Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-01-13
BILL NYE TO HIS SON.
He Relates His Experience in the Chicken
Industry.

mother and me. We are neither of us real
well, and yet l suppose we are as well as folks
at our time of life could expect to be. Your
mother has a good deal of pain in her side all
the while and am off my feed more or less
| in the morning. Doc has fixed me up some
! condition powders that he says will straighten
lie out right away Perhaps So Doc has
Strengthened oat good many people in his
| time wish had as many dollars as he has
strengthened out people.
Most every spring I've had to take little
landelion root, limbered up with gin, but
this year that didn't seem to get there, as the
| boys say. l fixed up dost of it and took it
day and night for week till wore that old
dandelion root clear down to skin and bone,
but in ten days my appetite was worse than
ever and had head on me like 2-year-old
| colt. Dandelion root never served me that
way before and your mother thinks that the
Goodness is all out of it, may be. It's the
same old dandelion root that I've been using
for twenty years, and believe when you've
| tried thing and proved it's good you orient
to change off.
tried to get your mother to take dose OF
It last week for the pain in her side. Fixed
up a two-quart jug of it for her, but she can't
bear the smell of gin, so had to take it my
self Dandelion is great purifier of the
taking this dandelion root, for an hour or two
feel as if my blood was pretty near pure
enough feel like new man.
You know l wrote you last winter, Henry,
that was going to buy some new1angled
hens in the spring and go into the egg bust
ness Well, sent east in March for a couple
of fowls, one of each sect. They came at ~
per pair over and above railroad charges,
which was some 81 35 more on top of that.
l thought that as soon as the hen got here
and got her things Off and got rested she
would proceed to lay some of these here high
priced eggs which we read of in The Poultry
Keepers Guide and American Eggist. But
she seemed pensive and when l tried to get
acquainted with her she would cluck in
croupy tone of voice and 60 away.
The rooster was no doubt finelooking
brute when he was shipped but when he got
here he strolled around with preoccupied
J air and seemed to feel above us. He was
poker-dot rooster, with gray name and tail,
and he was no doubt refined, but l did not
think he should feel above his business, for
| we are only plain people, who are accustomed
to the self-made American hen. He seemed
bored all the time, and l could see by the
way he acted that he pined to be back in Ere
mont O.. having his picture taken for The
Poultry Keepers Guide and American Egg
ist He still yearned for appreciation. He
was used to being much made of, as your
mother says, and it CALLED him to enter into
our plain, humdrum home life.
l never saw such naughty rooster in my
, life. Actually, when l went out to feed him
in the morning he would give me cold, ar
rogant look that hurt my feelings L know
, I'm not what you would call an educated
man nor a polished man, though claim to
> have a son that is both of said things, but
. hate to have a rooster crow over me because
he has had better advantages and better
breeding than have. So there no love
b lost between us, as you can see.
Directly noticed that the hen began to
have spells of vertigo. She would be stand
ing in a corner of the hen retreat, reverting
to her JOYOUS childhood at Fremont, O., when
/, all at once she would "fall senseless on the
, earth and there lie prone upon the sward."
She would remain in this comytoes condition
, | for between five minutes, perhaps. Then she
would rally a little, slowly pry open her large,
e mournful eyes and seem to murInur, "Where
e | am Ir
: could see that she was evading the egg
r issue in every way and ignoring the great OBJ
. ject for which she was created. With the
{ ability to lay eggs worth from 81 to 50. 10 per
dozen delivered on the cars, could plainly
see that she proposed to roll up this great tai
ent in a napkin and play the invalid act. l
do ut disguise the fact, Henry, that | was
mad. l made large rectangular affidavit
| In the inner temple Of the horse barn that
this poker-dot hen should never live to say
that had sent her to the seashore for her
health when she was eminently fitted by ma
ture to please the public with her lay.
therefore gave her two weeks to decide on
b whether she would contribute a few of her
: meritorious articles OF insert herself into a
chicken pie.
II She still continued naughty to the last
Z moment So did her pardner. We there
: fore treated ourselves to 50 dinner in April.
then got some expensive eggs from the
u effete east They were not robust eggs
They were layed during a time of great de-
Il preston, judge. l do not say that the eggs
were bad, but say that their instincts and
= their inner life wasn't what they ought to
have been.
# In early May bought one of those inky-
u baters that does the work of ten setting hens.
e hoped to head off the hen SO far as possible
; simply purchasing her literary efforts and
e editing them to suit myself. l cannot endure
e the society of low-bred hen, and a refined
IS hen seems to look down on ME, and so
r though if could get one of these ottymatic
inkybaters l could have the whole process
8, under my own control, and if the blooded
g. hens wanted to go to the sanitarium and sill
e, around there with their hands in theiI
Al pockets while the great hungry world Of
W traffic clamored for more spring chickens
is fried in butter they might do so and be dog
lie goned
r Thereupon l bought one of the medium
re size, two-story hatchers, and loaded it with
r eggs. In my dreams could long pro
/ cession of fuzzy little chickens marching out
e. of my little inkybater, arm in arm, every day
n or two. l was dreaming one of these dreams
ii night before last, at midnight's holy hour
lie when was rudely awakened by gallon OF
ID cold water in one of my ears l arose in the
Of darkness and received squirt of cold water
e through the window from our ever watchfu
a and courageous fire department. | opened
W the easement for the purpose of thanking
them for this little demonstration, wholly I'M
1t solicited on my part, when l discovered the
Sc hennery was in flames. / went down to assist