The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-11-30
POULTRY YARD.

| Tomatoes are wholesome food for hens,
and they Ike them, too.
| An Alabama poultry fancier has obtained a
beautiful fowl by cross between guinea
and turkey.
Good care, under all circumstances and at
! all times, is a prime necessity to success in
breeding fowls.
We believe that no undertaking has ever
been SO universally embarked in in this
| country as has been the voca'i ion of our fra
ternity-to wit, the cultivation of domestic
poultry. In large or small way almost
everybody is now engaged in it.
The careless breeder will soon have his
hands full Of chickens that have the roup or
cankar, if he has not now. Fowls that have
nice warm houses and proper care will proba-
bly, not be troubled with this. 1t is brought
on generally by exposure to the cold and
wet.
Good poultry in our market is to-day as
great luxury as ever. Eggs command as
good average prices for consumption compared
with other eatab.es-take the year through
this season as during any previous one.
Nob"dy has surplus of fresh eggs they do
not wish TO eat Or set, but can dispose of
them at full rates.
Poultry requires plenty of house room, for
crowdins them on their roosts, or having lily
built, dilapidated or damp houses is conducive
to disease. If, on account of breeding more
than variatu lo,
ground, or because you have fruits and vege-
tables you wish to keep the birds from, you
| have to keep the fowls in restricted quarters,
by all means give them all the exercise room
you possibly can, and there is far more danger
Of giving them too little than too much.
The number of fowls kept ought to depend
not only Oh the accommodations for them,
but the experience of the breeder Exren-
sive hosues are not necessary are ill advised
when profit is the object. But shelter of
sufficient kind should be supplied. A certain
amount of warmth and comfort is required
not only for the preservation of life, but for
the laying on Of flesh. The growth of chicks
is pereeptibly retarded by exposure to varia-
BILE weather and chilling winds.
Pure air is needful to fowls, as it is to the
4 well-being of humans. Plenty of it too, in
alkseasons, either cold or warm. The birds
sil4nld not be exposed to violent drafts, how
j eva Ventilation is best affoded the fowl
house at the top or through openings near
the caves. All such apertures should be so
contrived as to be closed up at night and in
stormy weather. But in the middle of the
day, for two Or three hours, in cold weather,
and in the milder seasons all day long there
should pass afree current of fresh air through
the top Of the house.
We must provide, this fall, for the requisite
green food our fowls need during the later
months of winter, when grass sods, turf, and
summer or fall green's are not to be had. A
store of this in the shape of cabbages, ruta
baga turnips, rowen, white beets, ETC., may
be economically slowed away for future use
at this season of the year, when such vegeta
bles are plentiful in market or about the
farms, and while they may be purchased at
cheap rate, comparatively.
Most hens will lay eggs, more or less, a,
certain seasons of the year. But while they
are engaged IN this work, we must not forget
that we can assist them materially by giving
them good nourishing- varied grain and
vegetable feed that will go to aid in creating
eggs more abundantly than will the errone
Gus and careless mode of feeding that some
persons adept, by stutng them with dry
dead substance that has no peculiaringredient:
in its composition, such as IS necessary t.
=, help the fowls to produce what wa mos
desire.