■liiii I t^ ^ <. ■r^: •^.- n<^ A'' .V«^. <<" •^ ^ ^. "^^ O V ?.^v. ' ^^ >#-. '.y ^^ %C^*' . V5<.>v , ' *^^o^ .^ Hq. :^.' ^°v .0- \,^ '^^^C^; .^-^ <\ > V -S^ ^A :^^ ^"V, ^x^ ■^^ v*^-' A^ :^^** ■^ o W; 'b V "^ >«>. .^^' vPC,' . ' • ^' c. ^ Profits in Poultry Keeping Solved BEST AUTHORITY ON POULTRY RAISING SAVE LABOR, TIME AND EXPENSE By EDGAR BRIGGS New Rochelle, New York Second Edition New Rochelle Pioneer Print strip from end of house to your short strip, sixteen inches below top of plate. Do this on 'both sides and on these boards lay your roosts, 2x3 ten feet long. About five of these gives sixty hens plenty of room. You can either notch your board one half inch to lay them in, or let them lay loose on your board. Do not nail them. Now put in your wire netting partition in cen- ter of house, a door of wire netting. Put in your feed hoppers and nests, and your house is practically complete. POULTRY RAISING. 17 Dias:ram of end of house. ^^ '^^^ y^^^ ^^^v ^ Door ^^v. 10 Ft. End BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF CHAPTER VI. Making of hoppers. Your feed hopper should be made large enough to take a bag of feed, one hundred pounds, which is sure to last a flock of sixty layers a full week. To make this, take a common hemlock board, twelve inches wide, for bottom and ends, saw a piece two feet long for bottom, two pieces three feet long for ends. Nail these together, ends in bottom. Now use tongue and groove boards for back and front. To put in pour back, fit your first board inside of ends, letting it come on bottom in center of hopper and top edge of board even with back of hopper, putting rest of back boards even with outside. Better put rest of boards on out- side. Now for your front put first board, one inch from bottom and one inch from your other board, let- ting top of board come even with outside front of feeder. Then board up on outside. This lets your feed come out in front. Now put a four inch strip across front at bottom. This keeps your hens from throwing out the grain. Now make another hopper about quarter size of this one for beef scraps. Make it in the same manner, only make the throat of it fully 1^/2 inches instead of one inch, as beef scraps will not feed readily like other grain and you will often have to give it a kick as it will clog up easily. A nice way is to give it a kick ■every night when you gather the eggs. You can also make a three department box for oyster shells, grit, and charcoal which should be kept before them at all times — grit to grind their feed; oyster shells for lime in making shells, etc., and charcoal for medicine. Another hopper which can be made at no ex- pense and is grand for feeding beef scraps is as fol- POULTRY RAISING. 19- lows: Get a box at grocery store, say 15 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 10 or 12 inches high, now board this box up tight, only leave a 3-inch opening across entire front of box at top. Fill this box with beef scraps, hang on a nail by boring a hole near top and your hens can eat until it is empty and no bother about clogging. Other sizes of boxes will work just the same. You can use one double this size for other feed. Your hen puts her head in this 3-inch opening and can eat until all is gone if your box is hung close to the ground and these boxes will cost you nothing at grocery store where you trade. BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER VII. Care of layers. First, I will tell you how to care for three thou- sand layers with but little labor and you should clear $3,000 a year from them. If you have built your plant on a stream of water, you will have no watering to do. Keep your feed boxes filled at all times. Never let them get empty. Your main feed is best quality wheat screenings. Your large hopper will take a one hundred pound bag, which should last a full week, often two weeks. You should make a round every week and fill all your hoppers ; one with wheat screenings, one with beef scraps, and your three-department hopper with grit, oyster shells and charcoal. If your plant is built on a stream and inclosed with a good wire netting fence, all the work you have to do during the week is to gather your eggs every night and give each flock of fowls two quarts of cracked corn. Remember, your fowls have wheat feed before them all the time, so they can safely have a light feed of another kind of grain every night. A horse and wagon should be used for this work at all times. A good gentle horse that can be left standing and is afraid of nothing is what you want. From November until April you will have to- make two trips a day to your houses. As cold weather comes on, your windows will have to be closed nights and should be opened again in the morning when the sun shines and warms things up. On this same trip, you should give your hens all the processed oats they will eat — about four quarts. POULTRY RAISING. 21 In case }'ou have heavy snow storms, your hens can eat snow and they will lay just as many eggs as though they got to the brook to drink — and even more. Your last trip at night, you feed each flock one or two quarts of cracked corn, gather your eggs and shut the windows. The slide which lets your hens out is never closed. This feed is for flocks of sixty layers and this system will pay a good profit with but little labor, as you can easily see. You will not get an abundance of eggs during the winter under this system. You should keep the end of your house where your nests, hoppers, etc.. are. well bedded during the winter, and throw your grain in it so as to give them 'all the exercise possil)le. Typical White Leghorns BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER VIII. An egg plant for profit. -" I vvill now tell you how to run a large poultry ^ plant for the greatest possible profit. This will re- c|.uire more labor, but will pay the most profit, labor ■ considered, of anything I know of at the present time. I have experimented to my entire satisfaction, that fowls to be kept in perfect healthy condition, should have free access to feed at all times, and they will lay fully one-third to one-half more eggs a year— and eggs that will hatch, for they will be produced nature's way. I have found nothing so good as good quality wheat screenings to be kept before them at all times. So you must keep a hopper of wheat screenings always before them ; also one of beef scraps ; and they should also have grit, oyster shells and charcoal before them at all times. Now, if possible, in order to get your great profit, you must have a free range plant, such as I have described, and it should be a leghorn plant, and of all the leghorn family there is none that will pro- duce you more eggs and larger, finer eggs than the single comb White Leghorns. I am positive an average of 200 eggs a hen can be produced under this system of feeding and caring for them. One good man could care for five thousand layers during the summer, providing someone cared for the marketing of the eggs. But for winter care, say from November ist to April ist, it would keep two men busy, for my aim here is to tell you how to produce eggs the year around in the greatest possible number. --^ I will begin with the winter care, say November 1st, when your stock should all be properly housed in the colony houses I have told you how to build. POULTRY RAISING. 23 We will presume you have a leghorn plant of three to five thousand layers. We usually have much cold weather during November in this part of the state. Of course, you will have to vary thrs part of the sys- tem according to the weather. Here you must use judgment. The first thing in the morning, soon after daylight as convenient, start out witlT a load of pro- cessed oats, and give each flock of sixty layers about four quarts each. If the morning is warm, open your windows. If cold, leave your windows closed until your next trip, after breakfast, about 8 to 9 a. m. If morning is cold and freezing, you should take a load of warm water and give each flock enough for the day. The finest thing I know of to water a large plant of this kind is a two gallon butter crock. Get the low kind, for they are easily kept clean and require but little labor in filling. Even if your hens have free access to a stream of water, they should be watered in their houses during the winter if you want a large egg yield. In the morning, when your hen comes off the roost, she is apt to be dry, especially if she is lay- ing and it is very essential at this time that your hen should have warm water to drink, for cold water would chill her and make her dull and all hump up and the result is your egg yield stops. About 2 p. m. give each flock all they will eat of processed oats. Feed this very liberal, as you will find they will always be hungry for this