The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-02-27
FOOLS FOWLS BY
electric LIGHT
l.. S. Rawson of Frost Place
Increases Egg PrOduc-
ton Thereby
WELL SATISFIED
WITH RESULTS
Has Pen of Rose Comb Anconas,
Which He Thinks Superior to Rhode
Island Reds-Better Layers and Less
Expensive to Maintain.

L. S. Rawson of Frost place reads
with much amusement accounts of poul-
try. fanciers who are discovering that
electric lights in their hen houses aid
egg production. He is completing the
third winter during which he has per-
suaded, his hens to arise at ) clock
and get their egg laying over early in
the day.
It is nearly four years since Mr..
Rawsson established colony of Rhode
Island hens. That winter he had +. NJ.
Goodcnough wire the coop because he
had read that it helped in the egg pro-
ductlon. The experiment was salts
factory.
! Mr.. Rawson SAYS that the short days
in the winter are not long enough for
a hen TO eat more than enough to
keep body and soul together. They
have no time to eat enough TO enable
them to produce eggs. Hens insist on
4 retiring with the declining rays of the
sun and refuse to get up until day.
light or, under the present method Of
doing business, until they are fooled
by electric lights to believe that day
light really has arrived. The extra tive
hours or so III the morning gives the
hens time to eat enough for themselve:
and enough to help along in the matter
of producing eggs. Mr.. Rawson say,
the record of his pens of Rhode Is
land Reds, compared with others whicl
are not favored with artificial light
prove the theory and the increase il
the number of eggs far more than pay
the difference iii expense caused by tn
electric light bill.
But Mr.. RaWson was not satisfe,
with the work Of his Rhode Islam,
Reds. lie had read OF the remarkabl
ability Of rose comb Anconas as bre,
by H. Cecil Sheppard of Berea, O., an,
bought some of him. He was S
pleased with the first shipment tha
he bought a pen for exhibition pun
poses, but there was no Valley fai
last fall and the birds have not bee
exhibited publicly as yet.
The Anconas lay white or slightl
| tinted eggs about the size of thos
laid by Minorcas. They lay when yer
! young and are much more consistent i
. that important duty than are the Rhod
I Island Reds.
Y Furthermore, and what is very in
+ portant during the present regime Q
i high cost of living, they eat much les
II than the Reds or other heavy fowl
The hens weigh about four pounds eac
and the cocks about six.
a Mr. Rawson says that so far as
f knows there is only one other fancit
! in this part Of the state who has ros
Q comb Anconas and he is in Bennington
: The single comb Ancona has lars
. dropping comb. and the rose comb VI
: riety, he considers, is far more suite
= to the cold winters in New Englan
than birds with combs more susce
;, tible to frost. He is SO well Statistic
4 with his investment in this breed TIL
he plans to breed heavily from h
! show pen this spring.
= A Reformcr representative had Il
9 privilege Of inspecting the flock al
the houses few days ago and witho
pretending to any expert knowledge
fowls there seemed to be no reason
doubt Mr.. Rawson 5 opinion that
4 has an especially fine pen of varie
of very useful fowls. He had pick
up ~ eggs that day from 20 hens, wi
r a much larger percentage of them fr.e
the Anconas than from the Reds.