Stock Township (part 6 of 9)

Treatment. - In loose bowels an astringent should be given and then a dose of raw linseed oil will have a healing effect. A dose of castor oil is from one to two ounces and is good. If bowels are costive, give from one to two ounces of salts. An injection of warm water helps. Coffee is good to prevent sickness of the stomach.

Treatment. - Examine the eyes to remove any foreign substance and put the pig in a dark pen. Wash the eyes with hot water and apply boric acid and water (as much acid as the water will dissolve). If a scum comes over the eyes, blow some calomel into them once each day.

Symptoms. - Fever, a hard udder and drying up of bag; no desire to eat. This may ruin the sow for further breeding so a good pigging or farrowing pen should be used.

Treatment. - Keep the bowels loose with Glauber's salts. Wash the udder with hot water several times daily. Apply camphorated vaseline to the udder once each day. Lard is a good application to apply freely.

Many times a sow is not assisted properly in pigging; or is kept 'in an illsmelling, damp pen after pigging; or the rectum is turned out. Cleanliness is essential in treatment of all animals.

Treatment. - The fever should be reduced by giving saltpeter, and the womb washed out with boracic acid and warm boiled water. Put plenty of the acid in the water. It is very good for cleansing and healing. To inject the solution a fountain syringe will be found well adapted to this work.

seed is often given ; a teaspoonful of turpentine to a gallon of liquid food is used by many farmers. Kerosene dips will give good results ; kerosene given internally in small doses have brought improvement in the animal.

Bruises, cuts, lack of good bone building food, and kicks cause lameness. Constipation develops a contracted action of the muscles often which makes an animal lame. Plenty of wood ashes and salt or soft coal kept before the hogs will keep them from being lame. Lump sulphur is used by many hog raisers.

On account of the bristles it is easier to treat for lice than on other animals with more hair. It is also easy to rid a hog, in fact to rid the premises of lice, so no place should have them. Clean pens are not infected by lice. Whitewashing often brings relief. Tobacco washes are often used. Kerosene rubbed or brushed on with a broom gives good satisfaction. The buildings must be fumigated. Formaldehyde applied with a sprayer is practical. Sulphur burned carefully is a common remedy.

There are so many diseases caused by too much or improper food, and too little exercise that diagnosing a disease is hard for an inexperienced man. Following closely the symptoms will give good results. Lack of exercise; over-feeding on rich foods, and ill-kept surroundings cause liver disease.

Treatment. - One should attend to the treating of this disease promptly and carefully to prevent other and perhaps more serious complications f-rom starting. See that the hog has clean quarters and good clean water to drink. Relieving the bowels gives the best results. Salts or ginger and soda (1 teaspoonful each) in warm water, or buttermilk have a good effect. Linseed oil heals the bowels in excessive action.

Description. - Malignant Angina is a form of Anthrax that affects swine quite frequently, generally appearing as an epidemic and spreading over a large territory. It has its principal seat in the throat. Angina may be present with other diseases especially malignant erysipelas. Contagion; filth; exposure and poor condition cause it.

Symptoms. - Laborious breathing ; wheezing ; swelling of tongue ; hoarse grunting ; dryness of snout ; brownish-red color of the mucous membranes of the mouth ; trying to vomit ; difficulty in swallowing food ; a swelling on the throat that is painful, hot and hard (this swelling sometimes extends as far as the lower surface of the chest and presents a crimson or red appearance at first followed by reddish lead-gray and then purple), and a high fever. The difficulty in breathing increases until the animal may even die of suffocation. He may make desperate attempts to catch a little air by opening the mouth and protruding the swollen tongue. The hog has a high temperature at first but in the later stages of the disease the temperature may go below normal.

Preventive Treatment. - Giving a little carbolic acid in the drinking water or feeding unripe sour apples or sour buttermilk may help prevent your hogs from getting this terrible disease when it is in the neighborhood. The treatment to be at all effective in this disease must be begun when the first symptoms make their appearance. First give an effective emetic of from three to twenty grains (depending on the size and age of the animal) of powdered White Hellebore or of Tartar Emetic. The former is probably more reliable. Give this medicine in a little milk if the hog will drink it. Other ways of giving it are in pieces of boiled potato or a pinch of flour and water in the form of pills.

Caution. - Do not give these as a drench. Repeat the dose if the hog does not vomit in about twenty minutes. This treatment may be followed with doses of calomel, saltpeter, sulphate, or soda to advantage. Many people find that injections of the following solution made through the skin into the swollen parts of the neck at various places give better results than anything else; Carbolic acid y* teaspoonful, glycerine 1 teaspoonful and water 1 teacupful. Blood letting is sometimes satisfactory if resorted to in time. If done too late it only hastens death.

Treatment. - In treating mange, purify all objects around the animals such as sties and rubbing places by covering them with lime or chloride of lime. Wash the hog with a decoction of Tobacco (4 teaspoonfuls of tobacco to 1 pint of water) or Caustic Potash (2 teaspoonfuls Caustic Potash to 1 quart water) ; or concentrated vinegar. A couple of days following a thorough application of one of above washes, scrub the hog well with soap and water and apply the following:

Mange Ointment. - Melt \*/2 pounds of lard and l/2 pound of turpentine together. Add 1 pound of Flowers of Sulphur to this and mix well. When cool rub 2 ounces of strong Mercurial Ointment into the mixture. This can be done on a stone slab. Glover's Mange cure is a very well-known remedy.

This is a contagious disease in hogs that is quite common. It is similar to measles in people and may be carried back and forth between the house and pens.

Symptoms. - In many cases the animal sneezes and coughs, but if the case is light, no sickness may be observed. In bad cases there is a loss of appetite, a rash breaks out in about four days (this is more easily seen on white-skinned hogs), the throat is sore, the eyes inflamed, the temperature high, and the pulse is rapid. The disease begins to go away about the sixth or seventh day. Be very careful of relapses. They develop more serious diseases.

Treatment. - Practically all the hogs need when they have measles is good care and protection from storms, filth and wet. They seldom need medicine unless it is something to check the cough or diarrhea or to loosen the bowels. Milk and red pepper is good, also an egg fed to the hog. If the hog shows weakness strong lye-like coffee will revive it.

Bad foods usually have sour material which makes an excess of acid in the stomach. This condition causes the hog to lose its desire to eat and causes it to lose flesh. Regulate the feed. Put in closed pen for a while.

Treatment. - Put the hog on a light diet which is easily digested. Many farmers give a mixture of charcoal, ginger, and common baking soda. Egg shells, sour milk, soft coal, and even soft wood and acorns neutralize the condition.

During a dry summer catarrh is prevalent in both animals and people. Dust, chaff, grass seeds, and golden rod pollen have a great effect on animals in developing catarrh and asthma.

Treatment. - Give the affected hog 15 grains of saltpeter and 2 drams of ginger. Follow this with two-grain doses of quinine several times daily. The animal should be given good care. Strong salt water cleanses the stomach. Smartweed may be given. Mint leaves are good for clearing out the passages.

Sometimes a pig lays on a sharp stick or falls upon erne and when it rises the bowel or part of one comes through. Also in farrowing a projection of the bowels through an opening is not uncommon. Reopening of an improper tied navel often permits a bowel to come partly through.

Symptoms. - A puffy soft bunch at the navel which can be pressed back through the opening into the body. If the rupture is small, it seldom causes trouble and needs nothing done to it unless it stops the circulation. A protrusion is dangerous however as the bowel itself might be punctured and the inflammation set up may develop complications.

Treatment. - Place the pig on its back and press the bowel and covering back into place. Pick up the hide and put two wooden pins which have been boiled and sterilized through it at right angles to each other and close to the abdomen. Tie a string around back of these pins and close to the body. Do not tie the string too tight. This operation causes the skin to soon unite. The loose skin drops off in about ten days and the pig is well. Many farmers have explained this and it is an easy and safe method if just proper common sense precautions are taken to prevent infection.

Eating bones, rooting in gravel, too hard coal, bad food and clusters of worms attached to bowel lining is called obstruction of the bowels.

Symptoms. - Sometimes the trouble starts quickly and severe pain results. It is a serious ailment and great care should be taken to keep the bowels from becoming punctured from the inside. In such instances there can be no cure and the animal dies.

Treatment. - Giving soapy water causes vomiting and may bring up the obstruction. Linseed oil or any medicine that may -grease the passages will help to release the obstacle. An injection of warm soapy water will help.

Severe straining of the back resulting from sorrie accident while young or being stepped upon by another animal affects the spinal column and develops a helpless condition due to loss of the muscles. The base of the brain is often affected; blows on the loins ; mistakes in feeding; or other ailments also cause it.

Treatment. - Put the hog in comfortable quarters where he will not be disturbed. Feed on soft, sloppy food. Sour milk is good. Keep the bowels loose with injections of warm water or from two to three ounce doses of Glauber's salts. Breaks in the spine are not curable, but if killed immediately the hog will be good for meat. If the cause is known to be a strain of the back, use cold application on the back for several days, or apply a strong solution of mustard and water to the affected animal's back each day. Equal parts of lard, ammonia and turpentine make an excellent liniment to apply to the back of a hog suffering with paralysis and have been recommended by farmers in Ohio and elsewhere.

