Middletown transcript., 1897-04-24
RAISE MORE HENS.


Gently delivered a lecture in st. Paul,
Minn., on the broad, patriotic platform
of Plymouth Rock. Not the sacred
stone, not the marvellous trousers Of
that name with which Boston for yeal 8
has striven to clothe the neither uni
verse, but the ungainly fowl that struts
about under halo of that holy appella-
tion.
Ungainly is term, we admit, appli-
cable only to the shape and carriage of
the bird since, according to Mr.Sprague,
there is more grain derivable from
an investment 10 Plymouth Rocks
than from the traditional anser who
laid the Golden Egg. One hen of this
trit Q, says our peripatetie Professor Of
useful, not ornamental, ornithology,
will lay annually fve-dollar gold
piece. And, as he does not qualify
this by an exception of Bryan States,
we may conclude that even in the dull
est Cleveland era the Plymouth Rock
hen has always stood, or sat, ready to
do her duty by the country-an exam
pie to the Democracy by which it
would do well to profit; though, of
course, it never will.
Mr.. Sprague is not a mere theorist,
as most professors are. He is practi-
cal politician in poultry, and at his
home in Chateaugay, New York, on a
five acre farm, he has an interesting
family Of 5000 chickens, which, he
declares, take not only less trouble to
raise, but are far more remunerative
propOrtionately than COWS or horses.
Most of his chicks, we grieve to note,
are not Matched in the orthodox fash
sion, but shelled out by wholesale, to
the hot water lullaby tune Of the mod
ern emotionless incuba tor. TIE loss
in this process appears rather high
viz, about 25 per cent. on the eggs
but, other points considered, it is
cheaper by far in the long run; and,
though it seems cruel to deprive ten.
der hens Of chance to exercise the
most precious privileges of maternity,
we must remember that we live in an
age Of system, not sentimentality.
Why should hens be an exception to
the spread of the doctrine of scientific
Socialism,
Mr.. Sprague has introduced system
into every part of his hennery. He has
divided it into households on the Nor
mon plan, or perhaps, to speak more
closely, on the Aztez plan; since every
reader of Prescott's "History of Mex
leo" wifi remember how a beautiful
youth, without mole or b!emish, used
to be chosen, pampered like prince
for a year witt the costliest Gates, the
rubIest wines, the sweetest flowers of
the field and of the affecl ions, then
suddendly stripped of all his possess
sions and his glorious feather work
garments crusted gems TO be carried
by the dark priests in occasional up
the winding sides of the tso-calli, slap
ped on 10 a sacrifcal slab and cut
open by the High Priests, who pluck
ing forth the victims heart, fang it
up toward the Sungod, while the cl5r
gical gentlemen roundabout uluIated
in solemn chorus.
Such is life was the elmon thus con
veyed 10 symbol. Such is life in Mr..
Sprague's hennery. In his system of
separate households each young, warm
hearted rooster is allowed to have one
year of unaIloyed domestic felicity
with twenty-five enchanting brides.
No rival can strut near to alenaIe their
affections or force him him into a fight.
Existence flows on like molasses-
sweet, sWeeter, sweetest all the time.
But with the dying year dies
chanticleer, to be ignominiuusly sold,
perhaps for Philadelphia capon at some
fifty-cent table d'hote in New York.
Aud his widous-well, his widows, as
widows will even on higher planes of
being, drown theiI soft sorrow in SIM
ultaneous matrimony with some up
start younker from whom, peradven-
ture, the inundated veteran could
have kicked the feathers in one short,
glorious round.
Such is lifel But it must not be
imagined, because We have thus dwelt
on the pathetic features Of Mr..
SpraDgue's ambition to.becomea chick
en- king, that we are blind to the prac-
'ical patriotism inherent in his initia-
tive. The stern statistics stares Us in
the face, as political economists, that
the American people are not raising
enough hens. Fowls and eggs are i'm
ported right along from England
France, ard Belgium. Even Scotch
eggs, following Scotch literature, are
coming into our market to steal away
our brains and our digestions;and as for
Canada, if there were no other argu-
ment in favor of annexing her, sh ould
not the single fact that last year she
sent US 81, ,000, 900 eggs plead trumpet
tongued for such consummationp
Then. too, If our populist communities
would raise more hens, they could af-
ford to raise less Hades. We c ommend |
the hen to Kansas.-N. z. Press.
KelIep,s $3.50 For $3.50