The Savannah morning news., 1903-03-16
FARM,
Profit and Pleasure of Poultry.

Profit and Pleasure of Poultry.
There are two important facts in re-
gard to poultry that are not. generally
known, and which must be known to
insure the highest success in the bust
ness. One of these is that one bushel
of wheat is worth more than half
dozen bushels of corn as an egg pro-
Queer Wheat is worth its price any
time to feed to laying hens, and es
pecially ought ii to be the food used
from November to March. Corn is
very fattening, much more so than
wheat, and laying fowls fed two much
of corn will soon get too fat to be good
layers AS soon as the weather begins
to get cold late in autumn the poultry
house should be made as warm as pos
sible by closing all the openings that
admit any cold wind to the roosts.
During the moulting season begin to
feed wheat and continue ii during the
winter, and the fowls will lay eggs
right along without regard to the
weather.
The other fact in regard to poultry
is that the young chicks should be
fed on whole grain from the start.
Discard dough entirely. Keep the
young chickens in as warm, dry
place as possible, furnish them with
pure water, keep their coops clean by
moving them frequently. Do not feed
at all until chickens are "a to % hours
old, and then feed them with some
small grain. German millet. ivory
wheat or sorghum seed. AS a rule, the
German millet can be bought at very
reasonable price, but the poultry raiser
can we'll afford to SOW an acre of ivory
wheat for this purpose Young chick
ems thus fed and cared for will rarely
have any disease.
Disease in poultry is not easily cur
ed, but ii is easily prevented by
cleanliness, pure water and whole food,
and this is the secret of successful
poultry raising. The secret of success
full egg production is comfortable
quarters in winter and feeding wheat
instead of corn. 1t viii be a little better
if a part of the wheat ration is parch-
ed. With a few exceptions the dis
eases of fouls generally are owing to
impure water. If fouls are made too
fat from a corn diet exclusively many
of them are likely to die during the
laying season from rupture.
plot of sufficient size should be
sown TO barley or other grain early in
the fall for the benefit of the poultry,
and the poultry should never be con-
fined in close quarters long at a time.
In our Southern climate it is only a
very small portion of the winter when
1t is necessary to keep them in their
house and then only a few days at a
time.
The poultry house should have two
divisions at least-one exclusively for
rOosting, and one for laying and set
ting. The water vessels should be so
arranged as to present their walking
or standing in it.
A shallow box containing dry ashes
should always have place in the poul-
try house for the fowls to dust them
selves in and thus prevent lice.
In setting the hens place a half tea
spoonful of sulphur in the nest. The
fumes of the sulphur will permeate
every feather of the foul and prove a
sure preventive of lice. Where the
Matching nests are made in boxes be
sure to have several inches of sand
and soil, under a slight covering of straw
This will preserve a uniform tempera-
ture. Be careful not to put too many
eggs under a hen. not over fourteen.
Twelve generally is better. The roost-
ing poles always have round poles),
should occasionally be painted with
kerosene oil and the inside of the
house and boxes whitewashed occas-
ionally. The droppings should be
scraped up about once a week and put
with lime or a copious sprinkling of
landplaster would be better.
1t should be a ground floor. and
raised sufficiently to prevent any wa
ter running in and standing on it.