The Portland daily press., 1869-01-02
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND
Saturday Morning, January Q, 1869.
Eggs in Winter.


Soon as frost comes, and often before, eggs
Degin to grow scarce and the price to in
crease, and to such an extent that the poorer
classes can't afford to use them. Now is
there no remedy for this evil? We believe il
is fact that some poultry raisers educate
their hens to lay in winter as well as in the
spring and summer. And why not? The
prolific qualities of the hen have been increas-
en- to great extent, and fresh eggs are as
easily obtained for Christmas and New Years
as for the Fourth of July. But the question
arises, how can this be done? Make the hens
believe that the fall and winter months are
struck out of the calendar. But how can
such a change be produced? How can they
be thus educated? How can their instincts
be deceived? We answer that system of
warmth combined with stimulating food will,
in some good degree, produce the desired re-
suit. Warm houses, with large glass win
dows facing the South 10 let in light and heat,
plenty of stimulating food such as meat, fat,
&C., with grain and other things, will produce
wonderful change in hens. These fowls
are very fond of a variety of food, and they
must have it in order to do we'll and be prof
liable. They will scratch all day for such a
variety if an opportunity is given them. We
all know how exceedingly industrious they
are when they have the liberty of the barn
yards, gardens and fields. "A hen with sin
gle chicken will do as much scratching as one
that has dozen following her. 1t is their
nature to be always at work. Early to roost
and early to rise is their motto, and good
one it is and worthy of being practiced by
beings who move on higher plane ann
boaso of rational, immortal souls. "Chanti-
cleer, close to partlet perch'd on high," never
fails to give the signal that the dawn is near,
and as soon as it is light enough to see a
their daily work and with an industry, too,
worthy of great praise. We like them be-
cause they are such early risers. The old
cock will crow and the young one learn.
To show that chanticleer will crow at the
approach of day under almost any circum-
stances short of death itself, we will relate an
incident that occurred at Mount Ztcon few
summers ago. There were several Bostoni-
ans, both male and female, at that romantic,
summer resort. They were full of life and
animation, and were much in the habit of
practicing tricks upon each other. One even
ing rooster was caught, placed in nail
cask and deposited uder the bed of a worthy
grocer, whose wife was party to the trick.
This grocer was not an early riser AMI loved
his morning nap. Long before the sun gild-
ed the mountain tops, chanticleer, true to his
nature tuned up his voice and began to crow
most Justify. The clarion notes sounded
clear and shrill through the bed-chamber and
aroused the sleeping grocer.
"Wife, what's that?" he asked, in an ,agita-
ted voice. But before his better half had
time to answer, the rooster crowed again
more loudly, and the grocer sprang from his
bed, while his wife buried her face in the pill
low to hide her laughter. Again chanticleer
raised his shrill voice, regardless of his con-
finement in his homely cage. Now light be-
gan to dawn upon the mind Of the grocer as
well as upon the mountain tops, and he
thrust his head under the bed, seized the nail
cask and threw it out of the window. The
cask rolled from the piazza to the ground and
was stoven in pieces; but chanticleer was lib
Grated from his prison and greeted the morn
in most joyous tones.
But to return from this depression las a gen.
eral rule, our farmers do not treat these crea-
lures with that care and attention they de-
serve, and such neglect is a severe drawback
upon the profits of keeping them. As an ar
ticle of food the hens egg possesses one great
advantage over most other edibles, 1t offers no
chance for adulteration, and however one may
desire to increase the price of other articles
by spurious mixing, he can't adulterate the
contents of the eggshell. There it is in a
most beautiful and compact form just as ma
| ture made it, and no device or ingenuity of
man can change it for the better or for the
worse.
1t is true that eggs will contract flavor
from the food taken by the hen, and so do
meat and milk. AS proof that eggs will
contract favor from hens food, we recall a
fact that happened some years ago in a coun-
try village. 1t was observed that eggs bought
1
| from particular dealer had a very strong
and rather disagreeable taste of something
druggy. Investigation revealed the fact that
druggist, who lived on the opposite side of
| the street, used to throw out from his door
| certain bitter herbs, after having made de-
| coctions from them. The hers took fancy
to the bitters thus unintentionally provided
for them, so that their produce, for while,
| presented novel combination of fresh egg
and matutinal tansy.
This shows that in order to have well fla
vored eggs care must be taken in the feeding
OF hens. 1t seems to US that our poultry
breeders can make their business more profit
able than it is now by taking proper care of
their fowls during the winter months. We
repeat, give them such warm, welLlighted
rooms in the winter that they will think it is
spring time and continue to lay their eggs.-
Give them variety of meat, and that in
their crops will give them the impression that
they have been eating worms and insects. In
this way farmers may have good fresh eggs
for their own tables through the winter, and
some for the market. The expense of all this
is triaing compared with the income.
AGRIcoLA.