People and animals are often affected by the dilation of the pupil of the eye which may cause blindness. It is often an ailment of the digestive organs due to constipation, high blood pressure or intestinal parasites which really cause clogged bowels.

Treatment. - Keep the hog in a dark, clean pen with good ventilation. Pumpkin seed tea is good for worms and will remove one of the worst causes of the paralysis. Cathartics should also be given.

When any article taken into the intestines makes an internal rupture, an inflamed condition of the membrane lining the abdominal cavity usually takes place and blood poisoning often follows. The mortification or hardening is almost incurable. Injuries such as kicks from horses or bunts from cattle; puncturing of the stomach ; severe chills and other diseases, cause the internal injury. It may follow castration or farrowing.

Symptoms. - Pain ; bloating ; fever ; tenderness of the stomach ; vomiting : and quickened pulse. The indications are very plain and the attention that must be given is considerable.

Treatment. - Keep the strength of the animal up with milk mashes or, in severe cases, aromatic spirits of ammonia. Proper care by a veterinarian at the first signs of this ailment will get the better results.

These are soft bright red tumors found in or near the outer opening of the large bowel. They usually bleed very easily. Sometimes they are called fluid piles because there is no bleeding. Sitting back on damp muddy floors and cold ground are common causes.

Treatment. - Add some tannic acid to cold water and use as an injection Give a cathartic of Glauber's salt or castor oil. When it is thought best to open the tumors and let out the impure blood, use a thin sharp knife. Hot applications may be then applied or anodyn wash is good. Injections of slippery elm juice or mucilage are considered good.

Many hogs as well as other animals catch slight colds and the membrane which lines the chest and covers the lungs becomes inflamed and is known as pleurisy. It may develop into pneumonia. Hogs should not sleep in cold beds, or be exposed to drafts or winds when warm or injured. The air passages may be easily affected.

Treatment. - Give the hog dry, clean quarters. In case the bowels are too tight, give him two ounces of Glauber's salts in warm water. In case the animal does not urinate freely, give a teaspoonful and saltpeter three or four times daily. Jamaica Ginger is fine for the inflammation and may be given in tablespoon doses several times a day. It is also very good as a stimulant.

A slight cold due to exposure often develops into more serious diseases and an inflamed condition of the lungs is the most common. Light blood often aids. Corn fed properly gives much heat and prevents many chances of exposure.

Symptoms. - The animal chills, then fever develops; quickened and laborious respiration ; loss of appetite ; severe coughing and pain tell of the presence of inflammation.

Treatment. - Give the hogs clean, warm, comfortable quarters and access to saltpeter once a day ; 15 drops of aconite will reduce fever. Give strong coffee to prevent vomiting.

This is a disease that appears frequently in hogs. It is generally confined to fat hogs or those highly fed. It is rapid in its course and often fatal. While at first it is easily prevented and taken care of, later it is very hard to treat successfully.

Symptoms. - Soreness and swelling of glands under throat followed by difficult swallowing and breathing; protruding of tongue from mouth covered with slavor. There may be spots on the glands comparing with tonsils in people.

Treatment. - At the start, give an active emetic, such as 4 grains of tartar-emetic (potasio-tartrate of antimony); 6 grains of White Hellebore; and 6 grains of ipecacuanha. Mix and throw into the mouth or give in the feed. If the hog can eat give 2 or 3 ounces of castor oil to clear the bowels. If the hog has great difficulty in breathing, put an active blister on the throat and give injections often. If the animal can drink water, dissolve a teaspoonful of Nitre and Salammoniac in it. If a hog has a case of quinsy, split the neck open on each side of the throat so it will bleed freely, then swab the throat well with turpentine. Also make the hog swallow from 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls of turpentine. This can be put in the swill when the patient can drink. Enough turpentine poured on corn to make it oily is a good preventive.

Colds settling in the limbs and the loss or drying up of some of the joint fluid is thought to cause this ailment in animals and people. Some hogs seem to be more disposed to it than others and when an exciting cause arises they become affected immediately. It is very common, yet hard to treat.

Symptoms. - Indisposition to move ; languor ; dullness ; extreme lameness in one or more limbs; swelling; heat; or tenderness of a tendon, joint or bunch of muscles. The soreness may shift from one joint to another.

Treatment. - Give the pigs warm, well-littered houses to go into any time they choose. Feed steamed or boiled food and sour milk so as to get a bowel action. Good liniments are usually used and can be made at home from vinegar, eggs, turpentine and even lard added. Give a tablespoonful of codliver oil to each pig once or twice a day in the feed. Cod-liver oil often not only cures rheumatism, both chronic and acute, but also greatly improves the condition of the pigs.

This is a condition in hogs caused by lack of proper foods containing lime salts and affects the bones. Cold, damp buildings, improper feeding, infection and weak constitutions are causes of the lack of health. The ribs and long bones of the legs are most affected. The bones become thicker than usual and the gait is stiff and painful. Discharges as in catarrh of the stomach take place.

Treatment. - Correct improper conditions, giving plenty of sunshine, fresh air, exercise, food, and tonics are the best remedies. Plenty of lime salts in the foods, lime in the drinking water and bone meal, will strengthen the bones.

This may break out over the body but is uncommon in hogs. It appears in the form of rings and the hair drops from the skin in ringlike patches, the center of the patches becoming dry and the edges moist. Sweet oil is good if well rubbed in; kerosene will cleanse it thoroughly. Or apply iodine with a brush. Sulphur and lard keeps the sore soft and helps it heal.

Treatment. - Give good dose of salts and feed light food with lots of sour milk for several days. Sulphur and lard or buttermilk and kerosene will cleanse the skin thoroughly. Sweet oil or carbolic salve which can be made in bulk at low cost is fine. Many farmers save a lot of money by getting the ingredients of well-known salves, ointments and patent medicines and mixing them up for their own personal use. In another section we give many practical ones.

Many of the diseases with a rash are confused with one another; as, for instance, scarlet fever and measles are similar. About a week is required for relief. It will spread from contact with other animals that have the disease, or with man ; dirty pens or low vitality in pigs makes them susceptible.

Symptoms. - It may be distinguished in many ways and sluggishness, slight lameness, some fever, and poor appetite with increasing thirst are the more common indications.

Treatment. - Many pigs pull through a case of scarlet fever without any special treatment. The affected animal should be separated from the rest of the herd and given good clean quarters. Salts may be given if the bowels are tight but care should be taken not to get the bowels too loose. Quinine and ginger should be given about three times daily when the pig is weak. Spray the throat several times a day with a solution made by dissolving a handful of salt in a quart of water. This will relieve the soreness. A lemon juice spray is also good.

So many hogs are exposed to cold rains and weather that they take and develop colds which are really continuous. It may run into more serious a distemper which usually results in death. Such animals should be killed and buried or burned.

Treatment. - Put the pig in a warm, dry and clean pen. Protect him from further exposure. Avoid over-feeding and feed loosening foods to keep the bowels in good condition. Clear out the nose by washing it with a solution of listerine and water several times a day. If the bowels are costive, give from two to four ounces of epsom salts. Plenty of salt should be kept in the pen.

Confinement in pen with hard cement floors and drinking cold water after overfeeding with heavy grain often develop a case of founder. The sensitive linings of the feet seem to act in sympathy with the abused lining of the bowels.

Symptoms. - Lifting the fore feet and placing them down easily and farther apart than usual is a good indication of sore feet. Often twitching of the tail.

Treatment. - Keep the bowels opened with salts, laxative foods like turnips, beets, and green fodder. If sores come on the feet walk the pig through a trough containing blue vitriol water. Butter of antimony is good for healing these sores. If the pig gets foot sore in the winter, apply hot packs, but if he goes sore in the summer allow the pig to run where he can stand on clay ground.

Sometimes there is soreness back of ears and a discharge of yellew matter. This matter gives off a' very diagreeable odor and is not pleasant to treat. Thorough cleansing with warm water and an application of turpentine will aid in healing. Kerosene oil and lard will make a good salve to keep away flies and prevent poisoning. A teaspoonful of sulphur can be given in the feed each day. It dries up the sores.

This is a disease common in all animals and people. The causes are common as well as symptoms and treatments. Wet feet or weak lungs, and lying in cold water or snow with poor ventilation usually brings it on.

Symptoms. - Spots come in throat, head fills up and there is a smothered cough. Swallowing is hard and there is loss of appetite and slow, restless movements.

Treatment. - Three ounces of castor oil or linseed oil should be given to move the bowels. Doses of alum, several times a day, act well if given during the first stages of soreness.

