The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-06-24
NYE GIVES SOME FACTS.
Relating Chiefly to the Great Hen Rails
ing Industry.
A Rooster Who Achievsd Wonders While
Sailing Under False Colors-W Why the
Celebrated Nye MuStache Va
Sacrificed = GOliath'8 Down-
fall Described.
Copyright, 1890, by Edgar W. Nye.I

copyright, 1890, by Edgar W. Nye.l
The folio wing inqiries and replies have
been awaiting publication and | shall use
them this week, reserving tie western
tour and Puget sound letters till a later
date if the reader will not object. l do
not care to keep correspondents waiting
too long for fear that they will get tired
and fail to write me in the future waen
they want to know anything. Mr. Ear
nest Pendergast writes from Puyallup as
follows:
"Why don't you not try to improve
your appearance more? l think you
could if you would, and we would all be
SO glad. You either have a very mali
clOu artist, or else your features must
pain you a good deal at times. Why
don't you grow a mustache"
These remarks, of course, are a little
bit personal, Earnest, but still they show
your goodness Of heart. I fear that you
are cursed with the fatal gift of beauty
yourself and wish to have others go with
you on the downward way. You ask
why l do not grow a muStache and | tell
you frankly that it is for the public good
that | do not. [ used to wear a long,
dropping and beautiful mustache, which
was well received in society, and, under
the quiet stars and opportune circum-
stances, gave good satisfaction but at
last the hour come when | felt that T
must decide between this long, silky mus
tache and soft boiled eggs, of which | am
~pasSionately fond l hope that you
understand my position, Ear lest, and that
| am studying the public welfare more
tLan my own at all times.
SasSafras Oleson, of South Deadman,
writes to know something Of the care of
fowls in the spring and summer. DO
you know" he asks, any thing Of the
best methods for feeding young chicks
from the mother? Is there any way to
prevent hens from stealing their nests
and sitting on inanimate objects? Tell
us through the paper as tersely as posi-
BILE what your own experience has been
with hens
To speak tersely of the hen and her
mission in life seems to me almost sacri-
lege. 1t is at least in poor taste. The
hen and her works lie near to every true
heart. She does much toward making
US better, and she don't care who knows
it, either. Young chicks who have lost
their mothers by death, and whose fathers
are of a shiftless and ~improvident nature,
may be fed on koumis5, two parts; moxie,
eight parts distilled water, ten parts.
Mix and administer till relief is obtained.
Sometimes, however, the chick will
readily nurse the guinea hen, and many
lives have been eaved in this way.
Whether or not this plan will influence
the voice of the rising hen is a question
among h~enologists of the country which
| will not attempt to answer.
Hens who steal their nests are gener-
| ally of a secretive nature and are more or
less social pariahs. A hen who will do
this should be watched at all times and
won back by kind words from the step
she is about to take. Brute force will
accomplish little. Logic also avails little
at such a time but by striking at the
foundations of hen society and showing
her that it is honorable at all times to lay
a good egg, and that as 500 as she be-
gins to be secretive and to seek to mis-
lead those who know and love her she at
once takes a course which cannot end
with honor to herself or her descendants.
| have made the hen a study for many
years, and love to watch her even yet as
she resumes her tots on a falling market
year after year, or seeks to hatch out a
summer hotel by setting OF a door knob.
She interests and pleases me. Careful
study of the hen convinces me that her
low, retreating fOI ehead is a sure index
to her limited reasoning faculties and lack
of memory, ideality, Imagination, ~calcula-
ton and spirituality. She is also deficient
in her enjoyment of humOr.
once owned a large white draught
rooster who stood about seven hands
high and had feet on him which would
readily break down a who'e corn field if
he walked through it. Yet he lacked the
courage of his conviction, and socially
was not regarded as a success. Leading
hens seemed to regard him as a good
hearted rooster and seemed to wonder
that he did not get on better in a social
way. He had a rich baritone voice and
was a good provider, digging up large
areas of garden AID giving the hens what
was left after he got through, and yet
they gave their smiles to far more dissolute
though perhaps brighter minds. So I
took him away awhile and let him see
something of the wo.ld b. allowing him
to visit among the neighbors and see
society a little. Then I brought him
home again, aud one night colored hin
with diamond dyes so that he was a
beautiful scarlet. His name was Sum-
ner.
1 took Sumner the following morning
and turned him loose among his old neigh
bors. Surprise was written on every
face. He realized his advantage, and the
first thing he did was to greet the aston
ished crowd with a cultural remark,
which made them iumD. He then steDDed
over to a hated rival and ate off about
fifteen cents worth Of his laage, red,
pompadour comb. He now remarked in
a courteous way to a small Poland China
hen, who seemed to be at the head of all
works Of social improvement, that we
were having rather a backward spring.
Then he picked out the eye of another
rival, much to his u-prise, and went on
with the conversation. By noon the
bright scarlet rooster owned the town.
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