The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-21

+ Up AuOcn AnyWh er6-1h9 Steam
: Mother and Her 800 Dear Children
The Eagles Duty-Spring Chickens
Education.
Copyright 1917
OAKDALE, n. Y, June 20.-When the
hoarse and rancorous screaming of some
ravenous bird Of prey, rising over the
booming distant turf, and the buzz OF the
envious mosquito wakes the echoes of Islip
woods and sets the summer boarders of the
gentler sex all a-shuddering with nameless
terror, the farmers hereabout say, reassur-
ingly. 30, that's only Vanderbilt's eagle"
''Vanderbilt's eagIel Q my, how niceI
Mr.. Vanderbilt must be a very patriotic
man, and an enthusiastic student of natural
history. Do tell us about him."
"Dunno bout the natural history. Miss;
he keeps the eagle to scare the henhawks
away from his spring chickens"
"Ohl"
The man who owns the eagle and who
also keeps hens is William K. Vanderbilt,
whose place here-"Idle Hours such a
perfect Eden of delight that his neighbors
and his wisest roosters can't understand why
he goes away from it so much in his swift
yacht Alva.
Perhaps there is some casual connection
between Mr.. Vanderbilt's wellhlled bank
vaults and the fact that he is one of the
largest raisers of chickens in the United
States. However that may be, be has 800
hens at present. And as they would prob
ably get hungry during his long and fire.
Quent absences, ne hires some one TO take
care of them. It's an interesting place TO
visit
OF course these Vanderbilt hens live in
hen palace, or are going to do so, for Con
tractors William Bason of Sayville and
Alexander Barto of Islip are just now erect
ing a mammoth hen house, 1856 feet long.
with an incubating house at one end, and
another similar house, without the incu-
bator annex. is 70 be built soon.
The hen houses are built Of brick with
shingle roofs, and face the south. Over
meadow of fifty acres extent there comes TO
the nostrils of the Vanderbilt hens the pure
breath of the salt sea, straight from Der.
muda when the south wind blows, and, as
the front and top are Of glass, the hens can
die 10 their hammocks and watch the clouds
when tired Of active exercise. The house
Itself keeps away the north wind. The
new brick barns also help to keep the eli
mate equable, as they lie TO the north. The
incubator end is Toxic; the rest of the
chicken house is IS feet wide, and divided
tnto sections, each with its yard or runaway
to the south. Miles of wire netting are used
In bnilding these partition fences.
The hens who inhabit these sections are
not, as rule, high bred. A chicken fan.
cier wouldn't look at them. Mr.. Wander
bilt has tried fancy fowl raising but given
it up. 1t is too costly an amusement, and
steam yacht isn't to be compared with it
for extravaganza. Now he raises poultry
only for the eggs and spring chickens,
which are usually sent to his New York
house when he's in town. He likes to be
able to say: Il Matched these
Still, be has a few fancy fowl left
whioh are kept separate. Among
these are a fine pen Of white Leghorns, an
other Of barred Plymouth Rocks, which
won first premium at the Riverhead fair in
1890, a pen Of Bucks strain of Houdans,
first prize at Rlverhead at the same time,
another of second premium brown Leg
horns, and others OF silver spangled Ham
burgs and pencllled Wyandottes. The
Plymouth Rocks are considered the best for
general purposes There is also large
number CT Pekin and Rouen ducks, who
sing their sweet songs of joy when the rain
makes mud puddles
Let us enter the hen houses. conducted by
Superintendent Halliday, upon whom next
to Mr.. Vanderbilt, the fowl all look as a
father. The entire house is heated by steam
not now, of course, but it will be next
winter. The incubator house has feed,
boiler, incubator and breeding rooms. The
brooding rooms can say, 1--WE are seven"
for they are seven. In the first saw at the
time of my visit 300 chickens two days old,
and beautiful sight they were, like so
many fluffy yellow balls of down, ''cheep-
ing" for their hot-water-power mamma,
whose Iron breast felt no responsive throb
These chickens will stay five more
days in compartment No. l. At
the end Of the week they
will move into compartment No. 2. After
still another week they will all be pro-
NOTED in a mass without competitive ex-
aminatons, which could only be productive
OF Jealousy and heartburnings, into COM
partrnent No. 3. By the time they are seven
weeks old aud have been one week in the last
compartment their education Is completed.
The usual style Of graduation dressing for
Doth sexes Is white sauce. White Is consid-
cred more appropriate. Sometimes they
are broiled brown, however and occasionally
roasted with stuffiug OF bread crumbs. 1t is
understood that the chickens unanimously
favor longer course Of education.
By the way, gentle reader, IL you ever
meet spring chicken more than seven
weeks old, you can tell him to his face that
he isn't one of Vanderbilt's. IL he SAYS he
Is he's an imposter. OF course some of them
are saved 70 assist the steam boiler In the
capacity of Deputy and Assistant Mothers,
but that is very different matter. They're
no chickens and they don't make any false
pretenses. A certain matronly dignity sits
upon the pullet who, at eight weeks from
the shell, still lives.
The adult hens and roosters are fed meat
scraps. bone meal, red pepper, salt, wheat
middlings, cat meal, corn meal and she'll all
boiled up in large boiler. They have
breakfast In the morning before starting
out for the days pursuits, pick up q lunch
in the intervals of business cares and dine
heartily at night at the table d'hote. Water
is served with each course. The chickens
are fed on bread, ground up fine, which is
found to agree well with the gallinaceous
infants
Old hen raisers often say that it isu,b DOS
sible to raise hens successfully on a large
scale. Mr.. Vanderbilt, with 40 feet of hen
house and thousand of hers and chickens
and barrels of wheat screenings and tons of
ground shell. is just going to find out if
there is anything in the superstition.
All the hen cranks In the country
will want to watch the experiment. Those
who are just gong to begin will look for
splendid successes-and it must be confessed
present prospects favor that view-and those
who have tried it will look for failure.
There's no mortal on earth quite so cynical
and pessimistic as the man who has tried
keeping hens
A. NJ