The record-union., 1891-02-19
FARM And ORCHARD.
The Supervision and Care of Set
ting Hens.
Sugar Beets as Stock Food-Large Pro-
portion of Mineral Matter and Pro-
tein-Orchard and Farm Notes.

"Yes, stranger said the old lady, toss
ing a cube of lump sugar into her mouth,
there are more ways than one to set a
hen. l have set 'em in the usual hit-or-
miss way, and have allowed 'em to lay
nestfull of eggs and set on the go-as-
you-please plan, and / have set 'em care
fully and properly, and in the long run
the aforementioned plan has proved to be
seventy-five per cent. more successful
than any other. You want to know Just
how / go about it? Well, in the first
place, my nests are all lined with straw
that is cut about six inches long and then
Kept under the horses until it is beaten
flat and soft. No finer nest lining can be
found in the world 1 don't lam the
nests full of it, but put in just enough to
make nice, round, smooth nest.
gather the eggs myself every morn
ing, and when | find a hen on nest
take out the eggs, but let the hen alone.
The next morning after breakfast 1 call
around and see her. If she acts like she
meant business / place board over the
entrance to the nest to keep other hens
out. And, by the way, all my nests are
IN covered boxes, with the entrance to-
ward the wall and about fifteen inches
from it. The next thing, 1 pick out
nfteen smooth, shapely eggs, and if the
weather is cold put them in pan and
place it under the stove. In an hour
they Will be nice and warm, and then /
take them down and put them in the
nest. Before putting the hen on puff a
small quantity Of buhach powder among
the feathers under her wings, legs and
breast, with my little blow gun, and drop
half teaspoonful of sulphur down in
each corner of the nest-box under the
straw. This helps largely to settle the
lice question. Lice, stranger, are the
great scourge of the setting hen. Settle
them thoroughly at the startand your hen
Will set like bump on a log. Let them
have full swing and they will come
mighty nigh eating her up before she gets
half through.
Stranger, I've seen people set hen
that was as lousy as a Digger Indian, and
when she got so chawed up and uncom-
Portable that she was Obliged to throw I'D
the job, they wanted to wiring her poor,
bony neck. Let a fairly fat hen go into
the setting business, and she can set six
weeks and hatch out two settings of eggs
just as well as not, providing YOU hold
the lice level. No lousy hen can stand
1t to set six weeks. Long before she GOT
through she wouldn't have enough meat
on her bones TO make picking for crow,
nor enough heat in her body to warm her
toes, let alone a lot of eggs.
We'll, as / was saying before got
astray, after my hen settles down nicely
| close the entrance to the nest with a
board and keep it closed until the morn
ing of the second day. I go my regular
rounds about O'Clock, and when 1 come
to the new setter gently lift her off the
nest and carry her outside, where there is
trough of water, set her down beside it
and drop her a handful of corn out of nv
pocket. She gets a few grains. takes a
drink, shakes herself and runs back to
her nest, and | close it up again. 1 do
this every morning right along without
1all. In weeks time most of them get
onto the racket and come off the nest
when call 'em, but few have to be
lifted off every time. OF course it takes
time and work, but if you want to make
hens pay, you've got to get right down
to it.
when Matching time comes let the
little bids stay in the nest till night, then
take 'em out and put 'em in warm
brooder. l spread a little more clean,
soft-beaten straw in the nest, have an
other. setting of eggs nicely warmed up
pop them in and place the old hen on
them. Next morning finds her hard at
work holding the eggs down Just as
though nothing had happened. When
she matches this lot she comes off with it
and takes care of it. Some hens will sit
right from the start as though they knew
all about it, while others don't anDear to
They Will go on and set close for few
days and then come off and bum around
three or four hours and seem to forget all
about their job. If the weather is cold
this is rather hard on the eggs, and when
the chicks come out-if ever they do
they look like they'd forgotten some
thing.
In the management of setting hens
follow a few set rules, and when / fail to
get full hatch OF all the good eggs 1 set
want somebody to come around and tell
me about it. Let me give Won a few of
them to paste in your hat, stranger:
Firstly, be sure that your hen wants to
set before you give her the job. Secondly,
give her nice boX-nest, well lined with
straw, to set iii. Thirdly in cold weather.
warm the eggs until they don't feel cold
to the back of your neck before Won put
them under her. Fourthly, poison, pull
verlze, consume, extinguish and ever
lastingly annihilate the lice Filthy. see
that she is well protected from all other
fowls. Sixthly, after the first two days,
feed and water her at a certain fixed time
every day. Seyenthly, follow all the
foregoing rules carefully and thoroughly.
Now, stranger, you have the middle
Kernels OF my success. Give me good
egg and Fll get a good chicken out of it
every clip. The party that fails to do this
fails because he don't know his business.
or because he doesn't attend to it prop-
erly. 1t is not hard work, stranger. to
run hen hatchery, but it is like steering
Shlp-lt requires a certain amount Of
unfailing attention. When setting hen
is correctly managed and attended to she's
as steady as an eight-day clock. and
everything works lovely. When She is
neglected, or allowed to do as she pleases.
she goes by fits and starts, and very often
makes a sad mess of her contract.
Il will just add that / don't profess to
know quite as much about hens as some
people, but l get out nearly 1000 chicks a
year, all the same, and don't cackle much
about 1t, ither."-Picket, an the Prairie
Farmer.
SUGAR BEETs.
AT one time the sugar beet industry in
this country approached very closely to
being complete failure, but it has now
taken another start, and the prospects
are very encouraging. Experiments
made at Cornell University, the results
of which are used to give more informa-
ton relating to sugar beets, show that the
industry need not be confined to any Sec
ton. California, Canada Colorado. South
Dakota, Indiana, Nebraska, and New
York were engaged in producing sugar
beetS 10 a limited per cent. last wear. and
the percentage of sugar ranged from 9 to
153, according to the soil and mode of cul
tiyation. Plots of beets show that the
yield with some varieties is more than
with others, the long red mangel giving
the best average results in amount Of
beets grown on an acre, the average of
3l.4 tons per acre being secured. Fine va
r1efles OF sugar beets produced 23l tons
per acre, showing a difference of So per
cent. in favor of the mangels. For stock