St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-01-21
HEN CULTURE.

Practical Views of "A Local Fancier.
What little can say in regard
practical poultry raising may not be c
much moment, as what l may say
probably but a repetition of what liza
been said and written before, and, toe
as / am nothing more than an amateu
. at the business and on a small scale a
that.
NV balance sheet of ellen Account
as faithfully kept for the year closin!
Jan. l, 1856, shows the gross receipt
from an average of IA hens kept 70
A the year, to be $46.07, or an averag
8 of 1920 per hen. Gross expenses TO
year, which includes cost of everythin;
they eat, with the exception of sou
milk and scraps from the table, amount
ed to 1874, or an average cost pc
hen of SI28, leaving net balance o.
Il S2S.I3, averaging $2.Ol net per hen.
Il could give an itemized account, but
5 suffice it to say that they produced
1344 dozen eggs and III pounds dress
showing, nothing more than what can
largely be improved upon.
1t may be against the doctrine of
fancy poultry fanciers, but 1 hold to
the idea that one can get better prac-
teal and profitable returns from cross
bred poultry than the pure-bred. For
instance, the last few years 1 have
4 made it point to cross with full
blood cock, one year with Light Brah-
ma, the next with Buff Cochin, last
season with the Langshang, and L am
now about to order a Wyandotto,
thinking that one can by keeping with
i'm the larger breeds, and thus have a
high cross of half blOOds all the time,
" obtain both a good strain of layers and
q marketable poultry when dressed. Still
do not hold that they or any of the
large breeds can compete in egg pro-
s tluctiOn to the more prolific layers of
S the smaller breeds. But for profitable
s. D ess the combined qualities of the larg-
II fowls, whether cross or pure bred,
i BAR more than fills the deficiency that
hay exist in the quantity of eggs pro-
Fl luced.
That continued breeding in is detri
81 mental to flock in more ways than
D ne is an essential and proven fact
nd is the principal reason that pure
81 y red stock, many times, is not the
70 70
greater or less extent be kept 'breed-
ing in" Still the breeders of thorough
breds must be credited with doing much
good, and by getting Il thoroughbred
eOckerel one will receive lasting ben
PITT therefrOm.
Now, word in regard to diet, the
Essentials of which all know who have
had experience in poultry feeding.
feed hot mash in the morning season
ed occasionally with salt and cayenne,
ind whole grain at noon OF as many
Varieties as possible, the more the bet
tier. Feed of some kind of green food
or meat scraps two or three times
week, or what is better keep both be-
fore them constantly as also some kind
of lime, shells or cracked bones, also
water or milk, the latter much prefer
red; also gravel and wood ashes, the
more Goals the better, if not the gravel
for them. Try pounded white crock
cry and see how greedily your hens
will pick it up in preference to a feed
of corn. They should by all means
have u place provided for sun and dust
bath, if a chance for only one of the
two have the latter. Of course the
foregoing method for feeding is intend
ed mainly only where your fowls are
confined and in the winter, for when
he fowls run at large in the summer
nuch of the care can be dispensed
with.
Such a course of feeding if persist
ntly followed will make the hens lay
there is any lay in them, provided
Ou have a comfortably warm place.
PERSISTENT care and variety of feed an d
nOugh of it is wherein lies the secret
pr success i'll egg production in the
winter more than in the breed.
Summerville, Vt.