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25 YHARS

IN THE

POULTRY YARD,

HOW I SUCCESSFULLY REAR
AND CARE FOR

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AND COMPEL

HENS TO LAY EGGS.

Fifth Edition.

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A.M. LANG, =~

Cove Dale Farm,

CONCORD, KY.

Copyrighted A.D. 1883, by
A. M. LANG,
CONCORD, KENTUCKY.

oi

Vv:

TO THE READER,

This book owes its origin to the repeated
request of subscribers of the different news-
papers that I have corresponded for within
the past twenty years. [he farmer that ac-
cepts the theory that stock perfectly accept-
able ten years ago, is not acceptable to-day,
is the successful one. The call for better
stock, and for information as to what is good
stock, and the best modes for rearing it, comes
from all sections. A book is wanted which,
every one who keeps a dozen fowls, can afford
to buy, and at the same time giving all the
needed information in plain, short and direct
language.

In answer to this demand I offer this little
book, all of which is respectfully submitted
to the reader.

A. M. LANG,
_ Cove Date Farm.

Concorp, Ky., April 1st, 1883.

Kind F: eS

It is now 25 years since | began the poultry
business. At first my idea was to get a lot of
hens, put them up, (I then lived in a small vil-
lage,) feed them well, expecting they would
pay a profit in eggs. I bought too many for
the room I had, and, by spring, the majority
had died of cholera. Then I concluded to raise
young chicks for early market. By June but
few were left,—‘died with the.Gapes.”’ The
next fall my flock took the Roup,—lost the
entire lot in a week. Looked well at night,
and be under the perch, dead, the next morn-
mo
To be successful, these three diseases must
be prevented. I could not possibly succeed
without some sure plan to keep them in sub-

—yection ; neither can any person living. You
J S

may get your flocks to laying, every thing work-
ing smoothly—making money. Let any of the
three diseases begin in your flock, and you
lose the entire investment—your time, besides
being sorely troubled and vexed.

All persons that buy my Kecipes can keep
any of the three diseases in subjection. If they
use care, will not lose one chick, either young
or old, out of a hundred, in a year. But there
are a great many other things to be looked
after—closely, too, if you rear poultry with suc-

(3)

A CARE FOR SITTING HENS AND EGGS.

cess, and have hens to lay eggs as they should
do. I write this book especially for persons
that use my recipes. I do not guess at any
thing, neither do! copy. I give you facts, just
as I have learned them from my own experi-
ence and close practical observation.

I claim to be the most successful poultry
raiser in the United States, and I will give
you the details so minute that you must be
successful.

GARE FOR SITTING HENS. AND EGGS, |

Kegs designed for hatching should be col-
lected as soon as laid, especially so when the
weather is cold or windy. They should be
kept on soft material, no one resting on an-
other, and handled (carefully) every day.
Avoid exposing them to sudden extremes of
heat or cold. A moderately damp cellar is
the best place to keep them at all seasons of
the year. Some say ‘‘large end down,” others
“small end down.” The hen leaves them on
the side, and she is good authority. They
can be transported any distance and hatched,
if packed carefully, and not too long on the
way,—often across the ocean, or from Cincin-
nati to San Francisco. Eggs so treated will
keep from three to five weeks and hatch.
Much depends on the vigor and vitality of
the parent stock. Fresh eggs hatch quicker
than old ones, and make stronger chickeis.

SITTING HENS. 5

Any of the Asiatic breeds make good mothers.
They are naturally very tame, and admit of
any amount of handling without getting ex-
cited. Games make good mothers, but de-
cidedly cross ones. I prefer a mixture of
“Barn Yard,’ or common fowls for sitters, |
on account of their being light, and good for-
agers. |

SITTING HENS.

When shall I begin? If you are a fancier,
you understand the theory, that early hatches
always sell for the most money in the fall.
They mature and begin laying earlier, and make
a larger growth. Ifa farmer, as a class, I think
we always relish a good “ fry.”’ The first thing
we need, then, is a hen to sit. The first of
January provide plenty of good, warm nests
in your hen houses, paste paper over thecracks
on the inside of the box, a small shovel full
of ashes, then plenty of cut straw. If they
scratch the straw out, fill in with old rags.
During this month you should feed all they
will eat, of mixed seeds, warmed, etc. But
if you want a sure thing, feed middlings, mixed
with sweet milk, in the morning, (a little pep-
per in it), wheat and chess, or mill screenings
at noon, all the corn they will eat at night,
parched and limed as directed in Hog Cholera
recipe. Feed every thing hot. Roast com-
mon muscle, or oyster shells, (as you would

6 SITTING HENS.

coffee), feed all they will eat, pounded up in a
clean place. If you use bone meal I should
roast it,.and mix plenty of it in them mime
feed in the morning. Be sure and keep a
supply of gravel for them, as their supply is
generally cut short now by freezing weather.

On the stone that you mash your shells,
break small pieces of common lime-stone rock;
if no lime-stone use any kind you have, so it
will be the size of small peas. Be sure their
water is in clean vessels, and prepared as
directed for young chicks in Gape Preven-
tive Recipe. It should be warm.

Of course your house should be as comfort-
able as possible; and the nests hung so the
sun will shine on them. Manage so that but
one hen will lay in the nest, if you can. You
must provide a Dust Lox: take a six inch
plank ; lay one edge off twenty-four inches
long, the other twenty-five inches; saw each
end to the slope, and nail the short sides to
match; it will be wider at the top than bot-
tom. Cover bottom with any light boards,
and fill with road dust, (provided in the fall),
with a little lime and sulphur mixed init. If
no road dust get dry dirt from under a house
or barn; it must be kept in the dry.

Generally your large breeds and common
fowls will begin to lay the first litthe warm
spell. They will lay 13 to 15 eggs, and then
begin to brood. If you find a hen on her nest,
slip a few eggs under her, and see that other

A COMMON SENSE INCUBATOR. 7

hens do not pull her off, or annoy her. After
she has been on two nights, you can move
her where you want her, by arranging the
nest so she can not leave it only at your
will.

St THE: BEN BY: HERSELF.

I always move my own toa hatching house,
(formerly a meat or ‘‘ smoke house ’’), sixteen
feet square—dirt floor; walls are close. In
cold weather the nest boxes are placed on
shelves, one above the other; in hot weather,
generally out doors in nooks and corners on
the ground. Those in the house are provided
plenty of feed and water, and, generally, left
‘at will after the first three days, but I never
let them out of the house. Keep the house
_ dark, only barely enough light to see to eat
and drink. This prevents “their ee
and fighting.

A COMMON-SENSE INCUBATOR.

It is now-near the first of February. We
should provide artificial heat. Some people
cheat the hen out of her sit, but I will assist
her. Take a box sixteen to twenty inches
square, fourteen inches high, throw what will
make four inches deep, when pressed down,
of fresh stable manure, in it. Take a spade,
cut a sod of grass as near two inches thick as

8 A COMMON-SENSE INCUBATOR.

you can, put the grass side up, the out edges
being just a little the highest; on top of this
place about two inches of cut or pounded -

Straw. :

Nine eggs are enough. Never over-esti-
mate the hatching qualities of a hen. In hot
weather thirteen eggs are enough. By giving
them a reasonable number they will hatch
and rear more than to over-crowd them.

Make your arrangements to remove the
hen about dark.

Heat an old stove-lid, or large rock and
place in the nest so as to have it comfortably
warm. Have afew eggs laid in warm water,
so they will be warm. After the nest is prop-
erly warm, remove the lid or rock; place the
eggs in and the hen on the nest, and provide
a box or some rig to keep her on a few days.

I have succeeded in getting hens to sit, this
way, in January and February, that hardly
“clucked”’ when placed on the nest. If she
gets the ‘fever,’ she will be down angie
business by the second night, at which time
I place the eggs under her that she a ex.
pected to hatch, previously laid in warm water.

Now she will be faithful to her charge, but
will you? You must provide her plenty of
feed,—corn is best—drink, gravel and dust-
bath handy.

If she has to quit her nest long enough to
forage for those things, the eggs will chill, and

A COMMON-SENSE INCUBATOR. fe)

if any hatch at all, they will be weak and cry-
ing around so as to annoy you.

Sprinkle the hen and eggs with sulphur
two or three times during incubation, but not
for the last four days. ‘Lack a card over each
nest, telling the variety, and when the brood
comes off. During incubation the eggs should
be wet often, especially if the weather is dry ;
perhaps three times a week, unless the nest
is on the ground.

The object is to rot the shell, so the chick
will not spend its vitality in liberating itself.
Sprinkle them thoroughly on the day before
the brood comes off, and you will have but
very few die in the shell. The inside lining
of the shell often gets so dry and hard, that
the little chick can not liberate itself.

Notice the hen that steals her nest out. She
will leave it and seek food in the morning,
when the grass is wet, and will go back with
feathers dripping with water. Should the
nest get fouled in any way, take the hen off
carefully, and, if necessary, she may be
washed ; wash the eggs in blood-warm water ;
clean the nest or make a new one; replace
the eggs and hen, and your “incubator” is
running again.

It is useless to try to help the chicks out
of the shell—you will kill more than you can
save.

As a general thing, it is best not to dis-
turb a hen while hatching. Some hens get

IO CARE. GF -CHICKINS.

restless and uneasy, keep moving about, on
and off the nest, etc. In this case remove the
chicks wrapped up in a woolen rag, and place
them where they will be warm enough; if
they are not kept so they will be continually
chirping or ‘‘crying.”’

CARE OF CHICKENS.

If the foregoing instructions are, followed,
on the twenty-first day you will find a nest
full of nice, plump, healthy chicks. Can you
keep them so? but very few can, and if you
fail here this causes the whole business to be
a failure.

Just as soon as the chick can lift its head
up in the downy feathers of the hen, it be-
comes exposed to the lice already hatched on
the hen, and, seeking something young and
tender to live on. If you allow them to get
lousy (examine their heads the first five or six
days and you can tell), they are ruined; so to.
avoid all this trouble apply my ‘ Gape Pre-
ventive and Lice Exterminator,” as provided
for in the recipe—and be sure you do so be-
fore the lice can get a hold. If you do not
you are almost sure to have gaping chicks.
It is best to lift the hen from the nest, clean
the nest of shells, etc., then replace the chicks
and leave them in the warm nest as long as
they will remain contented.

I do not feed until twenty-four hours old,

WHAT TO FEED. II

and prefer them older if contented. They
seem to do best not to feed or water until
nearly forty-eight. They need brooding or
“hovering ’ now, more than feed. Often a
hen will be restless, will not brood them, etc.;
first feed all the corn she will eat, give plenty
of water to drink, after this, if she continues
restless, cover her quarters so as to make
them dark.

The weather is cold, but they must leave
the nest. Get you a common-sized boot box,
remove the sides, leave the end up. Get
cheap muslin to go round the box, in place
of the board sides; nail a strip three inches
wide on the top, tack the muslin to this, and
lay a wide board on the top for a cover. Put
one inch of dry dirt on the bottom, the hen
and chicks in it, and they have a splendid
home, if you keep them in a room where
they are warm enough. February, 1881, I
had 130 in my office twenty-seven days. Once
the thermometer was eight degrees below
zero, and | never saw chicks do any better.
The dirt must be changed every day or two,
and carbolic acid, diluted in water, sprinkled
over the boxes once a week. One box will
afford a hen and nine chicks plenty of room.
Twice a day is often enough to warm the
room.

WHAT TO FEED.

Let me firmly impress your mind with the

iz WHAT. TO TEBDs

fact, a chicken is not a hog; the more slop
you feed a hog the better; but every thing
you feed young chicks must be dry as possi.
ble. Indian meal, when uncooked, is the
worst feed little chicks get, especially so when
fed in a soft or sloppy state. It swells and
hardens in their crops, and causes irritation,
which soon shows itself by drooping wings
and general weakness. ‘The best feed, and
most convenient to farmers, is dry, light
bread, just dampened in sweet milk. The
next best is middlings, mixed with equal parts
of Indian meal, and mixed with scalding
water,-——milk would be better. 3

Feed but little at a time, and at least every
hour for the first few days. Do not oblige
the chicks to stand out in the cold waiting for
something to eat.

The second day you can feed them cracked
wheat, which, at this age, is the very best
food for them; a few days longer they will eat
wheat and chess, mill screenings, and, finally, |
cracked corn; any of these are better than
meal. ‘They do not waste as much; it will
not sour as soon; it can be kept near by them
and is ready at all times.

Be sure they get no water to drink, unless
prepared as directed in directions for Gape
Preventive. Best to raise some small grained
corn to feed when small. Reduce the soft
feed to twice a day, when they can eat wheat,
and to once, when they can eat corn. Feed

WHAT TO FEED. ee

mostly the charred corn. If the ground gets
warm, let them out to pick young grass, now
just starting; but never let them out to be
chilled ; if you do they will die, and you will
never eae what was the trouble with your
chicks. 3

Any of the large breeds are good for early
broilers; often by middle of February and
always by first of March, you can get fifty
hatched, if you are careful, so by first of May
you have broilers nice enough for a king. If
nicely fattened will bring you fifty cents each,
in any good city market.

Now what has been detailed here holds
good throughout the season in_ hatching.
After the weather gets warm you need not
prepare the ‘‘ Common-sense Incubator,” but
1 always put dirt, and plenty of it, under a
sitting hen. If the weather is damp you need
not dampen the nest much, but if dry and
hot, keep the nest dampened. If your nests
are too dry, it requires too much force for the
chick to liberate itself from the shell, and is
apt to produce deformed chicks. To damp-
_en the egg, is to rot the shell, and have plump,
hardy chicks. Itis better to have as many
come off as near the same time as possible.
Less trouble to care for them. If the hen
tramps her chicks, keep away from her, do
not scare or excite her; such hens are like
some women, they are very nervous.

ii she plucks or picks her chicks, shut her

14 CATCH THE RATS.

up with them in a dark box, until she has
time to learn their voices.

Do not set the coop on the cold, damp
ground. If early in the season place your
coop in the barn shed, and boards under your
little chicks to ‘roost’? on. This must be
kept dry and warm. If they remain on the
cold ground all night, they are likely to be
sick the next day. If the weather is cold
give them plenty of dry cut straw to roost on.
If you use boards scrub once a week with
soap suds. If a dry dirt floor, sweep it clean
every two days.

Mark this: Never feed young chicks in the
box where they roost, or any place where
their droppings will commingle with the feed.
If this is persisted in, it brings disastrous fail-
ure always.

Always see that they are on high ground
at night. If it rains you do not want to go
out and get wet to move them, and if in low
ground they will drown. If rats trouble them, |
lay an old barrel on its side, let the hen and
chicks get in; once in, set the barrel am
This is rat or varmint proof. But be sure
you scrub the barrel out.

CATCH THE RATS.
Lay a pile, say twelve to fifteen rails, or

old rubbish, about thirty feet from your barn
or house; lay straight. “Take your cats and

IF YOU ARE A FARMER. ies:

dog, early in the morning. If there, the dog
will say so, then move the rails and one or
the other gets the rat—my cats generally are
the surest. Your common dogs and cats will
learn this. Never leave any thing for the rats
to eat if possible. Always war against them
with all your might. Throw dust lime in every
hole you see. If they gnaw your floors, tar
the places. | :

Always manage to have most of your
poultry hatch when the grass just begins to
grow; it is tender then, and will supply at
least one-half their living, and it is so much
help toward keeping them thrifty.

The middle of April, in my latitude, is gen-
erally the best time. The weather is so
changeable before this, that they can not be
allowed at large without quite a risk to their
health.