Most young pigs are affected with worms which cause indigestion and the food strength is not utilized by the system. Growing ceases and small scrawny pigs are the result. Improper nourishment will also stunt them They eat as much as a growing pig so should not be kept in this condition any longer than is necessary. A teaspoonful of turpentine is one of the best worm remedies and it is best to remove the cause right at the start. A milk diet will often give the proper nourishment. Oil meal or some good conditioning powder with plenty of salt will tend to give the best results. Many farmers get good results by using a little castor oil and kerosene.

This ailment attacks fat young pigs ; they do not have sufficient exercise and are affected with worms. This may be a common condition and can be prevented by proper regulation of food, plenty of beans and cowpeas fed to the sow before farrowing. Coughing, especially in the morning when the pig comes from his bed ; jerking of body, and the pig may fall to the ground. Cold water and rubbing will aid in recovery.

Treatment. - In case the pigs are too fat, the sow should be taken from them for a while during each day. Proper and plenty of exercise will do wonders towards keeping the litter in good condition. At the first sign of thumps all of the pigs should be treated the same, as they are all subject to the same condition. Eggs and milk with bran added and thrown into the trough will help much in the treatment of this disease. Pigs that are given lumps of tar several times will react satisfactorily.

Tuberculosis in hogs is closely associated with the same malady in cattle. It is caused by germs or bacteria and affects the various organs of swine; feeding unpasteurized skimmed milk; allowing hogs to run behind tuberculous cattle and feed upon the undigested grain in the manure; feeding uncooked carcasses of other animals that contain tuberculosis germs ; consumptive attendants ; and eating carcasses of tuberculous fowls.

Symptoms. - The symptoms of tuberculosis have no very decided characteristics. In intestinal tuberculosis there is often a general disturbance of the digestive functions and diarrhea or constipation may result. In advanced tuberculosis of the lungs there is a dry, persistent, harsh cough and rapid breathing, especially when exercised. The cough cannot be distinguished from that caused by lung worms. In severe cases of the disease there may be continued falling away and weakness. Most cases of tuberculosis are not recognized until the hogs are killed. In cases where the disease can not be told by the symptoms exhibited, the tuberculin test is recommended which makes it possible to detect the disease in its early stages and to stamp it out by killing the affected animals.

Tuberculin Test. - The intradermal method of using the tuberculin test has given excellent results on hogs. Full credit for the perfecting of this test should go to the Animal Industry Bureau, Washington, D. C, and State Experiment Stations. In this method two drops of tuberculin is used. This is prepared by evaporating away two-thirds of the volume of the tuberculin obtained from the Bureau mentioned above for the subcutaneous tuberculin testing of cattle. It is injected into the skin, not under it, near the base of one of the hog's ears. If the hog is affected with tuberculosis, the ear will swell near where the injection was made in about forty-eight hours and will remain swollen from 10 to 12 days. If there is no infection no reaction will take place.

Treatment. - By applying the tuberculin test when tuberculosis in suspected, the diseased hogs can be determined and killed before the whole herd is affected and the hog raiser can thus clean up his herd with as little loss as possible. After removing the diseased animals the place may be thor- oughly disinfected by cleaning up all loose dirt, tearing out all decayed woodwork, and scrubbing the walls of the houses with hot water. Next a coat of lime containing a good disinfectant should be applied to the walls and in all dark places on the premises.

Sometimes the food a hog picks up has an irritating action on the stomach and causes it to throw up its food. Weakness may also be the cause. People often give strong coffee or a little camphor in water. Ginger and soda are fine, all of these can easily be given to the hog. Mint leaves or smartweed thrown into the pen will help in regulating the stomach.

Treatment. - A small wart can be cut off with a small silk thread. A drop of carbolic acid will sear over the wound and keep it from bleeding. Acetic acid or nitric acid applied to the wart only, and not the surrounding skin, will cause it to go away and the surface will become smooth. Warts should be cared for when starting.

Symptoms. - High fever ; carbunculous swelling that is extremely painful on the neck near the larynx. (The hair on this swelling is soon bleached and stands on end. It is brittle and hard, therefore, it is called White Bristle). In the later stages of the disease, the following symptoms are prominent : grating and gnashing of teeth; laborious breathing; groaning; and convulsions. The diseased hogs die within a few days.

Treatment. - The general treatment is the same as for Malignant Angina. As a local treatment, destroy the carbuncle as soon as possible by burning it with a red hot iron or by applying concentrated acid. The treatment must be prompt and the animal must be given close attention to secure the best results.

Practically all hogs and animals have worms. .Hogs eat the remains of dead animals which contain the worm eggs. These soon develop inside the hog the same as bots in horses. Constipation and improper digestion make it very easy for worms to live in a hog's stomach. Once a hog gets sick it is hard to cure.

Symptoms. - Stomach pains, scratching extremities, rubbing up against posts and barns or buildings while giving a pleasant feeling is also done in trying to rid the intestines of the clinging worms. Often worms are passed in the feces and clusters come forth.

Treatment. - Cleanse the bowels with cathartics and injections and then give a tea made from boiled pumpkin seeds. This is one of the finest remedies. The whole system seems to respond and practically every worm is removed. Then the proper thing is to keep everything clean. Tobacco is given by many farmers while salt and ashes are kept in the pen by others. Turpentine added to the swill is always recognized as one of the surer reliefs for worms in all forms and all animals. A teaspoonful in a gallon of liquid food will do good. Give several times a week, is the usual statement.

From 5 to 8 grains of calomel and 3 to 5 grains of santonin for every hundred pounds live weight. Make a powder of this mixture large enough for from ten to fifteen hogs. Divide the herd into bunches of this number. Place ground feed in a trough and sprinkle one of the powders over the feed. Dose the hogs in the morning after keeping them off feed over night. A remedy for worms in hogs is to feed nothing for one day and then to a 100-pound hog give a tablespoonful of a mixture of half turpentine and half raw linseed oil or castor oil. The dose for smaller pigs should be proportionately reduced. Always keep a mixture of wood ashes and salt where the hogs can get it, using about a half bushel of ashes to five pounds of salt. Cob ashes will do just as well.

Apply one teaspoonful of carbolic acid in a teacupful of water to the wound or cut several times daily, or put one teaspoonful of coal-tar disinfectant in a teacupful of water and apply to the wounded part each day.

Give doses of from three to four ounces of linseed oil to open the bowels and from 3 to 6 grains of calomel to keep them open and to act upon the liver.

Florence Forbes

Member National American Poultry Association Executive Committee ; Secretary-Treasurer Alabama Branch ; First Lady Granted a License to Judge all Varieties of Poultry; Judge at San Francisco, Birmingham, Montgomery, Memphis and many other large shows.

Authors' Preface

book has been written for the purpose of furnishing the farmer and poultry raiser with a convenient and effective source of information by the use of which he may greatly multiply his poultry profits.

Very few realize the magnitude of the poultry industry. There are about 600,000,000 fowls in the United States, or about 100 for each farm. These are valued at about $250,000,000. The egg production is nearly 2,000,000,000 dozen annually, valued at nearly $500,000,000. In Canada the poultry is valued at about $10,000,000 and the annual egg production at about $20,000,000 - an industry second only to the corn crop and one which each year amounts to enough to build two Panama Canals, or nearly $700,000,000. However, there is an exceedingly large and ever-increasing demand for poultry and poultry products, both at home and abroad, for which reason the poultry business has become so profitable that no farmer can afford to lack the latest knowledge necessary to substantially increase his profits. Of all live stock, the poultry flock is most often poorly cared for and misunderstood. The material used in this book is entirely practical. In its preparation an earnest effort has been made to lay the foundation for a still greater poultry industry.

It is the opinion of the author that if the farmers realized the value of this great industry and the profit in it, when managed in up-to-date methods, they would give the matter far more attention. Surely if every farmer knew that the average hen is only half producing, if he knew that this three-quarter billion dollar industry could, with a little more care and management, be made into a one and a half billion dollar industry, he would feel like doing his part and make his share of the profits.

I have long realized the great need of education among farmers on the scientific breeding, feeding and handling of poultry. The farmer should fully realize that the hen bred for a purpose is just as much a necessity on his farm if he would get the best results from his poultry as is the bacon- hog in his pasture or the cow bred for a purpose in his barn; that the pure bred hen is no more subject to disease than the speckled hen of his forefathers. While the latter hen may possibly lay 60 eggs a year, the modern hen bred for egg production will more than double that yield with no more care. Artificial incubation and the scientific selection of breeds adapted to a specific purpose have wrought wonders in the development of the industry.

It has been my aim to gather together the most practical knowledge gained in my own experience and1 put it in such plain, simple language that everybody would enjoy reading it, and in such a form that the points may be easily found. Although 'getting a large number of these ideas from my own personal knowledge and experience, I have freely read and consulted the works of other well-known authors, and here I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to the following men for the splendid ideas obtained from their writings: Prof. James E. Rice, of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; Prof. James Dryden, Jr., of Oregon State Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon; E. J. Wortley, E. P. Clayton, of Mississippi State Agricultural College, and Miller Purvis, Sunnycrest Farm, Wendell, Idaho. Besides the works of these authors, I have had access to the leading poultry journals of the country, the splendid information put out by the Government and the International Harvester Company; also that gained from the farmers and poultrymen from all over the United States and Canada. It might be well for me to state to my readers that I answer inquiries every week from poultry raisers all over the country. These inquiries are answered by personal letter as well as through our large papers and journals.

