The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-02-11
AGRICULTURAL.
Farm Talks.
BY HENRY REYNOLDS.
Egg Productions i'm wiuter.

N'NNe'SA4 AZ @S9rs(
Winter is the season of scarcity of eggs
and then is the time that it is most desirable
tohave the hens lay. When eggs are thirty
to thi.ty-fve cents per dozen, then it pays to
have the hens lay well. If hens are proper
ly cared for, it is no more difficult to make
them lay well in winter than in summer.
There are the best reasons why hens DO not
generally lay well in winter. On many
farms they have 10 apartment provided for
them, but are allowed the run of the barn
and pick up what they can fHd. Or if they
are well fed, they are kept in the cold barn
floors, where they obtain very little if any
sunlight, and perhaps have no water except
what they obtain in the form of snow. Hens
generally lay we'll in summer. They are
then kept warm, have the run of the door
yard AMI fields, where they pick up plenty
OF insects are we'll supplied with water and
obtain all the green food, such as grass and
the like, that they need. Now if in winter
we can bring about the conditions which
surround them in summer, we can make
them lay then.
WARM, SUNNY APARTMENTS NEEDED.
The first requisite is to provide warm,
sunny quarters for the hens. If the place
they are kept in is warm enough so thai
water will not freeze, that will be sufficient
ly warm, although when well cared for, they
will sometimes lay well even where water
freezes in their room during cold days.
There should be plenty of windows on the
south side SC as to admit the rays of the sun
freely. The hen house should be dry, and
the floor covered with dry gravel and earth
so that the hens can have bits Of gravel
whenever they need them. A dust bath of
ashes, exposed in large shallow box,
should also be provided to keep the hens
free from vermin and if that is not suffici-
Gent, kerosene should be applied to their
roost.
ABUNDANCE OF SUITABLE FOOD
Suitable food in sufficient abundance and
variety is the next requisite for successful
egg product N. The food must be such as
will afford the needed materials out of
which eggs can be formed The com posi-
ton of eggs viii afford some guide as to the
PAOPSA Ai'1Uo Va 4OoA W odpPAss 1hC SSS VI
the domestic fowl, when deprived OF its
shell, consists of 7la parts of water, fourteen
parts of albumen or fesh-forming material,
thirteen parts of fat, ETC., and one and one
fourth parts of phosphates etc, The shell
of the egg is composed principally of car
Donate of lime or chalk. Wheat contains of
albumen or flesh forming material twelve
per cent, three per cent. of fat, seventy of
starch, two of bone formers and twelve of
water. Corn contains eleven per cent. of
flesh formers, eight Of faJ, sixty-iye of
starch, one Of bone and two of water. Bran
contains sixteen per cent. of flesh formers,
four of fat, forty-three of starch, six of bone
formers. These articles it will be seen cor
respond sufficiently near in composition to
to that of eggs to render them appropriate
food if supplemented with meat and bone so
as to increase the flesh formers. A great
variety of food is beneficial It is well to
change from one kind of grain to another
occasionally. After they have been fed on
corn for while, it is well to feed oats or
wheat or buckwheat for change. 1t is bet
bOA W ApON tICLu WAllb wv VIII Cdb up kiSdl
three times day, than to keep food by
them ali the lime. 1t is well to feed a mix
ture of corn-meal, middlings and wheat
bran, equal parts, scalded early in the
morning, giving what will be all eaten up at
once. At noon another feed of the same
may be given, or whole grain may be fed
towards night feed of whole grain should
be given SO that it will afford them ample
sustenance through the night. Some feed
mixed grain and keep box by the hens al
the time, and their hens do well. Water
must be kept constantly by them. It is
quite surprising how much water twenty
hens will drink in day. AS large part.
over seventy-one per cent of the egg is COM
posed OF water, an abundant supply is abso-
lutely necessary in order to have the hens
lay well. The water should be clean and
supplied every day. Hens sometimes fall
to lay just on account of not being supplied
with water
COARSE OR GREEN FOOD NEEDED.
A supply of coarse or green food is essen
tial to the best results in egg production
When allowed to run at large in summer
hens eat considerable quantities of grain anC
other green food. In winter they require
some substitute for This. Second crop ha!
will do to take the pace of grass, and SHOULD
be kept in rack continually by the hens
Some may perhaps think hens will not ca
hay. Let them try it aud see. Some secon(
crop hay as clover is greedily eaten by them
Cabbage heads suspended just within easy
reach OF them will be beneficial. Pounded