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The

Poultry Manual

A Guide to Successful Poultry Keeping

In All Its Branches, Fancy

And Practical

BY FRANKLANB L. SBWELI.

IDA E.

TII.SON

And

Others

Illustrations By Mr. Sewell

TENTH

EDITION

REVISED

PRICE,

25 CENTS

^EBB PUBLISHING COMPANY

ST. PAUL,

MINNESOTA

1

9 0 8

Copyright, 1898 and 1908.

WEBB PUBLISHING COMPANY,

St. Paul, Minn.

PART ONE

The first part of the Poultry
Manual is devoted to the standard
breeds of poultry, including turkeys,
ducks and geese. It deals with the
origin and development of the dif-
ferent breeds and varieties, their
characteristics and matters pertain-
ing to breeding and rearing, and is
intended to supplement the Ameri-
can Standard of Perfection, not to
supplant it. The subject matter
and illustrations are principally by
Franklane L. Sewell, the world's
premier poultry artist and noted
authority on the standard breeds.

36546

PLYMOUTH ROCKS

Origin, Development and Characteristics of America's Most

Popular Production in Standard Fowls — The

Principal Varieties of the Breed.

This breed originated as the Barred Rock in New England
and the best authorities give the honor of its production to a
Mr. Spalding of Connecticut and claim that it was produced
from a cross of a Dominique colored male and Black Cochin
hens. Good authorities also claim that the Black Java was
used in its production and there are many reasons to believe
that that is true. They were first shown at Worcester, Mass.,
in 1869, by Mr. D. A. Upham, of Connecticut, and were then
called Improved Plymouth Rocks. The name Barred was not
given them until later.

The early Plymouth Rocks were by no means free from
feathers on their shanks or from white in their ear lobes, ac-
cording to the testimony of the veteran I. K. Felch. At that
time, which was before the advent of the Wyandottes, the
Plymouth Rocks had the field clear as the general purpose breed.
The conformation of the breed is such as would naturally be se-
lected for a fowl intended to produce plenty of poultry meat
and lay abundantly of eggs. This fact, together with their clean
shanks and robust constitutions, gained them the title of the
"farmers' fowl" and also the wide popularity that they attained
in a comparatively short time. The comparatively heavy, though
close-lying plumage and comparatively small combs, adapt them
particularly to cold climates.

The plumage of the Barred Rock, as it came' to be called,
is extremely difficult to breed and to produce exhibition color
in both male and female it is necessary to resort to two matings.
To produce the cockerel for the show room^ an exhibition colored
male is penned with females which are too dark for exhibition
purposes but which have been produced from a mating of the
same kind. Exactly the reverse of this is the method of pro-
ducing exhibition females. The winners of the present at the
larger shows are remarkably well barred from the tips of the
feathers to the hide, and the best of them show that desirable
ringy effect on the outside which adds to their attractiveness.
Although many breeders have paid more attention to color than

POULTRY MANUAL.

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Barred Rock Feathers No. lA.

to shape, yet the lines
described by the Amer-
ican Standard of Per-
fection should first re-
ceive attention from
breeders, inasmuch as
it is shape that makes
the breed while color
simply stamps the vari-
ety.

Color in Barred Rocks

The subject of color
and barring in Barred
Plymouth Rocks has
given rise to much
controversy between fanciers of this popular variety, and
in the mind of many a breeder of Barred Rocks there
is a very indefinite idea as to the right thing in the
color and barring of this popular bird. The Standard be-
ing our only law upon the subject, we must attempt to get from
it the right ideas upon this subject of color and barring, and
while it is not explicit enough in some respects, yet one may
arrive at a good understanding of its intent from a close study
of the wording of that part relating to this subject. The Stand-
ard says, blue that stops short of a positive black; that is, the
color lacks that metallic shade of black, or the luster of the
Black Langshans for instance. A dark blue is very much like
a black in appearance, but has a soft shade and not the strong
color of the positive or lustrous black. In order to illustrate,
as near as possible, the color and barring of the male and fe-
male of the Barred Rock, we have selected feathers that were

the best we could find
and while not by any
means perfect will give
a very fair idea of the
intention of the Stand-
ard.

No. 1 A gives a very
fair idea of the charac-
ter of the barring of
the neck of the male
and female. The Stand-
ard calls for narrow,
parallel bars, the bar-
ring to be close in all
sections. No. I A shows
the bars to be narrow
and quite uniform in

Barred Rock Feathers No. IB.

PLYMOUTH ROCKS.

character, with the
barring close and run-
ning the entire length
of the feather, while
those of No, 1 B show
an irregular character,
with the barring more
open and not showing
the entire length of
the feather. No. 2 A
shows the barring along
the back and cushion
of the female, repre-
senting the straight,

Barred

Rock Feathers
No. 3A.

narrow barring, run-
ning the entire length
of the feather, uniform
and even in character.
No. 3 shows the barring
of back and saddle of
male bird, A showing
the close, narrow bar-
ring the entire length
of feather, the under
color being especially
good, while B gives an
idea of more open, ir-
regular barring with
the under color in one

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Barred Rock Feathers
No. 2A.

feather, showing no
signs of a bar. One
feather shows very-
good surface color, but
fails in under color.
The idea of the Stand-
ard is that the feather
must be barred its en-
tire length, with the
under color not quite

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Barred Rock Feathers No. 3B.

POULTRY MANUAL.

Barred Rock Feathers No. 4A.

as strong in color as
the surface. It is not
such a difficult matter
to get our females
with some kind of
color in the under color,
but in the male birds
a much more difficult
task, and such color as
is shown in No. 3 A
will be appreciated by-
all old breeders of Bar-
red Rocks. No. i rep-
resents the color and
barring of breast of
both male and female, and in this section they are similar in
character, in contrast to that of neck and back, which are differ-
ent. The female, however, usually runs somewhat stronger in
under color than the male bird.

No. 4 B shows types of color and barring often found in
many males and females, with the open barring and lack of
color and barring in the lower part of the feather, and also that
irregularity of bar which so detracts from the "line barring"
or "ringlet" effect of breast color. No. 5 A represents color of
fluff and thigh of male bird, the small feathers being from the
thigh. These sections are hard to get with barring running the
entire length of feather as decided in character as that of the
feathers of No. 5 A. No. 5 B represents the type more com-
monly met with, barring often fairly good in surface color but
decidedly lacking in barring of under part; and in plumage of
thigh the color and barring are often weak and uneven, and as
the thigh forms a part of the leg the plumage of this section
must be good in color and barring to pass without a cut, when

scored by a competent
judge. Yet many fan-
ciers think if the shank
is yellow in color and
free from roughness,
that a bird should pass
without a cut in color
of leg, not thinking that
the thigh is a part of
the leg and that its
plumage must be con-
sidered in measuring
the quality of any bird.
The quality of plum-
Barred Rock Feathers No. 4B. age shown in No. 5 A

PLYMOUTH ROCKS.

is not often found in
the average class of
Barred Rock male birds,
and in No. 3 A the qual-
ity is better than is usu-
ally found; yet neither
is perfect, and one can
imagine what the per-
fection of the Standard
really means. In every
section each feather
must be better than
those of our illustra-
tions in order to be per-
fect, as the Standard
calls for perfection in
every respect in the
bird that would reach
the 100 mark. We

Barred Rock Feathers No. 5A.

are not able to give an illustra-
tion of the barring of wing and tail, but it must conform to the
general character of the barring of other sections, the barring
of the larger feathers to conform to their size. The primaries
and secondaries of wing when spread out in fan shape should
show the bars of each feather in connecting and parallel lines
across the entire sweep of wing; and in tail the barring should
be as distinct and clear as in any other section, the tail coverts
to be equally as well barred as any other part of the plumage.

We now touch upon an important point and that is the
straight bar, because to be most effective, the bar should be

straight across the

feather and even in
width, so that the sur-
face of the plumage
may have that continu-
ous bar or ringlet ef-
fect which is one of
the attractive features
of our best specimens.
Another point, and that
is, that the tip of each
feather should be the
dark blue — that is, the
feather should have a
dark bar at the end,
not wide but narrow
and clear cut. This does
away with much of that
Barred Rock Feathers No. 5B. indistinct, mealy ap-

10 POULTRY MANUAL.

pearance in plumage that below the upper third of the feathers
is very often well and distinctly barred. It is this upper part that
is on the surface and the part that appeals to the eye, and either
makes or mars the beauty of the specimen. If the surface of
the plumage is well barred throughout, the bird will please the
eye of the lover of Barred Rock color, but the Standard says
we must not stop at the surface; that such good work along
the lines of the beautiful must be continued, and that the en-
tire feather must possess the same character of barring and
color as the surface, although in a somewhat modified form in
that part below the upper half. With the entire plumage barred
with narrow parallel bars of the proper color we have the per-
fect plumage, such as that intended by the Standard.

The question is sometimes asked, how close shall the bar-
ring be? And we would answer, as close as is consistent with
the work of obtaining the continuous lines of barring about the
surface of the plumage. The barring must not be too close,
for such an effect to be obtained. The ideal bird in its surface
color would give the effect of one large, beautifully barred
feather covering the whole bird and harmonizing completely in
the lines of each section. With such a bird in the mind's eye,
one would spend some time in search for a bird that would touch
the 96 mark, and the lover of the high score would have to
open negotiations with Dame Nature upon a very liberal scale
in order to induce her to render her assistance in the produc-
tion of the specimens deserving a mark around the high 90s.

Some fanciers go to extremes in the matter of color in Bar-
red Rocks, one faction looking almost entirely to the matter
of under color and seemingly ignoring that of the surface, while
another faction looks only to the color of the surface and pays
but little attention to the under color. Of the two factions we
would prefer to be among those favoring the surface color
rather than among those giving too much attention to the under
color, as the surface is what lies before the eye, while the under
color is hidden from sight. The beauty of the bird depends
largely upon its surface color, as is the case with the speci-
mens of any variety, but the highest quality of plumage must
be good upon both the surface and the under part. In fact,
the plumage of a Barred Rock, considering it as one feather,
must be barred its entire length, with straight, narrow, parallel
bars of blue-black or dark blue, to be in effect a black with
that soft shade, that is in strong contrast with that metallic or
lustrous black which the Standard cautions one to stop short of
in the development of the color of the bar. The barring is to
be as close as is consistent with the production of the line bar-
ring about the surface of the bird and giving it its greatest beau-
ty of plumage.

The color and character of the Barred Rock plumage must

PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 11

be uniform in all sections and are indeed diflEicult to produce
in the best form and have proved stumbling blocks in the
progress of many a fancier, giving the Barred Rock the reputa-
tion of being one of our most difficult varieties to produce with
a high quality of plumage. To many people that which is hard-
est to obtain is highest prized, and may to some extent, ac-
count for the popularity of the Barred Rock as an exhibition
bird. Its real popularity, however, is due to its strong combina-

Typical White Plymouth Rocks, Male and Female.

tion of practical and fancy qualities, making it a strong favorite
with both the practical poultryman and the enthusiastic fancier,
and is fully deserving of their most enthusiastic support.

White Plymouth Rocks.

The best of the White Plymouth Rocks were developed from
pure white sports thrown out by pullet matings of Barred Rocks.
When they first came before the public and began to be popu-
lar, various crosses of Plymouth Rocks and white birds, includ-
ing Single Comb White Leghorns, were made by breeders who
were in haste to make money by supplying the demand for
White Rocks which at that time was in excess of the supply.
These crosses, however, did not by any means keep pace with
the strains developed from sports and soon went out of existence.

Daniel Christian, of Rhoanoke, Ind., told me while at the
Indianapolis show, years ago, that his stock had given him quite
a number of these sports, equal in all respects except color to

12

POULTRY MANUAL.

tore^^Jwoi,yc«

A Buff Plymouth Rock Cockerel that Won First Honors at a

Leading- American Show. His Tail Plumage Was Not

Fully Developed, Otherwise He was Shown in

Excellent Condition.

PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 13

his best specimens of tlie original race. Mr. Frost, of Maine,
was among the first to bring before the fancy this white variety
as a distinct race, to advertise and make it popular.

Some of the best records that have been l^ept of laying are
to the credit of the White Plymouth Rocks. In the "National
Stockman and Farmer" egg contest, the surprising egg yield of
an average of 289 eggs each, was credited to a pen of eight fowls
of thJb variety. The value for the eggs was $5.00 to each hen
during the year, or $40.16 for the eight birds; a good return, was
it not? The third pen in the contest were also White Plymouth
Rocks, averaging 280 eggs each, the eggs valued at $4.00 per
hen. This shows what good fowls under good care can do.

In shape of every section and in color of comb, ear lobes,
wattles and shanks. White Rocks are the exact counterpart of
the Barred variety. The general characteristics of the breed,
too, are much like those of its progenitors. Its plumage should
be pure white, without brass on the surface or oily yellow color
in the under feathering.

Buff Plymouth Rocks.

Buff Rocks like White Rocks originated in the east, the
first specimens of that variety coming from northern New York,
according to most authorities. Mr. Wilson, of that state, ex-
hibited a number of them in the early nineties and soon after
they began to be recognized as a distinct variety and to be
classified as such at shows.

In type and characteristics, except as to color, they should
be an exact copy of the other varieties of the Plymouth Rock
breed while their color should be a clear, even buff of medium
shade. The earlier specimens of the variety showed consider-
able foreign color, either black or white or both, in their
plumage, more especially in neck, wings and tail. Careful breed-
ing, however, has produced now and then an absolutely buff
bird of satisfactory shade. In breeding, the majority of fan-
ciers believe that black is preferable to white in that it adds
strength to the leproduction of color.

Newer Varieties of Rocks.

Silver Pencilled Plymouth Rocks are of comparatively re-
cent production and are birds of Plymouth Rock type in shape,
head poinf^, etc., but have coloring of the Dark Brahma. Par-
tridge Plymouth Rocks h^ve been bhown for some years at the
more important shows and follow the original Plymouth Rock
in shape, size and other points except color which is like that
of the Partridge Cochin. Recently Columbian Plymouth Rocks
have taken the field and seem destined to become fairly popular.
Thoy also have the Plymouth Rock shape and color except that
of plumage which in its perfection is similar to that of the Light
Brahma.

THE WYANDOTTE FAMILY

This Breed Shares with Plymouth Rocks the Honor of the

Most Popular American Variety — Its Several Varieties

Their Origin, Development and Characteristics.

"The best Wyandottes" (Silver Laced, then the only varie-
ty,) was the object that sent me on a long hunt through the
East in the autumn of 1885. I had seen them in a breeder's yard
and once at Chicago when Mr. McKeen showed them at the
Chicago exhibition, held in the North Side Museum. But this
time I was bound to search out the best the East had. Houd-
lette, of Massachusetts, Millington and Bourne, of Vermont, Hull,
of New York, and many others were in the route pursued.

In Columbia county, N. Y., we struck a hot bed of Wyan-
dotte fanciers. At Chatham a carriage was hired and I drove
to the home of Jones Wilcox (one among the many good fanciers
who have passed from among us). Shrewd, enthusiastic Jones,
he knew every Wyandotte in the country, and had a, lot of good
ones. Mr. Wilcox was not loathe to show me what others had.
Hull, Gillette, Delevan, Joles, and ethers whose names I do
not now recall, were sought out. Now and then, down a lane
to a quiet cottage in a nook where only the neighbors ever
knew, there were Wyandottes, the coming fowl, in the poultry
yard or about the orchard.

Prices had commenced to go up, and anything in any way
resembling the Wyandotte found buyers. Everything was claim-
ed for the Wyandotte, and hundreds of young fanciers bought
and attempted to breed them, who understood nothing of train-
ing such a pattern of feather. It was to the detriment of the
reputation of the race that it got into so many inexperienced
hands, and it has taken until only recently to find its level again,
which it justly deserves.

Most all of the females in those days that had open centers
were strongly frosted on the outer edge of the breast, and many
on back and wings as well, and backs filled with the dreaded
mossiness were common. So was brassiness in the males, and
males that did not tan to brassiness easily were rare. These
faults are to-day troublesome, but seldom seen in the best show
rooms to any great degree. Combs were all styles that a rose
comb can get into — broad, narrow, high and low behind, flat,

WYANDOTTES.

15

concave or rocker topped, and some fell heavily over the eyes.
A really bad comb in a Wyandotte to-day is seldom shown. '

After they were admitted to the Standard, sales increased,
and they were bred to fit the Standard, and some construed the
meaning of small, white centers in back of female, to mean the
white shafted black back often seen and easy to produce, cover-
ing the moss and crowding out the frosted edge with an over

A Silver Wyandotte Female With Centers of the Medium Type.

amount of black. Pullets that with some judges obtained high,
scores, were produced with little culling, and the true open cen-
ter and laced effect was lost in many yards. Those who pre-
served the true idea, the laced plumage, are reaping their re-
ward today.

Silver Wyandottes.

The origin of the Silver Laced Wyandotte was always a mys-

16 POULTRY MANUAL.

tery. Mr. Newton Adams told me he knew of them in the early
seventies in northern New York. Early writings and pictures
show that the Wyandotte sprung out of an attempt to produce
the Sebright Cochin; but we fancy that the original idea of this
type was given up on account of the difficulties that beset every
fancier attempting to produce single lacing on a fluffy plum-
aged bird. The mossy peppering of color seems persistent on
the parti-colored birds of Asiatic type.

Our own experience with the Wyandotte confirmed our faith
in their economic qualities. As exhibition fowls, we found that
they must be bred along particular lines very closely or their
pattern of coloring could not be depended upon. Indiscriminate-
ly breeding one strain with another threw all styles of lacing
and, not rarely, spangles (moon shaped) on the breast, and very
dark and very light, both from the same mating, although the
parent stock might be ever so well matched and almost perfect
individuals in color. Our best productions for the show pens
were always from stock closely related and following particular
lines for several seasons.

Golden Wyandottes

The early history of the Golden Wyandotte can be told best
by their originator, Mr. Joseph McKeen^ of Wisconsin. There
are other strains besides this one that appeared after this was
brought out. One which showed^ indications of the Partridge
Cochin being used in its make up — through its many coarse fea-
tures.

Mr. McKeen said: "The Golden American Seb rights were
one-half of the Silver blood at the first, and my Golden Wyan-
dottes are more than one-half of that blood now, and are de-
scendants from the old Sebright Cochins on the female side."

"The Winnebagoes, the top cross that gave the American
Sebright the golden color, were a black-red fowl of real practical
merit, and were very handsome, especially the males with their
golden and green-black plumage that glistened in the sunlight.
The hens wore a plainer dress with irregular markings. They
were bred more at the village of Waukan than in any other local-
ity. They were considered by their owners the business hen.
Some of the males had black breasts, others were of a deep
cinnamon-buff throughout, except the wings and tail which were
black."

There was a fineness and clearness about the McKeen
Goldens that told of a very careful and thoughtful makeup. We
have seen clearer color in Goldens than even in the Silvers. This
after the much longer period of "making up" which the Silvers
had, would lead one to believe that the Goldens possess a com-
bination of coloring nearer to nature. The continual selection
among Silvers for pure silvery white and black often tempts to
keeping weaker or poorer specimens in other qualities, while

WYANDOTTES.

■ipsr'

17

i__.

A Pair of Remarkably Well-Colored Golden Wyandottes.

vigor and strength in Goldens is found more often among tlie
best colored birds. I tliink Mr. McKeen never claimed to use
any other blood in the Golden Wyandotte's makeup than the
Silver Wyandotte and the Winnebagoes.

The Wyandotte plumage has been variously described and
idealized in many ways here in America, some demanding the
open Sebright lacing, others being satisfied with very narrow cen-

18 POULTRY MANUAL.

ters of the light color, and some exhibited with backs of the
female showing scarce more than the shaft of the feather col-
ored with silver or golden as the variety might be. Our English
friends, on the contrary, have always demanded the true open
lacing as is tound on fine specimens of the Sebright Bantam
and on Laced Polish fowls. One English illustrator we saw
showed even the tail proper so laced, and while this would be
beautiful and desirable when it will have been secured, yet we do
not know of it ever having been attained by any breeder. Such
an accomplishment would make a fancier famous the world over,
and bring calls from many an appreciative fancier for others like
it, but we think this point is yet a long way off; no telling, how-
ever, in these times of ever-occuring surprises l3y our ambitious
experimenters.

A Wyandotte with plumage of small feathers never can show
its lacing to such striking effect as one on which the feathers are
large and where the lacings stand out like large circles of color,
"loop after loop" upon the clear white of the silver or the rich
bay color of the Golden.

A few points as to the type of the Wyandottes, may help
the novice to select his birds to the style desired. In no way
should the Wyandotte appear narrow, but plump and full in every
section. It is distinctly a select table fowl and should be gen-
erously filled out.

Tha illustration will best describe the comb, low and com-
pact, nearly as broad as thd skull in the male, not drooping at
the sides, but extending up and widening from a firm base, each
side alike, and the corrugations flat on top, no depression in the
center. The spike at the back should follow the rocker shape
of the top, turning slightly downward, but not falling against
the head. The head of the Wyandotte is short, broad and
arched, the throat rather thick. The beak short and well curv-
ed; the neck of the Wyandotte is fuller than in the Plymouth
Rock, especially as it joins the head; the arch of the neck is
quite pronounced; the back is broad and the cushion a little
too full to be fiat, slightly curved. The breast should be full and
round as possible, deep and well meated, carried pretty well
forward when the bird stands proudly. The shoulders broad and
wings carried close, well tucked up, not drooping or bantam
fashion. The tail, as low as forty-five degrees, well spread, as
seen from the side, and opening out when viewed from the rear.
The Wyandotte tail is of moderate size, but much more spread
than in the Plymouth Rock, which is wanted close and compact.
The Wyandotte has a considerable amount of under fiuff which
serves it well in cold seasons, but the surface of the fluff should
be smooth, and but fairly rounded, in no way excessive or
Cochiny

The legs are stout and muscular, set on wide apart, of mod-
erate length, rather of the short order for so large a fowl; toes

WYANDOTTES.

19

perfectly straight and flat on the ground. In selecting for color have
the plumage rich and brilliant whether the shade be light or
dark, and the black lacing should possess a gloss. Avoid all
mossiness and keep the old hens that continue to keep their
plumage right. If a bird is right at two or three years old she
can be depended upon for clearly laced young stock, but Wyan-

Feathers From Male and Female Laced Wyandottes.

dotte pullets are often not so reliable as they promise in their
first year's plumage.

Breeding Laced Wyandottes.

Breeding the laced Wyandottes has been a puzzle to so many
that we cannot refrain from giving the experience of those who
have succeeded in producing and retaining the clear, open laced
plumage:

First, let me say that open laced females cannot be produced
from males with necks and saddles having "a clear black stripe
through the center of each feather," as described by our Ameri-
can Standard. Such a plumage is not the mate of open laced
females, and will not produce plumage with a true laced effect.

20

POULTRY MANUAL.

In our sketches 1, 2 and 3, you have saddle and hackle of the
male and the hackle of the female with open laced back, saddle

^^^ '^\^ V^) 'I

An Illustration Showing a Typical Wyandotte Head and Back,

WYANDOTTES.

21

and wings. In the hackle of the
male the quill must be white,
and the saddle next to the tail
must show a clearly defined
white stripe with no uneven
edges or gray intermixed. Males
marked in this way, when cor-
rectly marked in other sections,
can be depended on to bring the
coveted open lacing.

In figure 4 we have depicted
the hackle, saddle and wing bar
of the male we have just de-
scribed. Figure 5 presents the
type of head and neck as we
have seen it on the best speci-
mens of the breed. If we com-
pared it to any other breed we
would say nearest to the Brah-
ma of any of the old races,
though "finer" and not so broad
in skull, nor thick about the throat.

White Wyandotte Hen.

White Wyandottes.

The White Wyandotte is by a wide margin the most popu-
lar of the Wyandotte varieties among the fanciers and has proven
a great favorite as a market fowl, especially in New England
markets, where yellow skinned fowls take the lead. In the best

yards the type differs very little
from that of the laced varieties,
therefore they require no extend-
ed description. They are quite
as hardy as the others, in fact
should be hardier, as they re-
quire less inbreeding to retain
their show points. For the nov-
ice they should be preferred
among all the Wyandottes.

The Buff Wyandottes.

With the fancy for buff fowls,
was born the "craze" for Buff
Wyandottes. The shortest cut
to this variety was through
the Buff Cochin, and the best
strains of them to-day must show
a large per cent of Cochin blood.
White Wyandotte Cock. However, it is no discredit to

22

POULTRY MANUAL.

the Buff Wyandotte, and if we were selecting we would look for
those possessing the greatest amount of Cochin blood. Doing
away with the excessive feathering is easier than is the securing
of true buff color without it.

The Black Wyandotte some years ago made its appeal for

Prominent Buff Wyandotte Winners of the Northwest.

favor and we saw exhibited many very good specimens. But
for some reason they seem to be preferred by only a few fanciers.

Partridge and Silver Penciled Varieties.

These two varieties originated in New York State, the birth-
place of a number of other American new varieties, and first

WYANDOTTES.

23

began to be shown at the poultry exhibits of 1903 to 1905. The
Partridge variety has plumage the same as the Partridge Cochin
and the Silver Penciled variety the same as that of the dark
Brahma. In other respects both are similar to other varieties
of Wyandottes, the Standard requiring the same shape, the

A First Prize Winning Columbian Wyandotte Alale,

same form of comb, head, ear lobes, wattles, etc. Therefore they
have the same practical qualities as the older varieties if they
are as well bred and as well handled.

Columbian Wyandottes.

One of the most attractive and upe of the most popular varie-

24 POULTRY MANUAL.

ties of this breed (Wyandottes) is the Columbian. Birds of this
variety have the same requirements regarding shape of all parts
and color of all sections except plumage as the White Wyan-
dottes. Its feathering is required to be the same in color as
that of the Light Brahma except that, of course, the Wyandotte
has no shank and foot plumage^ This combination of color is
very attractive on a clean legged bird and it is not surprising,
therefore, that the Columbians are decidedly popular.

BLACK AND MOTTLED JAVAS

Two Good General Purpose Varieties with a Type Peculiar
to their Own Kind.

Where the first Javas originated seems never to have been
satisfactorily explained; we used to hear stories of a certain
western doctor's coachman who sold, or gave away, some eggs
of these fowls in which the good doctor prided himself very
much, and kept very exclusive. Their produce or offspring
managed to find their way to the Lattin Brothers of New York,
who were their strongest promoters for some time, and who per-
haps did as much to improve them as any one interested in them.