After you can control Gapes, Roup and
Cholera, wet weather is your greatest draw-
back. In every thing you do, always look
ahead. Be prepared for all emergencies that
may arise. You should always have a dry
knoll for each coop, high ground, with a board
bottom in wet weather. A V shaped coop
most farmers use. A few clap-boards on the
ground, then set your coop on them, with a
little straw over the boards, makes a splendid
place for them. You can move the coops oc-
casionally. |

Another good plan is this; say you pail a

16 IF YOU ARE A FARMER.

piece of high, dry ground twenty or fifty feet
square; drain all round outside of the fence
with a deep ditch, enough shallow drains
through it to thoroughly drain the inside.
You can place your movable or V coops in
it. Either confine your old hens in the coops
or let them run out inthe lot. Provide means
for them all to keep dry. Here you can feed
and water always. Build the fence so close
that the little chicks can not get out, only as
you let them from an opening beside their
own coops; this lot should be surrounded by
one or more acres of grass. But mark this;
if you use a lot like this you must sweep the
litter up and pile outside,—better than bone
dust for your garden.

In hot weather it is best to sweep every
day. Reason: in hot weather all the feed
left on the ground begins to ferment and de-
cay; taken into the crops of fowls, in this
state, it acts as a poison. Under all circum-
stances and conditions, never let your chick-
ens out in the wet grass. No poultry, not
even ducks, can be allowed to get all drab-
bled in the grass; the truth is, if you get any
of them very wet, they seldom live; if they
accidentaliy get wet and you wish to save
them, heat a flannel rag or cloth real hot, lap
them up and lay where they will keep warm
until dry. I have saved their lives in this
way, when found floating in water, gasping
for breath. By the way, never leave slop or

IN WINDY WEATHER. 17

water of any kind where they can get drowned
in it. Keep every thing of the kind covered.

IN WINDY WEATHER,

always furnish them a wind brake,—a board
set up,—something to protect them; even
old fowls will hunt such protection; and it
chills young a great deal more than the old;
as they have nothing but ‘‘ down,” and that
very short at the beginning. Your poultry,
if exposed to the wind, are liable to take
cramps, rheumatism, or probably to pine
away with indigestion.

All poultry should be protected from winds,
night and day; so you see your perches should
be protected, which you can not do if they
are in trees.

PROVIDE FOR COOL WEATHER.

I have heard parents say, when chided
about exposing their children to cool, wet
weather: “Oh! we are raising them hardy—
don’t want any of your weak, sickly children.’’
Just keep an eye on those that are brought
up in this way, and the large majority die be-
fore reaching twenty, and but very few live,
to see forty years.

The same principle is verified with your
poultry. To retain health and thrift, they
must be kept comfortable ; this you can do by

18 SUNSHINE..

furnishing them with straw, boards, etc., to
roost on; stop the cracks, and, if very cold,
throw old sacks, or a piece of carpet over
their coop.

Often during March and April, the sun
shines warm but the air isso cool that the
chicks can not enjoy the

SUNSHINE.

Wealthy people can build houses for them,
with a sloping glass side, facing the south ;
underneath this the chicks are quite comfort-
able.

But the large mass of soul raisers are
not wealthy. What can they do? A great
deal with a little effort and small expense.
A six-inch plank for the front or south side,
an eighteen inch one for the back, as long as
you wish, say twelve feet. Kentucky farmers
have a “tobacco muslin,’ one yard wide; the
threads are light but strong, and wove very
open. Depends upon the width of the mus-
lin for the length of the end piece of the box.
If the muslin is one yard wide, the end piece
ought to be thirty-three inches long. Nail
the narrow board to one end, and the wide
one to the other. Slope the ends down from
the eighteen inch board to the six inch.

Every three feet nail a plasterer’s lath on
top. Over the top spread your muslin, tack
your sides and ends, drawing it tight.

SUNSHINE, 19

When done it looks like the top of a hot-
bed. Best to fasten together so it can be
moved. Whenever you can, the ground be-
ing dry enough to crumble, spade up a piece
of high and dry ground—-some place where the
sun shines—then move your box on it; ar- -
range every thing so the slope or low side
will be south.

Rake the loose dirt until well pulverized ;
then sow some wheat over it and rake it in.
Provide one or more places in the back—
wide board—-for them to get in and out—a
three inch square sawed out of the bottom
answers your purpose. Place the small coop
so the young chicks can go from one to the
other. To see the little ones use their feet
and bills to get the wheat, will pay you for
your trouble and expense.

By spading and stirring, it may remain in
one place a week or more.

If the weather is wet, cover over with clap-
boards or plank, raising the cover twelve
inches high, so as to admit light, with a deep
trench round outside to keep the inside dry,
and you have a nice little poullry run, af-
fording your little chicks their natural exer-
cises. And by so doing, you add near one-
third to their growth, and wonderfully to their
health. You can have one, two feet or twenty
feet Jone, just as you need. ..You- can tack
the muslin to a frame one inch thick and
three inches wide, made the size of your box;

20 “SUNSHINE.

fit it close and you can remove, rake and sow
feed at your will. One twelve feet long will
give fifty chicks a good start. Sy

This brings us to first of April. If you
have been careless in your application of the
Gape Preventive, you are sure to have a few
gaping chicks; watch this gaping business
closely. If you see or hear any of a flock
sneeze, this is your time to cure it. I have
experimented with success the past two years
by mixing a tablespoonful of the Gape Pre-
ventive in a pint of meal and middlings mixed
with scalding water; feed all chicks so af-
fected.

Even if you do not see any signs of gapes,
itis a good feed for them once a week. Begin
the application of the Gape Preventive to all
your old poultry first of January, and keep it
up every two weeks, until you get entirely
clear of lice. If you do not. by April your
early chicks will be full of them, and they
will not thrive until you get clear of them.
Furnish your hens that have broods a dust-
ing place.

Dig up a little loose dirt at different places,
south side of buildings, fences, or coops, pul-
verize, and they will soon rid the vermin from
them. Remember, re-dig after a rain, as it
packs very hard.

This is near the time that you should sit
the bulk of your hens. It is advisable for
farmers to vet as manv as thev exnect to

VIGILANCE. 21

raise started at one time, and make it a busi-
ness to attend to them for a short time.

VIGILANCE

Is the secret of success. On an average,
farmers give less attention to poultry than
any other stock. Consequence, raising poul-
try is a failure, which entails a heavy loss in
the way of furnishing calico, groceries, etc.

I wish to impress this on your mind: noth-
ing must be neglected, every thing must be
done, and well done. You may know how to
keep clear of the gapes, but if you fail to use
the Gape Preventive, as directed, you will
have the gapes in your flock. Even after
they take it, which is your own carelessness,
you can cure them; but, if neglected, they die,
and you lose the eggs, the feed they have
eaten, and your time.

The same principle holds good in roup and
cholera, only the loss is so much more when
they are grown. It is a shame to see whole
flocks die, in a short time, with these diseases,
especially so to persons that know they can
be cured and prevented.

Your coops and every thing you need should
be provided in winter, or at least before you.
need them. While your flocks are young,
they need almost ceaseless care; your object
should be not to lose one of them after they
are hatched,

22 WATERING.

When five weeks’ old they are not much
trouble, if they have the range of a farm,
and hawks do not keep them too close. At
this age a feed in the early morning, of mid-
dlings and meal mixed with milk, and a feed
of all the corn they will eat when going to
roost, is all they need. When of this age, if
they roost in boxes or barrels, and you are a
little careless in keeping them clean, the Red
Lice will annoy them. Said lice never leave
the box, but remain in the joints or cracks by
the thousands. If you find them in a coop,
get a pile of straw or shavings, set fire to
them, and hold the coop in the blaze until the
last one is destroyed.

WATERING

You would suppose that even a child could
water chickens, but there are few adults who
do it as it should be done.

Cleanliness is the main point. The water
should be clean and pure. The vessels kept
clean at all times. And in cold weather the
water should be given to them warm. For
young chicks it should be kept in some shal-
low vessel. Arrange so that they can not get
into it. ;

I prefer to water them in clean vessels, and
in one place. If they are allowed to drink
when and where they please, it seems they

THEIR PERCHES. 23

will be satisfied with the dirtiest, filthiest pud-
dles to be found.

They may devour all the filth of a garbage
barrel if in a dry state—it seems to have no
visible effect; but let them be round your
stables, barns or out-houses, drinking the
water from filthy puddles when decomposi-
tion is going on, and it is surprising how fast
they become diseased, and often how deadly
the poison ts.

My Cholera Preventive is based on the
theory that the germs are mostly taken in
their water, conducted through the system
by the water, and are more readily destroyed

by the same process.

PHETR- PERCHES.

It is of the utmost importance to have a
suitable place prepared for them to roost in,
as soon as they are large enough. I always
prefer to get them up off the ground just as
soon as I can. Better for their health, and
no danger from coons, skunks, etc.

I use sheds built twenty-five feet long, ten
feet wide, twelve feet high at front; back eight
feet high, pitch roof,—sloping from front to
back,—sided up with plank on end, and one
inch apart. |

Front facing south-east, and sided down to
within five feet of the ground; floor raised
with earth, and deep ditch round. outside.

24 THEIR PERCHES.

The perches are two by three inch scantling,
eight feet long. All hung level, tarred ropes,
about five feet from the floor. See you get
them level; if one is a little higher than the
other, the entire lot will want to get on the
highest pole. You can take two plank half
inch thick, fourteen inches wide, and nail to-
gether V shaped. Hang one under each pole,
sprinkle a little loose dirt and lime over it,
also over their droppings, every day or two.
Empty this into a barrel kept in the dry, at
least once every week. When you want to
use it, empty the barrel out in a smooth place,
take an old-fashioned flail and pulverize it,
and it is far better for any thing you wish to
plant than ‘‘bone dust’’ can be made. If
you never tried it, you will be surprised at the
amount fifty head will yield. If you have but
a few you may dispense with the boards, and
keep loose, dry dirt, and throw over their
droppings every morning, but then you must
be sure and clean every thing out and sweep
clean once a week in hot weather. If you
do not, it will take quite a lot of lice exter-
minator to get rid of the lice.

Place your perches so they can not reach
and pluck one another.

Before the hen weans her brood place a
couple of short planks on the tops of your
perches, and stand a wide plank up so the
little ones can walk up. After she spends a
night here she will not trouble you; and when

A SHADE—PLOW YOUR RUNS. 25

weaned, they are all just where you want
them. ats ;

In our climate, generally from April to Sep-
tember the weather is warm and often ex-
tremely hot, therefore it is necessary to pre-
pare

A SHADE

Meer about. your runs. | prefer -currant
bushes. They may be set in nooks, corners,
and out-of-the-way places, not occupying
much room, but affording a splendid shade,
and a fruit that poultry seem to relish.
Sunflowers are splendid—seed may be
planted from March to July. Their wide leaf
shade is what you want, and the seeds are
one of the best winter feeds we get. You
can plant any place, as they are not choice as
to soil. It is best, when stalks get about five ©
feet high, to pull the bud out of the top.
This causes it to throw out sprangles at every
leaf, which gives you more shade, and just
as many seed. Grape-vines make a splendid

shade. |
PLOW YOUR RUNS.

Here is one fruitful cause of different dis-
eases. Poultry are kept and allowed to run
on the same ground, in the same place, for’
years. The land becomes rich and foul with
weeds. I know farms that poultry have used
fifty years along the same fences and around

26 PLOW YOUR RUNS.

the same buildings, and the land has never
been stirred.

This will not do, as risk to health is too
great. If your inclosure is small, spade some
portion of it daily. Keep the litter spaded
under or swept off. Ifon a farm, plow the
nooks and corners up in February, and plant
in potatoes. This gives you a good crop of
potatoes, fresh plowed land for your poultry,
when it is most needed, and continues until
your potatoes are ‘laid by,” and furnishes a
shade when they most need it. Dig the po-
tatoes early. In July or August sow the
patch in rye, keep your poultry up till it
gets up, and you have the very best winter
pasture for them. And you can repeat this
from year to year successfully, and have fresh
land all the time and good crops. |

If your runs are set in bushes use your
spading fork, hoe and rake; get it stirred in
the spring of the year, and it should be done
in the fall.

I prefer to have patches of potatoes and
corn close to the yard fence rather than un-
sightly weeds.

This brings us to June. Sometimes you
wish to sit hens in this month; but here is the
old adage, ‘‘ hatches in June not worth a spoon;
and in July, not worth a fly.”

JUNE HATCHES,

I find, are just as successful as April, if han-

JUNE HATCHES, 27

dled right, and I find my best spring and
summer layers are always hatched in
june. +»

Those hatched in March and April will lay
from September to real cold weather in the
winter. Those hatched in June, begin in
January, and lay all spring and summer. All
that is required is plenty of dirt—a thick sod—
under the eggs; and if the weather is dry and
hot sprinkle the nest so that it is continually
damp; when taken from the nest the chicks
must be kept ina cool, dry shade, and fur-
nished with plenty of fresh water as required
in Gape Preventive recipe. Extra care is re-
quired in feeding. If they get a little too
much sloppy feed it ruins them. If it is dry
weather they can be allowed to roost any
place on the ground. If they must be con-
fined, be sure they have a good shade, plenty
of dry feed, and all the sand and gravel they
will use. If you have a corn field close to
the house, and a shade tree in it, place yorr
movable coop under the tree, and it will sur-
prise you how your June and July chicks will
crow. In an orchard is a very sood place,
but you must not let them out until the morn-
ing dew is off.

DURING HOT WEATHER

You must be on the lookout for cholera in
your early hatches, particularly if wet or damp.

28 FEEDING ALL THEY WILL EAT.

All filth must be removed and noxious smells
abated. Never let a week go by unless you
feed the mixture. It 1s a tome, ama i gee
preventive of this dreaded disease. It is now
near the moulting season. If your poultry
become diseased during the hot weather it
retards their moulting,—sheding,—and_ will
cause you loss in the end. Another thing to
be looked after from June to October, is the
feed they get from the fields. The Semmes
a great many weeds are getting hard now,
and they greedily eat them up.

The trouble is. the seeds are not dry. New
wheat, oats, corn—in fact, any new grain—is
almost sure to produce diarrhea and in the
end cholera of the worst type.

If you follow the instructions given in the
recipe, you will have no trouble. You can get
your February and March hatches through,
and the pullets be laying by the first to the
tenth of September, provzded you have been

FEEDING ALL THEY WILDL) ta2-

Ihave known some successful farmers to
keep five to six head of horses, feed all they
will eat, curry, rub, etc., half of @igyiaees
work them—well, it may be once a month.
If John or Lucy wants to ride one three or
four miles; it is a hard matter to get Pa’s con-
sent; he is so afraid they will be abused, etc.
Now this man sees meoney ahead in his horses,

FEEDING ALL THEY: WILL BAT. 29

but he will walk from the barn to the house
and find his better-half feeding the chickens,
and will probably say: “I would not feed
those chickens so much; I tell you, feed is
scarce and high! it does not pay! Well, I
declare! feeding them wheat, and it selling
at $1.50 per bushel! I don’t see any money
ahead in this poultry.”

At the same time 1oo hens, properly fed
and managed, will yield him more clear cash
than he can make on any two grown horses,.
with all his petting and rubbing down, and
the cost of the two and their feed is no com-
parison.

I wish to make this point clear; too many
farmers pet one kind of stock and abusé
others. You should make this a rule; if you
can not feed and care for stock, as it should
be done, sell it at once, and avoid getting
“stock poor.”

Provide pasture and feed, and keep your
pigs growing until they enter the slaughter
yard. They are healthier, less trouble, and
_ the meat is better. If you have too many to
provide for in this way, sell the surplus and
provide feed with the proceeds. If you keep
poultry, provide every needed accommoda-
tion for their thrift and comfort. To make it,
a success you must do it. No need of ex-
pensive quarters.

