The record-union., 1896-08-09
FARM And ORCHARD.
Something About the Proper Food for
Poultry.
Kentucky's Stringent Law in Regard
to Canned Goods-TO Pre-
serve Butter.

some ndt1Onal Ql1IerenCe between our
hens and those of England. Some
years ago 1t was stated in that never
theleSS most excellent work, Stephens
Book of the Farm that fowls in Eng
land could not swallow our corn, and
now that unquestionable expert, Mr..
Eeale, whose interesting letters are so
practically valuable to us on this side
of the ocean, says distinctly that corn
is not a good food for hens. And yet
the American hen, which in the aggre-
gate yields in the shape of eggs the
handsome yearly sum of over hundred
million dollars, does this successful
business mostly on corn and what other
stuff she is able to pick up around the
barnyards, which is still corn in some
shape or form.
But l certainly agree with Mr.. Beale
that corn is not exactly the right food
for hens-that is, judging from analogy
as regards other animals, and from
that knowledge of the results of food
upon the welfare and products of ami
mails. Corn is not anything like justi-
fable food for fowls. 1t is deficient in
lime, that most important part of their
product (the eggs, and a sole corn diet
is certain to cause a defect in the eggs
in the want of shells, soft eggs being
quite common among fiocks fed wholly
on corn and deprived of sufficient run
at large where the needed lime may be
procured. Now, if the feeding of ami
mails is the most important part of ag-
riculture, as has been wisely and right
ly said, it must be taken for granted
that the matter of feeding that kind of
farm stock by which over a hundred
million dollars is made every year is
well worth study and attention. But
so far little of this attention has been
given to this subject, and the hens go
on their way, picking up what they can,
and doing their best without any rea-
sonable consideration from their own
ers, who profit by their products.
The products of the hen are especially
rich in lime, nitrogen and sulphur. The
lime supplies the material for the
shells of the eggs, as we'll as for the
body of the animal. The nitrogen sup
plies some of the material of the eggs
and for the feathers, as we'll as for the
flesh of the bird. But we are not to for
get that the hen differs from all other
farm animals in her wonderful prolifi-
cacy, reproducing herself in fact. a
hundred or a hundred and fifty times
in the year, besides changing her
plumage annually. And we are not to
forget that the hen makes all this
product out of the digested food. 1t
will not do to give her these elements
Of nutrition in any other form than a
digeStible form. We cannot give the
hen broken limestone, or even lime, and
/ question if the hen can assimilate the
lime got in the form of hard water
charged with dissolved lime from the
soil. All analogy goes to determine
that what the hen needs must be sup
piled in her food, and be introduced
into the blood in this way.
Bones are digesti1,e to some extent,
no doubt and thus crushed fresh bones
may be an important part of the hen S
food. / have never had soft egg laid
during many years since 1 have regu-
larly fed the hens with soft fresh bones
from the butchers, finely broken and
crushed, two or three times week 1t
was lesson to me to see the hens
fighting for the fragments, as the bones
were broken on block in the yard by
hammer. and eating a most surpris-
ing quantity, until after a few days the
must recognize the necessity of such a
ration for the hens as will contain this
needed substance in some organized
condition and as actual digestible food
Corn, I think, for us here should be
the staple food. 1t is cheap and abun-
dant. The hens are eager for it, and it
supplies the material for the heat of
the animal and for the respiration,
which is really much the same as the
heat, as 1t introduces the oxygen which
is consumed in the body of the animal
in producing the vital heat from the
carbon of the food: and there are times
when this vital heat is necessarily in
excess. 1t has the needed nitrogen in
moderate quantity; and if peas are
added, or that more agreeable kind of
pulse, vetcheS, this element will be fully
supplied far better than with wheat or
any other grain alone. The sulphur
will be supplied in leaves of rape and
mustard-which my fowls eat very
eagerly-or, in fact, in clover, and in
turnips. But a sufficient clover pasture
will supply whatever of this is needed
when the fowls have a free run in the
fields. When confined in yards, the
plan of sowing divisions of these with
turnips, mustard and rape will be found
all that can be desired. Some scattered
punches of mustard in one of my yards
are eaten to the ground by the fowls,
and the white clover seems to be almost
equally agreeable. That feeding on
this basis is productive of eggs, think,
will be taken as indicated by the fact
that during the hight of the early lay
+l,a Lot n 1Nx-v f.x -lc,
were considerably more than a hundred
per cent. every two days, some weeks
the number averaging $50 per cent. in
the two days. Once the eggs from 20
hens were "a in the two days. The
breed is Plymouth Rock The feeding
is corn in the morning; the fowls then
scatter over a large yard and field
where there is plenty of white clover;
broken bones are given twice a week,
and the hens have the run of the heap
OF wood ashes, in which there is a con-
siderable quantity of burned bones, the
waste of this kind going into the kitchen
stove, so that the fowls get an ample
supply AS to the quantity of the above
foods to be given to hen, the corn only
needs to be stinted. One ounce Of this
I have found sufficient All the other
foods may be supplied ad libitum.
Doubtless excessive corn feeding is as
disastrous to fowls as it is to swine,
producing that condition under which
the germs of anthrax (cholera) find con-
genial encouragement and support.
LEGAL LIABILITY FOR CANNED
Kentucky now has a law passed by
the last Legislature, which provides
that it shall hereafter be unlawful in
this State for any packer or dealer In
preserved or canned fruits and vege-
rf;o of