Because of my many years of practical experience on my large poultry farm here at New Decatur, Alabama, where I am now actively engaged in the poultry business, and from the many inquiries I have received from the farmers and poultry raisers all over the country, I have had the opportunity to discover the practical needs of the average poultry raiser. For this reason and on account of the insight into the needs of the industry gained as a judge at many of the largest poultry shows of the country, as a speaker for the different poultry associations and as a contributor to many of the leading poultry journals, I am perhaps as well qualified to speak upon this subject as any poultry raiser in the country.

It is with the hope that I may not only make the farmers realize the money to be made from poultry when given proper care, but that I may also show them how to make those profits, that I have undertaken the writing of this book. The average farmer will find that by applying the information given in this poultry book it will increase the yearly yield of his flock at least one hundred percent. He will find single recipes that will save him enough to make an excellent profit on the investment; if he uses them as I have done in my own experience. If these things are used and prove as beneficial to the farmer and poultry raiser as they have to me, I will feel justly rewarded for my work in getting this information together.

Poultry Raising 273-327

Classification of Breeds, Weights in Pounds, Selection of a Breed, Poultry Houses and Fixtures, Housing, Points on Cleaning a Poultry House, How to Disinfect a Poultry House, Poultry Droppings, Egg Production, Table of Feeds, Egg Rations, How to Make Hens Lay in Winter, Nests, Moulting, Raising Chickens, Eggs for Hatching, Incubation, Capons and Caponizing, Systems of Feeding, Dry Feeding, Mash Feeding, Miscellaneous Feeds, Quick Fattening, Cramming, Marketing Poultry and Poultry Products, Killing and Dressing Chickens, Points on the Care of Eggs, Grading Eggs, Home Preservation of Eggs, Methods of Preserving Eggs, Marketing, Simple System of Poultry Accounting, Yearly Egg Record, Monthly Summary Sheet, Yearly Summary Sheet, Balance Sheet, Inventory Sheet.

Diseases Of Poultry 328-355

Standard Weights of Turkeys, Housing, Breeding, Practical Suggestions for Selecting Breeding Stock, Care of Breeding Stock, Turkey Nests, Hatching, Rules' for Care of Setters, Raising Poults, Valuable Points for Successful Turkey Raising.

Diseases Of Turkeys 376-380 Duck Raising 381-393

Housing, Breeding, Incubation, Brooding, Feeding Methods, Feeding Ducklings, Feed for Breeding Ducks, Laying Ducks, Preparing for Market, Valuable "Don'ts" in Caring for and Feeding Ducks.

Weights In Pounds

General Purpose Breeds. - General purpose breeds are of medium size, fairly active, have medium sized combs and wattles and endure cold weather well. The hens of this class can be made to produce a good quality of brownshelled eggs, and they are usually good setters and mothers. As one has to make frequent sales of flesh in the shape of surplus cockerels and hens, the carcass as well as egg production should be considered, however, it is generally agreed that the egg is of more value commercially than the meat. One of the general purpose breeds is best for the farmer because he usually desires both meat and eggs.

Egg Breeds. - Egg breeds are of small or medium size, have large combs and wattles, very active, ranging through the fields when given their liberty, quick to mature and needing good houses in cold weather, more than the larger breeds. They fatten slowly. The hens often begin laying when but four and one-half months old and when matured produce an abundance of large, white-shelled eggs. They are usually non-setters or at best but poor setters, and rather poor mothers. It is usually necessary to keep a few fowls of some other breed to keep up the stock if natural methods of incubation are employed. Their pure white eggs are valuable for the market.

Meat Breeds. - Meat breeds are large in body and especially suitable for the production of large males. They are domestic, slow and sluggish of movement, with little desire for foraging, easily confined by low fences, quite slow to mature, and will readily take on weight when liberally fed. The hens are persistent setters and rather indifferent layers of large, brown-shelled eggs. This is the kind to handle if meat production for the market is desired.

Ornamental Breeds. - Ornamental breeds as a rule are not as well adapted for farm purposes as the breeds of the other three classes, as they are not highly esteemed for eggs or meat.

Strain More Important Than Breed. - Too much importance must not be attached to the breed, for the breed is not as important as the particular strain. The tendencies of a certain class can be changed by proper breeding. One should breed for the particular result wanted. For instance, a meat breed can be made to increase its laying by proper lineage and careful attention.

Pure Bred Stock Best. - Best results are obtained from pure bred stock for that means a uniformity of products. Pure bred fowls will make a greater profit than mongrels if given the same care and proper marketing is done. You should get stock from some one who has developed a strain bred to lay if it is eggs you want and a strain bred for meat if you desire to market your fowls as a main issue. The average poultryman is not usually very interested in the ornamental points, but the time seems to be coming when utility and fancy will be represented in the same fowls. Utility breeders are taking more interest in fancy points and fancy poultry breeders are taking greater pains in breeding laying strains.

Location. - Drainage and Southern Exposure. - Select an elevation with natural drainage away from the building. A gentle slope facing the south is most suitable. Other things being equal, this will be warmer and dryei If a southern exposure cannot be obtained, a southeastern is preferable 1 southwestern. Fowls prefer the morning to the afternoon sun.

to a clay soil. The former is more easily kept in a sanitary condition and drains more readily. If the soil is not naturally dry, it should be made so by a thorough under drainage.

Sunlight and Dryness. - Select a light and dry place. Sunlight is a great germ destroyer. A poultry house should not be built in a hollow where cold air settles.

Temperature. - It is well to build it in the lee of a wind break for protection. Keep the lowest probable temperature in mind as the comfort of the fowls is the main consideration. Depend on ventilation to let the heat escape.

Give Hens a Home. - The hen should not be just housed - she should be given a home. Rather than ha.ve the building damp, cold, dark or full of mites, it should be clean, light, cheery and comfortable. As Professor Rice of Cornell says : "The singing hen is the laying hen." The hens will not sing unless you keep them comfortable and happy.

Make House Convenient. - Save labor and you save money. Everything that aids you in lessening the amount of labor in caring for your flock will increase your profits. Do not build the house too far away from the other buildings. Make it of easily cleaned material. Have dropping boards, a place for surplus feed, handy nests and a barrel close by for manure. Have dropping boards and roosts readily removable to make cleaning easy - all to save time.

Make House Comfortable. - Allow at least two cubic feet of floor space for each fowl. Never build a poultry house more than seven feet high in front and five feet high in the rear. It must be low to be comfortable for the hens. The hen is a great heat maker. Her temperature averages about 108° and a flock of one hundred hens will throw enough heat from their bodies to keep the temperature safe even if the thermometer goes below zero.

Make House Light and Dry. - Let plenty of sunlight in the house as it is the best germ destroyer in the world and poultry will not do well if housed in dark, gloomy quarters. Have a good ventilating system and dry floor to make the house dry and comfortable. Have the floor higher than the ground surrounding it. If a house is built warmly and has a glass front, it gets hot during the day and cools off quickly at night. Such a house is always damp because there is no circulation of air to dry out the moisture which condenses on the walls. The partial open front house is conceded to be the best for most sections. Cold does not hurt hens but they are injured by sudden changes of temperature. If the thermometer drops below zero, muslin curtains can be stretched across the open windows to prevent the hens freezing their combs. Such curtains keep out cold, snow and wind but permit the air to pass through, keeping the house dry. When muslin is used, allow one square foot of muslin placed on the south side to every 15 square feet of floor space in houses of 15 feet in width. If the house is ten feet wide, use one square foot of muslin

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Keep House Ventilated but Prevent Drafts.-Fresh air is good for hens but drafts are injurious. Remember that chickens cannot endure sudden changes and easily catch colds. An open front poultry house, with the north east and west fides closed prevent drafts and furnish plentv of good fresh air.

Keep House Clean. - To have the house sanitary and cheerful, it must be kept clean. Have boards to catch the manure at night, keep clean litter on the floor and clean the chicken coop thoroughly at least once a month. Clean the dropping board at least once a week in summer.* If a dirt floor is used, remove the litter often enough to keep it dry and clean. If one gets the habit of cleanliness he. need have no fear from poultry diseases.

-An earth floor is best. Earth Itself is a disinfectant. The flodr should be raised above the outside surface by putting in other dirt and packing it down well. Bricks may be used around the lower outside to make a wall to retain the extra dirt in real cold, climates. A half-inch mesh of steel wire under the dirt makes best guard against rats. Concrete floors are not desirable ai they are nearly always damp.

Keep the House Free From Vermin. - Keep the poultry house clean and it will not be infested with lice and mites. Cover the nests and roosts with kerosene or kerosene emulsion once a month during the spring and summer to eliminate them. The best preventatives are sunlight and cleanliness.