You must provide a variety of feed, better
to raise it; butif you have not that which you

20 MOULTING.

need, do not be afraid to buy it. One dollar
spent in this way will generally bring three to
five back. )
When you feed your poultry, do it liberally.
Do not call thirty or forty hens around you,
to give them a grain of corn each at night,
but throw them all they will eat. A hen isa
machine ; if you furnish her the proper feed,
and keep her in a comfortable place, she must

lay eggs. But if any thing is lacking she will

not lay.
MOULTING

is a natural process of annual occurrence. A
great many of your fowls may not pass the
season of moulting safely.

Early hatches generally do, if kept thrifty,
but later ones often are exposed to severe
tests. The summer moult is usually gradual,
but few feathers falling at a time, and these
being at once replaced. On the contrary,
when the moult happens in autumn, the feath-
ers fall faster, and are not so speedily re-
placed. The consequence is, when the cold,
chilly winds of autumn come, they are almost
naked, and must suffer if exposed to the
weather.

If you have a poultry house with glass front.
put them in it, or you can keep them in a
muslin coop, as described for a run in this
book.

CHOLERA. 34

Moulting always occurs to wild birds, ina
state of nature, precisely when their food is
most plenty. This implies that they should
be fed liberally if confined.

Put wheat in a pan, and dry it out is the
best feed I ever found for them at this time.
Middlings and meal mixed with sweet milk
are equally good. Their allowance of pepper
should be doubled now, and continue’ until
flush feathered. Any sweet substance is good
for them now.

map ae greatest enemy, during this pe-
riod,

CHOLERA.

For symptoms and causes of both hog and
chicken cholera, read my circular, sent FREE
to all.

This most fatal disease has spread over a
vast area of the United States. The germs
live in the water. They blow from place to
place. You may walk in a run where it is,
ride fifty miles and enter a run where there
is none, and the dirt sticking to your feet will
spread the disease to this flock at once.

Freezing does not destroy them, neither
does dry weather ; damp, warm weather is the
time they are most poisonous. From August
to November you must be continually on the
lookout for cholera. Whenever you find any
of their droppings of the dark, slimy, cholera
appearance, you must use your preventive

22 CHOLERA:

freely, and be sure that every one of them
gets their portion. You can use it in their
drinking water or mixed in their feed.

The charcoal feed should be used freely
for hogs and poultry during the autumn.

Now I have an object in cautioning you
thus; if you let the cholera or roup get a start
it affects your whole flock more or less. Those
that do not die will not Jay—they are half
sick all the while. Your March pullets are
now old enough to lay.

From September to May, eggs are always
a good price and ready sale. So far it has
all been expense and no income; now we want
to invert this; we want a large income on
small outlay.

But I hear you say, hold on, old fellow, you
might be mistaken; probably my hens are not
of the right breed or stock! How about this,
anyway? Bat little difference. A heayie
machine, of course some are of stronger vitality
than others ; some just adapted to lay an ege
every day at least nine months in the year—
the non-setting breeds—others to laying an
egg every day for thirteen to fifteen days,
then they get feverish and wish to sit. These
are called the sitting breeds. Your early
pullets of these breeds will not be very hard
to break of this fever. The instructions that
follow all depend upon your poultry house
being comfortable or not. If it is, they will
pay you well to provide every thing named

TO COMPEL HENS TO LAY EGGS. 33

for feed. In fact, they will lay every little
warm spell, all fall and winter, if so fed.

TO COMPEL HENS TO EAY EGGS.

Chemically speaking the shell of an egg
consists chiefly of carbonate of lime, similar
to chalk, with a very small quantity of phos-
phate of lime and animal mucus.

The white of an egg—albumen—is without
taste or smell; composed of eighty parts of
water, fifteen and a half parts of albumen,
and four and a half parts of mucus, besides
giving traces of soda, benzoin acid and sul-
phureted hydrogen gas. The yolk has an in-
sipid, bland, oily taste. It consists, chemi-
caily, of water, oil, albumen, and gelatine.

Now your poultry must have something to
form the shell. Oyster shells head the list.
Nothing furnishes, so easily and surely, the
requisite material for egg-shell as these nat-
ural productions of the sea. You can procure
them in large towns at your restaurants, as
they are glad to give them away.

Mussel-shells found along rivers and large
creeks are splendid. I have always used those
found on the shore of the Ohio River.

Bones of any kind are a real necessity. °
Itis preferable to get your bones of your
butchers, but ground bones are just as good,
if they are not chemically destroyed. In their
raw state they are good; but by roasting them

34 TO COMPEL HENS TO LAY EGGS.
until they are brown and brittle, you have
almost the genuine egg-shell, and you save
the hen an endless amount of grinding. A
large stone in your yard, a hammer in your
hand, is all the mill you need to grind them.
Keep gravel,—if no gravel break stone in
smali pieces,—with your shells; add good,
clean, coarse sand sprinkled over all.
During winter, while they are confined in
your houses, a portion of bone and gravel
should be broken daily. Scraps of old plas-
tering are good. Keep ina box and stir every
day or two.

Albumen—the white of the egg—is found,
almost in its pure state, in fresh, sweet milk,
and in wheat, oats, rye, buckwheat, barley
and corn, in the order as named. Corn fur-
nishes, with the other grain, oil and gelatine.

Understand, while at large they get, of
their own accord, plenty of seeds, weeds, etc.,
that furnish a great portion of the items
named. The bone and shells they are not.
apt to get, and they seldom ever can find al-
bumen enough.

Now this makes plain what we are to feed.
It matters not what we have to feed, if our
hens lay eggs they must have the wherewith
to produce the egg. We are now ready to
begin with our

‘SPRING PULLETS:

We have been feeding dry corn through

SPRING PULLETS. 35

the hot weather, and depending on their for-
aging the balance of their grub from the
farm. 7 |
If well quartered, as soon asa cool night or
two comes, they begin to get fat. If they are
in a healthy state, their feathers are glossy,
laying smooth and close, their combs enlarge,
assume a deep-red color. If their movements
are slow and clumsy, they are too fat to lay.
If so feed but little corn, and mostly oats, for
a week or ten days. Oats are always the
best feed in the fall and early spring. They
will tone up and set a fat hen to laying faster
than anything I ever tried. After your pul-
lets begin, if they have the range of a farm,
but little feed is required. A small feed of
middlings,—they are rich with albumen,—and
- meal, mixed with sweet milk—scalding water
will answer very well—but the milk answers
the purpose of their meat diet, so essential
to their continuous laying, and it is the only
convenient meat diet at the command of farm-
ers. heir feed should be seasoned with pep-
per freely. This is something—pepper—that
we, must always supply them, as we have
nothing that fills its place except a kind of
wild tongue grass that generally starts in
your runs or wherever your poultry uses.
For a few days some of your pullets will
only lay every other day. This is generally
caused by their not eating enough substance
to produce the shell, or a lack of the prop-

36 WINTER. |

erties of albumen in their feed. Put a little

lime in their drinking water, or mix a little in ~

warm feed for the shell. Feed more wheat
for the albumen. :

Now this must be looked after every day.
If you fail to furnish the essential they will
fail to produce the eggs. This system of feed-
ing lasts until the frost and freezes have des-
troyed their feed in the fields,

We must now begin to prepare for

WINTER.

In our climate, where we are subject to so
many extremes of heat and cold, poultry
raising becomes an intricate business. It
requires practical experience, energy and
promptness of action to make it a success.
The amount of cold and exposure they can
endure is surprising, but while so exposed
they do not lay eggs.

So itis of the utmost importance to provide
them just as comfortable quarters or houses
as you can.

I find a very good one is to select ground
high and well drained, build as large as you
want, set facing south-east. I build them
plank on end, cracks closely battoned, shingle
roof, good ventilators in it, dirt floor, perches
as described, and the front or south-east side
with plenty of glass windows in it—any old
sash will do. If you keep fowls that have

ROAD DUST. a7

large combs, dig a five-foot cellar under the
house, to use in extreme cold weather, then
you must have a floor on joists over the cellar.
In warm weather keep plenty of dry dirt
thrown over the floor. When extreme cold
weather comes remove this floor, joist, etc.,
and lower your perches to within three feet
of the bottom of the cellar. Be sure the cel-
lar is drained all round next to the wall, that
the middle is the highest, and the floor cov-
ered with sand and gravel at least six inches
deep. Just as spring comes, remove this
feravel floor out of the cellar and replace
ore upper floor.

f you arrange the cellar so as to have it
ventilated with a window to admit sunlight,
and keep it clean, you have one of the best
_ hatching rooms that | know of. Keep a dust-
box for them to wallow in wherever they are,
which must be refilled when needed all
through the winter. You should always
gather

ROAD DUST

in the fall of the year. Get it any place where
you can. The best comes from turnpikes, as
itis mixed with sand. Left in old barrels
and in the dry, you can use as you need. —
You must have it; cae are not apt to be
thrifty without it.

38 SAVE WINTER FEED.

Save your winter feed in the fall. When
you thrash your wheat, save all the heavy
chaff, keep dry, and throw a little in your runs
or sheds, or in your cellar every day, when :
confined. This gives employment and exer-—
cise, as they will be continually scratching and
picking, which is as essential as to have them
eat. With the large breeds, in order to get
them to take the needed exercise, you may
have to scatter their grain feed over the chaff,
so they will have to scratch to get it.

Save your broom-corn and cane-seed for
them. Buckwheat, millet, or seed of any kind,
save and have ready.

Corn, throughout the winter, fed hot, is the
principal feed.

Next of importance is the warm soft feed
described. Then you want a feed of wheat,
oats, etc. A mixture of any seeds you have;-
the more variety the better. AIP yam
feed should be warmed and fed hot, limed,
etc., as described in recipes.

The corn is better if boiled, but it must be
boiled dry, not fed watery. In feeding soft
feed never throw it down in the dirt and filth.
Take a piece of plank one inch thick, twelve
to fourteen inches square. Nail strips—plas-
terers’ lath, one anda halfinches wide—around
it; any piece of board can be made to answer,
and save your feed and the health of your
fowls. |

In extreme cold weather you must use extra

SAVE WINTER FEED. 39

care in providing them gravel and charcoal.
Feed regularly and systematically, giving all
_ the variety possible. Hang small sheaves of
oats in your houses, just high enough to com-
pel them to jump to get the heads. Bundles
of clover hay, or even corn fodder, are better
than nothing.

Save plenty of turnips, cabbage, onions,
any thing green, and feed them in cold weather.
One of my principal green feeds, in winter
and spring, is small potatoes.

When potatoes are dug, always save every
one of them, if not as large as partridge eggs ;
they are one of the best poultry feeds to be
had; they seem to compel hens to lay eggs.

They are brought to the barn when dry,
all sorted out. The small ones are placed in
the cellar where we can get them any time.
Just as soon as the hens begin to miss their
green feed I begin to feed them in small
quantities, and keep it up all winter and
spring. I bought thirty bushel of ‘‘ refused
potatoes,’ from a friend, that proved to be
the cheapest feed I could get for them. i boil
them until dry, mash and mix with meal and
middlings, and feed warm. Another winter
food is butchers’ scraps; the waste of the
shops can be had very cheap, cooked and fed
in small quantities; nothing any better; when
you butcher sheep, hogs, etc., save every
thing for your poultry.

Cracklings, even if pressed by pork com-

ae) NESTS—-MOVABLE COOPS.
panies, are good and cheap feed. Keep them >
ina box sothey can pluck them all winter. All
these feeds are necessary, if your poultry are
confined and must be fed occasionally in the
winter.

Now if you feed as indicated, and keep
the hens comfortable, they must lay eggs—
they can not help it!

NESTS.

It is of the utmost importance that your
poultry have good nests. When you make a
nest, and get every thing ready to nail to-
gether, make a thin plaster of lime, coal-oil
and sulphur, saturate each joint of the box
with this before nailing together. Always
whitewash your nests in and outside; add a
little carbolic acid to the wash. Nests in the
house should always be sunzg up. A very
good one, for Leghorns, is twelve inches
square, seven inches high—the sides—back
end in center twelve inches high and sloped
to the side and covered with half inch plank,
being a small house when complete. The front
end rounded out ten inches at the top to within
three inches of the bottom, which is nailed
on after the square is put together. For the
larger breeds they should be in proportion
but larger.
MOVABLE COOPS.

Even when I lived in a small town, I always
felt the need of a good movable coop. Ona

MOVABLE COOPS. Al

farm I could not do without them. I have ex-
perimented a great deal and have settled down
on the following as being the best.

The scantling are all one and a half by
two inches seasoned poplar. The object is to
have it light. For the end pieces, cut the
two bottom ones five feet long, the two top
ones three feet ; cut the corner posts, four of
them, twenty-six inches long, halve or notch
the bottom pieces two inches from the end,
and the top pieces at top. Fasten with strong
nails. When done, they are wide at the bot-
tom and narrow at the top. Now-take your
rails, any length you wish the coop to be—
‘twelve feet long is right for six hens. [Fasten
one at bottom and top of each one of your
ends. You havea frame twelve feet long and
five feet wide, on the ground, and only three
feet wide at the top; the top rails should be
left out three inches for 4anzdles. The root
may be pitched back, or made so as to re-
quire a board two feet four inches long on
each side, or it may be made fifteen inches
high in center, above the square, a scantling
extending from end to end, and lathed the
same as the sides. This is the best for tur-
keys. Cover four feet. in length for your
perches. ‘lhe coops can be made any height
you desire. Cover with light clap-boards or
shingles. Board the end and side up, or tack
muslin on the end and sides-to protect them
while on the perches.

42 MOVABLE COOP—DIFFERENT BREEDS.

The siding and cover should be light ma-

terial. Under your cover, twelve inches from .

the bottom, put a scantling across fora roost ;
make you a lath gate or door, hang with
leather hinges, in the front end with a latch
to keep it fastened. Furnish with a nest, set
just inside the door, a drinking vessel of some
kind, and you have one of the best and most
convenient coops [ ever saw. |

If you want your chicks raised away from
the house, move the coop where you want it;
leave the hen and chicks in it; feed and water
is all the trouble you will have, and it is proot
against coons, skunks, etc. Then you can
move it to fresh ground every day.

THE DIFFERENT BREEDS.

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as
a pure bred fowl. ‘There are those that have
been bred ‘straight’ for many years, and
now produce chicks like parents, that by com-
mon consent we call pure breed, but they
_ have relatives, and not very far distant, that
go by other names. Take our Brahmas and
Cochins—Light, Dark, White, Black ar
tridge and Buff—are all understood to have
come from the old Cochin China, or Shanghai,
first imported from China about 1847. For
several years they were bred all sorts and
colors—any thing for size; finally ‘“ fanciers”
began to select and breed for certain colors,

a.

aes sh UL eer

ON BREEDING FOWLS. 43

combs, shapes, etc., until we now have seven
recognized ‘‘ pure breeds”’ from one common
parentage, in a little over thirty-five years.

Again, foreign blood ts introduced often for
a specific purpose. If you mix Black Span-
ish blood with Biack Hamburgs, it gives more
size, and otherwise improves it. Of course
it takes several years to get the new family
“toned down,” etc.

By common consent we call a breed pure
when it reproduces itself. The greater the
number and the truer the reproduction, the
more valuable the strain.

ON BREEDING FOWLS.

In all works treating of poultry, which have
fallen under my observation, there is a la-
mentable deficiency in information respecting
the important subject of breeding. When
the topic is touched upon, amid meager de-
tails and questionable principles, there is a
loose and indefinite use of terms, which serve
only to distract and confuse the inquirer.

