The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-05-01
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.


cold. Inc COlu eoN0N"
,lose up and the feathers to lie SO close
hat the bird is protected against eolu'
in the fairly warm weather IN tail'
,vinter and spring, when drafts are
allowed 10 pass over the fowls, coius
are most likely to occur.
Very frequently men that have a
.ttlo ~canital. but no experience IN
noultry raising, write to ask IL II VIII
nav them to go into the poultry Dusl-
ness-if there Is any money in poul-
trv The fact that they ask the ques-
t,on shows that they know so little
obout the business that 1t Will not be
s.ta for them to go into the business
TIL they have learned more o IT,
When a man knows enough about rails
ing poultry and producing eggs 10
make IL safe for him to invest a good
sum in 1t, 1t will not be necessary LOT
him to write to any paper asking au-
vice.
The man that expects to make
money out of poultry without a great
deal of work will be disappointed. IL
is an impossible feat. The Great Gre
.tor of the universe decreed that all
should labor; and that man succeeds
VINO does labor. When we read OF
noultrymen making Johnny cake Tor
their poultry we are inclined TO re-
gard the affair as rather amusing put
il is not SO amusing when that pour
trvman in December begins to sell us
sggs at a high price just because our
hens do not seem to get down 10 iay-
ing. Intelligent labor will give us
good results in the poultry yard, IN
Guiding eggs in the fall and winter
months.
The balanced ration is as necessary
In the poultry yard as in the COW yara,
and a man that feeds an unbalanced
ration is wasting a large part OF MS
food in either case. If a food contains
40 per cent more fat-forming parts
than heterogeneous parts tnen there Is
bound to be a large waste. II the rat
Is laid on, it is wasted, and worse
than wasted, for egg production; and
if it is not laid on it is as certainly
wasted. Most of our people feed an
excess of fat formers rather than an
excess of protein. the latter being the
more costly food. The man that got
eggs all through the fall was the man
that fed a balanced ration, and he will
be the man that will get a good yield
of eggs through the coming months.
Reports from the chief poultry mar
kets of the country show that the holt
day trade in poultry was not what 1t
was expected to be, and the kind of
poultry that seemed to suffer the most
from over supply was turkeys. There
were too few primes and too many OF
the cold storage kind. The same was
said to be the case with hens. A large
part of the receipts had to be sold to
packers at a great loss. The moral OF
this is that 1t does not pay to raise
poultry unless 1t is to be got TO mar
ket in good condition. In the Chicago
market prime turkeys sold at II cents.
but some of the poor stock had to go
at 8 and 6 cents. Imagine the disap-
pointment Of the shippers of such
birds when they get their returns!
However, it is to a considerable ex-
tent their own blame, but that will
not make the loss any easier to bear.
The lesson to be got from this ex-
%perience is that we must pay more
attention to the condition of the poul-
try when it comes into market.
A speaker at a Nebraska farmers
institute said: Geographically speak
ing, the poultry industry is clrcum-
scribed and bounded as follows: on the
north, by roup and blood sucking YER
min; on the south, by weasels, cats,
badgers, and hawks; on the east. by
dishonest and unreliable poultry breed
ers; and on the west, by rainbow-chas-
ing Incubator advertisements and ex-
aggerated, overdrawn statements in
poultry journals" We know nothing OF
the man that made the above remarks,
out we would not suppose him to be
a practical poultryman. 1t is only the
novice in poultry science that cares
'NJ MUN obOul mOSl OF tue ABOVE
pests. The experienced poultryman
mas learned to avoid them. Roup and
blood sucking vermin are things that
once got rid of. need mover be REIN.
ported. Good wire netting screens
keep out the weasels, cats, badgers
and hawks. Experience tell us how tc
deal with dishonest breeders and what
weight to put on "rainbow-chasing'
advertisements.
Some people make a great fuss about
breaking up sitting hens. when it /.
not desired to have them sit. We havI
known birds doused with water severa
times a day and other barbaritie.
perpetrated; but we have never know
any OF these methods to succeed
Dousing with water does have the eff
tect of making the poor creatures un.
comfortable, especially in winter time
but the maternal instinct rises sumo
rior to cold or even ice water. II 4
u TO use such harsh measures. a
leHSt Whan az fc n x,of1 .4-Ntst