September-October, 1947 
From Fabulous Florida—W onder 
Leaf, lives on air, grows .any- 
where, strangest tropical oddity. 
Given with 10 Floridian Viewcards 
of Odd: Trees and Tropical Flow- 
ers at-25c.. The Tropical. Trader, 
Box 2511, Tampa, Fla. 
For Sale—Named African Violet 
-leaves 15c each. Rooted leaves of 
Purple Slipped Gloxinia 20c each. 
Named varieties of Geraniums, va- 
riegated and Zonale |0c a cutting. 
6 colors of Holsti. Hybrid Impatiens 
cuttings 10c. 70 different named 
Haworthias, small plants at I5c 
each. Also many other named va- 
rieties of Succulents and Cacti— 
mostly 15c each. Mrs. E. Jj. Peter- 
son, R. 1, Eagle Bend, Minn. 
Indian Maid, Pink Semperflorens, 
and. Manda’s Woolly Bear Be- 
gonia seed. Fresh seed packet |5c 
and stamped envelope. Write for 
list of choice house plants available 
and state what kind you. prefer. 
Vida E. McKey, Hop Bottom, Pa. 
I have several times mentioned 
the big difference in technique for 
the back yarder from the farm pou!- 
try raiser. Sitting hens are one of 
these. differences. | 
The farm woman has her time 
arranged to ‘include’ tending the 
baby chicks, and she can take care 
of hundreds in a fraction of the time 
needed to raise that many from 
hens. But the woman with only a 
few hens, and raising chicks for her 
own. table, will find it a big saving 
of time and nerve strength to let a 
hen do the clucking. My aunt and | 
made a practice of setting a hen 
every month, as nearly as possible. 
That gave us plenty of fried chicken 
fox our eais, and a few to sell. 
t 

I think the big advances in poul- 
try come mainly from flocks small 
enough for the owner to know the 
hens individually. Hens usually lay 
best the first twelve months after 
starting; hence the very sound farm 
practice of disposing of old hens. 
But one who knows her chickens 
THE YELLOW SHEETS 
Page Seven 
and judges them as individuals, will 
occasionaliy find a hen who remains 
profitable for years. 
| hada hen which laid over 200 
eges in her pullet year; less each 
year until she was five years old, 
when she laid 90 that year, in 3 
clutches cof 30 each, set three times 
and raised 3 families; beginning to 
set at start of moulting and was 
ready for another clutch when feath- 
ered out. A peculiar feature was 
that she kept to this schedule, 90 
eggs a year through her 12th year. 
Then | felt that she had earned a 
pension and she lived well, boss of 
the chicken yard until a litile past 
thirteen. Her funeral was conducted 
by the kids of the neighborhood 
with vocal music and flowers, and 
her grave was long marked by a 
blue glass bottle for a tombstone. 
iPovether advantage of the back 
-yarder is the ease of raising exhibi- 
tion birds. Many persons are not 
aware that ‘a hen marks her eggs as 
surely as finger printing. Some slight 
difference in color; or size; or 
shape; or tiny specks; or the little 
whorls at the end of the egg; some 
slight difference which remains the 
same through her life. The commer- 
cial poultry keeper, to secure the 
same results, will need to invest in 
trap nests, and then the added labor 
of looking at them. A few days of 
close observation will show the 
back yarder which hen laid which 
a 
ecg. 
I used the old time manilla coun- 
ter book. At right side of page ruled 
for seven tiny spaces. To the left 
wrote the hen’s name. A few lines 
were left blank at boitom of each 
page. | kept fifty hens and found 
my pian worked well. When eggs 
were gathered each evening, I look- 
ed them over and credited each hen 
with her egg. Small and misshapen 
eggs were laid out for home use, 
and the nice big ones put in the con- 
tainer for that day. I used seven con- 
tainers, one for each day of the 