and you can- not over feed them on it. About four quarts to a flock "is about right. This is one of the greatest egg producers I know of, and there is nothing which makes eggs so fertile. Your hen will eat these when she will look at noth- ing else. It can be produced for ten cents a bushel at the highest price — usually for eight cents a bushel. I will tell you in my next chapter how to process these oats. This alone is worth hundreds of dollars to any- one who keeps a large plant, as I will prove to you further on. For your last round, just before sundown, give M BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF each flock 2 quarts of cracked corn in their htter, to give them more exercise, (iather your eggs and close up your windows. If weather is \-erv warm, leave one of your windows open or ]>artly open in scratching part. You must use judgment in these things. A plant cared for this way during the winter should give you fifty to sixty per cent egg yield, right through, providing your pullets are laying age and your old hens have passed through their moult. You will see that I feed four times as much processed oats as I do any other kind of feed. Oats to a hen are what oats are to a horse. It gives them vigor and puts life in them, such as n.o other feed will do. If you follow these instructions to the letter, and use judgment in keeping your houses from getting too- warm during the day, you will never fail to bring in a load of eggs every day in the year. Always empty your water jars at night on this- last trip, so your hens will always be dry in the morn- ing when you come around with your load of waruT water. This is very important. About II a. m. give each flock of 60 layers about one quart of green cut bone and at the same time if weather is very cold gather your eggs, for if you are saving them for hatching care must be taken they do not eet chilled. A Winning Pen of White Wyandottes as Bred by Ross C. H. Hallock, St. Louis, Mo. POULTRY RAISING. 25 CHAPTER IX. Summer Care. For the summer care of these flocks, beginning about April first, or as soon as the ground can be worked, take a strip of land along the ends of your house, which end is most convenient, and plow a good strip. If you have ten or twenty houses in a row, plow the length of them all, if 3'ou can. Now sow this strip liberally with oats, and if you can harrow this every morning so much the better ; and sow lightly of oats, three times a week, until the coming Novem- ber. Do this all summer long, using a spring tooth harrow, and your hens will work in this fresh ground for this grain continually. As this grain keeps sprout- ing and coming up all the time, you^will have spring- time for these hens from spring until November. If you follow this up, the result in eggs will surprise any- one. The hen keeps right on laying all through the summer and fall, and not even stop when she is moult- ing. So I claim under these conditions a two hundred to two hundred and fifty egg hen will be a common thing and flocks treated this way should average two hundred or more eggs each, for you see the hens feast on an al^undance of worms and insects as well, and they will not consume more than half the quantity of beef scraps when treated this way. In changing from winter to summer care, if your plant is laid out on streams of water as I have advised, you will have no watering to do, and just as soon as you get to plowing your ground you will gradually stop youi' green bone and processed oats, as your hens will get all these oats they can handle, now started in their natural way in the ground. The worms and insects they now get will take the place < 26 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF of green cut bone, so all the work yon have to do during the summer is to cultivate this ground and keep sowing oats and at night hitch up your horse and give each flock of fowls about two quarts of cracked corn and gather your eggs. If you follow up this system, the hens will keep at it all during the moulting season. You must make your rounds every week during the summer and fill all your hoppers, one with beef scraps, one with wheat screenings. Also your grit, oyster shells and charcoal. These must be before them winter and summer. Never let them get empty, and when freezing weather comes in the fall you must change your plans at once if you want the egg yield to hold up. Remember this is where the profit comes in. Under no circumstances let your hens fall off on eggs, so start on your winter rations as I have outlined in a previous chapter, just as soon as severe weather of November comes on. During the summer, your windows are to be left open day and night; also your door, providing your plant is enclosed with a wire netting fence such as I described in opening chapter of this book. You must remember one thing. If you let your fowls get knocked out in any way, through careless- ness, it will take three to four weeks to get them back again. And you in the meantime have lost a month's laving of eggs. So great care and judgment must be used. Sickness will scarcely be known under these conditions. Your hens should always be in the pink of condition, and your eggs from Januar}^ to Septem- ber should run co per cent fertile and give wonderful hatches. I think you will agree with me that this is caring for fowls the nearest to nature's way of any svstem known at the present time. POULTRY RAISING. 27 ■«"',v Pair Silver L-aced WyandcUes 28 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER X. Processed Oats and How to Produce It. I will now tell you of one of the most wonderful feeds know^n at the present time. Positively one of the greatest egg producers ever discovered and some- thing that will make eggs hatch any time of the year. Oats to a hen is what oats is to a horse. What would a horse be worth without oats? But very little! The main objection to oats for fowls is their very tough hull, which is very hard to digest, and for this reason alone many people will not feed them to their hens. I have experimented very extensively with oats and have fed them for weeks boiled, with no results in eggs. They make a very good fattening feed when boiled, but of no value for eggs — simply put the hens out of laying condition. But when processed, hens eat them in preference to anything else. In fact, they will eat them wdien they will touch nothing else, while on the other hand, the}- are the last things eaten by the hens in their natural dry state. I will now tell you how to process them. Take a pail of good, ordinary oats, same as you feed your horses, cover them with water and let them soak twenty-four hours, then turn them in a larger pail, one that will hoUl double the amount, first bore a 1-2 inch hole in \our ])ail l)efore turning them in, so it will not hold water; leave in this pail until they sprout thoroughly and begin to germinate heat, which will be in three or four days if in a moderate warm place. Al- ways keep covered with an old bag and stir and sprin- kle with water once daily. After they become a mass of roots turn into a box holding about 5 "pails. The oats should not be over three or four inches thick in the box. This must also have a couple of 1-2 inch POULTRY RAISING. 29 holes in bottom so water will quickly drain oft" when you wet them each day. They will grow very rapidly v/hen they begin to sprout and are at their best for feeding when sprouts are 1-2 inch to i inch long, and one bushel will make from four to fi\'e bushels if oats are good and grow as they should. Always keep oats covered with a heavy bag or old blankets to keep them warm for they will grow much faster, and your sprouts will remain white and \ery crisp. By feed- ing when sprouts are only 1-2 to i inch long you not only get the value of your oats, but they also take the place of green feed, and there is nothing I know of which will start hens laying so cjuickly and will make so many eggs during the year. Give your layers twice a day all the}' will take. For growing young chicks there is nothing like them. Give your little chicks all they will eat three times a day after they are a week old. They are at their best for little chicks when sprouts are 1-2 inch lonsT. A Typical White Wyandotte Hen. If possible always grow them in a cellar, but in warm weather they can be grown under open sheds, under trees or north side of buildings. Xow for a large plant where you must grow them in large quantities you will find a butter tub a fine thing to soak them in. Thev can generallv be gotten 30 BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF at a grocery store for five cents each. You fill your tub three-quarters full of oats and fill up with water, let them soak twenty-four hours, then turn in a barrel that you have put a couple