Of the Javas less seems written than perhaps any other race
of fowl of so long a standing in our country. They have been
known to the poultry industry as a thoroughly good, practical
fowl. In fact, the Javas very closely approach the type of birds
most selected by American poultrymen as likely to combine the
best utilitarian qualities. In 1873, H. S. Ramsdell, of Connecti-
cut, told of the Javas being used in the make-up of the Plymouth
Rock. The Java hens which were used belonged to a Mr
George Clark, of Woodstock, and the males were Dominiques on
the farm of Joseph Spaulding, who lived about a mile from Mr.
Ramsdell. The Javas were the larger and stronger of the two
races, with much the stronger bodies. The Plymouth Rock of
to-day owes much of its quality to the Black Javas as they were
in the 60's and we doubt if they are in any way an improvement
over the Java for a money-making breed aside from the differ-
ence of a more popular color.

The weight of the Javas as shown to-day about equals the
modern Plymouth Rocks. The ten-pound cock and eight-pound
hen scarce present an equal appearance in size to the Rocks, as
the Javas are closer and smoother plumaged. The body of the
Java is longer and the plumage of the tail being much longer

JAVAS.

25

A Pair of Typical Black Javas.

only helps to add to the apparent length. The outlines of the
Java are more angular than in others of the American classes,
the back long and flat, the breast deep and rather prominent at
the point of the breast bone. The underlines of the body run
more angular than in fowls possessing more fluff about the thighs.

26 POULTRY MANUAL.

The legs are cordy and strong, of moderate length, and the
toes neat. The head is not carried quite so proudly back nor
the neck so much arched as in some races, but rather high up
in a manner to emphasize the square conformation of the bird's
ma'^ie-up^ The back slopes from the shoulders to the tail
where it forms an abrupt angle with a moderately narrow but
well furnished tail, much larger than that desired in the Plym-
outh Rock, but not so large nor expanded as that found on the
well-bred Langshan.

In the largest Eastern shows we are occasionally favored by
a look at the attractively attired mottled Java. The type of
these birds is identical with the black. The plumage at first
glance much resembles the well broken color of the Hondan,
though the black and white is more splashed in effect, and more
evenly divided than in most Houdans seen of late years in our
shows. These mottled birds about ten or twelve years ago bid
fair to become quite popular, but for some reason their owners
did not continue their promotion, through advertising and in the
many ways necessary to popularize them, until to-day they are
really very scarce indeed.

RHODE ISLAND REDS

The Latest American Production to Gain Popularity as a
Breed — Their Characteristics, Etc.

Years ago the poultrymen of Rhode Island who gained rev-
enue from the selling of eggs and dressed poultry, made various
crosses, using principally Asiatic, Mediterranean and Game
blood, and from these crosses a bird of various shades of red
and even with more or less black and white in plumage was
evolved. These fowls had both single and rose combs but
proved to be very productive of eggs, rapid growers of flesh and
generally hardy and able to take care of themselves on the
Rhode Island farms.

In the 90s they began to be shown in eastern shows as
Rhode Island Reds and about 1900 the Rhode Island Red boom
started. At that time they did not breed very true to either
shape, color or comb, but in the few years following they made
marked improvement in the hands of intelligent breeders and
now they breed very true to color, type and comb, though the
single comb variety seems to have made the most improvement,
especially in regard to shape. Both varieties, however, have the
same standard requirements and are not unlike the Plymouth
Rocks in conformation though they are considerably different
in the shape of back and shape and carriage of tail. Their rich

RHODE ISLAND REDS.

27

Rhode Island Red Male and Female.

red color makes them an attractive bird and several years of
selection for color, etc., do not seem to have detracted much
from their value as market fowls and egg producers. In size they
are smaller than the Plymouth Rocks, though occasional speci-
mens reach and even exceed the Plymouth Rock average.

THE BRAHMAS

These are the Heaviest of Domesticated Fowls and Among the
Handsomest of the Standard Breeds — ^Their Origin,
Development and Characteristics.

It was in the '40's and '50's that the large fowls known then
as "Gray Shanghais" and "Gray Chittagongs" began to be brought
into our country from Chinese ports, and by the early enthusiasts
were blended into what were termed "Brahmapootras" early in
the '50's.

These Asiatics have proven a valuable acquisition to Ameri-
can and English poultry yards. They have developed through
skillful handling into one of the strongest types seen in our show
rooms, and one of the best for producers of flesh and eggs. They
have also entered into the composition of the best varieties
America has produced: the Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks.
The English and French poultry growers also esteem them high-
ly for the make-up of their best crosses for table poultry. The
famous French "Favorelle" owes its size to this large Asiatic.
At the best shows of dressed poultry in England, we have seen
many carcasses exhibited that were claimed to be Dorking-
Brahma, Indian Game-Brahma, etc , etc.

On the farm the often too generous feeding, especially of
fattening grains, has given the Brahma, as well as most large
fowls, a reputation of "loafers" and poor egg producers. These
Asiatics should be fed only a sufficient quantity to keep them in
good health and spirits. When possible have them scratch and
find all they require. They are more productive when compelled
to hunt and work for their food. The Brahmas have been se-
lected to a type and plumage resembling more the Chittagongs
than the early Shanghais. The preference has been for the
Brahmas with a smooth plumage in contrast to the loose, fluffy
feathering of the Shanghais or Cochins.

The Brahmas which were sent by Mr. Burnam to the Queen
of England in 1852 and illustrated by Mr. Harrison Weir, posr
sessed single combs about as large as are now-a-*days seen on the
Plymouth Rocks. These early Brahmas were about as heavily
feathered as many of the cross-bred Brahmas and Cochins show-
ed at the present day. Their throats showed less dewlap than
is seen on the heavier show specimens of the present. Their
middle toes are illustrated as being quite bare, and the shanks

BRAHMAS.

29

feathered about as much as now desired on the Langshan
Their wings were about the same size as now. They also show
well proportioned bodies, a good foundation for the Brahma of

Winning Specimens of Light Brahmas.

to-day, excepting the pea comb, which was urged as the correct
comb for an exhibition Brahma, about 1866.

The complete lacing of the tail coverts, as well as of the

30

POULTRY MANUAL.

neck hackle, has been strongly sought after, of late years; we
noted several birds particularly good in this fine color point.
Line breeding results in precision of color and when, by studi-
ous selection, it is so exquisitely placed as on the neck and tail

Dark Brahmas That Show Excellent Color but Not Typical

Shape.

of the modern exhibition Light Brahma, the effect is that of ele-
gance and finish.

The Dark Brahmas.

At the time that the ancestors of the present Light Brahma
were brought into this country, fowls with like characteristics
came with them. Some were very dark in color, almost black
and red, and others lighter. From these lighter ones was bred
the Dark Brahma of today.

In size the dark variety is about one pound lighter than the
light variety, but the shape and style, type of comb and head,

COCHINS. • 31

etc., are practically identical. The color of plumage is decidedly
beautiful, the male having the breast and body of a deep black
and neck and hackle of silver white w^ith black stripe extending
down the middle of each feather. Its back is of silvery white
and its saddle of the same color with a stripe of black down the
middle of each feather, same as in the hackle^ The main tail
is glossy, greenish black.

The female has a hackle of the same color as the male with
a body covering of gray with distinct dark pencillings in lines
which conform to the shape of the feathers. This variety fur-
nishes the coloring for Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks and
Silver Penciled Wyandottes, For some reason they are not as
popular and not as widely bred or extensively shown as the
light variety of the same breed.

THE COCHINS

An Asiatic Race that has Found Much Favor in America and
Been Much Improved by American Fanciers.

Among the early importations of Cochins, then called Shang-
hais, were fowls of many colors. Various hues of red and gray,
also black and white were illustrated and written of. Fanciers
of differing tastes made their own selections and before many
years had passed after the introduction into this country of this
ponderous race, they were separated into four very distinct colors
or classes, Buff, Partridge, White and Black.

Buff Cochins.

Of the four varieties the Buff is easily the most popular.
The low compactly built bodies of the Cochin and thick, loose
feathering often to the ground, make a remarkably fine setting
for buff color.

When the variety first began to be popular the shade of
color varied all the way from a light lemon to a dark cinnamon,
but of late years breeders have agreed upon the medium shade
of soft buff and this very fact is responsible in a large measure
for the popularity of the variety in the show room of the pres-
ent day. The accompanying illustrations give a better idea of
the good Cochin shape, the kind that wins in competition, than
can any description of words.

Partridge Cochins.

In America the Partridge Cochins are next to their Buff
cousins in public favor, and among students of color the Part-

32

POULTRY MANUAL.

ridge penciling fascinates and holds many. It is indeed marvel-
ous with what accuracy the plumage of some hens of the race
are marked over the entire body. As a fancier once remarked
to us when showing a very precise feather from a famous bird,
"and I can pluck one in the dark, from any place on her, almost
as perfect." This is one of the great ambitions of Partridge
Cochin fanciers, to get the plumage of their females, witli the
penciling over the entire bird, even through the fluff and on the
leg and toe feathering. The Standard has been rather incon-
sistent when demanding that the neck hackle of the hen must
have solid black stripes down their centers. TMs not being in
keeping with clearly traced penciling, but coming with hens
which have the undesirable pepperings throughout the plumage —
solid striping in hackle belongs with plumage such as we see
on the Brown.

There have heen great differences in shades of ground-color
showing the Partridge Cochin from light brick-red to very dark
mahogany brown, and some so dark that one was compelled to
stand very close to the bird's cage to distinguish the penciling
at all. Such very dark specimens fail to be as attractive as
when the ground color forms a strong contrast with the black
lines of penciling. The number of lines in the pattern and the
width and strength of them has much to do with the beauty oi
the bird We once heard an old fancier say, "I like the pen-
ciling strong and the contrast of color so startling that I can

A Sketch of Some Winning Buff Cochins at One of America's
Largest Shows.

COCHINS.

A Pair of Standard-Bred Partridge Cochins.

see the pattern of the markings clear across the yard." The
feather "from an English hen" is a good example of this at-
tractive style. The feathers were large and the pattern over
the entire bird very bold. The black was glossy and the ground
color as light as ochre, yet rich in hue. The bird made quite a
sensation on her appearance at the Madison Square Garden
Show, and v,'as much sought after by several old breeders of the
variety.

The same form is selected for in the Partridges, as in the
Buffs, though few fanciers up to the present time have dared
to expect such fullness of feather as the Buffs now carry would
allow of precise penciling. The long, fluffy plumage is, however,
being gained in many specimens with no apparent giving up of
exactness of markings. It is length of feather rather than loose-
ness of plumage which is sought for in the Partridge Cochin, and
so long as the surface is not too inuch broken, the markings will
show clearly.

Few succeed in getting good males and females both from
the same mating, as solid striping of hackles and saddles and
solid black breasts, thighs, fluffs and wing-bars do not ofteu
come on males that are from the best penciled blood. The com-

34 POULTRY MANUAL.

plications of the double mating are often resorted to with this
variety — breeding one set of birds only for males and an entirely
different lot for females. This in reality is producing two varie-
ties, which is much to be regretted, but with the present Stand-
ard requirements, perfection can hardly be reached in both
sexes without it

In the male's we look for the same contrast of color as in
females, intense glossy black and orange red ground color for
hackle, wing, shoulder, back and saddle hackles. The orange
red contrasts more than do darker shades of red — however, the
orange shade must be rich and brilliant, not the tawny faded
yellow too often seen.

Plumag-e of a Female Partridge Cochin. From the Left, the

First Feather is From an English Winner, the Second

From a New York Winner and the Third a Feather

Having- That Undesirable Mossy Appearance.

The eyes of all Cochins should be red. The combs should
be quite small. To gain size of body and length of feather
without running up large, loosely set-on combs, has been quite
a problem to many handlers. As the feeds which bring size and
length of feather are apt to enlarge the combs — we have noticed
that the best rearers of Cochins do not allow meat to their
birds, when making ready for showing, and when we say, "mak-
ing ready," we do not mean merely the few days previous to
their going into the exhibition, but from the time they start the
plumage they are to be shown in. Milk, with good feeding other-
wise, makes long and lustrous plumage, but will also enlarge
the comb on account of the oily and fatty substances in it. So
the question arises, how can we get one without the other?
Plenty of acid in the form of fruit — apples are excellent — will
help keep the fattening food from spoiling the neatness of the
combs by making them too coarse.

The Black and White Varieties.

Black Cochins have not proved very popular. Nevertheless
they are a very handsome fowl. Every feather should be a

LANGSHANS. ' S5

deep, lustrous black with a bottle green sheen showing on the
surface.

White Cochins would seem to be very acceptable to fanciers
because the pure white plumage displayed on a bird of its con-
formation makes a truly remarkable specimen and one which
ought to attract much attention. In spite of this, however, com-
paratively few White Cochins are bred and showed. All Cochim*
are of the same shape and same characteristics, the only differv
ence being in their color.

BLACK AND WHITE LANGSHANS

The Most Graceful of the Asiatic Breeds and Good General
Purpose Fowls.

The Langshan is suspected of having sprung from the same
foundation that produced the Black Cochins. They first appear-
ed in England in the early '70s and from England came to Amer-
ica. Few breeds have been hampered in their advance by so
much controversy regarding the correct type. Some of the Eng-
lish fanciers bred them to a shape which was so leggy and ex-
treme generally that their Langshans almost resembled games.
Interest, however, finally centered in a more practical type like
that represented by the accompanying illustration of Paragon
7th. This conformation made the Langshan a very attractive
bird and they proved good layers and very good table fowls.

In some American markets the lack of yellow color in the
skin and shanks of the dressed specimen worked against its
popularity. The Black Langshans are required to have pure
black color throughout which is glossy and brilliant, with a
greenish cast on the surface. Their beaks, shanks and toes
are dark and the bottom of their feet a pinkish white.

The illustration of Paragon 7th, before alluded to, shows
remarkable development of the bird at six months of age. He
was a bird combining in a marked degree the fancy qualifica-
tions for a stunning show bird and a body of great substance
as a market fowl — depth of body and plumpness of breast were
at once seen. This with a delicate skin, fine bone, and early
maturity, proved his value as market stock.

At the age of six months his promise for a high grade show
bird was marked in every section: Symmetrical, imposing in
carriage, well filled in body, round in breast, broad in back, with
a sweep onto the tail, remarkable for his age; neck and limbs
of a proper length; a tail growing into a splendid shape, and
which, with a little more age would be carried at quite the prop-

36

POULTRY MANUAL.

er angle. A little fuller growth in hackle and saddle would give
the back a shorter appearance and deeper concave of back; the
legs and feet feathered to suit the Standard. The plumage laid
smoothly over all sections, and was rich in greenish luster. In

i^^

Black Langshan Male, Paragon 7th, Referred to by Mr. Sewell.

LANGSHANS. • 37

full plumage we found the bird had reached our every expecta-
tion.

The continual inbreeding of very short-backed Langshans,
we have found, tends to lessen the size, so a longer backed fe-
male, if she is a real extra large one, will prove of value.
However, we would never expect to get fine stylish show birds
from long, flat-backed males They tend toward a production of
the Java type, which has a very "tame" outline to the eye of
Langshan exhibitors.

Spare the knife and spoil the stock. Close selection must
be resorted to if improvement is looked for among show or mar-
ket stock. Your breeding stock should not grow up in crowded
pens, and the quicker the roosters are got rid of, the better
chance will the fine birds have. We have seen many fine Lang-
shans "purple tinged" and "gray tipped" from only depleted con-
stitutions, when with freer range and better care their plumage
might have shown a healthier greenish luster and black flights.
The purple barring in the plumage is hereditary and so is a
weak constitution. The healthier the stock the less we see of
it in Langshans. The practice of mating Langshans with
scantily feathered outer toes to one of feet covered over the mid-
dle toes as well, cannot be too strongly discouraged; it can never
be controlled that way. Plenty of outer toe feathering with
clean middle toes can be secured and controlled if you see to
it that the hens have heavy outer toe feathering. The female
side seems to have the greater control over this point. We have
noticed that middle toe feathering generally goes with coarse
boned and fleshed fowls, features which Langshan breeders es-
pecially guard against.

White Langshans are the exact counterpart of the Black ex-
cept that their plumage is pure white throughout and their
beaks a little lighter in color, though not white or yellow

2fl

i^ rC o

THE LEGHORN FOWL

The Fowls of this Breed are Called the Egg Machines Among
Poultry — The Various Varieties and their Characteristics.

It is claimed that Leghorns originated in the countries
bordering on the Mediterranean, most writers fixing Italy as
the most probable place. They were introduced into this coun-
try shortly after 1850, the importations including what are now
Single Comb White Leghorns and Single Comb Brown Leghorns.
It is claimed, too, that Rose Comb Brown Leghorns were brought
over about the same time.

At that time ftiey were far from the well-bred Leghorn of
the present. In fact, it may be said that the real Leghorn has
been developed since that time.

The Leghorns develop rapidly and on unlimited ranges
forage for a large share of their food. The precocity of the
Leghorn pullet is surprising and while it is a good sign in any
strain of laying stock, we would not encourage it by stimulating
food, but would feed grains and other food, such as will develop
the younger stock in size and strength, reserving the most forcing
diet until their full growth is attained and eggs are at high
prices. Then it is that the little Leghorn hens show their true
worth and ability to respond to liberal feeding by full nests of
eggs. They can probably convert a given amount of food into
a greater yield of eggs than any other race of fowls^ That is
their reputation in America, and I believe it is justly earned.

The rapid growth of the Leghorn has led many rearers of
broilers for the early markets to use a large per cent of Leghorn
blood in the crosses producing the parent stock for their early
hatches. Leghorn and Brahma crosses are by some preferred.
White Leghorn and White Wyandotte crosses mated to Leghorn
and Brahma are also capital for early market chicks. The Leg-
horn gives precocity, the Wyandotte plumpness in the breast, and
the Brahma adds size and feeding quality. Sturdiness and vigor
of appetite are essential to rapid growth. It hurries them to the
size and condition where they will be fit for killing.

The Leghorns have long been considered among the highest
classes that are seen at our best shows, and in form the whites
often lead the breed. Of late, however, we have seen that the
fanciers of Brown Leghorns are developing a fineness of form

40

POULTRY MANUAL.

and character of style in their favorites, which the White Leg-
horn breeders will find likely competitors for the cups offered
for "best style Leghorn
of any color."

It does not take quite
such inbreeding in the
Whites as in the
Browns to secure and
retain the fancied color,
so it is not surprising
that the Whites have
been the largest of
American Leghorns.

The importation of Leg-
horns from England has
of late brought rivals to
our American birds in
point of size and plump
breasts.

The Buf£ Leghorns, -^
from the yard of Mrs. ^^m

Lister Kay, and the ^Tt!/^ xX-P^^^''-^

Browns from Mr. Hurst,

have proven to our peo- i 'la , / iyA-^^^^^^rtV*

pie an immediate possi- Head of an American-Bred Leghorn,
bility of considerable

.improvement in the Leg-
horn's size and value as
well for table fowls.
The English Leghorns,
/^ while they have been long
- ' bred to fancy points, have
not been carried to that
extreme "fineness" which
is apt too often to be
found lacking in vigor
and fullness of body.
There is, however, to be
found in a few fanciers'
yards in America, an ele-
gance in the Leghorn
type that is truly beauti-
ful.

It may be interesting to
compare Leghorn types as
they have been produced
in America and in Eng-
Head of an English-Bred Leghorn, land. There is char-

Leghorns.

41

acter and style in each, peculiarly Leghorn, yet differing con-
siderably to the trained fancier's eye. There is more "smart-
ness of carriage" in the American type; there is more substance
portrayed in the sketch of the English, type. The English judge
allows of a larger comb and coarser make-up in the Leghorn,
than does the American ex-
pert. The neck of the. Eng-
lish bird carries a fuller
neck-hackle and higher arch,
which is, in the original
opinion of many, an original
Leghorn characteristic ; so
is the large comb as it is
in all Mediterranean races.
The fanciers of our coun-
try have produced in the
Leghorn a comb peculiar to
the American Leghorn — a
comb of clear-cut outline
and fine, firm texture, sur-
mounted with precisely
formed serrations. This

comb is thin but straight on the head, from front to back; all
its lines are graceful and it extends back and away from the
head and neck, showing its clean cut profile, as well as does
the spike terminating the comb of the English Hamburg.

The neck of the American type has been bred more slender,
and to taper finely as it reaches up the head, which has been se-
lected smaller than in the Leghorns even now-a-days in English
yards. In truth the entire build of our country's Leghorn has
been selected to a type far more slender than have been the
Leghorns across the water, and in many cases it is noticeably
overdone so much that the body is pinched or cramped of form
and lacking in that substance of body which the utility bird
must have.

Rose Comb White Leghorn Hen.

The White Leghorn.

The White Leghorn is one of the most active and best lay-
ing fowls among all the races of domestic poultry. Its require-
ments as laid out by the Standard call for a bird of beautifully
graceful lines. The well proportioned single comb standing
erect on the male and gracefully lopping on the female, with the
pure white ear lobes and red face and wattles, make a head at
once attractive and indicative of vigor.

The attention they have received from the fancier and the
changes they have undergone to improve their qualities as ex-
hibition fowls, does not seem to have detracted from their value

42

POULTRY MANUAL.

Single Comb White Leghorn
Male,

as egg producers. They are to-
day used on more egg farms, and
in greater numbers, than any
other variety of fowls. They
lay large, white eggs of good
quality and no breed will make
over a larger proportion of the
food consumed into this market-
able product.

Brown Leghorns.

We do not find many fanciers

of the Brown Leghorn of today

writing that their favorite strain

of birds, when they first kept

them, would "hatch all colors,

brown, black, dominique and

white," yet this is just what W.

E. Bonney, one of the earliest

keepers of the variety, claimed.

This was written in 1874, and

Mr. Bonney had bred them since

L860 — others who remembered them since 1855 and 1856 spoke

of their red ear lobes, and wrote that some of the cocks had

grey necks and that their legs were white, dark and yellow.

The American Brown Leghorn
males are far in advance of those
of other countries in point of
precision and richness of color.
In the best specimens we see at
our leading exhibitions the black
striping of the neck and saddle
hackle accurately defined, and
in some cases the red edging is
of a fiery brilliancy that is ex-
ceedingly attractive, as with
every turn of the bird the in-
tensity and strength of color
shows in the greenish black
striping which extends down-
ward to a point through the cen-
ter of the feather. The breast
is no longer "splashed with
brown" but of spotless glossy
black as also is the tail, the comb White Leghorn Male,

thighs and fluff and the bars

which cross the red shouldered and bay tipped wings;
the cordy legs are of waxen yellow, and above all this

LEGHORNS.

43

Single Comb Brown Leghorn Male and Female,

splendid body is carried a finely chiseled head, with flashing red
eyes and ear lobes in texture and color like the newest white
kid. Drooping from the throat at the juncture of the beak are
the pendent wattles, and surmounting all, the crowning attrac-
tion of the race, the coral-like comb with its long, finely tapered
serrations. These genteel birds are the leaders for harems
where beauty and industry go equally coupled, for the hard-
working little Leghorn hen, though not so gayly dressed as her
proud mate, has an elegance of attire quite her own.

The under color of Brown Leghorns has been carefully
watched for some years past, the dark, slaty black being pre-
served and the "cottony" white or light gray being rejected, as
this is followed by so much white in tail and fiight feathers as
to be regarded as a severe fault. The comb of Leghorns is se-
lected with great care to avoid any wrinkles or twists in front,
and it is quite important that the female's comb is thick and
firm at the base, else that of the male hatched from her eggs
will be apt to fall or be too loose, not perfectly straight and
erect in its serrations It is not, however, as some have prac-
ticed, necessary to keep straight combed hens to preserve the
straight combs in the cock; the main importance is to see to it
that the base is firm of texture and even on the head. Then

44 POULTRY MANUAL.

males can be expected with perfectly erect combs. The de-
sired number of points or serrations on the male's comb has
been a cause of much disputing, but as long as the comb is true
and symmetrical, even though it may have seven points, we
would not throw it aside if found on an otherwise exceptionally
fine specimen. An extra serration evenly and symmetrically
set on, is far preferable to even a very small side sprig or a
wrinkle or "thumb mark." A perfectly chalk-white ear lobe is
easy to find on a bird of weak vigor and constitution, but on a
strong, hearty male with richly colored skin and plumage it i&
a rare quality for the show pen.

Large wide sickles that droop and are nicely curved, are
also a great addition to attractiveness; greenish gloss in the
breast, tail and wing bars is seldom appreciated; it is rare and
a sign of good health as well.

The Buff Leghorn.

The Buff variety of the Leghorn family was brought out in
England, Mrs. Lister Kay being one of the most prominent breed-
ers of that variety. Among the first to bring them to this coun-
try was Aug. D. Arnold of Pennsylvania, who imported a large
number of them at what were then considered fabulous prices.
They are in every respect so far as Standard requirements go,
identical with the other varieties of Leghorns and the three
varieties, White, Brown and Buff^ are also produced with the
Rose Comb.

Black Leghorns are very handsome birds but difficult to
breed according to Standard requirements on account of the
demand of the Standard that the shanks and feet be yellow or
yellowish black. Such color in these sections is extremely hard
to get and at the same time secure a good black plumage.

Preparing Leghorns for Exhibition.

In fitting Leghorns for exhibition, it must be remembered
that they are of nervous disposition and frighten easily. They
must be ar'customed to their pens, which should be as near as
possible like those in which they will be shown. At first place
a cloth over the top until, on being approached, the bird will not
fly to the top of its cage. At the front a cloth should be
placed to the height of 22 inches for a male, or about 20 inches
for a female (coop all separately and exhibit them so). TTiis
cloth will give them only a chance to see out when standing
well up. Feed them from the hand as often as time will allow,
with such tidbits as they are very fond of, and make them
"stretch up" for it. We are not fond of seeing a "stilty" limbed
Leghorn, though one that carries a well proportioned body of
the true type, at a vigorous pose, as if on the alert, we do fancy
extremely

BLACK AND WHITE MINORCAS

The Largest of the Mediterranean Varieties — Their Origin
and General QuaHfications and Characteristics.

To trace the history of the Minorcas in England, where our
American fanciers first obtained them, would indeed be a long
and difficult study. They are a very old race in England, which
came from the Mediterranean side of Spain, and are the original
parent stock of the well known White Paced Black Spanish.

The ]Minorcas were long known in parts of England a-s Red
Faced Black Spanish, and as egg producers, have long held first
place.

