Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-03-23
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department. of the Farm - Few
Hints to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.
Poultry Briefs.

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 f1ocks birds that have shown
themselves superior to the others in
laying or in markings of plumage. By
selecting the best birds, few years
will show a flock that will be both
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
Gus substance that 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 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
are to be shipped some distance to
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 its objection
able ones The board floor is probably
n h11I a harhOr
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 prowling
| animals. The cement floor is cold, if
not covered with dirt or straw, but it
! seems to be the coming floor for the
pouItry-house of the man that is will
| ing to invest money in the poultry
| business.
Reports from New York indicate
| that broi1ers 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 broi1er
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, it
| looks as if the broilers would all have
to be purchased of men that make a
business of raising them and have to
be paid for at good price.
|
The way poultry is packed for mar
ket regulates to a considerable extent
the price at which it sells. Mixed lots
generally sell at a disadvantage. We
| heard recently of lot of dressed tur-
| keys being sent to market. They were
| mostly young ones and of good ap-
| pearance. But the farmer that shipped
| them had three old birds that he want
ed to get rid of so he sent them along
with the lot. When they got to mar
ket they were Immediately designated
as mixed and sold at prices that mixed
lots generally bring. The lot of good
turkeys would probably have sold for
more without the three old birds than
they did with them. This is a poor
policy for any poultry raiser to follow.
By this time all that supply poultry to
the city markets should have learned
that it pays to sort and send each kind
and quality in lot by itself.
| Co1or OF Apples Tor FRANCE
i An exchange has the following:
.sThe assistant pomologist of the De
partment of Agriculture, Mr.. w. A
Taylor, has two specimens of French
fruit lying on his desk, which If they
could be reproduced in this country
and sold at the prevailing Paris prices
would net small fortune per tree tt
the orchardist. One is a yellow French
apple, weighing about II or IA ounces
!! which is selling now in France at 8:
cents per apple by the hundred. Thess
apples are counted like eggs; not solo
! by the bushel, peck or quarter peel
as are choice apples here. The othe
! specimen is a French pear which
: weighs 26 ounces, a monster frui
which more resembles a small pumpkin
, of some kind than a pear The fesl
4 of both these fruits is said to be yer,
delicious. 1t seems singular that tn,
French do not prize red apples At tn
Exposition the judges could not be
li.ve that American red apples coult
, be first class. but Mr.. Taylor says the,
!. were forced to an opposite conclusion
after a practical trial of their eatin,
qualities"
ii We doubt the truth of the statemen
that the French 'tdo not prize red ap
III pies" At the close of the apple ex
hibit at the Paris Exposition all of tn
American apples were sold. Their
: were several varieties and colors rep
! resented, but the well-colored Bel
Davis apples brought the highest pric