Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1901-04-12
HE FOOLED THEl HENS.
But the Result shOwedN That He
Couldn't Fool Natufe.

!
Couldn't Fool Natufe.
Until three weeks ago Silas Wass Of
BeddingtOn, Me-, believed he 2ad made
the greatest discovery of the Ne Mr..
Wass draws Il pension. As hiss arterl1ia
allowance does not supply all -
he tries TO make little NOM as
ing eggs for the Boston market. His ex-
penses are so great that he finds little
profit in the eggs.
He calculated that if every one Of his !
hens laid 100 eggs year he would come
out even and that every egg more than /
100 was clear profit. He had read
great deal about the 200 egg producing
hen in the poultry papers that he took
and had spent more money than he could
afford to get the right breed. but the best
hen he had been able to procure would
not yield more than 125 eggs a year.
But his studies and experiments had
not been in vain. He observed, among
other things, that the really good hens al
ways went to their nests to lay as soon
as they hoped from the rOOsts in the
morning. Here was an idea worth fol-
lowing up. If hen laid every morning
when the days were "a hours long, she
would no doubt keep up the practice If
she lived on a planet where the days
were One-half so long. Therefore he went
to work to change the length Of the day.
A hen is a stupid creature that mis-
| takes any kind Of darkness for night. A
| flock has been known to go to rOost at
midday during total eclipse of the sun.
| Hence he reasoned that if he could have
a short night made to order along about
noon the hens would take it for the real
thing and would conduct business to con
form to the new conditions.
The next time Wass went to Bangor to
ship his eggs he brought home a great
roll of curtain stuff, which was made NJ
into heavy shades and hung on patent
rollers in front of the windows in the
roasting pens of his fowls. After the
hens had had their breakfast one morn
ing aud most of the active ones had laiC
their eggs Wass began to pull down tn
shades. letting them drop by degrees. II
- minutes the hens were grooming +
. themselves and going to roost AS sool
2 as all were quiet Wass drew the curtain
to the floor and let them remain for hal
an hour
Then he walked along the pens and le
in a ray Of light that set the ROSTERS t
J growing As the curtains went M by Dc
grces and the bright light filed the pens
n the hens flew down and ran to their fec
ing troughs for breakfast. When the
had been fed and watered, most Of thel
mounted aloft TO the nest boxes an
squattcd down to lay.
- was making money hand over fist,
said Wass. land was getting ready to Sc
It county and state rights for the use of N
II great discovery when my hens began
shed their feathers and stopped layin
" It was cold weather. and lot of the
!. died before new feathers could grow. b
" cause hens do not shed their feathers
= the winter when left in state of natuI
J. The ones that lived grew stiff and dump
- so they could hardly move about. Tn
" seemed to have caught the rheumatism
4, "Whcn killed one to cook for the mi
- lister. the meat was so tough that nobo
~ could eat it. Then ! woke up to the ia
=; that my hens were dying from old "a
~ They had been living two days to my OF
., and were worn out and old by the til
they had ceased TO be pullets. was s.
=, ~ things turned out that way, because
n, had made the greatest discovery
a, world has ever seen. 1t fooled the he
-. sure enough. but when l tried to hon
0. fogle old nauE })mct my match and
to give in. Nc}E FORK Sun