A good many years ago when asking an Englishman who
was traveling in our country among the cattle breeders of
Illinois, what race of fowls he considered the best layers in his
country, he told me this breed of ]\Iinorcas was considered the
best in his part of England. This was the first time I had heard
of the Minorcas. A few years afterwards two pairs of them
were shown a i. the Fat Stock Show in Chicago. I think this was
in 1886. R. W. Sargent, the Captain of the Ohio of the Inman
Line, and others, had been bringing them over and placing
them in the yards of Eastern breeders who were delighted with
the large white eggs which they laid for them, and with their
early maturity and size. They were larger than other races of
the Mediterraneans which we had in this country, excepting the
White Faced Black Spanish which were about equal in weight.
Great stories were told and written of the size and quantity of
eggs which these handsome black birds produced, and the boom
commenced for Minorcas until they were pretty well spread
throughout American yards. Now the Mmorca has settled into
the hands of only fanciers who really want them for what they
are worth, and are being improved and giving splendid satis-
faction as egg producers.

The American breeders of IMinorcas are doing their best to
select to a type that is truly practical in every sense, a style that
carries at once utility with beauty, a fashion that farmer and
fancier can both safely adopt with every reason to expect the
results will prove profitable in the highest degree. While the
Minorca is to a certain extent more sober in carriage than the
sprightly Leghorn, he still maintains an alertness and vigor that
is rossessed by all the Mediterranean types. Their early ma-

46 POULTRY MANUAL.

turity is remarkable. For the first six to eight weeks they grow
with a rapidity that puts to shame the breeds which in as many
months outweigh them by some pounds.

There are few breeds popular in the show rooms, of England
or America, that have not undergone tampering with by hasty
experimenters who have in their hurry to please certain judges
crossed the pure race with other breeds to change or modify its
type. The Minorca has not been an exception to this, but has
suffered in its turn by those who have wished to lengthen its
legs or tighten the feather or make smaller the comb by using
stock crossed with the Leghorn and Game. This may result in
a few specimens pleasing to a few, but is sure to give the mon-
grelized stock an uncertainty of breeding which proves puzzling
and diifcouraging to many amateurs into whose hands it may fall.
The true Minorca requires no crossing of foreign breeds to keep
it valuable. The true, pure Minorca is the best Minorca, and
should be selected by fanciers as well as egg farmers for its
intrinsic value and elegance of form and carriage.

True Minorca Shape.

The true type is a long, squarely made body, rather angular-
ly put together about the legs and tail, although more rounded
about the front of the body and neck. Most fanciers desire the
comb as large as can be kept firm and regular in the male. In
the female the size of comb is in proportion to her sex, turning
over without wrinkles about the front and the number of serra-
tions equal to those of the male. The comb should extend on
the front of che beak enough to apparently balance well and
look in harmony with the elongated rear, but not to that extent
which night be illshapen or be in the way when the bird eats
from thd ground. The ear lobes should be large, smooth and
free from fold«, and pure white, not yellowish or in any part
tinged with red. The wattles are too often wrinkled at the
joining of the beak; wattles which fall smoothly give a rare
touch of elegance to a bird for showing. The carriage of the
head and neck has much to do with the appearance of the wat-
tles. It must of necessity be well up or the wattles hang in
folds upon the breast in poor character. If any claim to market
quality is to be sustained by the Minorca, the depth and full-
ness of breast must be maintained and improved. In fact the
birds are stronger and better in vigor with good substantially
formed breasts.

The Minorca is a long, flat-backed bird with the back com-
ing at an angle against the tail, and underneath at the rear ap-
pearing long and square, not so tightly tucked up as some
breeds appear which are fairly good layers. The tail of the
Minorca is set on well back, and carried only moderately up;
some prefer about forty-five degrees. It should not be so large
for the bird, nor so much spread as in the Leghorn.

MINORCAS.

i1

i .t ,/

^B

ji^^^^ f ;»«i^ss*S2aiiMESaii«ffiiBi

»ri

Ik 1

' m

inr^'^'iilnMll

1'

'—

^^HHBHp^ '^^

! ^ ^ - - ^

^^^^^t£ -.

1 __ -«"

/ " ^- ^ -

[

Standard-Bred Single Comb Black Minorcas.

The legs should appear to be set on at about the middle of
the bird, and should stand wide and squarely with toes well
spread apart. The legs and toes should be leaden black in young
birds, and bluish black in adult birds, and should be sinewy and
strong, and the hocks rather bare, not much covered with the
plumage of the thighs. The skin is pinkish white, no tinge of
yellow showing in any part of the body.

White Minorcas are essentially the same as the Blacks ex-
cept in color, though the Standard calls for one pound less
weight throughout. Both varieties of Minorcas are produced
with rose combs.

WHITE FACED BLACK SPANISH

A Breed Having Many Remarkable Characteristics and that
Was at one Time Very Popular.

The Spanish is distinctively a Mediterranean race of fowl.
The English fanciers believe that they were brought into their
country during the middle ages by the Spaniards, although this
type of fowl, in form like Black Minorcas, Andalusians, Anconas,
and others closely resembling them — have been found all along
the southern coast of Spain, France and Italy, and even in some
of the northern countries of Africa. These and the well known
Leghorn families, there can scarcely be a doubt, all sprang from
a common origin. Long before the poultry shows, as we know
them, had become a feature, the Spanish were very popular
fowls in and about London and were exhibited by societies for
their promotion.

There are very few birds which can compare favorably with
the White Faced Black Spanish in style of carriage or aristo-
cratic appearance. Their elegance is of that rare kind, only se-
cured by the most select fowls, artfully bred and reared. It is
true that the highest type of White Faced Black Spanish are apt to
lose in points of vigor and productiveness from the fact that
their fancy qualifications are of a nature requiring constant re-
course to a system of in-and-in breeding. The instant any un-
related strain (even though it be quite equal to the stock to
which it is brought) be used in breeding these extreme and art-
ful attainments are to an extent lost and the breeder is com-
pelled, if he would keep up the fancy development to return to
very close matings again.

The illustration is of the extremely bred, large faced type,
the male possessing the largest face we found at the English
shows. He was the second prize cockerel at the Crystal Palace.

Birds with faces so large as this bird has, as they develop
and grow old, often require a deal of care and attention to pre-
vent the white crowding the eyes. At times they are cut to
lessen the overhanging, fleshy formation; in other cases tied up
by threads over the head at the back of the comb. The white
of the face is injured in its purity by the wind and sun. The
face needs often to be washed, sponged and powdered (with
oxide of zinc) ; in fact the toilet of one of these long pedigreed
aristocrats is something only the most ardent of amateurs would

SPANISH.

49

L

White Faced Black Spanish of the Extreme Large Face Type.

attempt to undertake after he has once seen all that it requires,
even to the plucking of the many small hair-like feathers which
persist in growing from his wonderful white kid-like face. But
there are not a few fanciers who possess the patience to train
and prepare even such a fastidious specimen as the white-faced
Black Spanish.

The style of the show Spanish is far more lofty and gamey
of carriage than that of the Minorca, which we are accustomed
to see at the present day. They are tighter feathered and more
muscular appearing. The combs are hardly so large, although
the difference in this, if any, is slight. The plumage of the
Spanish is a brilliant black, very metallic on the upper parts,
though not so green as in the Black Hamburgs or Langshans.
The beak is dark horn color, and the legs bluish black, fading

^6 POULTRY MANUAL.

to light bluish slate as the birds grow old. The skin bluish pink
to white. The Spanish fowl are not considered a desirable fowl
for the table; only for their beauty and the production of their
large white eggs are they so much esteemed, but this is enough
to those who have seen them and the eggs they so generously
supply.

Blue Andalusians and Anconas.

In the same class with Leghorns, Minorcas and Spanish be-
long Blue Andalusians and Anconas. The Andalusian derives
its name from Andalusia, a province in the southern part of
Spain. It is a graceful bird, somewhat on the Leghorn order
of build but is larger than a Leghorn, though smaller than the
Minorca. Its color of head points is the same as that of the
Minorca but its plumage is a slaty blue and bluish black through-
out, with shanks of the same shade. Except the Minorcas and
Spanish, it is the only IMediterranean breed supplied with a
weight clause in the Standard.

Anconas are required to have the same shape as Leghorns
and are about the same size, as a rule, as that breed though
occasionally larger ones are found. Its plumage should be a
greenish black with each feather tipped with white, the effect
being one of even mottling all over the specimen.

THE DORKING FOWL

One of the Oldest of the Present Races of Domestic Fowls
and Prized by the English for Its Remark-
able Table Qualities.

It is not the history which the Dorkiugs possess that to-day
makes them of value to American and English fanciers. Yet
it will be interesting to know in what estimation they were held
by old writers.

Mr. Harrison Weir, England, said: "Take our old English
farm fowl the Romans brought into England nearly 2,000 years
ago; judging from the bones found, they are the same kind of
birds today as then. For centuries and centuries they have been
most carefully selected, and bred to a type. Take drawings as
far back as you can get them, and there stands the king of
fowls, bright, strong, full of life and grace, fearless and bold —
as he stands today — a bird of birds, a fowl without a peer. Look
around at all the new mongrels that people call advance and
see if there is one that can compare with his faultless form, his
high lineage and pride of going."

That the Dorkings were brought to England during the in-
vasion by the Romans, ail writers seem to perfectly agree, and
that next to the Game fowl the Dorking is probably the oldest
of the pure-bred varieties.

The varying styles and changing fancies for feather breeding
have injured the purity of the Whites less than the Colored and
Silver Gray varieties, which are shown in many types not to
the credit of the true old race of Gray Dorkings. The only strife
in points of color to obtain in the Whites is a "chalk white"
plumage, free from the objectionable yellowish tinge, and the
white legs, which are desired, showing as little color of any
kind as possible. With the exception of White Game blood in-
troduced into some families of Whites, we learn of no con-
tamination of their purity since the Romans first brought them
to British soil. This cross occasionally crops out in a single
comb, the absence of the fifth claw, or the yellowish tinge in
the skin or feet. All these faults should be carefully avoided,
and birds showing them culled out — by those who pride them-
selves in the pure old race.

The Silver Gray Variety.
The Silver Grays have been the most popular in this coun-

52

POULTRY MANUAL.

try. It is the truest of tlie dark varieties, and receives its name
from the finely mixed steel-gray coloring of the female. We have
selected to illustrate this variety a portrait sketched at the
Counties Royal Agricultural Society's Show at Redhill, Eng., in
1892. The hen won first and special. She was a deep, full-

hodied hen, of good sub-
stance, large and heavily
meated where meat on a
fowl counts.

The ideal plumage of
the Silver Gray Dorking
female is a very difficult
one to obtain to such a
nicety as is produced in
the best show specimens.
It is that evenly broken
color, giving a steel gray
effect, known as "pepper
and salt." In the earlier
Gray Dorkings the plum-
age had more the appear-
ance of rich, finely mixed
silver brown; their necks
were silver white, and
breasts pale salmon; but
for many years the selec-
tions by those admiring
the lighter gray, have been
towards the very light.
The cock's plumage of the Silver Gray possesses a purity
and beauty of contrast belonging only to a race very nearly
agreeing with natural selection and of long years' breeding. Al-
though the silvery whiteness of the hackle and back gives way
to a yellowish tinge if left to itself, it takes nice selection to
keep that character to such a degree as the present fancy re-
quires. The standards of to-day demand that all the section of
surface white — the neck, back, wing bows and coverts shall be
of the purest silvery white; the remainder the soundest of glossy
black, excepting the narrow edge of the flight feathers (which
are white) ; sound, glossy, greenish black breast, tail and wing
bar, with the wing bow and coverts pure white; over these droop
the silvery saddle and cape-like hackle. Then to this add thighs
and fluff unspotted and you have a dress fitting to the faultless
form of the old fowl of the aristocracy of England. Such a
plumage is rare yet showy in the extreme, when obtained. Very
few combine the two extremes in color. The common condi-
tions are, either the hackle is tinged with straw color if the
breast is lustrous or the breast is lacking in brilliancy where
the hackle is seen pure. Shade will protect many and preserve

Silver

Gray Dorking-
Back Feather.

Female

DORKINGS.

53

Silver Gray Dorking- Female, Bred and Exhibited in England.

tlieir whiteness, but it is the male whose plumage proves proof
against the sun's influence that you most value, and whose stock
can always be most depended upon to keep the desirable color for
the exhibitions.

The rose comb of the White Dorking has a character of its
own — it is neither the finely cut comb of the Hamburg, the close
fitting rocker topped comb of the American Wyandotte, nor the
unwieldy overgrown rose comb of the Red Cap, but a substantia] -
looking, well-set- on, medium-sized comb, not quite straighf over
the top from stem to stern, well above the eyes, calculated to
give a bird a noble appearance. The wattles are well propor-
tioned, and so are the lobes which are red, iust tinged with

54

POULTRY MANUAL.

white. This feature is looked upon as a point indicative of
true blood. The solid red ear lobe in the Dorking, coming
from outside influence, is not at all to be desired; many we know
have ignorantly judged against this white tinge in the ear lobe,
as they would if found in the American class, but the oldest and
best authorities value it as pointing to rich blood of the true

Rose Comb of the White Dorking Compared With the Rose
Comb of the Leghorn and the Rose Comb of the Red Cap.

old race. The whitish lobe of the Dorking tells of its early ma-
turity, good laying qualities and tender, fine-grained flesh.

Colored Dorkings.

The Dark or Colored are considerably the heaviest of the
several families of Dorking. They are the largest class of Dork-
ings ?hown at the leading English shows.

The Colored Dorkings in England are bred very dark, so
that in many specimens we saw there a beetle greenish gloss
was noticeable on the back and wings of the females. This is
very rarely seen in this country, except in lately imported speci-
mens. The coloring of the back and wings of the female Color
ed Dorking is a rich ti'own, finely intermixed with black, a light
tawny buff shaft, and shaamg to very dark at the tip and sides,

DORKINGS.

55

forming a laced aprearance on the lighter specimens. The
breasts of the hens are dull salmon, shading darker at the sides,
near the wings, as though the coloring of the wings overran into
the shades of the breast; all grows darker towards the tail, which

A Famous English Silver Gray Dorking Male.

is brownish black. Altogether it is a rich, pleasing,*substantial
color with a good, common sense look about it, and calculated to
stay.

56

POULTRY MANUAL.

The very darkest shades are said to have been brought about
by an oriental cross in about 1858. Some think the old Sussex
fowl had something to do in bringing the rich, dark brown shades
into the plumage. The oriental cross is said to have added
weight, and for a long time in England preference was given at
the shows for the coarse birds. This has, however, long since

A Faulty Dorking Foot (on the Left) and a Perfect Dork-
ing Foot.

been counted a sad mistake, and the Dorking is now bred for
the fine bone and delicate flesh of the old race. The, cross
brought another serious blemish— the dusky coloring to the feet,
which is carefully discriminated against by the best breeders and
judges. All now well know that the color of feet and legs and
fineness of bone are good indexes to the quality of skin and
delicacy of flesh, and as the greatest claims for the Dorkings'
economic value are their table qualities, these are points worthy
of consideration.

It may be well to notice the peculiar formation of the Dork-
ings' foot. They have been known for centuries as a five-toe
race. The feet should stand squarely upon the ground and
well apart; the fourth and fifth toes well separated, the fourth,
or back toe resting well upon the ground and the fifth curving
upward and away from it.

The accompanying illustration of what has been considered
one of England's best Colored Dorking cocks, of recent produc-
tion, can tell more than a lengthy description of the breed.
American fanciers may think it strange to see white in a black
tail; however, in England many fanciers consider it a feature of
additional "smartness" of color; in the flights also a couple of

DORKINGS.

57

white feathers are not a blemish, but if gray or white should be
indiscriminately placed in the wing flights, it would be counted
as a weakness of color, and faulty.

The neck and saddle hackle of the Colored Dorking cock is

The Perfect Dorking Body With Dotted Lines Showing Its
Near Approach to a Parallelogram in Shape.

Striped with considerable precision and strength, and on the
wing shoulders white and black are mixed, the white prevail-
ing. The neck tapers up gracefully to a well formed head of
moderate size. The face is quite clean of feathers; the eye clear
and bright.

The Dorking's comb, in this country, has been much modi-

58

POULTRY MANUAL.

fled by a mistaken standard. In England both comb and wat-
tles are desired of a size considered of fair size for a Leghorn
(in this country), extending back but not at all down towards
the neck, which is looked upon as a very coarse point.

The wings are strong and good sized, set on in a fashion to
add roundness to the body. To extend the apparent length of
the bird, the tail should be carried well back, not higher than
forty-five degrees, and furnished with full, wide sickles and
hangers.

The form of the body has been pictured with the diagram of
an oblong figure ever it. This expresses well the ideal Dorking
f OT m.

Well-Bred Bed Caps of English Production.

RED CAPS

A Breed of English Production Known for Years in that Coun-
try as Unrivalled Layers.

The Red Caps are a hardy race of fowls which came to Amer-
ican breeders from Derbyshire, England, where they have been
known for many years as unrivalled layers of richly flavored
eggs. The true vaiae of these fowls, as egg producers, is very
little known in this country. A few years ago we used to see
them at eastern shows and they bid fair to become well known
and appreciated, but of late they have been exhibited but little.

Fowls with the disposition of the Red Caps should have free
range to give the best results, and where this can be given them
they will undoubtedly compare favorably with the two famous
egg producing breeds, the Leghorns and Minorcas.

It may be interesting to note the fact that so many of our
best egg producing breeds of poultry are possessed of large
combs, of one form or another, and that the old prevailing theory
is that a large comb points to great egg producing powers. This
idea has not grown from mere speculation, but from observation
by those who have kept poultry for profit. But the great ma-
jority 'of American fanciers follow the prejudice in favor of
small combs and nearly every breed that has been imported, has
undergone the process of selection for combs, sometimes non-
typical of the race.

The Red Caps have been roughly described by some Ham-
burg fanciers as coarse Golden Spangled Hamburgs, and truly
in plumage they do resemble a carelessly bred Hamburg,. having
the old time, moon-shaped spangles on a dark reddish bay ground
color. The indications might lead us to believe that both the
Red Caps and the Golden Spangled Hamburgs trace to the same
ancestry. There was a time when the Hamburgs were known
as Lancashire Mooneys, a name suggesting the moon shaped
spangle of the Red Cap female. There is a wider difference in
the color of the male and female of the Red Cap than in the
Hamburg, the breast of the male of the former being often solid
black, and the tail also is unbroken in its glossy black color,
while the surface color of the Hamburg has been bred into a
large spangle at the end of the feathers in both sexes. The ear
lobes of the two races, as they are now, are entirely different,
the Red Cap with pendulous red lobes, the Hamburg with large
flat lobes of spotless white.

THE ORPINGTONS

An English Breed Comparatively New in that Country Which
Has Rapidly Become Popular in America.

The late William Cook is credited with being the originator

Single Comb White Orpington Male.

ORPINGTONS.

61

Sing-le Comb Buff Orpington Male.

of the Orpington breed, though some English authorities claim
that he did not make up the original variety, the Buff Orping-
tons, but simply took it up, brought it out and made it popular.
In any event he was very closely identified with the breed from
the beginning and made up and brought out the newer varieties,
including the Whites and Blacks and the Rose Combs of all
varieties. Orpingtons began to be bred in America shortly
after 1900.

Orpingtons are comparatively large fowls, exceeding the

62

POULTRY MANUAL.

Plymouth Rocks in Standard weight and are more compact in
build. In manner of feathering they approach somewhat the
Cochin type. Their compact build enables them to carry a
great amount of flesh and they are claimed to be good layers.
Their skin and shanks are white with sometimes a shading of
pink and this fact alone is somewhat detrimental to them in
the more extreme of American m.arkets where yellow skin is
demanded.

The principal varieties are the Single and Rose Comb Buffs,
Single and Rose Comb Whites and Single Comb Blacks, though
a variety termed Jubilee, with a plumage of brown, black and
white, intermingled, is gaining some ground.

THE POLISH RACE

The Handsomest of the Ornamental Classes of Fancy Poultry
— The Principal Varieties.

Among the most persistent layers and the most ornamental
of fowls, can be counted the Polish — a very old race — to which
the Dutch have probably paid most attention.

The White Crested Black is said to have been originated by
the Hollanders, and for a long time a strain of Black Crested
White fowls was carefully preserved by a number of Dutch fan-
ciers, but the expense and the difficulties of retaining such a

^7^/^-^.

Drawing Showing- the Method of Tying- up the Crest of a
Polish Male to Protect it When Shipping to Shows.

POLISH.

63

contrary plumage proved too discouraging to keep it up. We
have of late heard no more of effort to breed it, to this combina-
tion of color.

The White Crested Black, although lacking in the beard and
muffs of the true Polish, is unusually striking, with such a con-
trast as the white crest and jet black body presents. It has

mm.

A Typical Silver Laced Polish Male.

64

POULTRY MANUAL.

Some Excellent Polish Heads and Crests.

been a favorite in America for many years, and is likely to be
valued higher as it becomes better known and understood.

The plumage of the White Crested Black is more delicate
in texture than that of the bearded races, and the crest falls
closer to the neck, giving it shape of crest peculiarly its own.
It is fuller in the top and drops straighter at the sides than
in the race of laced or white.

The Buff Laced, White, Silver and Golden are larger, and
coarser in body and plumage, than is the White Crested Black.
The pure White Polish is a truly fine looking fowl in the show
pen, although its beauty is not seen at its best until out on the
green lawn. Then the bird shows off exquisitely.

POLISH. 65

The Buff laced, with many fanciers, divides honors in rich-
ness of plumage with the Golden — one is of soft buff with white
lacing, the other of fiery golden, laced with black; and each has
its peculiar charm that demands admiration.

The largest crests we ever saw were developed on the Silver
laced variety^ and we believe they are capable of carrying the
greatest abundance of feathers in this section. The largest crest
we know of measured fourteen inches from side tip to opposite
tip, when held out, and was as large as a derby hat, when fallen
about the bird's face.

An idea of how these birds' crests were protected for their
journey to the show, may be of interest. The illustration will
best tell the story. The crest is drawn up above the head and
tied with strong, soft thread, passing the thread through the
crest several times with a needle, so that the tie cannot slip off,
or get out of place. This will protect the crest from being
mussed and broken, and will also enable the bird to see its food
in the coop. A little care at the journey's end will put the
crest into nice shape again to go into the exhibtion pen. A hen's
crest of good shape should form a pawpaw-like covering to the
head, drooping well onto the muff and full and round on top.

Polish will be found capital layers of fair-sized white eggs.
They are non-sitters. As table fowls I would select something
else.

As the crest of the Polish is its great point of beauty, so also
is it the greatest annoyance to those who do not understand its
proper handling. The crest must be kept out of the wet. More
sickness comes to the Polish through neglect of this than from
any other cause. In fact, the only sick crested birds we ever
had were ailing from cold in the head on account of being com-
pelled to be in a draft after their heads had become wet. They
should have access to dry shelter in all weather, and in rainy
seasons they are better not out at all, except under covered
runs.

The drinking fountain for crested fowls of all kinds should
be so constructed that only the beak can be put to the water.

The Polish will most please those who love to gratify a fancy
for extreme development of the unusual oddities of the poultry
yard. Really good Polish are rare and it is only those that are
crowded full of good plumage and character that will be prized
in the best exhibitions by critics, and those in search of the ex-
traordinary. They are among the races which require the most
artful handling to develop well.

THE HAMBURG FOWLS

The Leading Representatives of the Dutch Breeds, Prized

for Their Beauty and Possessing Much

Practical Merit.

It is not a common occurrence for fanciers investing in
good Hamburgs to lose money on them. The Hamburgs are
always beautiful and interesting, and at the same time very pro-
ductive of eggs.

An English writer tells of how in that country they have
fallen into the hands of the "professionals" alone. That is be-
cause it takes such artful skill to produce birds of the breed
that are good enough to meet success at their shows — they have
been bred so fine in that land of skillful breeders.

The subject of our leading sketch — a winner at the "Dairy"
in 1892 — is of the race that first inspired exhibits of fine fowls.
The Silver Spangled Hamburgs were then called "Mooneys."
"Pheasant fowls," etc., and the fanciers of Lancashire used to
meet with their "Mooneys" to compare pullets, in some ac-
commodating inn or tavern.

The strife was to get the largest and glossiest "moons," or
spangles as we now term the spots at the end of the feathers.
There was an old strain of "Mooneys" that produced "hen tailed
cocks" (or hen feathered). These birds it is said possessed ex-
tremely large spangles and in years afterward when winning at
shows in England had become so profitable — many searches for
birds of this old hen-tailed family were made by Hamburg breed-
ers and exhibitors. It has been considered by good authorities
that this breeding from hen-tailed males had no good effects on
the race for egg production, and it has been found in other
breeds with a like characteristic, that with the continued use of
these short feathered male birds (which are often nearly or
quite sterile) their stock is almost non-productive.

But the Hamburg, in spite of all the close inbreeding it
has in many cases undergone, can do well toward maintaining
its record as a layer. The early home of the Hamburgs is credit-
ed to Holland and Belgium, but the show Hamburgs as we know
them today, most certainly owe their fine feathers at least, to
the energy of the British fanciers and the Lancashire breeders
claim the chief honors.

The Silver Spangled Hamburg has no doubt had as much

HAMBURGS.

67

study put upon its fine points of color and form by its admirers
as any race of fancy fowls in the world can boast of, and today
it is as precisely bred and trained for the show rooms as any
race extant.

Silver Spangled Hamburg Cock; An English Winner.

There was a time when a bird with plumage furnished with
spangles like Fig. 2 would have been valued in Lancashire and
even narrow crescent shaped spots were considered handsome,
but fanci'es and whims have long since changed and the style
demands a "full moon." It was several years ago when asking

68 POULTRY MANUAL.

a fancier, who had led for some time with the Spangled Ham-
burgs, what he did with those birds showing the crescent shaped
spangles, he shortly answered, "we eat them." Such fowls are
not worthy show Hamburgs, they belong to the free range of the
farm yard, where they will be valued as layers. The Ham-
burgs for the show room should be up to the present day per-
fections.

Figure three represents a tail-proper feather showing a very
common fault, the mossy peculiarity in the web where it should
be spotless white.

All the Hamburgs are best handled where they can have
free range; one writer advised no one to venture in them unless
they can be so reared. With such conditions and proper housing

Sample Feathers From the Silver Spangled Hamburg-

and feeding strong constitutions can be counted upon, wide-
awake and sprightly-carried show birds with enough vigor to
put good feeding into glossy coats and bright combs, and to do
justice to the egg baskets when the shows are out of season.

The Golden Spangled variety is essentially the same as the
Silver Spangled, except that the white of the Silvers is replaced
by the deep, reddish bay on the Goldens.