one-half inch holes in so water can drain off. Now if you soak two or three tubs at a time you can dump them all in one barrel, and leave them in this barrel until they sprout and be- g-in to heat. They should be thoroughly wet every day so long as they remain in the barrel, and as soon as they germinate heat they must be dumped in boxes that have holes in bottom say three to five inches thick, and wet and turned daily until ready for feed- ing. If they get too hot in boxes cool down with ■cold water and spread out thinner. To have them at their best you should start a lot e\'ery day and keep them fed up as fast as they get fit. You will soon learn just how many to start every day. A little cayenne pepper and salt distributed through them evenlv when fed will greatly increa'se'your egg yield and keep your hens in the pink of condition, a tea- spoonful of pepper and one of salt to a common pail- ful. T, as an experiment, kept two pens of leghorns six months on this processed oats and beef scraps in front of them and no other feed and they laid well all that time and went through the earliest moult of anv liens on the plant. Although I do not advise feed- ing them alone. VyXow if this falls in the hands of one Avho has no cellar to grow their oats in, nor no warm place in winter, they can be grown in an open shed or barn l)y piling up a foot or more of horse manure and setting your box on it and bank your box on all sides with horse manure, put on a board cover and throw over this a blanket and you can easily grow them in such boxes during the coldest winter weather. You can grow them nnich quicker in winter time by wetting them with warm water, but in summer time they should always be wet with cold water. They also make a great feed for ducks. I give my old breed- ers all they will take noons and my little ducks after ten (laAS old all thev will take three times daily. Now POULTRY RAISING. 31 remember there is nothing that will grow chicks so fast as these processed oats, and nothing so cheap for when they grow at their best tl;ey can be grown for ten cents per bushel, and there is nothing that will make hens lay so many eggs nor such fertile eggs. This feeding system alone is worth hundreds of dol- lars to any one w^ith a big plant, and for small yarded l)lants it solves Uhe green feed question entirely and will make any plant pay a profit. Leghorn pullets can be grown and put to laying at four months of age on this feed. I have also done it with White Rocks and \\'hitc W'vandottes. Pen of White Wyandottes 32 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XI. Caring for a free range plant without labor. In this chapter, I will tell you how to care for a free range plant with practically no labor, only gathering your eggs and caring for them. First, make a feed hopper, as I have described, to hold a bag of feed. You should have three of these, fill one with wheat screenings, one with oats, one with cracked corn. Also your small hopper with beef scraps and your three-department hopper with grit, oyster shells and charcoal. And if your plant is built on a stream of water and inclosed with a wire netting fence, as I have described, all the work you have to do is to gather your eggs every night and send your man around once a week and fill all your hoppers. He should also put carbolic acid and kerosene, half and half, well mixed, on the roosts once a month during the winter and twice a month during the summer. In September he should clean the houses out thor- oughly and coat them over with new sand. Your hens will go to the creek to drink, and in winter, if ground is covered with snow, let them eat snow and they will lay more eggs. The hole which lets them out of the house should never be closed, day or night, winter or summer. In the winter time your windows would have to be ke])t closed and your hens will pay you a fine profit under this system with practically no labor. You will not get a big egg yield during the winter, but you can depend on a profit of one dollar or more from each hen on this no-labor-system. You will be suri)rised at the results. And for a business man in the cit_\- who owns a small i)lace in the country, and wishes to make some money at home while he is away, there is nothing I know^ of that can pay him so large a profit on his monev invested as a jwultry plant run POULTRY RAISING. 33 on these lines. Of course, in tliis case }'on would have to buy }-our l)ree(lers each seuson and the l)est way to do this is to sell off half of^your stock during the earl}- fall and replace them with ;ndlets of which you can always buy at one dollar each during Se])teni- ber and ( )ctol)er. You can buy better birds for your money during these two months than at an\- other time of the year. One reason I specially advise single comb white Leghorns in preference to any other breed, is because you can always buy all you want for one dollar each, good laying stock. I advise changing your breeding stock at end of second year's laying, as two years is all a hen can be relied on to pay a good profit and she should never be kept after this unless she is an extra good one which vou want to use as a breeder. 905 White Leghorn Cock — A Typical Specimen 34 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XII. Caring for a yarded plant. I am now going to tell you how to handle a yard- ed plant for the greatest possible profit, to those who are so unfortunate as to own one, for such plants sel- dom pay unless it is used for breeding fancy stock. I have experimented for many months on yarded plants and I find that hens even over crowded in small runs will produce more than double the eggs fed on the hopper system tlian they will fed the other way. Just keep good quality wheat screenings and beef scraps before them at all times and give a liberal feecHng of processed oats in the morning — all they will eat — and at 3 p. m. another feeding of processed oats — • all the}' will eat. Remember you cannot over-feed them on the processed oats, as they are light and quickly digested. At night give a light feeding of cracked corn in litter in winter and you will be sur- prised at the results. Your fowls will always be in the pink of condition and practically no sickness among them. Roup, colds and cholera will scarcely be known, even on the same plants that have always been full of it, when the hens had their daily mashes, all they could eat of it. I will also give you another valuable secret for a yarded plant. If your hens have long, narrow yards, say 10x60 or more feet long, I will tell you how to keep green feed in their yards all summer. Spade up half the yard, sow it to oats early in the spring and put in cross boards eight inches high, cover it over Avith one inch mesh wire netting, stretching it tight and stapling it firmly to the boards. As soon as your oats get a good start your hens will eat them through POULTRY RAISING 35 the wire netting and your oats will grow just as fast as your hens can eat them off. In this way they will be supplied with green feed all synimer long. I am satisfied a yarded plant can be made to pay, run on this new line and cut your mashes entirely out. If possible, feed green cut bone once a day. About ii a. m. I find the best time for this. If you are in a position to get plenty of green cut bone, feed a yarded plant as follows: Keep a hopper of wheat screenings, also one of beef scraps, always l)efore them, as well as grit, oyster shells and charcoal. Give a feeding of processed oats in the morning and ii a. m. a light feeding of green cut bone ; 2 p. m. another feeding of processed oats, all they will eat ; at night a light feed- ing of cracked corn in litter to induce exercise, and your fowls will keep in the pink of condition, lay well all winter long, and colds and roup will hardly be known, if they are properly housed. They should be watered with warm water in very cold weather, as they are always dry in the morning and should not be al- lowed to fill themselves on ice water. After they drink all they want of water in the morning, during the rest of the day they will drink but little at a time and cold water will not hurt them. A Winning White Wyandotte Cockerel. 