Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-07-29
The Story of a Chat

Editor Hunter made good comparison,
in a conversation with neighbor who
kept dairy, selling milk in q manufac-
turing village. He also kept from seventy
Eve to one hundred fowls and sold eggs
when he had any. Mr.. Hunter feils the
conversation as follows: Asking the
neighbor if his hens were laying well,
received the reply that they had not yet
begun.
what do you feed them on?"
Corn; and that reminds me that they
haven't been fed to-day. Sis Ito his wife),
have you fed the hens to ,day?'
mo; l thought you had
"Well, | haven't, but I'll do it now. -
Going up stairs he brought a painful of
corn and called the wandering biddies,
throwing handfuls of corn broadcast over
the dsor yard. "TEey like that, he said,
as he watched their frantic efforts to COB
BILE the kernels.
YES" replied, "they seem to like it.,
but they won't lay on such food and one
feed day."
ooh, we'll, you re a hen crank he re-
piled. "Yon believe In stuffing your hens
and [ don't"
''See here, Mr.. Thompson, how many
cows do you keep
Got fourteen now" he said.
'Whst do you feed them On? ?"
Good English hay with about half a
bushel Of ensilage and three quarts of meal
and shorts day; and they give a good lot
of milk, too, If do say it,
Exactly, but why don't you treat your
hens as well as you do your cows ?"
"Oh, because it don't pay
'How do you know it don't pay? Have
you ever tried it?
"No, but | know lots that have and
have failed, bUrsted up and gone out Of
the business.
Eyes, | know all about that. [ also
know those that have bursted up and gone
out of the milk business, which doesn t
prove that it doesnt pay you to feed your
cows well. Why do you give them meal
and shorts, anyway? Why do you cut
hay for them and plant six or eight acres
for ensilage? Why don't you let them
shift for themselves, as do the cattle on
the ranches out west? They could paw
{ f the snow IN winter and get mouthfai
of frozen grass enough to keep the breath
in their bodies. Come, now, why don t
you treat your cows as you do Your hens
and let them have go-as- you-please
match ?"
This and much more was taken and
succeeded in convincing neighbor Thomp-
son that his feeding regular rations of
English hay, ensilage aud meal to induce
a res ular flow of milk all winter and exact
ly like my morning mash and hf riley and
wheat ration for my fowls He fed for
milk and got it. | fed fer eggs and got
them. He was g ing fifteen c MS !
milk a day, but getting no eggs from his
hens while was getting ab ,ut seventy
FIVE eggs a day from my one hundsed and
twenty-five hens, AID that is the way
make NY fowls pay me So apiece profit IN
d year, The average farmers fowls lays
about fifty eggs apiece IN year, but the
bulk OF those eggs are laid at a time when
everybody hens are laying and prices are
way down.
When Mr.. Henster gives his hens the
best of care, and, although he does not
keep a large poultry farm, the product
from his ranch is more than many farms
quartering four times that number of
fowls. When it was said some time ago
that three hundred hens were all a man
could keep with pr f. some seemed to
doubt it, but here is a case where d man
finds one hundred and twenty-five hens a
large enough farm for him. Another
proof that small flocks pay the best.