Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-25
FARM AND ORCHARD.
HOW POULTRY RAISING CAN BE MADE
TO PAY GOOD RETURNS.
Demand for Fruit Trees-DeIayed Work
Kitchen Cabinet-Thinning
Apples.


poultry raising. Though much of it is
written for cold climate and does not
apply to this neighborhood, it contains
many valuable suggestions to those in the
business in this State. Mr. Hunters arti-
Gle is as follows;
The farmer who gets eggs in the cold
months of winter achieves an undoubted
success with his poultry. The fowls are
confined to the house by the snow and
are benambed by the cold. They must be
encouraged to take exercise, that digestion
may be stimulated and good health pro-
NOTED. They can not get grass or other
green food as when at liberty, and a substi-
fute must be provided. They can not get
insects and worms, and animal food must
be provided to fill the place. They can
not bathe themselves Ia the warm soil in
the lee of the hen-house, and dust bath
must be substituted.
FIRST, EXERCISE.
One good method of stimulating exer-
else is by making the fowls work for their
grain food by burying it two or three
inches deep in the sand Tor graveD of the
floor of the pens, and letting them scratch
it out. This is easily done with spade or
hoe, dividing the ration into three or feur
parts, turning up little of the ground in
as many places, throwing in the grain and
putting the earth back again. This is the
natural way for fowl to get its food, and
natures way is usually the best.
Some farmers put dry leaves, finely
CT. fr-c Oh
the floor of the hen-house. This sets the
fowls to scratching, and merry time they
have of it. This dry litter will collect
good deal of the weddings dropped during
the day and should be raked off about once
a week, and added to the compost heap in
the barn cellar, a fresh supply being given
to the hen-pens. Stir the surface of the
ground with the garden rake or hoe every
time me change is made, loosening it up
well and bringing fresh sand or gravel to
the surface.
If litter like that described above can
not be readily obtained, scratching can be
promoted by simply stirring the surface of
the ground with garden rake or hoe and
bGrying the grain. 1t is very easy if one
has the disposition to try it.
Four or FIVE years ago l was out driving
one bright winter day, and turned into the
yard of farmer, with whom l had slight
acquaintance, who kept forty or fifty good
fowls.
Elbow are your hens laying?" | asked
Hardly any" he replied; 81 get only
one or two eggs in a week"
'What's the trouble ?"
II don't know. Come and have a look
at them"
We went down into the basement Of a
large carriage and Toulouse and there
were the hens, moping around on the
roosts, utterly Indifferent to the idea of
eggs or anything else. The quarters were
excellent, warm and sunny, open to the
south, and cut off from the cold northwest
winds. He told me he gave them plenty
to eat, and even brought out his coal ashes
and dumped them down on the ground for
them to scratch over. The earth floor was
buried two or three inches deep with coarse
clinkers. Asking him to fetch me a gar
den rake, / carefully raked off space Of
six or eight feet square in the center of the
room, and then we withdrew to the door to
watch Within three minutes every bird
was down off the roosts, scratching away
and as happily busy as fowls need be.
Telling him to 60 in with shovel and
wheelbarrow and clean out all those clink-
ers, and after that bury their grain food
lust below the surface of the ground,
babe him good day, and drove on. About
three weeks afterward that farmer drove
over to my house to thank me for the
lesson, and said he was getting over dozen
eggs day "and more comingp
SECOND, GREEN FOOD.
Vegetables boiled, mashed fine and
mixed into the mash, which is the morn
ing feed with me, are great help as egg
producers. The refuse (unmarketable) po-
tatoes are excellent for this purpose, and
any vegetables, turnips, carrots, beets, ap-
piles, onions, anything, will be eaten and
Probably the small potatoes are
the best and most convenient for steady
diet, and almost every farmer has guam
tity of them, which should be his chief re-
lance.
Some uncooked green food should be
given, and for this cabbages, turnips, car
rots and beets are the best. Hang a head
of cabbage about a foot ana half from
the ground in each pen. The hens will
peck it to pieces in an hour or two, get
ting a supply of green food and considera-
BILE exercise at one and the same time.
Some farmers give cabbages and turnips on
alternate days with excellent results. The
turnips, beets and carrots should be cut in
halves, and the hens will est them all out
to the rind.
Clover roweu, if chopped fine in hay
cutter and then steamed in a close vessel,
makes very superior green food. Clover
Is rich in two elements, nitrogen and lime,
that are much in demand by a fowls sys-
them. Itis rich in the elements required
for the white (albumen) and the shell of
the eggs, and if plenty of it be provided
no better food can be given. Substitute
clover for grain for one of the feeds, and
the result will be larger number Of eggs
at a lower cost, and the fowls will keep in
better condition.
THIRD, ANIMAL FOOD.
Ground beef scraps and 'desiccated" fish,
mixed with the meal-and shorts of which,
with the cooked vegetables, the morning
mash is made, are my chief reliance. The
trimmings from butchers shop can usu-
ally be bought for FIVE cents a pound, and.
make an excellent E,eat food. 1t is my
practice to boil these, because they are
then so much easier chopped and fed the
meat-liquor in which the trimmings are
cooked Tor any corned meat or tongue
boiled, goes into the morning mash, SO all
the goodness goes TO the hens. Some
poultrymen buy Sleeps pIucks aud hang
them up in the pens for the fowls to pick
at, while others deprecate the practice,
and say it is filthy and noxious. [ cannot
but think my practice of cooking and chop
ping the meat is preferable.
FOURTH, CLEANLINESS.
Cleanliness Of nests and roosts is abso-
Iutely essential for the good health of the
fowls and to promote laying. Cleanliness
promotes laying by promoting good health.
a sick fowl cannot lay eggs any more than
a sick man can work. Keep Biddy in
good health and well fed, but not overfed,
and she will Law eggs as naturally as water