House Need Not Be Expensive to Be Good. - A good house does not necessarily mean an expensive house. A shed made of posts with straw for sides makes a. good house but this kind is hard to keep clean.

2. Fresh Air. - Fresh air should be secured by ventilation rather than by increasing the amount of cubic air space thus giving more space than necessary for the convenience of the attendant.

3. Intensive vs. Colony System. - More birds can be kept per floor area under the colony than on the intensive system in mild climates where the hens have free range throughout the year.

11. Rats. - Prevent them from getting in by sinking a wire netting all around the poultry house Dig a foot ditch around the house and line the inside bank with wire netting, one inch mesh, one foot wide, and replace the earth. The wire should be wide enough to reach one foot below the lower edge of the wall if the house stands off the ground. The use of a brick, stone or cement foundation sunk one foot into the ground will prevent rats from getting in when an earthen floor is used.

13. Board Floor. - A board floor is better than an earthen one if the location is damp. If used, build high enough to permit the air to freely circulate beneath.

Not every poultryman of experience even, knows how to really clean a poultry house. The first thing to do is to remove all the litter and loose dirt which can be shoveled out. Then give the floor, walls and ceiling a thorough sweeping and shovel out the accumulated debris. Next play a garden hose, with the maximum water pressure which can be obtained, upon floor, roosting boards, walls and ceiling, until all the dirt which can be washed down easily is disposed of. Then take a heavy hoe or roost-board scraper and proceed to scrape the floor and roosting boards clean of the trampled and caked dressing and dirt. Shovel out what has been accumulated and get the hose into action once more and wash the whole place down again thoroughly and follow this with another scraping.

Next, with a stiff-bristled broom thoroughly scrub walls, floors, nest boxes, roost boards, etc. After another rinsing down and cleaning out of ac- cumulated dirt, let the house dry out for a day or two. Then make a searching inspection to see if any dirt can be discovered. If so, apply the appropriate treatment as outlined above. If, however, everything appears to be clean, the time has come to make it really and truly clean by disinfecting. To do this it is necessary to spray all parts of the house or thoroughly wash with a scrubbrush. Wet with a good disinfectant. This should be done at least twice, allowing time between for it to dry.

First. See that the house is perfectly clean by following faithfully the instructions given above. Where the garden hose is not available, use instead a broom or a scrubbing brush.

Second. Fumigate. Before fumigating it will be necessary to provide accommodations for the fowls. Usually these operations take place during mild weather, when it will not hurt the birds to be shut out of the house for eight to ten hours. The closing up need not be done until along towards noon when most of the laying is over with. Should there be other houses, shed or coops into which the hens can go to lay, the fumigating can be done at any time.

In case the disinfecting is done during cold weather, extra precaution should be taken in caring for the hens. If they are laying, do not expose them to sudden changes. Usually, however, when conditions are such that it is necessary to do this house-cleaning in the winter time, very few eggs are forthcoming and it is not a question of keeping up the egg yield, but of getting the house properly disinfected. When the hens are removed, close up the house as tight as possible and light sulphur candles. Let them burn four or five hours or until they are exhausted. The house then can be opened and in half an hour the rest of the disinfectant should be finished.

Third. Thoroughly disinfect by the use of good lice paint, applied with a brush or sprayer. Paint the roosts, drop boards and nests very thoroughly. Be sure the liquid gets into all the cracks and joints of the roosts. Miss no place where the fowls go or where the insects may hide. Follow this with some of the good, coal-tar preparations sprayed over the entire surface of the inside of the house. Take pains to get into every corner.

Now that the house is clean, this spray should be used once a week throughout the summer and once a fortnight during the winter. To do this is important, because it is a simple matter to keep a poultry house clean after it has once been thoroughly cleaned and properly disinfected.

Fourth. To make a complete job, follow the foregoing treatment with a whitewash brush and your house will be as clean and healthful as hands can make it. The whitewashing will depend upon the time of the year and the accommodations for the fowls, but if possible have it done before they are allowed to enter the house again. A good whitewash, one that will stick and not rub off, is made as follows, or in these proportions :

The quantities given are sufficient to make nine or ten gallons of- whitewash. If only part of the whitewash is needed, the balance can be kept for future use. Should a smaller quantity be desired, the proportions can be cut down to suit.

Directions. - To properly make the amount of whitewash above mentioned, two vessels are needed, one holding at least ten gallons and the other holding half as much. A small barrel and a tub or any water-tight vessel will answer very well.

1. Slake the lime in the barrel, using two or three gallons of water for two pecks of lime. 2. Cover the barrel. 3. Dissolve the salt in water, strain the brine and add it to the slaked lime in the barrel 4. Boil the rice flour for ten minutes in a small quantity of water 5. Dissolve the glue in a double cooker or water bath and avoid scorching. 6. In the tub mix the whiting with about five gallons of hot water. 7. Add to the whiting mixture in tub the boiled rice and dissolved glue. Mix thoroughly. 8. Pour mixture in tub into the barrel containing slaked lime, stir well until thoroughly mixed. 9. Cover barrel to protect from dirt and let whitewash stand for a few days, when it will be ready for use. 10. This whitewash should be applied hot if best results are to be obtained. Heat it in any kettle or other metal vessel on a stove or suspended over a fire.

Fifth. Before allowing the fowls to return to the clean house they themselves should be made clean by a thorough treatment for lice. It is a good plan to go over them with some good insect powder or powdered sulphur before removing them from the house, ind again on putting them back. Dust the powder well into the feathers of every one and allow no sickly birds to enter the clean house.

A first class lice powder can be made by mixing 5 parts of Naphthalene flakes with 95 parts of some good carrier such as a cheap talcum powder that can be purchased for 5 to 10 cents a pound.

Sixth. Remove and destroy all wooden feed troughs, and provide new ones. If these are made of galvanized iron they can be kept clean with little trouble. Galvanized or earthernware drinking vessels must be thoroughly cleaned by scalding and scouring. If the old ones are not in perfect condition it is much better to destroy them and to provide new.

1. Slake about ten pounds of quicklime in a pail with two gallons of boiling water. Cover the pail with burlap or cloth and allow it to slake one hour. Add enough water to bring the whitewash to a consistency which may be readily applied. Adding fou-r ounces of carbolic acid to each gallon of whitewash increases its disinfecting power.

Second. Dissolve two pounds of common salt and one pound of sulphate of zinc in two gallons of boiling water. Pour second solution into first, then add two gallons of skim milk and mix thoroughly.

Poultry droppings are very good fertilizer as they are rich in sulphate ammonia, kainit and high grade acid phosphate. One hundred birds running at large on an acre should have added, in six months, to its fertility the equivalent of at least one hundred pounds of high grade acid phosphate, two hundred pounds of sulphate of ammonia, and sixty pounds of kainit. The droppings should be saved during the winter. Twenty-five hens will produce in six months three hundred seventy-five pounds of fertilizer from the roost droppings alone. As a top dressing for grass, poultry droppings are exceedingly valuable because they contain a large amount of nitrogen in the form of ammonia compounds which are nearly as quick in their action as nitrate of soda. However, droppings must be taken care of if they retain their value because the gaseous contents soon escape. There are several chemicals, each of fertilizing value in themselves, which can be added to the droppings now and then with good effect, both in making the air of the henhouse more wholesome and in stopping waste. They are: gypsum or land plaster, kainit, cheap potash salt, acid phosphate. Each one of these chemicals forms a compound with the ammonia as fast as it is set free from the original combination. Plaster often forms a lumpy, dry mixture if used in large enough quantities to stop the ammonia but kainit and acid phosphate make a moist, sticky mass. Never use wood ashes or slaked lime as neither of these combine with the ammonia but forces it out of its compounds and takes its place. It is also well to add dry meadow muck or sawdust besides the chemicals. It would require about one-half peck of either of these absorbents besides about eight pounds of acid phosphate or kainit to the weekly droppings of twenty-five hens when scraped from the roosting platforms. In case one desired a balanced fertilizer for corn or some other hoed crop, he could use equal parts of acid phosphate and kainit instead of either alone.

Egg Production

Fertile Eggs Spoil Easily. - Fertile eggs cause a $15,000,000 loss every year in the United States alone. They spoil quickly. A fertile egg contains the germ from which a chick develops. This development starts whenever the temperature is above 70 degrees. Fertile eggs cause "blood rings" and "black rot" which spoils them for market.

To Prevent Loss Dispose of Roosters. - The rooster does not help the hens to lay. He merely fertilizes the germ of the egg. It is not necessary to keep a male bird in order to produce eggs. Hens lay just as many, if not more eggs when there is no male in the flock. To have good eggs in hot weather for food and market, kill the roosters as soon as the breeding season is over.

Breeding for Egg Production. - The strain is more important than the breed. A pullet from a strain not bred to lay will not be a good layer no matter how well fed she is. One must develop a laying strain. Select your stock from a strain bred to lay. Select your stock from breeders of known excellence as layers. Also look to the male bird. A rooster that has come from parents of medium production can not produce a high producing individual when crossed with even the best of hens. The early maturing stock will contain the high producing bird.