The Penciled Hamburgs.

The Penciled varieties, Golden and Silver, are claimed by
some authorities to be the original Hamburgs. They are less
robust in build than the Spangled varieties and, as a rule, not
as large.

The Golden male has a body color of reddish bay with black
in the primaries, secondaries and coverts of wings and with a
greenish black with an edging of reddish bay on sickles and
coverts of tail. Th» female has a hackle of bright reddish bay
and a body plumage of the same color with each feather crossed
with regular, parallel bars of greenish black penciling. In

HAMBURGS.

69

reality these dark bars do not look at all like penciling but
more like the bar of a Plymouth Rock. The Silver Penciled
Hamburg is like the Golden but changes the reddish bay for
white.

White and Black Hamburgs find favor with those who like
the Hamburg characteristics of shape, etc., but prefer a solid
colored fowl. In other ways except color of plumage they are
like the penciled varieties.

The form of the Hamburg
is by some confused with that
of the Leghorn, but a compari-
son of the two types will re-
veal that the Hamburg pos-
sesses more rounded lines,
shorter head, rounder skull,
more prominent eyes, a longer
appearing body, for the size
of the bird, more drooping and
broader wings, lower carried
and wider spread tail, and a
very noticeable characteristic
unusual for the cushion or sad-
dle.

This is a point looked for
oy fanciers andi preserved, as
Its form is an advantage in
displaying the spangles, show-
ing more length of the feather
tip, than does a concave sweep to the tail.

The rose comb of the Hamburg also has a style of its own,
square in front, rather flat across the corrugations of the top, in
no way drooping onto the head. Solid and firm on the head,
and finishing in the beak with a smooth, finely tapered spike,
which turns gradually and slightly upward, it is a smartly car-
ried, coral-like comb that gives a fine bit of contrast in color to
the clear black and white plumage. The wattles are not very
long, more rounded than is usually seen in Leghorns and not so
pendulous or loosely hung. The face is rounded and often is
seen on it the dark purple or black enamel giving use to the term
"gypsy faced." The ear lobe is large and should be free from
wrinkles, set on flat to the face, not standing out much or in
folds — its color equal to a new white kid glove. The legs and
feet are light bluish slate, are fine in bone and very trim and
well-formed. The expert English fanciers favor in the show
Hamburg that sprightly tip-toeing, or bantam-like walk, and en-
courage it by training.

We might say that our model for the male bird in the pres-
ent article was overcrowded with good plumage, if such a thing

Silver Spang-led Hamburg-
Female.

70 POULTRY MANUAL.

could be, yet we have seen some foolish judges who would not
recognize a bird's quality that was over wealthy in quality. Here
it is seen in the spangles being so large and the feathering so
profuse that the spangles seem "trespassing" on each other's
ground, or, as might be considered by some faulty for a show
bird, overlapping. But such a bird among American Hamburgs
would be worth his weight in gold. You could pluck from any
spot on his breast such feathers as number one. The importing
of a few such specimens would revolutionize Hamburgs in our
country and awaken the interest in the old race on which has
been spent so much artful breeding.

THE HOUDAN BREED

The Most Popular of all French Varieties and Held in High
Esteem as a Table Fowl.

The Houdan: To the Frenchman, par excellence, as a mar-
ket fowl, and the leading race of France according to American
tastes. The Houdan has changed very little with American fan-
ciers for twenty years. It is one of our earliest fancies and
not by any means the least interesting or profitable.

Recent visitors to France, representing the London Feather-
ed World, inform us: "All we can write of the Houdan at Hou-
dan is that the type of comb is uniform, it is the true leaf, or
butterfly comb we have always upheld. The two wings exactly
correspond to each other, held well apart by the little twig or
excrescence running up the center. The comb a la Francaise
must be perfectly straight on the head, fine in texture, moderate-
ly serrated and free from spiky excrescences; would that we
could have brought back one of these combs without the rough,
puny crests; the straw, nay, yellow colored feathers; the small,
tucked up bodies I It was impossible."

We trust the writer of the above did not see the best Hou-
dans of France; we have seen fair specimens of the breed in
their native country, though we must confess that they were
not equal to the best models we found in the show rooms of
England or America.

As a representative of the fancy show points desired by
the English breeders in the Houdan, we cannot offer better
than the portrait of Mrs. T. Aldworth's winner of the Lord
Mayor's cup at the Dairy Show, England, The London Stock
Keeper said of him: "The bird himself may, so far as correct-
ness of shape is concerned, be regarded as one of the finest
specimens of his variety that has yet appeared. The chief ex-

HOUDANS

71

ception, if not the only serious one, that can be raised against
him is his comparative smallness of size, but his shortcomings
in this respect are amply compensated for by his feathering,
shape, style, and excellent comb, the latter point being one of
the most perfect that we have seen in a long time." It will be
noticed that in the above special attention is given to the perfect

A Pair of Standard Houdans.

form of the bird's comb and also that this "leaf" comb is the
same original type of comb selected and so closely adhered to
by the BYench for their favorite Houdan. We do not know just
at what time the Americans caused a change in the Houdan
standard of comb, but it is to be regretted that many have been
led to believe that the comb of the Houdan could be bettered by

72 POULTRY MANUAL.

selecting it, like that found on the Polish, viz.: the very small
V comb. We look for the day when the Houdan fanciers of
America will recognize the mistake, and that judges will encour-
age the true "leaf" comb of the true Houdan again.

The Houdan, like the Dorking, must have well-shaped toes,
a fifth claw that ends downwards is a poor thing for the bird's
comfort, continually being bruised and causing the bird to suf-
fer.

The French claim for their Houdans that they will dress one-
fifth heavier in proportion to their size than any other kind of
fowl. This only can be realized by those possessing deep keeled,
long, plump breasted Houdans with a comparatively small
amount of offal. Their flesh must be very fine grained, the skin
smooth and white.

Houdan Method of Fattening.

We quote from the Feathered World to give an idea of the
Houdan method of fattening these birds: "Plenty of heat, plenty
of food, and perfect dryness, seemed the three objects in view.
A simple, strongly built wooden house, which served also as a
storeroom and food mixing house. This also was straw lined
round the interior. On the floor two movable baskets a yard in
diameter, and about eighteen inches high, contained six to eight
cockerels and pullets respectively, from ten to sixteen weeks old,
undergoing the fattening process. We were told that three
weeks of such confinement with proper food added two pounds
weight, and on our own authority we must add "of fat." Chick-
ens extracted from either basket, certainly handled heavier than
one would expect at such an age. Taken from such close quar-
ters one was not surprised to find the feathers round the breast
and thighs in a soiled condition, though the baskets were clean-
ed every two or three days. The skin beneath was fine and
smooth, and the flesh a bluey white, and perfectly free from
insects. The food consisted of finely ground barley meal, re-
duced with skimmed milk to a fluid state, and passed into the
crop of the fowl through a tin funnel inserted into the gullet
jwo or three times a day; the operation of feeding was perform-
ed more for our edification than for the unhappy chicken, and
j3o quickly withal that the kodak could not snap it. To secure
the desired fiesh whiteness, death must be effected by bleeding.
In this district a deep cut is made in the front of the neck just
below the junction of the mandibles, severing gullet and wind-
pipe and some of the arteries and veins. All the blood was
wiped away from the wound before the fowl was carefully and
slowly plucked. The primaries and tail feathers were left un-
touched. Then the fowl was subjected to several hearty smacks
from a piece of wood shaped like a cricket bat, but very much
thinner and lighter, administered on the back between the

HOUDANS.

73

shoulders, on the breast and finally on the rear. This smacking
process demands the skill of an adroit pedagogue; no bones are
broken, yet the body of the fowl is shaped and plumped up, and
the joints and muscles loosened to enable them to be twisted
into most unnatural positions for the purpose of market."

This artful shaping of a fowl to suit any market is widely
practiced by the French fatters and poulterers. If their market

Mrs. Aldworth's Winning Houdan at the Dairy Shuw, England.

requires a deep, narrow breasted bird, the fowl is laid on its
side with a heavy weighted board on it while cooling, but should
the handlers' local market wish wide breasted fowls, he has only
to give it the proper hammering to loosen the flesh and joints
and placing the birds on their backs in rows, rest the weighted
board on their breasts while they are cooling, and when cold

New York Winning Indians Described by Mr. Sewell.

INDIANS. 75

and set they will be pressed into, and keep, the required shape.
And we do not know that it makes any difference on the table
of the consumer whether the shape of the bird's breast is made
before or after killing, so long as the same quantity and quality
is there. The special housing and care of the Houdan to keep
them in the best condition is the same as with other crested
breeds. Perfect shelter from wet weather is the greatest re-
quirement in point of housing. In cold, wet seasons the Hou-
dans are very apt to suffer if their crests are allowed to become
wet, and bad colds are easier prevented than cured. The Hou-
dans are fair layers of large, white eggs, and almost never set.
It is as table poultry that they excel, either pure or crossed, and
where consumei'S look for genuine quality of flesh they will be
appreciated.

INDIAN FOWLS

A Breed of Oriental Extraction Much Used for Crossing to
Improve the Market Qualities of Heavier Breeds.

It is the table qualities of the Indian that has given it such
popularity in England, where it is much crossed with the Dork-
ing and Langshan by the market poultry producers, to give
breadth and roundness to the breasts of their birds that are to
find the highest paying buyers at the London markets. The
carcasses possessing white skins and the fifth claw bringing,
perhaps, the top prices in England by those of epicurean tastes,
but the larger number of buyers go in for a carcass possessing
a combination of quality and quantity of flesh on the best parts
of the fowl, and it is just here wherein the Indian is of greatest
value, for on thigh and breast they possess a wealth of flesh
such as will rarely be found on the bodies of other breeds. It is
not uncommon to see in the farm yards of the south counties of
England a Dorking like crowd of hens presided over by a staunch
looking male of the Indian order. In our own good country,
progressive farmers are placing thoroughbreds at the head of
their flocks that scratch up and down their dung heaps, and not
a few will make their choice of males from fanciers of the heavy-
typed Indian.

We cannot offer better types of the exhibition Indian Game
of America or England than our sketches of Mr. Sharp's four
first premium winners at New York in 1894. Each bird stand-
ing, after the award went up, at the head of a very strong class.

The old cock shows a breast and thigh grandly developed;
his head is fine, his neck, limbs and tail are so perfectly set on

INDIANS. 77

and all is carried so proudly on a strong pair of feet and shanks.

Both hen and pullet show fine forms, the hen especially
broad and plump, and the pullet grand of shoulder and legs.
They are such birds as ane seldom meets for real quality of type,
and for feather each wore a complete dress of richly colored
double laced feathers.

The cockerel was one of those smart finished looking fellows,
which always attract both fancier and judge. He was also as
gamey a bird as I ever saw, giving us no little trouble to sketch,
as the moment our hand would enter the cage he would attack
with both beak and claw, and strike "to kill." It was this that
led us to illustrate him in such a gamey temper.

It is only just to add here that it was through the untiring
efforts and expenditure of many thousand dollars on the part of
C. A, Sharp & Co., of New York, that the American fanciers
were brought to see the true value of the Indian.

The interest the fancier has shown in them has been re-
markable since their first introduction into America in 1877, and
since the Sharps made their extensive importations, bringing to
this country hundreds of England's best specimens, the desire for
them quite became a mania.

In England we found that the birds most prized for market-
ing were those showing not a great deal of center-color but pos-
sessing those contrasts which present attractive effects to the
eye, when seen on the bird in the pen, a clean sharp lacing with
only enough color within it to prove the character of the race —
such feathering as shown by figures 4, 5 and 3, 4 and 5 both
were from a famous English prize pullet. Four is the truest
marked, although 5 would be the most showy, if it had not the
defective inner lacing, breaking as it joins the shaft at the
lower end. Such marking as figure 3 makes a bird very at-
tractive, and is difiicult to find to a nicety. Marking like figure
2 makes a bird too black, leaving not enough of the lighter color
for strong contrast, giving a gross effect. Six shows a covert
feather so broken and irregularly laced as to appear massy; it
is a common defect on this section of the body, yet when the
coverts extend, with perfectly clear and nicely traced penciling,
up against the tail proper, as we have seen it in rare specimens,
the bird is far more showy and of much greater value in the
fancier's eye.

White Indians are in every respect the same as the colored
(Cornish) variety, except that their plumage is required to be
pure white. They have not attained such perfection of form
as the colored variety though excellent and typical specimens
are exhibited at the larger shows..

TURKEYS

The Largest of the Poultryman's Flock — Principal Char-
acteristics— The Different Varieties

Turkeys were originally from North America, and were found
from the east side of the Rocky mountains to the Atlantic and
from Canada to the isthmus of Darien.

In reading early histories of the race we find that as late as
1860 they were occasionally found in the mountains of Massa-
chusetts, though they are now considered quite extinct in the
New England states. They were also found in the wooded dis-
trict of the larger islands of the West Indies. In Central Amer-
ica is found the Honduras or Ocellated turkey, not so large nor
with quite so long a tail as the more widely distributed species,
but for luster of plumage it far outshines it. The glossy plu-
mage is a coppery green. Its specific name is derived from eye-
spots of bluish gloss, surrounded by a black ring, found at the
end of the tail coverts.

The turkey was probably first introduced by the Spaniards
into Europe, about 1530, and it is possible that the Ocellated
turkey founrl its way to Europe among the first that were taken
over. The domestication of the turkeys appears to have been
commenced in England near the beginning of the 16th century.
It was successfully naturalized in the royal park of Richmond
near London. In the first half of the 18th century this park
contained about two thousand of these grand birds, but it is
said that the frequent fights between poachers and the keepers,
to whom the protection of the birds was entrusted, led the own-
ers to destroy them.

The pure wild turkey has been bred with a degree of success
by some in America during late years, although their tendency
to stray is, as might be expected, more troublesome than with
families which have been for many generations domesticated
and under the care of man.

Many of our best strains of Bronze turkeys have a cross of
wild blood in them, of not many generations back; these lately
wild-crossed turkeys are considered by many to be hardier for
the introduction of vigorous blood.

In the wild state, the males associate by themselves in
flocks of one hundred or less, and seek their food apart from
the females, except in the breeding season. The females go
about either in flocks or singly with their young until the young

TURKEYS.

n

are about two-thirds grown. The females with their young, all
avoid the males, who are liable to attack and destroy the young
by repeated blows upon the head. These different flocks, how-
ever, all travel toward the same direction on foot, unless molest-
ed and frightened by the hunter, or unless compelled to take
flight over some river in their course.

The wild turkey makes her nest in some secluded spot and

^r

' '. '-1 '' '' ' ''\k '

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A Pair of Standard Bred Bronze Turkeys.

is exceedingly guarded so as not to be seen as she approaches
it. This instinct of caution about returning to her nest is
scarcely less noticeable in the domesticated birds, when they
are allowed to select their own nesting places. The slightest

so POULTRY MANUAL.

crackling of a twig or branch by the nest seeker and mistress
turkey goes picking about as unconcernedly as if such a thing
as a nest never entered her head. Cunningly she will avoid you
and we have had her, when failing to steal from our sight, and
perhaps thinking her eggs liable to chill from staying away too
long, take flight to nearly a hundred yards in the undergrowth
of the woodland where her nest was hidden, however, not in the
direction of her eggs, but to a distant angle of it, and only after
long and patient search were we rewarded by discovering her
place of nesting. The crows have sometimes assisted us in lo-
cating the nest of our turkey hens which have selected the
woods as their hatching place, by destroying some of the eggs
and dropping the shells near the nest.

There are many who succeed in rearing the young turkeys
by hatching under common hens and keeping the young poults in
enclosures until the turkey chicks are large and strong enough
to iump out over the foot high boards. Others stake the hen
with a string tied to the leg to keep her from wandering with
the young, giving her close shelter in case of storm and wet,
in the form of some box like coop. In our own experience we
found little difficulty in rearing young turkeys under hens until
weaning time came, then they plainly showed a lacking in their
"bringing up." They gave no end of trouble in their care, while
those with the hen turkeys which were allowed to select their
own nests and bring up their own broods, and which were scarce-
ly given a thought, reared nearly all they hatched to grand birds
weighing 18 to 28 pounds by November. So with limited time,
and vigorous stock that has the range of meadow and woodlands
such as our turkeys enjoy we have decided it was more profit-
able to give the turkeys the reins of management in those sea-
sons when food is plenty on the farm, and to supply them grain
only in small quantities to keep them "at home" during the sum-
mer and to help them to a fat condition at the season when
they are desired for the market. As for shelter our turkeys
will not accept it, preferring apple trees to coops and the peak
of a barn to the warm interior. Though we know of an old
gobbler who earned the distinction of "weather prophet" by
wisely taking shelter in the hen coop on the eve of nights during
which severe storms took place. And his owner grew to have
such confidence in his wise old bird that he took the bird's ac-
tions as conclusive of the coming weather.

The domestication of the turkey has had its effect upon the
plumage. Melanism as with the Black and Alcanism with the
White has taken place, also the intermediate colors of slate,
buff and many mixtures are to be seen. The bronze is almost,
we might say, the counterpart of the pure wild turkey in color.
Fanciers select it with stronger contrasts of shades, however.
The darkest shades darker, and the lightest shades almost white
is the present fashion for the show room. Clean cut, precise

TURKEYS. 81

pencilings and regularity of barring is obtained by exacting se-
lections and careful line breeding, so that the bronze turkey
in some instances has been produced with color and form that
could scarcely be criticised by the present standard. Twenty-
five to thirty pounds in young turks and thirty-five to forty
pounds in old gobblers is not unusual in show rooms, where the
best birds compete.

The largest hens are not always found to be the best breed-
ers, yet they show what the race is capable of and what se-
lection may yet bring them to in time.

If great size is attended with a proportionate amount or
fiesh on the most desirable parts, and of good quality, fine grain-
ed and succulent, then we would encourage such breeding. Past
experience has generally led men to conclude that birds as well
as animals can be too large to be fine and good in quality. Still
we do not wish to be understood to discourage selecting for
size; the fault usually is in the other direction with the birds
themselves. But we do wish to urge the selection of birds for
breeding that possess round, full breasts, with deep keel bone,
and that come from stock which produced many eggs and stock
noticeably vigorous and free of disease of any sort.

The Bronze, although the largest of all races of turkeys, is
generally found of firm, fine fiesh.

The finest grained flesh of any turkeys we have ever seen
was on Western Bronzes, which showed the wild blood strongly,
even to the flesh-colored leg; their plumage was wonderfully
glossy and firm, and when we examined them, found the skin
unusually fine-grained and smooth, although the birds were con-
siderably over standard weight.

The turkey does not reach its full maturity and growth until
its third season. It is, therefore, best to use only birds that
have reached at least their second season to breed from when
improvement in vigor and size is desired.

Free Range Required.

Free range is requisite to the vigor and successful rearing
of turkeys. These birds belong to the farming fanciers. The
town is no place to keep them; in close confinement they are
poor property and no little source of annoyance on account of
their restless desire to wander. We have heard of turkeys
whose owners claimed were content to stay about the dooryard
and not trouble the neighbors, but the profitable kind are those
that will forage out over the meadows and stubble fields, and
into the woods, gaining the greater portion of their food for
themselves. Our experience with the dooryard sort led us to
favor those that kept away from the buildings, except at roost-
ing time. We have had birds so tame that they would come up
under the windows of our cottage and take food held in the
hand from the open window — in fact one old hen seemed to pre-

S2 POULTRY MANUAL.

fer to get her living that way, but she was always so fat that
her eggs never produced us anything.

In Rhode Island, at the Experimental Station, turkeys kept
in the best health when strictly without housing of any kind.
In the climate where we are located, in Michigan, across the lake
from Chicago, turkeys rarely seek buildings for shelter. In
Canada, however, some of the most successful turkey rearers
house their turkeys at night but are careful that the buildings
are well ventilated. The crowding of turkeys in poorly ventil-
ated sheds is considered the main cause of most of the diseases
which the birds fall heir to.

Care of the Young.

The turkey hen succeeds best when allowed to sit on the
nest of her own choice. We never had one select a poorly suit-
ed place except when choosing barrels which we had placed near
the barnyard, and which proved altogether too small for a tur-
key hen of good size to get into without injury to her eggs.
When the young poults are hatched, the hen turkey will return
to her nest for the first few nights, if left alone, to care for them;
after which she will often nestle down in any convenient place
that she seems to consider safe, which may not always prove so
safe as she supposes. Foxes or other animals are apt to dis-
cover and destroy both mother turkey and chicks. So it is ad-
visable to accustom the turkey hen to a roomy shelter or coop
with slat front, placing her in the coop after the young are
about 24 hours old, or so soon as the hen leads them off the
nest. Feed them from the hand five or six times the first day
after being cooped, not allowing the youngsters to go from the
coop. Their first food can be bread crumbs soaked in milk, the
second day adding a little middlings or shorts to the soaked
crumbs. Finely chopped onions and dandelion leaves will prove
excellent green food, aiding digestion and keeping up their appe-
tites. Continue feeding the bread crumbs the first week, increas-
ing the amount of shorts. Some advise baking the grain or
making up into a sort of meal cake for them. We always have
had better results in feeding fowls with cooked grains, espe-
cially young stock. The heat destroys any injurious germs that
might sicken the birds. After a week or so, ground meat and
bone is valuable in their feed, in small quantities. Clabbered
milk, brought to a boiling heat and with the water squeezed
from it, is often mixed with the ground grain food — the young
birds are fond of it and it is good for them.

A very essential point in the care of turkey chicks is to move
their coops to a clean spot of ground each day. This is practiced
by the painstaking pheasant keepers with noticeably success-
ful results. Nothing sickens young birds quicker than eating
from the ground where their excrement has been allowed to
accumulate.

TURKEYS 83

Water and milk should be constantly before them, mixing
them half and half is all right. The drinking vessel should be
frequently cleaned.

A plentiful supply of small grit should be furnished. Avoid
damp ground and wet grass for young poults; it is very injurious
to them.

After the fifth week the turkey hen, with her chicks, can
have their liberty and do well. The hen will teach them to for-
age, and they will find nearly all their food on most farms. At
night they should be enticed into their usual coop and given a
liberal feed of wheat, which with all the insect life, small weed
seed and vegetable food of various sorts, which they find during
the day, will be the only feeding they require until grown and
ready to fatten, when corn will hasten their weight and market-
able condition.

The turkey row always seems of unusual attractiveness to
the general public who visit our poultry exhibitions. It is sel-
dom they enjoy the sight of such a near-by view of a mammoth
Bronze in all his pride and splendor of plumage. Turkeys in-
tended for exhibition will improve in gloss if liberally supplied
with oily seeds, such as those from sunflowers, hemp or flax,
and every precaution to induce tameness and confldence in their
handlers is desirable. A wild, frightened bird in the show
room is a poor object for exhibiting fine points. It will not
show its true quality or beauty. Exhibition birds should be-
come accustomed to handling and once in a while be placed in
a cage, like their exhibition pens. This can be done at night,
and let them have something they are especially fond of from
their keeper's hand before being turned out on their usual range
in the morning. Constant confinement will, however, lessen
their vigor, weight and beauty of feather, and cannot be forced
upon them often without injury to them. If turkey owners will
patronize and encourage the dressed poultry display" at the
shows, they will, by showing the carcasses of finely grown
birds, help to popularize the thoroughbreds, by showing the pub-
lic their excellent quality in comparison to the too often inferior
meated fowls, which they are compelled to accept on account of
the absence of birds of choice condition and flesh.

Varieties of Turkeys.

Of the six varieties of turkeys recognized by the Standard
of Perfection, the Bronze are considerably the largest. Adult
males are required to weigh thirty-six pounds and adult females
twenty pounds. The Narragansetts are next in size, the adult
male of which should v/eigh thirty pounds and the adult female
eighteen. The Buffs, Slates and Blacks come next and are about
three pounds lighter for the adult male. The White Holland
variety is the smallest, the adult male being required to weigh
but twenty-six pounds and the adult female sixteen. All varie-

84

POULTRY MANUAL.

ties are bred to the same shape, the only difference is in the
color.

In richness of color and luster of plumage none of the varie-
ties can compete with the Bronze. The male especially is very
brilliant. His neck, back and breast are a brilliant, rich bronze

^^^W

r

■T
\

4

\

Mammoth Pekin Ducks,

DUCKS. 85

and his main tail feathers, evenly crossed with lines of brown
penciling ending with a wide black band with an edging of
white, covered at their base with dull black coverts with the
same markings of brown ending in a wide dark bronze bar which
is in turn edged with white, make a plumage of remarkable
beauty.

The color of the female is much like that of the male except
that the white edging is more prominent and is seen on the
feathers of the back, breast and body, ranging from narrow at
the front of the bird to quite wide as it reaches the tail.

The Narragansetts possess a color scheme very much like
that of the Bronze differing in that each feather ends with a
band of grayish white on a ground of metallic black. When the
color is of strong character on the Narragansett it makes a
very showy bird.

The names of the solid colored varieties sufficiently describe
them except that the Buff turkeys are in reality a sort of chest-
nut and most of them show almost a clear white in some parts
of the plumage. The Black turkeys are bred to a very good'
shade of black but none of the solid colored varieties, except
the White Holland, have become very popular. The latter stand
second to the Bronze in favor.

STANDARD DUCKS

The Pekin Has Taken a Prominent Place in the American
Poultry Industry — The Other Prominent Varieties.

The Pekin Ducks have been reared extensively in China for
a great many years, in fact, longer than European or American
travelei s have been able to learn or give us any accurate account
of. Stories have come to us of the curious duck boats and rafts,
those strange floating gardens on which the celestial duck-man
rears his thousands of ducklings annually, but nothing of the
early history of this grand race of ducks. The selection and
improvement of these large white ducks kept on and along the
great waterways of China, would, no doubt, be a long, but inter-
esting story to those who are so deeply interested in this race
of ducks, which have proven such good money makers for many
extensive growers here in America. The general report is that
the Chinese are not fanciers, hence the probabilities are that
the improvements of the Pekins in their own native country was
led by the demands of the most paying markets, just as the
White Wyandottes are, in our country, the outcome of the whims
of the Boston poultry dealers and the growers, who cater tg
them.

86 POULTRY MANUAL.

It was in 1873 that the first importations of these fine
ducks came from Pekin to America. A Mr. Palmer first brought
them to this country and Mr. Keele, during the same year, im-
ported them to England.

Their improvement has been continued in America, espe-
cially since the establishment of the farms which have exclusive-
ly grown these ducks for the markets and whose entire aim has
been to preserve and improve the points of the Pekins which
go to make them profitable. One of the essential points that
has proven the fitness of the Pekin to these immense ranches, is
that it thrives well in large flocks.

