Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-11-20

The science of the poultry farm is not
only not ended, but it is just begun when
the chick comes out OF his she'll. In the
barnyard the fedgling is thrown upon
the cold, hard world at once, and he must
scratch for himself even before he cuts
his eye teeth, us it were. With the in.
cubator-raiscd chick it is very different.
A silver spoon is truly in his mouth.
From the Matching room he is carried d.
rectly to the brooding house.
The brooding house is divided into
eight opens" each about 4x1O, and with
tiny "runs" in the sunlight under glass.
In the front are rows of steam pipes,
which keep the room at an even temper
AZURE of little over seventy, and the
chicks huddle up close to them at night
fall in default Of mothers warm wings.
The floor is we'll sanded and the run
outside is made of sandy soil itself
Here the lodgings learn to scratch in an
amateur sort of way. Not for liveli-
hood-they are too we'll provided with
food for that-but from a natural in
stinct
Tho food for tho first three days Is
pinhead oatmeal Then there follows q
week diet Of old-fashioned johnny cake,
baked hard for two hours in slow oven.
ground fine and fed dry. Its composed
of corn meal, wheat bran and ground
beef scrap. After this their rations are
those of tho Older fowl, u mixture Of corn
meal, wheat bran, bone meal scrap and
ground charcoal. In the winter chopped
cabbage is added to make up for their
loss of other green foods.
The chick hospital hangs on the wall
near by. 1t is u big cage divided into
four wards, or rather compartments,
whore the fedglings can receive especial
caro- and warmth. Medicine is seldom
necessary. The weighing machine is
but u few feet off. This, too, is q cage,
tho flooring resting Immediately on tho
scale.
The chicks promotion to the secondary
brooding house depends mainly upon the
weather. It is ordinarily matter Of
three or four weeks. The secondary
brooding house has twenty rooms, each
5x5, and open mir "runs of fifty-two
feet, separated from each other and the
outside world by screens of wire netting
higher than mans head. Fifty chicks
are placed in each room instead of one
hundred, which is the rule in the other
houses. Here the young fowl first feels
the responsibilities of life. He is de-
privcd Of artificial heat and now has q
broad field to run and scratch in.
But the poultry village is yet incom-
plete. There is feed and cook shop, q
bantom house, building for Surplus"
birds, half dozen small breeding
houses, with large yards attached, and
the duck buildings down on the edge Of
Quogue Bay, with duck pond that is q
veritable Southern Sea close at hand.
The ducks, however, are omnipresent.
They have large yard oil to themselves
in the midst of the poultry's domains,
and in the heat of the day it is pretty
picture, flock of fifty or more Of q
glossy, glistening white, huddled in the
shade of an upright bough arbor of pale
brown, with the sparse green grass Of the
sandy soil as frame.
They ore quite unconscious Of their
end, of course. And yet the chopping
block stands in that very yard. They
have been driven up from the waters
edge especially for decapitation. The
season Of the markets has now como
upon them and from fifty to a hundred
ire killed each week. But this is but a
drop in the bucket for duck yard pro-
lucing two or three thousand year
New York Telegram.