36 BRIGGS- SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XIII. Feeding a yarded plant for the greatest possible profit. I will now tell yon how to feed a yarded plant for the greatest possible profit and still ha\'e healthy birds and prodnce eggs that will rnn fnlly 90 per cent fertile in Jannar}-. This method will prodnce more wdnter eggs than any method I know of at the present time. jKeep a ho])]3er of wheat screenings, one of beef scraps, al- wa}s l)efore them. Also your grit, oyster shells and charcoal — never let them get out of any one of these ingredients. As soon as it is light, give each flock a few handfuls of barley or l)nckwheat in the litter to keep them busy ; say a pint to twenty hens. Al)out 9 a. m. give all the processed oats they will take. .Aliout II a. m. gi\e a light feeding of green cut l^one, just what the_\' \vill eat up nicel}', not over 1-4 to 1-3 oz. to a hen. About 2 p. m. feed all the processed oats they will eat. Just before going to roost, give a light feeding of cracked corn, thrown in their litter — they will not take much as a rule. In the morning give your hens good, clean warm water. This is very important, for the more your hens drink the more eggs they will lay. Always dump all your drinking fountains at night so vour hens will be sure to be good and dry in the morning, and start ofl: with warm water. If you keep your windows well opened during the dav, so vour hens do not get too warm, you will have no trouble in getting an abundance of eggs all winter long. For if you knock your hens out by over-heating them or leaving your windows open, just one night, carelesslv, it will take three weeks to get them back POULTRY RAISING. Z7 on eggs again. Yon must nsc judgment in this re- spect. A yarded plant fed this way will keep per- fectly healthy and lay an abundance of eggs the year around. Imt can never compare with a free range plant, fed on the system I described for producing the great- est amount of eggs. One more advantage in feeding a plant this way, you can get eggs from Leghorns that will run 90 per cent fertile right in January under this system, and hatch fully as good as eggs usually hatch in April. A\'yandotte and Rock eggs will run from ■80 to 85 per cent fertile, and for anyone who wants to raise early broilers, you can easily see the great value of this method of feeding. In case vou cannot conveniently gi\"e your hens warm water to drink in the morning, leave water be- fore them all the time or water first thing in the morning before hens come ofif the roost. If }Our houses have dropping boards, you should •clean the (h-opj)ings off at least twice a week the year around. In the houses I ha\e described for your free range plant, your droppings g"o right on the ground and it is not at all necessary to clean them out oftcncr than twice a year; so you can see the amoimt of labor ■saved. For nests in these colony houses that I have told you how to build, I ad\'ise making three sets of five nests each for each house, which can easily be made. A common hemlock board, twelve inches wide, will answer cverv purpose. Saw a piece, four feet six inches long, three of these will make }Our top, bottom and back. L^se four ]:>artitions, one foot long and for your front, a four inch strip is all you want, and you liave a set of five nests quickly and easily made. You can either nail these to siding or put a couple of holes in them and hang them on hooks, about one foot from the ground, just so a hen can look in them, and then she will jump in them from the ground. Three sets of these nests should go in e\'cry house for a flock of sixty lavers. 38 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF Wh;teWyando1teCKr NewYorK 1804 OwnecL ^y A.CHana/kins Lancas+er Ma5S. White Wyandotte Cockerel A noted New York Winner, owned by one who breeds the world's best. POULTRY RAISING. 39 CHAPTER XIV. How to build an ideal incubator house. I have told you in my former chapters how to produce your eggs in the greatest possible number and how to produce eggs that will give you the largest hatches. Now you will want to know how to hatch them. First, I will tell you how to build what I con- sider the most perfect incubator house. Select a side hill if you have one near by, for a perfect incubator house should be part under ground and part on top. You can determine size of house by the number of machines you want to use and the number of chicks you wish to hatch. lUit it is always safer to build much larger than \our- present needs, then you will not have to rebuild or enlarge when your business grows. To build this house, put. up a wall of stone, five feet high on all four sides, putting in windows at the top of your wall a four pane window, 8x10 glass, will answer the purpose nicely. Hinge at bottom so it will open inside. Put windows on each side and at south end. Put none on north side. A window every ten feet is about right. Now put a window in each end for ventilation. Put these windows near peak, a six light window ; 8x10 glass, and in summer these can be left open for ventilation. This makes an ideal incubator house. Throw up dirt to top of wall on all sides, except South end, and put in a double door wide enough to carry out any incubator set up. The air in such a house alwaA's smells free from lamp smoke and if you fail to get good hatches in such a house you will know it is not the fault of the house. 40 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XV. How to run an incubator.. I want to say a few words here in regard to ruri- ning- an incubator, especially to the beginner. First;, after setting up your machine and starting your lamp;, you ' must let up your regulator. Keep unscrewing it until temperature goes up to 1023/2 degrees. Re- member the temperature cannot raise when your disk over lamp is raised. But when you get temperature to 1023/ and your disk raised ji of an inch, or so it just clears, then your machine is ready for the eggs. Better run your machine twenty-four hours after you get your temperature right before putting in the eggs. As soon as you put your eggs in, your tempera- ture will disappear ; give your machine twenty-four hours to get back to I02/^ degrees. Run your venti- lation according to directions sent with the machine you use. Change trays from side to side in the morning, and from end to end at night, in a two tray machine and tm-n the eggs at end of third day and fourth day^ After this turn twice a day until eighteenth day. Turn last time at end of eighteenth day but continue to change your tray from side to side and end to end until you see the first pip. Handle your eggs very care- fully at end of eighteenth day on, and do not jar them in changing your trays. Now, remember^, animal heat begins to take place after seventh day and your temperature will begin to work up and you must give your regulating nut part of a turn evei"y time the temperature crawls up to 103 so as to keep it down as near 102^/2 as possible, if you are operating your machine in a room which registers above 65 de- grees. If not over 40 to 45 degrees, then keep your manchine at 103 and do not air your eggs. In a room of 50 to 70 degrees begin airing your POULTRY RAISING. 41 eggs on fifth day and air each night, depending on temperature of room. A good airing for an hour or two on seventeenth da}- will much improve your hatch In warm weather. Give plenty of air during hot weather. Good, fresh eggs hatch much better than those kept two or three weeks. If you are hatching white eggs test them on fifth day, and take out all clear eggs and dead germs. If you are incubating brown shelled eggs, leave them in seven days when you can test them nicely, ■taking out all clear eggs and dead germs. They should be tested again at end of fifteenth day. Remove all dead eggs and if you have not a good fair size shell, you must give more ventilation, for you cannot get a good hatch without a good size air cell. After you see your first pip, do not open your* machines again under any circumstances until your hatch is practically through : say the morning of the twenty-first day for Leghorns, and end of twenty-first day for all large breeds. Leave chicks in incubator fully twenty-four hours after all are out. Just a word about buying an incubator. I have tried nearly all the leading makes of incubators on the market, especially those made in the east, and also some of the western machines, and I firmly believe to- day there is no machine made to equal the latest Cv- phers, made by the Cyphers Incubator Co., of Buf- falo. N. Y. Their 1906 model is far ahead of their old style machine, and the increased depth to the egg chaml)er with their nursery drawers makes it a first- class hatcher in warm v/eather as well as cold. And I believe it to be as near perfect as a machine can be "built, and if you fail to get a good hatch with it as a rule, you will know the fault lies either with yourself or the eggs. Now comes the most difiicult part of all, the business of raising the chicks. Here is where thev nearl\- all fail except those using mv svstei Mn. BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF FRiTPR E B05T H 1906 *«^j»tf- PRJIPR 1^ B05T0N 1905 ASCKL) -s -_-i \ I h White Leghorn Cock A typical Boston Winner, bred by D. W. Young, Ridgewood, N. J., who breeds the world's best. POULTRY RAISING. 