The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1921-12-22
MEDINA. OHIO, DEC. %, 1921

~ AAoAlSu AutO tIlG HldIkGt dt 50 early
q date. The prediction of a long,
cold wirtser made them dream of dol
lar eggs tor their product that cost
less than one-third that price. But
you know dreams do not always come
true. Egg producers can fight to a
finish the cold storage men if they
only would. OF this matter we will
speak a little later in the season.
To return to our subject, if we
would aim to catch the high, fall
prices which have been sure to come
OF late years, we must plan to hatch
early pullets, swat the cockerels, and
push them to begin egg production
not later than September 1. Fail
and winter egg production is not SO
difficult ii we Only plan for it and
go at it right ;and the more poultry
ralsers get this into their heads and
follow 1t up by really getting busy
along those lines, the more it will
make the storage men hustle to make
their usual big haul, by crowding
their goods onto the market Just as
the prices begin to pay the poultry
men for their hard work and feed.
There are those who like to raise big
husky cockerels for the holiday trade.
Well, it is rather a nice sight to
see lot of big bright-looking cocker
els being fed by their care-taker
along in the month of October, when
tney are fast approaching the time
they shall be called upon to initiate
a turkey at some ones Thanksgiving
dinner. Well, now, laying all Joking
aside, how far does a 5 or 6 pound
tat Plymouth Rock cockerel come
from beating the best turkey to be
found, tor Thanksgiving, Christmas.
New Years, or any other old time?
Many OF us know it's fact, but some
OF US won't own it up, on account
OF the difference in name, and insist
on having a real turkey for Thanks
giving even at 81 cents a pound.
rather thar pay 35 cents pound for
fine big fat chicken, and have some
thing really good.
Now. in order to grow and prop
erly feed for the holiday market
these big fine chickens, they should
be separated from the pullets when
quite young. Small or deformed
ones should also be culled out. leay-
ing an even bunch SO that all viii
have an equal chance to make fast
growth, ard at the proper time take
on lat rapidly; for, without fat, our
game Is failure. When fatteninr
begins, old corn would be much the
best, but we have found that the
fowls do not like it as well, hence do
not eat as much of it as they do Of
new corn; therefore new corn is the
best for the purpose. For the Thanks
giving trade they should begin to
have all the new corn (well matur-
ed, not soft) they will eat as soon
as it's hard, and it will pay big to
grind old corn and feed all the corn
meal (wetted to crumbling massl.
they will eat up clean for the last
two or three weeks. The water with
which the meal is wetted should be
saited very lightly, say a teaspoon
half fuH to a quart of water.
An Indiana subscriber asks what
to DO for crop-bound fowl? Ans:
This trouble is not disease, and un-
less the fowl is a very valuable one
it is best to kill it as soon as the
trouble is noticed and the meat is
perfectly wholesome. This trouble oc-
ours in a flock only occasionally. It
is due to clogging of the passage
from the crop to the gizzard. It oc-
ours most often when oats are fed as
a main feed, and for that reason we
40 not believe in feeding heavy or
dry oats at any time of year. II
soaked over night, there is no danger
from feeding oats as heavy as any
other feed. If the fowl is valuable
one it may be operated on with little
danger of los sas follows: Pluck the
feathers clean, over a spot 1x2 inches
on the front Of the crop the long way
up and down, then with sharp
knift cut a slit thru the skin, being
very careful not to cut the crop, for
it cuts very easily in its extended
condition make the incision not more
than an inch and half long in the
skin. Now, on one side of this in
cision divide the skin from the crop
lining, pull it back, and make an
inch incision clear to one side of that
in the skin; remove little at time
Of the contents until the crop is en-
tirely empty, being sure to work all
away from the passage by use of
the finger on the outside. A couple
Of stitches in the incision in the crop,
then let it draw back under the skiri
and take few stitches in the latter.
Keep the fowl by itself without food
or water for at least three days, then
feed little at time of cooked food,
giving water only little at time
for few days, and the fowl will
usually be O. X. in less than weeks
time. The spot where the feathers
are plucked off should be anointed
with carbolic salve or some other
strong smelling material, to keep
other birds from picking at the sore
place when the bird is put back in
The PER- with its mates. =