Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-20
Farm AND ORCHARD.
HOW TO MAKE HENS PAY-REMARK.
ABLE CROP CONTEST.
Coarse Food for Cattle-curing Green
Olives by Using Lime-Largest
Farm in the World.


Farm in the World.
Can money be made by keeping poultry2
That is the question, and / shall try to
prove that fair profit can be made, says q
Newton, Mass. correspondent of the Bos-
ton Herald.
To start with, you must have a good
flock of the breed you prefer, good hen
houses and good judgment. One reason
that so many people give up poultry in dis
gust is because they crowd and overfeed
their hens, or else they don't clean out
their houses often enough. A complete
failure is the result, and another fool is
added to the list who will say: Poultry
keeping for money is a failure, as we have
tried it,
Another reason for failure is in the feed
ing of corn to a laying flock of hens.
1t will soon fatten them so that no
eggs will be laid, and the man will go
right along and keep feeding corn, and
wonder why he gets no eggs.
Don't feed corn to laying hens, but feed
oats and bran. Feed bran mixed with
table scraps. and don't feed yellow meal.
Never feed bad meat, unless you want
to lose few hens, but feed sound, good
food.
In winter give plenty of meat and green
food, and always give lukewarm water in
the morning.
Have the hen-house built well, and be
sure no roofs leak; in winter it ia a good
plan to have the hen. house full of leaves.
The hens will scratch among them, and
this will keep them happy and they will
lay.
Have a platform under their roosting
places, and clean the droppings off every
morning, and not once year.
Good nests can be made out of orange
boxes. Change once in a while and make
new nests.
You need not whitewash hen-house
oftener than once year if you have kept
everything clean and neat.
Be sure and give clean, fresh water every
morning, as this is of the greatest import
ance.
Leghorns and lapgshans are the best
breeds, and if you are going to keep only a
few hens, have half of them leghorns and
half langshans. They are both fine layers,
and the leghorns are said to never set,
though last summer l had pure leghorn
set and hatch three chickens.
Some poultry men advise feeding hard
boiled eggs to young chickens, but know
that by this method more harm is done
than good. Feed anything soft and never
feed soft food on the ground unless you
want smell that will kill your chickens.
In case your chickens have lice, never
put lard or oil on them. Last year had
some chickens that had few lice. so put
some lard on them. They soon died, and
when later on l was troubled this way
again used kerosene, and killed some fine
white Plymouth Rock chickens. ] exam.
ined the chickens, and found that the oil
had been SO powerful that it had eaten
away the skin around the wings and neck,
and so l had killed both the lice and
chickens with the oil.
Always use insect powder and you will
kill all the lice and no chickens.
Ny chickens, from the time they are
Matched until they begin laying, get more
hard food than soft. Wheat and corn are
ems brought up on this diet always live and
are healthy.
have in my yard some chickens Matched
last April laying now. l give my hens only
two meals day, and that keeps them in
proper condition.
Last year, by keeping some old hens
through the winter, l lost nearly $40 So
don't keep your old hens unless you want
to lose also.
In selling my eggs l always get five cents
more dozen than store prices, and at pres.
ent am getting forty cents a dozen, while
eggs are thirty cents and thirty-fve cents
dozen, and l have more orders than l can
fill.
am not an old hand at the business, and
only keep hens so as to have little pocket
money. have made my poultry pay, and
this winter expect to make good deal, as
my pullets will be laying.
If you would be successful, feed your
hens moderately; don't overcrowd them
keep their houses clean; don't depend on
hired help; keep the old reliable hen to do
your Matching for you, and don't use incu-
bators and brooders.
COARSE FOOD FOR CATTLE.
Straw, corn fodder and rough hsy are
known as coarse foods because much of
such foods contain either an excess of
woody fiber and little nutrition in proper
ton to bulk, or are not as readily eaten by
stock as good hay or food of better quail
ity. For this reason there is large waste
of valuable feeding material in the United
States that might be saved and used if
proper attention is given to the preparation
of foods and the combining of the different
materials in manner by which all can be
and corresponding gain in meat
or milk thereby secured. Millions of stacks
of straw, and a still larger number sof
shocks" of corn-fodder rot in the fields or
are damaged in manner to render the
food valueless, though all of such could be
made to perform service.
alc do all
for its nutrition, but sometimes aa a COM
plete change from sameness OF diet, and
because the bulky food distends the stom.
ach and aids digestion. A variety of food,
of any kind, will be preferred to one or
two articles regularly given. Cattle and
sheep that are daily allowed hay and grain,
if permitted to have access to wheat straw,
or cornstacks, will eat quite quantity of
such materials. and if the straw or corn
fodder is cut up, and ground grain added,
even horses have been known to thrive
wei! on such during the winter.
Where aliberal supply of grain is allowed
there is no risk incurred by feeding the
coarse foods to any class of stock, and it is
an advantage to do SO in order to feed less
hay when the season has not been favor
able to grass and hay making. Each ami
NAL on the farm is kept for certain pur-
pose, and the food supplied should be given
with view of deriving a product rather
than to feed simply to supply all animals
alike. If the cows are to be kept in full
flow of milk they should be kept on the
best of food, with smaller allowance of
coarse provender; but for dry cows, oxen,
sheep, or animals that require only food
for the support of their bodies, the coarse
foods should compose large portion of
the ration. Animals that are used for
breeding purposes need not be very fat, and
with good Shelter end fsir allowance of
grain, the straw and fodder may be used
with the hay. 1t is not here suggested that
hay be discarded, nor are straw and fodder
proposed as regular foods. but to urge that
it is economical and profitable to put such
foods to better use than is usual on farms,
and to aim to derive profit from that
which is sometimes wasted.-Philadelphi
Rsrorf