REESE LI
BRA'RY
UNIVERSITY. OF CALIFORNIA.
Received.. *~/K'Z/7e4t_,i8f6>
Accessions No.^.O.// . Shelf No...
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL BREEDS
AND THEIE
PROFITABLE MANAGEMENT.
PBOFUSBLY ILLUSTRATED.
NEW YORK:
OBANGE JUDD COMPANY,
751 BROADWAY.
1889.
S
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by
DAVID W. JUDD,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
THE experience of poultry -raisers is multifarious. No
one person's knowledge covers the whole range of ex-
periences. The present volume is intended to supply a
want in poultry literature which can only be compassed
by the comparison of the views of many. The results
have in some cases been previously chronicled; in others
they are now presented for the first time to the public.
Through the entire range of this country, extending
from the polar circle to the tropics, poultry are now
raised with profit. The Publishers believe that no
poultry-raiser, whatever his country or latitude, can pe-
ruse this volume without both profit and pleasure,
while for the novice in poultry-raising it will form a
useful and convenient handbook. Among those who
have assisted the Publishers in its preparation are T. M.
Ferris and M. 0. Weld. P. H. Jacobs contributes the
chapter on artificial incubation.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PUBLISHER'S PKEPACE 3
CHAPTER I.
Poultry Raising 7
CHAPTER II.
Convenient and Good Poultry Houses 13
CHAPTER III.
Special Purpose Poultry Houses 25
CHAPTER IV.
Poultry House Conveniences 31
CHAPTER V.
Natural Incubation 46
CHAPTER VI.
Care of Chickens — Coops for them 64
- CHAPTER VII.
Artificial Incubation 65
CHAPTER VIII.
Preparing for Market 80
CHAPTER IX.
Eggs for Market 86
CHAPTER X.
Caponizing — How it is done 93
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6 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XL
Poultry Keeping as a Business
CHAPTER XII.
Hints about Management 101
CHAPTER XIII.
Some Popular Breeds 121
CHAPTER XIV.
Asiatic Breeds 123
CHAPTER XV.
European Breeds 136
CHAPTER XVI.
American Breeds 168
CHAPTER XVII.
Diseases of Poultry 178
CHAPTER XVIII.
Parasites upon Poultry 189
CHAPTER XIX.
Raising Turkeys 193
CHAPTER XX.
Raising Geese 310
CHAPTER XXI.
Raising Ducks 218
CHAPTER XXII.
Ornamental Poultry - 285
CHAPTER XXIII.
Theory and Practice 247
INDEX — Alphabetical 255
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DIVERSITY
V n*. :£*•..»
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
CHAPTER I.
POULTRY RAISING.
No other business connected with agricultural pursuits,
seems so attractive as poultry farming. Even those who
fail in the business and retire from it, aver that they are
certain they could succeed in a new trial. At the start,
the general idea is that the business consists of throwing
out corn to a flock of hens with one hand, and gathering
eggs with the other. But while this may be true in some
cases, it is very different in others. The expert poultry
raiser may perhaps meet with no difficulty, and all may
go on smoothly, but the novice is in trouble from the
first ; the eggs are few, and the chicks die. One may
easily keep ten or twelve fowls with profit, who could not
double or treble this number successfully, because with a
large number all the difficulties which arise, such as
want of cleanliness, the presence of vermin, impure air,
and risk of infection, increase in a much larger ratio than
does the number in the flock. But if one has succeeded
with a small flock, there is no reason why he should not
be able to do so with several flocks, if each is kept in just
the same manner as the original one. Afterwards the
flocks may be enlarged, but as this is the very point on
which most of the younger poultry raisers fail, the great'
est caution should be observed in adding to the number
of fowls kept in each coop or house, or yard.
8 PROFITS IK POULTRY,
THE BEST BREED FOR MARKET PURPOSES.
What follows in this chapter is from E. A. Samuels
of Massachusetts: I find it very difficult to answer
the question : " Which breed of fowls do you recommend
as being the best for market purposes ? " for it is almost
impossible to lay down as a guide any rule, or name any
particular breed, or cross, or variety which will net the
best results in every market. A great deal depends upon
the locality where the breeder is situated, and it also de-
pends upon whether the breeder desires "broilers," or
early or late " roasters."
In the Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York mar-
kets, as well as among the Paris and London dealers,
chickens with white or light skin are preferred to those
with yellow skin, and consequently the Dorkings, Black
Spanish, Houdans, and other white skinned varieties or
their crosses always bring the best prices, and are in the
quickest demand, while in the Boston and the other New
England cities, and in Chicago, and perhaps some of the
other large western cities, where any decided preference
has been expressed, the yellow-skinned birds are in the
greater demand.
In the Boston markets and hotels a lot of bright, yel-
low-skinned chickens will always command a better price
than will a lot of white-skinned birds, although the two
lots may have been fed precisely alike, and be in equally
as good condition ; this I have proved repeatedly, so that,
as I before stated, a great deal depends upon the intended
market.
Many persons believe that the color of the chicken's
skin is governed largely by the kind of food the birds are
provided with; believing that yellow Indian corn will
produce a yellow-skinned chick, while wheat or oats will
cause the skin to be white. Although there may be some
little reason for this belief, I think that it cannot be re-
Jir
POUMB* BABHlKk
garded as of much importance, for a lot of chickens of
different varieties, if fed and reared in the same pen, will
exhibit all shades of color in the skin from yellow to
white. It seems natural to some breeds to secrete a fat
that is yellow, while other breeds secrete a fat that has
but little tint.
A great deal has been written in regard to the merits
of different breeds of fowls, and people are, generally,
pretty well acquainted with the characteristics of each,
so that it would seem almost an act of supererogation
here for me to dwell upon this topic, did not my experi-
ence in a measure differ from that of many writers.
From extended and careful observation, I have arrived at
the following conclusions :
If a breeder intends to raise chickens for the Philadel-
phia and other first-named series of markets, a cross of
Plymouth Kock cock, one year old, on a two-year-old
Light Brahma hen, produces the most desirable early
" roasters ;" a pure-blood Plymouth Eock mating gives
the best "broilers " and late " roasters." In fact for my
own table I prefer Plymouth Eock chickens, either as
broilers or roasters, to all others. Of course, at present,
Langshans and Wyandottes are too valuable to be taken
into account as table fowls.
Next to the above matings, for the markets named, a
cross between a yearling Black-breasted Game and White
or Buff Cochin, makes desirable broilers, but not so quick
selling as those first named.
In my experience, the principal objection to Plymouth
Rocks and their crosses lies in their dark pin-feathers,
which abound in the skin of broilers, and are very diffi-
cult to be removed, and when they are taken out thor-
oughly the skin is often badly broken and marred by the
picker.
For the Boston and other markets named in the sec-
ond list, I find that for broilers a cross between a. year-
10 PROFITS IN POULTHY.
ling White Leghorn cock, on a two-year-old Light
Brahma hen, is by all odds most desirable. The chicks
mature very rapidly ; they are plump and full-breasted
at nine to twelve weeks old ; they have a bright, yellow
skin, and no dark pin- feathers.
I prefer a two-year-old hen to breed from for the reason
that her chickens are larger and more vigorous than are
those of a yearling, and they mature much more quickly.
Next in value for broilers in these markets to this cross,
in the succession they are named, are the pure-blood Light
Brahma, Plymouth Rock, White or Buff Cochin, and
cross of Brown Leghorn on Partridge Cochin, all of the age
of from ten to twelve weeks old if hatched in January Or
February, or nine to eleven weeks old if hatched in
March or April, they growing a little more rapidly then
than the earlier hatched birds. For early roasters, for
these markets, I prefer a cross of Plymouth Rock year-
ling cock on Light Brahma hen, the latter furnishing
the large frame- work on which the blood of the former
builds a full-breasted, quick-maturing fine-meated bird.
Light Brahma cockerels, nine to twelve months old, make
good and marketable roasters, but they are not so profit-
able to raise as the cross I have named.
MANAGEMENT AND FEED.
As much depends on the management of the chickens,
however, as on the characteristics of the different breeds.
A good poultryman may, with poor stock, succeed better
than would a bad manager with the best of stock.
It is of great importance, in raising chickens, that they
should be well supplied with a variety of food. " Short
commons " does not pay in chicken raising. The com-
mon custom is to keep a dish of " Indian meal dough "
mixed up, and three times a day a lot is thrown down to
the chickens. If they eat it, well and good ; if not, and
the«chances are they will not, having become tired of one
POULTRY RAISING. 11
single article of diet set before them day after day, it
stands and sours. If a quantity is thus found uneaten,
the next meal is likely to be a light one, and the chickens,
driven by hunger, finally devour the sour stuff. The re-
sult is cholera or some other fatal disease sets in and their
owner wonders why his chickens are dying off. In my
own practice I find that small quantities of varied food,
if given to the chickens often, produce vastly better re-
sults than any other method of feeding.
On no account, do I permit young chickens to be fed
with Indian meal dough. For the first morning meal I
give all my young stock boiled potatoes mashed up fine
and mixed with an equal quantity of Indian meal and
shorts. I find nothing so good and acceptable as this
food, and I use only small unmarketable potatoes ; they
prove more profitable than anything else I can employ.
I have had many hundreds of chickens at one time in
my houses, varying in size from those but a few days old
to others large enough for the table, and positively no
other article of " soft food " was eyer given to them ; and
I venture to say a more healthy and thrifty lot of chick-
ens could not be found. When, in days gone by, I used
to feed to the young stock the traditional " dough," I
always counted on losing a large percentage, and the
numbers that died from cholera, diarrhoea and kindred
diseases, were great. Now a sick chicken is a rarity in
my yards. After the potato mash is disposed of I give
my chickens all the fine cracked corn they will eat up
clean. Of course large chickens, those which are ten or
twelve weeks old, can be fed with corn coarser cracked,
but the young birds want it very fine. In about two hours
after the cracked corn is eaten, I give all the wheat
screenings the chicken will eat, and in another two hours,
some oats. For supper they have all the cracked corn
and wheat they can eat. It is of the utmost importance
that the young birds should, at the close of the day, have
12 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
full crops ; for the nights in the winter and early spring
are long, and as soon as the chickens have digested all
their food they stop growing for the time being. I always
make it a point to feed them as late in the afternoon as
they can see, and as early in the morning.
By the above described system of feeding, the chickens
are constantly tempted by a variety of healthy food, and
the result is a rapid growth and perfect immunity from
disease. If abundance of grass is not accessible to them,
young chickens should have fed to them at least one meal
a day of glass and clover chopped fine with a pair of
scissors. In winter I give my chickens cabbages, throw-
ing in whole heads for the birds to pick at,
CHAPTER II.
CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES.
A VERY CHEAP HEN HOUSE.
Experience has proved that twenty fowls, properly
housed, provided with suitable food, pure water, clean
nest boxes, plenty of dust, lime in some form, and gravel,
will return more clear profit than fifty, kept as they gen-
erally are upon farms. Suggest a good poultry house to
the average farmer, and frequently there arises in his
mind the image of an elaborate affair costing one hun-
dred, to one hundred and fifty dollars. Not being able
to spare that amount for such a purpose, he goes without,
and his poultry, exposed to the inclemencies of the
Fig. 1.— A CHEAP HEN HOUSE.
weather, are a dead expense fully two-thirds of the year,
eating valuable food constantly and yielding nothing in
return. A poultry house large enough to properly shelter
twenty fowls can be erected at a very small cost. We give
an engraving of one, all the materials of which, witli the
exception of the sash, cost three dollars and eighty-five
cents. The sash was taken from a hot-bed that is used
for sprouting sweet potatoes late in the spring. When
the sash is required for the hot-bed the season is mild and
the opening is covered with boards. This structure is
nine feet wide, twelve feet long, and five feet high in the
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14 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
center. The short side of the roof is two feet long, and
the long side, which fronts south and comes to within
eighteen inches of the ground, is seven feet. At the fur-
ther end the roof boards extend over an opening made for
the fowls to pass in and out. The perches are one foot
above the floor and extend along the north side of the
interior. The bottom board on that side is hung with
hinges so it can be raised, and the droppings under the
perehes scraped out. The nest boxes are ranged along the
low side, the dust box is placed in the sunniest spot, and
the feed and water troughs near the door. One pane
of glass in the sash is loose so that it may be moved
down for ventilation. The floor should be covered with
sand when obtainable, if not, with straw, chaff, or other
similar material that can be raked out when soiled. The
whole interior should be given a coat of fresh lime white-
wash at least four times a year, and .the perches swabbed
with kerosene. Hens kept in this house lay steadily all
winter. The poultry house here described is easily cleaned,
and answers the purpose nearly as well as one costing
twenty times as much.
A WARM FOWL HOUSE.
Eggs in winter are what we all want. To secure them
we must have for our hens a warm, snug house, easily
kept clean, with provision for dusting, feed, water and
exercise. To consider these requirements in the order
named, we have first warmth as an important desidera-
tum. Artificial heat has rarely been found profitable,
hence we will not consider it. The fowls must depend
for their warmth upon the sun, the natural heat of the
earth, and the temperature of their own bodies. If we
notice a flock of chickens, we shall see that they warm
AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES.
15
themselves by huddling together, by crowding on their
roosts, by sitting flat upon the ground, and by standing
or sitting in the sun. We must therefore employ all
these ways to secure that warmth, without which we
shall have few eggs, with no less or even greater expense
for food.
Fowls suffer most from cold at night. In fact, nights
are almost always colder than the days, and it is fortu-
nate that by night when it is cold, we have less wind.
A poultry house to be warm, must be close and tightly
made, yet with good ventilation, for if warm and ill-ven-
tilated, the birds may be suffocated. This has not un-
Figs. 2 and 3.— SECTIONS OP BOOSTING BOOM.
frequently occurred. By the accompanying section and
plans (figs. 3 and 4), we secure warmth from every
source. Too much sunlight is often disadvantageous,
hence the low roof without windows. The windows (w),
admit sunlight upon the floor and dust box. The house
is twelve feet square, divided by a partition of boards.
This leaves the two apartments each six feet wide. It is
intended for less than twenty to thirty adult fowls. The
perches (r), are five feet long each, so that thirty fowls
will be pretty well crowded upon them. The full hight
of the house is nine feet, in order to give the roof a good
16 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
pitch, but within a ceiling is placed at the hight five and
a half to six feet. This may be of slats, or plastering
lath, placed the width of a lath apart, and in the winter
the space above may be filled loosely with straw. Thus,
with ventilating doors above, there can be no direct draft
upon the fowls. In such a room there will always be a
circulation of air. The air warmed by the bodily heat
and the breadth of the fowls, rises into the upper part of
the room. There is a constant current of cool air flowing
down against every window, and this causes a circulation
— up through the roosts, down by the window. After a
while the air may become charged with carbonic acid gas
from the breath of the fowls. This is heavier than the
air, hence would, after being chilled by the window, not
be likely to rise, but would in part flow off into the other
compartment, through the passage for the fowls near the
window. The closeness of the quarters for the number
of fowls stated, will secure a high temperature at night,
provided the walls and roof are reasonably tight, without
danger. Perhaps the best way to secuie a warm roof is
the following : lay first a roof of hemlock boards, laid
with the slope ; upon these, shingling laths, and shingles.
This secures an air space an inch thick under the shingles,
in addition to the board roof. So constructed, no rafters
would be needed, but one scantling, set edgeways and
supported by posts in the middle of each side, and in the
partition, to make the roof stiff.
The roosting-room is supplied with a large dust-box,
always well filled, and two ranges of nest boxes, with
sloping tops, as shown in figure 2. The chickens can not
stand on these tops, and being set on each side of the
room, they are made to support the roosts, which should
not be higher than two feet, or two and a half feet from
the floor. The best form of roost is made by taking two
straight grained, smooth pine sticks, two inches wide and
one inch thick, and nailing them together "["-fashion.
AND GOOD POULTHY HOUSES. 17
If the top edges of the cap piece are rounded off by a
plane, the result will be a stiff, strong perch, which will
not disfigure the breast-bones of fowls, and which will
keep their feet warm.
This apartment should be cleaned out every morning.
To do this the perches are taken up, cleaned off with a
wooden knife or scraper, and set in one corner. The
roofs of the nest boxes are cleaned off with the same im-
plement, and after scattering a little of a mixture of road-
dust and plaster over the floor, all is swept up and put
o
o
J n
Fig. 4.— PLAH OF FOWL HOUSE.
in a barrel. Then a small layer of dust is scattered over
the floor under the roosts, which however are not replaced
until evening, or say three or four o'clock, when the last
gathering of eggs is made.
We have considered the matter of warmth, and inci-
dentally that of dusting, and in part of cleanliness. The
day compartment is as light as we can. conveniently make
it. It ought to have a cement, or hard clay floor, well
pounded down. Cement is preferable. The water foun-
tain (w) should be cleaned and filled daily. If there is
18 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
danger of its freezing, the water may be thrown out as
soon as the fowls are on the roosts, and refilled with tepid
water at daylight in the winter mornings. Three feed
boxes are sufficient, one for soft feed, one for ground
oyster shells, and one for ground bone. Grain should be
fed upon the floor, and preferably at evening. This
brings us to consider the last of our list of requirements,
namely, exercise. To secure this, cover the floor with
chopped straw to the depth of three inches, and scatter
the grain upon this. Feed at such an hour that the
chickens will not have time to find it all before it is dark,
and this will be an inducement for them to get up early
and go to scratching. Some provision of this kind is very
important when fowls can not have much range and out-
of-door exercise on account of snow and rain. In winter
a dry outside run is very important. It is best provided
by a long, low, lean-to roof, on the south side of an east
and west fence. The sun should, even at noon, reach all
the ground under the shed. If such a house as we have
indicated, be built against a hillside, somewhat sunken
perhaps ; and earth banked up against the sides, except
where windows come, will add greatly to its warmth.
CONVENIENT AND CHEAP POULTRY HOUSE.
Those who need a cheap building, and can do the
greater part of the work themselves, will find the following
plan excellent. The center of the building (see fig. 5),-
is 10x10 feet, and is six feet to the eaves. The wings are
each 8x6x4 feet. Either of the three parts may be built
first, and the others may be added from time to time.
No posts are used in building it. The sills, 3x4 inches,
and 10 feet long, and are mortised and put together in
place ; the plates, 3x4 inches, and 10 feet long, are put
CONVENIENT AND GOOD POULTRY HOUSES. 19
on the sills ; then eight boards are cut six feet long, four
of them with the angle at the top to correspond with the
pitch of the roof. These are nailed to the sills, and
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L-J—I — 11 — |
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FRONT
Fig. 5.— GROUND PLAN OP POULTRY HOUSE.
those in front and back nailed to the edges of those on
the ends. Then four sticks are cut each five feet six
inches long, the plate is raised up, a stick put under it
6.— FRONT ELEVATION OF POULTRY HOUSE.
on the sill, in each corner : the boards axe then nailed to
it, and the frame is raised ; boarded, and battened, and
it is strong enough. The roosts are arranged as in figure
5 ; the piece, (7, rests on the plates, and is held in place
20 PROFITS IN POULTEY.
by cleats, and acts as a hinge. The pieces, D, are secured
to it, and the roosts, B, to them. At A is a ring bolt,
and overhead a hook. When the house is to be cleaned
out, the roosts are raised and hooked up, and are six feet
high, so there is no trouble in working under them. The
door, E, is 6x3 feet. In each wing there are two rows
of nests, each nest 18x18x12 inches, 12 in a row, 24 in each
wing, and 48 in all ; the bottom of the lower row is two
feet from the ground, and under it are five coops on each
side, in each wing, twenty in all, (18x18x20 inches).
These are closed inside with slats, and each one is inde-
Fig. 7.— END ELEVATION. Fig. 8.— SECTION.
pendent, and entered from the outside, as shown in fig-
ures 6 and 7. The entrances to the nest-rooms are in the
doors, as in figure 7. Figure 8 is an inside view of one
of the wings, showing the interior arrangement of one
side. The two windows in front, one in each wing, three
doors, and twenty-three entrances for the fowls, will give
sufficient ventilation, but if more is needed, small doors
or windows, 18x18 inches, can be put above the plates, in
the ends of the center building. The cupola is not nec-
essary, but it allows the foul air to escape ; it costs about
a day's work for a handy man, and is built of scraps.
The roof need not, of necessity, be shingled.
CHAPTER III.
SPECIAL-PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES.
A VEEY COMPLETE POULTRY HOUSE.
The very complete yet simple plan for a poultry house
on the following pages was submitted by Charles H. Col-
burn, of New Hampshire, in competition for prizes offered
by the publishers, and received the highest award. It is
built with the windows to the south. Fig. 9, a, is a door
eighteen inches square for putting in coal ; b is a place
for early chickens ; c, boxes for oyster shells and ground
bone ; d, movable coops for hens with chickens. The
inside doors are at e, e, e, e ; boxes for soft feed at g, g,
and bins for grain are at A, h. A scuttle for the drop-
pings is placed at i, in the passage-way, under which is a
receiving box, and a track laid to the door/. This door
is hung with T -hinges, and opened only for the passage
of the box. A ventilating hole is left in the door. The
nests for setting hens are at k ; lobby for the hens at I,
and small ten by twelve-inch openings through the wall
for hens to enter the yards, are shown at m. Other sim-
ilar openings for hens pass from yard to yard are at n.
A small coal stove, 0, is used to cook feed and for heat-
ing rooms in the coldest weather. Lead pipes, p, boxed
up and packed with sawdust, run under the floor of the
passage-way from the water tank to the end pens, where
a faucet is attached and regulated that water will fall into
dishes. The windows are at g, nine by twelve-inch glass ;
each sash is arranged to raise. The roosts, r, are one and
a half by three inches, and rounded on the edge. The
platform, s, under the roosts, is three feet wide, with a
two-inch strip on the front ; the whole may be covered
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PROFITS
POULTKY.
with zinc if desired. There are two rows of nests, t,
under the roosts, made with movable bottoms and sides,
and may be taken out and cleaned from the passage-way.
There are eight doors opening into the passage-way, that
eggs may be gathered without going into the pens. Two
long doors (one by seven and a half feet), hung with
T-hinges, open upward, through which droppings can be
easily removed. A water tank, u, holding a few gallons,
is boxed up and packed in sawdust. There is a ventila-
Fig. 9.— PLAN OP THE POULTRY HOUSE.
tor in the center of the roof that can be opened or closed
by a cord from the passage-way. A double set of drawers,
v, for holding eggs, may be made over the grain bins. A
lattice door, w, is built in the wall for chickens, with a
tight door in the outside that can be fastened up or down
as desired. Small chickens may be fed from the outside
by sliding the window, and from inside by letting down
a board over the coops, or by opening a small door in the
back of the coop. Over the sink, z, is a board (eighteen
SPECIAL-PUKPOSE POtfLTKY HOUSES.
by thirty-six inches) with hinges, to be raised up as a side
table for holding fowls while being dressed. A cupboard
9
£
I
under the sink holds the knives, lantern, etc. At one end
of the cupboard is a box for oyster shells and ground
bone. A pail is set at y to catch the blood when fowls
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
are killed. Over this pail, screwed into the rafter, is a
hook with cord attached, to hang up the poultry by the
legs, and a cord with a loop in it and a window weight.
to be put over the fowl's neck before being struck with
an axe. A small passage under the walk, is for fowls to
enter the yard.
This poultry house can be built for $165.70, and when
lathed and plastered will cost twenty-five dollars more.
SPECIAL PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES. $6
It may be constructed for $130 by having the studding
and rafters 22 inches apart, instead of 16 inches, and by
setting it on posts and planked up two feet, in place of
brick underpinning. The following are the estimates
of material :
1 M Square Edge Boards for outside $12.00
150 ft. Matched Spruce for entry floor 2.25
400 ft. Pine Sheathing for partitions, platforms, and
doors 7.20
100 pieces If by £ Pine for open work of partitions and
caps 50
480 Chimney Brick 2.40
Lime and laying brick 2.00
400 Spruce Clap-boards, laid 4 inches to weather 7.00
3i M Shingles 7.70
Ontside Door and Frame, 2£ by 6£ 2.25
8 Windows and Frames, 9 by 13, glass 16.00
4 Sashes over Dusting Room 8.00
30 ft. of Capping 30
Hardware, including zinc, nails, locks, hinges, cords, etc. 10.00
175 ft. Pine Boards for nests, boxes, etc 3.75
1168 ft. Timber 16.25
Labor 20.00
Painting 10.00
4MBrick 22.00
Lime, Cement, and laying brick 10.00
Iron Sink 1.25
155 ft. Pine Finish for outside 3. 10
23 Matched and Grooved Boards over Dusting Room. . . 1.75
Total.. $165.70
HALF UNDERGROUND FOWL HOUSE.
The Poultry-House, Fig. 12, is intended to be four feet
below the surface of the ground. In this case the bot-
tom should be well drained, at least a foot in depth be-
neath the wall, and the house must be kept well venti-
26 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
lated, to avoid dampness, which is the most injurious
thing possible for fowls. If perfectly dry such a house
would be unobjectionable. As to interior arrange-
ments, there should be an entrance as shown at «, fig. 13,
opening on to a plank extending the whole length of the
Fig. 12.— EXTERIOR OF POULTRY-HOUSE.
building, from which the fowls can reach the roosting
poles. Beneath the poles there should be a sloping par-
tition^ upon which the droppings may collect and slide
down to the plank-walk already mentioned. From this
they should be swept off every day, and carried away.
To prevent the droppings from clinging to the partition,
it should be well dusted every day with dry plaster, road
dust, or sifted coal ashes. Beneath the plank walk let
the partition extend to the floor, dividing the house into
two apartments. At the front of the house a row of nest
boxes, supported by braces, as seen at b, should be made.
The rear partition may be devoted to hatching and rear-
SPECIAL PURPOSE POULTRY HOUSES. 27
ing chickens, a door at the further end of it opening into
the front apartment. This would make an excellent
poultry house for a village lot, being cheap, plain, and
including many conveniences under one roof. The sash
in front sloping to the south, would keep the house
Fig. 13.— SECTION OF POULTRY HOUSE.
warm during winter, and with proper care to feed the
fowls well, and keep the house perfectly clean, eggs
might reasonably be expected all the winter.
PORTABLE POULTRY-HOUSE.
A movable poultry-house is by no means novel, it
having been described and used years ago. Geyelin des-
cribed one which was used in grain fields in France to
gather the scattered grain after harvest. This was con-
structed something like one of those vans used in trans-
porting animals kept in traveling menageries. It was
20 feet long, about 7 feet wide, and the same in height.
POULTRY.
A set of steps was fixed at one end for the fowls to enter
and leave, and nest-boxes and roosts were provided within.
Several of these houses were drawn to the field, and one
of them was furnished with a small apartment for the
keeper who attended to the fowls. A large number of
fowls could be accommodated in one of these houses, as
they were intended to be cleaned daily, and the drop-
pings scattered upon the ground around them as they
were moved from place to place each day.
An excellent house of this kind was designed by R.
Fig. 14.
Sproule of Pennsylvania, and a view of it is given in figure
14. It is of wood, and as will be seen, is mounted upon an
axle and a pair of wheels. By means of a pair of levers,
raised to the position shown by the dotted lines, the
house is lifted, and made to rest wholly upon the wheels,
so that it can be moved from place to place as desired.
Figure 15 shows the ground plan, with the boxes for
feed, water, and gravel. These are secured to the sills
and are kept clean by a sloping cover of small rod P. The
house is 10 feet long by 5 feet wide, and as high as may
SPECIAL PURPOSE POULTET
be necessary. The nest boxes, 16 inches square and 4
inches deep, are secured to the upper corners of the en-
closure, a small door being provided for reaching the
eggs. The roosting poles are so arranged that the fowls
can easily climb from one to the other. The enclosure is
JL33J 9
FEED BOX
ROOST POLES
NEST
BOX
DOOR
NEST
BOX
Fig. 15.
made of oak rods and rails which are bored to receive
the rods. Any cheaper method of construction may be
used.
The size of the house may be 5x10, or 4x8 feet, and 5
feet high to the eaves. The sills are made of Ijx3 inch
30 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
stuff, laid flat down, halved together at the corners, and
nails driven through upward into the ends of the posts.
The corner posts are 3x3 inches, the middle ones are
3x4 inches. Each is properly mortised to receive the
rails of the open sections. A light cornice, or a 2£-inch
band, is securely nailed around the top, a little above
the eaves, leaving sufficient room for the roof boards to
pass under between the band and the upper rail. To
the back side of this band is nailed the balustrade, each
piece having its ends toe-nailed to the posts. A light
ridge pole is attached at each end to the balustrade near
the top, which forms a double-pitch flat roof. This is
made of one thickness of f-inch boards, the same as the
enclosed sides. The upper section at the end, over the
feed trough, is hung with hinges for a door through
which to place feed, etc. The levers have their fulcrum
ends resting on the axle, and are bolted on it. About
12 inches from it, and opposite to it, and through the
middle posts, are pivot bolts, on which the weight of the
house hangs when the levers are pressed down. Narrow
strips are used as braces for stiffening the frame length-
wise, which are placed inside, also bits of hoop iron
should be used about the corners to strengthen the joints.
"With these appliances and proper tools, any skillful
mechanic can complete the job. Its weight is about 300
pounds, and the house affords ro^m for keeping from 12
to 24 fowls through the season. The advantages of such
a house are that the fowls are under perfect control, and
are kept quite as healthy as when running at large.
Every morning when the house is moved, there is pro-
vided a clean, fresh apartment, with fresh earth and
grass. Fowls become thoroughly domesticated by being
thus treated. Those that are inclined to sit, are put
outside ; they will hang about and make an effort to get
in, and the desire to sit soon passes away. The manure
is all saved to the best advantage, being applied at once.
CHAPTER IV.
POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES.
Anything that will add to the ease of management
of the poultry-yard is gladly welcomed. The practice
among farmers of letting their poultry roost about the
farm buildings upon harrows, plows, wagons, and farm
machinery is growing less prevalent each year, as many
of them are building suitable poultry-houses.
PERCHES, ETC.
At figure 16 is shown a neat and handy arrange-
ment of perches; r, r, r, are scantling, eight feet in
length, two inches thick, and three inches wide, made
of some tough, light wood. The upper ends are hinged
to the side of the building, four feet apart, and are con-
(31)
32 PROFITS IN" POULTRY.
nected by means of roosts or perches made of octagonal
strips nailed fast to the supports. Perches should be
placed about eighteen inches apart. At any time when it
is desired to gather up the droppings, the end of the
frame-work is raised and fastened to the ceiling or roof
by a hook at n, the whole arrangement being up out of
the way for thorough cleaning. At the corner of the
building, opposite the roost, is placed a box, p, contain-
ing ashes, road-dust, etc., that the fowls may dust them-
selves. The box should be two feet square and about one
foot in height, and should be kept half filled with dust-
ing material, both summer and winter. In the corner
is placed a box, e, and should contain a supply of gravel
and broken oyster-shells. The foregoing conveniences
cost but little and will prove valuable additions to any
poultry-house.
LOW ROOSTS.
For the large fowls low roosts should be used, as they
cannot reach high ones without a ladder, and in drop-
ping from them are very apt to injure themselves. A
Fig. 17.
roosting-frame, made for Asiatic fowls, is shown at Fig.
17. It is made of chestnut strips two inches square,
with the edges of the upper part rounded off to make
them easy to the feet of the fowls. Three of these strips
POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 33
are fastened to frames made of the same material for
supports. The whole is fastened to the wall by rings
fixed in staples, so that it can be turned up and held
against the wall by a hook. It is twelve feet long,
three feet wide, and should stand eight inches from the
wall and about one foot from the floor.
STOVE FOE A POULTRY-HOUSE.
A simple and safe method of warming a poultry-house
in winter is as follows: With a few bricks and common
mortar build a box five feet long and two and one-half
feet wide, leaving an open space in the front about a foot
wide. Lay upon this wall, when fourteen inches high,
so as to cover the space within the wall except abort six
inches at the rear end, a plate of sheet-iron. Build up
the wall a foot above the iron and then build in
another plate of iron, covering the space inclosed
all but a few inches at the front. Then turn an arc i
over the top and leave a hole at the end for a stow
pipe. A small fire made in the bottom at the front will
then heat this stove very moderately; the heat passing
back and forth, will warm the whole just sufficient to
make the fowls comfortable, and there will be no danger
of injury to their feet by flying up upon the top, as it will
never be hot if a moderate fire only is kept. The stove
will be perfectly safe, and may be closed by a few loose
bricks laid up in front, through diich sufficient air will
pass to keep the fire burning slowly. Ordinarily a fire
need only be made at night during the coldest weather.
NEST-BOXES.
Many farmers and other persons who keep poultry
fail to provide nests for their hens, and then grumble be-
3
PROFITS IN" POULTRY.
cause they seek their nests about and under the farm
buildings in fence corners, under brush-heaps, and va-
rious out-of-the-way places. If clean boxes, provided
with straw or other nesting material, had been put up
at convenient points, the hens would have used them and
would not " steal " their nests. A very good size for a
nest-box is little more than one foot square and nine or
ten inches in depth. They should be well made; and
if planed and painted, all the better. Apply kerosene
freely to the inside, where the boards are nailed to-
gether. This should be applied early in spring, and
again about the first of July; it will kill hen-lice and
also prevent their getting
a foothold about the boxes.
Nest-boxes should never
be permanently attached
to buildings, but placed
upon a floor, or hung up-
on the side of a hennery
or other convenient place
for both fowls and atten-
dant. An excellent plan
for thus securing the boxes
is shown in Fig. 18. At
one side of the box, near
the top, is bored an inch hole, through which a wooden
or iron pin driven in the side of the building passes
loosely. Considerable annoyance is often experienced
by laying hens interfering with those that are sitting;
often a whole sitting of eggs is broken. This trouble is
readily avoided by those who have a poultry-house with
two rooms, by the use of sliding boxes, as shown in Fig.
19. A hole is cut through the partition about two feet
from the floor, to the bottom of which is firmly nailed a
shelf or platform, e, e, about two feet in length and
nearly one foot in width. Upon this board rest the
Fig. 18.
POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES.
35
nest-boxes, made so that they can be easily slid back and
forth. The ends are made one inch higher than the
Fig. 19.
sides, that they may not slide clear through or fall down.
At ~b one box is shown pulled out in the room, while at
a the box is seen pushed
through into the adjoining
room. As fast as the hens
manifest a desire to sit, they
may be furnished with eggs
and put in the sitting-room,
in which laying fowls are
not allowed. As all do not Fig. 20. m
have poultry-houses, a box similar to the one shown in
Fig. 20 may be adopted. A light frame-work of lath is
placed over the box before moving.
A SET OF NEST-BOXES,
made without nails, which can be quickly taken apart
for packing away, whitewashing, etc., may be made of
36 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
any size to suit. The top and bottom boards have ten'
ons on the ends passing through mortises in the end-
boards, and held in place by wooden pins, as shown in
the accompanying engraving, Fig. 21. The top and bot-
tom boards have half-inch holes bored through them,
which receive pins that pass into the corresponding
Fig. 21.
holes bored in the edges of the partition boards. As
these partition pieces are all alike, they are easily put in
place. There is a bar or step along the front of the
nests to prevent any eggs from falling out; the bottom
board of the upper tier may extend forward for a few
inches to serve as a place upon which the fowls may
alight.
A NEST FOR EGG-EATING HENS.
In the winter season hens frequently acquire the habit
of eating eggs. Sometimes this vice becomes so con-
firmed that several hens may be seen waiting for an-
other one to leave her nest, or to even drive her off, so
that they may pounce upon the egg, the one that drops it
being among the first to break it. In this state of affairs
there is no remedy except to find some method of pro-
tecting the egg from the depredators. The easiest way
of doing this is to contrive a nest in which the egg will
POULTRY-HOUSE COHVENIEHCES.
37
drop out of reach. Such a nest is shown in the engrav-
ing. It consists of a box with two sloping floors ; one
of these being depressed below the other sufficiently to
make a space through which the egg can roll down out
of the way. An extension of the box with a lid affords
a means by which the eggs can be removed. Upon the
bottom board of the nest a wooden or other nest egg is
Fig. 21. a
fastened by a screw or by cement. The sloping floors
may be covered with some coarse carpet or cloth, upon
which it is well to quilt some straw or hay, and the
bottom floor should be packed with chaff or moss, upon
which the eggs may roll without danger of breaking. If
the eggs do not roll down at once, they will be pushed
down by the first attempt of a hen to pick at them.
A BARREL HENS NEST.
A hen's nest made of a whole barrel is vastly better
than one in which the head is knocked out, and the hen
is obliged to jump down from the top into her nest, and
thus break the eggs. Two staves are cut through im-
mediately above the hoops, and again eight inches above
38
PROFITS IK POULTRY.
the first cut, the pieces cut out, leaving a hole large
enough for the convenience of the hen. Barrels thus
arranged are placed in quiet corners, where hens love to
seclude themselves, and straw or other material is sup-
plied for the nest.
WIRE NEST.
Figure 22 is an illustration of a good nest, which may
be kept free from vermin. It is made of wire, or a simi-
lar one may be woven of willows or splints by any in-
genious boy. A round piece of wood is fastened to the
Fig. 22.
front for the hen to alight upon, iron or wire hooks are
fastened to it, by which it may be hung upon nails driven
in the wall, and a piece of shingle planed smooth is fast-
ened to the front, upon which the date when the hen
POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 39
commenced to sit may be written. When a wire nest
needs cleaning, it is laid on the ground in the yard, the
straw set on fire, and after that is consumed there will be
no vermin left to infest the nest. A basket-nest may be
drenched with boiling water and purified.
A LOCKED NEST-BOX.
