The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-05-09
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department of the Farm A Few
Hints as to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.

and Poultry.
Poultry Briefs.
At this time the farmer should be
looking forward to the time when the
hens are to be put to work raising
chickens. Every farmer can improve
his flock by making a selection OF
fowls that are to lay eggs for hatch
ing purposes. These should at once be
picked out and penned by themselves
with a suitable cock. There are in
most flocks birds that have shown
themselves superior to the others in
laying or in markings of plumage. By
selecting the best birds, a few years
will show a flock that will be both a
satisfaction and a profit.
One commission man gives the ad-
vice not to wash eggs. He says that
when the eggs are washed the gelatin
u substance hat usually fills the
pores of the shell is taken off and the
air works through. The result is that
the egg spoils very quickly. How
much truth there is in the theory we
leave to the readers, for we do not
know of any experiment to determine
if a washed or unwashed egg will keep
the longest. Of course, this advice
does not apply to eggs that are to be
used in the family, but to those that
market.
The floor of the poultry-house is a
factor that requires a good deal Of con-
sideration, especially if a new one is
to be constructed Every kind of floor
has its good points and it's objection
able ones. The board floor is probably
most in favor. but it makes a harbor
for rats and mice and absorbs the
droppings Of the fowls. The dirt floor
is very hard to keep clean and can be
dug into from the outside by proving
animals. The cement floor is cold, if
not covered with dirt or straw, but it
seems to be the coming floor for the
poultry-hOuse of the man that is will
ing to invest money in the poultry
business.
Reports from New York indicate
that broilers are scarce there this year.
This is said to be due to the fact that
the big storage companies of the west
have been buying them up with other
poultry. A large part of the broilel
trade is said to be supplied by broilers
that are not sent to market as such
The dealers hunt through each crate
of lights" and take out the smaller
birds, which often weigh under two
pounds each. This year, however, il
looks as if the broilers would all have
to be purchased of men that make g
business of raising them and have tx
be paid for at a good price.
The way poultry is packed for mar
ket regulates to a considerable exten
the price at which it sells. Mixed lot
generally sell at a disadvantage. W,
heard recently of a lot of dressed tur
keys being sent to market. They Wer
mostly young ones and of good ap
pearance. But the farmer that shippeI
them had three old birds that he want
ed to get rid of so he sent them aloni
with the lot. When they got to mar
ket they were Immediately designate,
as mixed and sold at prices that nike
lots generally bring. The lot of goo
turkeys would probably have sold TO
more without the three old birds tina,
they did with them. This is a poo
policy for any poultry raiser to follow
By this time all that supply poultry t
the city markets should have learne
that it pays to sort and send each kin
and quality in a lot by itself.