The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1909-01-28
The tsunbua Of oyertesdIns


many OF our poultry and In still more
Of onr farm journals. warning us
against feeding our poultry too much.
Why this constant warning, We can
not for the life OF us understand, and
WIN il is that the same. or other
writers, do not give our poultry a lit
tie rest bg warming dairy nien hog
men and Others not to oyerfeed their
cows and hogs. This would be far
more sensible, beside giving us q
Little change and rest.
we repeat what We have said many
times before, that we will not keep
poultry on our farm that it is possible
to make less profitable by oyerfeed-
ing
Wherever we so NE find farmers
and others who the first thing after
we turn to- see their poultry ask, !" Are
your hens laying? When we anvari-
ably reply yes, and there is not
day in the year when we no not get.
some eggs we are generally told
with a doubling infection: Well,
mine don't lay, and can't make them
law more taaanShalf, on two-thirds pos
stbly. Of the time. cant see why
your hens lay and nairie don't I we
are sometimes asked to look the build
ings over to see if anything is wrong
with them. More frequently the
breed is suggested as q possible e1-
iDianatjon Of the non-laying. Every
thing but the right thing-s'ood I've
active young birds, clean wholesome
quarters ana an abundance and varse-
ty OF egg making food.
Nearly always IN these non-laying
cases we are asked If We think they
are feeding too heavily, and nine
times out OF ten they are not feeding
more than half enough. Perhaps AL
one kind OF grain is being fed. and
that rats or barley, neither one OF
which are fit to feed a hen wholly,
and expect anything like satisfactory.
results.
A farmer told us recently that his
llens were laying fine ON barley alone.
We went some distance to look into
the matter. AND found they hal for
months been running to a pile OF
chaffy wheat screenings left by the
side of two nearby wheat settings,
The barley he threw to them they
scarcely touched. Our own birds will
not not pick 1t up when thrown to them
unless we starve them to It, and that
we never do. for we keep hens for
eggs as well as fun.
We firmly believe that nine out OF
ten hens are underfed, and we do
not believe that one out of ten thous-
and lis overfed 1t is just possible to
overfeei a good specialpurpose dairy
COW in full flow or milk as it is to-
overfeed hen
n IT'S true that these overlarge beet
type" fowls can get too fat for lay
ing, but no one at all acquainted with
the first principles Of poultry keep
ing would keep this class Of birds for
eggs, unless they were trying TO see
how much they could make an egg
cost. The high class, active, forag
ing laying strains OF fowls, if given
their freedom, cannot be overfed, but
will lay all the better for having
all the feed OF the right kind, they
will pick up
Frequently a flock needs but just a
little more feed than they are getting
to set them to laying first class. They
are fed, Perhaps, just enough to keep
them looking we'll and in fair flesh,
but without particle Of food to1
spare for egg production. We often
see floods in Just this condition, and
then if a little wheat, fresh meat and
vegetable food is added they will all
go to laying at once within a sur
prisingly short lime. It sometimes
costs almost as much to keep non
laying focks as 1t does to keep one in
the flush Of laying. Dakota Farmer.
Agricultural collese.-Half Minute
Talks No. I.
How about setting out a windbreak
next spring?
When you clean up your seed wheat
no matter how free from smut it APP
pears, put it thru the smut cleaner.
A few dollars Of presentation may
save a good many hundred dollars Of
loss.
Few Dakota farmers are Seeding
az, n,,o OH .uy1,eaf nar a GRO "a hilShA1 ard