To James Rankin, of Massachusetts, belongs the distinction
of being the pioneer of duck raising; he was the first to prove
that a good living could be made by handling Pekins for the
markets in large numbers. Now there are numerous duck farms
which handle the Pekins by the thousands.

The body of the best Pekins appears quite distinct in type,
unlike that of most other ducks which tapers in form as it ap-
proaches the neck and the tail. The outline of the Pekin more
nearly fills that of a parallelogram carried at an angle of forty-
five degrees.

Some of the deepest, keeled and heaviest bodied birds we
have seen carry the breast lower than those we have portrayed,
though not on the level, as seen often in Show Aylesburys.
Some breeders have told us as we admired those deep keeled
ducks that they feared that ducks of this low type were slower
to mature and not such good layers as the more up-standing
style. Those we have experimented with at our own farm have
not seemed lacking in vigor or egg production, and certainly
weigh heavier and are more attractive on account of their size.
Still we would rather take the experience of those who handle
them extensively and have more opportunity of practical, every
day comparison. To the practical duck rearer the question of
vigor, large ess yield and early maturity means everything. A
four-pound duckling in early April is worth more than a six-
pound one by the middle of May that consumed food, took time
and attention and valuable space for two weeks longer. So it
will be seen that it is the duckling that makes a good sized
body quickly that is wanted for profit.

Different foods have different effects for coloring the plumage
and the skin of the birds; fat produced from the feeding of corn
results in a very yellow skin and plumage. In the Boston mar-
kets of late there has been a call for ducklings that showed a
very light colored skin, with the result that many duck growers
have lessened the quantity of corn as the fattening term grew
near its end, and fed a large proportion of middlings, shorts and
cheap grade flour. The wheat diet fits the ducklings to meet
this fancy demand and probably gives the birds a more delicate
flavor. A number of growers have practiced the feeding of

DUCKS. g?

celery and cress to their ducks which they are preparing for
market and realize fancy prices by the extra flavor imparted to
them in this way. In localities where much celery is grown,
the trimmings of tops from the celery could be utilized in this
way and would be found valuable in imparting to them the flavor
for which the wild canvas back is so noted, and highly prized.
One farmer told us he had fed pepper grass to his ducklings,
which gave them a flavor much like the cress-fed ducks.

Young ducks should not have access to water except for
drinking, until their entire plumage has been taken on. At
twelve weeks those that are to be retained for breeding stock
may enjoy the brook or pond, but until nearly that time they
grow better without it. For the first few days the stale bread
crumbs moistened with milk or water should form the largest
part of the duckling's food, aside from some short cut grass or
green rye. Later or for the first few weeks, to their mixed food
may be added, to the stale bread or stale broken crackers, (which
can be bought of large baking establishments at $20 to $25 per
ton) boiled potatoes, turnips or beets, ground grain foods such
as middlings; shorts, cornmeal and oatmeal. A small amount of
ground meat is a valuable addition, and ground shell food
should be mixed with their food at least once a day in small
quantities. Corn sown in drills and when a few inches to a foot
or two high cut fine, will be a valuable addition to the food,
either alone or mixed with ground grains. The food should
never be fed sloppy, but just damp enough to stick together
when pressed in the hand; it should be given In clean troughs
and clean water should be close to the feeding troughs. Some
growers construct the troughs so that the feed and water are
side by side and the birds have but to reach from one to the
other^lt is a good plan for ducks.

The ration should be studied to give the young stock plenty
of bone and muscle-forming foods. Too much fat-forming food
at the start often results in weakness of the legs or of the or-
gans, and sometimes causes so much heat as to result in bowel
trouble, though ducks as a rule are very free from this last diffi-
culty. Oatmeal is one of the best flesh and bone forming foods.
Avoid feeding a large proportion of cornmeal until the seventh or
eighth week, increasing it only as the marketing age approaches,
when the meat meal and cornmeal will help to fatten. Lessen
the green food at the last week, and increase the meat meals if
the best flavored flesh is desired.

The types of Pekins most desired are those showing as near
as possible the same depth and girth from breast to stern; look
for those showing quantity of breast, a long deep keel bone well
meated, giving the breast a rounded plump appearance, and
when handled, to be found carrying an abundant supply of firm
flesh, good stout thighs set very broad apart, good sized feet
with straight firm toes. The head should be of good character,

S8 POULTRY MANtJAL.

neatly chiseled where the beak joins it, well rounded cheeks not
wrinkled about the throat with a goose-like dewlap, good, bright,
wide-open eyes — deep set, heavy browed eyes are rather indica-
tive of a dull sluggish nature in ducks. What you want for a
money making duck is one that gets up and goes a hustling
about for its living.

All Pekins should stand high in front, and low behind, but
do not mistake a duck that is over-fat and heavy behind for a
good Pekin; an elongated pear-shaped body, little in front and
heavy in the stern, where the heaviness is made by abnormally
large entrails, is not to be desired by either a fancier or market
duck man. The weight should be influenced by a well developed
breast, then when the bird comes to the table its value can be
appreciated.

Other Varieties of Ducks.

Following the Pekin the Aylesbury, Rouen, Cayuga and
White and Colored Muscovys are the m_ost popular and there-
fore the most widely bred. Their popularity is due mainly to
their practical qualities, as is the case with the Pekin.

The Aylesbury, Rouen and Cayuga varieties are, like the
Pekin, large, long, deep and full in body and breast. The Mus-
covys are equally large and have long, broad and deep bodies.
Their wings are more fully developed than those of the other
large varieties, sufficiently so that they are able to fly. Also
unlike other varieties they can roost on fences and in trees.
The Aylesburys are pure white in color of plumage as distin-
guished from the Pekins which are required to have creamy
white feathers. The Rouens carry much the same color as the
Wild Mallard but have more beautiful markings even, especially
in the plumage of the female which suggests the coloring of
the Partridge Cochin hen.

The Cayugas are black. The plumage of the Colored Mus-
covy is black, broken occasionally with white, those with less
white being preferred. Both varieties have faces and sides of
heads heavily carunculated and on their heads a sort of crest-
like formation of feathers which lies down smoothly when the
duck is in repose but which raises when it is disturbed.

A handsome duck is the Blue Swedish, which is of a bluish
color, somewhat resembling the Blue Andalusian fowl but often
marked with white, usually on the breast and occasionally un-
der the wings, toward the tail, and on the lower body. White
Crested White ducks are pure white throughout with crests of
soft feathers growing on their heads.

Some years ago the Indian Runners were heralded as rivals
of the Pekins as general purpose and market ducks. They were
taken up by a number of well-known duck growers but were not

DUCKS.

89

found satisfactory for the purpose. They are much smaller than
the Pekins, the Standard calling for a weight of only four and
a half pounds in the drake and four pounds in the duck. They
are, however, excellent layers, probably the best of the duck
family. In color they are white on the upper part of neck, lower
part of body and points of wings. In other sections they are a
light fawn color approaching gray.

The smallest of Standard ducks are the White and Gray
Call and East India, these bearing the same relation to ducks as
do bantams to fowls.

A Prize Winning Toulouse Gander.

.^\'\ V;

v,V^

0'Sy

A Pair of Excellent Embden Geese.

BREEDS OF GEESE

Their Value for Utility Purposes — The Leading Varieties.

All of the Standard varieties of geese, (Toulouse, Embden,
African, Chinese, Canadian and Egyptian), were originated in
foreign countries, though they have received much benefit from
the handling of American breeders. They are usually profitable
for utility purposes. They live and remain useful as breeders
until from twelve to twenty years old and instances are on rec-
ord where they have bred for twenty-seven consecutive seasons.
They require new blood far less frequently than do domestic
fowls and turkeys. One of the earliest breeders of Embden
geese is authority for the statement that a flock which originated
from six imported birds were kept for fifty years without add-
ing new blood and without any depreciation of the value of their
characteristics.

Geese are becoming more and more in demand for their flesh
and goose-fattening establishments, where geese are collected
from the farmers and fattened for market, are becoming numer-
ous throughout the country, though more particularly in the
east. Very few of their eggs are marketed for table use for, were
there no other reasons, they are much too valuable for hatch-
ing. Their soft feathers and down sell for high prices and some
goose raisers claim to make the greatest profit from the plumage.

The most popular variety in America is the Toulouse which
is claimed to have originated in France but which certainly was
bred to its present color and form in England, and from that
country came to America. The second in popularity are the
Embdens, pure white geese, which were earlier called Bremen
geese, so named from a city of Germany. The next in order are
the Africans and they are called by that name only in America.
In England they are not favored with classes at the shows but
compete in the same division as the Chinese geese. Some au-
thorities claim that they are often confounded with off-colored
Brown Chinas and perhaps some of the latter are occasionally
sold as Africans to the uninitiated. As a matter of fact the
true African is a much heavier built bird with a larger, coarser
head and heavier neck. Its back, too, should be flat while that
of the China should curve slightly upward toward the neck
and tail.

These three varieties, Toulouse, Embden and Africans, are
the heavy weights of the goose kingdom. The Chinese, of
which there are two varieties. Brown and White, are much small-

92

POULTRY MANUAL.

-^ -Ti ' ^

A Young African Gander.

er than those we have described and extra weight in those varie-
ties is not desired. They are claimed to be the best layers
among geese and quite considerable egg records are claimed by
some breeders of the white variety. The Canadian, or wild,
geese have been domesticated in small numbers and are very
handsome geese. They are not bred to any considerable extent

CONDITIONING FOR EXHIBITION. 93

for practical purposes though are occasionally used in crosses
with Toulouse or Africans to produce market geese.

Egyptian geese, although of rather attractive color, are not
bred to any extent. They are the smallest of geese according
to Standard requirements for weight.

CONDITIONING FOR EXHIBITION

A Plain and Complete Description of Common Sense Methods
of Developing, Fitting and Showing.

Successful showing consists of two things, having the qual-
ity and showing it properly. The gardener who raises roses for
the market strives to place them on the market when they bring
the greatest price. The man who raises broilers for a living
times his product for the highest market. It is the exhibitor's
business to time his birds for the exhibition just as the gardener
and market poultrymen time their products to be at their best
at the most advantageous season.

The phrase "Every dog has his day," will never be applied
to anything more forcefully than to exhibition poultry; the bird
that was a "Never Beaten" last week is a "Has Been" this, and
we see it time and time again. It is best then to estimate the
time when your birds will be ripe by your experience of years
previous, as the growing proclivities of two strains are seldom
the same. Remember the progress and development of your
birds last year, with reference to set dates during the season.
If your memory fails you, keep notes.

Condition is All-Important.

Condition is the all-important, overshadowing essential to
a winning bird, and without approximately perfect condition it
will seldom win in close competition. With some varieties, the
relative places on the award list are but expressions of the
degrees of perfection of condition in the specimens shown. Most
prominent of these varieties that" depend largely upon condition
to win are all black and all white varieties, Brown Leghorn
males, and many varieties of game and ornamental bantams.
Some will object to this statement as too broad and certainly
condition with nothing back of it will never win; but just as
certainly, will perfect condition cover many defects and enable
a bird of average exhibtion quality to win over one naturally
superior.

What then, does condition mean? What does the word em-
brace? Many things and various things. In Cochins, it means

94 POULTRY MANUAL.

the proper fluffy effect or looseness of feather. In games, it
means hardness of feather. In all varieties, the necessary
weight, the health and vigor that gives a bright eye, glowing
face, slick appearance and gloss of plumage. Correct shape and
poise in the exhibition coop are largely matters of condition.

In acquiring good or perfect condition, two principles are
involved.

The Winning Quality is Hereditary.

The first principle is heredity. You have often observed, if
you are an exhibitor, that some birds condition easily, while
it is almost impossible to make others acquire the smoothness
of feather and the style or poise that gives them the winning
quality.

Both of these characteristics are hereditary in fowls just as
much as good combs, strong under-color or straight barring. I
would reject a Barred Plymouth male that lacked a certain
amount of style just as quickly as one that failed in under-color.
And I would not consider seriously a Brown Leghorn male that
did not possess the attribute of smoothness of feather as a can-
didate for one of our breeding yards. So much for condition
and heredity. Do not take my word for anything, but make care-
ful observations if you wish to develop a line of winners. Good
showing qualities and aptness for good condition are just as
surely transmitted from generation to generation as any charac-
teristics of the species.

Fresh Plumaged Birds Win.

The second principle involves the science or art (I might
say knack) of properly rearing a bird and timing it for the
exhibition.

Young birds that have just attained maturity are fresh and
bright in plumage and fresh and bright birds are the ones that
usually win. This necessitates quick growth and that calls
for free range, and judicious feeding. This is the problem then
to solve: How are some birds to be pushed forward and some
held back, so that the entire string may be shown in uniformly
perfect condition?

Right here is where I shall prove disappointing. I know of
no magic that will mature the* immature or freshen the fading
colors of those that are past prime. There are a few who cling
to the idea that there are sublime methods for accomplishing
anything. There are a few who believe that winning specimens
are made so by occult means. Were we to find some agent
which would effect such a marvelous transformation in our
flocks, we should have accomplished no less than the alchemists
of old undertook when they sought to find the Philosopher's
stone, a re-agent that would form a panacea as well as transmute
the baser metals into gold. As well dream the dreams of the

CONDITIONING FOR EXHIBITION. 95

old alchemists as to expect to make winning show birds by any
except the most thorough process of nature.

The Pleasing Bird Has an Advantage.

The question naturally arises, "what is a winning bird?"
The answer would seem to be one that most nearly meets tne
requirements of the Standard of Perfection. But is it? I am
afraid it is not always, even with the most conscientious and
keenest judges. There is in some birds a certain quality tnat
is very hard to describe unless we limit that description to one
word and call it "catchy" quality, or a "pleasing bird" as it is ex-
pressed by the more refined exponents of the craft.

Under our present more of comparison judging, and this
mode has its advantages as well as its' drawbacks, the order
seems to be that the catchy or pleasing specimens are picked
out and then examined for defects according to the judges' in-
terpretation of the Standard. Under this method the bird in
poor condition and the one that has not catchy qualities fare
alike, being passed by, while the pleasing bird, if he has no glar-
ing faults, has a good chance to win.

Too Close Cooping Spoils the Bird.

There are several methods for fitting for the show room or
more or less merit. The best is to let the bird fit himself; ttie
poorest, and that which is more generally used, consists in con-
fining the bird to an exhibition coop two and one-half or three
feet square and either starving him or stuffing him as the fancy
of the owner dictates. In these quarters, this bird has the
pleasure of moping around for two or three weeks. He has a
clean coop, and perhaps plenty of the best of food, a nice DrigJit
tin cup to drink out of, but after all that has been done, tnis
bird is being subjected to the most unnatural life that a fowl
could live. If the coop is kept clean, the bird is also clean, Dut
his appetite soon diminishes, his digestion is soon disordered,
his feathers soon become rough and his head loses color. Tfie
bird deteriorates from the moment that he is put in the coop.
The only advantage is that you have a tame bird. Unless he is
endowed with an unusual amount of vitality, he soon becomes
so lifeless and docile that he should not even, in may cases, be
admitted to classification in the gallinaceous division. Of all
the idiotic methods that I have seen poultrymen employ, this
strikes me as the most stupid and foolish.

Range the Best Conditioner.

Those of you who have exhibited at the early winter snows,
say the early part of December or the latter part of November,
may have been favored by one of our occasional warm falls,
when the weather permitted you to keep the birds out in ttie
summer runs. Under these circumstances you probably put
into the shows the best conditioned birds you have ever shown.

96 POULTRY MANUAL.

If such is not your experience, it is mine. It is, therefore, my
aim to afford the candidates for show honors as near natural
conditions as the usual severe weather and several feet of snow
will permit. The best advantage that a bird can have is, of
course, range. Under the conditions mentioned, range is out of
the question. How then can we give them a substitute? By af-
fording a chance for exercise and compelling him to exercise if
he is not so inclined, and by supplying him those things tnat
confinement and the season of the year rob him of. Added to
these, there are some artificial methods that are simple ana
harmless that we shall speak of later. •

Food and Exercise.

Take the case of*a fairly mature bird. He should have a
pen to himself. The larger the better, but one eight-by-nine will
answer for most birds. The floor should be dry, clean sand,
covered with a litter of dry straw. The straw need not be cut,
as the bird, if he is properly trained, will break it up in a
short while. This litter should be from two to four incnes
deep, varying with the size of the bird. The larger the bird the
deeper the litter. In the morning throw in a small handful of
scratch feed, scattering it well. In an hour or so, give him some
warm mash, but do not allow him to stuff with it. A heaping
teaspoonful or two is about the right quantity, but unless he
eats this eagerly and rapidly, it is too much. An hour or two
later throw him more scratch feed and put him to work again.
If the bird is immature and you wish to force him a little, feed
him another mash at noon. An hour later a few kernels of small
grain will keep him busy, while at night he should have a good
square n^eal of good grain.

Green food, he should have a little of and but a little. Urlt
and oyster shells he should have in abundance at all times.

A Good Mash Makes Flesh.

A mash helps the bird to flesh up, but much of it is too
heavy in his crop and makes the bird logy and he refuses to
exercise; consequently he will not eat as much nor can his sys-
tem assimilate as much. This mash may be made in several
ways. Corn meal and bran may be mixed with a very small
quantity of wheat flour middlings in such a proportion that tbe
mash is a substantial but not a sticky mass. It should be mixed
with boiling water, merely hot water does not do. It must cook
to get the desired effect. To that end it should be packed close-
ly together and covered for a time. After standing for half an
hour, uncover and stir. Allow it to cool until it is warm but
not hot; then you have food for a meal that the fowls will rel-
ish. Other ingredients make good mashes and I like the mixture
of ground oats and corn meal commonly called provender.

For scratch food, any of the small grains will do. Oats are

CONDITIONING FOR EXHIBITION. 97

good, so is wheat if you are not using it for a night feed. But
above all I prefer the prepared scratch feeds, if they are made
of good grain, for two reasons; first the variety and second, for
the fact that the grains are cracked into small pieces which
make the fowls do the maximum amount of work for the mini-
mum amount of food.

For the final feed at night, nothing compares with white
wheat of the best quality. This is the main food but may be al-
ternated with barley with good results. For fowls that are in-
clined to get too fat barley is preferable to wheat.

Feeding White Birds.

By white birds, I refer to those that have white in their
plumage, not necessarily only the solid white varieties. Barred
Rocks and Silver Spangled Hamburgs, for instance, should be
fed precisely as pure white birds are.

It is a generally recognized principle that the pearl white
color cannot be obtained in its clearness and purity when al-
lowing these white birds oily foods. Therefore, yellow corn,
scraps, meat fats are excluded from their diet. Those who wish
to feed meat and are still very cautious, may boil fresh beef,
allow the liquor to stand and cool, when the fat may be skimmed
off. The meat and broth may be stirred into the mash. Try
this with your cut green bone and you will find an amount of
fat that will surprise you.

Foods That Develop Gloss.

For the class which requires a gloss, the fats and oils are
a great help if not an absolute necessity in getting good condi-
tion. The best foods for gloss are corn, buckwheat, sunflower
seed, beef-scraps and suet or beef tallow. These cannot be used
in quantity or as staple foods, as they "age" the plumage if giv-
en to excess. Many exhibitors are so situated that they cannot
attend their fowls during the day. I believe that the best meth-
od they can pursue is to feed the mash late in the afternoon
and in the morning give the birds grain to scratch for during
the day. A cabbage may be hung so high that they will jump
a little to reach it.

Taming the Show Bird.

A show bird should be tamed so tiiat it does not become
frightened when handled. The advantage that a bird that will
pose while the judge is in front of the coop and handling it, has
over the one that gets all out of shape the moment the judge
touches it, is obvious. While continuous cooping of any fowl
is a crime against good sense and good condition, a half hour a
day is necessary for all candidates for show honors. The bird
will become tame quickly by offering tid-bits such as meat and
kernels of whole corn from the hand. By stroking with the hand
the bird can be taught the correct poise for the show coop.

98 POULTRY MANUAL.

In these days of strong competition an unwashed white
bird is practically debarred from winning. An unwashed bird,
be it ever so white, looks very cheap beside a well washed one
of much less good natural color. This is a branch of the indus-
try in which a certain few have become so proficient that it is
practically impossible for anyone not an expert in this line to
defeat them. There are many soaps and preparations used for
washing white fowls but Ivory soap and soap-bark are the most
generally used. The best washers thoroughly lather the birds
to the hide and use two rinse waters. The last water contains
a very little blueing. This will show in the feathers if too
much is used and beginners are almost sure to use too much.
If not thoroughly rinsed, so that all the soap water is removed,
th© feathers will curl and crinkle.

In late years much is hinted at concerning the use of bleach-
ing agents that bleach a creamy or yellow bird, otherwise fine,
so that it becomes a winner. No doubt hydrogen peroxide, the
active agent of which is a free atom of oxygen, is used to a
certain extent. So is ammonia and other cleaning agents. Their
value lies more in their power to remove stains and dirt than
in any real bleaching process that takes place.

The most effective method of whitening a bird is to repeat
the washings. Persistency in this counts as in everything else.
The best treatment for the comb, face and wattles of a perfect-
ly healthy bird is to wash in soap and water, dry and let alone.
When the face does not show good color, massage and treat
with a very small amount of vaseline. To keep the color in the
face, repeat the massage. This treatment is simple and will
bring more color than would be supposed. There are many lo-
tions and drawing, burning liquids that are applied, but they
are all at best but temporarily efficient. A short while after
the application the head possesses less color than before.

The first thing to do is to see that there is plenty of saw-
dust or whatever bedding is used, in the coop, so that the bird
may stand properly. Nature gave the bird toe nails in order that
it could scratch for the early worm. Their nails are curved
downward and the curved ends were intended to go down into
the earth. When there is no substance that these nails can
penetrate under its feet, the curvature in the nails prevents the
specimen from straightening up or standing naturally. The next
thing is to clean, and if possible to scald, the drinking and
feed cups. This often eliminates danger from roup and canker.

Feeding the bird counts for much in the shape sections.
The proper amount of food in the crop at the time of judging
means credit for better breast shape; too much means a bird
without life or style. As a rule the bird should not be tamper-
ed with for an hour before judging. He should be allowed to
become "his natural self;" unless he does so he is at a disad-
vantage.

PART TWO

The second part of this book
is devoted to practical poultry cul-
ture, or the production of table
poultry and eggs, for market or for
home consumption. It treats of the
laws of practical breeding, housing,
foods and feeding, destruction of
lice and vermin, diseases with their
causes, symptons and cures, poul-
try on the farm and kindred sub-
jects. The subject matter is by
Ida E. Tilson, well known as a suc-
cessful poultry keeper, student of
poultry culture and lecturer.

PRACTICAL LAWS OF BREEDING

Heredity and Prepotency — Crossing and Crosses— Grades-
How to Select the Profitable Fowl.

Like produces like. Both original and acquired characters
tend to be inherited.

Two birds of like desirable qualities, mated together, give
their progeny a double tendency to develop those qualities.

The oftener and longer such qualities are transmitted, the
greater becomes their prepotency or predominance over all else.

While inbreeding fixes quality, it impairs vigor, hence should
be ventured only with fowls of uncommon merit, and for a
limited time.

Without continuing the same conditions of food, shelter and
care which first made them possible, even inbred characteristics
cannot altogether be retained.

A first cross of unrelated and superior stock best secures
size, vigor and endurance.

A first class fowl generally derives its condition and size
from the mother, and its quality from the sire.

Pullets generally follow color and shape of the cock used,
while cockerels are more like the hen.

Large roosters crossed with smaller hens, give "leggy"
chickens. Small roosters with large hens cause a fine, compact
shape.

Fowls without some maturity themselves cannot perfect
their offspring, hence a mature male is better with pullets, and
hens with a young male.

Nature's law of good breeding is rigorous selection. Drought,
famine, flood, frost and enemies permit only "the survival of
the fittest." By other means we must likewise "weed out" all
fowls deficient in constitution and energy.

A strain, according to the "Standard," is a "race of fowls
that has been carefully bred, for a number of years, by one
breeder, or his successor, and has acquired an Individual char-
acter of its own."

Crosses and Results.

Sam'l Cushman exhibited a number of cross-bred carcasses
at Eastern Pairs. He says "'marketmen, veteran breeders, and
poultry judges unanimously pronounced the Cornish Indian and

102 POULTRY MANUAL.

Light Brahma cross pullet the finest carcass. The finest cock-
erel was also of that cross. The White Wyandotte and Indian
pullet was pronounced second best by most. An Indian and
Golden Wyandotte cockerel was considered second best cockerel.
It was found that Indians and their crosses were harder to pluck
and more difficult to caponize than any other of the crosses."

This same Indian apparently does not rank so high for early
maturity, hardiness and laying, as when first imported, hence
promises more improvement to adult carcasses than to broilers
and laying stock.

A cross of White Wyandotte male on Light Brahmas gives
a fowl which, for both eggs and market purposes, is not easily
surpassed. A White Plymouth Rock with those Brahmas would
secure no more eggs, and not so blocky a body. A White Leg-
horn, Light Brahma cross ^ould produce more eggs and nearly
as fine meat. Brahma crosses are easy to caponize.

A White Leghorn, Barred Plym.outh Rock cross has been my
favorite many years, and is difficult to beat in early maturity
and egg production. Leghorns with Cochins, Brahmas, or Wy-
andottes, produced for me "general purpose" fowls, but I see
much risk and no advantage in crossing equally fine but very dis-
similar laying breeds, like Leghorns and Hamburgs, or Leg-
horns and Minorcas, nor in mixing breeds already satisfactory
for "general purpose," like Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes.

Cross-bred chickens survive more generally, and come fast-
er to maturity, hence excel as broilers. Cross-bred fowls, on ac-
count of their hardiness, lay earlier and oftener than pure fowls
not noted as layers, but do not prove more prolific than full
bloods bred for laying qualities. A second cross has a mixture
on each side, hence no one can certainly predict results. A
"crazy quilt," unsalable flock follows.

Since a first cross demands considerable annual outlay

Colony Houses in tlie orchard on a Fruit and Poultry Farm.

CROSSES AND RESULTS

103

A Suburban Poultry Plant with Berry Bushes and Garden in
the Foreground.

for new fowls or eggs, I advise farmers and amateurs to reserve
the best of their present pullets, choose a rooster of any breed
they prefer, and thereafter, each season, or at least second sea-
son, buy others of his same kind, and thus, in a few years, build
up a high grade flock, practically full blood, so far as results go,
though, of course, not thoroughbred nor fit for sale of settings.
Its original foundation of common or mixed stock, suited to that
farm, its care and conditions, often produces more satisfaction
than a full blooded flock transported there bodily at first.

