Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-11-16
WINTERS EGG BASKET
To Keep 1t Filled Is One of the Prob
lens OF the Farmers Wife.
(By Alma Cole Pickering.)

(By Alma Cole Pickering.)
THE fowls that lay eggs in mid
winter are product of high
civilization. Developed by
breeding, selection and feeding. an
abnormal performance, this changing
OF the fruitful season from early sum
mertime to mid-winter.
To obtain eggs in paying numbers
then IN winter, three essentials are re-
qulsite. First. that the fowls If pullets,
pc matched so as to reach the age of
reproduction before cold weather sets
In. Second, that springlike environ
ment be maintained. Third, proper
care.
CHICKS of Asiatic breeds-Brahmas
lCoch1ns, Langshans - should be
matched In February and March: the
american breeds in March and April
plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode
Island Reds. etc., while those of the
Mediterranean class (Leghorn, Mino-
ceas, etc., should first see the light
OF day the latter part Of April and
during the month of May-preferab
May. If these chickens are destined to
NIL the egg-basket in winter when
eggs bring best prices.
Matched earlier they almost invari-
ably go into second moulting when
TINS occurs such chicks rarely begin
laying till well on toward spring.
Hatched later than cited, they are
not matured sufficiently to begin law
ing before snowfall in this latitude
ana this climate change usually de-
lays reproduction until the normal
season of reproduction in bird-life.
IN natural or seni-natural condi-
ions OF egg production there is
warmth and mild air. Our biddies
tnen must be housed In dry, warm,
sunny shelters. we'll ventilated with
needful facilities for keeping clean:
this is the second and an important
requisite to profitable poultry keep
ing.
The third neutrality-suspicious. care.
BY proper care is meant suitable food
and sanitary cleanliness.
What shall be fed and how much 10
as momentous a question to the poul-
try raiser as to tie stockman. That
fowls must be fed such foods as are
required for their own sustenance and
enough more for egg production too,
is proven fact.
- SSSAoA4
forces as no other act does Our bid
dies will no more produce eggs with
out food suited to that purpose in adj
dition to the required essentials that
have been already cited than will a
factory that is satisfactorily builded
and equipped turn out the finished
product 1T was designed to, without
the raw materials
IOicaocf fla
range and in laying condition, though
the mass therein cannot be resolved
into all of Its original elements, there
are d1scerntble, grains tender bits of
grasses bugs. worms and grit.
Under natural conditions then, one
learns, a laying fowl seeks variety in
food and that variety consists of four
factors of vital import, -grain, green
food, meat and grit. Here then is a
basic principal from which a suited
ration may be compounded
Our own fowls Lave free access to
hoppers containing, grit, charcoal
ground feed-dry,-pure water in
clean vessels and to dust baths.
Formerly when feeding mash it was
netted to crumbly mass with milk.
II table scraps were to be had thew
were first cooked, a teaspoonful Of
baking s>da added to each one quart
of the ground feed into which these
scraps were stirred.
This was fed about 4 D. M, all that
the fowls would eat up clean, this
sending them to roost with full crops
Grain was scattered In the scratch
material after the fowls were on the
perch for the night so they might be
at work at peep Of dawn, thereby Sc
curing exercise needful to health and
warmth.
The ground feed If compounded at
home. was composed of one scoopful
of wheat-bran to one Of chopped corn
and oats equally halved. Later when
every pound of food must be bought
1r open market the Pinkerton Egg
Mash Meal was fed instead-fed dry.
Wheat being the principal grain fed.
Vegetables were substituted for the
simmer time green food Cabbage
hanged by the roots within easy
reach; mangel-werzels split in half
then impaled on spikes so the biddies
might pick the flesh from the outer
covering in a clearly manner with
added succulency in the form of
chopped onions and uncooked pota-
toes together with clover chaff and
dried leaves as scratch material and
roughage, minimized the grain bill
and kept the fowls comfortable. Wig
|orous, and productive
Meat? Was either ground green
bone or beef meal. If the former, one
half ounce to the fowl daily. if the
latter, it was hopper fed. they eating
as much as desired and whenever in
|clined to.
A tri-weekly cleaning of drop
boards; weekly spraying of perches;
a semi house cleaning, togeth-
er with the usage Of effective insecti-
cides keep down the vermin.
DON'T HURRY VINEGAR.
Some one asked about vinegar In
a cool cellar cider that has had
h oJI