The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-12

per plan of feeding supplying all of the ground grains and part of the scratch ! feeds in this way. On the farm, with l it's many cares and duties to adopt hop | per feeding is to bring the labor cost down to the lowest lint of safety. One of the simplest and best dry mash hoppers which l have ever used is made ] of an ordinary box say 16 inches square and five inches deep. A lath frame, cov- cred with two-inch mesh wire netting fits loosely in this resting directly on the mash. As the feed is eaten this frame drops down, permitting the birds to help themselves, but preventing them from wasting the material by scratching it out. l have been asked if the droppings did not get into food fed in this way Not much will be found; not enough to offset
 the advantages of the small cost of mak- ing and the ease of filing A simple mash mixture that has worked
 well Tn use on the farm can be made as follows. The parts are given by meas ure
 Bran, two parts
 Ground oats, one part
 Cornmeal, one part
 Middlings, one part
 Fish or meat scrap. one part. For summer scratch feed, one full feed a day, l have got fine results from the following mixture:
 Best Canada oats. two parts: sound cracked corn, one part. and good wheat, two parts
 This is fed an hour before sunset: all the hens will eat in To minutes. In good
 weather we throw 1t out in the end of the yards away from the houses Tn
 winter the amount of corn can be in creased to good advantage. as the hens need more heating food to offset the low temperature.
 frl.-
 The farm provides abundant supplies of green food. Best of all will be free ac- cess to standing clover alfalfa or grass
 If the stock is confined in bare yards, 1t will be necessary to supply something daily to take the place of the greens that can De picked up on free range. At certain seasons I make use of grass. cut in half-fnch lengths; also liberal feeding Of the big roots, such as mangels or soft and poor-headed cabbage in the autumn
 Dry cut clover or alfalfa will partly take
 the place of green food but is never quite equal to the fresh-cut product direct from the field. In the absence of either dry or cut clover, and often when I am feeding either, l use dried sugar beet pulp. This is waste product from the
 beet sugar factories, and is appreciated nearly as much by poultry as by the cows.
 At the beginning of the breeding season l like to add the dry beet pulp to the dry mash for all my breeding stock. The usual plan to feed beet pulp is to soak it
 In water and then feed to the hens. I put mine into the dry mash and supply more water to drink as 1t swells several times
 it's size. In the dry state it never sours. something that cannot be said of 1t when wet and kept long.
 The average member of the farm flock should lay 12 dozen eggs each year. know that this has been done by bullets on more than one farm though far higher than the figures so often given by gov ernment reports. To get this record there has to be careful breeding and selection having bullets to do the utility laying as well as yearlng hens to produce the eggs for hatching Careful selection of eggs for incubators will improve the color of the eggshell improve the size and shape of the egg and give product that will command the top price of your market.
 The profitable farm flock cannot Ie picked up offhand from neighbors. cannot be maintained without thought and labor will not lay 12 dozen eggs a year on an average, without intelligent work on the part of the owner If I had to eliminate the poultry department of my farm and look to other things to make my farm pay, I should seriously consider going back to the practice of medicine. With the poultry doing so we'll with the added profits of the fruit and vegetables. have never been sorry that I put off the harness six years ago and bought my present farm in hill country of Massa- chusetts It is long hours busy days, but now l plan my work and reap the re- ward Give me the real life on the farm with it's health and independence. I have tried the other.