43 CHAPTER XVI. Chicks raised nature's way. First of all you must get the best brooder made if you expect to be successful and if you are not in the broiler business and do not want to hatch only breeders, then I advise getting- your first hatches out about March 20th, and for this system on a large scale, taking everything into consideration\l believe to-day there is no brooder made equal to' the latest Cyphers Self-Regulating Brooders for outdoor use, costing $17. This brooder can be successfully used out of doors from March 20th on and you never have to worry about your heat nights as long as }ou run a good big flame for it regulates the same as an incubator, so there is no danger of overheating your chicks nor chilling them as long as you keep flame enough to keep up your heat. { Th ese brooders will safely carry 75 to 100 chicks, and if they are hatched strong jand properly cared for according to my instructions, you should raise nearly every chick put out. To do this on a large scale, to raise from three to six thousand, you must keep some one among your chicks all the time if you do not want them all carried away by hawks and crows and various other animals, as there is nothing we raise that have so many ene- mies. I will here name you some of their worst enemies when they are small : Hawks, crows, rats, weasels, cats, skunks, woodchucks in rare cases, raccoons, foxes. Select for raising 5'our chicks a nice, large orchard if you have one, if not, you must put up some artificial shade. Put your brooders in rows across the lot, about ten feet apart, and try to hatch in one week enough 44 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF chicks for a row of brooders. About sixty feet in front of this row put up a one and one-half foot fence of one inch mesh wire netting; then another row of brooders, about eight feet from this fence ; then an- other fence same as the other. It makes no difference how many brooders on a line, twenty could be handled all right if they were all filled with chicks at near the same time. If the field was near level, they would equalize themselves all right in the brooders. You can safely put seventy-five chicks in each brooder and should have no trouljle in raising seventy of them to maturity if you follow my instructions to the letter. C_ For feed and care. I first grind fine all egg shells they hatch from, and feed these for first three days, putting chick feed before them the second day. You must see that they are ne^•er out of feed again as long as you own them. Here is one of the secrets of suc- cess, for if your chicks always have free access to feed — they will never overeat and die of indigestion. As soon as you put them out, give them fine grit and fine charcoal, also water that is lukewarm, and your egg shells, and, as I said next day put chick feed be- fore them. On the third day also put beef scraps before theuT and see that they are never without it. liegin feeding them processed oats, same as you do yoiu- hens — on the seventh day they will cpiickly take to it and eat oft' all the roots and s]M-oiits. leaving noth- ing ])ut the hulls. k>e(l them all the processed oats they will take from then on, say three times a dav. Do not be afraid, for they cannot o^-e•r- eat of it, and rememlier this costs only ten cents a bushel. You can thus see Iioav cheap you can raise your chicks. Remember from the seventh dav on }'our chicks must have always before them water, chick feed, grit, charcoal and beef scrap : also feed three times a day all the processed oats they can eat. I generally set a POULTRY RAISING. 45 panful in the pen first thing in the morning and again at noon, dumping out the hulls every time. And again at about 4 p. m. I sec thaj: they have just all thev can eat, and 1 wish you could see them grow. It is a pleasure to raise chickens this way where sickness is scarcely known. After three weeks, change from chick food to a good qualit\' of wheat screenings which must also be kept before them from then on as long as you own them. It is giving grand results, and I know' of noth- ing that can in any way com])are with it for growing young chicks, and nothing so cheap as this screenings and processed oats. If you cannot get good screenings use wheat. After three da}s old, your chicks should always have before them grit, charcoal, beef scraps, chick food until you change for wheat screenings or wdieat, and water to drink — and good, clean, fresh water is very important — in fact thousands of chickens are lost every year through dirty water and filthy drinking dishes, as disease starts in the drinking fountains in manv cases. If your fountains are not kept clean, and if you are not particular and wash out your fountains every time \'OU fill them, slime collects on the inside, and I c<')n- sider this rank poison to the chickens. The l)est fountain }'Ou can get is the two piece earthen fountain, which keeps the water cool and .clean. I would not use any other kind under any cir- cumstances. If }OU c'lTi yard yoin' little chicks on a stream of water, so much the l)etter, and nuich labor is saved. When your little chicks are first ])ut out, they should be looked after several times a da}', and }'OU must see that they do not get chilled. Keep your brooder at 95 degrees first five days, then it should be lowered to 90 degrees. After two weeks to 85 degrees, and after three weeks to 80 de- grees and gradualh' harden them oft, depending on the season of the vear and the weather. PI ere is where 46 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF ■common sense and judgment counts. Give your chicks heat just as long as they want it, if you wish to attain the most rapid growth, and this is what •counts if you wish rugged birds of extra good size, for such birds, as a rule, are never sick. After your chicks are four weeks old, give a light feeding every night of cracked corn until they are matured. If they are Leghorns, this can be kept up as long as you own them, with grand results. I am now going to give you the secret of success in raising your chicks and putting them over the danger period, especiall}^ Leghorns, which is from twenty to forty days old. This is raising them nature's way. White Wyandotte Cockerel Li front of my colony house brooders, say six feet, I plow a good big strip the entire length of all my brooders. I do this the day chicks begin to hatch, and I sow this lightlv with oats. By the time the chicks come out of their brooders, the oats are nicely sprouted. I let the chicks out of the colony brooders the third day, about lo a. m., if weather is nice. The next day I let them out, I run the harrow over the ground and sow more oats. Every day after this I POULTRY RAISING. 47 harrow this ground. And I sow more oats every other day. The result the chicks keep at work from morning until night, and never get time to become sick. You ought to see them grow on this system. I consider this the only perfect way to raise chicks, and the only successful way. Pullets raised this way should lay at four to five months of age. As soon as they weigh two pounds each, or near this weight, the cockerels should be marketed — except what you use for breeders — and these should be sep- arated from the pullets, in order to mature them fine. If the eggs which your chickens arc hatched from are produced under my system you should have no trouble in raising fully ninety-five out of every hun- dred you hatch providing the eggs are from yearling hens, or fully matured pullets. Bear in mind, the most critical time of your chick's life is between twenty and forty days old. This is the period they must not be neglected, as they begin to grow rapidly at this age. You must sow more liberal of your oats at this time, and do not neglect your harrowing, for it takes but a short time each day. Y'ou must also give your chicks all the processed oats they will take at this time. In order to economize and save labor as soon as the chicks are large enough to leave the brooder, you can move your pullets to your laying houses, that is, the pullets which you want to keep for your own breeding stock to take the place of your yearlings. When you want to replace a flock of old hens with pullets, just put a lean to on back end of your laying house, say 6x6 ft. square would answer every purpose. Y^ou can put this up with a single pitch roof and a wire netting front, and put some low roosts in here and shut in sixty of your finest, largest pullets for three days, when you can let them run with the hens. Feed chicks in their own department in an open trough, keeping it full of wheat screenings; also beef 48 BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF scraps before them all the time, also grit and charcoal. They will grow fine here and mature very rapidly. When you sell }our old hens, just shut