Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-27

Washington, April 26.-Of the vari-
Gus kinds of live stock, poultry is most
widely adapted to suburban conditions
for several reasons. 1t can be handled
successfully on very small amount OF
land. The waste products from the
kitchen and the table may be used to
advantage as feed. The care of the
chickens is pleasant work, is compare
lively simple, and may be done by any
member of the family. Eggs and
dressed poultry are always in de-
mand and may be sold to advantage
in any quantity, or used at home, thus
furnishing a strictly fresh product
which is hard to secure under general
market conditions; and in addition, the
care of poultry may provide recrea-
ton for adults, employment and good
discipline for the children, and be
source of income to the housewife, or
saving in the food account for the
family, say poultry specialists of the
Department of Agriculture.
The following breeds are among the
most popular in this country: Plym-
outh Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Is
land Reds, Orpingtons and Single
Comb White Leghorns. The Leghorns
belong to the egg-laying class OF fowls,
lay a white egg and are especially
adapted to large, commercial egg
farms, or to sections where white
egg brings a premium over brown eggs.
The other breeds belong to the general
purpose class, and lay brown eggs.
They are better adapted to the average
person, or the farmer who keeps only
a small number of fowls, as they
are good layers and also make good
table poultry. Another advantage or
the general-purpose breeds is that they
will hatch eggs and brood their chick
ems. while the LeghornS, and other
breeds of the egg-laying class are non
sitters.
A great variety of methods of feed
ing and careing for poultry are used
successfully Matching and brooding
or rearing chickens under hens, is the
best method to use where a small
number of chickens are raised, and es-
pecially if the care is apt to be irreg-
ular. Incubators and brooders may
be used also, but they increase the
cost of equipment considerably. Chick
ems can be reared under hens success
fully by keeping the hens confined
in the rood coop, while allowing the
chickens to roam at will.
When many fowls are kepe in
small space, the ground becomes so
foul that in time it becomes difficnit
to rear chickens with good success. In
order to avoid this condition, 1t is ad-
yisable to divide the lot and SOW part
of it with some of the quick-growing
grains such as, oats, wheat, or rye. by
this method the yards may be ro-
tated every three or four weeks dur
ing the growing season, turning the
hens onto the growing grain when 1t
is few inches high A good combi-
nation of grains is oats and wheat in
equal parts, sowing 6 or Z bushels to
the acre (43,560 so. ft), and using
wheat alone for the last seeding in the
fall.
The prime essentials in poultry
houses are fresh air, dryness, sunlight,
and space enough to keep the birds
comfortable. Allow about 4 square
feet of floor space per bird for the
| general purpose breeds, and 3 square
feet for the smaller breeds. A good
egg-laying ration may be made of a
dry mash of equal parts of corn meal,
bran, middlings and beef scrap, which
is kept before the birds in a hopper all
of the time; and scratch ration of
equal parts Of corn, wheat and oats
fed in litter to inches deep twice