Shape and What it Indicates.

Shape makes a breed, color a variety of a breed. Every
breed has an ideal shape, peculiar to that breed alone and in-
dependent of color. A Buff or White Plymouth Rock, first of
all, should be shaped like a typical Barred Rock, or else not
claim the name. A White, Black, Buff or Golden Wyandotte
must have the shape of a typical Silver Wyandotte, or else not
claim relationship. Hence form, less easily described and recog-
nized than color, should be especially studied.

The shape of good layers is best seen when looking down
upon a feeding or resting hen. Good breast development means
use of wings and activity. Breadth of body through shoulders,
measured across at bottom of hackle, proves ample respiratory
and digestive organs. A body of fair length gives form for re-
production. This must not be confounded with length of back,
because the position of tail and size of hackle often put short

104 POLUTRY MANUAL.

backs on fair bodied fowls, like Leghorns and Langshans. A
triangular body, apex at rear, well tucked up behind, provides
no attachment for fat where hens naturally lay it on. Rather
short legs, well apart, and a firm carriage, show vigor. A bright
eye and red, treraulous comb indicate good circulation. These
signs, first learned by actual trial of common hens and crosses,
I afterwards saw covered the Standard requirements for shape
of those great laying breeds. Leghorns, Minorcas, Red Caps, etc.
Hens selected by both shape and actual egg record, soon
establish a laying strain, because parts are developed by use, or
from lack of use remain undeveloped. If this change of tend-
encies is continued for generations, it becomes hereditary.

POINTS ON HOUSING

Selecting a Location — Scratching Shed House — Foundations
and Constructions — Poultry House Fixtures.

The first thing to be considered in establishing poultry quar-
ters is their location, which if too far from the dwelling makes a
caretaker extra steps, and if too near promises frequent visits
from hens, hence dirty walks and lawn. If the quarters are
away from garden and around an orchard, the fowls will range
over the latter and destroy many injurious insects. Prof. Sturte-
vant of the State Experiment Farm, Geneva, N. Y., placed a
dozen hens in an inclosure of 50 plum trees. Only three per
cent of the fruit was curculio stung, while all outside was nearly
ruinod. Others report pood done in peach, apple and orange
groves. Biddy's scratching and pulverizing put a manure heap
in fine shape for spreading over the fields, and a barnyard near
by, where there will be warm manure to work in, and scattered
grain to seek, belps out the exercise of fowls having no scratch-
ing shed.

A sandy soil is best, as it absorbs moisture and dries off
quickly, hence is the only one ac all hopeful for a "dugout." A
slight elevation well drained on all sides, prevents standing wa-
ter after rainfall.

Snow can easily be shoveled down and away, while mak-
ing winter paths, so drifts do not accumulate to make torrents
when they melt. My first house, built upon a level site, was
occasionally damp enough for a fish, till banked with earth, and
two ditches dug near with drain pipes put in. That earth is
rotting the sills, hence my next house, by a few loads of sand, a
scraper and team, was put beyond danger, and on its artificial

POINTS ON HOUSING. 105

site has been perfectly dry. Dainpness causes or aggravates
many diseases, like roup, diarrhea and sore eyes. Success with
a basement is doubtful, unless in such an elevation that the bot-
tom of basement is still above level of surrounding land.

The more protection on the north and west the better,
whether by trees, straw stacks or other buildings. An ingenious
young Minnesotan who built his hen house between granary and
pig pen, with barn in its rear, seldom found the fowls' drinking
water frozen.

A south exposure must be preserved, because scientists find
sunshine one of the best microbe killers and consumption cures.
Dr. Stalker, Iowa State Veterinarian, discovered, on his trips
through that state, those cattle stalled nearest the light in
basements, were freest from disease. When my poultry quar-
ters were located, there was a windmill tower south of them,
casting but little shadow, however. Over the oft frozen water-
tank, it later became necessary to put a building which shades
one hen house till about nine o'clock a. m„ and begins to shade
the other at perhaps three p. m. Whichever bouse is then
shaded, according as my observations on the thermometer are
at night or in morning, is from six degrees to twelve degrees
colder than its companion, although both houses at noon of a
sunny day, or any time a clouded day, are seldom more than
one degree apart.

Comfortable Houses Save Food.

A warm house lets more of the food eaten go into egg
production. Many experiments at stations and on private farms,
conclusively prove that all live stock can be kept on a much
lighter ration during cold weather if properly sheltered. Once
spend money for a comfortable place, and you have it, but a
cold house means extra grain bills every winter. Because hens
and all other animals make their bodily heat out of their food.

We herewith reproduce a plan of house and shed, which
can be built single or indefinitely extended and will give ex-
cellent results for the expense. Total cost in my own case of
two separate houses, each with shed, was about $1.00 for every
five square feet of ground room.

The height of houses illustrated is 6i^ feet in front, 4 feet
back, and each combined pen and shed is designed for 25 fowls.
Some prefer an alley running along the back, from which any
room can be entered, instead of passing directly from one to
another, but that entails a wider, higher, more expensive build-
ing.

Manager Gilbert of Ottawa, Canada, Experiment Farm, sug-
gests utilizing a corner of the barn, something I have seen suc-
cessfully done in bleak locations.

A scratching shed, or room, according as the situation is
comfortable or exposed, has been provided for, it will be seen,

106 POULTRY MANUAL.

in every plan presented, because by trying houses both without
and with scratching places, I have learned the latter's value.
However great lights of poultry culture may differ on other
points, they all commend the scratching shed plan. With our
cold climate, a house large enough for fowls to exercise in days,
is too cold at night when hens are quiet on their perches, and a
house sufficiently small for comfort then, is too cramped day-
times. It is most satisfactory to build a snug roosting-room,
and add a cheaper arrangement for the other uses. My first
shed was crotches and poles covered with cornstalks, and till
farmers have tested it they can make a cheap protection main-
ly of straw. No front is needed except in stormy weather or
windy localities. Instead of wire or muslin doors there, as
shown by designs given, frames or curtains might be arranged
to swing up inside of shed roof. Swinging out, they would be
exposed to weather and shut off sunshine. Those who have
used white cotton cloth, tell me it admits sufficient light.

To entice the fowls out and keep their toes warm, plenty of
litter under our shed, autumn leaves, chaff, straw, poor hay
or shavings will do. An acquaintance utilized even pine needles.
Hide the grain fed in this rubbish. Biddy is feminine, hence
very curious, and will search for the last kernel. In front of
the shed bottom, a temporary fender, composed of a 4-inch board
held upright by little stakes, keeps the litter from scattering and
wasting.

The scratching hen is always a laying hen, provided she
finds something to scratch for. I often compare a fowl's interior
to a machine with its wheels connected by bands. Start one
wheel, and all are bound to move. The muscles which attach
the thighs to trunk are very spreading, hence exercise biddy's
legs and her egg machine will finally start. If we give hens
nothing to do they will do something, like eating feathers and
eggs.

Size of the House.

The size of house and shed are next to be decided. Former-
ly, 3 square feet of ground room per fowl was called plenty.
By trying both that and a larger allowance, I find 4 or 5 square
feet none too much for the best results with farmers' fowls.
Poultry papers say village birds need 7 to 10 square feet apiece,
of shelter, besides their yard. I was once asked, at an Insti-
tute, ''Why not reckon by cubic feet?" Air to warm up does
not replace ground to scratch on and get warm on. In cold
climates, fowls endure cramped quarters better than elsewhere,
and, especially, small roosting rooms, but a Minnesota woman
told me her only hen to lay one winter, which laid almost daily,
was a Brown Leghorn that insisted on living in the horse stable,
where there was warmth, room and exercise.

POINTS ON HOUSING.

107

Foundations and Floors.

A stone foundation, put down into ground li/^ or 2 feet, thus
compelling rats and skunks to dig below it and then up again,
so misleads them that in 12 years there have been less than a

6EN£Pn PERSPECTIVSi

Back or OOOSTINGffOOM.Shon/n^

^^/iONrOfSRATCHING SHEO.
iSAowmq Wire » Studding.

Illustrations Showing Construction of the Scratching Pen.
House Referred to on Page 105.

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ETCHING SH£0.
th Cuftainm

half dozen entrances effected to my houses, yet such creatures
are very numerous around. My foundations are simply laid
stone but I recommend a finished job with mortar.

Cement or board floors are liked by many, but are cold and
hard unless well covered with sand and then litter, A board

108

POULTRY MANUAL.

floor must be kept very clean, or its cracks will afford another
lurking place for parasites. If much elevated, a board floor is
colder; if not raised high enough for cats to follow the rats
under, it becomes a resort for the latter. The site must be pre-
pared and graded for cement as for earth floors, because I know
of two dwellings on damp locations, where water filters through
sides and bottoms of their finely cemented cellars. One case
of rats digging through cement has been reported to me. To
prevent this, some builders cover with wire netting, of one inch
mesh, the foundation and ground before cement is applied;
others put four inches depth of pounded stone below.

I prefer the earth floor. Once at least, usually twice a year,
a load of clean, dry sand is put in each of my hen houses, to
replace what is carried out gradually on wings, feet and tools.
Sand prevents that dampness which is such a floor's only objec-
tion, and dampness is what we are fighting against under any
arrangement. Some excavate about 3 feet of earth, put in gravel
to half that depth, press down well, then replace dirt on top well
packed, and thus secure a drained, dry bottom.

In a severe climate, a high house is too cold. A Minnesota

One of the More Expensive Types of Poultry House. It has

Roosting Pens on the North of the Walk, Which Passes

Through the Center, and Scratching Pens on the

South, the Birds Going From One to the Other

Beneath the Walk.

friend tried to utilize a building 14 feet high, and her hens
froze on their roost. Bumped heads, however, will discourage
the "men folks" from lending a helping hand, hence I would
have a pen high enough for the tallest "hired man" to enter

POINTS ON HOUSING. 109

and clean. Posts from 6 to 8 feet in front, are the range I rec-
ommend.

"A" roofs are on my houses and dripped on me working in
front, till we added troughing to carry away the water. Some

Colony Houses For the Accommodation of Growing Stock in
the Fall and Breeding Fowls in the Spring.

like more than half the "A" in front, to catch the sunshine, hence
-do not put the ridge in the center. The more snowy a country,
the steeper roof-pitches should be. A single roof sends its drip-
pings to the rear, but the longer the rafters the thicker together
and stronger they should be.

Brick we know is a good filter of water, but water-tight
joints can be made of wood, hence brick hen houses will be, as
reported, cold and damp, unless well painted outside and double-
walled, with wooden connections, or ceiled, or lathed and plaster-
ed inside.

Lumber is easy to work in and to move. Unseasoned ma-
terial gives off moisture at first, and through its cracks later
lets in both dampness and cold. I have found by experience
how much harder it is to whitewash and paint unplaned than
planed lumber, but, thanks to machinery, the latter now costs
only a trifle more. Boards and timber come from 10 to 20 feet
long, so plan your house and order your material as to cut all
to good advantage. I keep my house painted, because that pre-
serves and purifies as much as adorns.

110 POULTRY MANUAL.

Perches should not face a window, or any probable source
of draft. A side draft is the worst possible, because it cools one-
half of the body faster than the other half, and destroys the
system's equilibrium. Whatever the style of perch or nest, let
both be movable and simple, a combination greatly appreciated
in house-cleaning time. A perch that takes apart and takes out
of doors, can be kept more free from parasites. Avoid nailing
parts together; use mortises, straps, bolts and nuts, cleats, etc.

From one and a half to three feet is about the range of
height to prevent fowls from bumble foot. Perches must be
lower for heavy than for light breeds, because the latter climb
and fly better, and usually have large combs which are brought
into warmer air up high. A stair arrangement is not so good
as perches on a level, since fowls, like politicians, all want high-
est places.

Heavy birds need wider roosts, to throw some weight on
shanks and off breast bone. Scantlings, 2x3 or 2x4, broad side
up, with rounded edges, are popular perches. Sassafras poles
and horn bean, also called blue or water beech, make good roosts,
but if tamarack and poplar are to be used they must certainly
be cut in winter, when the sap is out, or they will check.

A dropping board demands the same cleanliness as a floor,
but saves the whole bottom of the house for hens to walk and
scratch in. Many economize space by putting Nest Boxes under
the roosts, thus joining the two most infested parts of a poultry
pen, and letting each help stock the other with parasites. Unit-
ed, they may prove too much for a poulterer, while singly they
could be conquered.

Movable boxes, on table, or ground, or hooked to the wall,
I have seen and commended. My own nest boxes, 13 inches
square and 17 inches high, have no tops, but rest on and slip
under loose boards lying across brackets or cleats, the last
being the only stationary fixtures in my houses. I have re-
placed some cumbersome nests of 1-inch stuff, by those made o£
i^-inch, out of dry goods boxes bought at stores. Heavy breeds
need nests lower down, but mine are 18 inches from the ground,
so hens walking about do not look in and get tempted to eat
eggs.

Fences and Yards.

start yards with good turf, and the latter will last quite
a long time. If there is no vegetable growth to absorb liquid
droppings, the best raked yards get foul. Plant them double,
and while fowls are in one, spade the other, and sow to lettuce,
sweet corn or winter rye. In due time, turn the birds on and
treat first yard similarly. Make long yards rather than square,
thus inducing as much walking as possible. For best results, 75
square feet per fowl is none too much. A limited range, if it
is a range, perhaps puts fowls under more perfect control than
does farm freedom.

FOOD AND DRINK

Requirements of the Fowls — Composition of Foods— Food
Value of Grains — Drink and Drink Dishes.

It is difiicult to give absolute directions for amount of food,
because there are so many modifying circumstances. The cold-
er the climate or season, the more we feed. A French savant
gave the general rule of one quart solid matter per day to
every 8 large or 10 small hens. Although I wish biddy to work
and lay, so she will not come out spring fat, I am willing she
should enter in good condition upon a Wisconsin winter, or be as
fat then as I shall ever allow her to become, till ready for eating.

Not altogether size, but quality of range, its greenery, grains
and bugs, decide how much we shall add. A square mile of
sand, for instance, might furnish little except grit. Fowls which
exercise daily, and breeds naturally active, utilize more food
than confined or sluggish fowls can. Farmers' poultry in gen-
eral, and Leghorns in particular, least often overeat.

The age of birds must be considered. The mature need less
food than those growing. For this building of frames, the Crea-
tor has provided, by making the digestive apparatus proportion-
ately larger during youth, that is, the digestive apparatus does
not increase in size as fast as remainder of body. Therefore, it
becomes a law of animal development that liberal feeding ac-
complishes more in youth than at any other period.

The following table of growth, the result of careful experi-
ments, is suggestive, though not universally applicable:
Weight of Ozs. dry matter per Total ozs. of dry
fowls in lbs. lbs. of live weight. matter daily,
lib 1.24 1.24

2 lbs 1.03 2.06

3 lbs 94 2.82

4 lbs 87 3.48

5 lbs 82 4.10

An increase of water is demanded, to rinse and empty the
system of its waste, to lubricate organs, joints, etc.

It is rare that hens and pullets in one flock, both do equally
well, either the former become overfat, or the latter stunted.
The question of retaining layers a second year, properly comes
here.

6 months. 6 months.

1st year No eggs. Many eggs.

2nd year Eggs all through the year.

112 POULTRY MANUAL.

By actual trial, I feed less the second year, yet I have as
many eggs, but our properly reared pullet presents most of her
eggs in the winter, with prices high, whereas our hen distributes
her product more. Considering the labor of rearing, I retain
my layers two years.

If food is left, I reduce the amount. If they seem very
hungry, give more, and watch whether they get fat, because a
very fat hen either does not lay or else lays soft-shelled, bloody
eggs, "unripe ones," a boy said, her egg organs being crowded
and degenerate.

The layer is a brood animal, therefore appetite should be
almost satisfied, never cloyed. Even ''Cramming," fattening or
"finishing" fowls can be carried on only about so long. Then
the clogged liver ceases to act well and the fowl ceases to gain.

In a state of nature, birds are constantly picking. Their
nervous system is highly developed, which is an aid to digestion,
hence I hang up hogs' heads, unthreshed grain, etc., to distribute
food and yet not deprive of exercise. My hens will now strip a
cabbage, and they tear down a tender liver. Feed lightly morn-
ing and noon, but send them with full crops to their night's fast.

The French scientist, Reaumur, to ascertain whether fowls
prefer cooked grain, furnished them daily with several sorts and
preparations. Sometimes all kinds were devoured alike, at
others nothing but dry grain, then again nothing except boiled
and no permanence could be discovered in the preference shown
for any particular kind of boiled grain. The kernels swell in
cooking, hence corn, wheat and barley thus treated, went farther
while oats, buckwheat and rye were so heartily eaten after boil-
ing, that there resulted no saving, but a slight loss. Although
there be no economy of these latter by cooking them, his experi-
ment teaches us how we may induce fowls to eat them, and
thus economize dearer grains. I have boiled many oats.

The potato, belonging to same family as tobacco and hen-
bane, is more wholesome cooked. Clover becomes more natural
and less packing and constipating. Carrots, which help color
biddy's egg-yolks, like brindle's butter, my hens will only eat
boiled, and then I have to flavor with an onion or two.

All kinds of ground grain swell upon the application of heat
and moisture. If this swelling is not done outside fowls, it will
be done inside, where there is certainly plenty of heat and mois-
ture, but I find, by observation, that packed crops, etc., result.
Fowls, in fact, lack capacity for the operation. Hence, from the
hatching to killing, 1 scald or bake all their puddings, and never
mix with any cold water. The fault of most puddings, as well
as of bread and milk or other soft preparations, is sloppiness.

Feed every such thing as dry as it can be and yet be wet, if
you would prevent diarrhea. Having several times dissected
the crop and seen how softened and swelled were the grains, etc,
within it, I know it is a stomach. When we add the esophagal

FOOD AND DRINK. 113

pouch with its gastric glands, and the gizzard with its grinding
movement, we find a very different digestive apparatus from a
pig's simple stomach. Here the Creator hints that fowls must
not have food run immediately through them, but, instead, stay
a while. As soft food digests rapidly, it should be given early in
the day when fowls are suffering from their long nightly fast.
The question whether fowls must be fed or watered first, morn-
ings, mine practically solve by eating little till they have an
opportunity to drink, which is wise, because the food is not then
too rapidly washed along.

In winter, a few hours before use, I simply put each pan
of grain under one of our stoves. By a little forethought, I take
no extra steps for that grain, but bring it in when out on er-
rands. When a hen warms up inside her the cold food taken
she has used some of her stored energy and heat. Our stoves,
already going, might as well do more good as to tax biddy so.
Put warmth into her by means of warm food, and she and you
are that much ahead.

Just the time when you take hot coffee and cakes give biddy
a warm mash, because in all but nocturnal animals, life's tides
are lowest mornings, after night's long fast and little change of
position, sleep being better for nerves than for circulation.
Warm food digests and gets to work quicker than anything cold,
because a stomach takes a little time first to warm up later.
They sustain the same relation to each other as dry and green
wood do. Women who must start the family breakfast promptly
can, as I do, send out a few handfuls of warmed grain, by the
"men folks," and "stay" the fowls, till ready to make and feed
their pudding. Some prepare it night before, leave covered, and
it is well steamed, but nearly cold. Because that warm mash
has been abused, hens have over-eaten, stood idle all day after-
ward, and acquired dyspepsia, is no reason for entire discontinu-
ance. A. G. Gilbert's plan is to "throw all waste of the kitchen,
in the shape of meat scraps, pieces of bread, uneaten vegetables,
etc., into a pot; heat up in the morning till nearly boiling, and
then mix bran, shorts, or whatever is most abundant or cheap,
with the hot mess, dusting in a small quantity of red pepper be-
fore mixing. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes, until
the meal is nearly cooked." Pepper is a stimulant, not a food,
hence a little is good, but too much irritates. I consider 1 quart
of pudding to 18 or 20 hens sufficient, because they can eat it
so rapidly and easily that they would otherwise gorge. My
standard mixture is one-third each, bran, shorts and corn meal,
by bulk, with usually a little pea, bran or linseed meal added.
Sometimes ground oats have taken the place of bran.

Do not burn the hens' throats, but also make allowance for
the cooling effect on food of icy troughs or frosty boards. I ad-
mire the latter for a table. When fowls are done, scrape the

114

POULTRY MANUAL.

boards clean, with cob or knife, stand on one end, and the table
is already set for next meal.

I once bought some cheap grain musted from being kept over
a horse stable. When used, I had to brown it in the oven, or
scald with hot water, to destroy mould plant and arrest diarrhea
caused. By several times picking out all other seeds from a
handful of wheat screenings, then comparing wheat left and
price with solid grain's price, I found the latter cheaper. Shrunk-
en wheat, unmolded, is not bad, because containing all essential

A Row of Colony Houses on the Plant of a Village Poultry
Keeper.

elements, though less starch and water. Occasionally an ele-
vator burns and charred grain is thrown on the market, but
much of it is nearly consumed, and so smoked as to be actually
poisonous. Utilize your own poor grains, etc., but buy the best.

Composition of Foods.

Hens may be overfed with some elements, and at the same
time underfed in others, unless we know what to feed.

Scientists differ a little in application of terms, but the word
protein generally covers all food substances containing nitrogen,
whether their names be albuminoids, gelatinoids, or whatever.
The work of protein, or its contained nitrogen, is to build tissues
and frame, then keep muscles and bones in repair, supply al-
bumen for eggs, etc. Protein, aided by some mineral matters,
provides the machinery, we may say. If we feed nothing else,
a part of it will be converted into heat and energy, but the lat-
ter work can be done by cheaper foods, while its own proper

FOOD AND DRINK. 115

work cannot, just as beautiful walnut and mahogany can be burn-
ed, like pine, but pine cannot fill the higher places in art.

Carbo-hydrates is a term including starch, sugar, cellulose
and other allied substances, all of which are carbonaceous or
heat formers. They are the fuel.

Fats, in moderation, are generally aids to digestion. They
are the oil for our machinery. Starches and fats fed abundantly
will, either one or both together, form a reserve of fat in the
system, piled up fuel under cover, we may call it. Fed in excess,
they produce obesity, or else pour through the system undigested,
just as too much coal clogs the fire or rushes through stove into
ash pan below.

Prof. \V. O. Atvv'ater gives the model pound of food for an
average man as:

Protein. Fat. Carbohydrates.

2 ozs. 13 drams. 1 oz. 1 dram. 12 ozs. 2 drams.

Dairymen prescribe a not very different one for milch cows.
So we may accept the above as a fair scheme to try upon laying
hens and growing cnickons. Broilers and fattening stock should
receive much more carbon and oil, hence we usually find Indian
corn the basis of their food preparations. Various scientific
papers and U. S. Agricultural bulletins have given food analysis
from which the following is arranged.

The poulterer can profitably spend his evenings studying it,
though accepting all "with a grain (or more) of salt" or common
sense:

In every lb. of Fi-otein. Fat. Starch. Min. Mat.

ozs, drs. ozs. drs. ozs. drs. ozs. drs.

Oats 2 1 15 7 8 4 5

Middlings 2 14 15 8 8 13

Bran 2 9 10 6 14 15

Wheat 115 8 9 4 5

Buckwheat 115 1 9 4 4

Barley 1 12 5 9 10 5

Indian Corn 1 12 1 4 10 7 2

Linseed Meal 4 11 1 1 5 5 1

Beef Scraps 8 6 4 11

Green Bone 9 8 2 11 4

Skim Milk 12 8 13 2

Clover Hay 1 3 5 3

Grass 6 2 2 2 6

Potatoes 1 1 5 6 9 5

Beans or Peas 4 5 7 11 5

The following list gives effect of certain articles on the bow-
els as my own hens have been affected thereby. The poulterer
should not only study constituents of foods, but carefully watch
the droppings of his fowls, and regulate their diet somewhat ac-
cording to latter.

116 POULTRY MANUAL.

Constipating foods include shorts, corn meal, curd, charcoal,
dry hay.

Laxative foods are salt, bran, rye, linseed meal, beef scraps,
meat, oats, grass, vegetables, sour milk.

Any grain fresh from the threshing machine is loosening
till after it has time to "sweat," etc. Laxative foods continued
till they irritate, produce a dangerous form of constipation. The
worst case of the latter I ever saw was a hen's lower bowels
packed with oat hulls.

Although Indian corn produces eggs with yolks of dark col-
or and rich flavor, it is so fat-forming and warmth-giving, I feed
little except winter nights, and then on the cob. Northern fowls
and those on farms, will bear more of it than Southern birds or
those confined. Many breeding exhibition poultry believe maize
not only makes yellow shanks, but imparts that shade to other-
wise pure white plumage.

Oats, though a nerve food, and well proportioned in elements,
are harsh and indigestible because of their hulls. The better
and heavier our oats, the less hull in proportion to body. They
are a good summer grain, and I give them occasionally in win-
ter, to reduce fat hens and set them laying. There is so much
hull gone from rolled oatmeal, the latter becomes an elegant ra-
tion for chicks, while common customary ground oats have
proved fatal.

Barley and rye are midway between corn and oats. The
former is popular with Englii:-<h poulterers. The latter, my hens
only eat cooked or fresh from the thresher.

The best single grain to feed is wheat. The accusation that,
in large quantity, it produces diarrhea, I believe only true of
screenings. Bran varies greatly in quality and irritating effect
on the bowels.

Buckwheat is the basis of poultry rations in France, but that
country raises better buckwheat than ours. It is reputed to
heat the blood and to cause white flesh and egg yolks. I give
it as a change in winter.

Millet and rice are both rather fattening.

Peas and beans. Some may be glad to learn I have no trou-
Me in getting them ground at any ordinary custom mill. A pint
of such meal, added to a 4-quart pudding, replaces meat.

Sunflowers aid digestion and oil plumage. The North Caro-
lina Experiment Station has demonstrated what I long suspected,
that the black-seeded sunflower is richer than the "Russian."
The latter, though prolific, oftener blights here, and its seeds are
awkwardly large. Plant later than corn, and cultivate similarly.
Large heads stored for winter, can be saved from molding by
cutting a large patch from back of each.

Where range is large and insects abundant, fowls will help
themselves in summer. For winter, I know Of nothing better
for meat food than the bone cutter.

FOOD AND DRINK. 117

Green bones (those from the butcher) can not be ground, as
they are too tough, and contain a large share of water or blood.
They must therefore be cut with a bone cutter. When bones be-
come very hard and dry they can be ground in a mill, but will
then have lost a large proportion of their nutritious matter.
Green bones are rich in nitrogen, and therefore serve as food.
When a bone contains a large share of adhering meat it is all
the more valuable.