Fowl-breeders have never been forward to
communicate such information as is derived
from their experience; the amateur seldom
feels any inducement to do so; and the breed- -
er, whose only object is profit, is well con-
tent to preserve his secrets and secure his
gain.

The various kinds of breeding are denom-

44 ON BREEDING FOWLS.

inated ‘‘zz and zz,” “‘close,’ “mixed” and “high
breeding.’ When we speak of ‘‘in and in”
breeding, the meaning is simply that the
breeding is by commerce, between individuals
of the same brood; or, between brother and
sister. ‘‘ Close’ breeding, is by commerce
between the parent and “zs offspring. ‘‘Mzxed”
breeding is the connection between different
breeds or varieties.

Crossing breeds. To insure successful and
beneficial crossing of distinct breeds, in order
to produce a new and valuable variety, the
breeder must have an acurate knowledge of
the laws of procreation, and the varied influ-
ences of parents upon their offspring.

All the breeds in this country are crosses,
produced originally by accident or design.
Crossing does not necessarily produce a
breed: but it always produces a variety, and
that variety becomes a breed only when there
is sufficient stamina to make a distinctive race,
and continue a progeny with the uniform or
leading characteristics of its progenitors.

High breeding. When uniformity of plum-
age can be effected in different varieties with-
out sacrificing the health and vigor of the
race, it is desirable, and, in many instances,
it can be accomplished satisfactorily.

Real high breeding consists in the selec-
tion of parent stock of the same race, perfect
in all the general characteristics, and of re-

ON BREEDING FOWLS. A5

mote consanguinity. This should be resorted
to yearly to secure the best results.

If a breed is pure the progeny resembles
the progenitors in almost every respect, in
plumage, generai outline, form habits, etc.
They look identically the same. But when
the blood is mixed the plumage will vary
widely or slightly, according to circumstances,
although the general characteristics may re-
main the same The close breeding, to which
sO many resort, generally results in absolute
deterioration of the breed in important re-
spects.

Pigeons seem to require ‘in and in” breed-
ing. Ihe female lays two eggs, from these
two eggs a male and female is produced.
They again breed ‘in and in,” and so con-
tinue for hundreds of years without visible
deterioration. They seem to be perfect of
their kind, or pure breed, never varying ex-
cept in crossing, and never degenerating ex-
cept by confinement.

The rule seems to be with the feathered
tribe, “close” breeding, and occasionally “in
and in.” This seems to be the laws of nature,
as with the wild turkey. In their natural
state they resort to ‘“close’’ and “in and in”
breeding ; still the race does not change in.
appearance or degenerate. The reason is
the breed is pure. You may compare tens,
hundreds or thousands of these noble birds
of the forest, you can not discover the least

4.6 PRESERVING PURE BREEDS.

dissimilarity—all look alike—they always have
and always will. These are changed or de-
teriorated ozly by crossing or confinement.

The majority of our breeds degenerate rap-
idly upon breeding “ close” or #2a@ameaaa]
from the fact that they are not perfect of their
kind, that is, our breeds yet show their mixed
blood and the breed degenerates in propor-
tion as the blood is mixed. So all this “‘close”’
and ‘‘in and in”’ breeding should be avoided
as much as possible by changing your cocks
each spring from one strain to another.

These remarks are equally applicabie to
quadrupeds. If the breed is pure, as with the
rabbit, you can breed “close” or “in and in,’
with impunity, and nature seems to favor the
process; they uniformly resort to that manner
of breeding and the race remains precisely
the same through all generations, unless they
are crossed or. confined; but if the animals
are of mixed blood, as is the case with cattle,
horses, etc., such breeding must be carefully
avoided or the race soon runs out—first de-
generating in size, then producing cripples,
and deformed offspring, and then terminating
in impotency and sterility.

PRESERVING PURE BREEDS.
If you have pure stock and wish to keep it

so, they must be separated and kept so; not
allowed to marry or intermarry with other

PRESERVING PURE BREEDS. 47

stock. If your White Leghorn cock gets out
and marries a Brown Leghorn pullet they are
both “mixed,” which is apt to show occasion-
ally for the next ten to thirteen days.

I have been frequently asked, ‘“‘ when should
the different breeds be separated, in order to
preserve the breed pure?” Pullets that I
breed from are always kept away from the
cocks until the eggs are needed. For ama-
teur breeders and farmers, the first of Janu-
ary is early enough.

I see there is quite a difference of opinion,
even with fanciers on this subject. I know
several that claim two days to be long enough.
My tests for years prove to me this: the sec-
ond egg may be pure, the fifth or thirteenth
may be mixed. The mixed eggs will show
as late as the thirteenth egg after the mixing.
This has happened over and over with me.

When a valuable breed is produced by ac-
cident or design, it should be preserved, and
the subsequent breeding should continue from
that stock; if otherwise there is no certainty
of the purity of the blood of the new breed,
for it does not follow that a different parent-
age, though of the same name or original breed
precisely, will produce the same new breed,
or any thing resembling it. In order to pro.
duce pure breeds the breeding must continue
from the original stock, carefully avoiding
“close” and “in andin”’ breeding. Therefore
the breeding must continue from the original

48 PRESERVING PURE BREEDS.

stock obtained by accident. Such breeding pro- |
duces the leading characteristics of the differ-
ent breeds with great uniformity, and the genu-
ineness of the breed can not be doubted.

In order to produce a good cross the par-
-entage should be healthy, and from healthy
races, not dissimilar in general makeup. The
main points are: Are the fowls large, fine-
fleshed, gentle and domestic in their habits,
good layers, of rich and well-flavored eggs,
close sitters, careful nurses, etc., and sym-
metrical conformation and gaudy plumage,
are general accompaniments to the foregoing
essential prerequisites. The size of the leg
should always be looked to, to judge accur-
ately as to purity of blood. If the leg is
large for the breed, you can rely upon the
purity of thesblood, the fineness of the flesh;
but if the legs are smaller than most others
of the same breed, rely upon it the fowl is
of deteriorated blood. The very best fowls
of any breed should always be selected for
crossing or general breeding, otherwise the
breed will degenerate.

The quality—that is the finest, juciest and
richest of flavor—of domestic fowls, is of
much more importance than their size, and I
reject all coarse-meated fowls, however large
they may be. It is not difficult to discrimin-
ate between coarse and fine fowls. When
chickens, if the down is straight and stands
out, the body and limbs loosely jointed, the

PRESERVING PURE BREEDS. 49

meat is coarse; but if the down is glossy, ly-
ing close to the body, the body and limbs
compactly formed, the meat is fine, and,
when grown, if the fowl is light in weight in
proportion to its size, the flesh will be coarse ;
if heavy the flesh will be fine. If the meatis
fine, the bones are fine and so are the feath-
fets. The color of the legs, too, is quite an

item in judging the quality of fowls. Other
things being equal, the clearest and deepest
colored legs, for the variety, are the best;
generally dark-legged fowls have the finest
Hes, and are the most hardy. ‘Turkeys;
which have the finest flesh of any fowl of their
size, have black legs; pheasants, partridges
and quails, ail of which are very fine fleshed
fowls, have dark legs. I do not wish to be
understood to say that all dark-legged fowls
are fine, or that all yellow or white-legged
ones are coarse; but I do say that the. deep-
est or most solid color which pertains to the
breed, indicates the finest fowl. The color of
the feathers, too, has more or less to do with
the quality of the fowl. Some breeds have
much more brilliant plumage than others, but
when I speak of the brilliancy of the plumage,
I mean in comparison with others of the same
breed. If you select a fowl of rich and glossy .
plumage, its legs will be a deep color, as com-
pared with others of the same breed, and its
quality will excel.

If the object in view is to breed a single

50 PRESERVING PURE BREEDS.

variety to perfection, the first requisite is to
procure fowls of pure blood and possessing
all the characteristics of their breed. Your
time and labor are lost unless a pure specti-
men of his variety is selected for whatever
imperfection exists is likely to be perpetu-
ated in the progeny. You must look to
plumage, size and form, in making selection
either of cock or pullet, and those are pre-
_ferable which are hatched earliest in the year.
The age of the fowls is a matter of consider- ©
able importance, and though it is true that a
pullet will lay the greatest number of eggs
in her first year, yet experimental tests de-
monstrate, that the chickens hatched from
the second year’s eggs are more vigorous
and hardy. The above rule applies to cocks
as well as hens.

An error is often committed by giving too
many hens to one cock, which results in
weakly and otherwise deteriorated progeny.
Not over six hens should ever be allowed in
one harem. If the quality of the breed isa
matter of interest, three would be the better
number.

In breeding time great cleanliness should
be observed in the lodging of fowls. In all
my varied experience I never saw or tried a
better plan than the‘ movable coops,” de-
scribed on page 4o. Just place them on a
nice grassy plot, and you can have your breed-
ing stock on fresh ground every day and they

WEP PORE BREEDS... °- 51

will be clean and nice. I find the non-sitting
breeds lay every day; that the sitting breeds
do a great deal better, as changing their
locality seems to check the incubation fever.

Their food during breeding time should be
a variety and nutritious, but be sure they
have plenty of animal and green food. You
must arrange so as to have no intermixture
of different breeds. A ceaseless vigilance in
this respect is the price of success. If you
do this you may rest in perfect security that
your anticipations will be fully realized.

To preserve the purity of any breed so
that ‘‘like will produce like,” in appearance
and properties, is of the highest importance—
is, in fact, the aim of the scientific breeder.

PVERY FARMER SHOULD KEEP PURE BREEDS AND
BECOME BREEDERS.

The first of January place in a seperate
room a cock and two or three of your best
White Leghorn hens; in another the same
of Plymouth Rocks. Furnish plenty of every
thing needed for feed, etc. By first of Feb-
ruary their eggs, if kept strictly separate, are
pure. Assoonas the weather is warm enough
you can place them in a movable coop on a
grassy lawn, and by covering the sides with .
cheap muslin, they can generally remain out
after first of March. Save the eggs and sit
noothers. In this way you can have plenty of
pure breeds, just as good as any fancier,—in

52 TO MECHANICS.

fact better, as your stock have unlimited.
range. You can enlarge this plan to accom-
modate all you wish to care for.

TO MECHANICS.

I was raised and lived on a farm until I was
twenty-two years old. I then lived in a small
village twenty-six years, a shoemaker by
trade. I fenced off a lot one hundred feet
long and thirty feet wide. On this lot I had
a stable fourteen by sixteen feet, a shed back |
of it fourteen by twelve feet ; a poultry house
eleven by twelve feet; the lot pailed in with
pailing twelve feet high. I always kept a
good cow and fed her well; she paid for her
feed—by selling milk—and kept our family
in plenty of the best of butter and all the
milk we wished for our own use.

After I learned how to keep clear of gapes,
roup and cholera, I bought a White Leghorn
cock and four hens, that cost me a trifle over
$45 when they began laying. As long as I]
lived there I bred these Leghorns, and kept
a strict account of every cent I paid for feed
and all I received for eggs. We always used
all the eggs and eat all the chickens we
wanted for our own use, for which we allow
nothing, and still these same Leghorns cleared
of all expenses, over $100 per annum. Sev-
eral winters I kept fifty hens, and they laid
eggs right along, which were oiten sold at
forty cents perdoz. Then I made money by

LAYING. 53

advertising and selling not giving away. It
was a pleasant time to take care of them,
affording me recreation, giving needed exer-
cise. I had a hobby,—and but few succeed
without one—and it was a pleasure.

By just a little effort and a good share ot
perseverence, many a mechanic can do just as
well and not miss the time.

LAYING.

It seems a providential arrangement, in be-
half of man, that domestic poultry are en-
dowed with so great fecundity. The ordinary
productiveness of a single hen is astonishing.
Frequent instances have occurred of hens
laying three hundred and twenty-five eggs
annually, while two hundred is the average
number, on an average amount of feed. I
find no difficulty in getting the non-sitting
breeds to average three hundred eggs annu-
ally, fed and cared for as herein described.
I always breed from my best every-day layers
of the sitting breeds. I find this makes quite
a difference in the yield of eggs.

Undoubtedly much depends on surrounding
circumstances as to the laying qualities of
hens. Climate has a great influence; also
their lodging, food and care bestowed on them.

There seems to be naturally two periods
of the year in which fowls lay, early in the
spring and in summer; and this fact would

ae MOULTING.

seem to indicate that if they were left to
themselves, like wild birds, they would bring
forth two broods in a year. But under our
system of feeding and breeding, we have
changed all this. We now have them to lay
daily, until molting causes them to cease.
This process begins in August, and continues
one, two and sometimes three months. It is
the constitutional effect, which attends the be-
ginning, continuance and consequences of
this period, which prevents their laying. Un.
til its very close, when the entire coat of new
feathers replaces the old ones, the wasting of
the nutritive juices, which are yielded by
the blood for the express purpose of pro-
moting this growth, isa great drain upon their
system. This makes it plain why the consti-
tutional forces which would otherwise assist
in forming the egg, are rendered inoperative.
The older a hen is the later in the season she
always moults. As pullets do not moult the
first year, they begin laying about the time
your hens quit; so they are your main de-
pendence for eggs from middle of August to
middle of January. (Pullets referred to here
must be hatched in February or March, and
well fed and housed.) From January on your
two-year old hens and later pullets will be
laying.

I repeat here that ‘‘ what you feed,” is the
main point in getting them to lay. In wexéer
you must supply animal food in abundance,

_ LAYING. 55

and all the material they require for forma-
tion of the shell. In sprzzg, ii at large, they
will find a portion of such food, but still they
will not get enough of shell material—they
require a large amount of both varieties of
feed. During spring, keep them on dry
‘ground, and not exposed to the wind. Have
every thing well drained, so they wili not be
drinking out of every little filthy puddle of
water.

Summer Layinc.—My late hatches (August
and September) are my best summer layers ;
if at large, require but little feed, but if con-
fined their supply of animal and albumen must
not be neglected. See that they are provided
a good shade and plenty of cool water. They
generally lay until the first of September; be-
fore this your spring pullets are laying. So
this system provides you eggs during the
whole. year. Sometimes your hens are too
fat to lay, feeding oats remedies this. Often
you may feed wheat, oats, corn, charcoal and
every thing you can command, and get no
eggs. Either Roup or Cholera is your trouble
now. For years and years I could not account
for this, I could see no visible sign of either
disease, but I could not feed so as to compel
them to lay. After 1 began using my Cholera
and Iron tonic, all this ceased. I never have
had such a thing happen since | discovered its
use. Nature seems to resist a certain amount
of the germs of the disease, but in doing so,

56 LAYING.

it requires the full energies of the fowl; so
the accumulation of fat, muscular power, and
egg production ceases until the system is re-
lieved of the disease. |

Often it is three or four weeks after the

roduction of eggs ceases before you have an
outbreak of cholera or roup, but as a general
thing it is sure to come.

Eccs ror Sirrinc.—In selecting eggs for
this purpose, choose such as you have reason
to know have been rendered productive.
Those of medium size—z. ¢., the average size
that the hen lays—are most apt to prove pro-
ductive. Stephanus tells us “that he always
found the round egg to contain the female
chick, and that of the oblong and sharp end,
the male. If you examine the egg between
your eye and a candle (we should say now in
an egg-tester) you will be able to discern the
position of the little air-bag at the blunt end
of the shell. If this be in the exact Gomer,
the egg will produce a cock, if just a little to »
one side a hen.” So you see from the Roman
period to the present time the mind of man
has searched for some sign to tell the sex of
eggs. So far as my knowledge goes, I think
the Romans could gwess at it just as well as
we can. You may form a very fair idea
of your eggs from their specific gravity.
Put them into a bowl of tepid water, and
reject all that do not readily sink to the
bottom.

