June 1, 1997 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
7 
IOELEEES 3! 
PURE 
LOLLIES, 
Send your Order to 
JOHN 
WALTON, 
Who'e alo Manutacturer of every Kind of Choice Sweets, 
TE SA ERY S3"E., Adelaide, 
VICTORIA 
DYE WORKS 
(E. L. RAY ) 
172 Rundle Street 
(Opposite York Hotel) and 
Stephen’s Place, 
(Side of Marshall’s) 
Gentlemen’s Clothes Cleaned or Dyed 
equal to new. 
Feathers Dyed and Curled 
Gloves Cleaned on Shortest Notice. 
{f 
ee 
Sie: 
Poultry Yard, 
Profit and Loss, 
From thirteen eggs from a chicken man 
He hatched twelve chickens fine ; 
Three of thvin drowned in the water pan, 
And then he hsd but nine. 
Nine little chicks had too much food: 
Without exercise chickens can’t thrive ; 
Four of the weakest died from the brood, 
And then he had but five, 
The neighbor’s cat had an appetite, 
From rise to set of suu: 
Four more chickens went out of sight, 
And then he had but one. 
This one little chieken grew firm and strong 
Sole owner of a handsome coop; 
But a light-fingered nigger chanced along, 
And now it’s in the soup. ; 
— Poultry Monthly,” 
How and What to Feed. 
Recently dry feeding from hoppers has 
been going the rounds of the American 
papers, as the latest “up to dacest”’ 
method of feeding fowls for profit. Great 
things are credited to this new-old system 
our grandmothers practiced, and we say 
this out of respect to, rather than in 
derision of, our grandmothers’ good points 
in the present qusetion (we presume our 
Srandfather and modern civilization are 
to blame for our faults). 
An article on this subject recently ap- 
peared in the ‘ Leader,’ Melbourne, 
amongst which the following appeared :— 
“To-day, dry mash in the troughs, raw 
vegetables aud good hard grain are in 
favor with many. j op 
Of what benefit are these changes in 
the diet? The matter, says an American 
writer, has been carefully tested, and it 
is now held that dry food is far superior 
for several reasons :—First, after becom- 
ing used to it, the fowls prefer the ground 
grain to that which has been cooked or 
steamed. Second, it is a labor-saving 
plan. Third, it keeps the fowls in a more 
healthful condition. 
The proper way of feeding the dry 
mash to laying hens or to growing chicks 
is that of strewing in straw or other light 
litter so that the fowls are compelled to 
scratch for it. They must have exercise. 
It should be given an hour or more before 
roosting, so that the fowls will have 
plenty of time to hunt, If fed in a 
scratching shed attached to the. roosting 
pen, and the fowls have free access to it, 
they will get off their perches at break of 
day and scratch and work hard until the 
attendant comes out to give them their 
breakfast. This exercise so early in the 
morning, will sharpen the appetite, and 
will put them in proper trim for a good 
day’s work. 
Be sure and get an early start hatching 
this year. You ought to have your breed- 
ing pens ploughed or dug up and-planted 
with some kind of seed to grow green 
feed for the birds as soon as the early 
rains come. The birds ought to be in 
their breeding pens now, so that you will 
have plenty of fertile eggs to fill your 
incubator by the end of June. Get evary 
bird you can hatch out early, and don’t 
hatch after middle of November, as late 
stock won’t pay. July and August chicks 
are far ahead of the later ones, as they 
grow so rapidly, are more healthy and 
pullets lay younger and when eggs are 
dearer, 
when the market is undersupplied, and 
when good prices are ruling. They have 
plenty of green feed to bring them on, 
The cockerels are also ready * 
and grow very rapidly. The late ones 
grow slowly, and pullets lay when eggs 
are cheap, and cockerels always go on to 
a glutted micket. So make good resolu- 
tions, hatch early and increase your profits. 
Don’t go to sleep. Get up and haye a 
look at the perches in your fowl houses 
and see if there are any more red lice on 
them, li there are you want to give 
your perches a good painting with kero- 
sene or some other powerful “tnsect. de- 
stroyer at least once a week until the 
vermin are destroyed. See that your 
birds have a dry dust bath, because this 
will greatly help you to get rid of the 
vermin in your fowls. Try and have the 
open side of the dust bath facing to the 
east or to the north, so that the sun’s 
rays may shine in on it during some part 
of the day. The reason for doing this is 
because the fowls love to dust themselyes 
whilst basking in the sun. The dust bath 
ought to be kept dry during the winter 
months, Fine ashes alone with a little 
insectibane mixed with .fine sandy soil 
makes a splendid dust bath. 
- Dorkings. 
The Dorking is essentially an English 
fowl, and has for many years been the 
basis of the -high-cliss table fowl, In 
Sussex. where chiefly the first-class table 
fowl .f England are produced, the breed 
most in vogue is esseatially of Dorking 
origin, or, perhaps, it would be more 
correct to say that the dark Dorking of 
the show pen nad its origin in the tabie 
fowl of Surrey and Sussex, 
There are three chief varieties, viz 5 the 
coloared or dark Dorking, the silver-grey, 
and the white, There are also cuckoos, 
but these, although once common enough, 
now are comparatively rare, 
In all varieties of the Dorking, both in 
the show pen and for the table, an essen- 
tial point is the purity of the white of 
the feet and legs. These should be white, 
even to the toe-nails, as this feature ig 
associated with purity of race and fineness 
of flesh. : 
Another important feature is the addi- 
tion of a fifth toe, and its distinct separa- 
tion from the fourth; and how strongly 
it is inherited is evidenced by the persis- 
teace with which it crops up in any 
crosses, and with it nearly always appears 
the fine white skin and juicy flesh. The 