It frequently happens that a nest-box that will lock
up is desired. Such a box may be made 3 feet square
and 18 inches deep, which will be large enough for two
nests. The door is at a. At Z> is a partition extending
half through the box, and at the inside of this are two
Fig. 23.
nests about 8 inches deep, 16 inches long, and 12 inches
wide. These are seen through the side of the box, which
is partly removed for this purpose. For small breeds of
poultry the box may be made considerably smaller.
Such a retired nest as this exactly meets the instincts of
the hen, and it becomes very acceptable to her.
40 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
TIDY NESTS.
Hens often get the habit of sitting on the edge of their
nests, and this results in the defilement of the nests and
prevents other hens using them. A roller may be ar-
ranged at the front so that the fowls cannot roost upon
Pig. 84.
it, nor stand on it to fight other hens from them. The
end partitions are raised 2 inches at the front above the
others, and a roller or 8-sided rod, 2 inches thick, is fast-
ened with a wooden pin at each end so that it will turn
easily and a hen cannot roost upon it. *
PNEUMATIC FOUNTAIN.
To prevent young chicks from fouling the water in
the saucers in which it is given to them, take a common
fruit can, remove the top, and cut or file but one (and
lhat a triangular) notch, only J inch high for a saucer or
pan in which water will stand f to 1 inch deep, as indi-
cated in the en graving Fig. 25. Fill the can with water,
place the saucer on top, and quickly reverse it, and you
have a "pneumatic " fountain holding about one quart,
which the chickens cannot foul. As the water is drunk
or evaporates, more runs out of the can, keeping the
saucer always full to the height of the notch,
POULTllY-HOUSB COKVEN1ENCES.
41
FEED-TROUGH.
A device for keeping feed-troughs free from dirt, rain,
or snow, is shown at figure 26. Supports are attached
Fig. 25.
to the trough, and extend equally above it, as at E, E,
H, H, and should hold the trough six inches above the
ground. When the trough is not in use, it may be tilted
Fig. 26.
oyer so that it will be kept free from water, or rubbish,
and always be in a proper condition whenever needed
for use.
42 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
WINTER FOUNTAIN.
Poultry sometimes suffer greatly in winter through
having their water supply cut off by freezing. There is
some difficulty in keeping them constantly supplied with
water in severe weather, but it can be done if one appre-
ciates the necessity. A method is here illustrated which
has proved of great value. A cask or flour-barrel is sawed
in two, and one half used as the covering to the water-jug.
An earthen jug is so fastened into the half-barrel by
means of cross-pieces that its mouth will come near the
tottom of the tub, upon one side— a piece of a stave being
Fig. 27.
removed at that point. The space around the jug is filled
with fermenting horse-manure, and slats are nailed
across when the " fountain" is ready for use. Fill the
jug with water and cork it ; then invert the tub, bring-
ing the mouth of the jug over a basin, as shown in the
engraving. When the cork is withdrawn the water will
flow until the mouth of the jug is covered ; it will then
cease, and as the water is used, more will come from the
jug, and so on, forming a continuous self-acting foun-
tain. Such a contrivance will keep the water from
freezing, except in the coldest winter weather. The jug
should be emptied at night.
POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 43
FOLDING SHIPPING-CRATE.
On farms, where chickens have full run of the yards,
they pick up a great deal of food which would otherwise
be wasted, and the cost of raising a limited number is com-
paratively small; but where they must be fed with grain,
the profits are reduced to a fraction, and a very small
fraction if they are sold to the storekeeper for "trade."
One of the chief reasons why more farmers do not ship
their own poultry is the lack of suitable shipping-crates.
Express companies charge for weighty and unless the
Fig. 28.
crates are light and well made, they object to returning
them free. Poultry sells better in crates that are light,
handsome, and airy.
An excellent folding-crate invented and used by Fred
Grundy is thus described : The crate is exactly square.
Figure 28 shows two sides and the bottom, or floor, as
they are made and put together. Figure 29 shows the
44 PKOFITS Itf POULTRY.
crate empty and folded, also the top, or cover, with its
trap-door. The entire frame-work is of any tough wood
— ash is best — one and a half to two inches square, ac-
cording to size of crate. The bottom is half-inch pine.
The wire used is common fence wire. The sides (Fig.
28) are hinged to the bottom, or floor, and when folded
lie flat on the bottom. On the top of the side, two pins,
a, «, iron or wood, fit into holes in frame of the cover.
The sides are hinged to pieces which are screwed to the
bottom, and when folded lie up on the sides. Through
Fig. 29.
the top of the sides are two three-sixteenth-inch holes,
c, c, into which bolts of the same size are passed, and,
entering holes s, s, in the cover, hold it down. When
the crate is folded these bolts are withdrawn from the
holes c, c, and passed through the holes e, e, in the
bottom piece of the same side, and then through holes
in cover, and hold the whole crate solid and flat for ship-
ping. Thumb-nuts should be put on these bolts, requir-
ing no wrench.
The crate can be made of any size desired. A crate
holding three to five dozen chickens is usually large
enough. In shipping long distances care should be taken
POULTRY-HOUSE CONVENIENCES. 45
id not crowd the birds. Give plenty of room and it will
pay in the end. Where the distance is short, ten or
fifteen hours' travel, they will not hurt in this crate if
crowded considerably, as they cannot become heated.
When well made of good, seasoned wood, this crate will
Stand a large number of trips. It should be well washed
after each shipment. The wood should be well oiled,
but not painted. If thought desirable, the wires on tho
cover may be braced in one or two places with binding
wire. Fasten one end to the frame, wrap it twice
around each wire, and fasten to opposite side of frame.
CHAPTER V.
NATURAL INCUBATION
Although, in our opinion, there is greater skill re-
quired in caring for the little chicks than in getting
them out well, a good deal of the success of the poultry
crop depends upon the management of the hens while
sitting. Those that steal their nests and follow their
own instincts do very well if they are not disturbed, but
frequently they get frightened or robbed, and the eggs
are lost. As a rule, it is better to have all the sitting
birds completely under your control, and make them
follow your will rather than their own instincts. With
a well-arranged poultry-house it takes but a little time
daily to have all the birds come off for food and exer-
cise. But without this we can manage to make the
sitters regular in their habits. The best plan, usually,
is to set the hens near together in a sheltered spot in
boxes or barrels that we can cover, and thus perfectly
protect them against enemies, and at the same time
compel them to sit until the box is uncovered. Wher-
ever they may lay, when they want to sit, remove them
to a shed in an inclosed yard, by night, and put them
securely upon a nest full of eggs. Every day about
twelve o'clock remove the covers, and carefully take the
hens from their nests for food and water. In pleasant
weather they take from half to three-quarters of an
hour to scratch in the dirt and take their dust-bath.
Most of them return to their nests voluntarily before
the time is up. Occasionally a bird will take to the
wrong nest. It takes but a few minutes to see every
bird in her place, and make her secure for the next
twenty-four hours. As the hatchirg-time approaches,
(46)
NATUKAL INCUBATION. 47
dip the eggs in tepid water every day to keep the pores
open, and to facilitate the hatching. This moistening
of the eggs will be found of special service in the hatch-
ing of the eggs of water-fowls set under hens. Follow
ing this method, good success with sitting hens is almosl
certain.
The selection of the eggs for hatching is an important
matter. Some of our leading Asiatic fanciers make it a
point to select eggs which have a particular cast of
color. They claim that dark mahogany color in the
shell of Brahma eggs alone indicates their absolute
purity. While there are others of equal note as breed-
ers who say it is all nonsense to regard the color of
eggs that are deemed fit or unfit for hatching. But it
is well, however, to look to shape and size, for it is
clearly demonstrated that the regular, medium, well-
formed oval eggs without extreme length, very small
or very large ends, without wrinkles or furrows of any
kind, are the best for hatching.
It is important, too, in the selection of eggs, to look
to size. A happy medium must be secured in this as
well as in some other things. In size they should be
neither too large nor too small for the variety. When
eggs of any kind are over-sized, they are usually double-
yolked. and are, therefore, useless for hatching. And
when they are under-sized, they are not so good as the
average. Select from your best layers smooth, hard-
surfaced eggs, without indentations, and of fair medium
dimensions and proportions.
EGG-TESTEKS.
A bad egg is never welcome, and any simple device
(hut will quickly and satisfactorily detect the quality of
an egg is important. A very simple method is shown in
48
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
Fig. 30. The egg is so held that the hand cuts off all
direct rays of light from the eye, except those passing
through the egg. The egg may be
held toward the sun, or, better, tow-
ard the light from a lighted candle
or lamp in a dark room. Egg-test-
ers are made in which more than one
egg may be examined at once. A
small box, either of wood or paste-
board, is used, with a number of
" egg-holes" cut in the cover. A
mirror is placed within, set at a
slant towards one side of the box,
which is cut away for observation. If the interior
of the box is painted black, the
effect will be better. The quality
of the eggs is determined by their
degree of clearness. A fresh egg
ows a clear, reddish, translucent
. glit; an egg fit, perhaps, for cook-
ing, but not for hatching, a less
clear light.
The accompanying engraving
(Fig. 31) represents a contrivance
for testing the freshness or fertility
of eggs, useful in the household or
to the poultry-fancier. It consists
of a small handle, with a cup in the I :'S
end of it; around the cup is fast- | fi
ened a frame of sheet-tin or stiff |
card-board. This frame has a hole rTi
in the center, of the shape and size \g$
of an egg, and a strip of black Fig. 31.
ribbon or cloth is fastened around
the frame, projecting a little beyond the inner edge.
To test the egg, it is placed in the cup, so as to fill
NATURAL INCUBATION. 4:9
the space in the center of the frame, the edge of the
black cloth or ribbon fitting close to the shell. When
the egg is held close to a bright light, the light passes
through the egg, and shows a fresh or infertile one
to be perfectly clear, while a fertile one that has
been sat upon, or that has been in the incubator two
days, will show the embryo, as in the engraving, as a
dark cloudy spot. Infertile eggs may then be taken
from the nest or from the incubator on the third to the
fifth day.
CARE OF SITTING HENS.
March is the month to set hens, for the earlier after
this they are set, the better the chicks will prove. Of
course every hen has been set that would stick to her
nest during the past month ; but as hens must lay out
their clutches before the sitting fever takes possession
of them, the larger number will not be ready for the nest
before this month. Sell none but surplus eggs now, but
crowd the hens by setting all that can be relied upon.
When it comes to finding them all nests, much discre-
tion is needed, that confusion does not cause trouble
and loss. Of course, the simplest way to set them is in
rows in the hen-house ; but the hens will not all remem-
ber their own nests, and will crowd two or three on one
nest, leaving their own eggs to become cold and perish.
It is advisable to set the hens in different rooms and apart
from one another ; but if the nest rows must be used,
then there must be careful watchfulness. A good rule
is to keep the windows well darkened, so that the hens
will not be tempted to leave their nests until noon.
When you give the other chickens their noonday meal,
and while they are feeding, go into the hen-house, taKe
4
50 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
all the sitting hens off the nests, and make them go out
to feed. While they are out, clear the nests of broken
eggs, dirt, and feathers, loosen up the straw a little, and
dust Persian insect-powder over the eggs. Now comes
the critical time. Do not forget what you have done,
air-, do not trust the hens, but within half an hour be
si e to return, and see that each is on her own proper
11 st, or you will have trouble every time they come off.
Hens are creatures of habit, and a little training goes a
great way with them. If they can be made to keep the
same nest three or four days, there will be little danger
that they will make any mistake about it for the re-
mainder of the time. That will save you the trouble of
moving them, but not the responsibility of seeing that
they return promptly to their nests after feeding. When
all is right, darken the sitting-room again and leave them
until the next day at feeding-time.
SECURE LAYING AND SITTING BOX FOR HENS.
There have been several devices, some of them patented,
for accomplishing this end, which we here show how to
do by a simple, home-made contrivance. Take or make
a box three feet long by two feet wide (a, a). Take off
one side, as shown in figure 32; tack on two cleats,
and fit in a partition (d). Take out the partition, and
cut a square hole, a little more than a foot square, near
one end, and a notch an inch wide and six inches long
on the opposite end. Make an opening for the hen to
enter by (b), in the end of the box above the partition,
and at the point where, the notch is cut. The partition
d forms the floor of the laying and sitting room. A box
a foot square and eight inches deep is made to fit loose-
ly in the opening in the floor. This is the nest, e. It
NATURAL INCUBATION".
51
is balanced on a hard-wood edge, upon the end of a
broad lever, which works upon another edge of hard-
wood affixed to the bottom. A weight, h, placed near
the end of the lever, counterbalances the nest as may be
necessary, and a tin plate, g, attached to the end of the
lever will rise and close the opening b, as a door, when
the weight of the hen causes the nest to descend. The
entire side, which is absent in the diagram, should be
fastened on by screws so as to be easily removed, or at-
tached by hinges to the bottom, so as to give access to
the working parts. The sides of the nest must be
Fig. 33.
greased, and of course the tin door must move up and
down without any catching. The counterbalancing of
the nest should be so adjusted that the weight of six
teen average-sized eggs, say two pounds and a half, will
bring it down. No laying hen weighs less than this,
except Bantams, and perhaps some of the Hamburgs.
So whenever a hen is on the nest the door will be closed.
When she leaves it, the door will open. The advantages
are that only one hen will occupy the nest at a time, and
fighting over the eggs and breakage are thus prevented.
Then, when a hen is set and is likely to be disturbed,
the weight may be entirely removed, in which case the
door will remain closed, whether she is upon or off the
eggs. She may be let out towards evening, daily, after
the other hens have laid, or food and water may be
52 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
placed for her on the floor. In this case, a pane of seven
by nine glass ought to be inserted in the top, or on the
fixed side. At hatching-time she should be shut in un-
til she brings off her brood. It is, moreover, important
that a portion of the top (i) should be removable, or
hinged on so that an attendant may have access to the
interior at any time. Access to the nest by egg-eating
dogs is by this method entirely prevented, unless the
dogs are very small, in which case a board a little
wider than the door, placed six inches in front of it, and
nailed firmly both at top and bottom, will exclude even
them.
A BROODING-PEN FOR HENS.
We have for several years used enclosed brooding-pens
for hens with much satisfaction. Success with poultry
depends wholly upon the convenient and effective man-
Fig. 33.— BROODINQ-PEN.
agement of the brood hens and the chicks. When hens
cannot help it, they will do as their owners wish, and
there are then peace and comfort and prosperity in the
poultry-house. These pens are built around a part of
NATURAL IKCUBATIOK. 53
the poultry-house, kept specially for the sitting hens.
Each one is four by four, and three feet high; it has a
hinged lid, which can be thrown back against the wall
when it is desired, for attendance upon the hen. The
front is covered with wire netting. The nest, shown by
the removal of one side of a pen, is a box about sixteen
inches square open in the front, and having a very low
piece to keep the nesfc in it, and to permit the hen to step
in and out. When it is necessary, the nest is closed by
placing a piece of board in front of it. This is done for
a day or two when the hen is restless, after having been
put in the nest. When she is settled down, the board
is removed. Each pen is supplied with a feeding-dish
and water-cup, and is littered with sawdust. It is at-
tended to every evening by lamp-light; the feed and
water are renewed, and the droppings are removed, a pail
and small shovel being kept in the house for this pur-
pose. A pail of water and another of feed are carried
to the house every evening. The hens are thus kept un-
disturbed during the day, although they are visited regu-
larly to see that all is right. Each hen is separate and
cannot see the others, and, the house being partly dark-
ened and kept warm, the hens are quiet and comfortable,
and mind their business satisfactorily.
CHAPTER VI.
CARE OF CHICKS— COOPS FOR THEM.
The foundation of the various poultry diseases is gen
erally laid while the young chicks are in the coops.
There they are crowded in a confined place, which is
frequently damp and unclean. They are shut up close
at night in these impure quarters, or they are allowed to
Fig. 34.
go out early in the morning, while the grass is wet with
dew, and becomed chilled. Some die and some survive,
to live unhealthily and die finally of roup or cholera. To
prevent these troubles, the chickens, while young, should
have the very best of care. The coops should be so made
as to secure cleanliness, dryness, ventilation, safety, and
to control the movements of the chickens. A coop of
this character, which is very convenient in use, is shown
in the accompanying illustrations. It is not costly, and
(54)
CARE OF CHICKS— COOPS FOR THEM.
55
it will pay to use it for common chickens. It is portable,
having handles by which it can be lifted while closed,
and moved to fresh clean ground. It therefore secures
cleanliness, as ground that has been occupied by a
number of chickens fora few days becomes foul and un-
wholesome. It is also provided with a floor-board or
drawer, which can be withdrawn every day, and cleaned.
If this is supplied with fresh sand or earth daily, the
coop will be kept clean and sweet, and the manure
Fig 35.
dropped may be preserved for use. It secures dryness,
because it is raised from the ground by feet at the
corners, and is covered with a broad sheltering roof. It
has good ventilation, even when closed, by means of
the wire gauze at the front, and by holes in the ends,
which should also be covered with wire gauze. It is safe;
no chickens can be killed in moving.it; it is shut up at
night, so that no rats or weasels can enter, and the chicks
cannot roam abroad when the ground is wet. The
movements of the hen and chickens can be controlled
with facility, as the roof is hinged at the peak, and opens
56
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
to admit or remove the hen. The door at the front is
hinged, and, when opened, is let down to the ground,
and makes a sloping platform upon which the chickens
go in or out, and when closed is secured by a button.
Twice in the season the coops should be whitewashed
Fig. 36.
with hot fresh lime, which will keep them free from ver-
min. Fig. 34 shows a front view of the completed coop,
arranged for two hens. Fig. 35 gives the rear view with
the floor withdrawn, to be enptied and refilled, as well
as the shape of the movable floor. In Fig. 36 is a sec-
Fig. 37.
tion of the coop through the middle, showing the manner
in which it is put together; and figure 37 is the drawer-
floor board. There is economy in using such a coop as
this, as one hen, when well cared for, may be made to
bring up two or three broods together, and the hens dis-
carded as mothers go to laying again.
CAEE OF CHICKS— COOPS FOR THEM.
5?
BOX CHICKEN-COOP.
An ordinary dry-goods box may be used for a chicken-
coop. To the open end a frame or lath is fastened, thus
making a run or yard for the chickens when the box
is placed upon the ground, as shown in figure 38.
Fig. 38.
The box furnishes a comfortable place for the hen and
chickens during stormy weather, an escape from the hot
sun, etc. When not in use the lath frame can be taken
from the box, its three sides and ends separated, and
stored away for use another season.
BARREL CHICKEN-COOPS.
Any old barrel that would otherwise be thrown away
may be put to good use in making a comfortable place
for a hen and chickens. Brace the barrel on the two
sides with bricks or stones to keep it from rolling; raise
58
PROFITS
POULTRY.
the rear enough to bring the lower edge of the open
end close to the ground; drive a few stakes in front and
Fig. 39.
the coop is complete. It is best to put the barrel near
a fence, that it may be all the more secure and out of
Fig. 40.
the way. Nests for turkeys may be made in the same
way, in out-of-the-way places, omitting the stakes, and
putting in a good supply of straw to make the nest.
CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOR THEM.
59
Very good chicken-coops may be made of old flour or
fruit barrels. One way in which they may be made is
by removing the hoops from one end, and putting them
inside, in such a manner that the staves are forced apart
on one side, as shown in Fig. 39. The barrel is set on the
ground, with the open staves downward. On the other
side of the barrel the staves should be kept close to-
gether, as a protection against the weather and vermin.
Another way is to cut off the end of each alternate
Fig. 41.— FEEDING-PEN FOR CHICKS. •
stave, in lines, about three inches from each other. The
halves of the barrels then taken apart, and set bottom
upwards, make very good coops, as shown in Fig. 40. If
a piece of leather is fastened upon the top of one of
these coops, so as to form a handle, it may be lifted and
moved to fresh ground very readily. Young chicks, that
are permitted to range with the large fowls, may be fed
without interference by the others, in an inclosure
which may be made as shown in Fig. 41. Common
laths are sawn into proper lengths and nailed to a
frame, three inches space being left for the chicks to go
60 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
in and out. On one side the laths are cut off six inches
from the ground, and a strip, A, three inches wide, is
secured so as to be raised as the chicks grow larger, to
permit them to pass under it. If made ten feet long
and five feet wide, it will be large enough to feed 200
chicks. The frames for the sides and ends may be at-
tached to each other by pins, or hooks and staples, and
when not in use they may be taken apart and packed
away until again required.
REARING EARLY CHICKENS.
Warmth is the only requisite for rearing early
chickens, which one finds it difficult to provide early in
the season. But there is an easy way to furnish this for
the early broods, where the other conveniences are con-
sistent with it; that is, where the poultry-house is tight
and warm, and is kept clean and free from vermin, and
where the fowls are fed judiciously. The illustration
(Fig. 42) represents an annex to a poultry-house, made
at very little cost. It was built at the end of the poul-
CARE OF CHICKS — COOPS FOE THEM. 61
try-house, and a door from this opened into it. It
measures ten by twelve feet on the ground, and seven
and a half feet high at the top of the roof. It required
seven common hot-bed sashes, purchased for one dollar
each (three of those are shown and the other four should
be seen under the overhanging eaves), and the rest of
the material cost about ten dollars. The floor was the
ground, which was sandy and dry, and soon became
quite warm under the heat of the sun even in January.
When the hens wanted to brood, they were carried in
the movable nest into this warm house, where they were
fed and watered daily, and could enjoy a bath in the
dry, warm, sandy floor. The droppings were gathered
up daily in a pail, and carried out, and the house was
kept as clean and sweet as possible. When the young
chicks appeared, and had been nursed in the warm
brooder, which has been previously described, they were
given to the hen, who was put into a coop, and usually
two broods were given to each, and sometimes three. A
good, quiet Light Brahma or Plymouth Rock hen will
take twenty-four or twenty-five chicks and rear them
all safely when thus cared for, as the warm house
greatly relieves her from the work of brooding the
chicks and keeping them warm. The chicks are fed
four, times a day, the chief food at the first being crushed
wheat and coarse oatmeal, with coarse cracked corn and
clean water in a shallow plate, in the center of which an
inverted tin fruit-can is placed, to prevent the chicks
from running through it. The advantage of such a
house as this is that chicks can be reared that are fit
for market so early as to bring the highest price. An
instance may be given of the income from a small flock
of twenty light Brahma hens for a year, from January
to December, which left a clear profit of a little over
seven dollars per hen. It is quite possible to do this
with a flock of one hundred hens which are good brood-
62 PHOFITS IN POULTRY.
ers, kept in one house and yard, and properly kept and
cared for with such help as this, to secure early broiling
chickens, as these bring a high price. A brood of eight
chicks, which is a fair average for each hen, sold at
seventy-five cents each, will make six dollars alone, and
some of the cockerels in the case mentioned sold in the
fall for eighteen cents a pound, and weighed nine
pounds each, making one dollar and sixty- two cents
each.
BROODERS FOR EARLY CHICKENS.
The greatest profit in poultry-keeping is from the
early chickens. By good feeding and management
some of the hens may be brooding in January, and all
the chicks may be saved by the use of artificial brooders.
Incubators are used by experts with success, but farmers
and ordinary poultry-keepers are rarely successful with
these machines. Brooders, however, may be used by any
person, even a boy or girl, who will simply see that the
heat is not excessive, and when the chicks open their
mouths, give them fresh air. Eighty degrees is quite
enough warmth for newly hatched chicks, which are
taken from the nest as they come out, and are placed in
the brooder until all the brood is out, when they may be
removed to a warm, glazed coop, with the hen. Young
chicks have been thus nursed until they were strong,
which ran about in the snow in February with great
pleasure and comfort, and not one was lost out of a lot
of ninety, which were all hatched in January. All that
is required is to have a warm part of the buildings or an
attic room for the setting hens, and glazed coops set in
a sunny place out of doors for the chicks when they
come from the brooder. The brooder (fig. 43) is a box
eighteen inches square or thereabouts, one end opening
CAKE OF CHICKS— COOPS FOIt THEM.
63
as a door and closing tight, lined with hair felt, or
blanket cloth, and having a shelf in the middle, and a
glass in the upper half of the door, so that the chicks
may be seen. A tin heater having handles and a screw-
opening to put in the hot water, fits into the lower part,
which is also lined with the felt or double blanket. The
neater is filled with boiling water and put in its place,
wrapped in a piece of blanket to retain the heat and
moderate it. A nest, covered with a sheet of paper,
which can be removed when soiled, is put on the shelf.
A pasteboard box, upon half-inch cleats, makes a good
nest. A thermometer is kept in the nest, so that the
Fig. 43.
warmth may be regulated by putting more blanket over
the heater, or by ventilating the brooder by holes in the
door, closed by corks. Chipped eggs will be hatched in
such a brooder ; weak chicks may be saved, and all the
losses by chicks being crushed in the nest are avoided.
The heat is admitted to the nest by holes in the shelf.
Another brooder is shown at Fig. 44. This is a
larger and shallower box, having a tray in the upper
part with a slatted or wire gauze floor, upon which the
heater rests ; a lid is made to cover this tray. This heat
descends through the floor of the tray into the lower
part of the brooder, which is hung closely with shcrt
64 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
folds of flannels or woolen cloth for the chicks to nestle
among. This is shown in the illustration. A glazed
cover is put over the front of the brooder where the
chicks are fed. Newly hatched chicks do not want
feeding for twenty-four hours or more, but they will
drink some water (or, better, milk) eagerly, and this
should be supplied to them in a shallow plate. If one
is taken in the hand and its beak is dipped in the water,
Kg. 44.
it learns to drink at once. Crumbs of corn bread or
cracked wheat are good food for such young chicks
while they are in the brooder. It will interest some
persons to know that in some hospitals in Paris similar
warm brooders have been used for weakly infants for
many years, and the writer saw them there thirty years
ago, used in almost precisely the same manner as is here
described for the previously mentioned brooder for
chicks (Fig. 43).
CHAPTER VII.
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.
INCUBATORS AND BROODERS.
In endeavoring to lay before our readers something
that may be to their advantage, I will avail myself of the
opportunity of describing that which is in practical
operation) and do not call upon others to assist me in
solving theories. There are hundreds of methods of
hatching chicks artificially, as nothing more is necessary
than keeping the eggs for three weeks under certain
conditions of heat and moisture. What are those con-
ditions, and why do failures occur so often, even when
every attention is given the process?
In the first place, there are a great many unforeseer
difficulties in the way that are overlooked or not antici
pated. An incubator cannot hatch every fertile egg,
neither can the hen do so; yet there are some manufac-
turers who claim that the incubators made by them will
hatch every fertile egg. To test the hatching of fertile
eggs, I procured eggs from two different places. After
placing them in the same incubator, and at the same
time, I removed all clear eggs by the tenth day. Of the
first lot of fifty eggs thirty-two were fertile, and of the
second lot of fifty there were thirty-four fertile eggs.
The eggs of the first lot hatched thirty chicks, while
every chick of the second lot perished in the shell.
Upon investigation, I found that the fowls from which
the eggs of the first lot had been procured were in full
health, and had plenty of exercise, a cockerel of about
(65)
5
66 PROFITS IN" POULTRY.
one year of age being mated with two-year old hens.
The eggs of the second lot were from hens that were
mated with a brother, and the flock had been bred in for
three years. The consequence was that while there was
life in each egg there was not sufficient vitality in the
chick to enable it to break out.
There are numerous reasons for not expecting full
hatches. Eggs from pullets do not always hatch, nor do
those from hens that are very fat; yet such eggs may be
fertile. Eggs that have been chilled will sometimes con-
tain chicks that have advanced to the stage of ten days,
when placed in an incubator; besides, frequent handling,
or delay in placing them in the incubator, may also
affect the result. Hence, the first and most important
matter is to use eggs specially secured for the purpose.
The hen that steals her nest, by running at large, and
having all the privileges and advantages of exercise,
hatches nearly all the eggs, for the reason that if one
hatches all should do so, as they have the same parent-
age, while we are compelled to use eggs from different
hens, but few of them being alike in any respect. The
hen deposits her eggs where they are seldom disturbed,
while we subject them to frequent handling and change-
able temperatures. It is doubtful if any farmer would
consider himself unlucky if he succeeded in raising
seven chicks out of every ten hatched; yet this propor-
tion is equal to a loss of thirty in every hundred. If,
therefore, an incubator be used, this should be consid-
ered, and when the loss is apparently heavy, a compari-
son should be made with the work done by hens, which
will, as a rule, be in favor of the incubator and
brooder.
Having stated what the conditions should be, so far
as the eggs are concerned, the next step is to consider
the defects existing in many of the incubators that are
placed upon the market; and as I am not a manufac-
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION". 67
turer, nor interested in the sale of incubators, I have no
object in view other than a desire to correct some of the
mistakes that have been made in the construction of in-
cubators. The supposition that a constant stream of
pure air must flow through an incubator is, in my
opinion, an error. Not that there should not be plenty
of pure air, but it should not pass through as a current.
The hen on the nest airs the eggs, but she keeps the air
still and motionless. The desire to regulate an incu-
bator has caused incubators to be constructed that open
and shut off the heat very easily; but an observer may
notice that they will often open and close the valves
every few minutes, thus causing the heat to change in
as many times, and to allow of slow or fast currents
according to the degree of frequency with which the
valves open and shut. The best machines are those that
slowly reach a point above or below the normal hatch-
ing point. Too much air passes into the incubators
and not enough in the brooders, as a rule. A little
chick does not require so large a volume of air as is
usually allowed, and a hundred of them together will
not consume so much as a small quadruped. If the air
is admitted below the eggs, there will always enough es-
cape to allow fresh air to enter for ventilation. We now
hatch them, in our section, in incubators holding 400
eggs each, by closing the drawer, allowing no mode of
ventilation other than to keep three or four one-inch
tubes open at the bottom of the incubator, and the
chicks remain thus shut up for twenty-four hours at a
time without inconvenience. In fact, by leaving them in
the drawer they are thoroughly dry and prepared for the
brooder when taken out. A regulator should be a very
simple arrangement. Some of them are so delicate in
construction as to do more injury than good, and it is
often the case that the regulator instead of the incubator
must be watched. The majority of persons put too
68 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
much faith in the regulator, relying upon it too implic-
itly, and often fail in consequence. Other incubators
regulate the heat very well, but cannot do away with
the work of watching the flame of the lamps. The
flame must be regulated according to the temperature
of the outside atmosphere. To be successful the oper-
ator must determine that he will do the work himself,
and he must watch, the incubator, whether it regulates
or not. He who attempts to raise chickens artificially
by using a self -regulating incubator without expecting
to do anything except to trust to the machine, will
always be of the opinion that incubators are humbugs.
It means work and attention every time, but it is work
that pays if well bestowed.
In Harnmonton we do not use any self-regulators at
all. Our incubators are simply tanks surrounded by
sawdust, made by placing the sawdust between an inner
and larger box, the tank being in the top of the inner
box. The tank for a hundred- egg incubator is 15x30
inches, 7 inches deep, and rests on strips around the
edges, with half-inch rods under it every six inches to
support the weight of water. The egg-drawer is 15x36
inches, 6 inches fitting in the space at the opening when
the drawer is shut. This space in the front of the egg-
drawer is also boxed off and filled with sawdust. The
ventilator is six inches deep, the egg-drawer three inches
deep inside. Two tin tubes, one inch in diameter, are
placed at the bottom of the ventilator to admit dir.
Four inches of sawdust surround the inner box. A tube
on top of the tank, which passes through the boxes,
allows water to be poured in, while a spigot in front,
over the egg-drawer, permits it to be drawn off. This
tank is filled with boiling water. The eggs are hatched
at 103 degrees. The heat is regulated by drawing off a
bucket of water night and morning. The eggs are
turned twice a day. Moisture is supplied with boxes of
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATIOH.
moist s nd i nder the egg-drawer, and by a few wet
sf onge n'n the egg-drawer.
These incubators do not require any watching. No
one gets up in the night to look after them. The large
body of sawdust absorbs heat, and gives it up to the
egg-drawer as it begins to cool; hence, the heat varies
very slowly. If a lamp is preferred, it may be attached
by having two tubes, one above the other, extending to
a small "boiler" outside, which is heated by a lamp>
capable of accurate regulation, in the usual way.
HOW TO MAKE AN INCUBATOR.
To make this incubator, get your tinner to make you
a tank fifteen inches wide, thirty inches long, and
twelve inches deep, of galvanized iron or zinc, the iron
being preferable. On the top should be a tube one inch
in diameter and eight inches high. In front should be
another tube, nine inches long, to which should be at-
tached a spigot.
Having made your tank, have what :s called the ven-
tilator made, which is a wooden box with a bottom, but
no top. The ventilator should be eight inches deep, and
one inch smaller all around than the tank, as the tank
must rest on inch boards, placed upright to support it,
or on iron rods. In the ventilator should be two or
three tin tubes, one half inch in diameter and six inches
long. They sltould extend through the bottom, so as to
ndmit air from below, and to within two inches of the
top, or a little less. *
Now make an egg-drawer, which is a frame of wood,
three inches deep, having no top or bottom, except at
the front, where it is boxed off and filled with sawdust,
which is covered over afterward with a piece of muslin^,
<0 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
or boards, to keep the sawdust from spilling, Of course,
the egg-drawer must be made longer than the tank and
ventilator, in order to allow for this space which it fills
in the opening, which is the packing all around the in-
cubator. The bottom of the egg- drawer should be made
by nailing a few slats lengthwise to the under side, or
rather fitting them in nicely, and over the slats in the
inside of the drawer a piece of thick, strong muslin
should be tightly drawn. On this muslin the eggs are
placed in the same position as if laid in a hen's nest.
It allows the air to pass through to the eggs for ventila-
tion.
Having prepared the tank, let it be covered with a
close-fitting box, but the box must not have any bottom.
This is to protect the tank against pressure of water on
the sides, and to assist in retaining heat. Such being
done, place your ventilator first, egg-drawer next, and
tank last. Now place a support under the tank and the
box, or have them rest on rods, and as the weight of
water will be great in the centre, the iron rods should
be placed crosswise under the tank every six inches.
Now fasten the three apartments (ventilator, egg-
drawer, and tank) together, with boards nailed to the
Bides and back and front (of course leaving the opening
foi the egg-drawer), care being taken to drive no nails
n the egg-drawer, as it must move in and out, and
should have a strong strip to rest on for that purpose.
Having completed these preparations, make a larger
box to go over all three, so that there will be a space on
the sides, back, front, and on top, but as the ventilator
must be filled with sawdust to within one inch of the
top of the tubes, it serves for the bottom packing.
Make the outer box so that there will be room for filling
all around the inside box with sawdust, and also on top,
being careful to let the tube for pouring in the water
come through, as also the spigot in front. The front
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 71
of the incubator must be packed also. The incubator
should be raised from the floor about an inch, when com-
pleted, to allow the air to pass under and thence into
the ventilator tubes.
The incubator being complete, the tank is filled with
boiling water. It must remain untouched for twenty-
four hours, as it requires time during which to heat
completely through. As it will heat slowly, it will also
cool slowly. Let it cool down to 110°, and then put in
the eggs, or, what is better, run it without eggs for a
day or two in order to learn it, and notice its variation.
When the eggs are put in, the drawer will cool down
some. All that is required then is to add about a
bucket or so of hot water once or twice a day, but be
careful about endeavoring to get up heat suddenly, as
the heat does not rise for five hours after the additional
bucket of water is added. The tank radiates the heat
down on the eggs, there being nothing between the iron
bottom of the tank and the eggs, for the wood over and
around the tank does not extend across the bottom of
the tank. The cool air comes from below in the ven-
tilator pipes, passing through the muslin bottom of the
egg-drawer to the eggs. The 15x30 inch tank incuba-
tor holds 100 eggs. Lay the eggs in, the same as in a
nest, promiscuously.
In regard to the sawdust packing. The bottom board
is wider than the ventilator. Each corner of this bottom
board should be 2 x 3 well-fitted posts, the posts being
six inches (or whatever height desired), higher than the
three compartments (ventilator, egg-drawer, and tank)
when the three are in position. To these posts fasten
tongued and grooved boards, and you will then have
the compartments enclosed with a larger box. Now fill
in your sawdust (sides and top), covering the top saw-
dust with the same kinds of boards, first boring a hole
for the tube on top, or fitting the boards around it by
72
PROFIT* IN POULTRY.
bringing two boards together on a line with the tube,
each having a crescent cut into them thus ( ). Be sure
and fasten up the compartments by nailing them to-
gether in^such a manner that no sawdust can get in the
egg-drawer, and be careful to drive no nails into the egg-
drawer when fastening the three compartments. As thej
tank should be covered with wood, it is best to fasten
BT~ mi"
Fig. 45.— SECTION OF INCUBATOR.
ilifc, three parts together before making the outer box
which holds the sawdust, by nailing upright strips
closely together, fastening the top end to the wood sur-
rounding the tank, and the bottom ends to the sides of
ohe ventilator. We show in Fig. 45 a sectional view of
t/Jie incubator.
DIRECTIONS.
