The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1913-04-11
BACK YARD FARMER
interesting Pointers on Garden
f. ing for the City Man or
Suburbanite.
WHAT TO PLANT AND when
Advice by an Expert on Agricultural
Matters-chickens and Winter
laying-Raising Small Fruit
Garden lnformation.

II you want eggs next winter, you
must get some of this years chickens
Matched mighty soon. This is the
most important consideration in get
ting winter eggs. Get the pullets
Matched early, keep them growing as
fast as is safe. get them into their
winter quarters before snow flies next
fall, and you will have no trouble get
ting the eggs from your flock while
most OF your neighbors are paying i've
cents apiece for theirs.
OF course there are number of 9TH
or things that are of prime importance
in securing satisfactory number of
eggs during the off season. but the
one great essential feature is early
Matching. With some breeds of chick
ems the middle Of February ia none too
early for the first matches, and Ply
mouth Rocks Matched then will often
begin to lay early in August, and will
lay right through the winter without
skipping. The smaller breeds can
come along in March and early in
April, but pullets Matched later than
this will frequently fail to mature be-
fore cold weather sets in, and will
often be delayed several months in
starting to lay.
The pullet that lays her first few
eggs before frost stands, an excellent
| chance Of keeping it up right through
the winter. The pullet that does not
lay before frost is frequently discour-
aged from exercising her acquired
function until the advent of the nat
ural laying season, and that is when
we need her eggs least of all.
Old hens do not. as a rule, begin to
lay until toward the end of the win
ter. They mott late in the fall and
are not In full feather before cold
weather comes on. Getting, as they
necessarily do, long rest, their eggs
are usually larger, heavier shelled,
more fertile and more hatchable than
these Of pullets that have been laying
during the cold weather. For this rea-
son it is much preferable to set eggs
from mature hens for Matching pur-
poses.
When you are saving eggs for hatch
ing, be sure to gather them as soon as
possible after they are laid, so as to
avoid the possibility Of the germ get
ting chilled. Eggs will freeze in a re-
markably short time in the nest. New
er attempt to set eggs that have been
chilled.
Bring the eggs into room with an
even temperature above the freezing
point, place them in a receptacle with
the small end downward, and cover
them up to prevent evaporation. Set
them as soon as possible after laying,
as it has been proven time and again
that every day which passes lessons
the chances of an egg to hatch q
strong lively chick.
Unless you are going to set at least
hundred eggs this spring an incuba-
tor will not pay you, except in the
fact that it will enable you to hatch
your chickens whenever you desire to
do SO, instead of waiting for hens to
feel inclined to set. For the average
city poultry keeper an incubator is an
extravaganza. The small flock will
not lay eggs fast enough to fill up the
smallest incubator, and it will be bet
ter either to depend on hens for your
Matching under such conditions, or to
buy day-old chicks from some of the
large hatcheries in your vicinity. The
setting hen is great nuisance in ev.
cry way, and she is a persistent time
killer, wasting not only her own time,
but that of her owner, but man has
never yet been able to develop a
brooding device that would take her
place in the small flock. For this rea-
son, even if you do buy your little
chicks, it will be we'll to have hen
about ready to come of when you get
these chicks, slip them under her the
night they arrive, and SHE will raise