PAIRING, BT

UNFRUITFUL Eccs—May be found about the
twelfth day of incubation. For this purpose
hold the egg between your hands in the sun-
shine; if the shadow which it forms waver,
_keep the egg, as the wavering of the shadow
is occasioned by the motion of the chick with-
in; if it remains stationary, throw it away
and relieve the hen of its care. If your eggs
have been fresh laid the chicks wiil be devel-
oped earlier than otherwise; if they have been
fresh you will, about the sixteenth day, if you
apply your ear to the egg, hear a piping noise
within ; if the eggs have been stale, this will
not be perceptible until about the eighteenth
day ; and, at this time, the yolk which had
previously lain outside and around the chicken,
will now be gradually entering into the body
of the bird. This serves as nourishment to
the little prisoner until his subsequent efforts
shall have set him free. |

PAIRING.

We are not sufficiently acquainted with the
habits of the common fowl in a wild state to
know whether the cocks always associate with
the hens or only occasionally. Hens will lay
some eggs without pairing, (they will not.
hatch) but this is not natural, so the number
will be small, and the laying uncertain, hence
- itis indispensible to have them paired.

58 SELECTION OF A GOOD COCK,

I will advance a few ideas on this subject,
applicable to all breeds. The cock should be .
of a large and well-shaped body, long from
the head to the rump, thick in girth; his neck
long and nicely bending, body straight and
erect; his comb, wattles and throat should-be
large, comb a deep scarlet red; his eyes
round and piercing, answering the color of
of his plume; his bill should be crooked,
sharp, strongly set on his head, color suiting
his breed; neck feathers should be very long, -
bright and shining, covering from his head to
his shoulders, his legs straight and large (for
his breed); his claws short, strong and wrin-
kled; and his tail long, covering his body very
closely.

All authorities agree that a cock is in his
prime at two years old, though I have had
white and brown Leghorns of four months so
precocious as to show every mark of full vigor,
while others of the same brood did not appear
in this state for many months afterwards. At
three years old, generally a cock begins to
lose the sprightly gait and bright color which
distinguished him at two. The length of his
feathers increases, and his hackles become
of too loose a texture, and dangle over his
throat. |

As soon as you perceive the marks of de-
clining vigor, dispense with his services, and
select his successor from your supernumerary
cocks that you have reared for this special

CHOICE OF A HEN—POULTRY HOUSES. 59

_ purpose. In making choice between two cocks
_ which appear equally fine and vigorous, try

them by making them fight together, and se- |
_ lect the congeror; hens, like other females,
always prefer the male who shows most cour-
age and spirit. It must be understood always
that the cock you breed from must be in fer-
fect health. Next to health and strength age
is to be duly considered. Neither select one
too old or young; from one and a half to
three years old. It is better for the fancier
“to be sure than sorry.’’ Steer equally clear
of premature and often deceptive develop-
ments, and of incipient and decrepitude; avoid
all extremes.

CHOICE OF A> HEN,

The selection of a good hen is a matter of
even more consequence than that of the cock
for her companion. As each of the different
breeds have their own particular markings,
it is difficult to give general instructions.
For the breed, select a medium sized hen, a
brilliant eye, wide tail, large and not too long
legs, trim in shape, an industrious forager, and
the very best layer.

POULTRY HOUSES.

In order to make poultry profitable, it is
indispensable that they should be properly

60 POULTRY HOUSES.

housed, and that such conveniencies should be
provided as will secure their comfort and
health. Every collection of poultry requires
some place to be provided for them to secure
these advantages. When left to themselves,
and roaming over a farm, they become a bur-
den to themselves, unprofitable to their owner,
and, if in close proximity, a nuisance to the
neighborhood. A certain degree of confine-.
ment is necessary for fowls. Close confine-
ment (unless in movable coops) will in a de-
gree prevent them laying, and in the end
destroy their health. A good sized yard, or
run, connected with a place for shelter and
roosting, 1s what is required.

Care should be taken in selecting a situa-
tion for these accommodations. It should be
high and rolling; above anything, have it so
it can be well and thoroughly drained. A
south-easterly exposure is the best, and a
building of brick or stone is preferable to one
of wood. The extent of the ground and
buildings to be proportioned to the number
of fowls kept, and if any error is to be toler-
ated it is best to have it on the side of small
buildings. :

If you follow instructions given in my
recipes, you need have no fear of these infec-
tious diseases, (remember that cholera and
roup are both “infectious diseases’’) even if
your buildings are small; and laying in winter
is rather promoted than otherwise, when fowls

POULTRY HOUSES. | 61

are thus situated. A medium course should
be pursued, as the wisest and most econom-
ical. If poultry are not defended from the
cold of winter they become torpid; exposed
to intense heat in summer they become en-
feebled. To avoid the numerous diseases
which are induced by dampness, care should
be taken that the poultry-house should be in
a dry location, and properly defended from
rain and storms. A due regard to ventilation
is indispensible to guard against an infected
atmosphere, and suitable facilities afforded for
their necessary exercise which all kinds of
poultry daily demand. You should provide
a place for dry sand, ashes, loose dirt, etc.,
so they may enjoy the liberty of rolling them-
selves, in order to free themselves from ver-
min, and for their amusement.

Phe house, as already stated, is preferable
if built of brick or stone; but whatever the
material, it is of the first importance that it
should be so constructed as to exclude lice and
vermin of all kinds.

In the erection of a poultry-house, of course
consideration of fancy or economy will fur-
nish the rule, in deciding on a plan. A really
good one can be built for a very small amount
‘of money; but there are a great many in ex-’
istence which excel in expense many dwell-
‘nes considered comfortable, and even elegant
ioaabited by mankind.

As cheap a house, and suitable for fifty

62 POULTRY HOUSES.

head, as I know of is built as follows: six-
teen feet long and ten feet wide, back six
feet high, front ten feet high; roof pitched
from front to back; side the back and ends
up with one-inch plank; nail a twelve-inch
plank just under the front eave, another one
thirty-four inches below it, cover the space
with thin muslin, securely tacked on, and
painted on both sides with “zseed od (this is
almost as good as glass), board the remainder
of the front up with plank; strip cr batton
the cracks. Thoroughly whitewash, prepared
as directed. Roof with plank or shingles;
place your perches three feet high, eighteen
inches apart, at the back side; fill the inside
up twelve inches with dry, loose dirt for a
fioor; just in front of your first perch fasten
a twelve-inch plank on its edge, so as to keep
the droppings to the back part of the floor;
every morning sweep the front and sprinkle
the litter over their droppings, and always
shovel and sweep the entire floor clean once
a week. Several times a year haul a wagon
load of dry dirt and throw inside. Your
sweepings alone are worth all it costs you to
keep it up.

Two feet from the house, all around it, dig
a trench a foot deep. In winter, or cold,
windy weather, set corn fodder closely all
around it, as deeply as you see fit; the roof
may be covered with it. You can use straw
or hay instead of the fodder.

FATTENING FOWLS. 63

Hang nests all over the front of your house,
which should face the south-east. A lot en-
closed, twenty-five feet square, will do; an
ete is better, Set the lot out in damson
plum-trees, eight feet each way. The fifty
hens will give you a profit of $50.00, and in
five years your plum trees $2.00 each. (I
mean for my latitude, of course, as said plums
only do well from forty to forty-three degrees.)

FATTENING FOWLS.

It is truly a prime requisite in fowls brought
to the table that they should be suitably fat,
as the lean bird is neglected in the market,
and refused by the epicure.

Unless some attention is paid by parties
interested to making their poultry fat, it will
be found that they will be rarely fitted for the
purpose for which they are designed. ‘The
great desideratum seems to be to produce
fowls which shall be healthy and likewise fat.
Over-feeding is a sure cause of disease, and
similar effects follow when they are too long
or too closely confined.

For an average farmer, ‘‘who delights to
have the fat of the land to live on,” I know
of no easier, surer, or healthier plan than to.
confine five or six head in a movable coop,
and feed corn soaked in skim milk, a little
wheat, plenty of meat scraps, or clean grease
of some kind; once a day a mixture of soft

64 FATTENING FOWLS.

feed of meal, middlings, mashed potatoes, and
all the charcoal that can be mixed with it, so
they will eat it at all. Give them no gravel
unless they have been kept up some ten days.
To keep them healthy give them a small al-
lowance of the cholera and iron tonic daily.

Move the coop daily, so they will be on
fresh ground. In five days some of the lot
will be nicely fatted, you can use them as
needed, but in about fifteen days they will
begin to lose flesh again. ‘here are a great
many methods resorted to by parties fatten-
ing and marketing them in large cities. The
principal ingredients are stale grease and meat
of some kind,—something that we would pre-
fer not to think about if eating chickens at a
city hotel. If you allow your poultry to use
about your stables, cow sheds, hog pens, etc.,
and kill and eat them without fattening, are
they any better than your city friends get?

Fattening fowls should be kept quiet, and
have as little exercise as possible, to keep
them in health; any more than this calls for
expenditure of food, which does not avail any-
thing in the fattening process. You can not
get them fat, no difference what you feed, if
they are uneasy and discontented. It is of
the utmost importance to feed regularly (three
times a day), and that there should be noth-
ing to disturb them, or excite fear or discon-
tent. |

RAISING TURKEYS. 65

The tenderest bird, and most difficult to
raise is the turkey. Strange the difference
in the vitality of the young and old. A little
dew or a few drops of rain applied externally,
or a little uncooked food internally, generally
kills the young. When old it will go half-
starved, and roost on the top of a barn, or in
an old apple-tree all winter, and seem to
glory in it.

When I was a boy, wild turkeys were so

plenty that we made no effort to raise tame
ones. As late as 1848, I could take my rifle
and kill one any day. It was no trouble to
get within ‘‘easy range.” I have found their
nests, and taken the eggs and hatched their
young—and by keeping their wings cropped
(sometimes their toe-nails cut off) I have do-
mesticated them. It takes three years, or
generations, to get them so you can count on
them. In the fall they always will wander
and seem to want to range in droves, but by
driving home a few times and feeding well,
they soon quit.

I have found many a nest full of young
ones, have spent many an hour looking and
hunting for them. You hear their peculiar
whistle all around you, but you have very
keen eyes if you see one while the mother
hen is within hearing, cautioning them with
her peculiar language, “quit! quit!”

As tender as the young seem to be, a wild
a hen popcialy succeeds in rearing her

2

66 RAISING TURKEYS.

twelve and often fifteen young. After they
are as large as a brown Leghorn hen, and be-
fore ‘‘droving”’ in the fall, you seldom see a
hen but she has her drove,.over ten in num-
ber. Their success and our failure is in brood-
ing. I knew one to hatch in an old tree-top.
I passed and repassed her three times a day
for over four weeks, and I never missed her
from her nest. When not in sight, I could
hear their ‘‘ whispering whistle.” It surely
was a good half-mile to water, and how they
kept from perishing seemed strange, but I
suppose they lived on the dew they could sip
from the leaves. Their feed must have been
slim. She used round on our farm, and when
September came she had thirteen nice plump
turkeys.

If ’coons, foxes, skunks, etc., do not trouble
you, if a hen steals her nest, sits and hatches,
and you let her alone, giving no feed, etc.,
she generaily is successful. But here lies the
trouble—the habits of the wild turkey are
“tamed down” so that the mother hen feels
no disposition to compel the young to remain
under her wings; they soon leave the nest,
and the old one follows suit, and so good
brooding is neglected.

It requires a good motherly woman to raise
turkeys, one who is willing to cook for, and
nurse them. ‘There is more general failure
in raising them than any other poultry, so I

LAYING. 67

- shall give you in detail my plan which has
proved successful for years.

LAYING.

About the first of March your turkeys be-
gin to liven up, the old tom to spread his tail
and make love to his biddies. If the weather
is warm, early in the morning you will hear
the hens giving out their peculiar “cluck.”
This means she is going to her nest, or to
hunt a place for one. If you have placed a

_ barrel near by, provided with a nest, an egg
in it, you may coax them to lay here.

I have known them fastened on such nests
until they lay one egg, then you will have no
trouble, but you must keep an egg of some
kind in the nest. If you have a barn shed,
or outbuilding, fasten them up here every
morning until you know each one has layed—
the nest should be prepared beforehand.

- After they lay the first egg in the nest you
will have no trouble until she lays her fifteen
eggs if young. Older hens sometimes lay
twenty before wanting to sit. Sometimes
they are too fat to lay early, if so, feed oats
instead of corn. By feeding a tablespoonful
of wheat daily, they will lay their third lay-
ing, at which time they should be allowed to.
SiE;

The first layings may be sit under common
hens, in nests similar to those prepared for
chickens. But the shells are thick, and

\

68 LAYING.

the eggs get the least chill, or are not damp
enough, your turkeys will be weakly to start
on. |

if the turkey hen has to be moved, select
a suitable place and prepare her a good large
nest on the ground. You can builda rail
pen around it, or place the covered part of
one of the ‘‘movable coops’’ over it, give
her a dust box, plenty of corn and water; be
sure the eggs are damp enough. On the
thirty-first day after sitting, the turkeys leave
the shell... Here is the first trouble;7aiaeee:
many turkey hens abandon the nest just as
soon as they see the first chick; to avoid this
slip the young out and place them ina soft
woolen rag, where they will be comfortable,
which you will know by their remaining quiet.
Something wrong if they keep chattering.

Lice kills two-thirds of the entire number
hatched in the United States within the first
fifteen days. You must apply the Lice Ex-
terminator promptly, if you do they will give
you no trouble; if you do not, and they have
any, they are sure to die in the end. When
they have lice they will feel light, are weak
‘and feeble, finally die without a struggle.
They are more apt to be lousy with chicken
than turkey hens.

I prefer they remain without eating some
twenty to twenty-four hours. If you can, clean
the litter out of the nest; give fresh pounded
or cut straw, and leave them onthe nest as long

LAYING. 69

as possible. The idea is, they are very weak
and easily chilled. If exposed now they are ru-
ined. You can leave an egg in thenest, lap »
the little ones up in the day-time, keep them
where they will be warm. At night return
them to the warm nest. This gives them a
good start. The first thing I feed is a grain
of black pepper to each. They were origin-
ally natives of hot countries and the need of
these hot spices, seems never to have left
them. Then middlings and sifted meal, dry—
you might say only dampened with sweet
not tainted, milk, adding a little clean sand,
_ gravel and a small piece of pounded char-
coal, all mixed together. After the first day
I never feed soft feed to them unless there is
pepper and charcoal in it. Then, if your feed
is sloppy it will kill them in the end. I never
could succeed with them by feeding corn meal
alone, especially if uncooked; it seems to be
a poison tothem. [Eggs boiled hard and sea-
soned with pepper are the best feed while
young and weak, especially if you have to
feed them by hand. Onions chopped fine are
good. Indian meal, one-third; middlings,
two-thirds ; baked dry and soaked in milk is
the best general jecd Eknow of: >"! .

The properties of albumen in their feed is
what you want, middlings, coarse flour and
milk contain the most. But you must not
feed this to excess. An occasional feed of corn-
bread, if sweet—never feed stale bread—

70 LAYING.

cracked wheat and cheat from the mill, all
make a variety. I find it a good plan to have ——
three or four tame chicks with them when
you first feed.

The chicks begin to pick, the Me Ss
begin to learn how to eat. The turkey hen
seems to have no care or thought of the little
ones. She eats every thing herself, but
‘makes no effort to learn her young. Watch
close if any do not eat, feed them by hand
until they learn. Water twice a day. To one
‘gallon of water add a tablespoonful of lime;
give no other water.

