Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1894 — FARMS AND FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

FARMS AND FARMERS.

ADVICE TO POULTRY RAISERS. As we are some distance from a targe market; writes a practical poultry raiser, our surplus stock of fowls and chickens are* sold to . the local dealers. While we are marketing the cockerels, which are always in good demand, we begin to work off the. old hens with them in August and September, taking them as they* begin to moult, for they will lay but little more till along in the winter and had better be out of the way of the pullets, of which we aim to raise enough to replace all the old hens every fall. As the pullets begin tosh ow red combs and look like laying, we prepare nests where they may find them and note which ones begin laying first and at what age. We keep record of hens set in spring and time of setting. The pullets that begin to lay a month or six weeks before others are much more desirable, as they pay for their raising before the others commence, and also they are the ones to mark for our breeding another year. We have a Plymouth Rock pullet which commenced laying at four and a half months old and others in same brood will follow in a few days. We consider these pullets worth very much more for breeding than the tardy ones that will not lay till six or seven months old, as like begets like in egg pro-, duction as in form and in color. By care and careful selection of earliest and best layers any one can build up a good laying strain of fowls, if they are not up to the standard in feather. It is the business fowl for the farmer that we are interested in, and we know by expensive experience that the fowls from eggs of show birds of noted laying breeds will not always be profitable egg producers. The merits which are In sight are the ones judged upon in the show room, and egg production is not taken into account, so one may expect different strains of the same breed of fowls to vary greatly in this respect. But if one is breeding pure blood fowls he can, by selecting the earliest pullets from his own yards, greatly inprease the egg laying qualities and still not depart materially from standard birds.

TO KEEP HOGS HEALTHY. The causes of diseases among swine, and the best remedies, are unsolved problems in the estimation of multitudes who have reared hogs for a quarter of a century. But a majority of our people will continue to try experiments. Nearly every man of large experience in fattening this class of stock, who has not a favorite medicine of his own, will try every remedy proposed by any man professing to be a veterinary surgeon. Keep your hogs in good clean fields; give them access to pure water —even though you should be compelled to dig a deep well for that purpose; a good pump and plenty of suitable troughs, cleansed every week, will cost but little and will always prove a valuable outlay. Provide ajso in the dryest part of the field a good shelter, both from suit and rain. A few rails properly arranged two or three feet from th e ground—a means of education—was first necessary absolutely to establish the fact. Somebody—Hoard, we think —once said that he had no use for common sense unless it came down where he lived. That is not the way to feel —not the way to put it. It is mighty weak common sense ■that gets down where some people live. The child with its untrained, simple mind can utilize nothing but a verysimple common sense. -Common sense teaches the man that the animal should be fed at certain times, on certain kinds of food and in certain quantities. But that sort of common sense cannot get down to where the young child lives; it is no better than nonsense to it. The child must be brought up to where that sort of common sense lives; and so must we who do not fully understand the science of breeding and feeding. ,We must not be satisfied to depend upon an immature—an ignorant common sense.—Farmers’ Voice.

HOW A BALKY MARE WAS CURED. A farmer had a mare that would sometimes work well for a tveek, and then, perhaps at a critical time, would stand stubbornly, resisting all effort to move her. One day while drawing in oats she balked. After working with her a long while he resolved that she shouldjgo or starve. He drove a stake down in the ground" and tied her to it, then putting a sheaf of oats a few rods distant he went off. This was at 10 o’clock in the morning. About 5 o’clock he returned and tried to start her, but she would not go. He tied her again to the post and let her stand until morning. Then he unhitched her, took the reins and tried to start her, but she would not pull. During the afternoon he tried her again, When she went. Upon reaching the sheaf of oats, he let her eat it. He now drove, her home, unharnessed and fed h«jr, and she never balked again. . My chickszjs are not allowed to remain out at night during any time of their existence. I have spent half an hour at night with a lantern hunting for a single chicken which had stayed out of its coop, assured that if it remained out it had small chance of living orer night. I have tried the method at times and never failed to lose my poetry. Hens that had stolen their ntsts, or young chicks grown tired ©f the coop’s close quarters, have been allowed to remain out and loss has always resulted.