To give the directions plainly, in order to avoid com-
pelling our readers to write us we will repeat them, find
be f s precise as possible :
The incubator should be filled with boiling wate ••. It
will take a large quantity, but once filled it will remain
so. Let it remain shut up for twenty-four hou: s, in
order to allow the heat to go all through it. Always
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATIOK. 73
look at the thermometer as quickly as possible, as it varies
quickly. The drawer should be at 103 degrees, and if
warmer than that leave the drawer out a little while
until it cools down, always shutting it up first, in order
to let the heat accumulate a moment or two before look-
ing at the thermometer. Never try to cool it with cold
water, for the heat is in the packing, and you can never
tell what the effect will be for several hours. Should
you add hot water, it will be from two to four hours be-
fore the increased heat appears. It is due to this fact
that the incubator is so reliable, as the heating and cool-
ing is gradual. When the thermometer reaches 110°
put in the eggs. The eggs will cool the drawer, but do
not be alarmed. Let them remain for an hour or two,
and if the temperature is then below 100°, add a kettle-
ful of water (nearly a bucketful), which will return the
heat to about 103° in an hour or two. If the weather is
moderate, once a day will only be necessary for adding
water, but the better way to work the incubator is to
divide the twenty-four hours into three periods of eight
hours each, say 6 o'clock A.M., 2 P.M., and 10 P.M., when
a gallon of water may be added at each time, and the
eggs turned. This avoids late night work, and gives
but little trouble.
Be sure and practice with the incubator for three or
four days before putting in the eggs, for by so doing you
will know just how much water to use.
The colder the weather the more hot water. All in-
cubators do best in an even temperature.
Keep a pan of water in the ventilator, "changing it to
fresh water daily.
Keep the heat as near 103° as possible, and the last
three days not over 102°.
Take the..drawer out in the morning and let it remain
out for the eggs to cool down to 70°. Then turn the
eggs half way round, and place the drawer back. Make
74 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
a mark on each side of the egg in order to be guided in
knowing which side is up correctly. Turn them morn-
ing and night, but cool them down only once a day.
Always keep a few wet sponges in the egg-drawer, as
they will indicate the moisture. Put the thermometer
in among the centre of the eggs, the top of the bulb on
a line with the top of the eggs, the upper end of the
thermometer kept slightly raised.
Three weeks are required for hatching, and the tem-
perature should not get below 98° nor over 105°.
Should the eggs be over-heated, let them cool well,
sprinkle them, and put them back. Heat as high as 108°
for a short time is not necessarily fatal. Never sprinkle
as long as the sponge keeps moist, and always sprinkle
with tepid water.
BE 8URE your thermometer is correct, as one half
of them are incorrect, the low-priced ones being as true
as the highest-priced ones. Place your thermometer
next to a hen's body under the wing; shut down the
wing closely upon it; let it remain so for a minute.
Then quickly look at the thermometer, and it should be
at 104°. It is best, however, to have it tested in a pan
of warm water, by the side of one known to be correct.
Do not keep the incubator where there are any odors.
When the chicks hatch do not remove them until
they are dry; then put them in the brooder. Keep the
heat in the brooder at not less than 90°. Feed at first
hard-boiled eggs for a day or two. No food should be
given the first twenty-four hours. Then feed oat-meal
and corn-meal, cooked and moistened with milk. Feed
four or five times a day, at first, for a week. Keep fine
screenings, cracked corn, fine gravel, fine-ground oyster-
shells, pulverized charcoal, and clean water always where
they can get at such, and keep everything clean. Give
mashed potatoes, chopped onions, or cabbage, or any-
thing that serves as a variety. Be sure and not crowd
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATIOH. 75
them. Divide them into small lots. Feed in little
troughs.
An egg-drawer two feet wide and three feet long will
hold one hundred and fifty eggs with an egg-turner. A
drawer three feet wide and four feet long holds three
hundred eggs. Only one drawer can be used to an in-
cubator.
BROODERS.
The principal conditions necessary in a brooder are
plenty of fresh air and sufficient heat to prevent the
chicks from crowding. We have a building here, now
in operation, divided into ten apartments, each apartment
being five by seven feet and accommodating one hun-
dred chicks. The building is fifty feet long and ten feet
wide, and a passage way running its whole length, and
taking up three feet of the ten, leaving the spaces for
the chicks seven feet. The yards are sixteen feet long
and five feet wide. The chicks are all brooded with a
stove. To describe how it is done, we will explain that
Fig. 46 is a box six inches deep, three feet wide, and fifty
feet long. Two-inch iron pipes are arranged as shown
in the illustration, the top of the box being removed to
show the interior. The hot water may be supplied by
an ordinary stove " water back," or by a coil of pipe in
a stove. This is heated by a piece of pipe one inch in
diameter, coiled in a stove, holes being cut in the stove for
the purpose of admitting pipes. The hot water flows out
and the cold water flows in. The floor of the box is made
close, with tongued and grooved boards. The cold air
enters through tubes reaching to the outside of the build-
ing. It is heated by coming in contact with the pipes,
and enters into the tubes on the top of the floor, which
are two and a half inches high. Over these tubes aro
76 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
little tables, one yard square and three inches high,
with strips of cloth tacked around the edges.
The advantages of this brooder are, that it gives the
heat from the top, as the warm air strikes the under side of
the table (or brooder) and diffuses itself over the chicks,
which cannot crowd easily, as there are no sides or cor-
ners. The warm air is pure, as it comes in fresh from
the outside, and serves as heat and ventilation at the
same time. Figs. 46 and 47 show the ground plan. The
building has a window to each apartment, which is hung
to a weight, so as to move up or down. Hence, when
the window is up each apartment becomes ashed, open to
the south. The chicks have a sand floor to scratch in,
and are allowed to run in the yards when two weeks
old.
This building, together with the heating arrange-
ments, did not cost over one hundred dollars. The chicks
are about ready for market, and are expected to realize
six hundred dollars gross. The cost for feeding the
chicks to the age of ten weeks is ten cents. The total
cost, including the value of eggs, food, and other ex-
penses is about nine cents per pound. They will average
one and a half pounds when eight weeks old, and often
bring fifty cents per pound. The building contains one
thousand chicks, and as a new brood can be put in every
ten weeks, it will hold five thousand in a year. The
building and yards do not take up more than twenty-six
by fifty feet of space, or less than one thirtieth of an
acre.
The chicks are fed on hard-boiled eggs the second day,
no food being given them the first day. Then milk and
bread are allowed. On the fourth day they are fed on a
mixture of one part corn meal, one part bran, and
one part middlings, with a small quantity of bone
meal and ground or finely chopped meat. They are
fed five times a day till feathered, then four mcah are
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION". 77
giyen. Chopped cabbage, onions, and other green food
are supplied. Skimmed milk may be used in the food,
which should always be scalded or cooked. Plenty of
water, gravel and dry earth are kept before them, a few
screenings being scattered in the dirt to induce them to
scratch. In giving water never allow them to become
Fig. 46.— INTERIOR OF BROODER BOX.
Showing hot- water pipes and cold-air pipes.
wet, as dampness is fatal. Avoid bottom heat in a brooder,
as it causes leg weakness. It is always better to have too
much heat in the brooder than too little, but the reverse
is the case with an incubator.
A light, sandy soil is best for chicks. Hence, poor
Fig. 47.— TOP OF BROODER BOX.
Showing one of the brooder tables, and one space with table removed to
show hot-air tube.
and unproductive locations can be thus used with advan-
tage. Chicks require unceasing care, but by raising
them in large numbers, labor maybe economized. They
need no care at night, other than to keep up the fire,
which may be arranged so as to give sufficient heat till
morning. They should be fed very early and late.
78 PEOFITS IN POULTRY.
When ready for market correspond with a reliable com-
mission merchant before shipping.
We have two or three large broiler establishments here.
In one case two young ladies are hatching several thou-
sand chicks annually, and they find, it very profitable.
Fig. 48.— GROUND PLAN OF BUILDING.
Showing brooders, stove, and water-barrel.
As stated, nearly all the failures come from the eggs, and
rot the incubators, and until poultrymen realize this fact
t ley will meet with disappointment. The loss does not
exceed seven per cent, and that includes the weak chicks
and all that die by accident. No gapes or lice effect
them, as everything is kept very clean. As to what may
Fig. 49.— BTOVB, WATER BARBEL, AND BND OF BROODER BOX.
be expected it may be stated that if fifty chicks are mar-
keted from every one hundred eggs used, the result will
be satisfactory, but this includes loss of bad eggs, dead
chicks, and other causes. The chicks grow faster than
when with hens, as they receive better care and can be
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION".
79
counted at any time. They are safe from all enemies.
My advice to beginners is to begin with a small incubator,
and experiment the first year. Experience will be the best
teacher. Do not expect too much, and do not expect to
Fig. 50.— BROODER HOUSE, WITH YARDS OMITTED.
raise chicks without work. Watching, care, and labor
are essentials. No incubator or brooder, however well
regulated, can be trusted. They are treacherous. But
they will return a handsome profit if properly managed.
CHAPTER VIII.
PREPARING FOR MARKET.
FATTENING POULTRY.
No fowl over two years old should be kept in the
poultry -yard except for some special reason. An extra
good mother or a finely feathered bird that is desirable
as a breeder may be preserved until ten years old with
advantage, or at least so long as she is serviceable. But
ordinary hens and cocks should be fattened at the end
of the second year for market. When there is a room
< r shed that can be closed, the fowls may be confined
f nere. The floor should be covered with two or three
inches of fine sawdust, dry earth, sifted coal-ashes, or
clean sand. The food should be given four times a
day, and clean water be always before the fowls. A
)zen or more fowls may be put at once in each apart-
. ient. One of the best foods for rapid fattening, for
I reducing well-flavored flesh and rich fat, is buckwheat
meal, mixed with sweet skimmed milk, into a thick
mush. A teaspoonful of salt should be stirred in the
food for a dozen fowls. Two weeks' feeding is sufficient
to fatten the fowls, when they should be shipped for
sale without delay and other lots put up for feeding. If
the fattening-coop is kept dark and cool, as it should
be, the fowls will fatten all the quicker for it.
WHEN TO MARKET.
Poultry which it is not intended to winter should be
fattened before really severe weather comes on; other-
(80)
PREPARING FOR MARKET. 81
wise money will be lost by them. They will barely hold
their own in December on feed which caused them to
increase rapidly in weight a month earlier. Those who
have watched the market know that autumn prices
usually are highest a little before and a little after
Thanksgiving, say about the middle of November and
soon after the first of December. The reason is that
those who are fattening fowls keep them back for a
short time before Thanksgiving-day and before Christ-
mas-time, in order to get them in prime order for sale at
those times. The result is usually an over-stocked mar-
ket and plenty of cheap poultry. Soon after the first
of January prices go up again; and well they may, for
one or two months' feed has been consumed and very
little weight added.
Capons grow rapidly, and their growth takes up the
food, so that we have to wait until growth stops before
they fatten. It is well, therefore, that this delicious
class of poultry should not make its appearance before
the first of February, when the game-laws prohibit ven-
ison, quail, and other choice game from being exposed
for sale. At this time, consequently, fat capons and
pullets meet a good market, and even during Lent,
when a considerable portion of the Christian world ab-
stain from meats, there is a sharp demand for the high-
est-prized meats to grace the table of the rich on Sun-
days. It is therefore well to have fine capons ready to
supply this demand.
DRESSING AND SHIPPING.
The directions sent to their customers by Messrs. E.
& 0. Ward, 279 Washington Street, one of the oldest
commission houses in New York City, though very
6
tf2 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
brief and concise, give the results of an extensive expe-
rience and present all the essential points in dressing
and shipping for that market. They say: " To insure
highest market prices for poultry, they must be well
fattened; crops empty when killed; nicely and well
picked and skin not broken or torn; thoroughly cooled,
but not frozen. Pack in boxes with a layer of clean
straw (rye-straw the best) between the layers of poultry,
in the same posture in which they roost. Mark each
box, specifying what it contains. Send invoice by
mail. Ship to reach us about the middle of the week
— should never reach us so late in the week as on Satur-
day.
" There is the greatest demand for fine and fat turkeys
for Thanksgiving; for prime and nice geese for Christ-
mas; for extra large and nice turkeys for New-Year's-
day. On all these occasions shipments should reach us
two to five days in advance. If you cannot find any
profit in sending poultry of prime quality and well pre-
pared, you need not look for any in that of ordinary or
poor qualities."
An ordinance adopted by the Board of Aldermen of
New York City, and approved by the Mayor, is as fol-
lows:
" SECTION 1. That no turkeys or chickens be offered
for sale in the city unless the crops of such turkeys and
chickens are free from food or other substance and
shrunken close to their bodies. That all fowls exposed
for sale in violation of this ordinance shall be seized and
condemned; such of them as shall be tainted shall, upon
examination, be destroyed, and the rest which are fit
for food shall be used in the public institutions in the
city.
" SECTION 2. Every person exposing for sale any
chicken or turkey in contravention of this ordinance
PREPARING FOR MARKET. 83
shall be liable to a penalty of five dollars for each chicken
or turkey so exposed for sale."
This ordinance took effect the first day of October,
1882.
DRESSING POULTRY — THE NEW ENGLAND METHOD.
While poultry for some markets is rarely, if ever,
drawn, that for the Boston and other New England
markets — at least that of the better class — always has
the entrails drawn when the birds are killed. There is
something in favor of both methods. In the former,
no air being admitted into the cavity of the body, it
keeps in good condition much longer than it would if
opened. On the other hand, if the poultry is kept too
long there is danger that any food which may be in the
crop, etc., may ferment, even if nothing worse takes
place, and impregnate the flesh unpleasantly. A poul-
try-raiser of Ayer, Mass., gives the following direc-
tions:
"First catch the chickens. Slide your hands care-
fully among their legs until you can grasp the desired
one; hold quite still until the neck is grasped. Cut the
throat near the under side of the bill quite deeply; then
with the right hand upon the legs hold the wings over
the back to avoid fluttering. Always drain the blood
into the chicken's pail. If the fowl is wanted for im-
mediate use, scald it for about half a minute, being care-
ful to get the tail and wings under. Take out and strip
the legs quickly from the feet towards the head. Hold
a handful of feathers in the hand, pushing the feathers
from tail to head. Scald three minutes in three quarts
of water. Make a small slit behind and on the side of
the crop, one chick after the other. Then take out en-
trails and crop and windpipe, carefully removing the
84 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
liver from the gall. Take the gizzard to the pail and
open and skin with another knife. Cut off the head and
legs, putting these in a pile. When cold, cut them up
and put them into the pail for your hens. This refuse
thus disposed of is worth at least one cent per fowl. By
scalding one can dress about six in an hour, while dry
picking is much slower."
SAVE THE FEATHERS — FEATHER-BONE.
Few persons are aware that the coarse wing-feathers
of turkeys and ducks, which cannot be used for dusters,
and are generally a nuisance about the farm-yard, are of
any value. Large poultry-raisers especially will be glad
to learn that a recent invention of Mr. E. K. Warren
of Michigan has created a demand for these hitherto
worthless feathers, and that a company is now manu-
facturing, out of the quills of feathers, an excellent
substitute for whalebone, which, by the way, is becom-
ing scarce and dear.
The feathers are first stripped of their plumage by re-
volving shears, then the quill is divided into halves by
delicate machinery, after which the pith is removed to
be used as a fertilizer. Analysis has shown it to be
rich in nitrogen, and therefore very valuable on the
farm. The split quills are cut into narrow shreds and
braided into strong strands by machinery. These
strands are in turn combined until there is produced a
firm elastic band so strong that great power would be
required to break it. This is sewed lengthwise many
times through with colored threads, the feather-bone
taking various colors from the kind of thread used.
Though the business is only a few months old, a hun-
dred persons are employed, and it is daily increasing.
Patents have been secured in the leading European
PREPARING FOR MARKET.
85
countries, and large offers have been made for the right
to use feather-bone in making whips, corsets, etc., but
the inventor chooses to reserve his rights. One who
has never given any attention to the subject scarcely
comprehends the demand fora substitute for whalebone.
This commodity is said to be even better for many pur-
poses than the whalebone which it imitates.
CHAPTEE IX.
PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET.
To preserve eggs for a considerable time the pores of
the shell must be stopped up, for two reasons : to pre-
vent the entrance of the air, and consequent spoiling of
the contents, and to prevent the evaporation of the moist-
ure of the egg and a drying-up of the contents. There
are two principal methods of doing this. One is, to
smear the surface of the eggs with something that will
close the pores, and then pack them in some material
that will practically exclude the air. The eggs are
smeared with lard, coated with linseed or cotton-seed
oil, or with shellac varnish, and are afterwards packed
in bran, dry sand, or other similar material. These
methods will answer for home use ; but whatever may be
the coating material, the surface of the shells will have
an unnatural appearance, which will prevent their ready
sale in the markets. The only practical method to pre-
serve eggs to be sold is to place them in milk of lime,
which is another name for whitewash, and is prepared
precisely as for whitewashing. The fresh eggs are
packed in a barrel, and the lime- wash, well stirred and
then strained, is poured over them. The eggs must be
fresh when packed, and must be kept in a cool place.
The eggs, according to the extent of the operations, are
placed in barrels or in brick vats or tanks, built for the
purpose. The dealers who handle large quantities of
eggs have brick tanks built in a cool cellar. Any vessel,
such as a but or barrel, will answer the purpose in a
small way as well as the tanks. The eggs when sent to
market are removed from the lime and thoroughly
washed, and when dry are packed in barrels of cut straw,
(80)
PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET. 8?
like other eggs. In the New York market they usually
bring about five cents a dozen less than fresh eggs.
When packing eggs for private use, it is well to wait un-
til September, when the fowls, having had a good run
on the stubble fields and about grain barns, begin to
lay plentifully, and eggs become cheap. Take perfectly
fresh eggs, and pack them in a butter firkin, or barrel,
and pour over them milk of lime, or thick lime- wash,
after it has cooled, and head up the keg ; or pour over
them the strongest brine ; or smear the eggs with cotton-
seed or linseed oil, and pack them on their broad ends
in wheat bran in a keg, barrel, or box, very tightly, and
each week turn it over so as to reverse the position of
the eggs. The last method has been found to be exceed,
ingly satisfactory. Eggs packed in dry salt will not keep
for any great length of time.
PACKING EGGS IN A BARREL.
A great number of eggs are lost every year through
imperfect packing. The salable value of a package of
eggs is measured by that of the poorest part of it ; the
good always have their value diminished by the bad ;
but the poor eggs are never raised in value by the good.
If by poor packing any part is damaged, the whole is
depreciated together. A badly packed barrel of eggs is
a miserable thing to look at, and worse still to handle,
especially when the weather is warm and a very few old
nest eggs have been packed with the good ones, which
does sometimes happen in spite of care, though not when
only glass nest eggs, which never spoil, are used. The
barrel should be a good one, clean, strong, and well
hooped. At the bottom is placed three inches in depth of
clean, dry, sweet rye or wheat straw, cut in a fodder-cut-
8$ PROFITS Itf POULTRY.
ter into chaff not over half an inch in length. Upon
this the first layer of eggs is placed on their sides, near
together, but not touching. Some of the cut chaff is
then scattered over the eggs, so that it falls between
them and fills the spaces. Then one inch in depth of
haff is laid upon them, and another layer of eggs placed
i pon it. The number of eggs in each layer is marked
upon a tally. An ordinary-sized flour-barrel will hold
70 dozen. It is not well to crowd more than this into a
barrel. The chaff and eggs are placed in alternate lay-
ers in this way until the barrel is one-third full, when a
piece of board is laid upon the chaff and pressed down
carefully to make the mass solid. This is done again
when the barrel is two-thirds full, and it is then shaken
gently to settle the contents. When the last layer is
packed, it is covered with three inches of chaff, which
should project an inch or more above the chine of the
barrel. When the head is pressed down steadily and
slowly into its place with some shaking of the barrel,
the eggs will be held so firmly that no shaking they may
receive in the course of their journey will loosen them,
and a severe jar will not break any of them. When they
arrive at their destination they will be in good order, and
bring the highest price, having cost no more to pack,
except a little extra trouble, than the poorest barrel that
may come to market. Musty or damp straw, or poor
grain, will give a scent and flavor to the eggs which will
injure them, notwithstanding it is generally supposed
that an egg-shell is impervious to such influence. Cut
wheat or oat straw is the best packing, wheat or oat chaff
is the next ; good sound oats are a good but expensive
packing ; hay is very poor material, and buckwheat bran
the worst, as it so readily heats. When the barrel is
packed, the number of eggs in it should be plainly marked
upon the head.
PRESERVING EGGS FOR MARKET.
89
PACKING EGGS FOR WINTER.
Of the various methods practised for preserving
eggs for winter use, one of the most effective is that
employed by the dealers who buy when the supply is
large and prices low. This is as follows: Brick vats,
ICKLING 3GGS.
or wooden tanks, are constructed in cool dry cellars,
partly sunk below the level of the floor, as in Figure 51,
the dotted lines showing i,he portion below the ground.
These vats and tanks, — or casks, which may be used in-
stead,— are partly filled with a preservative mixture of
Fig. 52.— EGG LADLE.
thick lime-water, or milk of lime, to which are some-
times added salt and a small quantity of cream of tar-
tar (bi-tartrate of potash), and the eggs are placed in
this mixture and kept covered. The eggs are placed in
the tank by means of a peculiar dipper (Fig. 52), made
of a round, shallow im pan, witn a long nandle, the £a
90
moms IN POULTRY.
being perforated to drain off the liquid. The eggs are
lowered to near the bottom, and gently rolled out, with
little risk of breakage. Here they remain until required
for sale. If they were fresh when packed away, they
will come out after three or four months so little changed
that few persons would be able to distinguish them from
fresh ones. When wanted for sale they are taken out of
the pickle with the dipper, and carefully placed in the
crate, shown at Fig. 53. This is made of laths; but an
open splint baaket would answer the purpose as well.
Fig. 53.— CRATE FOR IMMERS-
ING EGGS.
Fig. 54. — TUB FOR DRAINING
THE EGGS.
A large low tub, as half a hogshead, is provided, and
two boards are placed across the top, as seen in Fig. 54.
The crate of eggs is placed upon the boards, and water
is run through it until all perceptible traces of lime are
removed. In this method of preservation there is noth-
ing that may not be done in a small way, and with any
substituted apparatus which will answer the purpose.
One thing is imperative — the eggs must be fresh when
packed, or they cannot be kept in a good condition for
several months.
PRESERVING EGGS FOB MARKET. 91
EGGS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES.
The population of Great Britain was, in 1881, thirty-
five millions. That of the United States, in 1880, was
fifty millions. There were in Great Britain, in 1885,
fowls (all kinds), 29,940,000; in the United States, in
1880, 125,507,000. Great Britain has a little over 20,-
000,000 of the ordinary barn-yard fowl. The remainder
are ducks, geese, and turkeys. In our census, 102,000,-
000 are of the barn-yard kinds. The egg-product of
this country is put at 457,000,000 dozen, or forty-five
eggs for each fowl; that of Great Britain, at the same
rate, would be 75,000,000 dozen. In 1883 Great Britain
imported 71,000,000 dozen eggs, which, at the same rate
for 1885, would give an aggregate of 166,000,000 dozen
for home production and import, or about four dozen
a head for the population. In the last year for which
we have official returns, the import of eggs to the United
States was 16,487,204 dozen, and our export was 295,-
000 dozen. The consumption of eggs in the United
States, adding home production to the import, is about
nine dozen for the entire population. It is no wonder
the country grows so fast and vigorous, when it has at
hand such stores of nutritious food.
The value of our egg import is nearly $3,000,000, as
stated in the Customs returns, or about six cents a
dozen. Happy is the consumer who can buy them for
twelve cents. Of the egg import into the United States,
three fourths comes from Canada, mostly from Quebec
and Ontario. One fifth comes in by way of Vermont,
and another fifth at Buffalo, another at Niagara, and
another at Boston and Ogdensburg. Nearly one half of
the importation is into New England, and the remain-
der arrives at New York, and at Niagara and Buffalo.
It is a curious fact that China sends us 220,000 dozen
92 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
eggs, worth $11,466, and that San Francisco reports an
import of eggs to that amount exactly. John Chinaman
clings closely to his native land, and to such delicacies
as those eggs must be after traveling a fourth of the cir-
cuit of the globe. Our census returns show that the egg-
product — the average to the laying fowl — depends much
upon the accessibility to good markets, and to the exer-
cise of care and the administration of good food. Thus,
the New England States average about eighty eggs to
the fowl. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio
average sixty, and in some of the Southern States the
average is as low as forty. In some of the States, poul-
try is raised more for the table than for the egg-product.
CHAPTEE X.
CAPONIZING— HOW IT IS DONE.
Strange as it may seem, we have met with a number
of ordinarily intelligent persons who supposed a capon
to belong to a distinct race of fowls, as do Games, Ban-
tams, etc. For fear that others may have a similar no-
tion, it may be well to say that a capon is a castrated fowl.
It bears the same relation to other male fowls that an
ox does to a bull, and may be produced from any breed
of fowls. A capon brings in market 50 per cent more
than an ordinary fowl, and often double the price of a
common male bird ; besides, a capon will reach double
the weight of a common fowl at the same age. As there
is no difficulty whatever in caponizing, and the instru-
ments cost very little, the practice might become very
general.
Capon raising is a profitable branch of poultry culture
which is not likely to be over done. The art of capon-
izing is easily learned. A neighbor of the writer learned
to practice it a few years ago, and last year raised a large
number of these delicious fowls. He informed me that
he lost not more than two per cent, and that there is no
need of losing any if the birds are empty of food, and
the operator has sufficient light to do his work well.
Good fat capons will bring fifty per cent more per pound
than other fowls will sell for, and very large capons much
more than that. The conditions for success are the pos-
session of hens of a large breed, and the use of judicious
crosses to produce quick growth with hardiness of con-
stitution and aptitude to lay on flesh.
A poultry producer of large experience says : ( ' Hav-
ing practiced the operation for several years, the writer
(98)
94 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
can truly say that by using no more care, and with
no more skill, than is needed in operating upon a
male pig, not more than one out of 30 or 40 fowls need
be lost. For several years the writer has operated on
from 12 to 30 fowls each year, and the loss during that
time has not been more than five or six birds in all.
The operation is best performed upon chickens about 3
months old, although it will succeed, if carefully done,
Fig. 55.— CAPONIZINO TABLE.
with the majority of fowls when they are 10 or 12 months
old. As with many other operations, this is one that
can be learned most readily by seeing it done, and we
advise those who would undertake it to procure instruc-
tion wherever it is available. Still, if one has a little
confidence, he will meet with success if the directions
here given are carefully followed. In the first place, a
table is needed in which a few screw-eyes are inserted
CAPONIZItfG— HOW IT IS DOKE. 95
at convenient places ; these are furnished with broad
tapes, by which the bird is securely held during the
operation. The best plan for a novice is to kill a bird
and operate upon that first, in order to learn the posi-
tion of the parts. Lay the dead bird upon the table,
dispose it as hereafter described, and then place the
screw-eyes where they would be needed to secure a live
fowl.
" One or two will be required to hold the wings, and
one for each leg ; six will be all that will ever be neces-
sary. Place the bird upon the table and fasten it down
upon its left side, as shown at Fig. 55, where the rings
and tapes are seen. The spot where the opening is to be
made is shown by the x. Here the feathers are plucked,
Fig. 56. — SPRING HOOK. Fig. 57. — HOOK,
and an opening is made through the skin with a pair of
shart-pointed, long-bladed scissors. We have found
these better than a knife. The skin is drawn to one side
and an opening is made with the scissors between the
last two ribs for an inch and a half in length, great care
being taken not to wound the intestines. The ribs are
then separated by the spring hook (Fig. 56), so as to ex-
pose the inside. The intestines are gently moved out of
the way with the handle of a teaspoon, and the glands
or testicles will be seen attached to the back. The tissue
which covers them is torn open with the hook (Fig. 57)
aided by the tweezers (Fig. 58).
" The gland is then grasped with the forceps (Fig. 59)
and the cord is held by the tweezers. The gland is then
96 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
twisted off by turning the forceps ; and when this has
been done, the other one is removed in the same way.
Care must be taken not to injure the blood-vessel which
is connected with the organs, as this is the only seat of
danger in the operation, and its rupture will generally
be fatal. The hook is then removed, and if the skin
has been drawn backward at the outset it will now slip
Fig 58.— TWEEZERS.
forward and cover the inner skin which covers the intes-
tines, and close the opening. No stitching is needed.
A few feathers are drawn together on each side of the
opening and plastered down upon the skin with the blood,
where they will dry and form the best possible covering
to the wound, which will begin to heal at once. The
bird should be fed with a very little soft bread and milk
for a few days after the operation, but should have
Fig. 59.— FORCEPS.
plenty of water. For two nights and one day before the
operation no food nor water should be given to the birds ;
this will greatly facilitate the work and reduce the
chances of loss. The operation, after a few successful
trials, may be performed in less than one minute, and l>y
the use of the rings and tapes, no assistance is needed.
Capons may be made to earn their food by fostering
young chicks, to which business they take very kindly.
CAPONIZING — HOW IT IS DONE, 97
To bring them to their full and most profitable size,
they should be kept until the second year. By giving
them corn-meal steeped in warm milk, and providing a
warm house, they will grow during the whole winter,
and their flesh will become very white, sweet, and juicy.
A good capon of one of the large breeds will weigh 12
to 15 pounds at 22 months old, and will bring at the
holiday season $3.50 to $3 each."
CHAPTER XI.
POULTRY-KEEPING AS A BUSINESS.
One newspaper correspondent asks how many fowls
will support a family of six persons, as though it was a
matter of figures, and only necessary to procure a certain
number of fowls and a house, and start them laying
eggs and producing chickens to secure a permanent in-
come. Now it is quite safe to say that any person who
knows so little about the trouble and risks of poultry-
keeping as this would fail in it and lose his money, un-
less he should start with a dozen or two fowls, and go
through an apprenticeship to the business. For a cer-
tain class of persons poultry-keeping is a very appro-
priate business, and may be made profitable. Those
who are possessed of plenty of patience and persever-
ance, kindness and gentleness of disposition, a scru-
pulous love of order and cleanliness, a habit of close
observation and quick perception, and a ready tact in
finding out the cause when anything goes wrong, and
in quickly remedying it, will generally succeed in keep-
ing poultry, while those not so endowed will generally
fail, and should never ?' tempt it. Again, one must be
able to justly appreck *e either the difficulties or ad-
vantages of his location, such as the character of the
land and its surroundings, the supply of food and the
available markets. It would be folly to keep fowls on
the borders of a forest or the margin of a swamp, on
account of the vermin which such places shelter; it
would be a great advantage to be located near a number
of summer boarding-houses, where there is a good de-
mand for eggs and chickens, or near a large city, where
early plump chickens sell sometimes for 75 cents a
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POULTKY-KEEPING AS A BUSINESS. 99
pound, and where cheap food in the shape of various
kinds of offal can be procured. A want of knowledge
how to seize upon all the advantages that may offer, or
to avoid the difficulties presented, will be fatal to suc-
cess. Upon the character of the ground will depend
greatly the kind of buildings needed. Buildings suit-
able for flocks of poultry kept for business and profit,
where the available ground is of small extent, are shown
in other chapters. The crops must be raised for food
or shelter for the chickens, and to encourage the presence
of insects, upon which the young chicks may feed.
Sheltered by the rows of corn-stalks, or the stalks of rye
or potatoes, the chicks are safe from hawks, which will
not swoop down upon them except in clear ground.
The coops are kept in or near this plot, being moved
daily to fresh ground. The chickens are kept busy
scratching in the loose ground, and there are few
potatoes raised but what are scratched out and eaten
by them. This furnishes them with employment and
with some wholesome food, and it is for this purpose
alone they are planted. If "the owner of such a chicken
farm is a gardener or florist, and his wife manages the
poultry part of the business, producing every year two
or three hundred pairs of chickens for market, besides
eggs and old fowls, success may be deemed reasonably
certain.
MONEY MADE BY POULTRY KEEPING.
It seems that the interest in poultry is increasing, and
that more poultry keepers, instead of being absorbed by
the insane idea that every one is going to get rich by
selling fancy eggs at $3 a dozen, or poultry ready to lay
at $3 to $5 a piece, are giving attention to raising eggs
in winter, broilers in spring and summer, fat pullets in
autumn, and capons in winter. In these products there
100 PEOFITS IN POULTEY.
is steady and sure profit. Of course a few will succeed
as breeders of fancy fowls, but the number is limited,
and they must have good judgment and perceptions,
with persistence and perseverance.
ADVANTAGE OF CKOSS BREEDING.
What breeds to cross is a problem which has not yet
been solved. Asiatic fowls were bred pure, and also
mated with Plymouth Rocks, which itself is a recog-
nized cross-breed, but an established one. The result
was that the cross-breed pullets and cockerels are several
pounds heavier than the Asiatic pure-bred ones, which
have had equally good care, feed, and other conditions
of growth. Those cross-bred chickens, instead of mak-
ing a great growth of stilts at first, and subsequently
laying a modicum of flesh and fat upon them, are
always ready for the table, and profitable to send to
market, after they are as large as quails. The first cross
makes, as a rule, the greatest improvement upon the
parent breeds, and a number of practical questions come
up, in regard to the subject of poultry raising, with the
view simply to produce the largest amount of meat
which will bring the highest price in the market. For
instance, as in the crossing of Brahmas and Plymouth
Rocks, or any Asiatics, with games, should the hens be
of the larger breed, or the reverse ? Which breeds
crossed will develop the greatest early maturity ? The
greatest weight at the most profitable ages ? The great-
est weight and plumpness at the best market periods ?
Which makes the best capons ? There have been a
good many half-made efforts to solve these and kindred
problems, but it can hardly be said that definite conclu-
sions have been arrived at.
CHAPTER XII.
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT.
COMMON SENSE IX THE POULTRY-YAKD.
The "poultry" that everybody keeps are technically
designated " Fowls," or "Barn-door Fowls." As a rule
they are kept in small flocks, fed chiefly upon what no
farmer misses. On most farms a flock of twelve to forty
hens will pick up a living without receiving a particle
of grain from May to October, including both months.
Their food consists of insects, seeds, and grass or weeds ;
they need fresh water besides. What wonder is it that
fowls thus kept are demonstrably more profitable than
any class of stock, or any crop on the farm?
This is the best way to keep fowls, provided they can
be induced to lay where their eggs can be found while
fresh. To accomplish tin's a house of some kind is
needed where the fowls may be shut in occasionally for
a few days at a time, so as to make them roost and lay
in convenient places. If fowls can roost in the trees,
lay all over the farm, and "dust" themselves in the
road, they will almost surely be healthy, lay a great
many eggs, and keep in good condition. Besides, every
now and then a hen will unexpectedly appear with a
brood of ten or a dozen chicks, hatched under some bush
where she had "stolen" her nest and done her hatching.
That is all very well, so far as the hen is concerned, but
no one wants it to. happen. We wish the hens to lay
and sit where we can put what eggs we please under
them for hatching — and, what is still more important,
we wish to be able to collect the eggs for use or for sale
daily. A fresh egg is a joy, a delight, a good gift of
Heaven — a pretty good egg is an abomination. An
egg, to be fit to eat, or for sale, must be fresh hnyrmd a
(101)
102 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
peradventure, and utterly untainted with a suspicion of
having been brooded or weathered. For this reason it
is a most untidy thing to use natural nest-eggs. The
nest-egg, after a while, is almost surely gathered, and of
course is not "right."
The trouble about fowl-houses, even with liberal yards,
is that fowls do not do well constantly confined. The
number of eggs falls off, and the fowls become subject
to disease, and especially to vermin — lice. All poultry-
houses are liable to become thus infested, and the only
cure and preventive is dust, and dustiness. It is best to
provide extensive dusting-boxes — not out-of-doors some-
where, or under a cow-shed, where the fresh winds will
carry off the stifling dust rendered disgusting by its
" henny" smell ; but in the house itself, so that the at-
mosphere of the entire establishment will become thus
dust-laden and oppressive. Dust will settle everywhere,
and one entering will need a white coat as much as
does a miller. The hens will revel in the dust, however,
and it will keep the lice down if not exterminate them.
The hens not only enjoy it, but dust is a necessity and
a luxury to them, just as a morning bath is to civilized
man. The dusting-box is their toilet-table — in fact,
bath-tub, wash-bowl and pitcher, sponge and brushes
and soap, and it gives health and long life as surely as
the free use of water does to human beings. *
As to feed — if fowls are confined they lose a great
variety of food which must be, in some way, made up
to them. When we depart from a close following after
nature, we begin to complicate matters. Watch a hen
as she trips picking about: now she takes a bit of grass
or other greens ; now she strips the seeds out of the
seed-pod of some weed ; now she makes a vigorous dive
after an insect, and so on all day she scratches and for-
ages. So a variety is essential to the health of fowls in
confinement. They need grain and soft food, chopped
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 103
scraps, or other flesh diet, and some grass, or other
greens which they like — such as lettuce or cabbages.
They must have plastering, oyster-shells pounded fine,
or some other source of lime, besides fresh water con-
stantly.
Better than all, they need an afternoon run, and a
chance to scratch and pick in the door-yard, road, and
barn-yard, if there be one. Here let us protest against
hens being made use of as scavengers for picking up and
cleaning up filth about the back-door. There is no bet-
ter habit for farmer folks to cultivate in regard to poul-
try than on every occasion to drive them away from the
kitchen door, and never to throw out anything that they
can eat anywhere near the house. The practice of hav-
ing a slop-hole — or spot near the back door where dish-
water and other " slops," containing more or less that
hens will eat, are thrown — is a filthy one at best. All
such water should be thrown upon the dung-hill or com-
post heap. Here the hens may pick up many a crumb,
and the manure will be greatly benefited.
In the matter of varieties the fancy breeds are best
let alone by any one who does not make a business or a
pastime of poultry-keeping. It is very pleasant for a
person who keeps but a dozen or twenty hens to have
them of some choice breed, and to take great pains with
them; studying into their habits, their "points," and
all that. But few persons have either the taste or in-
clination to be successful breeders; so, as a rule, it is best
to keep common or mixed hens, but a full-blooded cock
of one of the best breeds.
