The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-07-25

the stomach aud digestive tract that
enables them to digest normal milk.
Poultry Briefs.
Great as is the poultry industry of
the United States, it is still in its
infancy-it is the day of small things.
American genius has not yet laid its
finger upon it. 1t must undergo
changes similar to those taking place
in other lines of food production. 1t
will be systematized and developed.
Whatever our opinions and desires
may be on the matter, the changes
are now at their incipient point, and
are discoverable in the inclination of
the packers and transportation com
panies to take decided steps regard
ing the poultry industry.
We have paid too little attention to
forage crops for fowls. The stations
and agricultural colleges have been
working for a long time on forage
crops for cattle, sheep and swine, but
nothing has been done along the line
of green provender for poultry. We
recognize that the forage for poultry
problem is a problem by itself,
and is very properly given a place af-
ter the same problems relating to
other live stock. But it seems to us
that the time now Is fully ripe to do
something along the line mentioned.
The stations have been at work fo-
fhir&nor WOO G Tn 0OnCi60 viz r fnTo tpA
for poultry the Investigators will be
able to go considerably outside of the
present range of plant varieties. There
are some plants We call weeds that
appear to have in them great posi-
bilities as useful to the poultry es-
tablishment. There is "chickweed," a
plant well known and popular in the
New England states as a forage plant
for hens. 1t grows spontaneously and
rankly in places where it is given a
chance. What 1t might do under cul-
tivation we do not yet know, nor
will we know till experiments are
carried on to ascertain the facts re-
garding it. In the near future this
whole field will be explored and the
gOOQ tnlngS appropriated
We are pleased to note that at the
Georgia Experiment Station rape is
being experimental with. 1t is doing
well and we hope to see it become one
of the important forage crops Of that
region, such as it is getting to be in
the North. We call the attention of
our Southern readers to the fact that
rape is a most excellent food for
poultry. 1t must be doubly valuable
in the South where it has a season
that makes its use possible through
out a large part of the year. 1t
should be planted in n side of a
double poultry yard till it is a foot
high, which size it will reach in a
few weeks, if thinned out SO that the
stalks stand from one to two feet
apart. This thinning is absolutely
necessary if the best results are to
be obtained. A heavy leaf, stalk and
midvein of the leaf, are desirable.
The fowls will then strip off the por-
lions of leaves on either side of the
midveins and will leave the plant a
bare skeleton. But when that is &C
complished turn the fowls into an
other lot of rape and let the first
lot recover from it's attack. With
good growing weather the midvein
will quickly send out new areas 0.
green, and second state Of the rape
will be as good as the first. If the
rape is planted thickly it will remain
small, and the fowls will feed il
down to the ground. The sun will.
destroy it's root and that will be the
last Of it.
1t is estimated that the annual con.