The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1901-02-05
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department OF tho Farm - Few
Hints to the Care OF Live stock
and Poultry.


Poultry Briefs
A man connected with one OF the big
packing concerns that annually ham
dies hundreds of thousands of fowls
says that the Plymouth Rock is the
most popular fowl among packers and
even among retail merchants. They
sell at some seasons of the year at
to cents over the market price for
other fowls.
All of our readers have heard OF |
picking live geese, but who ever heard
OF picking live hens? Yet one poul-
tryman practices it in the hot season
and claims much for 1t. He says that
he selects birds that are beginning to
show signs of moulting. He picks on
the feathers, which, he says, come
easy then. His object is to both save
the feathers in good condition for use
and also to help the bird moult. BY
this early moulting the new feathers
are induced to grow in time for the
birds to start laying in October. The
story is given for what it may be
worth.
We see a report to the effect that
poultry fanciers in the east have be-
gun to pedigree their birds. 1t is a
step that must be taken and without
which the best progress cannot be
made. If carried out on the same lines
as our pedigreeing Of cattle, horses and
sheep, it is bound to be of inestimable
value. 1t will lead to breeding by in
dividual birds instead of by focks. 1t
will lead to wide experiments to dis
cover the best laying strains and % de-
velop them after they are discovered.
A man that runs sixty-aere farm
In Croton, N. Y, claims he is selling
$500 worth of poultry and eggs from
the far-l every year and $500 worth
of other kinds of produce. He says
that in two years he has cleared $500
on poultry alone. There is no reason
why there should not be many such
records. The man that has a poultry
establishment of that size is sure to
have large supply of frst-class ma
nure for use on the land and so can
! grow vegetables to advantage. The
| poultry business and small gardening
work together beautifully and should
be a success wherever intelligently
managed.
The business of slaughtering and
packing poultry is steadily concentrate
ing and the evidences are that it will
rapidly pass from the hands of the
small men into the hands of the great
packers of beef and other meats. Al
ready at Chicago, Kansas City and 9th
er packing centers, plants have beer
put into operation for the handling
Of poultry on a large scale. At Kan
sas City one of the buildings devote'
to this business is over 200 feet Ions
and more than SO feet wide. In it 15l
men are daily engaged in Strengthening
packing and handling $4,000 fowls
Thes fowls are purchased in carloa'
qua. ties and are sold the same way
One Of the cold storage houses in con
nection with this plant has capacit
of about 100000 fowls.
We notice that a contemporary
much alarmed at the formation of
society for the importation of all kind
Of foreign birds. Whether it is mean
that the birds are to be domestic fowl
or simply birds for ornament the re
port does not say. The paper in ques
ton recites the injury that has com
to us from the Importation of tn
English sparrow, and cites also the in
/ portation of the gypsy moth int
Massachusetts. It tells about the in
portations of rabbits into Australii
which have since over-run that cor
tinent, and also of the mongoose int
Jamaica But we must not be to
easily alarmed. 1t should not be TO
gotten that while a few mistakes hay
been made, the Importation into tn
country Of domestic fowls has adde
immensely to the wealth of our rur.
communities. Suppose that we sti
had to depend on the old-fashione
barnyard fowl? Would the annual r.
4 ceipts be within millions of what the
now are? As to the English sparrow
{ the argument is not all on one sid
1 1t may be that the society to Wink
reference is had may do far more GOO
t than injury. and it is not likely thi
t it will lose sight of the past occu
& rences. We cannot stop the car
progress just because a few unforti
nate things have happened in the pas
Dairy Notes
We are pleased to note that son
/ dairymen are beginning to raise rel
for the fall soiling of their dali
: cows. We believe this plant to be
great value to the farmer when ust
in this way. Some have found Il
: same fault with it that they hal
s with t1lrnins saving that If tafnts ri