Always keep a box of fresh sand and small
eravel—pounded stone will do, for them, so
they can eat when they wish. Anything that
decays fast, or in a state of decay, ruins
young turkeys. They are more sensitive to
such food.than any other fowl, hence the
general failure.

Now you must avoid over-feed; several
times a day, for the first few days, is enough,
then diminish to three times a day andno more.

After feed your next trouble is damp or
rainy weather. While young they must have
dry quarters. If they are on the damp cold
ground, or get wet, better kill them and save
your time. So have a shed, or dry ground for
them some place. Never let them out in wet,
damp grass; I use the movable coop; place
on high ground, away from the house, clear
out of hearing. When left to themselves

THE GOOSE. 71

they seem to do better. They must be han-
dled in this way until they “shoot the red”’
or the time when the head and neck ge
the reddish color of the adult.

As soon as they can swallow it, feed an
occasional feed of pop-corn, and so on until
their principal living will be corn. If you
want heavy weights turn them out now with
the mother hen, feed all the corn they will eat
at night, some in the morning. ‘They are apt
to come home to roost if you do.

THE GOOSE.

Where people have a right in common, and
live in the vicinity of creeks, the breeding
and rearing of geese will prove profitable, as
they can be kept at small expense.

They are hardy and live to be “old.” An
old author says, “If well kept and fed as
much as they need, they will lay at least 100
eggs yearly.”

They are easily hatched, nests on the
ground ; large hens answer very well to hatch
them ; the last ten days it is best to put the
eggs in warm water and then back in the
nest. This rots the shell and they are stronger.
The first week or two keep warm and dry,
and feed middlings and meal, mixed with milk:
Feed sparingly the first week, then increase
gradually until they can .pluck grass. They

seem to require a small portion of salt in

72 THE DUCK.

their food to keep their feathers in good
trim.

Early goslings can be picked when their
feathers are ‘“‘ripe’’ and then grow out full
in time for fattening for the holiday market.
If well fed the yield of feathers will be one
. quarter of a pound from each one. This pays
the expense of rearing them.

THE . DUCK.

The duck should always find a place in the
poultry yard. The general impression is you
can not succeed with them, unless you live on
a large creek or river. But I find it decidedly
easier to raise them where they can not get
to a large body of water. And they seem to
do fully as well in every other respect. I
have a small pond, supplied from a distant
spring, which is all the water they can get.
But of a morning you will find them hunting
for slugs and bugs all over the clover and
potato patches. They come nearer foraging
their own living than any of my poultry.
I count them at the head of the list for profit.
If hatched early they can be ‘“ picked” three
times and then fattened and sold during Lent.

The eggs are no trouble to hatch, requiring
no turning, etc. Thirty-one days in hatching.
They should not be allowed in very much
water until well feathered. At first their feed
should be meal and middlings, if mixed with

Pa!

DISEASES OF POULTRY. 73

milk all the better ; potatoes and mill screen-
ings, finally small grained corn.

They soon become good scavengers, eat
any thing. For nice feathers feed a teaspoon-
ful of ground flax seed, mixed in soft feed,
once a week; all the corn they can eat at

night.
DISEASES OF POULTRY.

Poultry, like other animals, are liable to nu-
merous diseases, someof them malignant, and
many of them fatal. In our climate, how-
ever, the number of important disorders is
small, and they usually yield to judicious
treatment. That very little attention has
been bestowed on this subject arises, no
doubt, from the fact that the value of an in-
dividual fowl is comparatively insignificant ;
and while diseases of other domesticated ani-
mals generally claim prompt and efficient
care, the unhappy inhabitants of the poultry-
yard are too often relieved of their sufferings
_by “chopping their heads off.”

But there are reasons which will justify a
more careful regard to this matter, besides
the humanity of adding to the comfort of
these useful creatures; and the attempt to
cure, in cases of disease, will be rewarded by
rendering their flesh more palatable and their
egos more wholesome.

Most of the diseases to which poultry are

74 DISEASES OF POULTRY.

subject are the result of errors of diet or
management, and should have been prevented
or may be removed by the use of appropit-
ate remedies and adoption of a suitable
regimen. When an individual is attacked, it
should be forthwith removed to prevent the
contamination of the remainder of the flock.
Nature, who proves a guardian of fowls in
health, will nurse them in their weakness, and
act as an efficient physician to the sick. We
can do no more than co-operate with her;
and the aim of all my medical treatment is to
follow the indications which nature holds out,
and assist in the effort which she constantly
makes for restoration of health.

Before treating the maladies of greatest
consequence, it is desirable to present a brief
view of so much of the anatomical structure
of fowls as will be necessary to the compre-
hension of disease and its management.

The digestive function in poultry is partly
mechanical and partly chemical. It differs
widely from some quadrupeds who feed on
similar food. Fowls swallow the grain whole,
and it is digested in the stomach. From this
fact, the opinion has been derived of the ne-
cessity of giving stones and gravel to fowls,
in order to enable them to grind the food
which they take. But this is an error; for,
though there are many advantages derived
from furnishing them gravel, it is by no means
necessary to a perfect and regular digestion.

DISEASES OF POULTRY. 75

The digestive organs of fowls consists of
the gullet and crop, the gizzard, stomach,
liver and intestines. The gullet, or zesopha-
gus, runs down the neck towards the right
side, swelling out in front of the chest, into
a membraneous bag, called the crop or craw.

The crop is somewhat analogous to the
paunch in the ox or sheep. It receives the
gullet into its upper part, and proceeds down-
wards about the middle of the bag, in such
a manner that the crop is in some measure
aside from the regular communication be-
tween the upper and lower opening of the
gullet. Its office is to receive the food when
first swallowed, and to macerate it, and dis-
solve it by means of a liquor, which is sepa-
rated by the glands, which may be observed
covering its surface.

The food, after passing the crop, goes
through the remaining part of the gullet into
a cavity, shaped like a funnel of smaller di-
mensions. This is the second stomach, which
is furnished with a large number of glands,
which are called gastric glands; they are
placed near each other and are hollow. Their
office is to secrete a solvent or digestive fluid,
and to discharge it through a small opening
into the cavity. When this fluid has diluted
and digested the food sufficiently, it is pre-
pared to pass into the gizzard.

The gizzard is the last stomach, and 1s com-
posed of a body of very fine and dense mus-

76 DISEASES OF POULTRY.

cles, lined with a thick, grisly membrane.
Towards the cavity of the stomach, this lining
forms folds and depressions, which on the
opposite surfaces are adapted, or fit, to each
other. The gizzard is comparatively small
and narrow, and has its outlet near its en-
trance. It is calculated, in every respect, for
producing very powerful trituration, or grind-
ing and is adapted to answer the purposes
which are subserved by grinding teeth in
other animals. On account of its hard gristly
substance, posesses little sensibilities. [he
outlet of the gizzard discharges the digested
food in the form of paste, having a grayish
color, into the chyle-gut, which is the first of
the intestines.

The liver prepares bile from the blood con-
ducted ‘to it by the veins, and by means of a
duct, carries the bile from the gall-bladder
into the chyle-gut, in a downward direction,
to be mixed with the digested food. This
peculiarity is different from other animals.
Another fluid, brought from the pancreas to
the chyle-gut, completes the apparatus for
digestion.

The food now proceeds on to the small in-
testines.

Their surface is lined with the mouths of
numerous absorbents, which perpetually open
to take up the aliment prepared in the stom-
ach. The refuse is passed to the rectum, to

be discharged from the body.

A TALK ON HOG AND POULTRY CHOLERA. 77

Fowls are also furnished with kidneys, for
removing superfluous fluid from the blood.
The kidneys lie in a hollow beside the back-
bone, and the urine is carried from there ina
bluish-colored canal into the rectum. Fowls
have no bladder, and it is a criterion of health
when their droppings are moist.

A TALK ON HOG AND POULTRY CHOLERA.

In 1857 I began to seriously study poultry
cholera. I beganthe study expecting in time to
unravel the mystery. I laid out my work for
years ahead, but I was to avoid what others said
or done, as I would be sure to make their mis-
takes. Mine was to bea practical explora-
tion, not theoretical. My object was to find
tf cause, then the cure. Up to 1868 I had
become thorough in the anatomy, habits, etc.,
and felt sure I knew what caused the disease.
To test my theory, | made some experiments,
published at that time.

I took a fowl, apparently well, scratched
her under the wing so as to show blood. I[
cut another’s head off, about dead with cholera.
With a broken broom-straw I| saturated the
wound of the well one with the blood of the
diseased one. The third day she died with
every symptom of cholera. For another I
mixed the droppings of a sick hen and fed a
well one; in two days she died. (I experi-
mented on hogs at the same time with same

78 A TALK ON HOG AND POULTRY CHOLERA.

results). I found that I could give it to rats
and rabbits but not to sheep, ducks or geese.
I found by using an imaginary small amount,
that poultry would get well; a little more than
this produced lingering death—a full drop
they would live about three days—that by
employing it in several places, I could kill a
well hen in about twenty-four hours.

I then became fully convinced that I knew
the real cause, and to the present time I have
no reason to doubt it. I cure it—in its incipi-
ent stage—and prevent it on this theory, and
in the end scientific men will agree to it.

We all know that measles are a contagious
disease, so is smail-pox, yellow fever, etc; we
fully understand that each disease has germs
of its own. If you are exposed to measles,
you will not take small-pox, and vice versa.
Now to make this plain to an ordinary farmer,
I will put it in easy language. Each of these
diseases have a germ—they are vegetable,
too—no spontaneous growth, you know, of
its own. A person inhaling them—they float
in the atmosphere, as millions of others do—
they are not visible to the eye, even if as-
sisted with an ordinary microscope—they pass
to the blood and then through their trans-
formation, producing the type of disease of
which they are the forerunner.

Poultry cholera is caused by a species of
these microscopic germs, and they multiply
and transform themselves until the blood, the

A TALK ON HOG AND POULTRY CHOLERA. 79

flesh and excrements are full of them. The
smallest imaginable amount taken into the
system will produte the disease to a certain
extent, and poultry have the ability, while in
health, to resist the disease for a long time.
I used to have them linger a long time, but
finally get well, then I have noticed that those
that lingered a long time would take it the
second time and die in a very short time.
Like the gape-worm, the most contagious
form of cholera comes from the droppings of
those afflicted with the disease; when the
flesh decays it seems to destroy the germ,
but their droppings, when mixed with earth,
seem never to lose it. It matters not how
hard they freeze, how dry they get, how far
they float in water, or how far they are trans-
ported on your boots, or in an old coop, just
as soon as they are swallowed by a fowl and
obtain the needed amount of moisture and
heat, they appear to waken up and are as
deadly as they were ten years before. By
the aid of notes I had kept of the effects of
different medicines on poultry, within two
years, I could keep my flock from taking the
disease.

- In two years more I learned how to destroy
the germs, so I could stop the spread of the
disease at once.

In 1878 I cured them over and over, while
in the incipient stage, remember ; and in 1879
I copyrighted the recipe, and it has been suc-

So HOG CHOLERA.

cessful with me a/ways, and with thousands ~*
that have bought and used it. There is no
use of multiplying words about it, I know as
long as there are poultry to have cholera this
recipe, if used as directed, will prevent their
taking it by destroying the germs, in the sys-
tem or on the ground, in the water, or where
ever found. It has been tested too iong to
admit of any doubts whatever on this sub-
feck:
HOG CHOLERA.

For a long time [ thought that hog and
poultry cholera were closely related, but I
never could give a hog chclera from the blood
of a diseased chicken, neither could I give a
chicken cholera from the blood of a diseased
hog. You can innoculate the blood of dis-
eased hogs or poultry into a wild rabbit and
it dies with every symptom of hog choiera.
After close investigation and numerous ex-
periments I succeeded in curing several hogs
that had the plainly marked symptoms of
cholera, and still I hold the opinicn that the
two diseases are very closely related ; in fact,
I know they are. Of course it is caused by
one of these microscopic germs, and they
occupy near the same time and mode of
transformation, producing death in about the
same average time; are contagious in the
same way ; the germs when exposed to freez-
ing or heat retaining their vitality the same,

INDIGESTION. SI

and I know the same remedy cures in one as
well as in the other ; excepting their diet and
care are different, then the two diseases go
hand in hand. If you have one the other is
sure to follow soon. But it is a different
germ, but one carries so much similarity to
the other that they must be of the same
family ; public opinion must believe so too, as
it will persist in calling them both “ cholera.”

After repeated tests—all successful, too—
I copyrighted my ‘‘ Hog and Poultry Cholera
Recipe.” But now, mark you, that these re-
cipes do not depend upon medicine alone. I
know quite a number of persons get them
and expect to give their hogs or poultry a
dose as though it were “‘pills,’’ and this to
effect a cure.

These recipes will cover the ground of de-
stroying the germs of the disease, using the
very best diet to sustain the strength of the
system and eradicate the evil.

INDIGESTION.

Indigestion is common with fowls, and de-
serves attention according to the causes that
produce it. A sudden change of food often
produces crop sickness. The fowl suddenly
loses flesh becoming light and weak; it is
often produced in the young by feeding too
wet or sloppy feed. Such symptoms are re-
moved by dry feed as ageneral thing. Some-

82 CROP BOUND.

times a severe fit of indigestion sets in, which
threatens serious consequences, especially if
long continued. Find the cause (in the feed
generally), and remove it.

CROP BOUND.

CausEes.—The most usual cause is that the
fowl has swallowed something that it can not
digest, such as a piece of bone, stone or shell,
which obstructs the natural passage and leaves
the stomach empty, causing hunger.

Symptoms.—Continued hardness of the
crop, with a disinclination to eat.

RemeEpy.—Before you feed in the morning,
if their crops are swelled or full, this must
have immediate attention. Often they can
be relieved by compelling them to fly or run,
have them fly up on something, then down,
etc. Sometimes relief is afforded by giving
a tea-spoonful of castor-oil, and kneading so
as to commingle with contents of the crop,
feeding bread soaked in warm fresh milk, etc.
Should there be no improvement, remove a
few feathers along the side of the crop, take ~
a real sharp knife and cut a slit large enough,
and clean the crop of every thing init. When
done, sew together with a few stitches, but
be suve and sew the sack of the crop together,
and ¢hex the outside covering or skin of the
bird. After sewing stick a few downy feath-
ers on the blood, give no water for twenty-

COSTIVENESS——DIARRHEA. 83

four hours after, then feed on bread soaked
in milk sparingly the first three days, and it
will soon recover.

COSTIVENESS.

This disorder will be apparent by observing
their unsuccessful attempts to relieve them-
selves. It frequently comes from feeding dry
feed too long, without access to green vege-
tables. Indeed, it is almost sure to happen
unless some substitute, as potatoes, turnips,
etc., are used. The want of'a sufficient sup-
ply of pure water will produce the disease, on
account of that peculiar structure which has
already been explained, by which fowls are
unable to void their urine except in connection
with the fceces of solid food, and through the
same channel. Right here is the first organ
that becomes deranged, that finally produces
cholera ae

REemMEDY.—Soaked bread, with warm, skim-
med milk, is a mild and usually sufficient
remedy. All kinds of green vegetables are
better. Supply plenty of animal food (meat
or grease). Castor-oil relieves the most ob-
stinate cases.

DIARRHEA.

The causes are dampness, undue acidity
in the bowels, or the presence of irritating
matter there.

84 DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS.

The symptoms are lassitude and emaciation,
and in very severe cases, the voiding of cal-
careous matter, white streaked with yellow,
resembling the yolk of a stale egg, and sticks
to the feathers near the vent, finally becomes
acrid, from the presence of ammonia, and
causes inflammation, which speedily extends to
the intestines, causing death.