Cull Out the Old Hens. - It is seldom profitable to keep hens for laying after they are two and. one-half years old. Not that they will stop yielding profit but younger fowls will yield a greater profit. Many poultrymen who make a specialty of winter egg production keep nothing but pullets. They dispose of the one-year-old hens before it is time to put them into winter quarters.

Time Breeds Begin Laying. - Yearling hens will not begin laying much before January first and older hens not until later. November and December eggs bring the high prices. Laying breeds should begin laying when about five months old ; general purpose breeds when about six months and the meat breeds at seven or eight months.

How to Select a Laying Hen. - A good laying hen has bright eyes, the comb is bright red and larger than the average of her breed; neck is long; the breast is broad and somewhat receding from top to bottom; the back is long and wider at the hips than shoulders ; she has a deep abdomen ; the lower line being lower than the lower line of the breast; legs are wide apart and the tail well spread. Examine the pelvic bones. These are the two rather pointed bones which can be felt in the rear of the hen's body just below and at each side of the vent. The pelvic bones of a good layer are wide apart. If the points of these bones are close together the hen is not laying and she is probably not a good layer. The hen may be considered a good layer if three fingers can be laid between the points of these bones. A good layer shows the pelvic bones well apart even when not in full lay. When the bones are close together and difficult to press apart, the hen is generally a very poor layer. High producing hens molt late, they have pale shanks at the end of the laying season and are heavy eaters.

Bad Traits Are Inherited. - While the chickens are maturing and their distinguishing characteristics are asserting themselves, be on the lookout for bad characteristics and weed out the undesirables. The bully is pressing a tendency that was born in her. She interferes with the contentment of the flock and keeps up a continual state of excitement. This affects the laying and health of the other hens and she should be dealt with drastically.

No Extra Roosters. - Extra roosters take room and feed and yield no profits. Sell or kill them. The hens will lay just as well, or better, without them.

Keep One Breed. - A uniform breed means uniform products and uniform products bring better prices. Such a flock is easier to tend. It is more attractive and you will give it better attention. Breed from the best you have.

Feeding for Egg Production. - The problem of feeding is of great importance. It should be considered carefully for not only the general health of the birds, but also the economy which promotes success depends upon it to a large extent. This subject should be studied with common sense for there are no hard and fast rules which apply to every case. On should consider the general environment and price of feeds in determining the rations. Hens must be given balanced rations if they produce results. If the ration is properly balanced the hens will make a good profit, but if the ration is improperly balanced they will be kept at a loss. If the hen has considerable range, grain is all that need be supplied during the summer months. In the winter, and also if confined in summer, everything must be provided. It is false economy to expect them to pick their living from the leavings of other stock. Many farmers admit that they feed their hens nothing during the summer. In so doing, they are saving feed but losing money. A productive hen requires from 70 to 80 pounds of feed a year. If she gets only 40 or 50 pounds, she will simply satisfy her body requirements. She will not lay eggs. The scantily fed hen is a poor investment.

The nutriment in the feed of laying hens serves two purposes; first, to furnish heat to the body and repair waste ; second, to supply the egg-making materials. Only the surplus over what is needed for the body is used for egg production so it is important to feed in sufficient quantities to induce this production. To produce eggs one must have healthy vigorous stock, and feed the material from which eggs are made.

Table Of Feeds

Plenty of Water. - Since 74 percent of an egg is water, it is very necessary to keep plenty of good, clean water before the hens at all times. Running water is best but if this is not available, keep the water in vessels fresh.

Antiseptic in Water. - It is sometimes well to add enough permanganate of potash to make it a wine red. This will act as an antiseptic in preventing the transmission of disease through the water and will help keep down intestinal parasites.

Keep Water Warm in Winter. - In winter, as in summer, the first thing a fowl does when it leaves the roost is to hunt the water pan, and nearly the last thing before going on the roost is to drink. If the water is icy cold they will not drink much, but if warm, they will drink plentifully. If the weather is freezing, warm the water several times a day.

Keep Water Clean. - There are several ways of keeping the water clean. One way is to punch three or four nail holes near the top of a syrup bucket or tin can, fill the can or bucket with water and turn it upside down in a shallow pan or saucer. The water oozes out no faster than the chickens drink it and is always fresh and clean. (See illustration for other schemes for keeping water clean).

Protein. - Protein is the most costly but the most valuable part of any ration. It is that material in feed which goes to make nerve cells, brain matter, tendons, skin, feathers, claws, beaks, intestines, vital organs, and, when combined with lime, bones and muscle. It is found in the animal feeds such as : buttermilk or sour skim milk, beef scrap, ground bone, cut bone or wild game, some legume such as clover or alfalfa leaves, insects and bugs during the summer, offals from butchering. One need exclude no animal food from the ration. Hens relish and make good use of all of them. Feed them raw, when possible, unless they are from an infected animal. Better results are obtained by using cheap fats like beef scrap than by feeding higher priced animal meats. Beef scraps make an exceedingly cheap source of food for chickens and should be bought when they can be had at reasonable prices.

Alfalfa. - It has been found by the Utah Experiment Station that alfalfa (lucern leaves) fed in winter has the same effect on the eggs that grass has during the spring and summer, that is, it gives the yolk the natural rich orange color. It is a fine winter feed.

Skim Milk. - Skim milk contains a great deal of protein. When given to the birds either as a drink or in the form of a wet mash, it will double the egg yields, according to the Nebraska Experiment Station. Let it sour before feeding as sour milk keeps the hens healthy. It may be given as a drink, compounded with beef scraps or animal meal, or it may be mixed with ground grain or meal. When added to a meal mixture use about two pounds of milk to one of meal. The most economical gains are made in chickens when skim milk is fed both ways, i. e., as a drink and added to the grain mixture. Skim milk is also perhaps the best food for producing the desirable white skin in chickens. (Commercial meat scrap is of equal value and may be substituted when milk cannot be obtained).

Insects and Bugs. - In the summer the hens get protein by eating insects, bugs, grasshoppers and such things. During the winter months they must be given feeds to take the place of these, such as: cut bone, meat scraps and animal meal. The scraps and meal may be mixed with the mash but green cut bone is usually fed by itself. Feed one-half to three-quarter pounds of meal or meat scrap to twelve to fifteen hens.

Cut Bone. - Hens under like conditions, with fresh cut, green bone added to their feed, will lay nearly twice as many eggs in the winter season and a third more right in the summer season than they will without it. Cut bone is fresh bone shaved into thin pieces by a bone cutter. If the bone has considerable meat on it all the better for the meat and bone together is excellent for producing eggs. Cut bone must be obtained regularly as it cannot be kept sweet long. If it is not sweet, bowel trouble may result. When first beginning to feed, give one-half pound to twenty hens, then double the amount. Meat is likely to be loosening to the bowels at first so the hens should be watched carefully and not fed too much. When they are used to it it may be kept constantly before them.

Fats. - Ten percent of an egg is fat. Fat is made from starch. Grains contain a great deal of starch, especially corn. Wheat, milo, sorghum, buckwheat, are also fat-producing foods.

Corn. - Chickens can readily digest corn whether fed cracked or whole or as corn meal and whether fed moist or dry. If the grain is finely ground it is usually best to moisten it before feeding. Corn is fattening and heating. If too much is fed it will produce fat instead of eggs. It should be balanced with linseed meal, bone, meat, gluten, and nitrogenous feeds, for corn is deficient in nitrogen. If corn is fed to hens having plenty of exercise, that secure insects and green feed, much more satisfactory results will be obtained than when it is fed to the same fowls closely confined. It may be fed largely in cold climates during winter, but should not be fed much during the summer. One should be careful not to feed enough corn to make the hens too fat as they will become lazy and will not lay eggs.

Wheat. - Wheat is believed to be the safest grain to feed alone. It is too fattening when fed^alone but not as fattening as corn. When this grain is fed it, should be supplemented by some skim milk or meat feed to increase the amount of protein. Wheat is not as valuable for fattening as corn but is much better for growth.

Mineral Matter. - The 10 percent of mineral matter of an egg is lime. This is used for the shell. Hens can usually get enough lime in the sand and grit they pick up in the summer to supply themselves during that time, but in winter this element must be supplied. Crushed oyster shell, crushed bone, ground rock, sand, old mortar and fine gravel all supply lime. One of these elements should be kept where the hens have access to it at all times. Crushed bone is generally believed to be the best and oyster shell to be the most undesirable as it seems to injure the alimentary tract of the fowls. Feeding ground rock, ground bone or sand does not do this.

Green Feed. - Hens must have green feed to keep them healthy and in good condition and to make them lay. When the ground is covered with snow, green feed must be given them. Anything that is relished by the fowls is good. Cooked potatoes, cooked turnips, beets, cabbages, steamed clover, or alfalfa hay are fine for this purpose. In feeding vegetables hang them up high enough to make the hens jump for them. Exercise is good for laying hens.

