Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-01-31

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shows one of the finest varieties, the
pure white type of the Auratum, Bill
ium Auratum alba, which is one of the
hardest and best of the family.
The Cost of Keeping a Hen.
The cost of keeping hens depends
not only on intelligent care in feed
ing, but on whether the feed is bought
or raised. The ration for laying hens
should be such that the nutritive ra-
ito to the reproducing properties
should be about one in four. This can
best be produced with cut clover,
middlings, bran and corn meal, for a
morning mash, with grains in variety
corn, rye, buskwheat, wheat, millet,
etc. A fair amount of green food, cab
bage, carrots, potatoes, etc., should be
mixed in the mash occasionally, or
fed raw every few days. On such
rations a hen may be kept at a cost
of about seventy-five cents a year,
less if the food is raised.
Buckwheat is one of the best of
grain foods for fowls and adds large
ly to the egg production. Kafir corn
and millet are also good if they can
be raised or bought at a low price. On
the rations specified two meals a day
is sufficient, the mash in the morning
and the whole grain at night fed
among the litter on the floor. 1t is
sometimes a good plan to cut the night
rations a little short, feeding a por-
ton reserved about the middle of the
afternoon scattered among the litter
on the floor of the scratching house
to keep the hens busy. This question
of foods and their costs needs to be
studied closely, especially in sections
where eggs fall as low as ten cents a
dozen during the summer.
Poultry House Building.
In arranging for the new poultry
houses this fall it should be remem-
bered that it is the small colonies that
bring profit. The f1ocks should be di-
vided both in runs and roosting
quarters so that not over twenty-five
or thirty fouls are kept together. If
the entire flock numbers fifty or
more they will do fairly well togeth-
er if the runs and quarters are large
and if the latter are kept warm and
well ventilated, but when several hun
dred fowls are to be handled it
means a vast amount of labor and care
which can be best given when the
birds are in small focks as recon-
mended. 1t has been demonstrated
that a number of small buildings sep
arated by a considerable space, if pos
sible, is preferable to a large building
divided into pens, but if the latter is
used strict attention must be paid to
ventilation and cleanliness, as we'll as
to the divisions of the pens. The lat
ter must be SO arranged that it is i'm
possible for the fowls to get together
either in house or runs 1t takes a lit
tie more time and trouble for this ar
rangement, but it will pay in the end.
Milk and e For Poultry.
The impression is more or less gen
eral that milk, either pure or skim
med, will take the place Of meat in
the poultry ration While no one
will question the value of milk as a
poultry food it should be remembered
that it contains but ten per cent of
solids after it is SKINNED, as against
eighty-nine per cent of solids in
meat, of which foup per cent is min
eral matter absolutely essential to egg
production. In the consumption of
milk in place of meat the fowl is
compelled to drink two much water
contained therein in order to obtain
the required solids. When milk is fed
in connection with meat we have q
combination making a most profitable
feeding. The milk may be either
whole or SKINNED, but it should at
no time be fed when very sour, a. 1t
then decomposes. A very small
amount of cooked fat meat is not OBJ
jectionable. but the best is lean meat
with the bone, the latter run through
a bone cutter.