The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-01-09
TOPICS FoR TIE FARM.
Management of Poultry.-Cass

Management OF fOultry.-CasseIIs
" Domestic Dictionary" remarks that
management has almost everything to
do with profit from poultry, and must
vary with circumstances, though few
cardinal rules must always be observed.
As a general rule, farmers and country
people do not feed their poultry enough,
and people in towns too much. They
should always be fed twice day, morn
ing and evening, with as much as they
will eagerly run after if thrown In
small quantities, but no more. The
consequences of too little food to birds
expected to produce matter 80 rich in
nutriment as eggs must be obvious; on
the other hand, to give them as much
as they can eat is not only wasteful, but.
in confinement will stop laying and
cause ill health. The second rule is
never to keep old birds, but to regularly
kill and draft them off when two and
half years old, replacing by young
pullets. This is rule few attend to;
but as old hens lay few eggs, the need
of it is obvious. Other points must de-
pend on place and circumstance. Even
on a farm the object may be eggs or
chickens. For eggs, one of the Spanish
varieties will usually answer best; and
regular feeding, selection of young
birds and careful collection of the eggs
will always yield good result-the
hen-wife, of course, seeing to it that as
early as possible every spring she
matches enough chickens to supply the
place of old hens drafted off, If chick
ems are the object, the great aim is to
get them out early in January, or even
December; such birds take much care.
Early sitters are obtained by the early
. Matched pullets of the preceding year,
and the chickens need very frequent
feeding, dry shelter, and food at night
after dark; but the profit when well
managed is great. In more usual
proceedings, the main thing is. to
keep the chickens clean, and to feed
! regularly at least four times day with
! good meal made into crubly paste
aud little tail wheat at night. This il
where farm poultry often fails, the
chickens being sighted in this way, anc
often given only sopped bread and bar
ley, which for them is almost worthless
though barley is good food for fowls
e The manure should be carefully gath
: cred every week, and mixed with eartl
: for use on the farm. Many people, b,
J good management, make a good prof
4 from a few fowls in the bottom of
J. I town garden, besides the indesoribabl
IS luxury of new-laid eggs, and the occu
S patton the fowls give them. For thi
: object, also, some of the Spanish kind
will usually answer best, the Leghorl
= variety often doing exceedingly vel
r A wooden house, thoroughly wind an
: weather proof, say four feet square, an
- a covered run the same depth and til
. width of the garden, will keep half
dozen such fowls.
Corn as Feed for Herses.-We d
= not share the feelings of many of ou
= friends touching the relative merits G
: corn and oats as feed for horses. Ol
Il John Harper attributed the splendi
) success of Longfellow and his compa1
= ions in fame, in a great degree, to tn
l. corn diet on which he fed them. Th
u old Kentuckian said, "To our notio1
re nothing is SO Strengthening to the raet
W horse as good old yellow Ohio corr
g We give ours just about twenty eigh
Y good, round ears every day, when
training, and when they don't eat
II quite all up, we give them little MOI
lie exercise to strengthen their appetite
ID and that makes them run from end t
n end" Certain it is that the owner an
ID trainer of such horses as Endorse
70 Lyttleton,. Longfellow and scores &
other celebrated ones, should hay
re known what he was talking about. A
es to ourselves, we are inclined to thin
lg that good, bright corn might be fe
10 during our cold, New England winte
ne to much greater extent than it
e. with profit We doubt if oats make
sufficiently generous diet, considerir
~ the sudden and violent changes of OF
al atmosphere, and the severe work
We which our driving horses are frequent
be put. 1t is fact that nearly all hors
in prefer corn to any other form of dl
ly food. Our idea is that ears of groul
corn, cob and ali, and fed with crack
Iu or mashed oats in the ratio of two
aSs one, is, on the whole, the best diet tn
o0 NS can be fed to stock during the wint
I,s IH,S and spring months. 1t does put t
nn l.1 shine into their coats, and bring ba
~ the coltish spirits wonderfully.