The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-19

Poultry Raising-The valueof bone meal
for producing eggs-Says p. f.: Since
the earliest days of my great in
terest in poultry have read and heard of
the great value of bones for them, for
egg-food, and of the growth producing
elements they contained. And many and
many pile of them have l gathered in
my lifetime of farm wifery. and burned
according to directions and pounded
up for my hocks of biddies, large and
small They seemed really to relish
them, too, and so I considered they
needed them and would do them
good, and might aid me in
my persistent efforts to make them
keep me a probably filed eggbasket.
There isn't manner of doubt the con
sumption of those crushed, burned bones
did help to a certain extent. But. as
compared with the manner of furnishing
fowls with bone food, today, those dry,
brittle particles of bone we.once took the
trouble to prepare for them seem hardly
worth mentioning, so great is the differ
ence in value between them and the fresh,
green-cut bone that we feed our hocks
these days. had read of, and long
wished to own some one of the couspicu-
ously advertised bonemills that had at
tracted my attention, for, | always felt
nothing too good for my biddies. And,
too, | was always irving to make them
pay me better and better every year, and
l knew that to do their very best
they should have meat in some
form. But how to obtain it for
them was the question, for to buy
even scraps out and out, at the market,
amounted to no incpnsiderable sum,
found, and [ could not AFFORD to keep it up
to the extent | should like, and that the
biddies would like also They were
always perfectly ravenous over the bits
of meat, either cooked or raw, and seemed
never to have even half enough, and
thought, now If only l could furnish
them of this animal food just all they
want and would consume, 1 believe the
results would be most satisfactory, pro
vided, of course, this meat supply could
be furnished at trifiing expense Bone
mills cost money, to be sure" And thus
l reasoned on and on, until reasoned my
self into the belief that l must have one
and that 1 could make it pay.
OF course | bought it, for the biddies
did keep begging so for more meat,
please ma m,p and now they have just
all they want; and lam I satisfied that 1t
does pay?" Indeed, l am. l would not
think of doing without it. For now this
green-cut bone has helped the old biddies
through the moult, and how they do sing
and lay-so happy and handsome they
are. too-and how those fall chicks did
grow, and are still growing, and how they
do rally around those pans of fresh ami
NAL food, seemingly counting it treat
every time tits set down for them.
You would be surprised at the amount
of food those raw-looking bones contain,
and the amount of grain food the feeding
Of these cut bones saves, and you would
be surprised too at the rapid increase in
egg production almost from the start
We feed our fowls all they want of this
bone material every other day 1t is said
that ten pounds for 100 hens make good
feed. l don't know how much in pounds
we do feed, but we give them all they
want, believing them the best judges of
their wants and needs. Ten or
fifteen minutes work at the mill
grinds up a good-sized pile of this
material, and not over half an
hour does it ever take to grind sufficient
for my flock of more than 100. Ten or
twelve pounds Of green-u ncut bone look
very small pile. But when ground into
available form for poultry, 1t makes a
large dishful and goes long way
This bone-mill we own is securely fas-
tened to the floor in Que corner of the
poultry house, lis covered over when not
in use to keep the fowls from roasting on
it, and when that great wheel begins to
turn you should see tho anxious, OK
pectapt faces at the door, all talking
about the good things To- eat" they
know they are soon going to have. Well
do they know the sound of that mill
The difficulty with spring planting of
stone fruits, such as the cherry, peach