Colony Houses on a Fanciers Place.

Bones serve several purposes when used for poultry. Being
phosphate of lime, they are capable of being digested, which is
not so much the case with oyster shells and grit.

My bone cutter does excellent work on breast bone, backbone
and ball and socket joints, especially when the bones are frozen.
Gambrel joints and hind shins must be thrown out entirely.
Boiled bones cut very easily, but baked or fried are pretty hard.
Higher priced machines cut anything. The cutter also shaves
in fine shape, vegetables and beef scraps or cracklings. One
of the Eastern Experiment Stations analyzed about 150 differ-
ent specimens of bcnies, and found all essentially the same, after
slight variations in solidity, solubility and proportion. While
clams, old plaster and oyster shells, which contain considerable
carbonate of lime, may do well for egg shells, also containing
that, there is nothing like bone to make bone, or grow strong,
valuable chicks. The egg itself contains some phosphates, and
the following test shows green bones' effect on egg production.

Three pens were made up, of 10 hens and 10 pullets each,
for the 85 days, November 1 to January 24. They all received

118 POULTRY MANUAL.

feiavel. The first lot had also 14 pounds green ground bone;
the second, 6 pounds oyster shells; the third, gravel alone. The
egg yields were respectively 195, 83 and 65.

We have successfully fed 1 lb. ground bone per day to 20
fowls or when we had not the bone, beef or pork scraps at same
ratio. There have been reports of forced moulting from over-
doing green bone.

Burned bone is better than nothing, but most of the phos-
phates are lost, only a superior form of lime remaining. Hens
will not eat crude lime. Make and frequently pulverize some
mortar for them, as the least possible provision for mineral
matter.

Milk, if sweet, is one of the best animal foods. Sour milk
is so laxative 1 aUvays add enough soda to take off the edge of
the sour. Buttermilk needs both sweetening and diluting. Curd,
made slowlj-, so it is not ropy, about equals meat. I put the milk-
in a pan reserved for that purpose, and set upon my asbestos
stove-mat, where it cooks itself, without watching, then strain
through a perforated Lin pan.

Eggs are a concentrated food, chiefly suitable for and af-
forded to chickens and poults. Some commend eggs, while other
authorities declare they produce bowel complaint. As so often
true, both are right. An egg boiled 5 minutes, has its albumen
or white, turned into indigestible leather. Boiled a half hour or
longer, that leather itself becomes no worse, and the yolk grows
more digestible. In finely mincing whole egg, with a knife or
fork, lies one secret of successful use, or eggs put in cold water,
just brought to boiling point, immediately set off, and left in
the water till cold, will chop well and yet are wholesome. Raw
eggs thickened with bread crumbs and custard are good, be-
cause one is natural and the other thoroughly cooked.
Use of Green Foods.

Green food furnishes bulk, and dilutes a concentrated grain
ration so that it fills, distends and exercises the stomach, with-
out much expense or wearing it out. There is nothing equal to
a grass run, because grass has the salts of lime and other ele-
ments, in a soluble, more easily appropriated form than grains
have. Ten geese need as much pasture as a cow, and 200 hens
will eat the grass on 1 acre.

Hay made from nice grass or clover, may become nearly as
palatable as when fresh, by running it through a cutter and then
scalding, steaming or boilng it. Several dairymen who have en-
silage and hens, report the perfect agreement of the two. All
kinds of chopped vegetables help make summer in a chicken's
heart and in the egg basket. Beets, rather fattening, are relish-
ed like beef. Turnips are a little more nutritious and cabbage is
especially rich. Our crab apples are carefully gathered in au-
tumn, and chopped at intervals for the hens, and our refuse cran-
berries are boiled with their potatoes.

FOOD AND DRINK.

119

I hardly know how to class our butternuts. We have many
trees, and crack many nuts lor the hens, which enjoy the frolic,
and pick the shells perfectly clean. Walnuts, related to butter-
nuts, are used in England to give poultry a fine flavor.

The secret of winter laying is an imitation of summer's con-
ditions, when everybody's hens lay. Variety of food, is a sum-
mer characteristic. Three of my neighbors have each adopted a

A Head of Cabbage May be Suspended so High That the Fowls

Can Reach It by Jumping For It, and Will Then Furnish

Green Food and Exercise At the Same Time.

hotel in town, whore they keep boxes for scraps. Beware of
fish bones, however, if you enter such a scheme. To variety of
food, I ascribe my hens' good egg yield, about 140 apiece per
year, with "a fair count and no favors," and that in two large
flocks cf 50 each; also general good health of my flocks, once for
six months of cold weather there being not a death nor touch of
sickness, nor any vices developed. At the Cornell Station, a com-
pany of nens v/ere fed on nitrogenous foods, like cabbage, clover
and oats, another company on carbonaceous, like corn and pota-
toes. Large and finely flavored eggs came from the latter. The
former produced more in number, bat small and of poor keeping
qualities. Good as onions are for the liver, and rich as fish are
in phosphates, any such strong food will flavor eggs, unless com-

120 POULTRY MANUAL.

billed with a great variety of other articles. I can thus feed
onions twice a week, and yet an invalid who prized my poultry
products, said "I am so glad you don't give onions," till I laugh-
ingly told her the truth.

There are things, not exactly foods, yet indirectly valuable
in a diet. Like their owners, hens need grit, only another kind.
We get artificial assistance when we have no teeth, and how
shall toothless fowls grind their food, unless aided? H. B. May
says all diseases, but "'old age," have practically passed away
from his poultry yards since the free use of gravel. My own
testimony is similar, and a friend thus cured feather eating.
Surface gravel is worn too smooth. It needs be dug from a pit
or specially prepared.

Charcoal and salt I rank among the cures for egg and
feather eating, and preventives of cholera. Charred corn is rel-
ished occasionally. In addition, I buy the true and more valu-
able charcoal of commerce, burned under a smothered fire, with
its carbon nearly all preserved. Pulverize a little at a time, as
it soon loses strength.

Salt prevents gapes and worms, and increases egg yield,
but is very physicing if improperly handled. I have known pork
brine and water from the ice cream freezer, when thrown out,
to kill fowls that drank, but mine never took any harm from
the clear salt for years exposed to cattle on our farm, and one
teaspoon pulverized salt to a quart of meal, mixed dry through
the dry meal, before the latter is cooked or scalded, is perfectly
safe.

The simple V trough any farmer can make, is better than a
flat one, because it affords less footing, should hens "forget their
manners," and try to step in.

As an egg is more than 80 per cent water, a generous, con-
stant supply of the latter is needed. Cold water is most refresh-
ing in summer and warm in winter. Stale water is at precisely
the temperatuie in which microbes best flourish. Prof. Russell
says although melted ice and water from driven wells are not
free from m.icrobes, they present fewer specimens. A tube con-
veying waste water from our well cleaned ice box into an often
cleaned iron di<^h, provides my summer outfit. In winter, my
father puts a hot brick on the ground, sets over it a segment of
a keg, and in the latter puts his pan of water.

Pans and crocks to be emptied, dried, and aired at night,
are excellent. A cob minus its corn, is my daily dish-cloth. (No
patent.)

Mondays, when we have plenty of hot suds, these dishes get
an extra washing.

PARASITES AND MICROBES

The Pests that Prey Upon Poultry and How to Destroy Them

A parasite is an organism which lives on another, and the
name is generally restricted to those large enough to be dis-
covered by the eye or by an ordinary magnifying glass.

Microbes is a general, indefinite term for very much minuter
organisms, or germs of organisms, both animal and vegetable,
now believed to cause many infectious and contagious diseases.

The following classifies the best known animal parasites of
fowls:

Insects. — Gnats, blow flies, fleas, lice, bedbugs.

Spiders. — Red mites, feather mites, scabies of leg.

Worms. — Flat, round.

Articulates are composed of joints or rings. Insects, like-
wise spiders, have dissimilar segments, while the segments
of worms are all similar. Insects in their mature stage, have
a body with three distinct parts, abdomen, thorax or neck, and
head, and six wings. Spiders have eight legs, and a body of
only two sections, head and thorax being in one.

The effects of lice, fleas, etc., are that fowls cease to gain
flesh, lose what they have, get rough plumage and scabby skins,
and sometimes desert their homes and young, occasioned not
so much by loss of blood, as from the constant tickling and
want of rest and sleep.

So far as my observation goes all these parasites breed in
filth, darkness, dampness, and quiet.

Institute audiences have asked little about the early history
of poultry parasites, but again and again repeated the question
— "Will these creatures injure other stock?" Prof. Neumann of
Toulouse, acknowledged an excellent authority for such matters,
has devoted attention to that phase, and assures us there is little
danger except in one or two cases hereafter mentioned, each
animal, in general, having its own enemies, which, though they
may travel over and vex others, do not breed thereon. For ex-
ample, lice on horses and cattle are distinct from each other, and
both from poultry lice.

There are, at least, a half dozen species of lice for the hen,
and nearly as many slightly differing ones for peacocks, guineas,
etc. They are dirty white, yellow, or fawn in color; "tawny"
I called the latter before I met them in scientific books. Prof.
Law unites with Prof. Neumann in saying none are true blood-
suckers, but possess strong, biting jaws. With microscope I

122 POULTRY MANUAL.

have examined many of the gray "head" lice, and even borrowed
them off my neighbor's fowls, but though large headed, they
seemed to lack a proboscis, presenting the same cavernous
mouth and general characteristics as all poultry lice, yet while
others move quite rapidly from spot to spot, especially the species
popularly known as "large bodied, fast-running yellow louse,"
(Goniocotes Gigas) the gray ones fasten themselves to head or
throat. A sharp thumb nail or pin is needed to dislodge them.
It remained for Minnesota's distinguished Prof. .Lugger to dis-
cover the latter's proboscis. Others killed their specimens slow-
ly in oil. He killed his so quickly that the probosces were not
returned to their sheaths, where they are folded when not used.

Little chicks are soft, and broody hens, quiet, hence both are
especially troubled, but being easily caught and handled, there is
no excuse for not often dusting them with pyrethrum, or any
other good preparation. Procure a twenty cent bellows with
large, easy opening for introducing powder. Its long tube gets
down to the base of feathers where pests are. A few times a
year go over the whole fiock. Mine roost while yet light enough
for me to examine them.

When you can, exercise biddy, instead of she exercising you.
A filled dust box six inches deep, will be her great resort and
remedy for lice. I sift ashes with a coarse sieve from the fan-
ning mill, because biddy can do better work after clinkers and
coals are removed, which I then throw down for her to eat and
play with. Wood ashes bleach plumage, and road dust is rather
filthy. My preference is one-fourth air-slaked lime or sulphur,
and the remainder coal ashes.

In the South and Southwest, gnats sting the heads of young
fowls. I used to anoint bad cases with a little glycerine or
vaseline.

Maggots occasionally infest the accidental wounds of geese
or other old fowls. Chloroform is a neat remedy.

Ticks are common on turkeys and fowls which roam over
old fields. The tick has a labial dart with recurved teeth, re-
move, therefore, by gently working from side to side, or by
touching with a drop of kerosene.

Various depluming mites live on feathers and scurf. They
are not generally dangerous, but cause dryness and breaking of
plumage, or red, scabby skin. They cluster around quills of
feathers on back and near vent. Pluck and burn. Apply hen's
oil.

Scaly leg is caused by a? mite (Sarcoptes Mutans,) which
commences to dig under the large scales on front of legs and
on upper side of claws. From thence it spreads all over leg.
The scales are raised and broken by the irritation, the leg en-
larged and some fowls have inoculated their heads in scratching
with their claws.

The progress and contagion of disease are slow, but affected

PARASITES AND MICROBES.

123

fowls gradually wear out, and chicks are sure to take the para-
site from an affected mother. A pullet given me from a place
where this scabies had appeared, infected several companions,
though carefully anointed before placed among my flock. Asiat-
ics are especially subject to the complaint. Old fowls, the skin
of which is less oily, are most troubled, hence nature indicates
an oily application. I scrub legs clean with an old toothbrush
and warm soapsuds. Then anoint with hen's oil which I am

A Flock of White Wyandottes Which Keep the Family on a
Small Farm in Fresh Eggs.

now using everywhere. I formerly used sweet oil, having acci-
dentally learned the former's virtues by being out of sweet oil
once. Kerosene applications are too severe; they have lamed
fowls for me, and killed them for acquaintances. Isolate affected
hens, never set such, and disinfect the perches.

There is but one species of common flea on poultry and it
troubles pigeons more than other fowls. Though fleas breed in
dirt, they sometimes accomplish their complete evolution on the
body of their host. The Southern "jigger" is of the flea family.
The remedies for fleas and bedbugs or Nest Bugs (the latter
not identical with dwelling-house bug) are same as those given
under Red Mites or Dermanysses, all being creatures which live
in cracks and crevices of walls, floors, nests and perches, rather

124 POULTRY MANUAL.

than permanently on fowls, but regularly visiting the latter to
draw their nightly or daily supply of blood as food.

Destructive Red Mites.

Red mites look like exceedingly minute spiders and vary
from yellow to dark red, according as they are fasting or full.
Sometimes they become permanent parasites, in great colonies,
on sitting hens and feeble chicks, but ordinarily nothing can be
discovered daytimes, except a flea-bitten aspect of the skin.
Pounding nests will sometimes bring them out, and wiping under-
side of perch with a white cloth, on which they show well, dis-
closes their presence. They are found most easily early morn-
ing, before well hidden away for the day. They are probably
our worst poultry parasites. Besides being extremely prolific,
they can exist months without eating, and are not limited to
birds, but pass to man and quadrupeds. They transfer them-
selves to horses most readily. Schumaker, however, reports a
cow in Germany which became mad and had to be killed, owing
to colonies of these creatures in her ears. Her stall was sep-
arated from a hen roost by only a plank partition. It is thought
those red mites on canary birds and swallows are the same, the
canaries perhaps infested from poultry, and poultry from swal-
lows. Red mites are particularly pestiferous in Minnesota, Iowa
and the West. If any are present in your poultry quarters, de-
lay not, or you may have to do like one Minnesota man who
tore down his henhouse.

Remedies. Hot coal tar applied on perches is said to dry
well, not stick, and be efficacious. Kerosene, taken in time, I
know to be a sure remedy. I frequently paint perches with it,
using a discarded paintbrush, and choose the morning, so enough
oil will evaporate not to cause roosting fowls sore feet. I turn
the filling out of the nests, wipe off nest-eggs and pour kerosene,
from nozzle of can, into all joints, especially four top corners,
also pour into bearings of perches. A twig, round on one
side and flat on other, stuck in the nozzle, will halve stream if
unmanageable. The force pump for spraying trees will do good
work on inside walls and space behind them with kerosene emul-
sion, made from one-half bar of soap, one gallon hot water, and
one gallon kerosene, well churned together. Here appears the
beauty of movable nests and perches which can be taken to the
light of day and reached in every part. I lately saw a fine new
henhouse, with great economy of space, but, under nailed perch-
es, were nests built into the wall. I told its owner I trusted she
was accustomed to spending much time on her knees, and sug-
gested she quarantine every fowl bought, thus not infesting quar-
ters so difficult of access.

Various Insecticides. Oil of sassafras, lavender, or cedar,
each about five cents an ounce, are strong, when one can not
stop to apply more of the cheaper kerosene. Gasoline and bi-

PARASITES AND MICROBES. 125

sulphide of carbon, said to be good, are exceedingly explosive
in presence of any fire or lantern. Cedar, elder, sassafras, per-
simmon, and eucalyptus twigs, tansy, tobacco, wormwood leaves
and onion skins are all more or less distasteful, and can be
placed in nests or tied to perches.

A frequent sweeping of walls and ceiling is helpful. Two
coats of hot whitewash a year, make the interior of house ligiit
and sweet, and reach all these creatures. Slosh it on, remem-
bering that execution, not art, is your purpose. I keep water on
the stove, to thin and reheat the whitewash as often as necessary.
Salt helps stick it to exterior walls, but might "kill" the odors
I put inside, like one ounce carbolic acid to a pail of wash, or
sulphur, turpentine and kerosene at pleasure. When stirring
these in, turn away your face from the hot fumes.

A pound or two of brimstone, smouldering two hours on a
good bed of coals and charcoal, in an old iron kettle, set in a
dishpan, will produce a satisfactory fumigation. A poker thrust
and left in mass, prevents packing and helps burning. First get
every hen out, and tightly close doors and windows. A doctor
who has had hospital experience told me there is little danger
of sulphur smoke taking fire, but I faithfully stay near the hen-
house, and look through window. Water in the dishpan adds
safety, and sLeam has an affinity for and carries sulphur fumes.

The droppings should be removed daily, if possible. Neither
dropping board nor ground is improved by saturation. Wood
ashes destroy much manurial value, hence coal ashes, road dust,
sawdust, or autumn leaves, are more economical beddings to re-
ceive the manure, which is so strong it needs be composted, be-
fore use, with three or four times as much rubbish.

A fowl may gape because it is sleepy, or has swallowed a
feather, or outside of its neck is bitten by gray lice, but the dan-
gerous disease Gapes is caused by a round red worm, syngamus
trachealis, attached to inside windpipe. This worm appears fork-
ed, but in reality consists of a male and female permanently
united. The mouth or sucker of each part draws blood from the
mucous membrane. Affected fowls droop, cough, open their
mouths wide, and, with a double curving movement of neck, gasp
for breath. The disease is most common in July and August, and
particularly destructive to the young on old farms where the
taint lingers from year to year. The infection comes from swal-
lowing embryos with dew and impure water, or adult worms
coughed up by other fowls, or earth worms which in their di-
gestive tract, contain the syngamus.

Remedies. Air slaked lime sprinkled about, cleanses the
premises. Frogs keep our tanks much freer from all impurities
than fish did. Drinking water with a little camphor in is excel-
lent for an affected flock. A piece of raw salt pork, size of a
corn kernel, given each fowl, is a pretty sure cure. Keep chicks
and poults out of the dew.

DISEASES OF POULTRY

A Classified List of Principal Diseases, With Their Causes,
Symptoms and Cures.

A classification of diseases by their location is less scientific
than one by their causes, but amateurs see first the location of
trouble, then search for its cause.

Diseases of the Head.

WHITE COMB, SCURVY OR FAVUS. Causes: Decayed
food, impure water, overcrowded, ill-ventilated, dark, dirty quar-
ters. It is a contagious, fungoid growth. Symptoms: White,
warty, scaly, expanding patches on comb and wattles. It may
extend over body, become serious around vent, and gradually de-
stroy plumage. Treatment: Salt, charcoal and sulphur in the
food, as already directed, and more vegetable elements. W. B.
Lloyd recommends an ointment of one-fourth ounce tumeric
powder with an ounce of cocoanut oil. Prof. Neumann, 1 part of
carbolic acid to 20 parts of soft soap. Dilute if too strong.

CHICKEN POX. Causes: Similar to above. Symptoms:
Successive crops of contagious, watery blisters, chiefly on head
and neck, though often under wings and over whole body. Treat-
ment: Diet as above. Wash with castile soap suds. A table-
spoon of Douglass mixture in each quart of drinking water tones
the system.

SWELLED HEAD. Causes: Similar, if the trouble is not
connected with a cold.

Symptoms: Fever, drowsiness, general swelling of the head.
Treatment: Some have success with a dessertspoon of citrate
of magnesia and ten drops of nitre, added to half a pint of
drinking water. Anoint with sweet oil.

APOPLEXY OR EPILEPSY. Causes: Undue flow of blood
to the head, resulting from overfeeding grains or spices. Symp-
toms: Staggering, fluttering around a circle, falling down, jerk-
ings of the limbs and neck. Treatment: Hold the head a few
minutes under a small stream of cold water. Give a teaspoon
dose of castor oil. Follow with a light, largely vegetable, diet
and plenty of gravel.

FROSTED COMB AND WATTLES. Causes: Exposure to
severe cold, especially at night. Symptoms: Edges of comb and
wattles first purple, then pale. Treatment: At night, put any

DISEASES. 127

choice rooster in a barrel with an old carpet thrown over. Ap-
ply a little vaseline, glycerine, or tincture of myrrh to comb.

COLDS. Causes: Lack of sunny places for exercise, ex-
posure to dampness, draughty roosting places. Symptoms:
Varied, like those of a human subject. Sneezing, watery or mat-
terated eyes, a slight discharge from one or both nostrils, face
swelled on one or both sides, hoarseness. Treatment: Give each
affected fowl a 1 grain quinine pill, or put 12 drops spongia or 6
drops tincture of aconite to each pint of their drinking water.
Assafetida, 5 cents' worth, tied in a rag, can be used in drinking
dishes sometimes.

CATARRH. Causes: Numerous colds. Symptoms: Like
colds, but chronic and milder. Treatment: Same as for colds.
Tincture of iron, one-half teaspoon in a quart of drinking water
is a good tonic.

Diseases of the Throat and Lungs

CANKER AND DIPHTHERIA. Causes: Violent colds, in
filthy surroundings. Canker is milder, and located in the mouth,
while diphtheria dangerously clogs throat and windpipe. Symp-
toms: Stiff neck, difficult swallowing, noisy breathing, a red then
purple mouth and throat, filled with a thick mucus, ulcers, and
finally a membrane. Treatment: Warmth and quietness are es-
sential. Open the bill, and powder mouth and throat with a mix-
ture of pulverized borax and chlorate of potash, or with powder-
ed burnt alum. Feed only cooked food. I feed a little warm
bread and milk, sprinkled with a trifle of mustard, pepper, or
ginger. Disinfect the quarters by sulphur fumigations and scat-
ter slaked lime. Kill and burn all severe cases, because, both
through the air and by use of a common drinking dish, other
fowls rapidly catch canker and diphtheria, as well as roup.

ROUP. Causes: Neglected colds. The word roup is prob-
ably derived from croup. The affection is distinguished from
simple colds by its offensive smell. The name roup, though
often, and perhaps properly, applied to canker and diphtheria,
describes a more generalized and lingering complaint. It closely
answers to influenza and grippe in man. Symptoms: All or any
of those in colds, canker and diphtheria. Sometimes the dis-
charges from eyes, nostrils and mouth grow gummy and cheesy.
Fever, loss of appetite, loose bowels and emaciation attend. Se-
vere cases last from five to twelve days, mild cases may linger
for weeks, recover, or periodically relapse. Some are left with
permanent Bronchitis or Asthma, showed by whistling breath,
frequent twisting of neck and swallowing. Treatment: In addi-
tion to remedies earlier, I have found kerosene applied to throat
and nostrils an excellent counter-irritant. The drinking water
should be flavored with camphor or alum.

CONSUMPTION AND TUBERCULOSIS. Causes: Colds,
roup, insufficient food, poor constitution inherited from roupy,

128 POULTRY MANUAL.

consumptive, weak or inbred ancestors. Symptoms: Persistent
cough, emaciation and diarrhea. Tuberculosis is the more in-
tense. Treatment: Kill, burn or bury all evident cases. Never
purchase nor breed from tuberculous fowls. Tuberculous per-
sons and fowls on a place are sources of danger to each other
and all others.

PIP. Causes: Like a furred tongue and dry cough in man,
pip is a sign of an inflamed mucous membrane, from colds, roup
or indigestion. Symptoms: A cheesy or horny accumulation on
end of tongue, and a sharp spasmodic cough. Treatment: Dis-
cover and remove the cause.

GAPES. See Parsites.

Digestive Tract Diseases.

CROP BOUND. Causes: Dry hay, rowen or grass roots im-
pacted in crop. Pieces of bone, bacon rind, etc., lodged across
opening out of crop. Symptoms: Continued hardness of crop.
Treatment: Proper feeding has yielded me but two cases in
twelve years. Mix a teaspoon each of castor oil and hot milk,
and pour through throat into crop, then, with your fingers gently
knead the hard mass, working it in or out, as may seem most
hopeful.

INFLAMMATION OF CROP. Causes: Irregular feeding and
watering, overdoses of spices or patent foods, swallowing un-
slaked lime, etc. Symptoms: Soft, swelled, dropsical crop.
Treatment: Empty crop by holding head downwards. To com-
plete the clearing, give a baking soda pill the size of a pea. Feed
lightly on cooked food or table scraps, several days. Make the
drinking water slightly acid with vinegar, alum or nitric acid.
Try flaxseed tea's soothing effect on lingering cases. When a
whole flock was affected, evidently from some impurity of food
and water, I successfully prescribed soda in the drinking water
one day, followed by quinine in the water for two or three days,
each solution no stronger than fowls deprived of other drink
would willingly take.

INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. Causes: Too much corn
and other starchy foods, filthy surroundings, neglected crop
diseases. Symptoms: Comb first purple, then black, dumpish-
ness, yellow, watery diarrhea. Treatment: Allowing no drink
but milk, lime water or quinine water, cures early cases. One-
half teaspoonful sulphate of magnesia dissolved in water, given
once a day, combined with a vegetable diet is recomXuended.
I find chopped raw onions the best food for either chicks or fowls
affected with any kind of liver complaint.

ANAEMIA. 'Causes: Overcrowding, defective light and ven-
tilation, insufficient food. Symptoms: Pallid, lopping comb, white
tongue and mouth, emaciation, languor, scanty voidings. The
term anaemia signifies poverty of blood, general invalidism.

DISEASES. 129

Treatment: Remove causes. Put a tablespoon of Douglass mix-
ture in each quart of drinking water.

DIARRHEA. Causes: Chills, coarse, uncooked, unvaried or
sour food. Symptoms: Continued looseness of bowels and thirst.
Treatment: A little baking soda in their drinking water sweetens
and stimulates; lime similarly used, soothes; alum disinfects;
while liquid carbolic acid, one-half teaspoon to one quart of
water is a regular germ killer. Use whatever one the severity
of the case demands.

DYSENTERY. Causes: Neglected diarrhea, filth. Symp-
toms: A watery discharge, often streaked with blood. Treat-
ment: As above.

CHOLERA. Causes: A contagion which has originated in
filth. Symptoms: Pale combs, afterwards dark, drooping wings,
thirst, weakness, frequent frothy voidings like sulphur and water.
This is distinguished from liver complaints and simple diarrhea
by its rapid execution and spread. Treatment: As for diarrhea.
Joseph Wallace has said there is no sure specific. Prevent by
rigorous cleanliness and by including charcoal and salt in the
food. Allow no one from cholera-infested places to come near
your quarters, nor visit theirs. Isolate every suspected bird.
Kill and burn or deeply bury severe cases. Follow the disease by
thorough whitewashing of hen-houses. Spade up the ground
around, and sprinkle on ashes of slaked lime.