For general use most persons who have had experience
will agree that the Plymouth Rock fowls are excellent,
and either these or the Dominiques, or one of the Asiatic
breeds, are to be recommended if a pure breed of fowls
is desired for eggs, broilers, capons, and fat cockerels
and pullets. For eggs alone, the White Leghorns are
104 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
preferable; but they are neither economical for the table,
nor are they to be depended upon as sitters and mothers.
It is an excellent plan to use full-blooded cocks, making
a change, not of cocks alone, but of the breed, every two
years. Thus a recent writer, speaking of his own practice,
says: "A stock of Light Brahmas were bred with a
Dorking cock two years, then with Plymouth Hock
cocks, and now I shall probably take a Brahma cross in
the hope of effectually eradicating the tendency to throw
pink-legged chicks, a relic of the Dorking cross, and
black ones, which come from the Plymouth Rocks.
After that I shall recur to the last-named variety, as I
find it gives me earlier and better broilers, plenty of
eggs, and fowls always fit for the table."
SALT IN THE RATION FOR POULTRY.
There is a prevalent notion that salt causes the
feathers of fowls, or perhaps of the feathered tribes in
general, to fall out. This, we believe is well founded.
Certainly, excess of this condiment should be avoided.
There appears to be some connection between salt and
feathers. Feather-eating fowls are often cured of the
tendency by adding salt to their food, and a small quan-
tity of salt in the ration promotes, or is supposed to pro-
mote, the production of the new crop of feathers at
moulting-time. This supposed effect may be simply the
loosening of the old feathers. The result, as promotive
of moulting, would be the same. Salt is a very impor-
tant ingredient in the ration of pigeons, and where these
birds are confined without it, they are never so thrifty.
It is natural, then, to conclude that it is valuable in the
food of other birds, and especially for barn-door fowls
The earlier old fowls are out of their moult and in full
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 105
plumage, the sooner will they begin to lay in the autumn.
Pallets usually begin to lay as soon as they are com-
pletely plumed as adult fowls. It is worth while, there-
fore, to encourage moulting in every way, giving them
exercise, insect food, or fish in their ration, with ground
bone, ground oyster-shell, and sound grain. A table-
spoonful of fine salt in the soft feed, given daily to a
flock of twenty hens, will be a fair allowance. Fowls do
not depend upon this for the salt which their bodies and
feathers contain, for either the material itself, or the
elements of which it is composed, exist to a greater or
less extent in almost all the food they eat and the water
they drink; and what we do by giving them salt is simply
to increase the supply.
GEEEN FOOD FOR FOWLS.
Fowls cannot be kept healthy without a good range,
or a supply of green food in their yards. An excellent
plan is, to have a roomy yard provided for them, and
plant it with plum or dwarf pear trees. Plum-trees are
very little troubled by curculios when planted in a
chicken-yard, and good crops of fruit are secured, bar-
ring accidents of weather at the blooming season. The
yard is divided into two parts; one is used for a month,
while the other is growing up with some green crop, as
turnips, oats, peas, rape, or mustard, which are very ac-
ceptable to the fowls. This yard is then used, and the
other is plowed and immediately sown. This keeps the
ground clean, provides suitable food, and avoids most
effectively the troublesome disease known as gapes; the
fatal cholera is also evaded by this management; the
health being improved, more eggs will be laid.
106 PROFITS IN POULTRYc
CHARCOAL AND STIMULANTS.
Poultry in domestication are not in a natural condition.
Their diet is more or less restricted in variety, and that
which they have is frequently of a character to fatten
rather than to promote growth or egg-laying. This may
be in a measure counteracted by condimental food or
stimulants. Before such measures are taken the poultry-
raiser should provide everything else necessary or de-
sirable— grain in variety, broken bones, oyster-shells or
other form of lime, green food of some kind, cabbage or
roots, gravel, and a dry-dusting box; besides, pure water;
and if milk or buttermilk can be had, a trough for that
should be provided.
Stimulants must be regarded not as food, but as
medicine, used sparingly, and never daily. One mess of
stimulating food once in two or three days is enough.
Charcoal should be a stand-by. It defends against
disease, keeps up the tone of the system, aids digestion,
and promotes laying. Feed it powdered, and mix it up
with wheat bran and Indian meal. Add to this mixture a
neaping table-spoonful of powdered Cayenne pepper for a
dozen fowls, given every third day, or every second day
in a cold snap, and continued for about ten days or two
weeks, now and again, is promotive of laying and of
health. This soft feed may be mixed with hot boiled
potatoes, and fed either in the morning or at noon.
Besides the hard grain fed at evening regularly, so that
the fowls ,or other poultry may go to roost with full
crops, and a little wlieat scattered among leaves or straw
to make them scratch for exercise, they will need little
else.
(107)
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 109
SPECIAL FEED CBOPS FOR POULTRY.
Every poultry-breeder understands the value of hav-
ing a variety of food, and that it is essential for the
health of the fowls and the production of fertile eggs
from which he can expect strong, healthy chickens.
One can imagine the result to a community who would
try to live exclusively on corn; yet probably nine out of
ten who raise poultry think their duty done when they
have scattered before them their quart of corn and gath-
ered the eggs. This treatment may appear to fulfill all
necessary obligations when fowls can have unrestricted
range through the summer season, as nature seems to
provide means for sustaining life for feathered as well
as human tramps. The necessity of providing corn,
sometimes with wheat and oats for winter food, is gen-
erally understood; but if to these were added a supply of
the other grains and vegetables of which fowls are fond,
we would not hear so much complaint as now of stock
"running out" and producing nothing but scallions.
As to the special grains, we may name buckwheat as
one of the most valuable for the production of eggs.
Sunflower-seeds should also be included in the bill of
fare of all well-regulated poultry-yards. The large
amount of oil they contain seems to be especialy valu-
able for young, growing chickens. They also give a
gloss and brilliancy to the feathers probably unequaled
by any other food. Even when fed in large quantities,
no bad effects follow, as the husk or shell must be taken
with the meat. An experiment was tried, one winter,
by an observing poultryman with two flocks, one of five
pullets and a cockerel of Plymouth Rocks, the other of
twelve pullets and a cock of Light Brahmas, these lat-
ter having a well-appointed house, with all of the
"modern improvements," — sunlight, dust-bath, etc.
110 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
The former were in a small coop about four feet square,
with a covered run formed by throwing cornstalks on
some poles, and setting a hot-bed sash up against the
south side. The food for the two coops was scalded
Indian meal. They were both fed from the same dish,
and in proportion according to their numbers. The
Plymouth Kocks laid well, and gained in flesh all win-
ter. The Brahmas "went back/' both in eggs and in
flesh. The reason was that the former had the strip-
pings from the cornstalks to help in the assimilation of
their food, which the latter did not have. This proved
conclusively that some such coarse food must be pro-
vided if we would have the fowls thrive. Well-cured
green cornstalks, and young, tender grass and clover
should be provided for poultry as regularly as hay for
other stock.
The soft or poor heads of cabbages, stored by them-
selves, probably are the cheapest and most easily ob-
tained green food for poultry during winter. Two or
three heads hung so that the fowls can easily reach
them, around the sides of their coop, and renewed when
necessary, will well repay the trouble. If one is going
extensively into the raising of young chickens for an
early market, it will pay to sow lettuce-seed in a box,
and place it in a warm, sunny window. The young and
tender leaves are easily grown, and will add greatly to
the health and growth of the chickens. Onions should
also be grown and kept for feeding. They are by many
considered as a remedy for the chicken-cholera. If
chopped moderately fine, they will be eagerly consumed
by fowls. Tobacco should also be grown by every poul-
tryman who wishes to keep his stock free from parasitic
pests. Pull the plants before frost, and hang them in
the barn or shed to dry. A handful of the leaves in the
nests of sitting hens, particularly, will add a great deal
to their comfort, and more to that of their young. It
(111)
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 113
makes no difference -whether the tobacco is ripe or not
before pull Ing. Hemp-seed will be found useful for
young and valuable chickens, but the sunflower is a
go d substitute, and much more cheaply raised. Pep-
pers are a most useful condiment during the winter
months, helping greatly in the production of eggs
through the cold weather. A small number of plants
of the long red \ariety will produce a plentiful supply,
much cheaper and purer than the ordinary ground
cayenne of the stores. Use them in connection with
potatoes and meal. Set the potatoes on the s'.ove after
supper, and boil them until soft. Set them on again
when the fire is started in the morning, and bring to a
boil ; pour off the water, add in one or two chopped
pepper-pods, and then add meal, meal and bran, or corn
and oats ground together. Mash all together, and make
a firm, almost crumbly, mass. This is suitable for a
morning meal, but not for night. Beans well cooked,
either whole or ground, will help fill up the list of foods.
Rape-seed is easily raised, and would be useful for
choice young chickens. Seeds of the common millet,
golden millet, sorghum, and broom-corn will make
a variety in the list of good cheap foods. Egyptian
corn, a kind of sorghum, is valuable for young or
old fowls. It is raised as easily as corn, and will pro-
duce bountifully. Barley, rye, and oats are well known
to be acceptable to the inhabitants of the poultry-yard.
WIKTEBING FOWLS IN COLD LATITUDES.
Extreme care with poultry is necessary in cold lati-
tudes to prevent many frozen feet, and even great loss of
life during the cold weather, and it not unfrequ entry
happens that entire flocks are frozen to death. Hence,
114 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
keeping fowls in winter means simply keeping them
alive and well until the spring; eggs are hardly expected.
First, prepare a warm place, well secured from cold
winds and shifting snow. A corner in the stable is per-
haps best, as the warmth of the stock in the stable is a
great help to the chickens. But an independent fowl-
house may be made, by digging a cellar, say eight by ten
feet, and three feet deep. Build a sod wall three feet
thick and five or six feet high around the excavation,
with a door in the east and a window in the south
side. The window should be double, with one sash at
the outside and another on the inside of the wall. Around
the door, build an entry or vestibule of sod, with its door
opening outward. Plaster all these walls upon the in-
side. The earth taken from the cellar, mixed with
water, will answer to plaster with, and the whole can be
done in a short time. The first coat will crack; the
second coat should be very thin. The cover or roof may
be made of poles and straw. If the poles are strong
enough, some earth should be put over the straw, to
make the roof warmer. The perches should be made
low, and stationary strips arranged, so that the fowls can
find their way to the perch, even during the dark,
stormy weather. In the second place, the feed must be
so arranged that each fowl can both find and eat it in
the dark. To secure this end, take a board, one foot
wide and four feet long; around this nail four strips
three inches wide; two of these strips should be four
feet long and the other two fourteen inches long, so as
to form a box four feet long by twelve inches wide and
two inches deep. Next, cut laths into three equal
parts, and nail them perpendicularly around this box,
two inches apart. Secure the tops by nailing around
the outside of a similar board to the bottom, leaving an
opening to put in the feed. The feed should always be
placed in this box, and the box should always be kept in
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 115
one position, so it may be as easily found during a storm
as on a bright day. Plenty of food, such as the fowls can
eat, without seeing it, should always be kept in the box.
A vessel of milk- warm water should be set in the box
each day, but removed before any ice is formed therein.
A wire screen, or one made of slats, may be placed un-
der the perch, to keep the fowls from walking in the
droppings, as it is very essential that they keep their feet
dry. When the weather is pleasant, let the chickens
out into the fresh air awhile each day, but keep them
out of the snow. "Wheat and screenings may well be
kept, say an inch deep, all the time at the bottom of
the feed-box, whatever other kind of feed may be given
extra.
SELECTING, SELLING, ETC.
Before a fowl is sold, a lot of the best pullets should
be picked out, which, with the pullets kept the pre-
vious winter, will make up the regular flock. The two-
year-old hens should be sold in the spring, as soon as
eggs become cheap; they sell better at that time than at
any other. A hen has seen her best laying days when
she has completed her second year. If eggs are the chief
object in view, the cockerels and surplus pullets should
be sold as early as possible. The pullets kept for winter
layers should be well fed and brought to maturity as
rapidly as possible, and they will begin laying in October;
and if they are cared for as herein advised, will lay
steadily all winter.
EGGS IN WINTER.
Winter is the very time when eggs are worth the
most, when hens want to lay as much or more than they
116 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
do at any other time, and when they are not allowed to
do so by most poultry-keepers. Folks think there is a
great mystery about making hens lay in winter. There
is none; anybody can do it; that is, the hens will lay
if you let them. They bear a good deal of cold in the
sunshine, and even freeze their combs and toes, and yet
will not stop laying altogether if they can sleep warm.
Now do not begin to plan setting up a stove in the hen-
house, or introducing steam-pipes. Artificial heat is
not poisonous perhaps, but very nearly so, to chickens.
They are warm themselves, and need only to be crowded
on their roosts, with the roosts all on one level. The ceil-
ing of the roosting-room should be only a few feet above
the fowls' heads, and provided with ventilation from the
floor if possible. Give them very close quarters, with no
draughts of cold air, and clean out under the roosts every
morning, not excepting Sundays. The combs will then
redden up, and eggs will be plenty on less feed than
usual. It must not be corn, however, or only a small
percentage of it, for this will make them too fat to lay
well if they sleep warm.
A capital way to arrange a hen-house for^winter is to
make a ceiling of rails about six feet above the floor, cov-
ering the rails with salt hay, or coarse swamp hay of any
kind. The roosts should be about three feet high above
the floor, and movable^ so that they may be kept per-
fectly clean. For small flocks of thirty to fifty hens, it
is little trouble to take the roosts down every morning
when the floor is cleaned, and replace them at night. It
removes from lazy fowls the temptation to sit in idleness
on the roost for half the day.
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT. 117
PREVENTION AGAINST LICE.
Almost all poultry are lousy, more or less. " A. B."
says: good arrangements for dusting will always keep the
lice in check. The small hen louse moves along the
roosts and sides of the building several feet, and some-
times annoys cattle and horses, but the trouble to them is
quite temporary. If the fowls are free from them, they
will leave other stock at once. Eoosts ought always to be
removable, so that they can be scraped and washed with
kerosene. I find kerosene or crude petroleum an excel-
lent addition to whitewash. This treatment, with a good
dusting-box for the fowls, in which there may be occa-
sionally thrown a pailful of wood ashes and a pound of
flowers of sulphur, will keep lice effectually in check.
Horses and cattle in adjoining apartments, vfith only
loose board partitions separating them from the poultry-
house, will not be seriously troubled by the vermin.
A POULTRTMAN'S CROOK.
J. L. Cunningham, Gonzales Co., Texas, writes us:
It is often troublesome to catch one out of a number
of fowls in a coop. To save time and labor in such a
case, I make use of an instrument like the one here
figured. A small rod, three fourths of an inch in diam-
Fig. 61.— HOOK FOR CATCHING POULTRY.
eter and three or four feet long, is provided with a fer-
rule at one end. A stout, medium-sized wire, about one
foot long, is bent at one end, and the long end of the
wire inserted firmly into the ferruled end of the rod.
Then by reaching into the coop of fowls with the rod,
the one desired may be caught by the foot, and gently
118 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
drawn within reach. I do not think the above invention
has ever been patented, and it is too good to keep. By
its use one person may handle a coop of fowls, which
without it would require at least two or three persons to
accomplish.
PASTURING POULTRY.
The farmer whose acres are broad can enclose his gar-
den with a fence, and let the poultry run at will, but
villagers and suburban residents, living on small lots,
must enclose their chickens if they desire to cultivate
either a garden or the good will of their neighbors.
During the spring and summer months it is necessary
that chickens have a supply of fresh, tender, green food,
if kept in a healthy, growing condition. They cannot
eat grass when it is tall enough to mow, and the refuse
of the garden is little better than husks. A good plan
is to pasture the chickens. Make a wire cage, put it on
wheels having flanges, lay a track for the wheels to run
on, and sow oats between. The frame is three feet high,
six feet wide, and eight long. The upper part is 2
by 2-inch pine ; the sills 2 by 4 inches. The wheels
are sawed from 2-inch oak plank, and turn on 1-inch
bolts. The flanges are 1-inch stuff, nailed to the
wheels. The track is 2 by 2-inch stuff laid on the
ground, the strips being thrown on top as the cage passes
along. Wire half the thickness of fence wire is strong
enough. The soil between the rails should be worked
over, and sown with oats early in the spring and in suc-
cessive sowings. "When an inch high it will do to pas-
ture. Have a small door in the poultry yard to match
the one in the cage. Half an hour's pasturing each day
will do the chickens more good than any amount of
green stuff thrown to them. When the crop seems ex-
hausted, let the fowls scratch it over ; then sow again.
HINTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT.
HOW TO GET LARGE BIRDS.
Many purchasers of fine stock, or of their immediate
descendants, fail to secure as fine birds as the seller raises,
and are unhappy. They hear of eighteen-pound light or
dark Brahma cocks, and twelve-pound hens of some noted
breeder, or of mammoth bronze turkeys weighing sixty
or more pounds to the pair. They order the eggs or
young birds of such stock, hand them over to some ser-
vant or neighbor, who is not skilled in breeding, feeds
irregularly, or regularly stints them, and at the end of
six months wonder that they have not first-class birds,
equal to the advertisement. They think they have been
cheated, and set down the breeder as a rogue. There
are men, no doubt, in the poultry business who cannot be
trusted, but there are also a large number of men who
have brought capital, skill, and integrity to their busi-
ness, and who would not knowingly let a poor fowl go
from their yards. They sell, uniformly, stock true to
name, but at so early an age that the development does
not always answer expectations. A turkey does not get
its full growth until the third year, but most of them are
sold at from four to eight months. Ducks and hens are
not fully developed until the second year, and yet most
of them are sold under nine months old. While it is
true that large stock is essential to the raising of large
birds, another factor is quite as essential. This is abund-
ant feed during the whole period of growth. The grand re-
sults obtained by our skillful breeders are reached by care
and feed, after they have selected their stock. To make
the most of a young bird, it should be fed with a variety
of food at least five times a day, from daylight in the
morning until the middle of the afternoon. It is well to
omit late feeding, to give time for digestion. Slack or
full feed will make a difference of six pounds in the
120
PROFITS
POULTRY.
weight of a turkey-gobbler at eight months old, which
is the most of the difference between an ordinary and
an extraordinary bird. Persons who buy thoroughbred
young birds of good breeders should not expect to buy
the skill of the breeder with his stock. That is a com-
modity that cannot be bought for money. It can only
be gained by daily attention to the details of poultry
breeding.
^
CHAPTEK XIII.
SOME POPULAR BREEDS.
The agricultural interest owes much to poultry-fan-
ciers. Those who devote their attention to fancy poul-
try are too often misunderstood by farmers as well as
by others. As in many other cases where people devote
themselves to some special pursuit — or hobby, as ife is
considered — the poultry-fanciers are generally looked
upon as enthusiasts, who simply amuse themselves, with-
out conferring any benefit upon the public; an error
which does the poultry-breeder great injustice. In
nearly every farmer's yard maybe seen either some pure-
bred or some crossed fowls that are much superior to
the ordinary run of " barn-door" poultry. The com-
mon fowls may weigh three pounds at maturity, and
may lay two or three dozen of eggs in the summer, and
none in the winter. But the improved fowls, now kept
by the majority of farmers, will reach an average weight
of four pounds, and produce eggs, if not in the winter,
at least very early in the spring, and continue late in the
fall. The product of flesh and eggs is at least doubled.
This result is due to the labors of poultry-fanciers, who
have ransacked the world for new varieties, until peiv
haps there are none worth having that are not now to
be found in this country.
No one can become a successful breeder of poultry —
indeed one can hardly succeed in anything — unless he
is an enthusiast; therefore enthusiasm, when usefully
directed, is something to be commended rather than
blamed. The profit derived by small farmers from
poultry is usually an important item in their income.
We therefore advocate the improvement of poultry
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122 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
by encouraging those who make it the business of their
lives.
It is especially advisable that farmers should at least
procure pure-bred cocks or cockerels for breeders, yet
such a thing is the exception rather than the rule. In
regard to this matter, Mr. Evans says: Many of the
farmers can readily realize that it pays to use pure-bred
bulls, or pure-bred rams, or pure-bred boars in their
herds and flocks of cows, sheep, and swine; but they do
not seem to realize that the same rule holds good with
poultry, and also that the benefits are secured very
quickly. This infusion of pure-bred blood amongst a
flock of good common hens is sure to be of great benefit,
as the constitutional vigor of the common stock intensi-
fies the good qualities derived from the thoroughbreds,
producing in point of early maturity, size, and laying
qualities something both desirable and profitable,
though these half-bloods cannot with anything like uni-
formity transmit these improved qualities to their off-
spring. First-class pure-bred cockerels can be bought at
a moderate figure, and we do not see how farmers can
afford to use the common ones in preference, no matter
how good they may be. If large size is most desired,
the Asiatics will be found to answer well, while for laying
qualities principally we commend the Leghorns.
The popular breeds of the day may be classed among
either the Asiatic, European, or American varieties.
CHAPTER XIV.
ASIATIC BREEDS.
The Brahmas, Cochins, and Langshans, which com-
prise the standard Asiatic breeds, have many desirable
qualities. They are docile, not mischievous; fair layers,
persistent sitters, and good mothers. As a class, there
is little difference between the varieties; what may be
said of one will generally apply to the others, the color
of plumage being the chief point of preference that de-
cides a choice.
LIGHT BRAHMAS.
The Light Brahma is now well known amongst
breeders and fanciers, but is not yet nearly so popular
amongst farmers, and those who rear poultry for mar-
ket, as it should be. The small head, the lofty carriage,
the broad full breast, the deep round body, the short,
stout, well-feathered legs, — all mark the high-bred bird,
and one producing a great amount of flesh with the least
offal. This is one distinguishing feature of the Brahma
fowl which renders it a profitable breed for the farmer.
No other bird excels it as a winter layer; and as it is a
good mother, the plentiful fluff about it serving to keep
the chicks warm in the coldest weather, and as the chicks
are hardy, it is easy to have very early birds. The
young birds, as broilers, are remarkably juicy, well-
flavored, and tender; and the young cockerels of four to
six months, weighing, as they easily do, six to eight
pounds, make most excellent roasters. As with all high-
bred, pure races, the half-breed crosses of these, upon
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124 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
common stock, are nearly as good as the pure breed.
To introduce one young cock for every twenty- five com-
mon hens would be to easily double the value of the
farmer's yearly product.
From the time of its first introduction to American
poultry-breeders, the breed has been held in the highest
esteem. Other varieties have come up, the Plymouth
Rock and Wyandottes, as market birds, and Leghorns in
variety as egg-producers; still the Light Brahma has held
its own as a family fowl among the lovers of choice poultry.
Although quiet and unassuming in style, it has great
dignity of carriage, and is really a majestic fowl. In
excellent qualities for family use, it is hardly approached
by any other. Its flesh is juicy and tender ; and as it
puts on flesh very fast, it remains a "chicken" until
fully grown. The excellence of the hens as layers de-
pends greatly on how they were bred, for some families
are extraordinary egg-producers taken in comparison
with other large-bodied fowls. They are layers of large,
buff-colored eggs, which are very rich, and great favorites
in the market. In disposition they are very kind and
quiet. An ordinary picket-fence, three feet high, will
restrain them ; and if handled gently, they can be picked
up at any time. The plumage is white with black points.
The tail is black, as are also the flight feathers of the
wings, which are not discernible when the wings are
folded. There is also a fine penciling of black in the
neck. It has a " pea/' or triple comb, which, being
small and set close to the head, is proof against all or-
dinary frost. They are easy to rear, very hardy, quick
growers, and make very heavy fowls. On a well-kept
lawn, there is nothing handsomer than a flock of Light
Brahmas.
It is an interesting fact in connection with this breed
that it is the only one of the Asiatic breeds not received
through England. The original birds were brought
Fig. 62.— LIGHT BRAHMA COCK.
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ASIATIC BREEDS. 127
by a sailor to New York, obtained by a Connecticut
breeder, the late Virgil Cornish of Hartford, bred and
brought out by him.
DARK BRAHMAS.
In an article which recently appeared in a poultry
journal, the writer says: "But few of the breeders are
aware of the fact that this beautiful breed was perfected
in the hands of our English breeders, out of a brood of
chickens that were bred by mating a Black-red Shanghai
cock with a Gray Shanghai (or, as then called, Chitegong)
hen. But this is the fact. They were sent to England
by an American breeder.
"There was no more heard from them, and the word
Dark Brahmas, as a distinct breed of fowls, was not
known in America till 1865, when the first importa-
tion was made. The assertion that the Dark and Light
Brahmas were bred from the same original stock with-
out crossing is not true. The first imported ones came
with far more single-combs than Pea-combs. The breeding
of Pea Comb Brahmas to Partridge Cochins produced new
blood; and later we began to get them of less Cochin
shape and in every way improved. Such was the early
history of the breed.
" It is not a very flattering thought for home industry
that we must send the crude material to a foreign
country to be woven into a web of cloth, or perfected
into a breed, and receive the same as a thoroughbred in
only about a dozen years afterward. Be that as it may,
our English brothers in this case have made for us a fine
breed, and deserve much praise, and I for one would
acknowledge the worth, and give the credit where it
belongs.
" The earlier specimens were, more or less, bronzed
128 PROFITS IN POULTKT.
in the wing-coloring of the cocks, and the female?
bronze-gray in the ground-color, breeding more closely
to the Partridge Cochin; but the introduction of Light
Brahma cocks as an occasional cross secured the steel-
gray color, which has become the standard color of
America. These crosses have been so frequent that the
reversion in color is prone to light, and we find English
breeders indulging in the use of Partridge Cochin hens,
occasionally, to retain the distinct barring of the feather
in the females.
" My taste and knowledge of the breeds lead me to
say that next to the Light Brahmas, among the Asiatics,
the Dark Brahma must take rank in merit; yet I am
compelled to acknowledge that the breed is fourth in
the taste and demand of the public. "
THE COCHINS.
The Cochin breed of fowls was introduced into this
country about the year 1847, and to this was mainly due
the celebrated "poultry mania" long to be remembered
by breeders of domestic fowls. Men became almost wild
after Partridge Cochins, and were willing to spend a
small fortune for a trio of fine birds. The neck-hackles
of the hens are bright gold, striped with black, the rest
of the body being light brown, penciled with a darker
shade of the same color. The hackles of the Partridge
Cochin cock are bright-red, striped with black, the back
being dark-red, with a bar of metallic green upon the
wings. The breast and under part of the body are pure
black. Some of the points of merit, as claimed by the
breeders of these fowls, are as follows: they are hardier
than any other breeds, except the Brahmas, and will
thrive under conditions where most others would perish.
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ASIATIC BREEDS. 131
They are of large size, with a very gentle disposition,
and the ease with which the Cochins are kept in confine-
ment makes them favorites with many poultry-raisers.
When full-grown the weight ranges from ten to fifteen
pounds; they are too heavy to fly, and a fence two feet
high will confine them. As sitters and mothers the
hens are not surpassed, and are prolific layers, especially
in winter, when eggs are scarce. The chickens grow
rapidly, and at three months are large enough for eating.
It is true, they have some defects. The flesh is in-
ferior, especially of old birds. The inclination to sit
sometimes interferes with their greatest usefulness. This
tendency is developed by over-feeding. As a breed the
Cochins are most useful to supply the demands of a fam-
ily for early chickens and a plenty of large, rich eggs.
If the Cochins had done nothing more than to awaken
a general interest in poultry-breeding, their introduction
wouM still have been of benefit.
Besides the Partridge, which may be either of the
single or Pea-comb variety, the principal sub-varieties of
the Cochins are the White, Buff, and Black. With
those who breed the White variety every feather must
be pure, otherwise the fowl is looked upon with disfavor.
The Buff Cochins may be of any shade, but the birds in
a flock must correspond in color. With the Blacks, it is
of the utmost importance that every feather should be
solid black. In other respects than plumage, the sev-
eral varieties of Cochins are very similar.
THE LANGSHAN FOWLS.
The Langshans are natives of the extreme northern
part of China, where most of the fowls, both wild and
domestic, are black, and where the winters are very
132 PKOFITS Itf POULTRY.
severe. Mr. C. W. Gedney, of Bromley, Kent, Eng-
land, resided for some years in that country, and pro-
fesses to be well acquainted with the habits and character
of these fowls, and we depend upon him for most of the
information we have in regard to them in their native
Fig. 64.— LANGSHAN COCK.
country. They are entirely distinct from the Black
Cochin, and their native home is 1000 miles distant
from Cochin-China, whence the latter birds have been
brought. These birds are erect in carriage, have larger
combs, more feathered tails than the Black Cochins, and
Fig. 05.— ffAIR OF BUFF COCHINS,
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ASIATIC BREEDS. 135
are more active, hardy, and vigorous. A cockerel of
this breed, seven months old, will weigh, if fattened, ten
to twelve pounds; and a pullet of the same age, eight to
nine pounds; the flesh is well-flavored and tender, and
thickly laid upon the breast, the skin is clear white and
transparent, and the bone very light and fine. The
legs are of a bright slate color, and pink between the
toes, and the plumage black with a vivid beetle-green
reflection. These birds were first introduced into Eng-
land in 1872 by an officer of the British army, Major
Croad, of Sussex, who received them directly from a
relative living in the northern part of China. Since
then a second importation has been received in England,
and Mr. Gedney states that the breed has been used to
improve the Black Cochins. Since the opening of the
Suez Canal, by which the voyage from China has been
much shortened, the importation of fowls from that dis-
tant part of the world has been rendered much easier.
Mr. Gedney sums up the merits of these fowls as fol-
lows: Extreme hardiness, rapid growth, great size com-
bined with small bone, exquisitely white skin and flesh
of the same purity of color, full breast, delicacy of flavor,
and possessing none of that dryness so common to most
of the large breeds. As prolific winter layers of large
rich eggs, the Langshan hens will hold their own against
all comers, whilst they lack that intense desire to sit
which is so essentially a characteristic of the Cochin. In
short, he considers that they " are the finest and most
practically useful birds ever brought to England."
The Langshans were admitted to the American Stand-
ard of Excellence by the American Poultry Association
at the meeting held at Worcester, Mass., 1883.
CHAPTER XV.
EUROPEAN BREEDS.
DORKINGS.
Speaking of this breed, a well-known authority says:
Looking back into the dim past, to find any record of
any pure-bred fowls is almost useless. But few peculiari-
ties were noted in ancient records; perhaps the Dorking
and Polish fowls are the only ones that can claim any
great antiquity. In ancient paintings hens with crests
are often seen resembling our Polish birds, and from
which the latter are probably descended; and Columella,
an old Roman writer, gives directions for the selecting
of poultry to breed from, "such as five claws, square
frames," etc. Such birds have been bred in England for
centuries, but varying in color; the probability is that
they were imported by the Romans while Britain was n
Roman colony, for they took most of their luxuries along
with them. At any rate, these fowls have been so long
known in England that they are called an English
breed; they have been bred mottled, gray, splashed,
cuckoo or dominique colored, white, and silver- gray, which
is the last fashion in color.
A fine Silver-gray Dorking cock is a well-shaped,
noble bird, of about eight or nine pounds weight, with
full silver hackle and graceful flowing tail; he certainly
makes a show that few birds can match; his face and
comb are bright-red, beak strongly arched; saddle, back,
and hackle fine silvery white, wing coverts the same;
breast, thighs, and tail black when complying with the
Standard, but the thighs of young birds are nearly
always a little grayish if the bird is any size, and birds
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EUROPE AK BREEDS.
over one or two years old with me invariably have a little
white on sickles. I have corresponded with many breed-
ers of this breed, and they invariably tell the same expe-
rience. In " Lewis Wright's Illustrated Poultry Book,"
Fig. 66.— WHITE DORKING FOWLS.
the only portrait of a Silver-gray Dorking cock, whicli
took cups at Crystal Palace, 1871; Dublin. 1872, and at
all the principal English shows, has a white edge to the
lower half of his sickle tail feathers. Hon. W. F.
138 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
Daniels, N. EL, who carried the palm for his celebrated
birds, states that he never had a bird worth breeding
from that did not show white in his sickles at two years
old; such birds are liable to be marked disqualified at any
fair, as is sometimes done by judges who never kept and
never knew anything about Dorkings, except from the
Standard. The hen is a finely penciled steel-gray on
back shoulders, and lower back part of body; the shafts
of feathers on back form a fine white line, breast clear
salmon color or light robin-red, shafts of feathers a
lighter shade. The feet and legs of the hens, and also of
Fig. 67.— FOOT OF DORKING FOWI*
Jie cocks, pink or flesh colored, with five distinct toes,
the fifth or upper toe well separated from the others, and
slightly turned up. The neck is of a fine silvery-white
color, with a black stripe down each feather. The dis-
position of this breed is very docile; no breed shows more
intelligence; they are the best of mothers, taking care of
their chicks for a much longer time than most fowls;
they are good layers of fair-sized eggs, and lay well all
through the summer; if not the best of winter layers,
they commence early and keep it up till late in the
season. One great advantage of this breed is, they are
EUROPEAN BREEDS. 139
in their prime when most fowls are too old for use; they
are long-lived. A hen has been known to bring up two
broods in a season when she was six years old. They are
most remarkable as foragers, being very active, industri-
ous workers; if they do not improve your garden, they
will find a good deal of their food on a farm or good run.
As table fowl, their praises have been often sounded.
They are second to none, and their cross with game pro-
duces a table fowl of absolutely supreme merit.
GAME FOWLS.
While the Asiatic, Leghorns, Hamburgs, Poland s, and
a host of other breeds, each have their champion advo-
cates, each claiming for their particular favorites all the
profitable good qualities, there are but few who advocate
the cause of the Game fowl, and really but few who fully
understand the superior qualities of this Royal Bird.
The origin and nationality of the Game fowl have always
been, and yet remain, a mooted question.
The record of Game fowls is as old as the oldest writ-
ten history, wherein we find that the Persians, Greeks,
Romans, and a host of other nations, each had their na-
tive Game fowls.
Games were known to the Britons, and cock-fighting
was carried on in England prior to Caesar's invasion, and
hundreds of years prior to the Christian era, cock-fight-
ing was an established institution with the Greeks and
Persians. China, Java, and the entire East Indies each
had their native Game fowls.
Therefore, all theories advanced by naturalists as to the
origin of the Game fowl are wholly speculative.
The Game fowl was regarded as sacred to the gods in
ancient times, and was used in ancient military schools
140 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
for teaching the youth, by practical illustration, courage
and endurance in battle. They were used as emblems
of ancient nationalities, being stamped on war banners,
coins and shields; and, having withstood the decline of
empires and witnessed the rise and fall of nations, they
yet maintain to the present time their fame for gameness
as of old, and are emphatically the kings of all domestic
fowls.
But not alone for their antiquity and historic glory do
the Game fowls stand at the head of their kind, as they
possess useful qualities in a very high degree, being good
layers of good-sized eggs, and the most devoted of
mothers.
THE DUCK-WINGED GAME.
Of the varieties of Game fowls the Duck-winged is
one of the most beautiful. Although its graceful form
and dignified carriage are exceedingly attractive, its bril-
liantly colored plumage is still more so, and can only be
truly shown by the painter's art. Its bright and varied
colors are so beautifully blended together that it excites
the admiration of those even who take no delight in breed-
ing poultry, while to the fancier it is one of the first favor-
ites. The face of the Duck-wing Game is a deep crim-
son ; the head is covered with small sirvery-white feath-
ers ; the hackle is white, slightly tinged with straw-
yellow ; the back is maroon, claret and straw-yellow ;
the saddle is slightly darker than the hackle, with fine
short feathers hiding the points of the wings ; the
shoulders are bright brass-yellow from the butts up to
the clear steel bar, and no light streak is admissible in a
well-bred bird ; the shoulder butts are black ; the breast
and tail are black, with a shade of bronze upon the sickle
feathers; the eyes are red, and the legs yellow. The
Fig. 68.— BLACK-BREASTED BED GAME-COCK.
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EUROPEAN BREEDS. 143
weight is from five to six pounds. The hen, when pure
bred, has the head gray ; comb and face bright red ;
hackle silvery gray, with dark stripes ; the breast is
bright salmon-red ; the back and shoulder coverts should
be slaty-gray, free from penciling ; the tail is dark gray,
so dark as to be nearly black ; the fluff inside is a steel
gray, and the legs yellow. In breeding Duck-wings for
color, much care and skill is necessary ; for the ordinary
uses of poultry it is not necessary to do more than select
the best birds, feed well, and keep them in the best and
most vigorous health. Unfortunately for game poultry,
their courage and endurance has been put to wrong uses,
and through their enforced connection with the brutal
and cruel sports of the cock-pit, they have in a measure
come to be identified therewith, and are wrongly sup-
posed to be good for nothing but fighting. On the con-
trary, the Game fowl is one of the most, if not the most,
beautiful of our fowls. It is the best table fowl, so far
as regards quality and flavor of flesh. Its eggs are ex-
ceedingly rich, and much desired for pastry or cakes.
The cock is courageous, and will not hesitate to attack
the hawk, and will defeat thp intruder in every attempt
to ravage the poultry yard. The hen is an excellent
mother, and although somewhat nervous and excitable
when brooding her chickens, yet with care and quiet,
gentle treatment she may be handled with ease. While
brooding, she is as courageous as the cock, and will de-
fend her chickens from a hawk, and generally with suc-
cess. A farmer whose grain fields, and those of his
neighbors, offer a too tempting foraging ground for these
active fowls, would be wise to choose some of the heavier
bodied breeds ; but where no damage of this kind can
occur, any of the varieties of Game fowls might be chosen
by those who fancy them, and wish for delicious eggs
and flesh.
144 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
GAME FOWLS— A SENSIBLE GROWL.