chicks out of their department and they will go right in the main house and never have to be changed. When they start to laying, they will keep right at it and you will gain a full month's eggs under this S}'stem. This lean-too is also very handy for shutting up sitting hens and various other purposes. .For earlier hatches, if }-ou find you want to hatch very early and also to have some houses to carry ov^r some surplus birds in case you go in the fancy stock, you can build one row of houses same style as your laying houses, only one-fifth smaller. Use sixteen feet plank, and make your house eight feet wide and sixteen feet long, outside measure, in each case. Make your house four feet high at eaves, same as your lay- ing houses. For the roof, saw a sixteen feet board in three pieces, and saw rafters five feet one inch long. Build it the same as laying houses, with wire netting partition, and you have an ideal house for the busi- ness. Put in windows the same size as you use for your laying houses, one in each side in center of each department, also a slide under each window for letting them out. Use a good indoor brooder for these houses. I can sell you a good brooder for $5 to imt in these houses, one that will raise your chicks. You cannot put up too many of these houses, for I consider this the ideal way of raising chicks. Now handle these chicks just the same as I have outlined for the others, except you use these houses in h'ebruarv and ]\larch, when vou cannot plough the ground, so }Ou Avill start these chicks same as I have told }oii, except on the sexenth (la\- you begin feeding processed oats to your chicks, and give them all they will eat of them from then on. and see that thev are never out of chick feed. It will be a pleasure to see them groAv, and sick chickens will be rare under this svstem of feeding — and vour cost in raisintr them will POULTRY RAISING. 49 be very lii;ht, as ^•ou will fi'ncl their main feed is pro- -cessecl oats at 8 to lo cents a bushel. When }our chicks are large enough to think of roosting, and need heat no more, you should market the cockerels for squab broilers, if possible, at eight to ten weeks old, and remove your pullets to your lay- ing houses. Your brooders are then ready for another batch of later chicks wdiich can be allowed to grow up in these houses. You will find these houses very handy for winter- ing surplus cockerels and pullets, and it is always nice to have some surplus birds on hand. T think I have made things very plain and if you will follow my instructions you will have no trouble in raising }Our chicks, providing your eggs are pro- duced imder mv method of feeding, from healthy stock. Light Brahma Bantam 50 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XVII. Raising broilers — bowel trouble, its cause and cure. This chapter is written expressly for broiler men and those who keep their hens mainly on mashes. As I have been through the same experience in my clay, and have seen whole broods die off like poisoned flies with bowel trouble, and have tried everything I had ever heard of, but with no results until I took all feed away for three days and gave only charcoal to eat, and boiled milk to drink, with a good quantity of black pepper put in, and this stopped the diarrhoe completely. But many would die any way, so I experimented even further, for you can depend upon it, if some in each batch have it on the start of the season it will get worse every hatch. So, for first three days I gave only charcoal to eat, and boiled milk to drink, with plenty of black pepper in it. The result was I had scarcely a case of it after this. But these chickens I found were very difficult to raise anyway, so I had to look still further for my trouble, and I found all the trouble lied in the feeding of the breed- ers. You will find in nearly every case the foundation of all your trouble lies in your breeding stock. If you want healthy rugged birds, free from dis- ease, never feed them a mash. The cheapest way of all to feed and have healthy rugged birds, free from disease at all times, is to feed as I have told you, except in place of }'Our light mash at 9 a. m., give 30ur hens a good feeding of processed oats, nature's own feed. If you will produce your eggs in this way, from yearling hens mated, with fully developed cockerels, not less than ten months old, you can raise practically every chick you hatch, even in a long piped brooder house providing you can run your temperature anywhere from 80 to 95 degrees. This, POULTRY RAISING. Si you know, is a big A^ariation ; but strong, healthy chicks can stand a lot and not get sick. Once they get sick, they will bunch up, and this is the last of them, for they can die about as fast as you can'hatch them. You will find most of the big breeders, who are in the fancy stock raising, all use hens for hatching and raising them, and get all their neighbors to hatch and raise for them, for they cannot hatch them and raise them with incubators and brooders, just because their breeders are fed on mashes, so as to get a "big yield to supply their large trade in eggs for hatching. Nearh^ all the eggs sent out for liatching by the single sittings, at a big price, always are hatched by the old hen and raised by them on free range, which will pull them through if anything will. Under my system of feeding, eggs laid here in January are running 90 per cent fertile, and have hatched as high as 93^ per cent of fertile eggs. Other years' chicks, weak and sickly, almost im- possible to raise, which shows you without a question that it all lies in the feed. You can see at a glance why every one who has tried the broiler business as a business, has failed at it. I defy any one to find a profitable broiler plant, but I am satisfied it can be made to pay under my system of feeding, and in no other way yet known at the present time. I want to say to you broiler men, with your long piped houses, give them one more trial with eggs pro- duced under my system of feeding and your troubles are over. From January until June you can hatch broilers at a splendid profit under this system, for you can grow your later hatches up and make roasters of them at a grand profit; for under this S3^stem of feeding your birds Avill grow verv rapidlv and develop fully one-third qucker than fed the old way, stuffed with mashes. AVhen fed the old way, you will lose a large number with colds and roup, and have but few well chickens to sell. 52 ERIGGS' SYSTEM OF Just a word here in growing your l)irds for roast- ers. Hither good wheat screenings or wheat which I feed must be kept before them all the time ; also a first class beef scrap and grit, charcoal, and good fresh water. And they should have one good feeding of processed oats about (j a. m. — all they will eat. At night give all the cracked corn the}- will take, and you. will grow roasters that will be a credit to you, and sickness among them will n()t ])e known, and }'Our profit will surprise \"u r>ut \'ou will find it t(j \(jur adxantage to market them as broilers as long as the}' luring 25 cents a pound and more. .\ ])an of corn meal, set where they can eat all thev want whenexer they wmt it, will also fatten them nicelv. Do not wet it, but let them eat it dry. L^uler these conditions only, can broilers be made to pa\' a profit and you can raise them well into the Summer on this free range system of cultivating the ground. Hut just as soon as you fail to raise 80 per cent of vour hatch better sto-j and sell \our eggs. White Wyandotte Female POULTRY RAISING. 