The St. Mary banner., 1910-06-18
POINTS FOR POULTRYMAN.

eggs are expected. Beef scraps,
green cut bone, blood meal or chop
ped raw beef will take the place OF
the bugs and worms they pick up dur
ing the summer, but something must
also be provided to take the place
of the tender blades of grass picked
here and there Grains are concen-
trated in themselves to form the
whole diet. The starch in them be
comes pasty and sticky after be2om-
ing moist and will not move along
easily through the fowls peculiarly
formed alimentary canal unless there
is some bulky substance mixed with
the food In fact. it requires very
much less food if bulky green foods
of some kind are fed regularly and,
OF course, they are much cheaper.
At first thought it would seem al
most impossible to have a supply OF
green food during the winter with
out great cost, but this need not be
ways of supplying this part Of the ra-
ton. Apple parings and cabbage
leaves which you'd otherwise be
wasted in the kitchen can be chopped
up with vegetable cutter in pieces
small enough for the fowls to swal-
low, and they form an excellent sub
stitute for the grasses of summer.
Heads of cabbage may be hung up IN
the scratching shed SO the fowls will
be required to jump for them. This
also provides exercise Care should
be taken. though, not to feed too
much cabbage, as it will taint the
eggs. If turnips are plentiful they
may also be fed in this manner. In
the last few years alfalfa has been
placed upon the market in the form
of a bulky meal for poultry A guam
tity of the meal is scalded with hot
water the night before it is used.
1t turns as green as grass as soon
as it is scalded, but it should be left
covered tightly for several hours.
1t should then be mixed with the
mash food to form about fourth OF
the quantity in bulk.
Pure, clean clover hay is equally
good chopped up and scalded and fed
in this manner or a bale OF clover
hay may be left in some out-of-the-
way place for the fowls when it Will
be found the leaves will all soon be
picked from the stems. Then the
bale may be torn apart. 1t will sur
prise some to think of fowls eating
hay, but they will actually eat all the
leaves from the clover stems, SO
much do they relish bulky food. The
COW beat or mangle wurzel forms
very cheap and efficient green 1000
for poultry, but they can scarcely
ever be purchased on the market. II
you want a supply of green food for
your fowls next year SOW a small
quantity of the seed along in July or
engage some farmer to grow some
for you. If you live in the suburbs
possibly there is a hot-house near
which raises lettuse during the winter.
The waste leaves may be obtained at
small cost. Sprouted oats makes an
other good form of green food for
winter USE The grain is sown thick
by in a sprouting box or tray and
kept at a moderate temperature un-
til the young plants reach a height OF
two or three inches.
The fifteen pullets owned by A. +.
Schuh, of Richmond. reported as hav-
ing laid 24S eggs during December
have repeated this record during
January by laying 244 eggs and DUR
ing the first half of February laying
11S eggs. These fifteen hens nave
been confined in coop six by twelve
feet, and have only been let out OF
doors six or seven days in the last
eleven weeks.
Incubators and brooders should be
overhauled and renovated
several days before using them. You
will probably find parts of the lamp
tanks rusted through or
broken.
Hens should not be required to
Jump down into the nest. If eggs are
in the nest they are very likely to be
broken and the hen becomes an egg
eater. Nests should always have en-
frances from the front.
Reports of the domestication of the
wild mallard duck are being received.
and for some unaccountable reason
they are becoming quite popular, At
the recent show held here there were
more entries in this variety than all
other varieties of ducks combined.
The drake makes quite a striking ap-
pearance. with his bright green me-
tallic head, narrow white ring about
his neck. blue gray body and dark
wings The female is a beautiful