It is a noticeable fact that the department of Games
in our poultry exhibitions is the great center of attrac-
tion. Game fowls command higher prices than any of
the old varieties, the eggs sell higher, and they are more
extensively advertised in the poultry journals. The
secret of this popularity lies mainly in the use to which
these birds are put. The Game is unquestionably a good
bird for eating, but is no better than some of the less
quarrelsome varieties. They are prolific, but are sur-
passed by other varieties. They are quite handsome,
but this is not what they are bred for. The only thing
in which they excel all other domestic fowls is their
capacity to fight until the last gasp. No doubt many
breed them for their flesh and eggs. They are frequently
crossed with other fowls, but their quarrelsome disposi-
tion does not make them favorites with the poultry- men,
•ho only want flesh and eggs. They are mostly bred
jr the pit, and there is unques ion ably an increasing
love of this cruel sport, principally among a certain class
in our cities and villages. Cock fights are common,
held iii some places on the sly, in other places quite
openly, and attended by the same rabble that run after
prize fights in the ring, and for the same reason. They
show courage, and draw blood, and offer opportunities
for betting and gambling. Frequently a main is fought,
and several cocks are pitted against a similar number
upon the other side. It is expected in these contests
that all the cocks upon one side will be killed. The
worst passions are stirred by these brute contests, and
there is the same objection to them that there is to other
forms of gambling. The bull fights of Spain are no
more bloody and cruel. They tend to harden the sensi-
bilities, and so corrupt the morals. All the associations
EUROPEAN BREEDS. 145
are low and degrading. There may be laws against these
contests in some of the States, but they are seldom en-
forced, and do not remedy the evil. Our poultry socie-
ties have some responsibility in fostering the breeding of
these birds. As a matter of fact, we think most of them
would be found obnoxious to the charge of discrimina-
ting in their favor, instead of encouraging the more use-
ful and ornamental varieties. With the single exception
of the Asiatic fowls, the largest amount of premiums is
generally offered for Games. The premiums for turkeys,
the most valuable of all our domestic birds, amount to
much less. For geese, still less. Now, if the object of
these societies is the promotion of the common weal, the
highest premiums should be offered for the birds that
are most useful, or for those that promise to be such.
The managers should so arrange the list of premiums
as to draw out the birds that will be the most profitable
on the farm and in the poultry yard. No special in-
ducements are needed for the breeding of Game fowls.
That business would take care of itself if the premiums
were altogether diverted to the most useful classes.
HAMBURGS.
In writing of Hamburgs, an admirer of this favorite
breed says: They have taken their proper place in the
list of popular breeds. All varieties of the Hamburg
family are beautiful, symmetrical, and stylish in car-
riage. They have been much improved in the beauty
and uniformity of plumage since the era of poultry ex-
hibits, but not in productiveness, as that is hardly pos-
sible; for they have long maintained the reputation of
being "every-day layers." Birds of the Hamburg fam-
ily are of only medium size, but their deficiency in size
10
146 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
is more than made up for by their fecundity. Both
sexes exhibit such glossy and elegantly marked plumage
that they are looked upon as special favorites wherever
shown or cultivated, and when well-bred are truly or-
namental, possessing fancy points that render them
pleasing to those who desire to keep pets that will fur-
nish plenty of eggs and also be a gratification to the eye.
Our standard recognizes six varieties of the Hamburg
breed, — the Black, Silver-penciled, Golden-penciled,
Silver-spangled, Golden-spangled, and White. The
Fig 69.— SILVER-SPANGLED HAMBURGS.
whole family is remarkably attractive in plumage, capi-
tal appendages, and the graceful curves which mark the
outline of their well-rounded forms. In sprightliness,
carriage, and habits they are much alike. The Black is
a trifle larger and in appearance stouter than any of the
other varieties.
For table use, though small, they are very good; their
flesh is tender, with little offal, having a larger propor-
tion than usual of the dressed weight in flesh, from the
delicate structure of the skeleton, and is fine in quality.
(147)
EUROPEAN" BREEDS. 149
The cocks average about five pounds, and the hens four
pounds. They will always be prime favorites with a
large class of fanciers and village poultry- raisers.
THE POLISH FOWL.
There are several varieties of these ornamental fowls,
differing but little except in their plumage. The main
characteristics of each are alike, all being non-sitters, and
are by many called everlasting layers. As a class, they are
very prolific, and easily raised, feathering out and coming
to maturity early. They are small compared with many
varieties, but when full-grown weigh from ten to twelve
pounds per pair. They are remarkably handsome, and
in the yard or lawn have few superiors in beauty. In
rearing them tastes differ; some prefer the White-crested
Black, others the White and Spangled varieties. They
are distinguished by a crest crowning the head, which
gives them the appearance of a field-marshal in plumes,
though in illustrations this feature is somewhat over-
drawn. They are especially adapted to city residences,
the lawn, and small inclosures, and extremely domestic
in their habits. They seem fond of attention, and become
remarkably tame and fond of the society of their keeper;
are a hardy breed to raise, but sensitive to cold and wet;
require warm, dry quarters, their heavy topknots hang-
ing so far over their eyes as to interfere with their sight.
They lay a large white egg of oblong shape, very creamy
and rich, and for culinary uses is among the best quality.
But the peculiar merit consists in their tame and quiet
dispositions and fondness of attention, their extremely
ornamental appearance on the lawn, graceful carriage,
and the glossy and metallic lustre of their plumage.
They are quite liable to pick each other's crests, and
150 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
while in this condition render the top of the head bare
and disfigured. Their coops should be kept clean, and
feed supplied them regularly, as they are poor foragers,
and little inclined to scratch and wander. Never sitting,
they must be raised by other hens; and when first
hatched a brood of the White-crested Black look like a
line of diminutive grenadiers with white caps. Several
gentlemen have turned special attention to improving
this family and restoring them to their original purity,
and by careful breeding are producing specimens that
command the admiration of all. For many reasons we
regard the Black and White Polish as the most fascina-
ting and desirable breed of fowls for the young amateur
to handle, always observing our standing admonition
with this as with all other varieties, to breed but one
strain, and that as nearly perfect as possible. If your taste
fixes upon the White- crested Black, take that and breed
for beauty; or upon the White or Golden, give that your
best care. Whichever variety you select, give that your
special culture. There is no variety that so quickly de-
velops the error of a cross and disfigurement of a mix-
ture as either variety of Polands, and when carefully
and purely bred we know of none giving more pleasure
and satisfaction to the breeder, or that can approach
them in beauty as ornamental appendages to the yards
and lawns of a city or suburban residence, and winning
the attention and praise of our most prominent fanciers
of pets, while as egg-producers they are not easily ex-
celled.
WHITE-CRESTED WHITE POLISH FOWLS.
The origin of crested fowls is somewhat obscure.
Cuvier and Buffon mention them, but are unable to fix
upon their original source. It is supposed that they
(151)
153
were first described by an Italian author, about 260 years
ago, in whose treatise rough wood-cuts of some crested
fowls were given as " Paduan Fowls." Paduan was an
Italian city, and these crested fowls were, therefore,
Italian. Buffon refers to the Paduan fowls, and supposed
them to have been descended from Asiatic stock ; he
also described a variety with white body and black crest,
which has long been extinct, although breeders have
made many efforts to restore it. The vareties of the
Polish fowls now known are the White-crested White,
the White-crested Black, the Golden, and the Silver-
spangled, with some bearded varieties. Of these the
most beautiful is, perhaps, the first mentioned. The
Polish fowls are profuse layers, non-sitters, delicate table
fowls, of handsome appearance ; they possess an oddity
in their crests, which makes them attractive to the fancier
and the amateur. They are contented in confinement,
and bear close quarters very well; are easily kept within
bounds and, becoming readily attached to their owners,
make pleasing pets. When young, they are unusually
elegant with their full crests, gracefully shaped little
bodies, and tame disposition. On the whole, there is
hardly any other breed which would give more satisfac-
tory results in every way, where but one is kept, than
this. For ornament, the pure white breeds have a de-
cided advantage over the colored ones, because they show
so conspicuously upon a green lawn or a field. The
White Leghorn is very popular on this account, as well
as for its prolific egg-producing ; but the White Polish
has an advantage over the graceful Leghorn in the pos-
session of a crest, a heavier body, and better flesh, as
well as being equally valuable as an egg-producer. For
ornament, therefore, as well as for use, the White Polish
should be popular fowls.
154 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
THE BLACK SPANISH TOWL.
Doubtless there exists no breed of thoroughbred fowls
in any country, except the Game, which can lay claim to
priority of origin or to such an unbroken line of pure
lineage as the Black Spanish. Nearly two thousand
years ago Columella wrote about them; they were then
indigenous to Spain, and not generally known in the
Roman Empire. Faint traces of their origin to the
Phoanician colony of Carthage, through the doubtful
media of Celtic poetry, are not sufficiently reliable of
themselves to substantiate the claim.
The Black Spanish is possibly the fourth in the order
of Gallinae, or, in other words, the fourth distinct variety
of the Gallus batMva. Time has effected but little
change in them during those years of close breeding.
The same vital element, the same stamina, and the same
power of reproducing their like in plumage, contour,
symmetry, carriage, and facial markings are as character-
istic of the breed to-day as they were of them in past cen-
turies. Some writers assert several varieties of the Black
Spanish, as the Minorca, Red-faced, Black, the White,
the Blue, Andalusian, and the Gray or Mottled Ancona,
Although each of these varieties was produced by the
amalgamation of the Black Spanish with other provin-
cial breeds, yet, strictly speaking, each is definitely classed
by the best-informed Spanish breeders as distinct varie-
ties, inasmuch as they belong to the Mediterranean
islands and provinces of Spain. Their resemblance to
the Spanish is indeed close. Affinity no doubt exists;
but nowadays, when skillful discriminations, careful
selections, and thorough breeding produce those nice
and fine points not found in the original congenitors,
the progeny in time assumes distinctive features, plum-
age, and peculiar characteristics, so as to be considered a
EUROPEAN BREEDS.
155
distinct variety of breed. The white face on the
Spanish is purely Castilian, and it is a mooted question
whether this feature is natural or was produced by years
of study and skillful cultivation.
__
Fig. 72.— WHITE-FACED BLACK SPANISH COCK.
The feathering of the Spanish is close and hard. The
metallic lustre which tips the hackle, back, and wings
contrasts beautifully with the white face, bright-red comb
and wattles.
156 PROFITS 1ST POULTRY.
The carriage of the cock should combine stateliness,
alertness, and gracefulness; he should be proud and carry
his breast full and projecting; his color should be jet- black;
white or partially white feathers is a serious fault; the
comb, single and extending from the fore part of the nos-
trils in an arched form. The white face is the most im-
portant feature. It should be pure white, rising well over
the eye and extending to the back of the head, covering
the deep-sided cheeks, and jointing the long and well-
rounded white ear-lobes and thin wattles.
The Black Spanish are great layers; none surpass them
in beauty, nor excel them in size and quantity of eggs.
Our northern winters are too severe for them; yet they
seem to do well, if we judge by the grand display of our
poultry exhibitions. They require great care during
chickenhood; cold rains, damp houses and runs, and close
confinement are positive seeds of mortality. They love to
roam over the ample grounds of the breeder's home-
stead, where they can bask in sunshine and display their
unique and ornamental facial markings.
WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS.
The Leghorns have been widely known in this coun-
try for the last twenty years. They have been growing
in public favor every year, until they now stand in the
first rank of pure-bred poultry. They did not spring up
in a few years to their present standing and popularity,
but with steady strides have gained hosts of admirers
among both veteran and amateur fowl-breeders for their
remarkable precocity and productiveness.
Without doubt, we have no variety of domestic fowls
among the improved breeds at present cultivated in this
country that will during the year produce a larger num-
(157)
EUROPEAN" BREEDS. 159
her of eggs on the average than the Leghorn. The lay-
ing of eggs is their great forte; and if they be properly
cared for and fed, they will lay well through cold
weather, the hens being powerful machines for convert-
ing food into eggs.
The Leghorns, on a good range, can pick up the greater
part of their own living. They are the most active and
industrious foragers known. But if one is obliged to
confine them to a small yard, clip their wing primaries
to keep them within bounds, and you will be surprised
to see how they will scratch and keep busy day after
day.
It is true there is some trouble experienced in winter-
ing Leghorns successfully in our frigid climate; so that
they will appear at our annual shows and come out in
spring with their combs and pendants unscathed by
Jack Frost. But, as it often has been said by our lead-
ing fanciers of this and other high-combed varieties,
they should be kept in quarters where there is no dan-
ger of freezing; and no poultryman who values his fowls
should allow them in winter to occupy a place that is
not warm and comfortable.
From the time Leghorns leave the shell they grow
rapidly, are hardy, active, strong, and healthy, mature
early, and are comparatively free from disease. During
moulting, when other breeds succumb to the drain on
the system by shedding and putting on their coat of
feathers, they take on their new plumage quickly, and
show little signs of weakness or debility.
They are a proud, sprightly, and handsome variety of
fowls. They are singularly precocious, and it is quite
common to see the pullets developed and doing their
duty as layers before they have attained the age of five
months; and the cockerels — such little scamps — making
love before they are four months old.
160 PKOFiTS IK POULTRY.
The general objection to the Whites is the difficulty
in keeping the plumage unsoiled. Where, however, they
receive proper care there is little trouble.
BROWN LEGHORN.
The Leghorns have a high reputation as layers. Of
these Italian fowls, the brown variety has recently be-
come very popular. Said to have been introduced by
Mr. F. J. Kiuney, of Massachusetts, who bought the
first trio that was imported, in 1853, from on board a
ship in Boston harbor. Since then Mr. Kinney has
made several importations from Leghorn, in Italy. The
character of these birds is of the very best. They are
yellow skinned, and excellent table fowls, are extremely
hardy, and enormous layers. Hens have laid on the
average 240 eggs in the year in some flocks. Pullets
often begin to lay before they are five months old, and
continue laying during the whole winter. They are gay
plumaged birds, and have become popular amongst fan-
ciers. The Brown Leghorns are described as having the
comb of the Black Spanish fowl, with its head and body,
and the plumage or color of the Black-red Game. The
Brown Leghorn cock is black-breasted, with hackles of
orange-red, striped with black ; the ear-lobes are white.
The hen is salmon-color on the breast, with the rest of
the plumage brown, finely penciled with dark mark-
ings. They thrive fairly well in confinement. A promi-
nent English poultry fancier is of the decided opinion
that this breed is the best of all our " American" breeds,
when size and product of eggs are taken into considera-
tion. The Leghorns are all called in England American
breeds, because American fanciers first developed them
as pure breeds, and, so to speak, "brought them out."
EUROPEAN BREEDS.
161
They are non-sitters, which is a great advantage when
eggs are the product mainly desired. There is scarcely
any stock of the farm which is so poorly managed as the
poultry, yet there is none that may be more productive.
Fig. 74.— BROWN LEGHORNS.
A yield of two or three dozen eggs and a brood of half
a dozen chickens is generally considered a fair season's
production for a hen. This is the consequence of keep-
ing poor stock, or neglecting that which is better, and
capable of doing better with proper treatment. Poultry
11
162 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
may be improved by careful breeding as well as a pig or
a cow. An infusion of new blood should be procured
every year or two, and a bird of undoubted excellence
should be bought.
THE FRENCH BREEDS — HOUDANS AND CREVECCEURS.
If profit is the chief end of poultry-keeping, and this
is certainly the purpose for which farmers and those who
raise poultry for the market, us well as those who com-
pete for prizes at the poultry shows, are all in pursuit of,
then the French breeds of fowls are worthy of high con-
sideration. There is no other country in the world
where poultry is so popular a product in the market, or
so frequent a dish upon the tables, as in France, and i
breed that is in favor there must possess positive merit.
In addition to the vast number of eggs which are con
sumed in every possible shape in cookery, and in various
arts, millions of dollars' worth are exported from France
every year; and the poulef, variously presented, is not
only a very conspicuous item on the bills of fare, but it£
delicacy and succulence entitle it to the prominence it
enjoys. That it is acceptable in France should be to a
breed a passport to popular favor everywhere. Yet the
French fowls are not nearly so popular in America as
they deserve to be. The Houdans and the Crevecoaurs
are both prolific egg-producers, grow rapidly, and pos-
sess white and juicy flesh. Yet we have admired these
fowls in the yards of other people, and have listened
favorably to frequent praise of their profit and their
beauty. The Houdan is doubtless a very handsome and
attractive bird, and a flock of them, well bred and well
cared for, is very showy in the yard or the field They
are square and massive about the body, with short legs,
a spirited or even a fierce carriage, on account of their
(163)
EUROPEAH BREEDS. 165
peculiar crest, beard, and muffling, and the lively mark-
ings of their plumage, which, when perfect, is of a
mixed "pebbly" black-and-white. They have the fifth
toe, — a useless, objectionable member, which they inherit
from the Dorking strain in their ancestry, although
along with it they have the fine-flavored flesh and plump
breast of that race. Their legs are gray and their bones
remarkably light They are egg- producers rather than
breeders; and if properly fed, the hens will lay on with-
out stopping to " sit." They will thrive in confinement,
when properly kept, as well as when roaming at large;
and when allowed to range, exercise the liberty now and
then with greater freedom than is convenient upon the
farm. The standard of excellence of the poultry-fan-
ciers for the Houdan is subject to some variation as to
minor points, such as the shape of the comb; the fifth
toe, however, is insisted upon; the feathering should be
of black and white, evenly mixed, and not patchy; the
saddle of the cock is tipped with straw yellow; the crest
is of black and white feathers, evenly mixed, and thrown
back so as to show the comb, which is double, evenly
toothed upon each side, and with both sides alike in
shape; the hackle is black and while, the beard and
muffle almost hide the face, and the wattles are long and
evenly rounded at the ends. The hen is square-bodied,
and low-framed, with plumage like that of the cock;
the crest is full and round and not loose and struggling
or shaggy. The fifth claw is large and turned upwards,
as with the cock. If good birds are procured to start
with, they should breed very true to the marks; but if
long closely bred* they will in time become mixed in ap-
pearance.
The Crevecceur, like the Houdan, is named from the
village in France in the neighborhood of which it has
long been largely brod for market. These birds are re-
markably stately and handsome, although somber in
166 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
color, except in the sunlight, when the golden-green re-
flections from the plumage make them very brilliant; but
this peculiarity is only brought out in a favorable light.
They are much more rarely seen than the Houdans, al-
though as producers of eggs, and for non-sitting as well
as for early maturity, and whiteness and sweetness of
flesh, they surpass these. They are not winter layers,
which is an objection; but when the cock is crossed upon
Brahma hens, the eggs produce table birds of heavy
weight, excellent quality, and in time for early market-
ing. They suffer nothing from confinement, and a
dozen can be easily kept in a yard twenty feet square.
They are very tame and friendly when petted. They
excel as table birds, notwithstanding their black legs,
which may be objected to by the marketmen or the
cooks; this feature has no ill effect upon the color, flavor,
or tenderness of the flesh, which is very white and of de-
licious flavor. Young birds will fatten when three months
old, and have been made to weigh four pounds at that age,
and at six months, with two weeks' fattening, have weighed
seven pounds. The Crevecceur cock should be a heavy,
compact bird, mounted upon short, thick legs; the thighs,
being well feathered, tend to give the birds a heavier
and more solid build. The back is broad and flat, giv-
ing a robustness to the figure, and slopes but slightly
towards the tail, which is carried high. The general
carriage is dignified, their sedateness being somewhat
heightened by their somber coloring. The comb is two-
horned or "antlered," and the crest is formed of lancet-
shaped feathers, which fall backwards and do not
straggle wildly in all directions, as in the Houdan The
chicks are hardy when properly cared for, but early
chicks of this breed are rare, on account of the late habits
of the hen. The breast is full; the hackle is long and
sweeps gracefully down the neck; the beard and muffle
are full and low on the throat, and the plumage, as pre-
EUROPEAN BREEDS. 167
viously described, when perfect, is of a solid black, with
greenish and sometimes brilliant reflections. The hen
is similar in color and special points to the cock; her
body is massive, and her legs strong to match her stout
body. Her plumage is perfectly black, the crest is
large, and the beard full, and the comb, which is horned,
is much hidden in the crest.
As these birds become aged a few stray white feathers
will appear in the crest, which, however, should be an
objection in young birds. When but one breed is kept,
the Houdan would be preferable to the Crevecceur, on
account of its more lively color; but when cross-bred
birds are not objected to, afew of the latter, with their
remarkably beautiful color when in a bright light, their
large size and handsome carriage, their desirable table
qualities, and the habit of the hen to lay when others
are broody, would make a very desirable addition to a
flock of Brahmas or Cochins.
CHAPTER XVI.
AMERICAN BREEDS
PLYMOUTH ROCKS.
The breed known as the Plymouth Rock is generally
acknowledged the best for useful purposes that has ever
been bred in this country, and as especially adapted to
our American climate, markets, and uses. As fowls for
the farmer and raiser of market poultry, they are su-
perior to other birds in many respects. They fill the
requirements of the farm, while maintaining their purity
as a breed. They are good layers, sitters, and mothers.
They are excellent foragers, and, being at the same time
under easy control, will bear close confinement without
injury. They have the desirable characteristic of being
self-reliant when roaming at will and dependent upon
their own exertions, and contented and happy when re-
strained in close quarters.
For general purposes we know of no better fowl.
They are hardy, and easily raised, and for a breed that is
so large they are wonderfully active and industrious, quick
and sprightly in their movements. With a good yard
of Plymouth Rocks, the farmer or market-poultry raiser
lias a breed that fills all requirements; the farmer's
object being not so much to gratify taste or a love of
the beautiful and ornamental, as to keep fowls that will
give a good supply of eggs through a great part of the
year, and furnish in the fa!4 and winter large-sized, com-
pact birds, possessing a presentable color for the table.
The Plymouth Rocks were first brought to notice
when the Brahmas and Cochins were leading the fashion,
and did not attract particular attention; but on the score
(168)
(169)
AMERICAN BREEDS. 171
of their merits alone they have worked their way up,
and earned for themselves a lasting reputation for gen-
eral utility.
This breed is deservedly becoming very popular among
those persons who keep fowls for profit. First among
the good qualities of a fowl, is size. This the Plymouth
Rocks have in an unusual degree. There are many ex-
cellent breeds of poultry which are all that can be de-
sired except as to size, and the lack of this is fatal to
their popularity; for, after all, profit is the chief object
with most people in choosing a kind of fowl to keep.
Hardiness of constitution and vigor, pleasing form,
handsome and attractive plumage, and prolific produc-
tion of eggs are all very desirable qualities in fowls, and
these all belong to the breed. The future of the Ply-
mouth Rocks will depend greatly upon the care or fortun-
ate success with which they are bred. Difference of taste
leads breeders to favor different styles, and thus " strains5'
are originated. If these styles are made to depart too
much from a rigid standard, there is danger that an im-
portant and essential point may be sacrificed for some
minor fancy. To prevent this, and to induce or enforce
care and consistency in breeding, it would be well that
a very close adherence to the standard be insisted upon
in all exhibitions, and that a very rigid one be adopted.
In the case of the birds here represented, they come fully
up to the accepted standard of excellence of American
breeders, and meet it in every respect. The points re-
quired are: The breast to be "broad, deep, and full,"
and the body to be "large, square, and compact." The
form of these birds is therefore nearly perfect, and if
breeders of the Plymouth Rocks vie with each other in
taking advantage of favorable accidents in breeding, and
in fixing them upon their strains, or in using care in
selecting birds for breeding, as any skillful breeder may
readily do, the future history of this breed will be a very
172 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
gratifying one. Among some of seventy breeds recog-
nized in the American standand of excellence, there are
only three of American origin, viz., the old fashioned
Dominique, the Plymouth Rocks, and the Wyandottes.
After some years of careful breeding the Plymouth Rock
has been brought to such a condition of merit, that it is
now one of the most popular breeds, and promises to be
one of the most suitable for farmers and attractive to
amateurs.
AMERICAN DOMINIQUES.
This old-fashioned breed is said to have been brought
over by the early Puritans, and wherever bred in purity
is acknowledged to be one of the best, hardiest, and
most beautiful of all domestic fowls; and as there has
certainly been no importation of any fowls of this breed
into this country for a century, they have come to be re-
garded as strictly an American variety.
They are without doubt the oldest of the distinctive
American breeds, being mentioned in the earliest poultry
books as an indigenous and valued variety. In the fu-
rore for fancy breeds of fowls, the older sorts are some-
times wellnigh forgotten; yet it is highly probable
that the American Dominiques possess as many good
qualities as any of the newer breeds. If they do not
reach the heavy weight of some of the latter breeds, they
have great merit, and none give better satif action to the
farmer than this old American breed of Dominiques.
They should weigh from six to eight pounds when
matured.
The Dominiques are excellent layers, very hardy, un-
exceptionable as mothers, yet are not given to excessive
incubation, and are good for the table. They grow both
fat and feathers quickly, while their plain " home-spun"
AMERICAN BREEDS. ^
suits make them very suitable for countless localities
where larger and more valuable-looking fowls would be
liable to be stolen. The merits of this breed will recom-
mend it to persons residing in the country as well worthy
of promotion in the poultry-yard, whether as producers
of eggs or of meat, or as sitters or nurses.
The color of their plumage maybe described as a light
steel-gray ground, with each feather distinctly striped
or barred across with a darker or bluish-gray, the bars
shading off gradually from dark into light. The cock
is a very showy bird, with full saddle and hackle, and
abundant well-curved sickle feathers. The comb should
be a neat "rose" form; face, wattles, and ear-lobes
should be red; wattles neat, well-rounded, and of me-
dium size; legs bright yellow.
WYANDOTTES.
A breed which for some time was known as the
" American Seabrights" has many admirers, who were
instrumental in having the variety admitted to the
Standard at the meeting of the American Poultry As-
sociation held at Worcester in 1883. At the same time
the birds were given the name of Wyandottes.
Breeders differ in their statements of the origin of this
variety, but it is generally considered to be a cross of the
Brahma and Hamburg breeds. It matters little, how-
ever, what the history of the fowl is, so long as it pos-
sesses the desired characteristics. When well-bred, the
Wyandottes are good layers, sitters, and mothers, and
their flesh is of the finest flavor. Their plumage is
white and black, each feather having a white ground
and being heavily laced with black, the tail alone being
solid black. They have a small rose comb, face and
174
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
ear-lobes bright-red, legs free from feathers and of a
rich yellow color. Hens will weigh eight to nine pounds,
and cocks nine to ten pounds, when matured.
In this breed we have the rose comb like the Ham-
burgs, but not so large. The plumage is black-and-
white-speckled, like the Hamburgs, but darker, with the
black tail of the Brahma. The legs are yellow, like the
Brahma, but bare like the Hamburg. Fine specimens
are nearly as large as the Brahma. The effort has been
Fig. 77.— WYANDOTTB FOWLS.
in this combination to preserve the good qualities and
eliminate the undesirable ones of both parent breeds.
The Plymouth Rock has been a favorite with those who
have wanted a plump, fat chicken of a pound and a half
weight as broilers. The Wyandotte is fully its equal in
this respect. It feathers with its growth, and is plump
at any age, thrifty and hardy in raising, yellow-skinned,
and in all respects an excellent variety for forcing early.
When grown, they are plump in body and of an attract-
ive appearance in the market. They lay a medium-sized
(175)
AMEKICAN BREEDS. 17?
egg of dark-buff color. Their laying qualities depend
mucli on the selections and matings of the parent stock.
In markings the fowls are very handsome, the hen more
so than the cock. In the main, the feathers are white
with a black border, which makes them evenly and
brightly speckled. The hackle is penciled white and
black, and the tail black.
AMERICAN JAVAS.
In writing of our American Javas Mr. Bicknell says:
They have characteristics different from any other va-
riety; they present large size, long bodies, deep full
breast, and their general make-up is just what is required
for a genuine, useful superior table fowl — hardiness and
beauty.
Of the two varieties, Black and Mottled, there is little
difference except in plumage. They have single combs,
feet are yellow, shanks free from feathers, skin yellow;
when served on the table the flesh does not present that
objectionable dark color common to some other breeds,
but is equal to the Plymouth Rock in every particular.
12
CHAPTER XVII.
DISEASES OP POULTRY.
Poultry generally suffer from preventible ills. It is
almost useless, and rarely ever worth while, to treat sick
poultry. A chicken is hardly worth the trouble re-
quired to physic it, and nine out of ten die in spite of all
the treatment that can be given them. Poultry are
naturally subject to very few diseases. If kept clean,
not overfed, not cooped up close, kept from foul, pu-
trid food, supplied with clean water regularly, and have
abundant pure ajr in their roosting-places, they live and
thrive without any trouble, except in rare cases. The
fatal disorders which result from ill-treatment cannot
be cured by medicine. It is too late. The mischief has
been done when the first symptoms appear, and the best
procedure is generally to kill the diseased fowls and save
the rest by sanitary measures.
DISTEMPER, ROUP, AND CHICKEN-POX.
An article which recently appeared in a poultry jour-
nal is the most practical we have ever seen on these
subjects, and is well worth reprinting. Fowls never per-
spire; the waste of the system is in a large measure car-
ried off in the vapor of the breath, which is far more
rapid than is by many supposed. The heart of the
fowl beats 150 times per minute, which causes a rapid
respiration, and demands twice the amount of air in pro-
portion to weight. Even the bones of the wing are
(178)
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 179
charged with air, and so much so that the windpipe
severed and tied, and the wing sawn off, it will admit
air enough to sustain life for some time.
Distemper, which seems to be an acclimated disease,
yet if neglected often results in roup, is easily detected
by a puffed face, deep scarlet in color, and in two or three
days discharges from the nostrils appear. In this disease
the membrane of the air-passages, tear-tube and throat
is inflamed; and when so much so as to close the tear-
tube, the discharges become acrid, and roup is the result.
To prevent this, it becomes necessary to check these mu-
cus-discharges. The use of kerosene is a handy and sure
cure. By holding the fowl so it cannot swallow, and
filling the throat with the oil, holding long enough to
have the oil thoroughly saturate the throat, then allow-
ing the same to run out of the mouth, and by washing
the nostrils out, and injecting a few drops into each nasal
passage, the effect is magical; and if attended to during
the first two days of the distemper, one application gen-
erally proves sufficient. So safe and sure is this remedy
that I have not used any other for the past two years. It
checks at once the unnatural discharges. The breathing
of kerosene for the twenty-four hours seems to have a
most marvelous effect, and restoration to health is the
result. By neglect we often have an attack of " roup/'
which is apparent inafetid breath, swollen head, and in-
flamed face, a throat and mouth filled with canker. No
matter what the cause that has brought this state of
things to your flock, — be it bad ventilation, filthy quar-
ters, unclean water- vessels, or neglect to remove roupy
specimens till by the taint of the water by drinking in
the same vessel the whole flock is effected, — it is safe, when
a part of the fowls are so affected, to reason that the en-
tire flock is in a measure poisoned in blood, and means
should be taken to-prevent its spreading. If we in such
a case put in the water- vessel bromide of potassium to
180 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
the extent of two grains to each fowl, for three or four
days, the evils of the ravage may be stayed.
But in treating those bad cases described above, if the
patient is so full of canker as to be unable to eat, we
must administer the doses.
At the time of the Portland exhibition, I had sent to
me a patient in the shape of a fine Light Brahma. The
bird did not arrive until I had left for the exhibition;
consequently, it was three days before I could attend to
him. When I retured I found him in the following
deplorable condition: His mouth was as full as it could
possibly be of canker; his head was swollen till both eyes
were closed, arid face and comb were broken out with
dry canker, or, as some poultry men call it, chicken-pox.
By the use of a large syringe, I injected the bird's crop
full of milk in which four grains of bromide had been
dissolved; I then gargled the mouth and throat with
kerosene in the way described above.
We see many recommendations to remove the canker
by forcible means; this is the very worst thing that can
be done (inhuman and retards the cure). In the case of
the Light Brahma, by gargling the throat three morn-
ings, the fourth morning nearly all the canker slipped
off, leaving the mouth smooth. I administered the milk
and bromide for the four days also.
The head, as I have described, was a swollen, shapeless
mass. I felt that the case was a hopeless one, and, al-
ready knowing the curative properties of the oil for
canker in the throat, I bathed the head, face, and throat
with the oil, repeating the operation the second morn-
ing, when I noticed here and there small blisters on the
throat, and a decided improvement in the looks of my
patient. I then on the fourth morning applied the oil
again, when the swelling subsided, and he opened his
eyes and commenced to eat a little, and from that time
improved rapidly; the blisters of course dried down.
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 181
About a week afterward I was brushing the dry scale
from face and comb, and in the process I lifted entire
the cuticle and feathers from head and neck for three
inches down, which demonstrated the power of the oil
as a counter-irritant, and the necessity of care in its use.
These two medicines are all I have used since for distem-
per or roup, and so successful have I been that I think
it safe to say I have not lost five birds by roup in the past
two years.
Chicken-pox — warty blotches of comb and throat — can
be treated with bromide, by giving three grains a day,
and isolating the bird till the spots dry and cleave off,
which will be in a week or ten days. The plan to remove
those caps is a very bad one, and only spreads the disease.
Patience, giving time for the bromide to do its work,
and the shedding of the dry scales, is all that is needed
for a cure.
CHICKEN OR FOWL CHOLERA.
There is nothing more unsatisfactory than a sick
chicken, or more difficult to treat, and we find that the
best writers upon poultry diseases insist much more
upon prevention than upon cures. The term "chol-
era" is applied to a disease which, though it varies
in different parts of the country, is everywhere accom-
panied by a violent diarrhoea, and is rapidly fatal. In
every such outbreak of disease among fowls, the first
thing to be done is to separate the sick from the well,
and at once give a change of food, which should be of
the most nourishing character, and combined with some
stimulant, such as Cayenne pepper, or a tonic, like
iron. Modern writers upon poultry diseases are greatly
in favor of iron in some form as a tonic. The old
method of putting rusty nails in the drinking-water had
182 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
good sense at the bottom of it, but a more active rorm
of iron is desirable. The English poultrymen are much
in favor of "Douglas's Mixture." This is made by put-
ting eight ounces of sulphate of iron (also called cop-
peras, or green vitriol) into a jng (never use a metallic
vessel) with two gallons of water, and adding one ounce
of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol). This is to be put
into the drinking-water in the proportion of a tea-spoon-
ful to a pint, and is found to be a most useful tonic
whenever such is needed. So soon as the disease breaks
out among the poultry, this should be given to the well
to enable them to resist it, together with more nutri-
tious and easily digestible food.
One writer on the subject states that he made a satu-
rated solution of alum, and whenever a bird was at-
tacked, gave it two or three tea-spoonfuls, repeating the
dose the next day. He mixed their feed, Indian meal,
with alum-water for a week. Since adopting this he
has lost no fowls. Another writes that in each day's
feed of cooked Indian meal, for a dozen fowls, he added
a table-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, gunpowder, and
turpentine, feeding this every other day for a week.
From what we have heard of chicken-cholera, it ap-
pears to be a protest against improper feeding and
housing rather than any well-defined disease. Fowls
are often in poor condition on account of the vermin
they are obliged to support, or they may be in impaired
health from continuous feeding on corn alone. When
in this weakened state, a sudden change in the weather
may induce diarrhea, or a cold, which attacks the flock
so generally that the disease appears to be epidemic.
And being generally and rapidly fatal, it is called " chol-
era," and the owner of such a flock at once writes us for
a remedy for " chicken-cholera." A recent letter, from
a friend in Massachusetts, is the type of many others
received of late. This informed us that some of the
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 183
fowls would leave the rest of the flock, go off and mope
by themselves, refuse to eat, and, as a general thing,
those so affected soon died. The writer assumed this to
be cholera. Our reply was essentially as follows: Sepa-
rate at once the sick birds from the well. If the poultry-
house has not recently been put in order, remove all the
fowls until it can be fumigated, by burning sulphur,
and then whitewashed in every part of the interior with
lime-wash, to each pailful of which half a pound of
crude carbolic acid has been added. Mix some lard and
kerosene, and, with a rag, or swab, rub all the roosts.
Throw out all the old straw from the nest- boxes, and
grease with the lard and kerosene the insides of these.
Kenew the dust- boxes, using fine road-dust, and mixing
some sulphur with the dust.
SCABBY LEGS IN POULTEY.
The unsightly disease which affects the legs of fowls,
causing them to swell and become distorted, is due to a
mite, a small insect which is similar in appearance to
that which causes scab in sheep. It is roundish-oval,
and semi-transparent, about one eight-hundredth of an
inch in length, appearing, when magnified 400 diam-
eters, about half an inch long. If the scales from the
leg of a diseased fowl are beneath the microscope, a
number of these mites may be found between them.
Beneath the scales there are spongy, scabby growths, in
which the eggs and pupae of the mites are to be seen in
great numbers. The pupaB are very similar in shape to
the mature mites, but are very much smaller, appearing,
when viewed with the above-mentioned power, about
one tenth of an inch in length. The disease, being of a
similar character to the scab in sheep, or the mange in
dogs and cattle, may be cured by the same treatment.
184 PROFITS IK POULT It Y.
Wo have cured fowls of the disease, before accurately
knowing ilio cause, by applying to the lc-s a mixture of
l.ii'd with One-twentieth part of carbolic acid. This
should he applied with a, stiff brush, such as one of
i hose sold with bottles of mucilage. A very small paint-
er's sash-brush would answer the purpose; hut some-
thing must be used by which the medicated grease can
he applied thoroughly lo the crevices between the scales.