53 CHAPTER XVIII. Diseases — thfeir cause and cure. I am ^oing- to write you a few words here on diseases of'^chickens. of which there are many, in fact so many that I will only mention a few which are apt to give you trouble. " Mrst. I will take the cause, which is improper feed- ing in nearly every case. All colds, roup, diolera, bowel tnnd^le come' from improper feeding. This also causes lice, which live on the hen, or rather the poison thrown ofif her system. Heavy feeding of rich mashes will quick knock out your birds and various diseases will soon step m. "our old fashioned farmers never knew what colds and roup were but of late years many farmers have been feeding mash to increase their egg yield, and the result — colds, roup, cholera. If you wall feed my way. and cut your mashes out you will not be troubled with disease. Roup and cholera will not be known. If you see a hen sick, just give her a tablespoonful of castor oil, and m 24 hour? more, if she is not all right, give her another spoonful. If she is no better at the end of next 24 hours, better cut her head off, and burn her up, for she will only mope around and tinally die. I find roup and colds in fowls grown, or nearly grown, can be cured in nearly every case without medicine by feeding them my way, and partly grown to one-third grown l)irds will improve very rajudly on this hopper feeding, and by the aid^ of good roup cure you can save nearly every bird and get them well and strong. P.ut never give them a mash. You mav occasionally have a hen go light but very rare on this method of feeding. I hnd corn is the- .54 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF cause of most birds going light. I have proved this to my entire satisfaction. Corn or cracked corn will not do at all kept in hoppers before your hens as they will grow poor and go light on it unless on plenty of range, but it can be kept before them without injury where two or three other kinds of grain are kept before them at all times. If you follow my sys- tem in every detail you will have no medicine to buy, as sickness will scarcely be known on a free range plant. But if you have a small yarded plant over- crowded in a very low damp, place, why then you will get some sick birds and colds and roup will be apt to break out in a light form any time and in such a place you should always keep a good roup cure on hand, and there is nothing I have ever tried as good as Conkey's Roup Cure. This will also tone your birds right up and is a splendid tonic during the Spring and Fall. Often in September, about the loth, a distemper is apt to strike all your young stock, and affect them in various ways, especially the stock not fully matured, so I strongly advise on all yarded plants to give Conkey's Roup Cure in drinking water, one-half dose from first to tenth of September, Avhen I would give full dose through rest of month and first half of October, and you will be well paid for it. All of Conkey's remedies are first-class and their advertisement will be found in this book. Hill's Bromide Quinine Tablets are also very good for severe individual cases which will occasionally break out. A tablet night and morning for a couple •of days will generaly bring most any bird in g"ood shape if taken in time. They can be bought in any drug store for 25 cents per package, and should always be kept on hand. You must expect to lose some birds during the Spring when they are laying heavy, but your loss should be light if my instructions are fol- lowed, and your yards are ploughed up as early as pos- sible in the Spring, especially on a yarded plant, for much filth is bound to accumulate during the Winter •close in front of vour houses, and vour hens constantlv POULTRY RAISING. 55 scratching in this is apt to sicken them. Air slack lime should be sown in these runs several times during the summer, say once every two months, and also on the roosts lightly once a week. This is for yarded plants only, for on a free range you do not have these things to contend with. RIOADlt FCt-jRyj»ullNiU.' Typical Barred Rocks ^6 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XIX. When and how to start in the poultry business. Now comes the important part to the one who is .going- to start in tlie business when to start, and how. Now in either case you shoukl start in the hall if you wish to start on a large scale. For your, buildings should be put up in the Fall, even if you start by buy- ing your eggs and raising your own breeders. This is by far the cheapest way to start if you have not nnich capital. Get your incubator house ready in the Fall, providing j^ou have not a house cellar which will answer for your first year. You can get your brooders all right in the Spring if you only raise breeders^ but cannot start so early as where you ha^^e a brooder house. But the Cyphers Self— Regulating Brooders can be used out of doors very early in the Spring any time after March ist, as a rule. Pullets hatched middle of March should la}- in August under niy s}-stem of feeding, and keep right at it from then on. I can sell you all the eggs you w-ant from either single comb white Leghorns or White AX'yandottes, ])rO(luced under my system of feeding, at $6.00 per 100, in anv quantity, on short notice; eggs that will run cjo per cent fertile right in January. Now to the one who is well fixed, financial- ly, I advise him to start in the Fall. I advise putting up your laying- houses during Jul\- and August, and buy your pullets as early as possible during the Fall. October and November are usually the two months when you can buy cheaper than at any other time of the year. ^'ou should have no trouble to Imy all the pullets and yearling- hens }ou -want of single conib white Leghorns din-ing these two months at $1.00 each. POULTRY RAISING. 57 This is a very satisfactory way to start, but not so cheap as buying- the eggs and raising your own stock. You must buy eggs of a party who feeds little or no mash, if you wish to get good hatches of chicks that will live if given half a chance, for when an entirely inexperienced man tries to raise them they must be from hardy stock. You do not have to wait many months for profit to come in when you buy your eggs to start with, as you can market your cockerels for broilers. In three months from the time you set your machines, you can count on quite an income, so all things considered, ex- perience you get with the rest. I advise starting in the Spring, by buying your eggs and raising your tnvn chicks. These chicks can be raised very cheaply under my new system of giving them all the processed oats they will take three times a day, in connection with a good chick food before them all the time, as well as grit, charcoal and beef scraps. You should clean your brooder out at least once a week, which I find answers every purpose. Also keep your brooder part, where chicks are fed, covered with cut clover, as they eat much of this, and it is- verv beneficial to them. 58 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF ISTPUUET NEWWRK t I ""HEN 1^43' I "MEN NEW YORK g"' BREDO-VNED" ExnaTEOBY PwvoliXQ HICMlftnD MY White Leghorns — New York Winners POULTRY RAISING. 59.^ » CHAPTER XX. A Leghorn plant for profit. I want to say jnst a few words here as to what a Combination Leghorn Plant can be made to do, and to tell you how to rim such a plant for the greatest possible profit. First of all, your great aim must be the produc- tion of eggs, and for at least six months in the year you must feed this plant to produce not only eggs that will hatch but to produce eggs that will hatch chick- ens, that will live, cared for any old way. If you will feed your plant this way, and advertise eggs for hatching, produced by the new Briggs System, for producing fertile eggs that will hatch strong, healthy chicks, that will live if given half a chance, and offer to replace all clear eggs free if returned, express pre- paid, I am very positive a man with three thousand layers could clear from eight to ten thousand dollars a year, providing he feeds them on my system and gives them free range. You should sell }-our eggs during the hatching season for $6.00 per 100; or $50 per 1,000. Possibly you could make more money by selling them for $5.00 per 100, in any quantit}-, and make no reduction, for quantity, for $5.00 per 100 is the popular price for good hatching eggs in this country. There is a grand profit in it when you produce them in such large numbers at so small a cost. Now for your breeders ; their care and feed. You must not feed a bit of mash. I will lay you down here the ideal way to feed for fertile eggs at a small cost eitlier a yarded or free range plant for Leg- horns only. 6o BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF Beginning in December, the first thing in the morning, as soon as it is light, give 3^our hens a light feeding of bnckwheat or barley in your litter; about ij/2 quarts for 60 or 75 is plenty. Give warm water to drink, as early as convenient, and at 9 a. m. give each flock all the processed oats they will take. At I p. m., when you give your flocks more water, or put in warm water with what they have, give on this trip a light feeding of green cut bone — a quart to a flock of sixty, if they will take that much, if not, cut them down to a pint. About 3 p. m. give another feeding of processed oats, all they will eat. Remember, these only cost eight or ten cents a bushel. Before dark give not over i to ij/o quarts of cracked corn to a flock and gather your eggs. If it is very cold weather, you will also have to gather 3-our eggs on your i o'clock trij). These birds must have always before them grit, •oyster shells and charcoal. Also a hopper of beef scraps and one of wheat screenings or wheat. just a word about mating up your breeders to ])roduce chickens which should practically everv one live. To do tliisDtake all your yearling hens and mate them with cockerels, not less than ten months old. Put these birds on my free range system and feed as I have here directed, you can then raise practically e\'erv chick you hatch. Pullets also hatched in February and March, mated to good vigorous yearling cocks, will also pro- duce chickens that are very hardy when a year old, and }Ou should have no trouble in raising 90 to 95 per cent of these chicks. Under no circumstances use anything but a single comb white Leghorn for the greatest profit, because thev la}- the largest egg of the Leghorn family and are by far the most popular of the Leghorn family. To dispose of your breeders to the best advantage during July, August and September, you should make POULTRY RAISING. 