Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1880 — Bones for Poultry. [ARTICLE]

Bones for Poultry.

A writer in the American Poultry Yard urges upon poultrv keepers the necessity of giving to fowls a liberal supply of baked bone and oyster shells, and writes his own experience in a very entertaining manner. It is as follows: I supposed I did my duty by my hens when I burned bones to ivory "whiteness, ground them to the consistency of flour, and fed them occasionally, with the idea that I was giving them egg-shells in a very available form. But I did not consider that the gelatine, the fat, the ammonia, and other constituents of the bones, which were discharged by the internal heat (leaving only a little pure lime) were really the richest possible food for the hens and the greatest eggproducing diet that coaid be furnished them. Mv new tenant only bakes them more or less brown, in an old tin plate on the top grate of the stove oven. This is not a vety pleasant process, for, like all scorched portions of the animal frame, they give a pungent, half-suffo-cating smell, which tempts you to * clar de kitchen’ till the fresh air from doors and windows has sent the objectionable odors into outer space. But you soon become reconciled to this invasion of ill scents when the fiery combs, the ceaseless cackle, the evident high health of your fowls, and the daily-filled egg-baskets show you what they have accomplished. No other food, nor anv amoqnt of food, if this is left out, will give you such returns; and this baked bone, pounded on a rock in yonr poultry pens and fed with ordinary feed, will give results that ought to satisfy the most craving disposition. The hens cluster around that primitive bone-mill, gulping down the rich morsels with evident delight; and since everything necessary for the production of eggs is thus fully furnished, there is no undne strain on the vital forces, no weakening of the system, bat a daily attention tfj'bpsiijess, to the complete satisfao fowls and their owners. You can iwtrdlv give too much burned bones to your hens to provide the necessary amount of lime for the egg-shells, and the next best thing for that purpose is oyster-shells, which can be obtained by the barrel (and generally without cost, except taking away) at hotels or restaurants in yonr nearest city. My new tenant goes eighteen miles for them, and considers them cheap enough at that. The hens eat them when pounded Jnto fragments as eagerly as they pick up shelled com, and they famish the needed material for the egg-shell more completely than anything else.”

Roll Jelly Cake.— Sift two teaspoons of cream of tartar with two cups of flour (measured after sifting.) Dissolve one teaspoon of soda in three tablespoons of hot water. Beat six eggs, whites and yelks separately. Add two cups of sugar to the yelks, put in half the flour, then the soda, the balance of the flour and thq whites of the eggs. Rake in a thin, even sheet in a large drippiug pan; when done turn onto tne molding board, spread with jelly and roll up without delay. Wrap a napkin about the roll to keep'it in shape. Minister Foster, before leaving Mexico, received from the American residents of the City of Mexico a parting gift of a silver sac simile of the Ar.tec calendar stone in the cathedral wall. The gift weighs about sixteen pounds, and is made of pure Mexioaa stiver.