock to an 
unreliable dealer. If we desire to save the poultry business 
from reproach, we must strive to induce the agricultural 
fairs to select competent judges of poultry; and when we 
find any man who doeg not deal fair and square with all of 
his customers, let us be not afraid to speak out and “show 
him up,” that others may be guarded against him and his 
transactions. If a man can show his intentions were good, 
and is willing to make right any little oversight or misrepre- 
sentation, well enough; it may be sufficient evidence that 
he is honest. To illustrate this point: some time ago I paid 
a gentleman(?), in New York State, his price for a trio each 
of Light Brahmas and P. Cochins; after receiving them, in 
a heavy ungainly box, and paying $5.90 expressage, I dis- 
covered the Brahmas were anything but what they had been 
represented. The cock badly pigeon-toed, minus one gill, 
&c., and the hens with numerous bad points. I wrote my 
complaints. The answer came that ‘‘ The fowls were selected 
by an employee, but that any future orders I favored him 
with, would see that I got good stock, &c. “Was very sorry 
they were not all right, &.” His grief was not sufficient, 
however, for him to be honest enough to offer to do as he 
should. The Brahmas were of no use; I would not put 
them in my breeding-yards. The Cochins were good. 
Now note the difference in dealers: I received some fowls 
from a gentleman in Connecticut, and one of the pullets had 
a crooked or wry tail, and I immediately informed him of the 
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