A mixture of equal parts of lard or sweet-oil and kero-
sene will bo equally as effective as the carbolic-acid mix-
ture. It is probable that lard, or oil alone, would bo
effective, but the kerosene more easily penetrates
between the scales, and the carbolic acid is sure doai/ii
to the parasites. The remedy being so simple, it will
bo inexcusable if this disagreeable affection is suffered
to remain in a Hock; while, however, one fowl is troubled
with it, it will certainly spread, as the mites will
burrow beneath the scales of the other fowls. If pre-
cautions were generally used, the parasite could soon be
exterminated. It should be made a disqualification at
poultry-shows for fowls to bo affected with scabby legs
or feet, in any degree whatever, for wo know that sev-
eral poultry-yards are not free from this disease; and
whenever affected fowls are sent out, the disease goes
with them.
EGG-EATINO FOWLS.
When fowls are confined they will eat their eggs, and
no persuasion but that of the ax will prevent them.
They must bo freed from 'confinement and given their
natural employment of scratching, or they will got into
this mischief.
If the bird is worth tho trouble, a nest may bo so ar-
ranged that tho ogg, when laid, will at once roll out of
sight and roach.
DIHKAHKS OK I -oil I/I'll Y.
KlCATIIKK-KATINd KOWLH.
The hahii. of pulling and eating feathers is ulso com-
mon among fowlH confined. It. is impossible to rum
MM- r.-uill. when once acquired, and il. is !•••.. I. lo kill ihr
fowls for table nc at first sight, as they ipiiekly Imdi
others to (lo the same. The (^IIIHO in dotlbtlcHH 11 nerd or
:i|»|n-lilr for soinothing contained in the fealhei'H. A
mixture of dried llesh and hone, specially prepared for
poultry, with a Kinall (piantity of .sulphur, will aet as a
preventive. Hits of frowh loan moat, or aonips, or fine-
powdered fresh bones, will answer.
Another remedy in to #ive them a sheep's pluck, or
liver, to pick at, hanging it up within roach, and to
give them wheat scattered in the earth or litter of their
houses. This will give them food and work to occupy
their time.
TIIK I'll'.
Poultry are sometimes troubled with a disease known
as "pip." This is inflammation of the tongue and
mouth, with the growth of a horny scale on the point
of the tongue, which prevents the fowls from feeding,
(iivceach fowl a pinch of powdered chlorate of potash,
dropping it into the throat and upon the tongue, and
remove the scale with the point of a penknife.
/ \
GAPES.
Gapes is the result of parasitic worms in the wind-
pipe. The only cure is to dislodge thorn. This is
sometimes successfully done by putting the chicks in a
box, covering the top with a piece of muslin, and dust-
186 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
ing fine lime through the cloth. The chicks breathe
the lime, and as it comes in contact with the worms,
these let go of the membranes, and are dislodged by the
coughing and sneezing of the chicks. To prevent
gapes, the chicks should not be kept on ground where
fowls have previously been. This may be done either
by spading old ground deeply each year, or providing a
different locality for the poultry-yard.
EGG-BOUND FOWLS.
It is not at all uncommon for hens, especially old and
infirm ones, to become egg-bound. The eggs without
shells collect in the egg-passage, and form a mass of
hard, cheesy matter, which in time causes the abdomen
to swell, and finally kills the fowl. In the early stages
of this trouble the remedy is to inject some linseed-oil
into the passage, and, by dilating it with the fingers,
remove the collected matter. The trouble is generally
from over-feeding with stimulating food.
LOSS OF FEATHERS.
Poultry will frequently 'drop their feathers when
over- fed upon corn, buckwheat, or other heating food.
The remedy is to feed only chopped cabbage or turnips,
or turn them into a grass-field for a few days. A few
pills of castile-soap, or half a tea-spoonful of castor-oil,
will be of benefit.
BUMBLE- FOOT.
This is usually caused by a bruise or sliver; inflam-
mation sets in, and pus forms under the skin and be-
DISEASES OF POULTRY.
comes condensed into hard, cheesy matter. When dis-
covered, while the pus is in liquid, form, if the skin be
opened with a knife, the pus-cavity well syringed out
with carbolic acid and water, the place kept open by
poulticing for a day or two, it heals up. The same
trouble sometimes attacks the shank; in such a case
open the sack at the bottom and top, and syringe the
cavity from the top to the bottom a couple of times;
then use strong liniment on the shank, and it will all
heal up. When the case is of so long standing that the
pus becomes hard and cheesy, the only way is to lay the
whole thing open, making an opening large enough to
press the core out; then poultice and use the carbolic
acid and water baths, finally winding up with a strong
liniment.
DEFENSE AGAINST DISEASE.
If cared for, and they have clean, wholesome quarters
and not crowded, poultry will always be healthy. If a
fowl merely acts a little " cranky," do not imagine that
it is sick, and commence stuffing it with drugs; simply
remove it to a pen some distance from the flock, and let
it alone a few days. If it proves to be very sick, chop off
its head and burn it. For cholera, a strong solution of
hyposulphite of soda, given three times a day, in ten-
spoonful doses, is probably the best remedy we have.
For gapes, dip a feather in turpentine, and insert it
into the windpipe. One application will generally cure;
two are sometimes necessary. Dip scaly legs in kero-
sene two or three times. A little sulphur mixed with
the food once a week in winter prevents packing of the
crop and irregularities of the bowels, caused by over-
eating and the constant production of eggs. Gravel and
188
PROFITS Iff POULTRY.
coarse sand are necessary for the digestion of food.
Crushed bones, old plaster, lime, etc., are necessary for
the formation of egg-shells. Cayenne pepper in small
quantities, mixed with the food occasionally during t^
winter, promotes egg-laying.
CHAPTEE XVIII.
PARASITES UPON POULTRY.
It is very common to speak of " Hen-lice" as if there
were but one kind of insect parasite upon our fowls.
The fact is that there are at least five species of lice
which, with several mites, ticks, and kindred creatures,
bring up the number of poultry pests to a dozen or
more. From the day the chick leaves the egg, to that
on which it is prepared for market, it is subject to the
attacks of one or more of these
parasites. That they interfere
with the comfort, and conse-
quently the thrift of the birds,
is evident, and to be a successful
poultry- raiser one should know
thoroughly the habits of these
poultry enemies and the methods
of getting rid of them. That
some are wonderfully prolific is
shown by feathers sent us by a
friend in New Hampshire, who
writes: "They have something
on the base, and about every
feather in the 'fluff' is like
these." (See Fig. 79.) The engraving, of the natu-
ral size, gives the appearance of the feathers. A
magnifier showed the "something on the base" to be
a dense mass of the eggs of a parasite, and it is safe to
say that there were several hundreds in each cluster. A
portion of the eggs had hatched, and we do not wonder
that our friend wrote that the " cockerel is very lousy/'
Some of the creatures live only upon the feathers of the
(189)
Fig. 7P — EGGS AT BASE OF
FEATHER.
190 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
bird, while others are provided with suckers by which to
draw the blood. Where the fowls are in good health,
and have free use of the dust bath, they keep the para-
sites from excessive increase. In winter there should
always be a box of fine earth for dusting kept where
no water can reach it. Old nest-boxes should be treated
to a bath of scalding lye before they are again used.
To get rid of fleas, the chicken-house should be
thoroughly whitewashed — not half done — with hot lime-
wash. The floor shoultt be well sprinkled with a solution
of carbolic acid, and the roosts thoroughly greased with
a mixture of one pound of lard, one pint of raw linseed
oil, a quarter of a pint of kerosene, and a quarter of a
pound of sulphur.
When kerosene oil is placed on the fowls themselves,
it should be used sparingly; properly applied, it is the
best known remedy for lice, but to use it recklessly is
dangerous.
Unfortunately for the fowls, it is impossible to de-
scribe " the" Hen Louse, for there are so many of them.
Here is a portrait, Fig. 80, of one of the easiest to
find, as it is one of the largest, being nearly ^ inch
long. Unless special care is taken, little chicks, when
they are first hatched, are sadly afflicted; and the
feathers on $he head are all alive with them. Not only
common fowls, but all other domestic birds, including
the delicate pets, such as the canary, and the wild birds
from the largest to the smallest, are infested by parasites
— as animals and plants that live upon other animals and
plants are called. Vermin is the pest of poultry, and
when chicken-houses get thoroughly infested, it is not
an easy matter to cleanse them. If the house is washed
PARASITES UPON POULTRY. 191
with a hot-lime wash, and the roosts are rubbed with a
mixture of kerosene oil and lard, the lice will be made un-
comfortable, and if this treatment is repeated a few
times, the house and also the fowls will be quite free from
vermin. If the house is, as all poultry houses should be,
detached from barns and other buildings, it may be
fumigated. Shut it up tight and close every opening;
then place a pan of live coals on the ground (or if it
must be on a wooden floor, put down a few shovelfuls of
earth, or cold ashes to hold the pan). Throw on a
handful of lumps of brimstone, and get out quickly,
closing the door tightly. If the work has been done
thoroughly, no lice can be found at the
end of a few hours. The white- wash-
ing, etc., may then be done.
In regard to the use of kerosene, it is
not more effective perhaps than some
other remedies, but is applied more
easily than lard, tobacco, sulphur, or
whitewash. We apply it to the perches
in the hennery from the common
lamp-filler. Turn a very small stream
- ,, , j ,1 Fig. 80.— LARGE PALK
from the spout, and move the can HEN-LOUSE.
rapidly from end to end of the perch.
The oil gets upon the feet and feathers, and is soon dis-
tributed all over the fowl. The lice leave on very short
notice, and the fowls are entirely relieved. It is a greater
safeguard against lice on chickens, when first hntched, to
use the oil in the boxes, before the nest is made for the
sitting hen. It takes but a small quantity, applied to the
corners of the box, to keep away insects. Tnke care that
the oil does not touch the eggs. In using a substance
like kerosene about the farm buildings, remember that it
is inflammable, and must be employed with caution,
avoiding every chance of fire.
"While the kerosene will destroy vermin by the thou-
192
PKOi'iTri IX POULTRY.
sands, its effects are not lasting, as it soon evaporates.
To be effectual, it should be applied to the roosts and
wood- work 'frequently, say once a week.
The red color of some of the lice is due to the blood
sucked by them from the fowls, as mosquitoes become
red after dining on human blood.
CHAPTEE XIX.
RAISING TURKEYS.
It is a joyful morning to the farmer when he discovers
his first brood of young turkeys following the cautious
tread and the low cluck of the mother, as she leaves her
nest. The critical season of turkey-raising is now be-
fore him. Upon his constant care and watchfulness for
the next three or four weeks depend his success and his
profits. It is a matter of the first importance that the
care of the young broods should be committed to some
one individual. There is no substitute for personal re-
sponsibility in carrying the young chicks through their
first month. .They are very tender, and they have many
enemies from the start. The mother bird has wise in-
stincts to guard her brood against harm in a state of
nature, but in domestication she needs close watching
to guard them against birds and beasts of prey, against
roaming for food too early in the morning, and especial-
ly against storms. If the farmer cannot attend to this
himself, he should put the care upon some one else who
will look after the broods at short intervals during the
day, and see them properly sheltered for the night.
Women who have a fondness for the work make the best
guardians of the young broods. Each little flock should
be counted every night, as they come to their roost, and
if any are missing they should be looked after. They
can be controlled in their wanderings, at first, by fre-
quent feeding. Like all other birds, they follow the feed
very strictly, and will not wander very far from food
that is regularly and bountifully supplied.
Why is it that one farmer will raise nearly every tur-
(193) 13
194 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
key-chick that comes out of the shell, and do this nine
years out of ten, without much respect to wet or dry
seasons, while another loses from a half to three quarters
with about the same uniformity ? We know of men
with whom success is the established rule. They are
very systematic in this, as in all their other business.
We visited one of these thrifty farmers, who raised one
hundred and sixty-five turkeys last year from nine hens, •
and upon inquiry found that he did about the same thing
every year. We wanted to know just how he managed
Fig. 81.— BRONZE TURKEY.
to secure this uniform result, and found him communi-
cative. He insists upon good stock to begin with — the
best always selected to breed from. Then he places
great reliance upon regular feeding during the fall and
winter, so that the flock becomes very gentle, and the
hens make their nests immediately about the sheds and
barns in places prepared for them. This is a great safe-
guard against foxes, skunks, crows, hawks, and other
creatures that destroy the birds or their eggs. When
the young first come off the nest, they are confined in
RAISING TURKEYS. 195
pens for a few days until they are strong enough, to fly
over a board inclosure one foot high. He feeds fre-
quently with coarse corn -meal and sour milk until four
o'clock in the afternoon. He found in his experience
that he lost a good many chicks from the food hardening
in the crop. There is danger from over-feeding. As
the chicks grow the sour-milk diet is increased, and
during the summer it is kept constantly in a trough for
them. They are exceedingly fond of sour-milk and
buttermilk, and they grow very rapidly upon this diet.
An incidental advantage, and a very important one, he
thinks, is that the young birds are prevented from stray-
ing very far from the house. They return many times
during the day to the buttermilk trough for their favor-
ite food. This, with Indian meal, constitutes their
principal food until midsummer, when insects are more
abundant, and they wander farther from the house.
This method can easily be tried on dairy farms.
TURKEY ROOSTS.
The turkey instinctively goes to roost at nightfall,
and in its native haunts takes to the highest trees, in
order to be safe from numerous enemies. The domes-
ticated bird has the same instinct, and prefers the
roofs of buildings, or the branches of trees, to any perch
under cover. Yet, if taken in hand when the broods
are young, turkeys can be trained to roost in almost any
place not under cover. For safety the roost should be
near the house or barn. If left to roost upon fences or
trees at a distance from the house, they are liable to be
disturbed, or carried off by foxes, or by poultry-thieves.
The roost should be some fifteen or twenty feet from the
ground. Poles of red or white cedar, from three to five
196 PKOFITS IN POULTKY.
inches in diameter, are the best material, and these are
the most convenient sizes for the scaffolding upon which
the birds are to roost. The odor of these woods is a
protection against the vermin which sometimes infest
the young birds. The size of the poles for the roosts is
a matter of importance. It is much easier for these
heavy birds to keep their balance upon a large pole than
upon a small one. Then, in the freezing weather of
winter, the feet of the birds are more completely pro-
tected by the feathers. Another advantage of having
the turkeys roost together is the saving of manure. If
the ground under the roost is kept covered with muck,
or loam, and occasionally stirred, several loads of a valu-
able fertilizer may be made every season. A roost made
of durable wood, like cedar, will last for a lifetime. It
is but a little trouble to train the young broods to go to
their roost every night. And after the habit has once
been formed they will go to the same roosting-place regu-
larly every night. One of the secrets of success in tur-
key-raising is in having a secure roosting-place.
FATTENING TURKEYS.
It is a goodly sight, as the summer days wane, to
see the flocks of turkeys coming home from the
woods and pastures at nightfall with full crops. If the
farm has not been overstocked with these birds, they
have very largely made their living upon grasshoppers,
crickets, worms, and other small fry. The regular food
they have had has been rather to keep them wonted
than to supply any lack of forage. As the cool nights
come on, and the supply of insects declines, the business
of fattening properly commences. It should be remem-
bered that plump, well-dressed turkeys not only bring a
TUKKEYS. 197
higher price in market, but enhance the reputation of
the producer, and make his market sure for future years.
The turkey is one of the finished products of the farm
and one of the greatest luxuries in the market. The
farmer should do his best in preparing his flock for the
shambles. The main business now is to lay on fat, and
the bird should have, every night and morning, a full
supply of nutritious and fattening food. Instinctively
the turkey follows his feed, and if the supply is abun-
dant at the farm-yard he will not stroll far from home.
Boiled potatoes, mashed, and mixed with meal, and fed
moderately warm, is a very excellent feed both to pro-
mote growth and to fatten. If the pigs can be robbed
of a part of their milk, and it be mixed with a part of
the hot potatoes and meal, it will very much improve
the dish. It is very desirable to supply the place of in-
sects with some kind of* animal food, and butchers'
scraps is one of the cheapest and most desirable forms of
food for poultry. Grain should be given at least once a
day with the soft and warm feed. Nothing is better
than sound corn. The Northern corn is thought to con-
tain more oil than that of Southern growth. Old corn
should always be used for this purpose. The new corn
keeps them too loose. In feeding, only so much corn
should be thrown out as the birds will eat up clean.
Take a little time to feed them, and study aesthetics as
you watch the iridescent hues upon the glossy plumage.
There is nothing more charming upon the farm in the
whole circle of our feathered dependants than a hundred
or two of these richly bronzed turkeys feeding near the
corn-crib. You can afford to enjoy the disappearance
of corn, while the turkeys are increasing in weight.
Dreams of a full wallet at Thanksgiving and Christmas
will not harm you as you look on this interesting sight.
198 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
HABITS OF THE WILD TURKEY.
The males commence wooing as early as February in
some of the extreme Southern States; but March is the
opening of the season throughout the country, and
April the month in which it reaches its highest develop-
ment. The males may then be heard calling to the
females from every direction, until the woods ring with
their loud and liquid cries, which are commenced long
ere the sun appears above the horizon, and continued
for hours with the steadiest persistency. As both sexes
roost apart at this period, the hens avoid answering the
gobblers for some time, but they finally become less ob-
durate, and coyly return the call. When the males hear
this, all within hearing respond promptly and vehe-
mently, uttering notes similar to those which the domes-
tic gobblers do when they hear an unusual sound. If the
female answering the call is on the ground, the males fly
to her and parade before her with all the pompous strut-
ting that characterizes the family. They spread and
erect their tails, depress their wings with a quivering
motion and trail them along the ground, and draw the
head back on the shoulders, as if to increase their dignity
and importance; then wheel, and march, and swell, and
gobble, as if they were trying to outdo each other in airs
and graces. The female, however, pays little attention
to these ceremonious parades, and demurely looks on while
the rivals for her affection try to outdo one another in
playing the gallant and dandy. When the strutting and
gobbling fail to win her, the candidates for matrimony
challenge each other to mortal combat, and whichever is
successful in the contest walks away with her in the most
nonchalant manner. The easy indifference of the hen as to
which she will follow may not be pleasing to persons im-
bued with romantic feelings, yet she is only obeying a wise
Fig. 83.— WILD TURKEY COCK.
(199)
RAISING TURKEYS. 201
law of nature, which decrees that only the fittest should
live, and in the lower animal world these are necessarily
chosen for their physical qualities.
The battles between the males are often waged with
such desperate valor that more than one combatant is
sent to join the great majority, as they deliver very heavy
blows at each other's heads, and do not give up a contest
until they are dear], or so thoroughly exhausted as to be
scarcely able to move.
When one has killed another, he is said sometimes to
caress the dead bird in an apparently affectionate manner,
as if it were very sorry to have been compelled to do such
a deed, but could not help it, owing to the force of cir-
cumstances; yet I have seen the winner in a tournament
in such a rage that it not only killed its rival, but pecked
out its eyes after it was dead. When the victors have
won their brides, they keep together until the latter com-
mence laying, and then separate, for the males would
destroy the eggs if they could, and the hens, knowing
this, carefully screen them. The males are often fol
lowed by more than one hen; but they are not so polyg-
amous as their domestic congeners, as I never heard or
a gobbler having more than two or three females under
his protection. The adult gobblers drive the young
males away during the erotic season, and will not even
permit them to gobble if they can help it; so that th&
latter are obliged to keep by themselves, generally in
parties of from six to ten, unless some of the veterans
are killed, and then they occupy the vacated places, ac-
cording to the order of their prowess.
Some aged males may also be found wandering through
the woods in parties of two, three, four or five, but they
seldom mingle with the flocks, owing, apparently, to ap'
proaching old age. They are exceedingly shy and vigilant,
and so wild that they fly immediately from an imagimiry
danger created by their own suspicious nature. They
202 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
strut and gobble occasionally, but not near so much as
their younger kindred. Barren hens, which also keep
by themselves, are almost as demonstrative in displaying
their vocal powers, airs, and feathers as the old males,
whereas they are exceedingly coy and unpretentious when
fertile. When the season is over, the males keep by them-
selves in small bachelor parties; but, instead of being ex-
ceedingly noisy as they were in the early part of the
mating period, they become almost silent. Yet they
sometimes strut and gobble on their roosts, though, as
a general rule, they do not, and content themselves with
elevating and lowering the tail feathers and uttering a
puffing sound. They keep at this exercise for hours at
a time on moonlight nights without rising from their
perch, and sometimes continue it until daylight.
When the hen is ready to lay, she scratches out a slight
hollow in a thicket, a cane brake, beside a prostrate tree,
in tall grass or weeds, or in a grain field, and lines it
rudely with grass or leaves, and then deposits her eggs
in it. These, which vary in number from ten to twenty,
are smaller and more elongated than those of the domestic
turkey, and are of a dull cream or a dirty white color,
sprinkled with brownish-red spots. Audubon says that
several hens may lay their eggs in one nest, and hatch
them and raise the broods together. He found three
hens sitting on forty-two eggs in a single nest, and one
was always present to protect them.
If the eggs are not destroyed, only one brood is raised
in a year; but if they are, the female calls loudly for a
male, and when she is rejoined by one, both keep com-
pany until she is ready to commence laying again, when
she deserts him or drives him away. She builds her
nest in the most secluded spot she can find, and covers
it carefully with leaves or grass whenever she leaves it.
RAISING TURKEYS. 203
GENERAL HINTS ABOUT TURKEYS.
The greatly increased attention paid to the turkey
crop in the Eastern States, and in the Southern and
Western States as well, seems to call for a few more
notes. Without a good range it will not pay to raise tur-
keys; they create trouble between neighbors. I have
found that, when confined to a yard, one turkey will re-
quire as much food to bring it to maturity as will make
forty pounds of pork on a well-bred pig. Where they
can have extensive range, they will pick up most of the
food they require until autumn. The young are very
delicate, and the hen must be cooped until they are well
feathered and able to look out for themselves. The same
food recommended for chicks is suitable for turkeys.
Two weeks before marketing, confine them in a small,
clean pen, and feed them all they will eat, not forgetting
plenty of fresh water and gravel, and they will fatten up
quickly and nicely.
TURKEY-NESTS.
In the wild state the hen seeks the most secluded and
inaccessible spot, where there is protection from birds
and beasts of prey. Security against attack is the main
thing that instinct prompts her to look out for. A tan-
gled thicket of briers, a sheltering ledge, a hollow
stump, a clump of brush filled with decaying leaves,
suit her fancy. With little preparation she drops her
eggs upon the bare ground in these secluded places.
Domesticated turkeys usually are left to a good deal of
freedom in choosing their nests. Some farmers have
prepared nests, made of loose stones and boards, or old
barrels, placed by the roadside, or near the barn, and
204 PROFITS IN POtJLTRY.
slightly covered with old brush. These are often ex-
posed to the attack of weasles and skunks, and other
enemies, besides being unsightly. If there are no pre-
pared nests they will seek the nearest bit of woods, or
patch of brush, or fence-corner, where they can find
shelter. The whole turkey crop for the year is put in
jeopardy by this want of preparation for the laying and
breeding season. By having a yard devoted to fruit
trees and turkeys, and an open shed with sliding doors,
you have complete control of the birds, their eggs and
their young, during their tender age. The risk is re-
duced to a minimum, and the turkey crop is as sure as
any other raised on the farm. The nests under the
shed should be about three feet square, and arranged
with slats in the front so that the birds may be shut in
or out at pleasure. The common A- shaped hen-coop
on a larger scale, the peak of the gable being about
three feet high, is a very good arrangement. If the
turkeys are fed under the shed for a few weeks before
the laying season, they will take kindly to the nests pre-
pared for them.
EARLY BROODS.
Early broods are very desirable on several accounts,
but there is a good deal of risk in having the chicks
come out before the grass is well started, and there is
settled weather. In the latitude of 40°, and northward,
it is quite early enough to have the chicks out by the
middle of May. Birds hatched from the middle of May
until July 1st will have five or six months in which to
grow before Thanksgiving, and that is as soon as they
will be wanted for slaughter or to sell as stock. The
cold storms of April and early May are likely to prove
fatal to the chicks. The laying of the hens is very
RAISING TURKEYS. 205
much within the control of their owner, and can be
hastened or retarded by more or less feed at his pleas-
ure. Some of our best breeders feed light after the first
of February for the purpose of delaying the laying sea-
son. They do not care to have chicks before the first of
June. Coming out at that date, they feel reasonably
sure of raising the large majority of the hatch. After
the birds have begun to lay, and get used to the nests, it
is well to feed generously to keep up the strengh of the
hen while she is laying, and so prepare her for the sit-
ting season. The number of eggs that a hen will lay
depends a good deal upon the feed. The average is
from fifteen to thirty eggs, while in some cases among
the thoroughbreds they keep on laying all summer with-
out manifesting any desire to sit upon the nest. These
perpetual layers become very much exhausted in the
fall, and it takes them a long time to recover.
SETTING THE HEN-TURKEYS.
As turkeys require a good deal of attention while
they are upon their nests, they should be in one yard,
or building, or at least not far distant from one another,
to take up as little time as possible in the frequent
visits. In making the nests, study nature and build
upon the bare earth, lined with leaves or hay, or any con-
venient soft substance; give the eggs room enough, and
yet have the nest deep enough to prevent their rolling
out of the nest. A hen will lay from fifteen to thirty
eggs at a litter, but they cannot always cover the whole
litter. Very large old birds will cover twenty eggs.
Smaller birds will cover from fifteen to eighteen, and
this is about the right average. If you have a dozen
turkey-hens in your flock, which is about the right
number for a good range, it will not be difficult to set
206 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
several birds at once, and these may be arranged in
nests within a few feet of each other. With artificial
or addled eggs you can keep a part of the hens upon
their nests a few days, until three or four are ready.
Then select eggs of as near equal age as possible and
put them under the hens. If the hens, close together,
are not set at the same time, there is danger when the
first begins to hatch that her neighbors will hear the
peep of the first chicks, and become uneasy, and perhaps
forsake their nests. If all in the group of three or four
nests are hatching at the same time, there is no trouble
of this kind. Before putting the eggs into the nest, it
is well to sprinkle a little snuff among the hay to guard
against insects. If any of the eggs get fouled with the
yolk of a broken egg before or after setting, the shells
should be carefully cleaned with tepid water, to secure
their hatching. Two or three turkeys will sometimes
lay in the same nest. This will not do any harm in the
early part of the season, but they should be separated
before setting, and only one bird allowed to the nest.
This may be done by making nests near by and putting
a porcelain or addled egg in each new nest. Turkeys
are not apt to crowd on to an occupied nest when a
vacant one is close by. The group of hens that sit
together, and bring off their young at the same time,
will naturally feed and ramble together, and this will
save a good deal of time in looking after them. The
turkey is a close sitter, and will not leave her nest for
several days at a time. Grain and water should be kept
near the nests.
FEEDING AND RAISING THE CHICKS.
One of the secrets of successful poultry-raising is the
art of feeding properly, not merely at regular inter-
vals, but on the most suitable food, and keeping the
RAISING TURKEYS. 207
chicks growing as rapidly as possible from the very start.
It is very poor economy to stint turkeys, especially
young growing stock; for when once stunted, it takes a
long while to recover, if it does occur at all. For the
first twenty-four hours after the chicks emerge from the
shell, they should remain under the hen unmolested,
both to dry and gain strength and hardiness. They do
not require any food, as the store nature provides will
hist over this time. As the chicks hatch sometimes irreg-
ularly, the older ones can be cared for in the house un-
til the others are ready to be taken away, when the hen
and her brood can be removed to a roomy coop, with a
tight-board bottom and a rain-proof roof. They should
he fed five times daily, but only just what they will eat
up clean. The first food should consist of stale bread
moistened in water or in fresh milk — the milk is decidedly
preferable. Do not wet the food, as very moist or
sloppy food will cause sickness and a high rate of mor-
tality among young, tender birds. If milk can be
spared, give it to them freely in place of water.
The too lavish use of corn-meal has caused more deaths
among young chicks than has cholera among grown
fowls. Until the chicks are half-grown, corn-meal should
be but sparingly fed; but after that time, when judi-
ciously used, is one of the very best and cheapest foods
for fowls and chicks. Nine-tenths of the young turkeys
and guinea-fowls which die when in the "downy" state
get their death-blow from corn-meal, as it is a very com-
mon practice (because it is so " handy" and suits lazy
people so well) to merely moisten with cold water some
raw corn-meal and then feed it in that way.
Young chicks relish occasional feeds of cracked wheat
and wheat screenings; while rice, well boiled, is not only
greedily eaten by the chicks, but is one of the very best
things that can be given. It frequently happens that
damaged lots of rice, or low grades of it, can be bought at
208 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
low figures in the cities. As it increases so much in bulk
in cooking, it is not an expensive food for young chicks,
even at the regular retail price, though it would not or-
dinarily pay to feed it to full-grown fowls very liberally
or very frequently. In the absence of worms, bugs, etc.,
during early spring, cheap parts of fresh beef can be well
boiled and shredded up for the little chicks; but care
must be taken not to feed more frequently than once in
two days, and only then in moderation. This feeding
on meat shreds is very beneficial to young turkeys and
guinea chicks when they are " shooting" their first quill
feathers, as then they require extra nourishment to re-
pair the drain on immature and weakly bodies.
LOSS OF WEIGHT IN DRESSING TURKEYS.
Farmers frequently have occasion to sell turkeys by
live weight, and wish to know what is the fair relative
price between live and dead weight. In turkeys dressed
for the New York market, where the blood and feathers
only are removed, the loss is very small. For the East-
ern markets the head is cut off and the entrails are
taken out. This makes a loss of nearly one tenth in
the weight. A large gobbler was recently killed weigh-
ing alive 31-J Ibs. After bleeding and picking he
weighed 29-J Ibs., a loss of 2 Ibs., or about one-fifteenth.
When ready for the spit he weighed 2S£ Ibs. — a loss of
3£ Ibs., which is very nearly one-tenth of the weight.
Where the market requires the New York style of dress-
ing, and the price is 15 cents a pound, a farmer could
afford to sell at 14 cents live weight, or less, if he
counted the labor of dressing anything. In the other
style of dressing, if the price were 20 cents, he could sell
for 18 cents, or less, live weight, without loss. Farmers
RAISING TURKEYS. 209
who have never tested the loss of weight in dressing
sometimes submit to a deduction of three or four cents
a pound from, the middlemen, who are interested in
making this large difference. We buve no means of
knowing the exact cost of dressing turkeys, but half a
cent a pound would probably be a large estimate. The
prevailing higher price of dressed turkeys in the Eastern
market is not owing simply to the difference in the style
of dressing, though this has something to do with it.
A large portion of the turkeys that go to the Boston and
Providence markets are of extra large size, principally of
the Bronze and Narragansett breeds and their crosses,
raised in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut, where
the farmers make it a specialty. Whole flocks of young
birds will dress about 12 Ibs., on the average, at Thanks-
giving, and 14 Ibs. or more at Christmas. Young cocks
frequently reach 18 to 20 Ibs. dressed during the winter,
and adult cocks 28 to 30 Ibs. These birds are prepared
for the market in the nicest style, and are shipped by
the ton for the holidays. They always bring extra
prices.
14
CHAPTER XX.
RAISING GEESE.
With suitable facilities, breeding geese is profitable,
and many a farmer's wife has secured home comforts
from this source. It is useless to breed geese with too-
little room ; they must have their liberty to do well, and
be furnished with large grass runs, as they are great
graziers. Their weakness for fruit, and their ability to
trample down small fruits and vegetables, make them
undesirable where there are fruit and vegetable planta-
tions. They must be kept away from young chicks, or
they will soon destroy them, especially during the hatch-
ing season, when they are unusually cross and combat-
ive.
Choose only those free from all defects, either indi-
vidual or hereditary. It is the rule with good breeders
to keep the same birds for years successively for breed-
ing, as the progeny is usually stronger and healthier
from such stock than from younger ones. The ganders,
however, rapidly depreciate with age, and also early pair
off with single females. In these cases, a young and
vigorous gander is substituted. It is best to make the
selection for breeding in autumn, just before culling out
for fattening, or selling stock to others. No amount of
persuasion, or tempting high price, should induce the
breeder to part with his best birds ; for if he desires to
steadily improve his flock, no mutter whether it is of so-
called common birds or thoroughbreds, he must take
his pick first of the very cream of the flock.
If geese can be set early, two broods may be obtained
from each female, thus securing large flocks for each sea-
son's sales. The later-hatched birds, generally having
(210)
RAISING
favorable weather, will make good weights by late fall,
especially if given extra care and food. These late birds
make excellent eating about Christmas-time. The goose
usually makes her own nest, though it is well to help
Fig. 83.— PAIR OF TOULOUSE.
her a little. She is a careful and constant mother, but
her love for the water must be restrained until the gos-
lings are a few weeks old, for many dangers, in the form
of musk-rats, snakes, turtles, etc., lurk at the water's
edge.
212 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
Goslings do not require much extra feed, if they can
get all the fresh and tender grass they want, and unless
this can be supplied, breeding geese is not profitable.
For the first few weeks some food must be given ; this
should never be corn-meal, for nine-tenths of the mor-
tality among fledgelings, of the various kinds of domestic
fowls, can readily be traced to feeding corn-meal. Cot-
tage cheese, or dry curds of sour milk in which red pep-
per (Cayenne) has been sprinkled, is a very good food,
and a quantity of fresh onion- tops, chopped up fine, is
relished by them. Stale bread soaked in fresh milk
makes an excellent food for all young birds, and the way
they develop when fed liberally with it will astonish any
one who has not before tried it with his fowls. The
greater part of the management of geese consists in
keeping them (the goslings) free from dampness while
they are still " downy," guarding them from the attacks
of rats, cats, weasels, and other of their enemies, in
housing them well at night, and in giving them a fresh
grass run as often as possible. When they become fully
feathered, they are abundantly able to take care of them-
selves ; many breeders then let the geese find their own
food, which they can readily do on a large farm, until
fattening time, or when the grass begins to get short,
Avhen they are brought up, and liberally and regularly
fed with corn, still being permitted to have their liberty,
until a week or two before they are to be killed, when
they are penned up and fed with all they can eat.
VARIETIES.
In breeding for mere fancy, no doubt the odd or hand-
some kinds, like the white or the brown China, etc.,
would be satisfactory ; but where heavy weights, hardi-
Fig. 84.— TOULOUSE GOOSE.
(213)
RAISIKG GEESE. 215
ness, and prolificness are concerned, the Toulouse and
Embden are superior to all other sorts, and mature early.
The common gray goose possesses the markings of its
parent, the wild goose of Europe and Asia, known in
England as the " Gray Lag." The fine variety known
as the Toulouse has the same colors, except that the dark
plumage is of much richer hues, and, by contrast at least,
the light feathers whiter, while the bill and legs are of a
deep orange color. The Toulouse geese early develop a
deep-hanging fold of skin, pendent, like the keel of a
boat, beneath the body. The evidence that the breed
originated in the vicinity of Toulouse, in France, is
meagre. Nevertheless, we cannot countenance the sug-
gestion that they received their name because their skin
was too loose for them. The first of the variety which
were seen in England came, it is said, from Marseilles,
in the south of France. Those purchased probably came
from Toulouse to Marseilles, for this name is applied to
no distinct variety in France.
Toulouse geese, when not inordinately forced for ex-
hibition, are hardy, early layers, and reasonably prolific,
often raising two broods of goslings a year. The young
early take care of themselves on good pasture, and grow
with astonishing rapidity. It is not well to let them
depend wholly upon grass, but at first to give a little
wet-up oatmeal daily, and afterwards a few oats or hand-
fuls of barley, thrown into a trough or shallow pool to
which they have access. These fine fowls attain, on a
good grass range, nearly double the weight of common
geese, and, forced by high feeding, a pair have been known
to reach the weight of sixty pounds. Twenty-pound
geese are not rare. Early goslings, if well fed, will at-
tain that weight at Christmas. The fact is, that com-
mon geese make a poor show upon the table unless they
are very fat. This is distasteful to many persons, and
they can hardly be very fat before the late autumn, be-
216
POULTHY.
cause we need grain to fatten them. With this variety,
however, and the Embden, which matures early and at-
tains a great weight also, it is different ; the goslings are
heavy before they are fat, carry a good deal of flesh, and
are tender and delicious early in the season, when simply
grass-fed, or having had but little grain.
Fig. 85.— PAIR, OF EMBDEN G
In breeding geese, the surplus stock of goslings is killed
off every year. None need be saved for wintering and
breeding, except it may be well to koep one or two fine
geese to take the places of old birds killed or hurt by
Borne accident. Geese lay regularly, brood and rear their
goslings well for fifty to eighty years, and it is said grow
RAISING GEESE. 21?
tougher every year. So if one has a good breeding goose,
one which does her own duty well, and is reasonably
peaceable towards other inhabitants of the farm-yard, it
is best to keep her for years. Sometimes a goose will be
very cross, killing ducklings and chickens, attacking
children, etc. Such a one is a fit candidate for the spit.
Ganders are generally much worse, and usually one
more than five or six years old becomes absolutely un-
bearable. So provision is naturally made to replace the
old ganders every three or four years. It is, besides
necessary to do so, for, though a young gander will at-
tend four geese very well, an old o»e confines his atten-
tions to one only, and often proves infertile at six or
eight years old, getting crosser all the time.
PLUCKIKG.
A part of the profit of keeping geese depends upon
their yield of feathers. When geese are bred carefully
for exhibition and sale at high prices, only old ones
should be plucked, and they only once or twice in the
season. But when raised for market, the old ones may
be plucked three times, and the young ones once before
killing time, and the flock ought to yield, on an average,
18 to 20 ounces of dry feathers, besides considerable
down at the summer pickings.
Common geese will yield about a pound of feathers a
year, if close picked, and they are often picked cruelly
close. This is unnecessary, for at the right time the
feathers have a very slight hold, and the operation of
plucking them is painless.
CHAPTER XXI.
