The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-05-15
SIDE LINE FOR DAIRY FARMS.

The following is the substance of
an address by H. F. Rau, of Tacoma,
that was given at Washington State
Dairymen's Association meeting at
Chehalis:
/ am pleased to be here today to
talk to this gathering of prominent
dairymen of the State of Washington.
You are the ones who are making the
dairy industry a paying BUSINESS, and
it is because you educate yourselves
in modern dairy methods. No doubt
many of your neighbors are not so
successful, and that is because they
devote all their time to hard work
and do not read or study. They still
have their old cow barns with no
light or ventilation, and the old herd
of poor mixers. They know nothing
of balanced rations-about the only
thing they do know is that clarifying
don't pay"
Now, We have this class trying to
raise poultry, and they are the ones
you hear say: Chickens don't pay"
| want to tell you that chickens do
pay, if properly cared for, and no.
where can poultry be handled with as
large profits as on the dairy farm.
The waste and by-products of the
cost of feeding the fowls, and no one
feed is better than skinned milk for
chickens of all ages.
There may be some here who at
some time thought their poultry did
not pay them. If so, I can say that
they did not give their poultry the
same care and attention they are now
giving their paying dairy herds. Fowls
require proper housing. 1t is just as
essential to give hens comfortable
quarters as it is for COWS. Keep the
floor we'll Uttered and feed all grain
in this litter, to make the fowls work
for it. Keep skinned milk before
them all the time in addition to wa
ter.
At the present price of feed it will
cost a poultryman $1.75 to feed a hen
one year. On a dairy farm you can
reduce this cost by one-half, if not
more, by feeding the waste litter from
the barns. This will contain much
grain and seeds. In addition, feed the
waste vegetables; and you also have
the skim milk to mix the mash and
for ne chickens to drink.
a flock properly cared for will give
us ten dozen eggs each per year. The
average price for eggs in the Sound
markets is 80 cents per dozen. Each
hen will, therefore, produce So per
year, which will leave you dairymen
handsome profit. The value of 100
hens is about equal to one good cow.
Has anyone present a cow that is do
ing that we'll? What will it cost to
raise this flock of 100 hens? Moth
ing! And this is why:
Half the chickens Matched are cock
erels. At the age of ten or twelve
weeks put these cockerels in fatten-
ing crates and feed on a fattening
food, made of one part barley mid
dlings, one part white shorts and one
part fine corn meal, wet with skim
milk so it will be like pancake bat
ter. At the end of from IA to 20 days
you will have a milk-fed chicken that
will bring the highest market price
of any poultry, and will sell for enough
to pay for feeding the cockerels and
the pullets to laying age. And when
the hens are through laying they can
be sold and this added to the profit.
The way to keep the boy on the
farm is to give him a personal inter-
est in the farm. The best way to do
this is to give him start with chick
ems, allowing him all profits from the
flock after paying for all feed bought
for the chickens, and l will assure
you that his profits from one hundred
hens will clothe him and furnish him
with an abundance of pocket money.
Tho idaa IF nerfact comfort should