Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1905-06-07
Strong Healthy Chicks.

means exhausted. Thousands of chick
ems are Matched every year, only to
droop and die before they are a month
old. In a multitude of counselors
here is a safety We hope by giving
the experience of many poultry keep
ers to show that much of the loss is
avoldable and unnecessary. The fol-
lowing is from The Successful Poul-
try Journal:
The breeding stock and the incuba-
tor are often wrongly blamed for the
chicks being weak and pgfny, many of
them dying the first few weeks when
in fact the trouble is due to the i'm
proper care of the eggs during the pc
riod of incubation. If you want good
strong. lusty chicks that will go
through to maturity, scratching for a
living, always in the very pink of con-
dition, study we'll the conditions that
you surround them with, while the
tender germs are %sprouting into life.
Do not allow the temperature of your
incubator room to run below sixty de-
grees, keep the ventilators wide open
from the start, lower the upper sash
of the south window all the way down
during the day. except when raining or
windy. close window at night and open
a door leading into an adjoining room
or hall. give them all the pure fresh
air possible, but guard against drafts.
Hold temperature of egg chamber at
1O3. mark eggs and turn them half
I'VE twice daily, bring the eggs from
the outer sides of the trays to the cen
tire each time. in order to equalize the
heat. air them down to the same tenn
perature as your hand; they should not
feel cool to the touch: test out on the
eleventh day, discard all clear eggs and
those having streaks running through
them. The eggs do not develop uni
formly; most of the eggs you have left
will be very Opaque, a few will be
doubtful; these are only somewhat tar
dy; mark them plainly. give them ex-
ira heat by placing them on top of the
others in the warmest part of the ma
chine. and they will o o catch up with
their neighbors. After the eleventh
day prolong the airing, gradually in
~creasing the tima, allow your machine
to stand open five minutes with the
eggs, exercise the eggs at each time of
airing by rolling them under the palms
of the hands. give them plenty of air
and exercise: action is the very life Of
animal growth. Test a second time on
sixteenth day: notice your tardies; it
you have given them a little extra care
they will be up with the crowd. They
will pip at the close of the nineteenth
day. Close the ventilators, at
1852 to 104. do not open the machine
under any circumstances, and in ten OF
twelve hours they will clean you up 4
hatch of big strong chicks. that will
live through thick and thin. All this
talk about weak breeding stock is
bosh. It's only an eXcuse used for the
worthless incubators. If the spark of
life is present in the egg surround it
with proper conditions and it will de-
velop into q vigorous organism. The
fact that the tardy eggs can be hurried
along is proof Of this. -
Wood AsTle and Kainit For Potatoes.
r. n. H. E%vington, writes: Il would
like some information as to the value Of
wood ashes and kainit for potatoes
Kainit, as you probably know, is
potash in its crude form. 1t is a low
grade of potash. as only12R per cent.
is actually available for plant food,
and as it is mixed With considerable
quantities of salt and chlorides it is
not as satisfactory q potato fertilizer
as the sulphate. Besides that. it is
so low in available plant food that it
is one of the most costly forms in
which potash can be used because you
will observe that a large amount OF
virtually waste material is shipped in
every ten. Therefore the cost of pot
ash in kainit is relatively higher than
in the more concentrated forms.
Wood ashes make a satisfactory fer
tiliZer for gardens and for the potato
crop as well. Their value depends a
good deal on the source from which
they are derived and the treatment
Illet nave IoCplNCu. NSdCS liz \OAA
tain considerable amounts of lime and
a very small amount of phosphoric
acid, SO that they are useful i'll pro
viding other forms of plant food. The
average analysis of commercial wood
ashes shows them to contain about 3
to Z per cent. of potash, l to ? per cent.
of phosphoric acid and from % to 80
per cent. of lime. This, Of course, is
for the unleached form. Leached ashes
frequently contain only 1 per cent. of
potash, ~ per cent. of phosphoric
acid and % to 80 per cent. of lime.
Where ashes that have been protect
ed from the water a be purchased
at a low cost they provide potash in
a satisfactory form and should be util-
lied on gardens and in orchards.
Should one desire to provide fifty
pounds of available potash for each
acre Of land, it would be necessary to
use about 500 pounds of wood ashes
to the acre.