Sprouted Oats. - As a protein or egg-producing feed, oats rank much higher than corn and contain more fat than wheat. Its high proportion of hull to kernel makes it bulky and unpalatable. Sprouting overcomes this difficulty, and also furnishes the green feed so essential. Oats can be sprouted and fed at 4 to 6 inches high more economically than roots or vegetables can be produced. The time required for the growth is short, the amount of succulent or green material is large and increased egg production is invariably the result. One hundred pounds of oats can be increased to 350 or 400 pounds of succulent feed.

Oat-Sprouting Cabinet. - Cabinet is thirty inches square and five feet high Wooden trays two. inches deep and thirty inches square are made to fit this rack and slide in and out on cleats nailed to each side of rack. Cleats are placed about eight or ten inches apart. Gimlet holes are bored in the bottom of each tray to drain off the water. Rack is placed in basement or cellar. Oats are soaked over night and the next morning they are spread out on the trays about one and one half inches deep. The oats are sprinkled each day. No artificial heat is used so there is no trouble from mold. In any case this can be avoided by stirring them on the second day. Oats are ready for use in about six days. This is a cheap and easy way to supply green winter feed. (See illustration.)

Variety is Important. - A hen likes variety and if she does not have it she will not lay eggs. Grain alone is not sufficient. She must be given different kinds of feeds so that she will relish each kind.

This mash should be put into clean, dry hoppers in dry sheds. If the mash is dry, the hens will not eat too much of it. They should have access to it at all times.

How To Make Hens Lay In Winter

Give the hens a dust bath. Laying hens must have their morning dust bath if they are to lay the maximum number of eggs through the winter. It is a necessary luxury for them. By its use they are enabled to rid themselves of mites and to remove all scales and dirt from the skin. Lice and mites do their greatest injury to the fowls at night, while on the roost. Instinctively they look for a place to dust in the morning. Do not force the hens to dust in the droppings or feed litter. During the summer they usually find their own dusting place such as the road or in the shade of trees and shrubbery, but in winter it must be provided for them. Nail an old grocery box in one corner of the house. Elevate it above the floor so that it will not become filled with straw or litter and put in six or eight inches of dusting material. A little slaked lime added to it would not hurt anything.

It is believed that there is no other one factor which contributes to the great total of bad eggs so much as poor nests. On most farms there are only about eleven nests for one hundred hens and these nests are improperly located and dirty. Such a situation means that 50% of the fowls must seek nests for themselves. This 50% usually seek places under the corn crib, straw stack, in the horse stable or out in the weeds, and these are the very places where there is an abundance of vigorous bacterial growth flourishing upon the moisture and warmth. As a result, when a nest full of such eggs is found, fifty to eighty per cent of them have already developed into seconds, blood rings and rots.

Many farmers think that even though good nests are provided the hens will not utilize them, that the hens prefer to choose their own nests. This is true in some instances. However, it has been found that on farms where one nest is provided for every four or five hens, 95% of the eggs are laid in them. Of course, the nests must be clean and free from vermin. It yields no profit to the farmer when the hens lay well but he is not able to find the eggs.

If the hens are to go into the winter in the best laying condition, they must molt early so that their new plumage will be grown before cold weather begins. Henry Van Dreser is the originator of the method for encouraging fowls to molt early. This method consists in feeding the hens very lightly for about two weeks to stop egg production and reduce their weight, and then feeding them heavily on feed suitable for the formation of feathers. This causes the hens to molt more rapidly and more uniformly and they enter the winter egg laying season in better condition than fowls fed continually during the molting period on an egg ration. The fowls should receive more nitrogeneous matter during the molting period whether the Van Dreser method is employed or not. The addition of linseed meal and more animal feed to the ration will assist in the production of a new coat of feathers.

Raising Chickens

Selection and Care of Breeding Stock. - It is necessary to have healthy, vigorous breeding stock to be successful in raising chickens. Put only the most vigorous and best grown birds into the breeding yards. Have each bird free from any serious deformity and full of life and energy. No bird should be used for breeding purposes that does not have a perfect record for health, neither should one be used that does not have good digestive powers, as they are likely to transmit these weak tendencies to their offspring. Chicks hatched from eggs of puny stock seldom get beyond their infancy, and when they do they amount to very little. Pullets are not usually as good for breeders as the year old hens, because they lay more eggs during the early winter and use up their vitality before the breeding season. One can often advantageously retain vigorous hens two to four years old in the breeding yard. In fact, hens are usually better than pullets for breeding purposes because they lay bigger eggs, and, since they do not lay as many eggs as the pullets during the fall and winter, they should be in better physical condition in the spring than pullets to give strong, vigorous, good-sized chicks. Choose a male bird that is young and active. The rule is to breed older males to younger females and vice versa. An early hatched cockerel that is well developed is generally satisfactory, or a two-year-old cock, or a good vigorous yearling may be chosen. Give the hens used for breeding purposes the best care possible, provide them with large runs and do not force them for heavy egg production during the early winter. This lowers their vitality and they will not be as good for breeding purposes. The hens should not be too fat, for fat hens as a rule will not lay many fertile eggs and chicks hatched from their eggs are usually weak. Do not let them get lousy. Use your lice powders freely. Provide a dusting bath in a dry place.

If breeders are confined, feed them a varied supply of meat, grains and green feeds and give them plenty of fresh air. The green feed helps to keep the fowls in good breeding condition. Free range is usually better than confinement in the production of hatchable eggs, as it is easier to keep up the vitality

Number of Females to One Male. - (For confined fowls) Light, active breeds, such as Leghorns and Minorcas under ordinary conditions, use one male to a pen of twelve to fifteen females. Medium-sized breeds, such as Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds, use one male to ten or twelve females. Heavy breeds, such as Cochins and Brahmas, use one male to no more than ten females. When twenty or thirty females are kept in one flock, keep two males. Allow one to run with the hens one day and the other the next. Keep the male not with the hens, in a coop. Mate the hens ten days before eggs are needed for hatching.

1. Gather the eggs every day. Do not let them get chilled. Keep them in a room where the temperature is between fifty and seventy degrees, if possible. A greater strength of germ and higher fertility is observed in eggs kept at a temperature of seventy degrees than those kept at a lower temperature.

6. Select uniformly large eggs for hatching as it is one of the quickest ways to secure uniformity in the offspring and increase the size of the eggs.

7. Clean the dirty eggs by rubbing them lightly with a damp cloth. Be careful not to rub off any more of the natural bloom of the egg than is necessary.

Number of Eggs to Hen. - This depends on the season, the size of the hen, and the size of the eggs. The average number for spring is thirteen. No more than eleven would be given the same hen in winter. After the middle of May she can handle fifteen. Give less than she can cover rather than more. If too many are given they may become chilled.

Testing Eggs. - Test each setting and remove the infertile eggs. This gives a better chance to those left. If several hens have been set on the same day and there are many infertile eggs, some of the hens can be reset. Test the eggs about the 6th or 7th day in a dark room or at night when the coop is dark. Hold the egg against the hole in the side of the box. This allows the light to shine through the egg and show1 its condition. An infertile egg is clear, while a fertile egg will show a small dark spot, a spider like formation having a center with blood veins or ligaments leading outward. This formation will float as the egg is turned. The infertile eggs may be used for cooking purposes.

Home-made Testers. - Take a large shoe box or any box large enough to go over a lamp. Cut a hole a little larger than a quarter in the bottom of the box so that when the box is placed over the lamp, the hole comes opposite the blaze. Cut a hole the size of a dollar in the top of the box to allow the heat to escape. If possible get the colored egg charts from the Poultry Division, Bureau of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, and study them in testing your eggs.

Magnifying Tester. - To make this tester only the following articles are necessary: Ordinary cardboard, oat meal box, round paper box about the size of a tomato can ; a few brass clinch rivets ; and a small handled magnifying or "reading" glass from three to five inches in diameter. Make as follows : Cut a slot down one side from the top of the box to within about two and one-quarter inches of the bottom. The slot should be just wide enough to admit the handle of the reading glass. Next cut a length from the smaller box open at both ends two and one-quarter inches long and slip it inside the larger box, (box with slot). Then put in the glass and another section of smaller box, open at each end. Make this section solid with the rivets put through the sides of the outside box. Make a small, smooth edged hole in the bottom of the box and blacken the inside. This makes the tester complete and a revelation.

Natural Incubation. - If setting hens are given proper care and are handled with a little system, they will produce a large number of chickens at a comparatively small expense. They should be given comfortable and convenient quarters in which to set. Nest boxes should be constructed so that they may be opened or closed when necessary. A good way to prepare a nest is to cut some sod three inches thick ; put this in the bottom of the nest box and cover it with a good thickness of straw or sweet hay. Put the nest in a quiet place where the hen will not be disturbed.

Insect Powder. - It is advisable to sprinkle both hen and nest with insect powder before setting her. This should be repeated once a week throughout the setting period. To apply the powder, hold the hen by the feet, head down, working the powder well into the feathers. Give special attention to regions around the vent and under the wings.

