Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-10-27
Our Winter Egg Producers.

| Our winter Egg producers.
In almost every poultry yard may
be found possible egg producers, and
whether we shall have winter eggs in
abundance, or not, depends largely
upon what we are now doing and how
we are doing it. A long dry summer
has been on the whole, advantageous
for our Minnesota poultry yards. Young
chickens have made good growth. The
pullets must soon begin to lay and
they will do their part if you and do
ours. Many little matters there are
to be looked after. land" our busy
farm poultry keeper will say. "how can
one find time for all those extras %
"a stitch in time you know, and just
now the yards. coops and colony houses
must be cleaned and fumigated. Leave
| no corners untouched for mite or louise
to hide away in. It's fumigate and
clean. and clean and fumigate, IL we
would have our winter eggs. Nothing
pays better than cleanliness and moth
ing is more often neglected. White
wash the coops and nest boxes, and
put all in good order.
Do not neglect the many repairs that
are needed. An ill-fitting door caus-
ing a draught on some cold fall night,
may be the beginning of roup. Chick
ems that sleep in the tree tops will not
take cold as easily (tho I would not
advise the tree-top perch), as those
kept In a poorly ventilated, draughty
house. See that all cracks and crew.
| ices are closed, make sure that
draughts are unknown and then ar
range your muslin front for supply
OF pure fresh air. This work must all
be done while the weather Is warm
and the days pleasant.
And then the scratch pen. To me
lit is an important factor in the winter
egg production problem. Keep the hens
clean and busy, and your problem IS
almost solved. But sometimes 1t Is
hard to find the material for the litter.
Straw that is bright and clean or the
bottom of a hay stack, or the broken
bits at the bottom of the hay-chute all
make good litter for the scratch pen.
Clean leaves are fine for change.
There is nothing that hen seems to
enjoy more than morning scratch
among a quantity of clean dry leaves.
There is the rustic of the leaves and
an occasional belate insect that seems
to give added zest to her busting
search for her breakfast. 1t is the
bringing of portion OF the woods to
our winter hen-yard
Don't make the mistake of gather
ing damp leaves; they must be per-
fectly dry or they will become musty
and we must avoid anything OF that
nature Many OF our worst diseases
and disorders are traced directly to
musty food or litter. So before we
gather our leaves let us make sure
that there are boxes or barrels where
they may be stored and kept perfect
y dry. This year it may be difficult
to obtain material for the scratch pen,
so 1t may be we'll to give the matter
"a little consideration and plan for
supply. Sanitas Is always excellent.
but the straw. chaff and leaves can be
found near at home and If clean an
swer the purpose very well. So many
things must be done in the fall In
prepa ration for our long cold winters.
that very often our chickens are lett
until cold snap brings cold and roup
that often keep the egg basket empty
during the winter months
Prepare the winter quarters early
and get the pullets in their new sur
roundings and ready for business.
That is what we all want and what we
have been working for all summer.
business that brings money in winter.
Save tho cornstaIks.
Besides suggesting to farmers the
Importance Of saving their straw this
fall the people at the Minnesota Uni
versity farm also urge the Importance
of saving all cornstalks, to accompany
the straw as winter roughage. thus
making saving in hay, the scarcity
of which necessitates the greatest
economy In its use.
Ii is believed that the 1910 hay crop
all over the west is much behind the
usual ten year average; and that next
winter will develop prices at which
farmers will think they can better af-
ford to sell their hay and feed the
cheaper roughage than to feed hay to
stock. On this point, however. 1T VIII
be we'll for the farmer TO be very sure
that he has sufficiency of fodder be-
fore parting with his hay, to the detri-
ment of his stock
| With the use of corn binders the
aving of fodder is not a difficult mat
| ter If the farmer has not enough
stock to consume his entire acreage OF
fodder he will find other farmers who
are without enough, and who have
stock which it will be profitable to buy,
| to use what surplus fodder is stored
4 from the corn uelOS. save tle Coi II
| fodder!
| Calf.
| The rearing of the calf is a very i'm
portant part of the dairymans work.
and still we find that many dairymen
pay little or no attention to how this
work is done, and 1t Is a safe guess
that they ofen pay dearly for their
negligence or ignorance. If calf is to
become a good COW it must have proper
care at all times, beginning the day it
is born. BY good care we mean not
only a good place to sleep and plenty
to eat, but it should be fed regularly
and in sanitary manner.
We find that opinions differ greatly
with different people as to what
should be called sanitary for a calf,
and the low standard some people have
for sanitation in general, is no doubt
responsible In a large measure for the
carelessness every often displayed in
feeding the calf
In some districts we find it COM
mon practice to feed the calves their
milk in a trough, and this may not be
wrong, provided the trough is kept
clean and sanitary, but we find that
in many cases it Is not cleaned at all
and this is certainly an imposition on