A few years ago, some prominent shippers at Waukegan, 111.,
who often temporarily kept hundreds of fowls crowded in small
yards, gave, what I have tested with the utmost satisfaction, as
their secret of freedom from cholera, the following condition
powder, to be used whenever bowel trouble is apprehended, a
heaping tablespoon or so for four quarts of mash. Equal parts
rosin, alum, sulphur, red pepper, powdered together.

DOUGLASS MIXTURE, the tonic most often recommended
for poultry, is made as follows: Dissolve a pound of copperas
in two gallons of water, then add two ounces sulphuric acid.
Make in a stone jar or jug, and keep well covered or corked.

Diseases of the Oviduct.

EGG BOUND. Causes: A heavy grain diet and lack of ex-
ercise, producing internal fat which clogs the organs and weak-
ens the muscles. Symptoms: Depressed tail, frequent and use-
less visits to the nest. Treatment: Dip a finger in sweet oil or
hen's oil, then introduce it into the vent. Put the hen by her-
self, in a dry place, feed on soft, non-starchy food and warm
water.

SOFT SHELLED EGGS. Causes: In addition to above, over-
doses of spices or patent foods, worm in bowels, ventral gleet,
fright. Treatment: Correct by lime water, oyster shells, cut
bone, and a vegetable diet.

130 POULTRY MANUAL.

Diseases of the Leg and Foot.

LEG WEAKNESS. Causes: Fattening and stimulating, but
not bone-forming food. Lack of gravel. Symptoms: Slow walk-
ing, trembling, then sitting down upon the legs. Females are
more subject than males, heavy than light breeds, and young
than old fowls. Treatment: Bathe the legs daily with tincture
of arnica or Johnson's anodyne liniment. Give a one grain
quinine pill, plenty of gravel, cut bone and vegetable food.

RHEUMATISM. Causes: Same as above, and exposure to
dampness. Symptoms: Fever, swollen, tender joints, drawn up
toes, and final inability to walk. Treatment: Similar to above.
Dr. Sanborn recommends as drink, 15 grains iodide of potassium
in one quart of water.

SCALY LEG. See Parasites.

BUMBLE FOOT. Causes: Jumping from a high perch, or
roosting on a narrow one having sharp edges. Symptoms: Bot-
tom of foot puffed, hot and tender, matter gathers and a tumor
follows. Treatment: Paint with tincture of iodine. If pus has
formed, make a cross-shaped incision in the swelling with a
clean, slender knife, and put the fowl on clean straw a day or so.

BROKEN BONES. Treatment: Immediately kill fowls with
broken wings or thighs, before inflammation starts, and they can
be eaten. Put a bird with broken shank by itself and let alone,
or straighten bone, wind a two-inch cotton bandage around frac-
ture, place two thin pine splints opposite each other, up and
down over the bandage, take two more turns with the lattei,
over splints, cut off cloth and firmly sew end down.

DEPLUMING SCABIES. See Parasites.

FEATHER AND EGG EATING. Causes: Mr. Gilbert's ex-
periments, at the Ottawa Station, demonstrated that lack of
exercise is chief cause, hence the small, nervous breeds are most
troublesome. My experience is that layers always get these
habits first, then teach non-layers, hence some needed food ele-
ments are lacking, like meat, salt, etc. Treatment: See "Hous-
ing" and "Foods."

General Directions.

Learn to recognize and arrest disease early, not wait till
all the symptoms appear, for they may not be present in any one
case.

Several medicines mentioned are poisons, keep them strictly
from children's reach. Never mix nor pour carbolic acid, sul-
phuric acid, etc., with your mouth open. Use earthen or wood-
en dishes, rather than tin, for medicine.

Do not overdose such little creatures as fowls. I found
lime water, which, used two or three days, stops diarrhea, would,
if long continued, produce the same complaint. A little kero-

DISEASES.

131

sene so scattered parasites, that I poured it on, and made my
hens lame and scabby.

If possible, separate every sick bird from the well. Un-
less your fowls are costly, or you wish to experiment, kill in-
stead of doctor, because every 25 cent invalid will cost you $2
in time and medicine, and may never become fit to eat nor
breed from.

Bury or burn the carcasses, because hogs, dogs, and even
hens themselves, will eat them, spreading contagion. Eating
dead hens teaches animals to attack live ones.

"Josh Billings" says, "The best way to cure anything is to
stop it before it happens." Chinese doctors are hired by the
year to keep families well. Their salary only stops when their
patients get ill.

Carefully read the causes of foregoing diseases, and see
whether past or present carelessness is not mainly responsible
and most expensive.

The theory is doubtless familiar and true that air and water
are full of germs which cause and aggravate many diseases. But
science's latest researches prove that normal healthy blood of
any animals is one of the best destroyers of all classes of
germs, and kills in proportion to its quality and richness. The
lesson is plain. Do not reduce that blood by poor shelter, im-
proper food and parsites.

FARM POULTRY

Practical, Successful Methods of Hatching and Rearing the
Farm Flock.

"Counting chickens before they hatch,"is wise, if we count
both what we have and those we expect. A few well cared for
are better than many neglected fowls. I know a man whose
250 hens last year ran him $20 behind, while in his same neigh-
borhood, a woman's 50 hens cleared her over $60. Five times
the poultry we now have will yield us five times our present
profit only if we devote five times the amount of space, care
and study. Begin at the foot of the poultry ladder, climb up,
and never overcrowd quarters.

Prevent broodiness by a varied diet. When P. H. Jacobs
gave his Leghorns heavy grain rations, they were broody.
Brahmas in the next pen, differently fed, were not. The suc-
ceeding year he reversed conditions and results.

I would never break up sitters by immersion in water, since
I have heard of sudden deaths thus caused. Place in a light,
airy room, with plenty of water and a laxative diet, but no
nests. A rooster would divert their thoughts, but all the other
cocks who can get at him will insult and fight him upon his
release from temporary confinement. Broody fowls, treated at
once, break up easiest. When allowed to try sitting for a week
or more they find some prosy elements of work and break up
most permanently.

Suppose you purpose, by culling and selling adults, to make
room for chickens, you can tell age of hens by employing a 25-
cent marker.

Poulterers have told me about using punches for leather,
conductors' punches, etc. I operate upon half-grown chickens,
place their feet on a barrel-head or something solid, and dis-
cover no sign of pain. A tiny circle is taken out of the web be-
tween the toes. By varying position or number of marks, and
remembering their meaning, a flock's whole history can be
written on their feet. An old hen has paler, rougher legs, with
a neck apparently longer from shrinking of shoulders. Large
fowls are rarely profitable after the second year, or smaller
breeds after the third.

Winter layers promise plenty of early sitters, and only early
chickens get mature enough to become winter layers. June and
July chickens grow fast, have size, but not that maturity. I

B^ARM POULTRY. 133

found January hatches would moult by December. March ones
were taken by hawks, which were raising their young then, so
the middle of April is my customary hatching time, which I
would not prolong beyond May 15th.

According to the experiments of C. E. Spires, if the roosters
are separated from hens, during winter, mating should be at
least five days before setting eggs, if none have yet been laid,
and eight days if the hens are already laying, eggs within them
then having various positions and stages of development. Fer-
tility lasts ten to fifteen days after separation.

A dozen hens with a rooster under village conditions, and
twenty-five with him on a farm are very good averages.

My tame hens are good incubators, always hatching over
70 per cent, while old users of wooden incubators claim about
50 per cent average. Ventilation, moisture and temperature
never perplex biddy.

A thorough trial of sprinkling eggs convinced me that it is
not advisable in Wisconsin. In Colorado and dry climates, that
is sometimes done near the close of the hatch with warm water
and at night when the sitter will not be terrified.

Setting the Hen.

Never set a thin egg, because it will break and smear the
others, which must then be wiped off with warm water as quick-
ly as possible, or the chicks inside will smother. While break-
ing eggs for household use, learn to tell thin shells by their feel-
ing. By that method, I had, one year, not a broken egg in any
sitter's nest. A shining shell, though thick, is generally brittle.
I once received eleven chicks from a sitting I selected and my-
self brought home. From the same place a few days later came
a fresher sitting, brought by a boy who swung the basket un-
covered in a cold rain and climbed our fence instead of opening
the gate. There were one flat and two cracked eggs, with an
outcome of seven chicks.

An egg is composed of rings, inside each other, separated by
delicate skins. If these membranes become broken, hatching is
hopeless.

Eggs brought on the cars need to rest a few hours before
setting, so that any portion near rupture, may resume its nor-
mal condition. A Lake Park, Minnesota, lady had good success
with a setting two weeks on its way, around by the Great Lakes.
Quality and care are more than nest fillings, of which I have
tested a great variety. Dry earth with a little hay on top, clean
sand or chaff, and fine shavings are all good. A pet biddy
hatched every egg, eighteen, inside a horse-collar on a bare
board shelf. My favorite filling for every purpose is sawdust,
which retains heat well and shapes easily. An old spoon cleans
off the top at any time.

My favorite number of eggs to set is eleven. Early broods

134 POULTRY MANUAL.

cannot be large or doubled, like summer ones, because coni-
plete covering and warmth are so essential. I like nests not too
dishing, well packed in corners, and warmed before introducing
real eggs, hence drill the biddies a few days on Gourd or China
nest eggs.

As the latter are such cold things to hug a hen's vitals, I
raise Japanese egg gourds. Three months brings them to ma-
turity. They need poor land and late planting, or grow too
large. I wait till T have about a dozen broody hens ready, be-
cause a poulterer can care for that number in the same time he
would fewer. Since a few hens show "ways that are dark and
tricks that are vain," always leave one or two extra or substi-
tute sitters unprovided with real eggs. I tell any sitter dis-
posed to come off her nest irregularly, there are "other fish in
the sea" and other cluckers in the house, then throw her out
and try a substitute. In two or three days, all behave like
clockwork, and I can be gone hours. They seemingly sdy, like
Scott's hero,

"Come one, come all! this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I."

I formerly had and tried a separate sitting room, putting in
drink and grain for the sitters to take at pleasure, but when one
came off, the others imitated her, and they got mixed in nests
and feelings. Now I set them where they choose, because early,
before all get to laying and sitting, there is plenty of room in my
hen-house.

My nests have a narrow front platform, not large enough for
hens to live on, but so that one jumping up m the wrong spot,
can walk along till she finds a suitable place. This illustration
shows my simple protectors for sitters, a wide* shingle held in
place by a brick.

Later I tacked up curtain of cloth or paper, and a neighbor
screwed on side of each nest, a shingle, just loose enough to
shove and tight enough to stay.

Accustom the hens to these protectors. Every morning,
take all the broody ones off together, replace protectors to keep
out layers, and see that the sitters have a dust bath, water, and
plenty of that corn which undesirably fats at other times, but
now maintains just the heat we want. If a sitter appears dull
or shivering I add a little wheat, bread and milk, or something
to sustain her appetite. As they come back, one by one, I open
protectors, and in twenty minutes the work is done for all day.

I mix eggs or chicks, so broods are pretty uniform, hence
no hen can "stick up her nose" at another's chickens and peck
them.

The sitter is dusted with insect powder at frequent intervals
throughout. Grease must never be used on her, because it
spoils the hatch by closing the pores of eggs.

The most critical time is at first. A consecutive twenty-four

FARM POULTRY.

135

hours' heat, insures the best hatches, so I set my trained hens
in the morning, directly after they are fed, but should need to
set wild ones at night.

Taking off the Hatch.

When the 18th or 19th day comes, I no longer take off the
sitters, because the shells are brittle then, and many pipping
chicks would be crushed on biddy's return. Food in a dish or

Hens With Broods on Farm Range.

pan is offered. Some sitters partake gladly, others refuse.
None but an old experienced hand, or one experienced if not
old, should try to find empty shells. Those in plain sight I pull
out, because biddy has her own way of working them to the
edge, and cuddling the chicks near her. I have known hens to
die when set the second or third time, hence never tax biddy
beyond the first sitting.

Chicks need no food for twenty-four hours. Then the
clucker is put under my left arm, her legs held by that hand,
and her chicks are carried in a little basket lined with hay
brought warm from the house. If stormy, a woolen cloth is laid
over. The hay in the coop has also been warmed, is fine, well
packed with a cane, and not deep.

136 POULTRY MANUAL.

Chills is the worst enemy to chicks, and lice comie next,
each severer than improper food, because a healthy, hearty sys-
tem can throw off much of the latter, while a congested or en-
feebled one can do nothing. Keep chicks' toes dry, their backs
warm, and their bodies clean, then they will comb their own
heads.

The coops are whitewashed every fall, and stored away,
ready for instant use in spring. I once whitewashed a coop,
and put in brood same day. They died and the hen nearly. For
an average hen and brood, about four square feet of floor, is
right. My coops are 24x26 inches, 19 inches high and behind, and
22 in front, with 2x4 pieces on the bottom to keep them from
the damp ground.

A floor is necessary to guard against rats and skunks. It
might run in and out, on two cleats, thus being easily cleaned.
An *'A" coop, with doors and floors, is good.

Convenient handles can be made of old harness, and buttons
of wood. Before I had everything buttoned, looked, or other-
wise securely fastened, a few chicks were smashed by slamming
doors. A lath yard with top, and one open end fitting up to or
over the coop makes a han comfortable, yet prevents her drag-
ging a young brood around in dew or storm. With their mother
thus restrained, chicks cultivate a garden finely. I lodge them
in a hen-house at three weeks' age, before they are weaned, so
their mother can introduce and teach them to roost. A tame
hen can be driven in. A wild brood must go into coop, as usu-
al, and after dark be carried to the house. When coops are put
away, the open ends of coop yards are placed together, two and
two, making several complete yards, which I keep full of grain
for chickens to work on. Slats are 2^/^ inches apart.

A Long Poultry House on a Farm Where the Owner Regards

Poultry as One of the Best Paying Departments

of Farm Industry.

FARM POULTRY.

137

Brood Coops For Early Chicks Which May be Well Ventilat-
ed by Raising the Front and Opening the Window.

Half-fledged fowls suffer so from sunburn and lack of shade
that I try to provide sunflower groves.

Feeding the Chicks.

The general principles of feeding, on which I once raised
200 chicks out of 201 hatched, and again 199 out of 207, have
already been given. As a first food for little creatures of every
kind, I find nothing else equals bread and milk. Rolled oatmeal,
cottage cheese, cut bone, custard and onion tops furnish variety.
My favorite pudding, one-third each of shorts, corn meal, and
bran or ground oats, is introduced by degrees. Eggs or lean
meat, boiled and chopped, are rather forcing, hence fed only
every other day. Chop the shell with the egg. If egg shells
are always crushed before thrown out, egg-eating may not thus
be learned. Wheat is cracked in our family coffee mill, till
chicks are able to swallow whole kernels. Corn is not fed till
they are nearly grown, but gravel is constantly around. I do
not sift out the fine for them, but give that the hens have picked
over.

For the first two weeks, chicks do best fed often and little
at a time, five meals a day, then four, then three. A general

138

POULTRY MANUAL.

rule for 100 chicks is 1 quart of food a day the first week, two
quarts of food a day the second week, three quarts a day the
third week, four quarts the fourth, etc. Better give all they
will eat up clean, leaving none mussed nor sour.

Clean boards, shingles or pieces of brown paper make good
tables, for it is a mistaken idea that chicks thrive on filth.

Regularity establishes best health and habits. Fowls will
not then loaf around, waiting for a bite, but dig till their regular
meal-time, and come in a body, each getting its proper share.
It is amusing to see our chickens gather and sing around the
hammock, at four o'clock summer afternoons. They are not
fed there, but know where my father starts from.

The old-fashioned rule of withholding water ten days, I suc-
cessfully followed, but chicks long for drink very early, and
I learned it was mainly the coldness of water or milk that did
the damage to bowels.

Boiled milk, often recommended, is constipating. Clear, raw
milk is the opposite, unless diluted with one-half or one-third
warm water, when we secure a model drink.

A pancake baker, with its shallowness, its rim on which to
perch, and its iron flavor, makes a good drinking dish.

So does a flower pot inverted in its saucer, leaving just a
ring of water. If a fountain is desired, cork the hole in bottom
of pot, notch its rim i/^ an inch in one or two places, fill with
water, turn saucer over lop, and quickly invert the whole. If

A Large Brooding House and Growing Ducks on a Success-
ful Duck Farm.

TURKEYS. 139

you have pans or troughs of water standing around, put in stones
or bricks, that chicks which fall in may get a foothold and not
drown.

Early separate the sexes of precocious breeds, for best
growth. Larger kinds mature slower, hence this is not neces-
sary if cockerels are promptly sold when two or three months
old.

Chickens allowed to roost in trees in pleasant weather,
stay there through fall rains and even till they freeze to the
boughs. A bamboo fishpole as a weapon of dislodgment, fills
a long felt want.

TURKEYS, DUCKS AND GEESE

The Principal Breeds and Their Proper Care and Manage-
ment.

One gobbler to 12 hens is sufficient. Those who change
male birds every year, to avoid the evils of inbreeding, make a
mistake. Secure the best possible gobbler and hens, then keep
them as long as they live and do not fail, selling their progeny
instead. There is such a differnce in turkeys that this is the
only plan which lets a farmer know what he can depend on.

Turkey eggs take 28 days to hatch. Glass or gourd nest-
eggs should be used, and their own eggs gathered daily, dated,
and put on soft cotton or oats. This prevents chilling, and en-
ables us, if there are several hens, to set together those eggs
near an age.

If inclined to steal their nests too far away, shut the turkey
hens up each day till they have laid, or till 10 o'clock, say, then
when let out they will be in such haste and go so directly, that
they can be traced. Old barrels, with a little hay in, and laid
on their sides in fence corners, then decorated with cornstalks,
are especially attractive. If these be fitted over the headless
ends with doors tight at bottom but admitting some air at top,
the turkey hen can sit in the place of her own choosing; other-
wise foxes, skunks and rats would make short work. Turkeys
also like strawstacks and nests under sheds. One Wisconsin
woman has good success by turning all her breeding stock into
a small, dry field enclosed with a tight board fence where they
nest, lay and hatch at pleasure. Of course marauders could
dig under but have not. If all the hens get to sitting, the gobbler
may become so discontented, he must be confined. I once saw
a ferocious old fellow shut in a deer park. My mother, who has
been very successful, says the more petting and handling tur-

140

POULTRY MANUAL.

keys have, the less wild and suspicious they become. Her gob-
blers never disturbed nests, but often assisted in the care of
young. She thinks there is "too much fuss" made about raising
them. Although generally believed that turkeys' eggs need con-
siderable moisture, and should always be set on the ground, or
sprinkled with warm water near the close, we found nothing of
the kind necessary in Wisconsin's reasonably moist climate.
We seldom used hen turkeys as mothers, because they drag their
little ones around so, but put seven to nine eggs apiece under
common hens, set and cooped precisely as for chickens. Be-
cause they stay longer with their young, it is well to set one
turkey hen and coop her near the former, since she will eventu-
ally adopt all the poults and lead them to the fields, which
should always be your own and not your neighbor's land. Fif-
teen eggs are enough for her, and there can be little doubling of
broods, because complete covering and warmth are so essential
to the poult's welfare.

If a turkey hen is uneasy when she begins hatching, she
should be quieted by feeding her on the nest, from the hand.
The little ones require nothing for 24 or 36 hours. Bread and
milk, not sloppy, is unsurpassed as a first food. Having more
wild nature than chickens, they especially need green food, like
chopped onion and lettuce, and animal food, like curd, shaved
bone, lean meat and eggs. Corn meal preparations must always^
be scalded. Green oats, new corn, sour milk, etc., are especially

Mongrel Geese Being Fattened For the Holiday Market.

TURKEYS.

141

.^%

C^'

vl

'Indian Runner Ducks, Called the Leghorns of the Duck Family.

dangerous. A common hen teaches the little ones to eat better
than their own mother does. We may feed them much as chick-
ens, only more carefully and lighter because, exercise is abso-
lutely necessary for turkeys.

Coops.

ZYz feet square, SVz feet high in front, and 2^4 behind, are
large enough for turkey mothers, which some confine for about
two weeks, till the poults are able to walk far and well. Others
make a board pen one or two feet high, which holds the little
ones, and their mother will not go far away. A light board
tied over shoulders to prevent flying leaves the bird at the
mercy of dogs. As the safest, happiest arrangement, I commend
a small yard, wired in overhead and all, where mothers and off-
spring can be together. Frequently move coop and yard and
when the poults are old enough for general liberty, never let
them wander about in the dew, and be sure to get them in be-
fore a storm and every night. Start early, while they are yet
feeding, and can be discovered, do not step on the little crea-
tures lying flat, perhaps at their mother's warning command,
accustom them to the sound of your voice calling and always
give a good supper when you get them back. A turkey raiser,
when tired, must be able to walk two miles more, any time.

142 POULTRY MANUAL.

Water dishes should be shallow at first, because little
"turks" are rather simple. I once had one drown even in an
oyster can, lying on its broad side, of course.

Though the hardiest of fowls later, poults succumb much
quicker than chickens do, to dew, rain, chills, improper food
and lice. They frequently die from applications of grease, so
be liberal with insect powder, and look for lice on quill end of
feathers, upper and under sides of wings.

Samuel Cushman, of Rhode Island, tried a shed, and found
that the turkeys, when about one-third grown, roosted on fences
and trees, were much healthier. The sickliest turkeys I ever
saw had a fine house. I should enjoy trying a shed with roof
only, like a band stand, because rains are bad and jumping from
high trejs is injurious.

Rearing Ducks and Geese.

One drake is usually assigned to five ducks. Geese prefer
to live in pairs. When laying these fowls should be confined at
night and held till their eggs, which they generally lay every-
.where, are secured. Otherwise they are not fastened in at
night, because they sometimes feed by moonlight.

Hatching, etc. Though good incubators, geese and ducks
are poor mothers, hence it is better to set their eggs under,
hens. Ducks' eggs usually hatch in 28 or 29 days; geese eggs
need from 29 to 31. Rats are fond of the young, hence a coop
having a board floor covered with sand, is best.

Water dishes must be deep enough for them to bathe their
heads, or nostrils will get clogged with sand, and beaks with
food. The best food we have ever found for young ducklings is
one part hard boiled egg, and three parts stale bread crumbs,
the first three or four days; after that, equal parts of wheat
bran, cornmeal, boiled potatoes, with a little beef scraps thrown
in. Cornmeal exclusively is too concentrated, and will cripple
them in their legs and feet. The Long Island breeders add
about a pint of coarse sand to the mash for grit purposes.

Geese and ducks are remarkably healthy and hardy after the
first three or four weeks, during which they should not be al-
lowed to swim nor get wet in dew and showers. Afterward a
pond or marsh land is better than a running stream, on which
they may stray or get stolen. The presence or absence of water
makes no difference in weight, but does add to their cleanliness
and happiness. Mr. Rankin says, "My ducks never see water,
except to drink, the year round. They are confined in yards
24x100 feet, some 40 in each yard, 24 feet square being size of
pens inside of breeding houses. They are confined in these
yards for nine months, or till August 1st, when they are re-
moved that the land may be disinfected. This is done by plow-
ing and growing a crop of barley or rye, when the land is ready
for the ducks again." A double yard, with geese or ducks

bUCKS AND GEESE.

143

A Consignment of Chicks, Duelcs and Geese As Tliey Arrive
In the Storerooms of the Wholesaler.

spending a fortnight in each part alternately, is a good plan,
half an acre to each family of goslings. They are so hardy that
they would sit among the cattle, under the latter's sheds, but
there they would be in great danger of being stepped on, hence
better have their own pens, heavily bedded with hay on an
earthen floor. The duck is a home bird, but the goose rambles
over and injures grain fields. Both, though no scratchers, pull
and strip leaves, and tread down the vegetable garden. They
are not good companions for chickens, because they eat very
greedily, and muss their food and water dishes so. Geese are
not constituted to be reared in such large flocks, as ducks, be-
cause they require more pasture, or else will crop it so close
as to injure the sod. All kinds of vegetables, coarsely cut up
eke the grass supply. "For about 20 days after shutting up,
market goslings, feed them mainly cornmeal mixed with beef
scraps, about i^ scraps, and, at night, whole corn. We mix the
meal and scraps together while dry, pour boiling water over, and
stir till thoroughly mingled. Give them fresh, clean water to
drink, and have a box of grit or clean, sharp sand by them."

It will do to pick geese two or three times a year, when-
ever the feather is "ripe," which will be known by examining.

144 POULTRY MANUAL.

If it is bloodless and pulls easily, it is ready to pluck, but if fill-
ed with blood it is "green" and not mature. Commonly, wben
ready to pluck the feathers drop more or less. It is a simple
and sure protection to draw an old stocking over a goose's head
during the operation.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦^♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦^

t r^TMlt^tZ ^ HATCHING AND ♦
♦ ^mV/IVO REARING. I

A Manual of Dependable Instruction in Incubating,
Brooding, Feeding, Housing and Developing Winners and
Layers; Fattening and Dressing Market Chickens.

This is a new book, up-to-date thrc ighout and will
enable its readers to avoid losses that spoil the profits
and to grow bigger, better chicks, for market, exhibition
or breeding. Following are the subjects of a few of the
chapters:

Conditions That Affect Fertility; How to Build an
Incubator House; Success with Incubators; Hatch-
ing and Rearing the Chicks; Artificial Hatching and
Rearing; Portable Brooder Houses; Brooding and
Feeding; Hatching and Rearing with Hens; Summer
Care of Young Stock; Care of Growing Chicks; Dry
Feeding; The Broiler Business; Fattening the Cock-
erels; Killing and Picking; The Profitable Soft
Roaster Industry; etc., etc.

Every poultry keeper should own this book whether he raises a dozen or five
thousand chicks each season. Well-hatched, well-grown, healthy chicks are the
most profitable and the diff'erence in the selling value of one chick will pay for the
book. It contains 128 pages, has a handsome cover and is completely illustrated.
Price 25 cents, postpaid. Address

WEBB PUBLISHING CO.,

ST. PAVL, MINN,

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TlMATEUR.

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THE GOLD MINE IX THE FRONT YARD, by C. S. Harrison. A book

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VEGETABLE GARDENING, by Samuel B. Green. 7th edition. A manual on
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WEBB PUBLISHING CO,, ST. PAUL. MINNESOTA

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5 FARM WIND-BREAKS AND SHELTER
5 BELTS, by Samuel B. Green. A manual of

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Y culture, written with special reference to

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FIVE HUNDRED QUESTIONS ANSWERED X
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