Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-27
FARM AND ORCHARD.
PROFIT TO BE MADE BY RAISING
GuOD POULTRY.
Honey Bees-Cultivation of Currants
Various Other Interest
ing Matters.

Dodson Smith writes the Rural C,lifor-
aian an interesting account of personal ex-
perience. He says:
began six years ago with flock of six
hens. On January l, 1888, / had 24O
head of poultry. During the month of
January | sold 5Sa dozen eggs for SIT OF
and S. 0S worth of fowls. February | sold
SO dozen eggs for SIS AZ and $40 so worth
of fowls. March / sold 2l5 dozen eggs for
SAL 90. April sold $50 dozen for S35 10.
May | sold 227 dozen for 500 and $13 %
worth of fowls. In June | sold 160 dozen
of eggs for $50 80 and Sl4 IS worth of
fowls In July | sold 120 dozen eggs for
$27 80 and 81 90 worth OF fowls In august
| sold III dozen eggs for $50 IS and 81 05
worth of fowls. In September | sold A
dozen eggs for S14 80 and 81 20 worth of
fowls. In October j sold % dozen eggs for
81 10 and 81 worth of fowls. In Novem-
Der | sold 222 dozen eggs for 81 80 and
81 40 worth of fowls In December sold
81 dozen eggs for 81 II and 81 worth of
fowls. Total number of dozen eggs sold
during the year, 1859 for $27S Al, or a
little over an average of % cents a Dozen
The highest price received was "a cents a
dozen in the early part of January, and
the lowest 16 cents in March and May.
Amount received for fowls sold was S57 SO,
making the sales amount to $685. so. In
crease of flock $40, making total income
$345 So
No account was kept of the fowls and
eggs consumed in the family, it being
calculated that this and the manure would
offset the time spent in caring for the
poultry. The total amount paid out for
feed and NIsbet's poultry tonic amounted
to SlSS ~, leaving net profit of Sl57 SO,
which, divided by the number of fowls at
the beginning of the year-20-gives net
profit per fowl of 60 cents. Allowing $50
for interest, wear and tear on the invest
ment of corrals, ETC., it leaves net income
of 100 per cent. on the fowl investment
My fowls were kept in confinement most
of the time during the year, in focks of
80, in corrals of three-feet wire fencing.
They are largely of the Brown Leghorn
variety, but am crossing with Langshan
cocks. | feed wheat at night mostly,
and bran mash in the morning with
mashed boiled potatoes. Twice week l
give good feed Of cracklings scraps
from the lard manufactured, and also
Nisbet's poultry tonic, linseed meal and
bonedust. In the middle of the day l
gave them all the fresh beets or cabbage
they would eat, not forgetting to supply
them with plenty of teeth in the shape of
small shells, gravel and broken glass. 1t
is surprising how eagerly they will gobble
down bits of broken glass. If you cut
open the gizzard of fowl that has eaten
glass, a week afterward, you will
find the rough, sharp edges all
nicely polished off. am satisfied from my
experience that broken glass, or small,
sharp-edged flint gravel is far superior to
shells fer every purpose to which fowl
can put such things. They are of no use
except to cut their food with, and when
they become too dull for that purpose they
are expelled from the system. | am never
troubled with roup or other diseases, and
my fowls never roost in the trees nor in
drafts. Their roosting- places are built as
tightly as possible on three sides, with
plenty of open space on the fourth side,
but entirely free from all drafts. Perfect
cleanliness is essential. l keep down the
mites by spraying the inside of all houses
with boiling water in which l put one
ounce of crude carbolic acid to the gallon
of water, and | keep the roosts we'll covered
with crude petroleum, such as we get in
the foothills. / hatch my chicks in an
incubator and mother them in a home
made brooder that is entirely satisfactory
/ feed my little chicks very little soft
food. Begin with cracked wheat, and
after they are week old feed whole
wheat. Give plenty of water and green
food, little meat, tonic powder, bonemeal
and linseed meal twice week, not for
getting plenty of good sharp gravel.
Had my fowls had free range, as
some have, | might have saved $3.50 of
the money l paid out for feed, which
would have brought up the profit to
S3O7 50, or net profit per fowl of 81 %.
HONEY BEES.
Honey bees are not natives of America.
When John Elliott translated the Bible
into the Indian language, there was no
| word expressive of honey and wax. There
is a native species in Brazil, but destitute
of a sting, and different from the bee we
have. The traditions of the Indians con-
cur with ours, that the honey bee came
from Europe, and they regarded it as the
harbinger of the white man, and believe
that as fast as it advances the red man
must retire.
How early bees were introduced into
this country is not definitely known They
were imported into Florida by the Span
iards previous to 1853, and appeared in
| New York 1898.
There were many flowers on this CONT
nent before the introduction of the honey
bee, but they were of kind not dependent
upon it for fertilization, like the clovers
and fruit trees. At the first glance, it APP
pears that the apple blossoms need nc
further agency for their fertilization, as
the pistils and stamens are in the same
| flower; but on a closer examination we
perceive that the stigma comes to maturity
before the anthers, and bees passing from
Bloom to bloom carry pollen from the
older to the younger, and secure fertiliza-
ton, without which no apples can be pro-
duced. There are very few insects so early
in the season as when apples bloom, and
honey bees have to be depended upon
almost entirely for their fertilization.
Strawberries, blackberries and raspber-
ries have stigma for each little rounded
mass which an insect has visited, or there
would be no perfect fruit. To produce a
single perfect berry, from one hundred to
double or triple that number of independ-
ent fertilization must be accomplished, and
this is done by bees walking over the bloom,
seeking honey, and carrying pollen to the
stigmas.
1t would insure more perfect fertiliza-
ton of fruits and flowers if the bees were
more evenly distributed throughout the
country and not confined to specialists.
In England large class of bee-keepers,
known as cottagers or farm-hands, keep
from two to a dozen colonies in the old
fashioned strawskeps. In the fall they
take up all the swarms, either brimston-
ing the bees or returning them to their
! old stands. Horticulturists, agricultur-
lists and orchardists should feel kindly to-
wards these industrious insects.-Prarie
| Farmer
| CULTIVATION OF CURRANTS.
| AS rule currants are not cultivated at
all. They are planted in some out-of-the-
way place, or along fence where at best
they can be cultivated or hoed only on one
side. They are pruned spasmodically, or
not at all, and soon become tangled mass
of weeds, dead wood, moss-covered trunks,
or branches with stunted growth OF
shoots on top and the feeblest cluster OF
buds on the two-year-old wood. At best
1 g l,,.l l.