RAISING DUCKS.
PROFITS IN DUCK RAISING.
Most farmers have a prejudice against water-fowl,
especially ducks. They tolerate geese better than ducks,
because they will forage for themselves, and live wholly
on grass through tlie summer, after the goslings are
started. Ducks will not bear neglect so well: they are
more prone to wander and get lost or devoured in
swamps or brooks. They have a foolish way of drop
ping their eggs in water, and of following a brook, or
river, into neighboring farms; unless they have suitable
quarters, and receive regular attention, it is a good deal
of trouble to look after them. The half-starved duck
disposes of a good deal of corn at a single feed, remem-
bering the past and anticipating the future. The slip-
shod farmer is prejudiced against the bird, and will
have none of him. But the duck has so many good
qualities, matures so early, and furnishes so rare a re-
past, that the owner of a country home with cultivated
tastes can hardly afford to do without a duck-yard.
The flesh, in our esteem, is the greatest delicacy raised
upon the farm; and if they were much more troublesome
than we have ever found them, we should not hesitate
to keep them. The fact is, a large part of the trouble
is owing to sheer neglect, and the reputation of the bird
as a gross feeder is owing to irregular supplies of food.
If grain or other food is kept within reach, they devour
no more than other fowls that mature as rapidly. If in
suitable quarters and well fed, they get most of their
growth in four months, and can be marketed in August
(318)
1
IVE
oto.
KAISIKG
at the watering-places when prices are highest. The
impression that a pond or brook is necessary to raise the
ducklings is erroneous. They need no more water than
chickens until they are three months old, and are better
off without any pond to swim in. We have raised fifty
in a season in a quarter-acre yard, and found them no
more troublesome than chickens. The best mothers are
hens, and we prefer the Asiatic fowls, either Cochins or
Brahmas. A hen of these breeds will cover nine or ten
eggs. We have found an old barrel with a board at the
end to fasten the bird upon her nest, as good as a more
expensive coop. They are let off regularly at noon
every day, when they have a half hour's range, green
food, grain and water. The young ducks are fed with
some fresh animal food and coarse Indian meal scalded ;
this, varied with chopped cabbage, turnips, worms, and
liver, is the staple food until they are three months old.
They do much better on soft food than on grain.
The paradise of ducks is a location on a tide- water
stream or cove, where there is a constant succession of
sea-food with every tide. If furnished with a little
house or pen upon the shore, and a variety of grain,
they will come home regularly every night and lead an
orderly life. The eggs are usually laid at night, or early
in the morning, and very few of them need be lost. Of
the four varieties, Rouen, Aylesbury, Cayuga, and
Pekin, we give the preference to the last for size, early
maturity, abundance of eggs, hardiness, and domestic
habits.
A plan of a convenient house is shown by the accom-
panying engraving. For fifty to one hundred ducks it
should be thirty feet long, twelve feet wide, and from
four feet high at the front to six or eight feet in the
rear. Entrance doors are made in the front, which
should have a few small windows. At the rear are the
nests; these are boxes open at the front. Behind each
PROFITS IN POtTLTRY.
nest is a small door through which the eggs may oe
taken. It is necessary to keep the ducks shut up in the
morning until they have laid their eggs, and a strip of
wire netting will be required to inclose a narrow yard
in front of the house. Twine netting should not be
used, as the ducks put their heads through the meshes
and twist the twine about their necks, often so effectively
Fig. 86.— DUCK HOUSE.
the
as to strangle themselves. To avoid all danger,
wire fence should have a three or four-inch mesh.
Among the most profitable varieties as layers are the
Peking. A fair yearly product for a duck in its second
year is a hundred and twenty eggs, and sixty to. eighty
for a yearling. Their feathers are of the best quality,
white, with a creamy shade; and five ducks weighing
five pounds each have yielded, killed in the winter-time
when fully feathered, more than one pound in all. It
will be right to pick the ducks when moulting is begin-
(231)
RAISING DUCKS. 223
ning; the feathers are then loose and are picked easily
and without injury. This will considerably increase the
yield of feathers, and will prevent a useless loss; other-
wise the loose feathers from twenty ducks will be found
spread over their whole range.
It by no means follows because ducks are a water-fowl
that much water is required to raise them. Yet this is
a very common impression, and multitudes of farmers
and villagers deny themselves the enjoyment and profit
of a flock of ducks because they have no pond or stream
near the house. It is true that adult ducks will get a
good deal of their living out of a water privilege, if they
have one. It is not true that water to swim in is essen-
tial to their profitable keeping. They want some range
and grass and good fresh water to drink every day.
Ordinarily, ducks can be profitably raised wherever hens
can be. They make a pleasing variety in the poultry-
yard, and all who have room for them can enjoy them.
The first thing in raising ducks is to get them out of
the shell, and for incubation we decidedly prefer hens
to ducks. They sit more steadily, and take much better
care of the young. The wetting of the ducks' eggs daily
in the List two weeks of incubation is even more neces-
sary than for hens' eggs. This is sometimes done by
sprinkling water upon them, but we think it better to
take them from the nest and put them in a basin of
tepid water about blood-warm. This moistens the whole
shell without chilling the embryo life within. The
ducklings out of the shell may be allowed to remain
upon the nest with the hen for a day. The hen may
then be put upon a grass-plat, under a coop, where the
ducklings can go in and out at pleasure. Or if the hen
is allowed liberty, the ducklings should be confhied in a
small pen from which they cannot escape. A dozen in
a pen ten feet square is enough for the first two weeks.
For water they only want a shallow pan — so shallow
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
that they cannot swim, and in which they can wade at
pleasure. The water should be changed often and kept
in good drinking condition. For the first food nothing
is better than the yolk of hard-boi]ed eggs or boiled
liver, chopped very fine. The food had better all be
cooked for the first week. It may then gradually be
changed to coarse scalded Indian meal, oatmeal, wheaten
grits, or rice, as suits the convenience of the feeder.
Bread-crumbs and sour milk are excellent food, as are
angle-worms and snails. Ducklings are quite as good as
chickens at devouring insects, and nothing seems to
harm them but rose-bugs, against which they should be
jealously guarded. For this reason they should be kep
away from grape-vines and other plants specially attrac-
tive to these insects. As the ducklings grow older they
may have more liberty and a greater variety of food. If
they have not plenty of grass, its place should be sup-
plied by lettuce, onions, cabbage, or other green succu-
lent food. If you desire exhibition birds of the largest
size, it is particularly important that the ducklings
should be fed regularly, and at frequent intervals, hav-
ing all the food they can digest. Five times a day is
none too frequent feeding. We have usually succeeded
quite as well with ducks as with chickens in a villnge
yard. When grown, we give them a larger range.
AN ARTIFICIAL DUCK-POND.
Ducks and geese may be raised successfully without
any pond or stream; yet some prefer to give them an
abundance of water, and such can make an artificial
pond on the plan shown next page. This is a wooden
box ten inches deep and four feet square, or it may be
two feet wide and six or eight feet long. This is set in
RAISING DUCKS. 225
the ground, except the down-hill side, which is partly
exposed, arid provided with a short spout placed within
half an inch of the top, to carry off superfluous water.
A peg is inserted at the bottom for drawing off the
water when desired. Water may be conducted to the
box by a pipe from a spring, underdrain, small brook,
or from the well, by sinking a half-barrel between the
pump and pond, and filling it with water every day or
two, and so graduating the flow that it will merely drop
from the barrel through the pipe into the wooden box.
AN ARTIFICIAL DUCK POND.
THE CARE OF DUCKS.
Ducks are a very pleasant feature of farm-yard sur
roundings. In the last of winter and early spring they
are sociable and busy enough, especially on warm days,
and begin to lay very early. The duck almost always
lays her egg between six and nine o'clock. So the flock
must be kept shut up until all have laid. We have
found ducks to do better if they can be confined atnight,
in winter, in a shed where the horse manure is thrown
out, than anywhere else. The heaps of manure heal
somewhat, and the ducks enjoy the warmth. It makes
them lay early, and the eggs are not likely to freeze if
15
226 PBOFITS IN POULTRY.
we get severe " snaps." Barley and oats are excellent
feed for ducks. If these or any grains are thrown into
a shallow tub, or trough, they will soak and be all the
better relished. Pekin Ducks are among the best layers,
by far the best in our experience, laying not unfrequent-
ly sixty to eighty eggs each, in the spring, and often
again in the autumn, if the weather is warm. If ducks
are not confined at night, they will make nests in some
hedge-row or secluded spot difficult to find, and one will
become broody after laying sixteen to twenty eggs, or as
soon as she has a good clutch. When confined as we
suggested, they rarely make nests, but drop their eggs
about anywhere. Ducks are very fond of water-cress, and
if they have access to the water-cress bed at the spring,
there will soon be none left for the salad-bowl. Wire
netting, a foot in height, will form an effectual barrier.
PEKIN DUCKS.
The Pekin Duck was unknown in this country or
Europe previous to the spring of 1873. The following
is a brief account of their importation. Mr. McGrath,
of the firm of Fogg & Co., engaged in the Japan and
China trade, in one of his excursions in China first saw
these ducks at the city of Pekin, and from their large
size, thought them a small breed of geese. He succeeded
in purchasing a number of the eggs, and carried them
to Shanghai, where, placing them under hens, he in due
time obtained fifteen ducklings sufficiently mature to
ship in charge of Mr. James E. Palmer, who was about
returning to America. He offered Mr. P. one half the
birds that he should bring to port alive, and the latter,
accepting the offer, took charge of them. Six ducks
and three drakes survived the voyage of 124 days, and
RAISING DUCKS. 227
were landed in New York on the 13th of March, 1873.
Leaving three ducks and two drakes, consigned to
parties in New York, to be sent to Mr. McGrath's
family (who never received them, as they were killed and
eaten in the city), Mr. P. took the three remaining
ducks and drake to his home at Wequetequoc, in Ston-
ington, Conn. They soon recovered from the effects of
their long voyage, and commenced laying the latter part
of March, and continued to lay until the last of July.
They are very prolific, the three ducks laying about 325
eggs.
The ducks are white, with a yellowish tinge to the
under part of the feathers ; their wings are a little less
than medium length, as compared with other varieties ;
Ahey make as little effort to fly as the large Asiatic fowls,
and they can be as easily kept in enclosures. Their
beaks are yellow ; necks long ; legs short and red. When
the eggs are hatched under hens, the ducklings come
out of the shell much stronger if the eggs are dampened
every day (after the first fifteen days) in water a little
above blood heat and replaced under the hen.
The ducks are very large, and uniform in size, weigh-
ing at four months old about twelve pounds to the pair.
They appear to be very hardy, not minding severe
weather. Water to drink seems to be all they require
to bring them to perfect development.
I was more successful in rearing them with only a
dish filled to the depth of one inch with water, than
were those who had the advantages of a pond and run-
ning stream.
AY^ESBURY DUCKS.
White occurring without intermixture of other coloi
in the hair or feathers of animals and fowls is evidence
of change effected by domestication. This color, or lack
228 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
of color, becomes a very persistent characteristic. The
Ajlesbury ducks are pure white, with orange legs, and are
one of the most beautiful of the white breeds of poultry.
All white fowls are beautiful and attractive. "We have
white breeds of every kind of domestic fowl, and they all
have such notable excellencies that their admirers claim
for each that it is the best of its kind. This is notice-
able in white geese, which have the best plumage; white
turkeys are most domestic, and white barn-door fowls
are most prolific. Aylesbury Ducks are claimed to be
more prolific and to fatten more rapidly for market than
other large breeds. This variety undoubtedly originated
in the vicinity of Aylesbury, England, where large num-
bers are still raised annually for the London market.
Its characteristics are distinctly marked, namely: Abun-
dant but close-fitting plumage of the purest white; a beak
of peculiar form, being long, straight, and broad, and
set on aline with the forehead; most noticeable, however,
from its being of a distinct flesh-color; it sometimes in-
clines to buff, but this is objectionable. The most deli-
cate pink (as an English breeder enthusiastically said to
the writer, "pink as a lady's nail") is the color pre-
ferred; the legs are of a light orange color. Ducks and
drakes are almost precisely alike, the latter distinguished
only by the curling feathers of the tail and by the voice,
or lack of voice.
This is an old and well-established breed, and in favor-
able locations breeds very true. Breeders so located
find it is not difficult to obtain the pink bills without
stain of yellow or blemish of dark streaks or specks.
This is supposed to depend upon the purity of the water,
and on the gravelly bottom of the brooks with which
their bills are constantly brought in contact. Exposure
to the sun tans them, and, from some not well-known
cause, it is almost impossible to obtain perfect bills in
many places, though the birds grow large and fine.
BAISIKG DUCKS. 229
It is customary in and near Aylesbury to confine the
ducks in warm houses early in the season, and to induce the
earliest possible laying, that the young ducks may be mar-
keted very early in the season, and high prices secured.
They come to the market just at a season when game
and other poultry are scarce and high. Now, when the
Aylesburys are removed from their home surroundings,
and, as in this country, are treated like other kinds of
ducks, they retain this tendency to lay, and hatch a
brood early in mid-winter, only for the first generation
from importation, even then to a less degree than the
imported birds show it. The tendency to lay very early
would no doubt be maintained if it were encouraged as
it is at home. In regard to the care of ducks, it is well
to observe that the more a variety is changed by domes-
tication, the more attention they need, and usually the
more profit they yield. Many common ducks lay a
clutch of perhaps 20 small eggs; in sitting, cover half or
more, and hatch them out, while the Aylesbury Duck
will lay 60 eggs or more, but until she begins to show a
tendency to sit, usually a week or ten days before she
sits, she makes a sort of nest, and there she deposits her
eggs. The only way to secure all the eggs is to shut up
the ducks at night. They will usually lay an egg apiece
between dawn and eight o'clock; and as soon as each has
laid, all maybe let out. They all march straight for the
water; and if let out too soon, some eggs will be almost
surely found in the bottom of the pond. Ducks are
voracious and almost omnivorous feeders; they are fond
of grass and water plants, water-cress especially, and are
diligent foragers for snails and the little shell-fish of
fresh-water streams, ponds, and swamps; and, besides, on
dry land they are indefatigable insect-hunters, young
ducks being often very useful in a vegetable garden,
where they gather aud destroy many plant-pests.
A pair of Aylesbury Ducks fit for exhibition ought
230 PROFITS IN POULTRY.
to weigh at least 12 pounds; in England they often reach
16 pounds to the pair; and are occasionally heavier by
one or two pounds, thus almost equaling the weight of the
heaviest specimens of Rouen Ducks.
ROUEN DUCKS.
There is a prevalent belief among farmers that ducks
are not profitable poultry. This arises naturally from
several causes. The habits of indolence which some
possess — the tendency not to hunt their food, but to
depend upon being fed and the scraps which they pick
up about the house — lead farmers to contrast them un-
favorably with the wandering turkeys, which find their
living and rear their young often in the woods, depend-
ing only in winter upon the farmer for their food ; and
scarcely more favorably with dunghill fowls, which during
the summer months require but little food except what
they hunt for about the farm. The ducks, besides,
though some kinds are excellent layers, are heedless
birds, exposing themselves, their eggs, and young to
crows, rats, turtles, and other vermin, dropping their
eggs about, shifting their place of laying if disturbed,
inconstant as sitters, and chilling their young by taking
them too soon and too often to the water. Still, all
these objections may be obviated, in a measure, and
ducks really pay very well both in flesh and eggs for the
amount of food they consume.
The duck is an omnivorous animal — eating almost
everything vegetable and animal that comes in its way.
Insects of all kinds, worms, polliwigs, fish, shellfish
(dead or alive), meat, even that which is partly decom-
posed, and many green vegetables, grass, seeds, grain,
etc. Withal, its appetite is voracious ; hence it grows
(331)
RAISING DUCKS. 233
rapidly and fattens easily. The common tarne duck is
supposed to have descended from the wild Mallard duck,
Anas boshas, common to this country and Europe. It
breeds freely with this species, and also with several
other species of wild duck ; in some cases the progeny
is capable of reproduction of its kind, in others mule-
birds or "mongrels" result. The fact that a very dif-
ferent cla& of birds is produced where the Mallards are
crossed with other species and where the common duck
is so crossed, with other points of difference, throws
some doubt on the assertion that the Mallard is the
parent of our common ducks. Besides, efforts to domes-
ticate the Mallard have not been successful as a general
thing. We have, however, many wild ducks capable of
domestication, and the experiment ought to be well
tried with all, for thus our stock of domestic poultry
may be essentially increased and improved.
The Rouen breed is the most highly esteemed of all
domestic ducks by many duck breeders. Its habits are
quiet, and so it does not wander about and get lost, as
ducks do. It attains a great weight, and is unsurpassed
as a layer. An English writer reports that he has fre-
quently known a pair of young drakes 9 or 10 weeks old
to weigh 121bs. Sundry writers report very remarkable
laying performances of the Rouen ducks. One laid an
egg a day for 85 days ; three ducks from February to
July laid 334 eggs, besides a few soft ones and five double
eggs. One of these laid every morning for 92 days.
The young ducks often lay in autumn a good clutch of
eggs, and it not unfrequently occurs that a duck which
is a first-rate layer will manifest no tendency to sit.
This variety of ducks has, in common with many other
kinds, great beauty of plumage, which varies somewhat
in different individuals. The drakes are heavier than
the ducks, but the difference is slight in comparison
with the disparity between the sexes in most varieties.
234 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
The beautiful green heads and necks of the drakes, iri-
descent with purple and copper hues, set off with a clean
white collar and claret-colored vest, give them a distin-
guished air which the various colors and distinct mark-
ings of the back and wings does not detract from. The
females are brown, each feather being marked with
black, which gives them a speckled look.
The only variety which really rivals the Rouen as a
useful and economical birds is the Aylesbury. These, a
purely white English variety, are beautiful birds and
highly esteemed in the markets of Great Britain, as also
in the United States, where they are known. They are
good layers and nurses, not noisy; good feeders, and by
some decidedly preferred to the Rouen. The eggs are
white, sometimes inclining to blue, while those of the
Eouen duck are blue, with thick, strong shells ; of the
two the Rouen has the reputation of being most hardy.
Where ducks are raised for breeders, it is a practice
(founded perhaps on prejudice) to set ducks upon their
own eggs; but if the young are wanted for market
simply, the eggs are put under hens. Hens will hatch
a clutch of duck's some two days quicker than ducks
will, but it is thought that the young have not so good
constitutions. Young ducks raised for market often
get injured by being allowed to go freely to the water.
They grow faster and stronger if they only have enough
to drink at least for several weeks.
CHAPTER XXII.
* ORNAMENTAL POULTRY.
THE PEA-FOWL.
Although the pea-fowl is well known as a bird of fine
feathers, few persons are acquainted with its natural his-
tory and real merits. It is a good table fowl, and as
easily reared as the turkey; still it is rarely seen on a farm
or country place, and then only as an ornament. This
bird is a native of Asia, from whence have come nearly
all our gallinaceous fowls, the turkey excepted. In the
time of Solomon, it was an article of merchandise, and
was brought with ivory and apes from Tarshish to Judea.
One species of pea-fowl was found by an English
traveler, Colonel Sykes, abounding in a part of India,
where large flocks were kept about the native temples.
Another Eastern traveler relates that from 1,200 to 1,500
were seen by him in the passes of the mountain, within
sight at one time; and he speaks in extravagant terms of
the brilliancy of their plumage. There are three distinct
genera, which include several species and varieties, such
as the Crested, the Black-shouldered, the Javan, the
Japan, the Iris, the Thibet, the Malay, etc. All the
domesticated sorts are surpassed by the wild ones in
beauty. Culver says of the pea-fowl: "We find in its
incomparable robe, united, all the brilliant colors which
we admire separately in other birds; we find all that
glistens in the rainbow, that sparkles in the mine, the
azure and golden tints of the heavens, and the emerald
of the field.'' White, the naturalist, found that the
feathers of the train do not belong to the tail, but that
they grow upon the back, the real tail feathers being
(235)
236 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
short, stiff, and brown, about six inches long, and sfcrve
as a prop to support the immense train. By a peculiar
muscular action, the long train feathers can be erected
and spread, and their shafts made to strike together and
produce a chattering noise. The Pied peacock is white
upon the wings, belly, and breast; the rest of the plum-
age is as showy as in the other species. Pure white birds
are very rare, and highly valued; but from the absence
of the gorgeous coloring of the common kinds, they suf-
fer greatly in contrast with the latter. It is not until
the second year that the difference between the sexes be-
comes apparent. The bird lives from 20 to 25 years,
and reaches maturity slowly. The third year the train
of the cock becomes developed, and it is only when it
exhibits its full coloring that he is ready to be mated
with three or four hens.
The pea-hen lays her eggs on alternate days, and when
she has produced five or six she will incubate, unless the
eggs have been removed. She makes her nest upon the
ground, in a secluded place, beneath the shelter of low
bushes, long grass, or weeds. The maternal instinct is
well developed in some hens; in other hens it is so lack-
ing that they even destroy their own young, or leave
them to perish from neglect. The period of incubation
is from 24 to 29 days. The pea-fowls have strong local
attachments, and they rarely leave the place where they
have been reared and fed. They are sensible of kind
treatment, and will become very tame when gently used
and petted. They have a habit of roosting high, and
will choose an elevated place on the top of the highest
tree or buildings to which they can gain access. When
but three days old, the chicks are able to reach a roost
two or three feet high; and if they can mount from one
step to another, they will follow the old birds to their
highest roosting places. The birds are naturally shy,
and their treatment must be regulated accordingly. The
ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 237
proper feed for the young pea-chicks consists of hard
boiled eggs, cracked wheat, coarse oatmeal, and bread-
crumbs; and they will soon hunt after and consume in-
sects and worms of all kinds. It is necessary to protect
the young birds from wet and cold, and they require the
same care which is needed for young turkeys.
TRAINING PEA-FOWLS TO STAY AT HOME.
At "Rose Lawn," Paterson, N. J., there is a flock of
pea-fowls — half a dozen or more. They are confined, or
rather kept, in a lot of perhaps two acres in extent, which
has a high fence of wire net, and where they are associ-
ated with a small herd of deer and farm-yard poultry of
all sorts. They fly into the tops of the apple-trees to
roost, but never fly out of the enclosure. Seeing them
so apparetly contented, day after day, and knowing well
the restless habits of the bird, especially the male, which
generally makes himself a nuisance to the whole neigh-
borhood within half a mile, this domestic trait of these
birds interested us, and we learned that if one flies out,
he is condemned to wear a ball and chain, or rather a
cord and block, for several days. It is thus applied:
Strong list of woolen goods, or other soft, strong band,
is passed about the leg of the peacock, so that it cannot
tighten, and to this is attached a block of hickory or
other heavy wood, weighing three or four pounds. The
block should be round or conical, and should have a hole
through it lengthways, and the cord should pass through
this, and be well knotted at the end. It must turn in
the block so as to prevent kinking. These gorgeous
fowls would be much more frequently kept if it were
known that they might be so easily trained.
238
PROFITS IN POULTRY.
JAPANESE BANTAMS.
These quaint little creatures weigh about a pound and
a quarter each. The plumage is white, excepting some
Fig. 89.— JAPANESE BANTAMS.
of the wing feathers, the tail, and sometimes the tips of
the neck feathers, which are black. The legs are bright
The tail is the most curious part of this breed,
(239)
ORNAMENTAL POULTRY. 241
being large, and carried so erect as to nearly touch the
head. The legs are so short as to be almost invisible,
and this gives the birds a curious creeping sort of gait
The little hens are exemplary mothers, and one of them,
with a brood of tiny chicks, would be the delight of a
boy or girl, as well as attractive pets for old folks. This
breed has the virtue, rare amongst bantams, of being
exceedingly peaceable and quiet.
ORNAMENTAL WATER-FOWLS.
In this country we have much to learn in the way of
utilizing natural waters, whether streams, springs, or
ponds. Anyplace, anywhere, be it a farm, large or small,
or merely a country-seat, has its value greatly enhanced
by the possession of water, whether running or still. Of
the money value of such water, whether for stock, irriga-
tion, or as motive power, we do not propose to speak just
now. The value of water in these respects is as far from
being appreciated as it is in its ornamental aspects. We
know of one body of water — a small pond, which is so
treated by its owner as to be both profitable and orna-
mental. It is a conspicuous object from the road, and
being not far from the house, its surroundings are
planted with a view to ornamental effect. The water is
at the same time made useful as the pasture-ground for
a fine collection of water-fowl. The flock contains some
birds raised for the table, but is largely of the kinds
known as ornamental, and these are made profitable; the
place being in a populous vicinity, the birds do their own
advertising, and there is a sufficient demand for all the
increase. The practical part of the establishment, in-
cluding the breeding-houses, coops, etc., isatsomedis-
16
PROFITS IK POULTRY.
tance from the pond and hidden from view by a screen of
evergreens planted for the purpose. Among the birds
regarded as both ornamental and useful are the
SEBASTOPOL GEESE.
This is a most peculiar variety of the goose, one of its
peculiarities being that no one knows why it is called
"Sebastopol." It is said to come from the Black Sea
country, but even this is doubtful. The characteristic
of the breed consists in having a large share of its pure
white feathers, especially of the back, wings, aud tail,
very long, lax, curled, waved, and frizzled. These
feathers give the birds a somewhat bedraggled look,
when on land, but impart a most elegant appearance
when they are on the water. For the rest, though rarely
weighing ten pounds, they are useful table birds, are
hardy, prolific, and good sitters and mothers.
THE WHISTLING DUCKS
are among the ornamental ducks, in which beauty of
plumage is regarded rather than weight. They are
from South America, and there appear to be several
sub-varieties, distinguished mainly by the color of the
bill, but all agree in having a peculiar whistling note.
All are very domestic, and remarkably quaint and amus-
ing in their habits and movements. The birds shown
in the engraving are known as the " Widow Whistler"
and the "White-faced Whistler." Their general color is
a light shade of chocolate, with black below; the head,
neck, and bill are also black, making the white face all
the more conspicuous and very attractive.
(843)
ORNAMEHTAL POULTRY.
THE AMERICAN WOOD DUCK — OR SUMMER DUCK.
We have in this country many beautiful varieties of
wild ducks, some of which we know are capable of- do-
mestication, and more which have not been experimented
with. One of the former is the " Summer duck" of
Southern and the " Wood duck " of the Northern States.
Either name is appropriate, for it is the only duck which
Fig. 92.— AMERICAN WOOD DUCK.
remains with us during breeding season, except now
and then a stray pair of Mallards, and perhaps a pair
of one or two other kinds are very rarely ceen ; and its
natural haunts are the deep quiet woods far from the
dwellings of men. The bird is rather rare in New Eng-
land, especially so in the Eastern part, more plenty in
New York, and abundant in Pennsylvania, and to the
westward and south, wherever a wooded country offers
246 FKOFITS IN POULTRY.
pools and secluded river and lake margins, close to
which it delights to make its nest and rear its young.
The engraving represents a beautiful bird, but one not,
familiar with these ducks would hardly credit the cor-
rectness of an accurate description of its colors. The
bill and legs are red, the dark feathers of the head ex-
hibit gorgeous steel-blue, coppery and green iridescence,
and in some lights are jetty, velvety black, or purple.
The white feathers on the head and neck, in the queue-
like tuft of the back of head, and on the shoulders, wing
covers and sides are all clear, vivid dashes in every case
contrasted with black bands or bordering of dark, nearly
black feathers. The back shows, the brilliant rainbow
hues and metallic colors of the head, while the breast is
of a delicate wine color, spotted with white, and the
belly white, shading into ash-color on the sides. These
colors belong to the drakes ; the ducks are similar, but
much less showy. In Pennsylvania and northward they
pair in April or May, and the female brings off her brood
of eight to fifteen in June. They migrate just before
winter sets in and are very likely to return to the same
locality. The flesh of the young birds are highly es-
teemed. Daring the winter they go into the Southern
States, and are there seen in large flocks.
This duck has been repeatedly domesticated, so as to
be as familiar as any denizens of the farm yard. The
best way to get them is to find the nests, which are usu-
ally in a hollow tree not far from the water (they use
an old woodpecker's or gray squirrel's hole if they can
find one big enough), and transfer the fresh eggs to a
sitting hen, or else take the very young ducks as soon as
they are hatched.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THEORY AND PRACTICE.
SYSTEMATIC CROSS BREEDING.
The continual advocacy of fancy poultry for common
farm use is an error. The poultry papers, and most
agricultural papers, advise the breeding of certain pure
breeds, as if they possessed merits far superior to the
barn-door fowls and common poultry. This is a mis-
take. No one advocates the use of thoroughbred horses,
well-bred trotters, pure Percherons or Clydes, pure-bred
pigs, or sheep, or cattle, to the exclusion of common
ones, but farmers are urged to improve their common
stock by breeding up, by gradually introducing better
blood and breeding, with some definite aim. Thus, our
common mixed sheep, which are regular breeders, good
mothers, and have plenty of milk, are crossed with pure
rams of one of the established breeds. If size is wanted,
with long wool, the Cots wold is perhaps employed; if the
wool is to be improved in fineness without so much
reference to the mutton, one of the Merino breeds will
be selected; while if early lambs of fine quality are de-
sired, one of the Down breeds is chosen by the raiser.
This is precisely the course which should be followed by
farmers in poultry-raising. The advantage of grading
up common poultry is, however, not so profitable in
most cases as cross breeding. This is, properly, the in-
terbreeding of two pure varieties. We have, however,
usually no pure breed of fowls upon the farm, and of
course wish to utilize those which we have. Therefore
the first thing to do is to grade up the flock. After two
or three years, when they have the looks and qualities
(247)
248 PROFITS IN POtfLTKt.
of pure-breds, the hens may be crossed with cocks of
another breed, and then most of the advantages of cross-
breeding will be realized. In this use of pure-bred cocks
which we recommend, no male bird should run with the
same flock more than two years. If he is healthy and
vigorous, and his progeny of the first year take strongly
after him, in form as well as feather, he may well be
kept the second year to run with pullets of his own-get.
After three years the blood of the original flock will be
reduced to one-eighth; after four years to one-sixteenth.
One may have a flock of hens which have been carelessly
bred, and into which no fresh blood has been introduced
for years. They are small, hardy, active, fair layers,
good sitters and mothers, and get their own living all
summer — but the garden suffers. How can the flock be
improved? This, we conceive, is the question which
may be put by ninety-nine in a hundred of the keepers
of hens in the country. The answer suggests itself, but
first we should know whether eggs, or broilers, or full-
grown fowls for market (chickens in autumn or winter)
pay best. The farmer must treat his flock of hens
exactly as he would his flock of sheep or his herd of
cows, or other stock; that is, secure the use of full-blood
males having the desired characteristics. Thus, if he
wishes eggs, he will buy cocks of someone of those breeds
famous for the number of eggs the hens lay. Size and
beauty of eggs may be an object, or simply a large num-
ber may be most desirable. The French breeds and the
Spanish usually have large eggs; Leghorns, eggs of
medium size; Hamburgs lay many but small eggs;
while all are persistent layers of beautiful white eggs.
The half-bloods, as a whole, will take after the pure
breed in a good measure, and in so far may be said to be
an improvement upon the old stock. The second year
the three-quarter bloods will closely resemble pure-bred
ones; some will only be distinguished from pure-bloods
TfiEORY AND PRACTICE. 240
by an expert, while others will show their dung-hill
origin very clearly, and yet, as layers, these may be the
very best. So improvement goes on. The flock will in
two or three years assume the appearance of " fancy"
poultry of the breed selected with which to produce the
improvement. The question naturally arises, Will they
be improved? — be better and more profl table than they
were before? Perhaps not for all uses, — but as layers,
yes. The hens will lay more eggs; they will be less in-
clined to sit; if they sit at all, they will probably be
broody only for a few days, and as producers of eggs no
doubt the flock will be more satisfactory. Should one
of the French breeds have been selected — say the Houdans
or Crevecoeurs — the change and improvement in the
flock will be very marked. As to the number of eggs, a
flock crossed and graded up with Leghorns will surpass
them, but the eggs of the French grades will exceed the
others in size and possibly total weight. Besides, the
birds will be larger, and very much superior for the table.
In fact, were one to set out to grade up a flock of com-
mon fowls to produce the best table fowls for autumn and
winter, he could hardly do better than take the Houdan
or Crevecoeur, which are large, have superior flesh, white
skins, and are persistent layers of large white eggs. They
are, however, less hardy than the Leghorns.
MULTIPLICATION" OF BREEDS OF POULTRY.
With our domestic animals, as with wine and cheese,
the value of a breed depends in some measure upon its
age. If breeders realized this, there would be less run-
ning after the so-called breeds which spring up every
year or two. At the time the Leghorns were first brought
to this country, they were a most unpromising lot, as we
250 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
remember them, but they had elements of great value.
White seemed to predominate, and the single-combed
white fowls were separated from the others and care-
fully bred. It was several years before a fixed breed was
established, even with this excellent foundation. The
foundation was good, because all the birds had the same
general characteristics, which were peculiar and valua-
ble, such as were possessed by none of the then existing
favorite breeds. So when the Leghorns were intro-
duced, with the uniform points of a fancier's fowl, they
became at once great favorites and had deserved success.
Then this excellent and unique breed was made to carry
forward with it, towards popularity, a number of allied
breeds, all decidedly inferior to it — Browns, Blacks,
Dominiques, etc. — and now it seems this breed, which
properly affiliates with the Spanish, is to be Hamburg-
ized and given a rose comb, and for aught we know blue
legs. It is true that irregular rose combs occasionally
appeared in the original stock ; but they were regarded
as abnormal. Now it is really absurd to introduce them
for no merit, but simply to add another breed, or three
or four breeds perhaps, to our already too long list of
the Leghorn family.
Some time ago a cross was made, which had Domi-
nique plumage, with large size, hardiness, small bone,
yellow skin, quick growth, and the characteristics of a
good "general purpose," fowl. This is the Plymouth
Eock variety. It was not a breed, but a cross. How-
ever, after years of breeding to a fixed standard, it is now
worthy of being received as an established breed. But
it is still shaky. Left alone a few years, it will revert,
more or less ; and in the best regulated families, black
fowls are constantly putting in an appearance.
As if one such breed were not enough, another has
been introduced, with no merit, that we are aware of,
that the Plymouths have not. It is a speckled, mongrel-
THEORY AND PRACTICE. 251
looking breed in the yard, though magnificent in the
pictures ; and yet the whole world of American poultry
people seem to be going daft over it, probably because
it is so well advertised. It is pretty near a crime to ad-
mit these mongrel breeds, if they may be so called, to
"the standard," and give them the approval of the
united poultry breeders of this country. We have now
breeds enough, unless somebody will get up a breed of
fowls that will lay buff eggs, and will not sit. That
would be both novel and useful. It would be better for
poultry fanciers to try to improve the breeds we now
have, and to learn by experimenting how to best use
them in crosses.
A WOMAN'S POULTRY KEEPING.
Poultry are never better cared for than when under the
charge of women, especially during the hatching and
brooding season. The following letter is full of common-
sense hints:
Farmers do not appreciate chickens at near their full
value. In fact, they are frequently grumbling about
them for one reason or another, though they are very
fond of fresh eggs, the cakes and puddings that require
eggs in their composition, or a pair of fine roast fowl on
their table once a week at least. I think that chickens
— I keep no other kind of poultry now — pay more, in
proportion to their cost, than anything on a farm. I
have received many compliments from local buyers on
the fine quality of my fowls, but they will not give me one
cent more per pound than they do for an inferior lot.
The farmers get more for the best-fed fowls in the large
cities to which they ship their poultry. I have only a
rough board hen-house, twelve by sixteen feet, with strips
of clap-boards over the cracks to keep the wind out. A
252 PROFITS IK POULTRY.
window with a shutter in the south gable end, and a
large sliding-door in the side facing the east, are the only
ventilators. Over one hundred hens were kept in this
cheap house last winter, terribly cold as it was, without
being frost-bitten. A few hens laid all winter, and a
large number began to lay on the first of February. I
have a much smaller house close by, where hens lay and
set. I find this detached house better for them, and
more convenient for me. Both houses are whitewashed
inside, and have gravel floors. In the sleeping-house
the roosts are made like ladders, and very slanting to
allow the fowls to go up and down easily. Early in the
morning I take the setting hens off their nests and feed
them before opening the door of the larger house to give
the others their liberty. The sitters never stay from
their nests over ten or fifteen minutes, and so are soon
out of the way of the rest. I have a long row of coops
(made by myself), where I keep the hens that hvae
hatched until the little ones get quite strong.
I always feed the chicks curds and corn-meal mixed
three times a day. I have a long, narrow, shallow trough,
always full of milk or whey, where all the chickens,
young and old, can drink at will. This, I suppose, is
the reason that they are always fat and healthy, and why
the hens lay so well. I have three feeding coops for the
young chickens. One with the slats just far enough apart
to admit very little chicks. The next in size for those
whose mothers have left them, and the largest coop is for
full-feathered chickens. In this way the little ones are not
bullied out of their share of the feed. I have another house
eight by ten feet inclosed with a lath fence, in a small yard
fourteen feet square, where I place those chickens I wish
to fatten for eating at home and for market. I can make
them very fat in ten days, at the most, on corn-meal,
curds, and boiled rice. They have all the milk they can
drink — it requires very little to satisfy them — and chop-
THEORY AND PRACTICE. 253
ped cabbage or the leaves of the wild plantain, which they
devour greedily, and plenty of fine gravel and charcoal.
My spring chickens average four pounds in weight in
August, when they are fat and very good eating. They
are mostly Plymouth Rocks, the cocks all thoroughbred,
with a slight cross of Buff Cochin in some of the hens.
