Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-11-11

| of milk-feeding chickens in crates is
less per pound gain in live weight than
for similar chickens confined in houses
or fed on range. The reason is that
the crate-fed chicken does not exercise
and use part of the food to repair his
muscle-what he eats goes to the de-
velopment of edible flesh
Another method of finishing these
! ten weeks old cockerels is to confne
| them for two weeks in an open-front
! house and feed twice daily a mash of
equal parts of corn meal, ground oats.
wheat shorts and meat scraps (prime
feeding cottonsecd meal can be sub
stituted for meat scraps in the South)
| mixed crumbly wet with water. At
noon scatter grain in the litter Equal
parts of cracked corn, wheat and kaf-
FIR corn Cor oats, barley, buckwheat, or
cane seed) is a good mixture. South
ern poultrymen should add one part
of cowpeas by weight to the grain
mixture. If you have buttermilk or
sour skim milk you can use the regula-
tion milk feeding diet, giving the thin
slop morning and evening and the grain
mixture at noon. Have a vessel of
drinking water in the house. Clean the
house frequently and eradicate the
parasites.
Always confine poultry for two weeks
before selling. Confinement, with les
sened exercise softens the tissues of
the muscles, and the food increases the
amount of edible flesh Selling tough,
unfinished. thin chickens off the range
will injure the reputation of any
poultryman.
selling to Commission Merchant
One of the best methods of selling
these twelve weeks old fattened chick
ems is to ship them alive to a commits
! sion merchant in a large city. Your
state Department of Agriculture can
furnish the name and address of the
nearest reliable commission merchant
to whom to consign your poultry.
Empty, light weight, shipping crates
will be loaned by the commission house
| that will receive your consignment
/ When the crates arrive by express the
fattened broilers are we'll fed and wa
tered, weighed and placed in the crates
and expressed to market. They should
reach the commission house on Monday,
Tuesday, or Wednesday. so that they
can be dressed and sold to the house,
wife the latter part of the week. 1t
is advisable to place a small box of
grain and dish for water in each
crate Ship the chickens in the even
ing, to arrive at the destination the
next morning or afternoon.
Breeders of the Single Comb White
Leghorns, the breed best adapted to
stocking poultry farms that specialize
in white eggs. should sell the cock
erels at not over twelve weeks old. At
this age they bring printable price
when well fattened but after the comb
of the cockerel develops, and his spur
hardens, it is difficult to sell him for
more than the price of an old rooster
| Broilers and frys can be killed and
shipped in iced barrels, but where the
distance between the producer and sell
Ter is not over 500 miles and the
seller will pay good price for live chick
ems, selling the chickens alive is recon-
mended to owners of small poultry
farms.
Chickens to be killed should be starv-
ed at least fifteen hours. They should
not be fed in the evening. killed early
the next morning, and shipped to mar
ket by the night express. One of the
best methods of killing is by dislo-
cation of tn neck.
The feet and wings OF chicken are
grasped by the left hand, with back Of
the hand and chicken up. Insert the
head between the first and second
fingers of the right hand, with the
back of the hand toward the back of
the chicken. The comb is in the hollow
of the hand, the little finger resting
under the beak. Place the left hand
in front of the left hip and the right
hand ut the right knee. Then bend
the head of the chicken back az far
~ It will Sc. BY pressing the little