REmMEDy.—W hen caused by a diet of green
or soft food, change your feed, and give water
sparingly. When it arises from undue acid-
ity mix plenty of charcoal with their soft feed.
If an obstinate case add a little chalk.

The following tonic should always be used
in all diseases of indigestion, especially so in
the last named. It is good for poultry at any
time, especially so when they are laying.

CHOLERA AND [Ron Tonic.—A quart of
strong vinegar, four ounces of pieces of

nails or small pieces of iron. Thoroughly

shake every day for one week, it is then ready
foruse. Add two table-spoonfuls to one gal-
lon of drinking water, and one of the No.
One of the cholera recipe. Use the timemmee
of iron alone, if you have not the cholera
recipe.

DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS.
Fowls are so constructed in their respira-

tory system, that their method of breathing
is peculiar, The principal organ used is the

= ee "

—,.

: GAPES. 85

nostril, rather than the mouth. You will ob-
serve that their nostrils are comparatively
large, and that they have immediate commu-
Mication with the wind-pipe, which is con-
structed with a series of firm cartilages, bound
together by strong membranes.

The windpipe reaches down to the chest,
and is there divided into branches, which be-
come constantly smaller till they seem to be
mere holes. These ramifications of the wind-
pipe, with numerous blood-vessels, constitute
the substance of the lungs. The spaces be-
tween them are occupied with delicate mem-
branes, which unite them, and gives a regular
appearance to the mass. The holes in which ~
the branches of the windpipe terminate are
apertures into large air-sacs, which communi-
cate with the various parts of the body, and
constitute, as it were, an auxiliary lung. The
whole mass is encased in a membrane or
plura, of great delicacy, and secretes a fluid
used in keeping the several parts from ad-
hering.

GAPES.

Causes. — Foul water, exposure to wet,
damp places to roost; by feeding sloppy feed,
lacking in nourishment.

This is the most common disorder of poul-
ry, and is most prevalent in hot months or
cimates. Itis not only annoying and trouble-
some, but amazingly fatal. This disease is

¢

86 GAPES. .

caused by numerous small red worms, near
the size of a cambric needle, adhering to the
lining of the windpipe. When examined by
a large magnifying-glass they appear to be all
head, and the head all mouth. From the first
sight of them that can be obtained under a
lens, they are double, the male and female
together, somewhat in the shape of letter Y.
The male attaches to the female by means of
a strong membraneous sucker, and each of
them to the lining of the windpipe with their

sucker-shaped mouths. These worms lay eggs

in great numbers, which may be seen attached
to their bodies. ‘They multiply and enlarge
very fast. As soon as the blood-vessels cease
to yield sufficient nourishment, the weaker
ones lose their hold and begin to move about,

causing others to lose their hold, finally quite ~

a ball of them will be formed, dropping down
on the chest or lungs, causing death by suf-
focation. Just where the gape worm comes
from, how or when, is quite a “‘ speculative ”
subject with the poultry fraternity, one on
which even fanciers of to-day can not throw
much light.

I shall not “speculate,” but will tell you
what “I know about it.”” If your hen is lousy
(and unless you use precautionary measures,
they will be when hatching) and your chicks
run with her, in four to nine days they will be
gaping. If you take two broods, neither of
the hens any lice on them, place one on tresh-

GAPES. S7

plowed or new land, they will not take the
gapes ; place the other one where chicks have
used before that had the gapes, and the whole
brood will become affected. At weaning time
take half of the brood that is clear of the
gapes, yet let them use with and where the ©
others do, and they will die with the gapes,
while those remaining on entirely eek land
will not have it.

Take a brood and apply my gape Cae
ive, and let them go where they wish, and
they will not take the gapes. These tests |
have made for years and years. Why does
the lousy hen have gaping chicks? Because
the parasites enter the nostrils, and pass
through transformations that produce the
gape-worm by the thousands. Every well-in-
formed farmer fully understands how his horse
becomes affected with the bots, which is only
an egg deposited by a “fly” on the hair,
licked off and swallowed by the horse, and
in time transforms itself to the destructive
bot. A great many pass with the food, and
are voided by the horse, and they in their
turn transform themselves to the self-same
fly. The eggs and gape worms get mixed
with the food of the chick (by sneezing, etc.,)
and they in time are voided. Then the chick
in sneezing relieves itself of a mass of them.
All these are left around where they use, and
in time are picked up by others—eagerly, too;
and as soon as the opportunity offers of a

88 GAPES..:

nice young tender chick, they lay hold with
their death-dealing sucker mouths, and soon
compel the chick to gasp for breath.

They do not seem to lose vitality by freez-
ing or heating in the sun. In hot weather
they enlarge in the warm earth, if they have
a little damp manure about them. Land that
has been used over several years and not
plowed seems to be a great deal the worst.
But my experiments show that by plowing
the land deep and turning it clear over (top
underneath) that it almost eradicates the
plague in the ground, or, if you cultivate po-
tatoes in said land, it destroys the worms left
on it. :

A lady friend wrote me in January: “Iam
using an Incubator, so | shall not be annoyed
with gaping chicks—will I?” The last of
February she writes again: ‘‘I hatched one
hundred and seven chicks from my two hun-
dred eggs, and as sure as you live five of them
were gaping when only six days old, and I
know they all came from eggs I bought.
Those hatched from eggs of my own fowls
did not take them until the first were almost
dead. While they were crying around so
pitiful | would have given ten dollars fora hen
that would have been a mother to them, but
I did not have one on the farm that would
even cluck. Can you tell me how, or the
cause of their having gapes? and why one
lot becomes affected, then the other?”

GAPES. 89

The lady had a “patent mother,” and a
warm, comfortable room, she arranged a little
“run” for them in a large iron stove-pan, a
lamp under it, and loose dry dirt several inches
deep, etc. The dirt may have been from
where gaping chicks had been using; if
so, every little worm would be eagerly
picked up by the young, which would soon
tell on them. Just as soon as they sneeze
and begin to dislodge a few of the small
worms, other chicks get them, and soon the
whole lot is diseased. But I think the follow-
ing is the true cause: I presume, from the
care she gave her poultry, that they were clear
of lice. The eggs she bought were taken
probably from nests full of nits, which are al-
ways ready to adhere to any thing a little
warm. When the egg is dropped in the nest
they adhere to it, and so remain until the heat
of the “incubator” hatches them, and as soon
the chick is dry enough, they find a lodgment
in the down, and soon begin their destructive
warfare. Another inquires, ‘Are there any
other lice or mites that produce gapes besides
those found on poultry?” Yes; there is a
species of wood-lice found in dry, moldy chip
piles, that produce it. Also a species of “ Jig-
ger,’ found under large leaves of different.
vegetables, that produce it. How can we
keep clear of it, then? It is plain to be seen
that your poultry must be kept clear of lice,
that the places where the young are raised

90 GAPES—OBSTRUCTION OF THE NOSTRIL.

must be plowed and cultivated, or burned
over regularly. That they must not be fed
where they roost, or where their droppings
commingle with their food. That you must be-
gin in time the use of my gape and lice ex-
terminator, and follow directions to a letter.
If this is done you can cure them at first, and
always prevent their taking it.

In the gape recipe you will have a sure
preventive; but you will agree with me, after
testing this practice, that it is easier to keep
clear of cholera or roup than of gapes. Bu¢
tf you begin tn time and act promptly the first
week your trouble 1s over. Just as soon as your
chicks get age, so the muscular tissues of the
windpipe are tough and hard, they can devour
all the gape worms they can find, and not be
injured in the least.

SymptomMs—As the name implies, consists
of constant gaping, coughing and sneezing,
together with inactivity and loss of appetite.

REMEDY.—Always have my gape preventive
ready, and apply as soon as the young are dry
enough. If you delay too long, iook closely
and you will find mz¢es on top of their heads,
which you must remove. If you use soon
enough they will not be there.

PIP,

CausEs.——Exposure to damp or wet weather.
Symproms,—Short, quick, spasmodie cough,

et “anal

OBSTRUCTION OF THE: NOSTRIL. GI

resembling a chirp, a stoppage of the nostrils
compelling the bird to respire through the
mouth. If not checked will result in catarrh
or bronchitis, which may be known by a
continual vattizg in the throat when breath-
ing. |

Remepy,—Use washes and remedy pre-
scribed in my roup recipe. It is the first and
only remedy and preventive I ever found.

CORYZA OR “CATARREH OF THE NOSE.

CausepD by being exposed to wet weather
and chilly winds.

SYMPTOMS.—Frequent sneezing, watering
of the eye, with a thin, slimy discharge from
the nose. If not attended to at once roup is
the inevitable result.

Remepy.—YTreat as for roup.

OBSTRUCTION OF THE NOSTRIL.

When the nostrils are obstructed, disease
supervenes. Often produced by laceration or
fighting. Canker and ulceration is not unfre-
quent, and any of the catarrhal affections pro-
duces this annoying disorder. ‘The symptoms
are similar to those attending the gapes—
they gape and pant for breath.

Remepy.—Wash the nostrils in real hot
water and suds, to loosen the crust, then re-

92 ASTHMA—ROUP.

move, and apply the gape preventive. When
such obstructions arise from catarrh bathe with
warm milk, and then apply the gape preven-
tive.

ASTHMA.

This disease is caused by an obstruction —

of the air-cells, by accumulation of phlegm
which interferes with the free exercise of their

functions. The fowl labors for breath, be- |

cause it can not take in the usual quantity of
air at an inspiration. ‘The capacity of the
lungs is diminished, the lining membrane of
the windpipe becomes thickened, and its mi-
nute branches are more or less affected.

SYMPTOMS are short breathing, opening of
the beak often, heaving and panting of the
chest; and in case of a rupture of a blood-
vessel (which sometimes happens) a drop of
blood appearing on the beak.

REMEDY.—Confirmed asthma is difficult to
cure. In its incipient stage it is readily cured
or prevented by using my remedy for roup.
Sulphur mixed with butter and a small quan-
tity of cayenne pepper may help it.

ROUP.

This term is used very loosely, both in
common speaking and among writers on poul-
try, to characterize disease. It is applied to
describe maladies as dissimilar as obstruction

A LR os bal ae

ROUP. See
of the rump gland, the gapes and catarrh.
It should be confined to a danyerous disorder,
with symptoms sufficiently marked so any one
can identify it.

It is caused mostly by cold and moisture,
but very often by improper feeding, want of
cleanliness and proper exercise.

It is considered by all poultry men to be one
of the most dreaded and contagious diseases
of poultry. If you will use the prescribed
remedies as preventives, it will save you a
great deal of unpleasant doctoring and the
lives of many birds.

The roup affects fowls of all ages, and is
either acute or chronic; sometimes commenc-
ing suddenly on exposure, at others gradu-
ally, as the consequence of neglected colds,
damp weather or lodging. Chronic roup has
been known to extend through two years, and
the patient recover.

SymptoMs.— [he most prominent symptoms
of roup are difficult and noisy breathing, gap-
ing, terminating in a rattling in the throat.
The head swells, and is feverish. The eyes
are swollen, and the eye-lids appear livid;
the sight decays, and sometimes total blind-
ness ensues. There are discharges from the
nostrils and mouth, at first thin and limpid,
afterward thick, purulent and fetid. In this
stage it somewhat resembles glanders in
horses, and becomes very infectious, being
communicated by the effluvia arising from the

94 CHOLERA AND ROUP——-CONSUMPTION.

discharge, as well as by the contamination of
the drinking water by the sick bird’s beak
while drinking. As soon as you see the first
symptom of it, remove the bird from its well
companions.

RemeEpy.—I know of nothing but my roup
recipe that will do any good. For years and
years I tested every thing I could hear of, all
to no purpose. I have no trouble now. I
use it as a preventive, which is far better than
cure. |
| CHOLERA AND ROUP.

Your poultry may show all the foregoing
or above symptoms, except they stand, and
a thin slimy water runs from their mouth, it
does not assume a thick fetid state. This is
cholera and roup combined.

YELLOW CHOLERA.—So Called from their
droppings being yellow, but the disease is
crop bound and cholera.

Symp#oms.— They are dull and stupid; their
crops seem to be always full, their droppings
assume a yellow cast; finally their crops are
swelled very tight, and contents are hard as
a stone.

For vemedy, see the cholera recipe, under
head of yellow cholera.

CONSUMPTION.

_Causes.—It generally arises in breeding in

DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATION. 95

and in for too long a period—often caused by
a neglected cold; confined in dark, unhealthy
places ; scrofulous tubercles will arise on the
lungs, liver and other organizations of the
body.

Symetoms.—Are hardly observable in the
early stages of the disease. In the more ad-
vanced state there is a cough with a wasting
away of flesh, and indications of weakness.
It is considered hereditary, and birds so dis-
eased should not be bred from.

RemEDY.— Years ago, when I did not know
the cause I used to relieve and apparently
cure a great many by giving them a teaspoon-
ful of cod-liver oil twice a day. In the ad-
vanced stages I consider it incurable.

DISEASES OF. THE CIRCULATION:

The heart in fowls, as in man and quad-
rupeds, consists of two ventricles for throw-
ing the blood into the arteries—one to be
distributed to the lungs, and the other through
the rest of the body, and two auricles for re-
ceiving the returned blood. The blood itself
is composed of a yellowish substance called
serum, anda red colored mass, or crassamen-
tum.

The blood of fowls is liable to several dis-
eases, the chief being fever, inflammation and
rheumatism.

The most decided ies to which fowls are

96 BLACK ROT.

subject, occurs at the period of hatching. At
this time the animal heat is so increased that
it is,perceptible to the touch.

INFLAMMATION, the most serious, is of the
eyes. Small abscesses are formed on the cor-
nea, and filled with a white-colored pus. In
an aggravated form the whole of the eye be-
comes inflamed, the eye-lids swell to a great
extent, and a matter, like the white of an
egg, accumulates beneath the swelling. This
disease sometimes results in blindness, and
often fatal. It is caused by the vapors -aris-
ing from close confinement and bad ventila-
tion.

TREATMENT AND REMEDY.—Like other cases
of inflammatory attacks, relief is to be sought
in a suitable temperature. Use the remedy
as prescribed for roup.

RHEUMATISM may be known by stiffness of
the joints and limbs, and manifest pain in the
attempt to move about, which is apt to ren-
der their gait unsteady or limping.

Remepy.—Warmth and shelter, with a cool-
ing and opening diet, and a free use of the
cholera and iron tonic, for all diseases of the
circulation. :

BLACK ROT.
Causes.—Generally by lack of exercise,

continued sameness of food, indigestion,
want of green food, etc.

SWELLING OF THE HEAD. 97

Symptoms.—Comb turns black, swelling of
the feet and legs and gradual emaciation.

REMEDY.—Give warm, nourishing food, a
raw egg every other day, and use the cholera
and iron tonic freely.

SWELLING OF THE HEAD.

Causes.—This malady is caused by musty
food, putrid water, or a general disturbance
of digestive organs.

Symptoms.— They mope about, their heads
swell with fever, etc.

Remepy.—I have been successful with a
dessert-spoonful of citrate of magnesia, with
ten drops of nitre, added to half a pint of
drinking water.

APOPLEXY, VERTIGO AND EPILEPSY.

Causes.—Undue flow of blood to the head,
generally caused by over-feeding.

SympToms.—Running around in a circle,
often fluttering about, often without any ap-
parent control of the muscular action.

RemMepy.—Often by holding the head under
a small running stream of cold water will
arrest the disease; if so, place the bird by
itself in a rather dark place, feed sparingly
on soft nourishing food a few days. If the
cold water does no good, take a sharp knife
or —— and bleed from the large veins under

98 SOFT EGGS.

the wing; cut lengthwise of the vein. Also.
give an aperient or a tablespoonful of castor-
oil to a large fowl, smaller ones in propor-

tion.
HERNIA, OR PROTUSION OF THE EGG PASSAGE.

