Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-06-02
MATCHING TO ADVANTAGE.
Mr.. Fetch Takes Issue with the Adj
vocates Of March Chicks.

vOcates Of March Chicks.
1t Is safe to say that nine tenths Of
all the chickens raised IN the northern
half of our country are hatched be
tween April 10 and July Is Of each
year; that the May hatch viii come to
laying full month younger in life
than the March and April hatched
chicks from the same pen of ances-
tors, and that August Matched chicks
will lay at younger age than either,
but of course are not desirable, be-
cause we have to mature them in the
winter months, and the spring infiu-
ence upon them brings them to lay
ing before they have fully developed
and they never reach mature growth.
/ Again, how often have | asserted
that March produces the chicks with
the weakest vitality, and il they are
at all precocious in laying they usually
become broody early and many Of
them mott into premature old hens,
having grown three full coats of feath-
ers before they are year old, and are
reduced to culls and useless as high
class breeders.
Chickens Matched In May and kept
growing, with no setback, until Christ
mas time form the majority of the ex-
hibition winners The four most noted
Brahmas that ever raised birds that
won for no less than five different
breeders and grew to the large record
weights for the breed were hatched in
June, and it is an absolute fact that in
all my years of experience in poultry
culture nine-tenths of all the Brahmas
/ ever raised have been Matched be-
| tween May 10 and June 25.
The best Brahma cocks ever exhibit
| ed, and those that have made remark
able records dis producers, have been
| late Matched males that were kept
through their cockerel period in cell
| baey and in the following February
mated to pullets, yet in the face Of
| all this do we see Asiatic breeders
force the season to secure extra early
matches that they may have early fall
layers, and the consequence is that the
pullets are exhausted before the sea
son to hatch and rear their progeny
commences.
1t matters not what the locality, we
must adapt ourselves to its demands
| Were you in Texas, where the condi-
lions are favorable for growing fresh,
green vegetation every month in the
year, then you could produce chicks
the year around.
The most vigorous and healthy chicks
come from the forty eggs a pullet pro
duces after the first eight or ten she
lays and from the forty eggs the hen
lays after molting-Whe the eggs are
! large, firmly shelled and of even color
From these we get the phenomena
| birds that lay the most eggs and be
come the prize winners for US. Thus il
| will be seen that the chickens chances
/ are controlled before it Is born, SO tt
| speak, for its real birth is the egg.
| Chicks Matched from such eggs and
fed judiciousIy from the time they are
twenty-fou hours old until ready fol
the show pen will be strong, vigorous
and hardy, providing the parent stool
is properly bred and judiciously mated
They should be fed good, clean cracked
corn, oats, barley and wheat, ant
sweet ground beef scraps, and if yard
ed should be furnished with green food
The whole feed should be in the pro
portion of 10 per cent sweet meat, 2;
pei. cent grass or vegetable matter ans
i go per cent grain. Milk is whole foo'
and drink, but it should be scalded TO
their use until they are two weeks oil
and they will seldom have bowel com
plant.
We have before now Matched 10
Brahmas and raised 1O1 of them
among which were single specimen
that brought US 500. Clean water
clean grain, clean quarters, cleanliness
everywhere and in everything, mean
clean profit and pleasure in poultr.
culture-I K Fetch in Commercial
Poultry.