The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-02-19

To set eggs in winter four things
are essential-proper stock, proper
feed. proper housing and proper care.
To decide what is proper is where the
rub comes in. BY proper stock L do
not mean any particular breed or
fowls for | believe there is more in
the feed than in the breed" and the
proper age and conditions of the
birds 1t has been demonstrated by
scores of experiments both in this
and foreign countries. that pullets
will lay in the proportion of two eggs
TO one for three-year- old hens, the ac-
cepted ratio being 200 eggs per year
for pullets, $50 for 2year-old hens
and 100 for 3-year-old hens. Old hens
generally lay in the summer time,
and when almost anything will lay,
gut the pullets if you get them to lay
ing before the cold weather sets in,
will lay all winter and well into the
summer. They have got to lay in
winter for there are not days
enough in summer for them to shell
out 200 or more eggs.
The most essential is proper feed.
Winter is not the natural time for a
hen or any Of the feathered tribe to
lay. Summer with its warmth and
bugs. insects, green grass and vege-
tables, is the ideal time for laying
hens We must therefore, if we
would obtain eggs in winter. try and
make the conditions of winter similar
to those Of summer In summer the
hen gets bugs and insects by the hum
dred. In winter we must provide her
with something to take the place of
these, in theway of cut green bone,
beef scraps, boiled liver, hearts,
lights, etc In the place of the green
grass of summer we must feed her
with cabbage. turnips, mangels, small
potatoes and sucn Ike.
1 have experimental with dry feed
and mashes and have demonstrated
that it is best to feed only a small
proportion in mash form, and that at
noon. In the morning l would feed
corn and millet seed. This l would
place in the scratching shed in five
or six inches deep Of cut straw or
milet hay, and let the hens scratch
for this until noon. At noon l would
feed a mash of the following proper
tons: One pound pea meal. one pound
corn meal, one pound bran, one pound
fresh meat scraps or boiled liver, one
pound of cut green bone, one pound
of alfalfa meal or two pounds cut
alfalfa, four pounds of boiled pota-
toes, one pound of boiled rice.
would moisten this with skim milk
not making it too wet, but crumbly
consistency. would change some
Of these ingredients on different
days, substituting barley for corr
meal or rye mean for bran. | would
boil a beef head, or liver, lights and
the heart of COWS or hogs, feed the
boiled meat in place of the beef
scraps and moisten the mash with
the soup instead of the SKINNED milk
/ would salt this soup and mash t
make it more palatable. At night
would feed cracked corn, soaked oats
peas (split or whole) and sunflowel
seeds / would vary the night feeC
by feeding Kaffir corn, rye, barle,
and buckwheat lin place of the othel
cereals Fowls like every living crea
ture. like variety of food-samenes:
stalls on them. l would therefore hav,
no Mede or Persian law that never
changes, no set rule or law to go by
but give them as many changes o
diet as l could, always rememberin.
that the foods of the highest nutritiv,
ratio are peas. sunflower seeds
wheat, rye, oats. millet, barley, corn
Pure water. of course, should b,
provided at all times. and skim mill
as drink should be found profitabl,
and beneficial. Grit, oyster shells
and shell-forming materials shoult
be provided. AS conditioner / would
occasionally feed a little flax SEED
meal in their mash. / would cha
some corn and feed it warm on cole
days Green corn feed should b,
supplied literally. A cabbage or bee
hung up in the pen is good to induce
the hens TO exercise themselves.
/ give no stated quality of feed
to so many hens for the simple rea-
son that fowls vary in appetites ac-
cording to breed. size and condition
and a rule for one flock of fowls
would not apply to another. l be-
lieve in liberal feeding. Feed all they
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