Testing Hen. - A hen should be tested before being set. To do this put her in a nest she cannot get off. Put a china egg or two under her. On the second day, toward evening, go quietly in where she is setting, leave some water and feed, open the front of the nest and let her come off when ready. If she returns to the nest after feeding, it is safe to put the eggs under her. The hens are less likely to become restless if the nests are darkened a little.

Care of Setting Hen. - If several hens are setting at the same time, care should be taken to see that they come off the nest just once a day to receive feed and water. If some do not care to come off they should be taken off and all of them should be put back on before the eggs have time to chill - say in 20 minutes in ordinary weather. If a large number are setting in a room, it is better to let them off four or six at a time. Examine the eggs and nests and clean them. Remove all broken eggs and wash soiled ones. Any soiled nesting material should be removed and replaced by clean straw. Dirty nests soon become infested with lice and mites and this makes the hens uneasy. If the nest is infested with mites, the hen will generally stand over rather than sit on the eggs. Many eggs laid in the late winter and early spring are infertile so it is advisable to set several hens at the same time. The eggs should be tested after they have been under the hens from five to seven days, depending on the color and thickness of the shells White shelled eggs are easier to test than brown shelled ones. The infertile and dead germed eggs should be removed and the fertile eggs put back under the hen. When the eggs are tested, it is often possible to put the eggs that several hens started under a few hens and to use the others. For example, forty eggs are set under four hens at the same time, ten under each. On the seventh day when testing we find that thirteen are infertile. This leaves twenty-seven to be reset. We put these under three hens and have the fourth hen to set over again after she has been setting only seven days. Much time can be saved in one's hatching operations this way.

Feeding Setting Hens. - Setting hens should be fed well. Their feed should be mostly whole grain such as wheat, oats and corn. They require food for their bodily maintenance. Very little meat or vegetable food should be given. The meat food would be inclined to make them want to quit setting to begin laying and the vegetable food would tend to loosen the bowels. Feed the grain in hoppers and supply fresh water in a clean vessel.

Taking Chicks from Nest. - Chicks should be taken from the nest about twenty-four hours after the first ones are hatched. They generally want to get out from under the hen and begin moving about when no more than a day old. This will often make the hen restless and cause her to leave the nest.

Incubators vs. Hens. - Incubators as a rule give better service than we think. Most people expect entirely too much from a machine. They read only about the big hatches as the failures are seldom printed. In comparing incubator hatches with those of hens, we forget the hens' failures. The average is not even kept in ^ind, so of course, we are disappointed with anything less than a 90% hatch.

There is no way of knowing just how many of the eggs set under hens hatch out, however, we believe that only about half of them produce strong chicks and only about half of those live to market size. If these figures are at all near the truth, a 50% incubator hatch should be satisfactory. Hundreds of people report 50 to 80% hatches throughout the season. Incubators are steadily gaining in popularity. People find that most of the trouble with incubators is due to carelessness in operation rather than to any imperfection of the machine. Since complete directions come with the machine, we shall not go into detail here but shall give you a few points to keep in mind when using an incubator.

Brooder

2. With good eggs and good oil in the lamp, the average incubator will perform its work without much outside assistance after it is properly started.

4. The cellar should contain no odors of decaying vegetables, should have a free circulation of air, and should not vary widely in temperature.

9. Disinfect the incubator each time before putting in the eggs. To do this, scrub it thoroughly with coal-tar disinfectant ; hot water and creosol soap, or with a solution of one gill of creolin in eight and one-half parts of soft water. Scrub each part thoroughly, especially the egg trays.

11. Disinfect the eggs by dipping them in a solution made of one gill of creolin in eight and one-half quarts of rain water. Make a new solution each time you have a new batch of eggs to disinfect. Allow them to drain before putting them into the incubator.

25. After the first shell is pipped close the egg drawer and do not open it unless for a very urgent reason until all the chicks are hatched.

27. It is but natural for the chicks to struggle and gasp when they first come from the shell as it gives them strength. Do not help them at this time.

28. When a very good hatch is coming off, the chicks will sometimes gather at the glass in front and pile up. To prevent this put a cloth over the glass and thus darken the machine. Never open the machine to take out a few chicks. Wait until hatch is over. Never take any out unless there is danger of losing some chicks.

30. "My best success has always been with a temperature ranging not over 102 the first week, then 103 to the time of hatching when I allowed the temperature to go as high as 105."

31. Follow the directions with your machine very closely as the manufacturer knows the way that that particular machine should be run to produce the best results.

6. Have the brooder regulated at a uniform temperature day and night. Low and irregular temperatures in brooders have caused more disease and deaths than any other one thing.

9. Crowding and huddling about the heater indicates a need of more heat. 10. When the chicks spread out comfortably at night, midway between the

13 Do not take the heat away from the chicks too soon. Keep the brooder heated until they are far enough developed that they do not go under the hover.

Care. - If an early maturity is to be obtained with chicks, it is necessary to give them a good start. They should be given outdoor runs on dry ground and grass as soon as the weather is pleasant. They should be kept moving and not penned up in a small space where exercise is impossible.

Ground. - Exercise is necessary. They can and should be made to exercise by putting rolled oats in fine litter. Chicks should be kept inside on rainy or damp days or when the dew is heavy on the grass. Dampness often causes leg weakness and bowel trouble. They should be kept free from lice.

Feeding. - Feeding is an important factor in the successful raising of chicks. For the first thirty-six hours no feed should be given at all as the yolk of the egg is absorbed, furnishing sufficient nourishment. The two systems in vogue for feeding chicks, as well as older fowls, are dry and wet feeding. The first is simpler and easier and beginners are usually more successful with this one. More care should be given in feeding chicks than in feeding older fowls because the chicks know less about what is good for them and they are liable to overeat.

1. Egg and Bread Crumbs. - A good feed for the first meal is hard-boiled egg - the infertile eggs from the incubator may be used for this - chopped fine, shell and all, mixed with three times its amount of stale bread crumbs or bread and milk.

2. Bread and Milk. - Another good feed for chicks is stale bread soaked in whole or skim milk. The milk should be squeezed out until the mass crumbles easily. This is excellent for the first week or so.

4. Green Feed. - Green feed must be given. If the chicks can get grass they will supply themselves but if not they must be given some that can be easily assimilated. Finely cut grass, onion tops chopped fine, sprouted oats, lettuce leaves or boiled vegetables are all good.

5. Grain Feed. - It is well to begin grain feed when the chicks are a few days old. Feed it in hoppers. Never feed any wet, sloppy feeds as it causes bowel trouble. Several good cracked grain feeds are given. Two parts "pinhead" oatmeal, two parts wheat, one part corn, one part millet seed and one part rice.

6. Egg and Rolled Oats. - A good feed for the first two or three days is made by boiling the infertile eggs for about one-half hour and mixing these together with about six times their bulk of rolled oats. The eggs are put through a meat chopper.

7. Egg and Corn Bread. - A good feed for newly hatched chickens is corn bread with egg in it. Until they are a month old, everything fed to them should be cooked.

8. Cracked Corn, Millet Seed, Cracked Wheat, Oatmeal and Beef Scrap. - Another mixture is: 4 pounds cracked corn, 2 pounds millet seed, 10 pounds

Frequency of Feeding. - Feed young chicks a very little at a time. They should be fed at least five times a day, once early In the morning, then just before they are put away for the night and three times in the intervening period. It is well the first two weeks to feed three meals of soft feed and two of hard, and after two weeks to feed two of soft and three of hard. Do not give any more moistened soft feed each time than the chicks will clean up. The feed must be kept sweet and clean as sour feed causes looseness of the bowels and dysentery. The chicks will grow faster at first if a part of the feed is ground than if just cracked grains are fed. The frequency of feeding may be decreased to three times a day after the chicks are six weeks old.

Animal Feed. - If the chicks are in the open on free range in the spring and summer they pick up bugs and insects which will help supply their animal feed. If they cannot get these abundantly, it must be furnished in some other form. The hard-boiled eggs will be sufficient when fed to the youngest chicks but later on they should be given green cut bone and beef scraps.

Water. - Cool, fresh water should always be kept before the chicks. See that the water basin is clean. This will save one much trouble later. If the chicks are allowed to get very thirsty and then fill up on water it may give them bowel trouble.

Milk. - Milk is fine for young chicks ; it is highly nutritious and promotes growth, taking the place of other animal food to a certain extent. Skim milk is excellent; if whole milk is fed it is better to dilute it with one-third or one-half water.

Charcoal. - Charcoal is not a necessity but it is a fine thing to keep them in good health. It is also well to give charcoal, if the chicks are not thrifty, before changing the feed or giving medicine. Most people keep charcoal before the chicks at all times.

Exercise. - The chicks should be induced to exercise from the very first. Their grain feed should be fed in the litter to make them scratch for it. If their green feed is a cabbage or other vegetable, hang it up. This will make them jump. Exercise promotes growth and health.