Last year I had but seventy-two hens in the spring, and
I made, from February to the middle of December, one
hundred and eighteen dollars from eggs and chickens
sold, and we ate besides ninety-seven chickens, and from
eighteen to twenty eggs a day. The cost of their food
during the year was twenty-six dollars. If properly
taken care of, chickens always pay on a farm, where they
can have a good range. We have only pasture land near
our house and barns, so they are not troublesome in the
grain fields, or in the garden.
AUTUMN MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY.
Flocks of poultry require to be carefully managed in
autumn to be made profitable. If the male birds
have not been separated, this should be done early;
they are only an annoyance, and an injury to the hens,
and prevent them from laying as many eggs as they
would otherwise do. The young cockerels that are fit for
sale, should be disposed of; others should be shut in a
yard by themselves, and fed for the market. The best
of the early pullets should now begin to lay, and if of
good breeds, and well fed, will continue to lay until the
cold weather. Old hens are unprofitable, and should be
weeded out, and this is the time to do it if they were
not sold in the spring or used for pot-pie during the
summer. They will never be heavier and fatter than
they are now, and the feed they will consume will be all
254 PROFITS IN POULTKY.
loss. For fattening fowls, the following arrangement
will be found effective: A long, low box (a shoe box,
laid upon its side, answers very well), is lathed up and
down in the front, leaving an opening all along the
front, a bar being fitted across the box, three inches
above the bottom. This bottom opening is to clean out
the box with a scraper, once every day; after which dry
earth is thrown in. This box will hold six fowls, and a
feeding trough, and a water can should be fitted in front.
A number of boxes may be tiered one over the other,
and when the fowls have fed, the front should be cov-
ered and darkened by hanging bagging over it. This
will keep the fowls quiet. Two weeks of this treatment
will fatten them. The finest flesh is made by feeding
corn-meal and boiled potatoes, mixed with skimmed
milk, quite thick, and four feeds a day should be given.
Fowls are best slaughtered and dressed as follows: A
barrel is provided, with a number of nails driven in
around the open edge. A number of loops of twine,
about six inches long, are also provided. The bird is
fastened by noosing the loop around the legs, and is
hung in the barrel, head downwards. The head is then
taken in the left hand, and a sharp pointed knife is
pushed through the throat, close to the vertebra, and
drawn forward so as to cut the throat clear through, by
which sensation is at once arrested, and the fowl bleeds
to death rapidly and painlessly. Being confined in the
barrel, the splashing from the fluttering is avoided, and
everything is done in a cleanly and easy manner. Dry
picking is preferred by the marketmen, but the extra
price will hardly pay for the trouble over the scalding
of the fowls, and the easier picking in that way. To
scald a fowl, take a pail three-quarters full of boiling
water, and plunge the bird into it, drawing it up and
down a few times. Keep the water up to the scalding
heat by adding a quart of boiling water occasionally.
INDEX.
PAGE
Annex to poultry house 60
Autumn management 253
Bantam fowls 107
Barrel hen's nest 37
Breed, best for market 8
For broilers 10
For early roasters 9
For late roasters 9
Breeds, multiplication of 249
Popular 121
Breeds of Fowls :
American 168
A merican Dominiques 172
American Javas 177
Asiatic 123
Black Cochin 131
Black-red Game 144
Black Spanish 154
Brown Leghorns 160
Buff Cochins 131
Crevecoeur 165
Dark Brahmas 127
Duck wing Game 140
European 136
French 161
Hamburgs 145
Houdan 161
Langshans 131
Light Brahmas 123
Games 139
Partridge Cochins 128
Plymouth Rocks 168
Polish 149
Silver-gray Dorkings 136
White Cochins 131
White-crested white Polish .... 150
White Dorkings 137
White Leghorns 156
Wyandottes 173
Brooders for chicks 63-75
Brooder houec ... .75
PAGE
Brooding pen for hens 52
Caponizing, how done 93
Instruments 95, 9(i
Charcoal and stimulants 106
Chicken coop complete 54
Box 57
Barrel . 58
Chicks, brooders for early 62
Chicks, care of 54
Chicks, raising early 60
Color of skin not affected by feed 8
Common sense 101
Cold latitudes, wintering fowls. 113
Crates, folding 43
Crook for catching fowls 117
Crops raised for poultry 109
Cross-breeding, advantage of.... 100
Cross-breeding, systematic 247
Disease, defence against 187
Diseases of poultry 178
Bumble-foot 186
Chicken-pox 181
Cholera, the 181
Distemper 178
Egg-bound 186
Egg-eating 184
Feather-eating 185
Feathers, loss of 186
Gapes, the 185
Pip, the 185
Roup, the 178
Scabby legs 183
Duck house 220
Duck-mothers 219
Duck-raising 218, 225
Ducks need little water 223
Pekins as layers 220, 226
Ducks, American Wood 245
Aylesbury 227
Pekin 226
Rouen .. 230
256
INDEX.
PAGE
Ducks— continued .
Whistling 242
Egg testing 47
Crate 90
Ladle 89
Eggs, "caudling" 48
For market 86
In Great Britain and in the
UnitedStates 91
Liming 86-89
Packing in barrels 87
Packing for winter 89
To secure in winter 115
Vat for pickling 90
Fattening ration 11
Feather-bone 84
Feathers, save the 84
Feeding-pen for chicks 59
Feed-trough, cleanly 41
Fowls, egg-bound 186
Egg-eating 184
Feather-eating 185
Green food for 105
Losing feathers 186
Management and feed 10
Selecting and selling 115
White-skinned preferred in
Philadelphia, etc .... 8
Yellow-skinned preferred in
New England 8
Game fowls at fairs 144
Green food 105
Geese, Embden 215
Plucking 216
Sebastopol 242
Toulouse origin 215
Varieties of 212
Goose-raising ... 210
Incubation, artificial 65
Incubation, natural 46
Incubators, directions for run-
ning 72
Hot water 68
How to make 69
Sawdust packing 71
Self-regulators 68
Success and Failure with 66
Thermometer for 74
Indian-meal dough 11
Japanese Bantams 238
Large birds, how to raise 119
Lice on hens 189
Prevention of 117
Louse-eggs on feathers 189
Males, importance of pure 122
Marketing poultry 80
Market Law, New York 82
Nest box, locked 39
Secure 50
With roller in front ... 40
Nest boxes 33-35
PAGE
Nest boxes — continued.
Sliding, through partition 34
Pinned together 36
Nest of woven wire 38
In a barrel 37
Nests for egg-eating hens 37
Tidy 40
New York dressed-poultry law. . 82
Pasturing Fowls 118
Parasites 189
Pea-fowl 235
Trained to stay at home 237
Perches, handy 31
Poultry conveniences 31
Dressing and stuffing 81
Dressing — New England
method 83
Ornamental 235
Special food crops 109
Raising 7
When to market 80
Poultry houses 13
Building materials for 25
C. H. Colburn's 21
Half under ground 25
Portable 27
Very cheap 13
Very complete 21
Warm 14
Poultry-keeping as a business. . . 98
Money made by 99
Poultry-management, hints. ... 101
Poultryman's crook 117
Poultry -yard, common-sense in. 101
Eation for fattening 11
Ration, salt in 104
Roosts, low 32
Salt in the ration 104
Samuels on market breeds 8
Shipping crates, folding 43
Sitting-box, secure 50
Sitting hens, care of 49
Stimulants, use of 106
Stone for a poultry-house 33
Theory and practice 247
Turkey nests 203
Raising 193
Roosts 195
Turkeys, bronze 194
Early broods 204
Fattening 196
Feeding the chicks 206
Hints about 203
Loss of w eight in dressing 208
Setting the hens 205
Wild, habits of 198
Water-fountain, pneumatic 41
Water-fountain for winter 42
Water- fowls, ornamental 241
Wintering fowls in cold latitudes 113
Women as poultry-raisers 251
1889.
ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE
Orange Judd Company,
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All Works pertaining to Rural Life,
"STorls.
All books sent post-paid on receipt of price.
Agriculture, Horticulture, Etc.
FARM \M> <.; AlClfrU.V
Allen, R. L. and L. F. New American Farm Book $ 2.50
American Farmer's Hand Book
Asparagus Culture. Piex.cioth 50
Bamford, C. E. SilkCulture. Paper 30
Barry, P. The Fruit Garden. New and Revised Edition 2.00
Bommer. Method of Making Manures 25
Brackett. Farm Talk. PaperSOc. Cloth 75
Brill Farm-Gardening and Seed-Growing . 1.00
Cauliflowers 20
Broom-Corn and Brooms,, .W. so
2 0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
Curtis on Wheat Culture. Paper 59
Emerson and Flint. Manual of Agriculture 1.50
Farm Conveniences i.so
Farming for Boys 1.25
Farming for Profit 3.75
FitZ. Sweet Potato Culture. New, Revised and Enlarged Edition 60
Flax Culture. Paper 30
French. Farm Drainage 1.50
Fuller, A. S. Practical Forestry 1.50
C regOry . On Cabbages 30
On Carrots, Mangold Wnrtzels, etc 30
On Fertilizers . .40"
On Onion Raising .. .30
On Squashes 30
Harlan. Farming with Green Manures
Harris. Insects Injurious to Vegetation. Plain Col'd Engravings.
Harris, Joseph. Gardening for Young and Old 1.25
Talks on Manures. New and Revised Edition. . . 1.75
Henderson, Peter. Gardening for Pleasure New, Enlarged.... 2.00
Gardening for Profit. New and Enlarged Edition. 2.0?
Garden and Farm Topics 1.5f
Henderson & Crozier. How the Farm Pays 2.5?
Hop Culture. New and Revised Edition. Paper 30
Johnston. Agricultural Chemistry '.
Johnson, M. W. How to Plant. Paper.... ... 50
Johnson, Prof. S. W. How Crops Feed 2.00
How Crops Grow 2.00
Jones, B..W. The Peanut Plant. Paper 50
Lawn Planting. Paper 25
Leland. Farm Homes, In-Doors, and Out-Doors. New Edition 1.50
Long, Elias A. Ornamental Gardening for Americans 2.00
Morton. Farmer's Calendar 5.00
Nichols. Chemistry of Farm and Sea
Norton. Elements of Scientific Agriculture
Oemler. Truck-Farming at the South 1.50
Onions, How to Raise them Profitably 20
Our Farm of Four Acres. Paper ,so
Pabor, E. Colorado as an Agricultural State 1.50
Pedder. Land Measurer for Farmers. Cloth 60
Plant Life on the Farm i-OO
Quinn. Money in the Garden 150
Register of Rural Affairs. 9 vois Each 150
Riley. Potato Pert*. Paper 50,
Robinson. Facts for Farmers 6.00
ROC Play and Profit, in my Garden 1.50
Roosevelt. Five Acres Too Much 150
SilOS and Ensilage- New and Enlarged Edition 50
Starr. Farm Echoes 1.00
Stewart. Irrigation for the Farm, Garden and Orchard 1.50
Ten Acres Enough • i.w
The Illustr. Dictionary of Gardening. vois.i,2, 3,4. Each, 5.00
The Soil of the Farm ]
Thomas- 3arm Implements and Machinery 1-50
0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 3
Tim Bunker Papers; or, Yankee Farming
TobaCCO Culture. Paper 25
Treat. Injurious Insects of the Farm and Garden 2.00
VilleS. School of Chemical Manures 1.25
High Fanning without Manures 25
Artificial Manures 6.00
Waring. Book of the Farm 2.00
Draining for Profit and Health 1.50
Elements of Agriculture 1.00
Farmers' Vacation
Sanitary Drainage of Houses and Towns 2.00
Sanitary Condition in City and Country Dwellings 50
Warington. Chemistry of the Farm 1.00
White. Gardening for the South 2.00
FRUITS, I' LOW HKS, ETC.
American Rose Culturist
American Weeds and Useful Plants
BoUSSingault. Rural Economy l.UD
ChorltOn. Grape-Grower's Guide 75
Collier, Peter. Sonrhum, its Culture and Manufacture 3.00
Common Sea Weeds. Boards 50
Down ing. Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. New Edition 5.00
Rural Essays
Elliott. Hand Book for Fruit-Growers. Paper 60c. Cloth 1.00
Every Woman her own Flower Gardener i.oo
Fern Book for Everybody 50
Fuller, A. S. Grape Culmrist 1.50
illustrated Strawberry Culturist 25
Small Fruit Culturist. New Edition... 1.50
Fulton. Peach Culture. New aiid Revised Edition 1.50
Heinrich. Window Flower Garden 75
Henderson, Peter. Hand Book or Plants 3.00
Practical Floriculture 1.50
Hlbberd, Shirley. The Amateur's Flower Garden , 2.50
The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory 2 50
The Amateur's Rose Book 2.50
HoopeS. Book of Evergreens
Husmann,Prof.Ceo. American Grape growing and Wine Making 1 5l>
Johnson. Winter Greeneries at Home 1 00
WlOOre, Rev. J. W. Orange Culture 100
My Vineyard at Lakeview •••••
Origin of Cultivated Plants J 75
Parsons. On the Rose
Ouinn. Pear Culture for Profit New and Revised Edition .... 100
Rivers. Miniature Fruit Garden »..v . 100
Rlxford. Wine Prow and Cellar 158
0. JUDD CO/S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
Robinson. Ferns in their Homes and Ours 1.50
Roe. Success with Small Fruits 2.50
SaunderS. Insects Injurious to Fruits 2.00-
Sheehan, JaS. Your Plants. Paper 40
Stewart. Sorgh".m and Its Products 1.50
Thomas. American Fruit Cultuiist 2.00
VlCk. Flower and Vegetable Garden. Cloth 1.50
Warder. Hedges and Evergreens
Webb, Jas. Cape Cod Cranberries. Paper 40
White. Cranberry Culture 1.25
Williams, B. S. Orchid Grower's Manual 6.50
Woodf Samuel. Modern Window Gardening 1.25
Cattle, Dogs, Horses, Sheep, Swine, Poultry, Etc.
CATTLE, SHEEP, AND SWINE.
Allen, L. F. American Cattle. New and Revised Edition 2.50
Armatage, Prof. Ceo. Every Man His Own Cattle Doctor. 8vo.. 7.50
Armsby. Manual of Cattle Feeding .- 2.50
Cattle. The Varieties, Breeding, and Management 75
Coburn, F. D. Swine Husbandry. New and Revised Edition.... 1.75
Clok. Diseases of Sheep Paper ,50
Daddf Prof. GeO. H. American Cattle Doctor. 12mo 1.50
American Cattle Doctor. 8vo. Cloth 2.50
Fleming. Veterinary Obstetrics 6.00
Guenon. OnMilchCows 1.00
Harris, Joseph. OnthePig i 50
Jennings. OQ Cattle and their Diseases...-. 125
On Sheep, Swine, and Poultry, 1.25
0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 5
Jersey, Alderney, and Guernsey Cow 1.50
Keeping One Cow i.oo
Macdonald. Food from the Far West 1.50
McClure. Diseases of the American Horse, Cattle, and Sheep 4. 1.25
RflcComble, Wm. Cattle and Cattle Breeders l'.50
Martin, R. B. Ho- -Raising and Pork-Making 40
Miles. Stock Breeding 1.50
Powers, Stephen. The American Merftto for Wool and Mutton.
A practicil and valuable work 1.5.)
Quincy, Hon. Josiah. On Soiling Cattle
Randall. Fine Wool Sheep Husbandry. 1.00
Practical Shepherd • 2.00
Sheep Husbandry 1.50
Reasor. OntheHog 1.50
Sidney. OnMi«Pig 50
Shepherd, Major W. Prairie Experience in Handling Cattle... 1.00
Stewart, Henry. Shepherd's Manual. New and Enlarged Edition.. 1.50
Stewart, E. W. Feeding Animals 2.00
The Sheep. Its Varieties and Management. Boards 75
Youatt and Martin. Ou the Hog
Youatt. OiiSueep 1.00
DOG*, ETC.
BurgeSS. American Kennel and Sporting Field. 8vo 3.00
Dog-The Varieties and Management 50
Dogs of Great Britain, America, and Other Coun-
tries, Compiled from Stonehenge and other Standard Writers. The
most Complete Work ever PnbJishe.i on the Dog. 12mo 2.00
Forester, F. The Dog, by Dinks, Mayhew, and Hutchinson. 8vo .. . 3.00
Floyd, Wm. Hints on Dog Breaking. 12mo — 50
HallOCk, C. Dog Fanciers' Directory and Medical Guide. 18mo..... .25
Hammond, S. Dog Training. 12mo 1.00
Hill, J. W. Management, and Diseases of the Dog. 12mo 2.00
Hooper, J. J. Dog and Gun. Paper 30
Hutchinson, C. N. Dog Breaking. 8vo 3.00
IdStOne. TheDog. Illustrated. 12mo 1.25
Laverack, E. The Setter. 4to 3.00
Mayhew E. Dogs ; Their Management. 16mo 75
Points for Judging Different Varieties of Dogs.
Paper 50
Richardson. Dogs; Their Origin and Varieties. Paper Olotb
Shaw, T. VerO. Illustrated Book ofthe Dog. 4to 8.00
Stables, Gordon. Our Frii-nd the Dog. 8vo 3.00
Practical Kennel Guide 50
Ladies' Dogs as Companions 8.00
6 o. JUDD co/s ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
Stonehenge. The Dog in Health and Disease. 8vo 3.00
Dogs of Ihe British Islands. 8vo 6.00
The Greyhound 5.50
Youatt. On the Dog. 8vo 2.50
HORSES, ici m ><„. i: r< .
Anderson, E. L. Modern Horsemanship. 8vo 7.00
The Gallop. 4to. Paper 1.00
Armatage, GeO. Every Man His Own Horse Doctor, together \vi,h
Elaine's Veterinary Art. 8vo. | morocco 7.50
Armatage. Ceo. Horse Owner aud Stableman's Companion. 12mo 1.50
Battersby, Col. J. C. The Bridle Bits. A valuable little work
on horsemanship. Fully illustrated. 12mo 1.00
Baucher, F. New Method of Horsemanship. 12mo 1.00
Bruce. Stud-Book. 4 vols
Chawner, R. Diseases of the Horse and How to Treat Them. 12mo 1/5
Chester. Complete Trotting and Pacing Record 10 00
Dadd, C. H. American Reformed Horse Book. 8vo 2..:0
Modern Horse Doctor. 12ino 1.50
Day, W. The Race Horse in Training. 8vo 3.fiO
Du Hays, C. Perclieron Horse. New and Revised Edition. 12mo.. .50
Durant. Horseback Riding 1.-J5
Famous Horses of America. Cloth. 4to
C lea son, O. R. How to Handle and Educate Vicious Horses .50
Going, J. A. Veterinary Dictionary. 12mo
Herbert, H. W. Hints to Horse Keepers. 12mo 1.75
Helm, H. T. American Roadsters and Trotting Horses. 8vo
Horse The; Its Varieties and Management. Boards 75
HOWden, P. How to Buy and Sell the Horse. 12mo 1.00
Jennings, R. Horse Training Made Easy. 16mo 1.25
The Horse and His Diseases. 12mo 1.25
Law, J. Veterinary Adviser. 8vo 3.00
Liautard. Chart of Age of Domestic Animals 50
Animal Castration. 12mo 2.00
Manning. Tlie Illustrated Stock Doctor 5.00
May hew E. Illustrated Horse Management. 8vo 3.00
" Horse Doctor. 8vo 3.00
McClure, R. Diseases of American Horses. 12mo 1.25
American Gentleman's Stable Guide. 12mo 1.00
Miles, W. On the Horse's Foot. 12mo
RareV. Horse Taivier and Farrier. 16mo 50
Riding and Driving
Riley, H. On the Mule. 12:no 1.50
Russell. Scientific Horse-Shoeing 3.00
Saddle Horse, The. Complete Guide to Riding and Training.... 100
Saunders. Horse Breeding. 12mo 200
0. JtTDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 7
Ste wart, R. American Farmer's Horse Book. 8vo 3.00
StOnehenge. Every Horse Owner's Cyclopaedia. 8vo 3.75
On the Horse in the Stable and the Field. English
Edition. Svo 3.5)
On the Horse in the Stable and the Field. American
Edition. 12mo 2.00
Teller. Diseases of Live Stock. C[oth, 2.50; Sheep 3.00
Wallace. American Stud Book. Per vol 10.00
Williams. Veterinary Medicine 5.00
Veterinary Surgery 7.50
Woodruff. The Trotting Horse iii America. 12mo 2.50
Woods, Rev. J. C. Horse and Man 2.50
Youatt & Skinner. The Horse. 8vo 1.75
Youatt & Spooner. " " I2mo 1.50
POULTRY AND BEES.
Burnham. New Poultry Book 1.50
Cook, Prof. A. J. Bee-Keeper's Guide or Manual of the Apiary 1.50
Cooper, Dr. J. W. Game Fowls 5.00
Corbett. Poultry Yard and Market. Paper
Felch, I. K. Poultry Culture 1.50
Halsted. Artificial Incubation and Incubators. Paper
Johnson, G. M. S. Practical Poultry Keeper. Paper 50
King. Bee-Keeper's Text Book 1.00
LangStroth. On the Honey and Hive Bee 2.00
Poultry. Breeding, Rearing, Feeding etc. Boards 50
Profits in Poultry and their Profitable Manage-
ment. Most complete Work extant 1.00
Quinby. Mysteries of Bee-Keeping Explained (Edited by L. C. Root). 1.50
Renwick. Thermostatic Incubator. Paper 36c. Cloth .55
Root, A. I. A, B, C, of Bee-Culture 1.25
Standard Excellence in Poultry i.oo
Stoddard. An Egg-Farm. Revised and Enlarged 50
Wright. Illustrated Book of Poultry 5.pi
Practical Poultry-Keeper." 2.00
Practical Pigeon Keeper 1.50
8 0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
Our Sportsman's Books
ANGLING, FISHING, ETC.
Burgess, J. T. Practical Guide to Bottom Fishing, Trolling,
Spinning, Fly, and Sea Fishing. 8vo 50
Fish Hatching and Fish Catching. By itooseveit and
Green. 12ino 1.50
Forester, F. Fish and Fishing. New Edition. 8vo 2.50
Fishing with HOOK and Line. Paper 25
Fysshe and Fysshynge, from the Boke of St. Aibans i.oo
Hamilton, M. D. Fly Fishing. 12mo 1.75
Harris. The Scientific Angl.-r— Foster 1.50
Henshall, J. A. A Book of the Black Bass. 8vo 3.00
Keene, J.H. Fly-Fishing and Fly-Making. 12mo. Just Published.. 1.50
Practical Fisherman. 12mo 4.00
King, J. L. Treating on the Biule River. 12mo 1.50
Morris, T. American Fish Culture 12mo 1.75
American Angler's Book. 8vo 5.50
Orvis, Charles F. Fishing with the Fly. CrownSvo 2.50
Pennell, H. C. Bottom ; or. Float Fishing. Boards 50
Fly-Fishing and Worm-Fishing. Boards 50
Trolling for Pike, Salmon, and Trout. Boards 50
Prime. IgoaFishing 2.50
Random Casts from an Angler's Note Book 50
Roosevelt, R. B. Game Fish of the Northern Sh.tes and British
Provinces. 12mo. 2.00
Superior Fishing; or. the Striped Bass, Trout,
Black Bass, and Blue Fish of the Northern
States. 12mo 2.00
0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 9
Roosevelt & Green. Fltb Hatching and Flab Catching 1.50
Slack, J. H. Practical Trout Culture. 12mo 1.00
Scott, C. C. Fishing m American Waters. 8vo 2.50
Walton & Cotton. Complete Angler. 8vo 5.00
Bonn 2.00
Chandos 1.50
" 12mo 80
BOATING, CANOEIN« SAIL.INU, ISTC.
Canoeing in Kanuckia. ismo 75
FellOWS, H. P. Boating Trips on New England Rivers. 12mo 1.25
Frazar, D. Practical Boat Sailing. Kiiuo 1.00
Henshall, J. A. Camping and Cruising in Florida. 12mo 1.50
Kemp, Dixon. Manual of Yaclit and Boat Sailing (the Standard
Authority). Royal 8vo. ^Illustrated 10.00
Kemp, Dixon. Yacht Designing. Folio 25.00
Klinhardt, D. T. Small Yacht*. 4to,14#xl2tf 7.00
PreSGOtt, C. E. The Sailing Boat. 16mo 25
Steele, T. S. Canoe and Camera. 12mo 1.50
Swimming. Routledge 20
FIELD SPORTS AND NATURAL HISTORY.
American Bird Fancier. Enlarged edition 50
Adams, H. C. Favorite Song Birds
Archer, Modern. Paper 15
Bailey. Our Own Birds 1-50
Bird-Keeping. Fully Illustrated 1.50
Brown. Taxidermy 1-00
Canary Birds. New and Revised Edition. Paper, 50c. Cloth 75
COUeS. Key to North American Birds 7."0
Cocker. Manual 150
Edwards. Rabbits
Coodc and Atwater. Mmhnden 2.00
Holden. Book of Birds as
Lawn Tennis Hand Book 75
Packard. Guide to Study of lusacts 5.00
Hair Hour Insects 250
Common Insects 150
Practical Rabbit Keeper L-)0
Swimming, Skating and Rinking ~6
Van Doren. Fishes of the East Atlantic Coast 1.50
Warne. Angling. Boards i>0
Wilson. American Ornithology. Svols
Wilson and Bonaparte. American Ornithology. Ivol 7.50
10 0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
HUNTING, SHOOTING, FISHING, ETC.
Adirondacks Guide. Wallace 2.00
Amateur Trapper. Boards 75
Batty, J. H. How to Hunt and Trap. 12mo j.r,0
Practical Taxidermy. 12mo l.:,0
Barber. Crack Shot — the Rifleman's Guide. 12mo 1.25
BogarduS, Capt. Field, Cover, and Trap Shooting. 12rao 2 00
BumStead. On the Wing 1.50
Dead Shot. A Treatise on the Gun 1.25
FarrOW. How to Become a Crack Shot. 12ino 1.00
Forester, F. Li fe and Writings— D. W. Judd. 2 volumes. 8vo 3.00
Field Sports. 2 volumes. 8vo 4.00
Complete Manual for Young Sportsmen. 8vo. . . 2.00
American Game in its Season. 8vo 1.50
Cildersleeve, H. A. Rifles and Markmanship. 12mo 1.50
Cloan. The Breech-loader 1.25
Gould, J. M. How to Camp Out. 16mo ... .75
Greener, W. W. Choke Bore Guns. 8vo 3.00
The Gun and its Development 2.50
Gun, Rod, and Saddle. "Ubique" i.oo
Hal lock. Sportsman's Gazeteer and General Guide— A Treatise on all
Game and Fish of North America. Instruction in Shooting, Fishing,
Taxidermy, and Woodcraft, with Directory of Principal Game Re-
sorts and Maps. New and Revised Edition. 12mo
Henderson, H. Practical Hints on Camping. 12mo 1.25
Lewis, E. J. The American Sportsman. 8vo 2.50
Murray. Adventures in the Wilderness. 12mo 1.25
Murphy, J. M. American Game Bird Shooting. 12mo 2.00
NewhOUSe. Trapper's Guide. 8vo
Pistol, The— How to Use. 12mo 50
PreSGOtt, C. E. Practical Hints on Rifle Practice with Military
Arms 25
Roosevelt, R. B. Florida, and the Game Water Birds of the Atlan-
tic Coast and Lakes of the United States. 12mo 2.00
Samuels. Birds of New England and Adjacent States.... 4.00
Shooting on the Wing. iGmo 75
Smith, George Putnam. The Law of Field Sports i.oo
Stonehenge. Rural Sports — The Standard Encyclopedia of Field
Sports, i morocco. 8vo 5.00
Thrasher, H. Hunter and Trapper. 12mo ?.">
Win gate, C. W. Manual for Rifle Practice. 16mo 1.50
Woodcraft. "Nessmuck." 12mo 1.00
0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 11
ARCHITECTURE, ETC.
Allen, L. F. Rural Architecture...
American Cottages s.oo
Ames. Alphabets . 1.50
AtwOOd. Country and Suburban Houses 150
Barn Plans and Out-Buildings 1 so
Bell. Carpentry Made Easy 5.00
Bicknell. Cottage and Villa Architecture 400
Detail Cottage and Constructive Architecture 6.00
Modern Architectural Designs and Details . 10.00
Public Buildings Now 2.50
Street, Store, and Bank Fronts. New 2.50
School-House and Church Architecture 2.50
Stables, Out-buildings, Fences, etc . 2.50
Brown. Building, Table and Estimate Book 150
Bum. Drawing Books, Architectural. Illlnstrated and Ornamental.
3 Vols. Each 1.00
Cameron. Plasterer's Manual 75
Camp. How Can I Learn Architecture 50
Copley. Plain and Ornamental Alphabets 300
Cottages. Hints on Economical Building 1.00
CummingS. Architectural Details.. ... 600
Elliott. Hand Book of Practical Landscape Gardening 1.50
Eveleth. School-House Architecture » 4.00
Fuller. Artistic Homes 4.50
Cilmore, Q. A. Roads and Street Pavements 2.50
Gould. American Stair-Builder's Guide 2.50
Carpenter's and Builder's Assistant 2.50
Hodgson. Steel Square 1.00
Holly. Art of Saw Filing 75
Harney. Barns, Out-Buildings, and Fences 4.00
H U I m e. Mathematical Drawing Instruments 1.50
12 0. JUDD CO/S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
HllSSey. Home Building 250
National Cottage Architecture 4.00
Homes for Home Builders. Just Published. Fully illustrated", u>o
Interiors and Interior Details 750
Lakey. Village and Country Houses 5.00
Modern House Painting 5.00
Monckton. National Carpenter and Joiner 5.00
National Stair-Builder 5.00
Painter, Gilder* and Varnisher's Companion 1 so
Palliser. American Cottage Homes 4.00
Model Homes 1.00
Useful Details 2.00
PI U m mer. Carpenters' and Builders1 Guide 75
Powell. Foundations and Foundation Walls 2.00
Reed. Cottage Houses 1.25
House Plans for Everybody 1.50
Dwellings 2.50
R id del I . Carpenter and Joiiu-r Modernized 7.50
New Elements of Hand Railing 7.00
Lessons on Hand Railing for Learners .. 5.00
Rural Church Architecture 4.oo
Scott. Beautiful Homes 2.50
Tuthill. Practical Lessons in Architectural Drawing 2.50
Weidenmann. Beautifying Country Homes. A superb quarto Vol. 10.00
Woodward. Cottages and Farm Houses 1.00
Country Homes 1.00
National Architect. Volumes 1 and 2. Each 15.00
Suburban and Country Houses 1.00
MISCELLANEOUS.
Collection of Ornaments 2.00
Common Sea Weeds so
Common Shells of the Seashore so
Corson, MiSS Juliet. Cooking School Text Book
Twenty five Cent Dinners. New Edition. .25
De Voe. Market Assistant 2.50
Dussauce. On the Manufacture of Vinegar.- 5.00
Eassie. Wood and its Uses 1.50
Eggleston. Koxy I.M
Circuit Rider 1.50
School Boy 1.00
Queer Stories 1.00
End of the World 1.50
Mystery of Metropolisville 1.50
Hoosier Schoolmaster 1.25
Elliott, Mrs. Housewife. New and Revised Edition 1.25
Ewing. Hand Book of Agriculture 86
0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE. 13
Ferns and Ferneries. Paper 28
Fisher. Grain Tables 40
Fowler. Twenty Years of Inside Life in Wall Street 1.50
Gardner. Carriage Painters' Manual 1.00
How to Paint 1.00
Hazard. Butter Making 25
Household Conveniences 1.50
How to Detect the Adulterations of Food. Paper 25
How to Make Candy 50
Leary. Ready Reckoner 25
Myers. Havana Cigars 25
Our Farmers' Account Book i.oo
Parloa, Miss. CookBook 1.50
Ropp. Commercial Calculator 50
Scribner. Lumber and Log-Book 85
Ware. The Sugar Beet 4.00
Weston, J. Fresh Water Aquarium. Paper 25
Weir, Harrison. Every Day in the Country 75
Wingate, Gen. G. W. Through the Yellowstone Park 1.50
Williams. Ladies' Fancy Work 1.50
Evening Amusements 1.50
Beautiful Homes 1.50
Ladies' Needle Work 1.00
Artistic Embroidery 1.00
Willard. Practical Butter Book 1.00
Practical Dairy Husbandry 3.00
Warne'S Useful Books. Boards. Witlipractir.nl Illustrations:
The Orchard and Fruit Garden. By ELIZABETH WATTS 50
Vegetables and How to Grow Them. By ELIZABKTH WATTS 50
Cattle and their Varieties 50
The Dog and its Varieties 50
Flowers and Flower Garden. By ELIZABETH WATTS. 50
Hardy Plants for Little Front, Garden? 50
Poultry— An Original and Practical Guide to their Management. . . .50
The Modern Fencer, By Capt. T. GRIFFITH 50
The Modern Gymnast. By CHARLES SPENCER 50
Cattle and their Varieties and Management .75
The Horse and its Varieties and Management 75
Sheep andits Varieties and Management , .. .75
14 0. JUDD CO.'S ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE.
SENT, POST-PAID, ON RECEIPT OF PRICE.
ABC of Agriculture ........................................... .50
By MASON C. WELD, and other Writeri. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo.
An Egg Farm.- ........ ... ........... ......................... 50
By II. H. STODDARD. Cloth,
Broom Corn and Brooms ..................... ............. 5O
New and Revised Edition. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo.
Hints on Dog Breaking .................................... 50
By WM. FLOYD. Boards, 12mo.
Home Fishing ar.d Home Waters ........................ 5O
By SETH GREEN. A Valuable and Interesting Work. Cloth, 12ino.
How to Plant .............. ...................................... 5O
By M. W. JOHNSON. Illustrated. Paper, 12mo.
How to Handle and Educate Vicious Horses..... .50
By OSCAR R. GLEASON. Illustrated. Cloth, 12ino.
Points for Judging Varieties of Dogs. Paper .......... 50
Potato Pests .................................................. . .50
By Prof. C. V. RILEY. Illustrated. Paper, 12mo.
Silos and Ensilage ......... .................................... SO
Edited by Dr. GEO. THURBER. Illustrated. Cloth,
The American Bird Fancier. P»per 5O
Wheat Culture 5O
By D. S. CUBTIS. Illustrated. Paper, 12mo.
OIRAISTGKE JUr>D COMPANY,
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THE FAMILY HORSE #1,OO
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HOME FISHING AND II OH 1C WATERS 60
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Fish in the Artificial Pond ; Transportation of Eggs and Fry, etc.
Cloth, 12mo.
A B O OF AGRICULTURE 5O
By MASON C. WELD, and other writers. A Valuable and Practical
Manual.
BROO.U-CORN AND BROOMS. 50
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TlfB: WINDOW FLOWER GARDEN 75
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OUR HOWIES; HOW TO BEAUTIFY THEM. $1.00
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By REV. W. W. MEECH. Cloth, 12mo.
THE PROPAGATION OF PLANTS.. $1.5O
By ANDREW S. FULLER. Giving the Principles which Govern the
Development and Growth of Plants, their Botanical Affinities and
Peculiar Properties. Cloth, 12mo. With numerous engravings.
THE DAIRYMAN'S MANUAL $».OO
By HENRY STEWART, author of "Irrigation," "The Shepherd's
Manual," etc. Cloth, 12mo.
PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE $1.5O
A Guide to the Successful Propagation and Cultivation of Florists'
Plants. Re-written and Enlarged. By PETER HENDERSON. Cloth,
12mo.
GARDENING FOR PROFIT $2.0O
By PETER HENDERON. A new, entirely re-written, and greatly en-
larged edition of this well-known standard work. The hest hook on
market and family gardening. Fully Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo.
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE $2.00
By PETER HENDERSON. New Edition, greatly enlarged.
For all who keep a garden for their own enjoyment, rather than for
sale of products. Fully illustrated. Cloth, 12mo.
Send postal card for our 80-page elegantly illustrated
Catalogue of our 3OO Rural Publications.
ORANGKE JUDD COMPANY,
BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
-^. FOR THE «^-
Farm, Garden and Household.
Established in 1842.
Tie Best and Cheapest Agricultural Journal in the World,
The American Agriculturist (so-called because started in 1 842, as a Rural
Periodical) has been greatly enlarged and widened in scope, without change of
name, until it now meets the wants of ALL classes, in City, Village and Coun-
try ; it is literally EVERTBODT'S PAPER. It helps the FARMER, the GARDENER,
the PRUIT GROWER, the MECHANIC, the PROFESSIONAL and BUSINESS man ; it
greatly aids every HOUSEKEEPER ; it pleases and instructs the YOUTH and the
LITTLE ONES.
It is edited with great care, labor, and expense, to have every lina
reliable, while its pages abound in a great variety of useful, practical,
reliable information and suggestions.
Every number describes, with engravings, a great variety of Labor-saving,
Labor-helping devices and Household Economies, Animals, Plants, Flowers,
etc. In this respect it surpasses, by far, all other like journals, and will be
found valuable and he'pful by every one, no matter how many other journals
he may have.
Its constant Exposures of Humbugs and Swindling Schemes are
invaluable everywhere, and save many times its cost to almost every reader. It
admits no patent medicine nostrums, nor untrustworthy adrertisers. Its large
circulation enables the Publishers to issue it at very low rates, and to deal
liberally with subscribers in the way of premiums, etc.
SUBSCRIPTION TERMS:
$1.50 a year (postage included). Single numbers, 15 cents.
TRY IT A YEAR.
ORAME JUDD GOMPiNY, Publishers,
•751
NEW YORK.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
LIBRARY
Due two weeks after date.
FtB 3 '-'
YB 27286
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