CausEs.—It is caused by the exertions of
the hen to expel an unusually large egg, or
in old fowls the general relaxation of the sys-
tem..

Symptoms.—Protrusion of the laying gut
of the hen, which is forced out to such an ex-
tent, after laying, that it oftentimes does not
recede. |

RemEDY.—Place the hen on a diet of non-
egg producing food, such as boiled rice and
potatoes; give daily a pill composed of two
grains of calomel, one quarter of a grain of
tartar emetic, and one grain of opium.

SOFT SHELL. EGGS.

CausE.—Overfeeding, and the lack of the
proper material for hens to eat, so as to form
the shell.

Symptoms.—More or less inflammation of
the egg passage, andthe egg under the perch
or in the nest.

Remepy.—If caused by inflammation of the
egg passage, give a feed or two of barley

LEG WEAKNESS. | 99

meal containing one grain of calomel, and
half a grain of tartar emetic.

If lack of shell material, furnish ground
bone, crushed oyster shells, roasted broken
bones, etc.

ABORTION.

Causes.—Sudden fright, by a dog or any
other animal.

Symptoms.—Dropping of a soft or perfect
egg suddenly, and afterwards moping about
as if not well. |

RemEebpy.—Leave by herself and supply
soft food mixed with ground bone or oyster
shells ; add a little carbonate of soda in the
drinking water, say five drops to half a pint
of water.

LEG: WEAKNESS.

Causes.—Do not confound this disease with
the one previously described. It often arises
from in and in breeding, but it is usually
caused by too high feeding, which increases
the weight of the body out of proportion to
the muscular strength of the limbs. It most
frequently occurs with the large breeds;
Brahmas, Cochins, Plymouth Rocks, etc.

SYMPTOMS.—Squatting around on their
hocks after standing for a short time, as if
tired; in bad cases they are unable to stand
or walk. |

TOO MOULTING. .

Remeby.—I have always cured by dipping
their legs in cool water, and feeding plenty
of ‘‘ shells or bone meal’’ in their feed, a little
tallow or fresh meat, and a free use of the
Llron tonte.

SCALY LEG OR ELEPITANTIASIS.

CausE.—By a midge or parasite working
under the scales of a fowl’s legs.

Symptoms.—The appearance of a whitish
scurf forming on the skin of the legs and toes;
if neglected it becomes hard and warty in ap-
pearance.

Remepy.—Wash the legs in strong soap
and water; when dry, apply my Lice Exter-
minater—it is infallible. |

MOULTING.

Causes.—Though it is not a disease, it is
the most critical period of the year for old
fowls. There is a greater drain upon the sys-
tem of the fowl during its change of feathers
than at any other time. The life-giving pro-
cess of nature have to be sustained and an
entire new “suit” of feathers yet to be
grown.

Symptoms of bad moulting, are a wast-
ing away, inactivity, standing round with its
feathers “ fluffed,’ and shivering with cold.

RreMEDy.—Keep the fowl in good warm
quarters, out of the wet and cold; feed plenty

BAD FLEDGING. IOI

of good nourishing feed and a teaspoonful,
daily, of ground flax-seed mixed with its
feed. Use the iron tonic freely.

BAD FLEDGING.

Causres.— This trouble occurs in chicks; it
is similar to moulting in fowls, and is occa-
sioned by the same causes, has nearly the
same symptoms, and aileviated by the same
remedies.

CHICKEN POX.

Causes.—Unfavorable conditions of the at-
mosphere; mostly occurs in cold weather,
and is very infectious.

Symptoms.— The head, face, or body is cov-
ered with small ulcers containing infectious
matter.

RemMepy.—Wash the affected parts with
Castile soap and vinegar, diluted one half
with water. If this fails, use soap and then
a strong solution of chloride of potassium,
and feed plenty of charcoal and sulphur in
their soft feec

WHITE COMB, SCURVY OR ITCH.
Causes.—Foul coops, decayed food, impure

water, overcrowding in ill-ventilated and
dark quarters.

IO2 FROSTED COMB AND WATTLES.

SYMPTOMS.—Scurvy appearance ofthe comb,
wattle, head and neck, with gradual loss of
feathers from the head and neck.

REMEDY.—Give clean quarters, good ven-
tilation, sound feed, then give near a tea-
spoonful of castor-oil, after which give, daily,
plenty of charcoal and sulphur and the iron
tonic. | |

FROSTED COMB AND WATTELES.~

Causes.—Exposure to cold freezing weath-
er, more particularly at night. If they are
diseased any way, they are very easy frosted.

Symproms.—Discoloration of the top of the
comb and edges of the wattles; they first
turn a purplish color, and afterwards become
pale and bloodless.

Remepy.—Hold in ice-cold water awhile,
then apply glycerine. Bathe twice a day in
tincture of myrrh until well.

VERMIN.

The whole feathered tribe seem to be pe-
culiarly liable to be infested with lice.

Old Mascall says: ‘“ They get them in
scraping abroad among foul straw, or when
they sit in nests not made clean; or in the
hen-house, by their droppings lying long
there, which corrupt their bodies and breeds
lice and fleas.”

: INCUBATORS. 103

The presence of lice is not only annoying
to the poultry, but materially interferes with
their growth, and pevents their fattening and
laying. .

i a brood of small chicks become lousy,
they seldom ever get over it. 3

Rremepy.—The surest, quickest and best is
my gape and lice exterminator. oe di-
rections and they disappear.

As a preventive the best I know ve is clean-
liness, and to place plenty of slaked lime, dry
ashes and sand where they can roll and dust
themselves.

INCUBATORS. -

I receive thousands of inquiries—Do you
use them? What kind is best? Will it pay
me to use incubators, and raise several thou-
sand chicks per annum? After they are
hatched, could I raise them? Will they have
gapes if hatched in an incubator? ete:

I would prefer the discussion of any other
subject relating to poultry than “Incubators,” -
from the fact that I never owned one, and I
fear | may be prejudiced against them, and
may do them wrong. I have always been
interested to know their workings, their suc-
cess and their failures. I have seen a great
many different kinds and shapes, all embrac-
ing somewhat similar principles. From what
I have seen, and from conversation with par-

104 INCUBATORS,

ties that sell, and others that use them, I
think it is useless for an ordinary farmer to
buy one. In-fact the only use I see for them
yet is where parties wish to supply young
chicks to cities and towns by the thousands.
In this case they can be made to pay a large
profit, if manipulated by parties that under-
stand the entire business, and spend money
enough to furnish every needed comfort and
invention.

To parties that are wealthy and have a dis-
position to experiment, I know of nothing
affording a more interesting field; but for an
ordinary farmer or mechanic to undertake it
to make money, will not do as yet. The time
may come, and probably will, when incubators
may be so constructed, and the science of
rearing the chicks so learned, that they may
be generally used.

The design of nature is for the hen to
hatch her own eggs, and rear and care for the
little ones. In a wild state they are success-
ful, but when confined or crowded, it becomes
a science to assist her, and be successful. It
is all very nice to furnish a substitute for the
hen. If we do, zz a business point of view we
must have something cheaper than the time
of the hen, or the substitute is a failure. With
this view, so far all the incubators are a fail-
ure. Suppose the machine hatches every egg.
One whose capacity is one hundred eggs costs
about thirty-five dollars ; after the chicks are

INCUBATORS. “105

out they have no mother, and require a great
deal of nursing and attention that some one
must give. To hatch the same eggs in the
natural way requires the time of eight hens,
which would cost four dollars; and they will
mother, brood and care for them, and lay

- twelve eggs each by the time the chicks are

weaned, and are then worth at least six
dollars. | 3

-I do not know of an incubator where the
proprietor is willing to warrant it. I have
been offered several that cost forty-five dollars
each for ten dollars, and warranted good as
new. But the parties offering them would
not give any personal warrant as to what it
would do, but would say, ‘‘it is claimed for it
to be thus and so.’ From correspondence
and observation, I think the following propo-
sition covers the ground at present writing:

After paying for the incubator, and time
learning to run it, the real chances are that
not over one-half the eggs will hatch; one-
half of those hatched will be inferior, from ~
the unnatural nandling, and die in a few days,
and one-half of those left will never reach
maturity, from various causes.

If you do buy an incubator, get the best
made—will be the cheapest in the long run.
I know of many parties that have ‘bought
instructions’ how to make cheap ones, but
all agree in the end ‘it would have been
better and cheaper to have bought a good

106 INCUBATORS.

one already to start at first.” Take it all in
all, if you follow instructions given in this
book as to sitting hens, and follow instructions
in feeding and caring for chicks, you have a
cheaper and more convenient zzcubator and
mother than you can buy. Now this is the
business view of it. But if you want to ex-
periment, by all means get one—the very best
you can—and try, and keep trying; finally
you may learn how to be successful, and in
turn learn others.

INDEX.

puting semse Mictbator. oo oi. eek ew eS bc ee eo ced 7
Pomoaree income on a small Outlay... ........-cc0cceseues 32
feeaenea Machine............2..- Rees asa « eee epee 32
MOMERTEA’ = ck, Vc ceendeves eee een ee ee ee eee tes 92
MMU erst Ses oe a 5 Dacia, eum we 8 678 Bie a wreae-o a. 97
RPI se a g pea oa ote Jes Pe aE eth 2 99
ene Meal—Break Shells, Stones, etc..........2...0200-55
mre CCS 8 5 2 oi as. gle ons wie nae fo wos epee om II
OM ee ea ale cine fb een cs Sp eevee noes 13
Best time for Spring Broods.......... fae Sipe cate eet ane 15
ee mmr ye ee eee eeaes 43 to a
eee ge ia oe ion’ e ws SN ewe ee we eee os 96
ee metre Pens oe gy cietcc ss wee so wn we ee ees 7
Meme oun Chicks... 2. Ao ea ee so 10,15, 16, 27
pemeerer Youn CHICKS. 2 i... kee ee ee eee eee 15, 18, to 20
Chemical hs a ie UAE RS Se Ss einer ae oe oe bee ee 33
es Se here ee see coo gn 39, 37
Crop-bound---Costiveness--- Diarrhea...........c000eeeee- 82,83
MR se ee ain nce dae seb eecan eb dkee g!
SE RS ee oe SS aio Sun s be sews ws ele 6 os IOI
Se ee 23, 31, 32 and 77
Seam 6s: Sar 5 ie ashe Sin deo pon a we ee o's o 6
a re a las chads acto ew 0 ke 72, 73
Diseases of Poultry—Digestive Functions............. 74 to77
Meee a. mespiratory Organs... fs... ee ep eee ee hee 84
eeereee ce Ccalation. oe... ee be ce ee no takes 95
Diseases of Egg Passage---Soft Shell Se as spa sues aie ee
Eggs—What to Feed 1 Bier PV MLCT oe oo) ieee vice e age zine Bel a's oes 5
RENE. ot hid is ie oa ids ws @ 2 aes es Se Aes 4
musmiserticats of Yous for Lice... 6. cs. ect scenes as 10
NY nos a OS Ce ake da ob Goleta 9 oe 14, 28 to 30
Pormers suouida become Breeders... .........0c0cc cease wcce 51
Bee ONS oe wt ce sees wie ets ee 63, 64
Metco and Wattless so. Sec c es cs fosict eee eee 102
De RE oe hn Sc ei da he cote be we 85 to‘90
Gapes, Roup and Cholera must be Prevented.............. 3
ene er eae toe ig ai solo aap nie' sl nie ow Soca s's ming 71, 72
How to Bac Paya pea ed oe FA ie +e ao eee 5
BE nos we eo io ws fae tate orate Weis yaa’ eas 27,.28
Pun Me Ee 3 ay a eae ja sae en 2 = 80 to 90

Inducements a Hen to Sit , gOS SREY AIS ie ieatee aN eet

108 INDEX.

if she Picks her Chicks, 0... 0350.0 svc. « see 13
TriGimestiont oo 6565 oad oben » ele Sie ie wide 0a 80 81
Imflammation of the Eyes .....i.3 03 Js <+<ssslee ee 96 —
EWCHTRUOES oo Se N wim Oa hes Swe ete ee 103 to 106
June Hatches. 6.5 oo sac cnc ge ces gs on ton 00s cee
Keep.the Coop dry for Young Chicks . .... 7020. eae 14
Feok-out for Gapesng.ic6 oes ete ‘Se as ww tea 20
Beene eS Ps ce a ees oy age pee 53, 55, 56
Leg Weakness oo... 05. c ees acne seas sas ope en 99
My first Mistakes Three Diseases that must be Prevented... 3
Naphiaey 5 i ei ae eee 22+. 28, 30, 31, 54, 100
Moidkie Cone or Oued ope veee oor 40 to 42
Mechanies can’ be Successful... . ooo 0.c ed ee 52, 53
Number of Egos for Brooding Mens, ..... 2.25058 oe 8
Nesta eine cists ccs Vaeiee’s s Uae cies oes eo a ee ei 40 ‘to 60
Object of Keeping Nests and Eggs damp... 3. 7220, oo. eee 9
Provision for Cool Weather .: . 4.0.4.4... 3. eee 17
Perehesso ie Ve ee oe i Se aes Se 23, 24, 25
Plow your Ras. o.oo el ee ee ee ve a os 2 25, 26
Pure’ Breeds—To Keep then Pure... ..:..0. eee we G2 10 Rt
Painig i sk ws en Wel S on se ee 2g ee 57
Poultry Houses, . 230055. i ka. oe 36, 59 to 62
Ee Eee ets, eee oases sep eaee oe cae nck 90
Restless’ Helis 2.00.06 05 Cie oo Sos isc 9, 11
Ratso oo Seah oll ieee eee 14
Beds Lice. 2). sees oe Mae ec es oe ae oe es 5 22
Road. Dust. 2 oo ecc oc lh. oe el eee a7
Roup—Rheumatism:. 2) 20062 6) oie. 3 eee 92, 94, 96
Sitting Hens—The Best for ‘‘ Mothers” .....,....ceeesecs 5
=pring Pullets—Saving Winter Feed....... 02... seeeue 34 to 40
sllphar, Use Of 2 ci. ss sce tust sce essere ce ogee 9
selecting ‘a Good Cock... 02 es cas be oe ole te ee 58, 59
pelecting a Good ‘Hen... i220 5... va 2s os oe meee ee =. 97
ANY Lis eo sae cba sd clears dade bald 6e s eater “100
To restore to Life when almost Drowned .... 2.2... -cpe--- 16
Fo Conipel Tens ‘to lay Pegs... 2.02... o a ee eee 33, 34
Turkeys ‘all about them: /. 24 2. 2ii2..3 56, 52 65 to 71
Transportation of Eggs—Vitality of Eggs to hatch........ 4
Untruitful Begs... os ois. oo oo see os oe 57
Vignance. ocho k cee loin ees ase Sel > er 21
WPM oe ee elke aise a ne nd ie wae ake wes | ee ete 102
What age to begin feeding ee Chicks... 32 soepe eee II
Wrhat to'feed Young Chicks. yo... o.oo ee 12, Ft, 22
Watering Young Chicks, . 2... 0... 2.0). sn = 6 ei 12
Watering Poultry. : 2.5.3.2 02. 0c6000 sets 2 6 eee 22
Weis Brae o5 is eee Vos posed oes a wae nb ee 17
Why Farmers’do not Suecceed.;: 0... 2.23265 - econ ee 2i
Wintering Poultrs: 3. 0.020. 000 vee ee oo sae 36, 37

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THE HOG é POUL TRY CHOLERA RECIPE

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