6i a great clearance sale at $i.oo each. You will have no^'trouble to dispose of all your surplus stock at this price, and you will find this far preferable to putting them on the market. Care for your plan^, during the Summer as I laid down for Summer care and feeding. lust a word here in mating your male birds, for where vou follow u}) my system. 1 advise four cocks or cockerels for every sixty layers. These birds should be so mated that there is no fighting among them, and no "boss" as a rule. After vour breeding season is over, say July, you should remove nearly all your male birds and make one flock of them, except a few flocks which it would be well to keep mated the season through, so you can alwavs fill a stray order for hatching eggs. Your cockerels should also be separated from the pullets and placed in one large flock, or several flocks of a lOO or less in a flock. In this way, these male birds run together very peaceably and rarely ever fight : and you rarely see a "boss" among them. To mate them up, just take out of a bunch as manv as vou want for a flock of females, all at once, and 'let them go. You will then have no fighting and very seldom even a "boss." This is the' only way to mate up vour birds, for the best possible results. Never keep a brassy male bird. Have nothing but pure white birds on 'your place and you will find your profits can be greatly increased by gradually breeding into fancy birds. Show" a few at vour fall fairs, or local shows, det a standard and study them up. By careful selection, you can soon have a plant of very fine birds. Do not trv to show at the big shows, such as ^[adison Square Garden or Boston, for it takes years of study or a large sum of money to win at such shows as these. Just a word about your houses and I am through. If the houses I have given you the plans of in this book are not warm enough for your location, you can o 62 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF build them six feet at the CcU-es instead of four, by using a twelve foot board sawed in half in the centre. Put a floor in this house at eaves and fill the top with straw. Do not put on a tight floor, a floor of poles would work all right. You should also line the sides in the same way, and you would have a very warm house, Avhere you could get eggs in any kind of a Winter. ' I want to say right here the Leghorn plants of this country are the only plants up to the present time that have made money in a market way. Eggs for market, at market prices, have made many of them rich. All that have tried the larger breeds such as Wyandottes, Rocks, etc., have failed, at it in a market wav, so they have all had to go in the fancy or give it up entirely. // ]) Lincoln Oir //, -f Light Brahma Bantam POULTRY RAISING. 63 CHAPTER XXI. A White Wyandotte plant for profit. I have decided to add here a chapter on White Wyandottes, as I have bred them all my life, that is for the past eighteen years, and exhibited them all that time. I have seen them head all the large breeds in popularity, but the demand for them increases yearly. I know of no breed of the large fowl where it is such hard work to get good, fertile eggs that will hatch strong chicks, that are bound to live any old way, as it is from the White Wyandotte that have been bred for exhibition purposes in yarded plants. In breeding exhibition stock, every trace of creaminess or brassiness had to be bred out of them, and their stability has gone with it to a large extent. Imbrecding has also done much to injure the vitality of this breed. My aim here is to tell you how to feed and care for these birds, so you can get them hardy and full of vigor once more, without breeding out their fine qualities — and this can be done by feeding alone. I have experimented very carefully along this line and I find all large breeds should be fed quite different than the small breeds. First of all, they should never see corn in any form, that is the breeding stock. If any corn it must be in very limited quantities. I find they will stand the hopper feeding and give grand results. In fact, this is the only natural way of feeding any fowl, and the only safe way of feeding. First of all, give them your hopper of beef scrap and wheat screenings ; also grit, oyster shells and charcoal. The first thing in the morning, give a light 64 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF feeding- of barlc\- or buckwheat in litter to induce all the exercise you can. At 9 a. m. gWe all the processed oats they will take. At I p. ni. a light feeding of green cut bone, a pint to a quart for 60 layers. At 3 p. m. all the processed oats they will take. At 4 p. m., or later, according to the time of the year, another feeding of oats. This should be fed to all large breeds in place of cracked corn. Always use clipped oats, and feed in the litter, and you will not only get an alnuidance of eggs, but eggs that will hatch strong healthy chicks that will live. Such eggs will run from 80 to 90 per cent fertile, right in the winter months. I am not guessing at this, for I am doing it right in February. Do not be afraid of the processed oats, but give all they will possibly take, for they are very light and it is impossible to overfeed on them. There is noth- ing I have ever tried that will make hens lay equal to them, and nothing so cheap. It costs only about half to feed a plant this way. You can always sell an}- amoimt of eggs for hatch- ing at $5.00 per 100. I am positive you could sell all a 3,000 laying- plant could produce for hatching by a liberal amount of advertising on the same lines I told you how to ad- vertise Leghorn eggs. You could sell a large quantity of breeders, for good prices, if you will start with fairly good stock and exhibit at the small shows on the start. One thing you have to contend with on a Wyan- dotte plant, you do not on a Leghorn plant, and that is setters. This means quite some work ; but you will not have near the amount of setters on a plant fed this way. To properly break up a setter, they should not be allowed to remain on the nest the first night, and as a rule three days will break up any setter. Or, if you POULTRY RAISING. 65 want to break her up in twenty-four hours, just put her with a bunch of surplus cockerels where a roo.t is handv and your hen will not think of settnig. Th'ere is no breed at the present time so hand- some as the White Wyandotte, when bred up for show Eposes, and no fowl that makes so fine a broder and boaster ^hen they are grown up healthy and -gged that is, nature's way, and this can be done on the feed ino- I have outlined on my free range system. \ou can tet eggs right in January that will run from 80 o 90 percent fertile and give you grand hatches o trong rugged chicks that can be easdy -.sec right in the winter-and you will have no trouble to dis- pose of hundreds of laying pullets during Septen.ber October and November at $2.00 each. There is a o-rand profit raising pullets at this price, when >ou ^Inraise 90 per cent and more of all the chicks you ha ch and'raise them largely on a feed that cos s you onlv 8 to 10 cents a bushel. So you can easdy se what a profit you can make by running a large plant my way. wav. fi Your small feed bills would surprise you, atter feedin^'- the old way. 1 am positive "ten thousand dollars a year can ■easilv be made off a plant of three thousand layers^ and even more when you work into high-class show birds and get three to five dollars a setting for many of vour eggs, and fifteen dollars a hundred. ' Sell high-class birds from ten dollars each up to a hunch-ed It can be done by pluck and perseverence \ AA-hite AA'vandotte plant of three thousand lavei-s could turn in a greater profit than the same „,,,ber of any other breed, _ fed_ and run my wa> which is nature's way, providing it was handled by a AVhite Wyandotte fancier who thoroughly knew the value of his birds. 66 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF Columbian Wyandotte Cockerel. A New York Winner as bred by A. C. Hawkins, who breeds the world's best of this coming breed. POULTRY RAISING. (57 CHAPTER XXII. A combination plant for profit — Fruit, Poultry, Bees. I feel that I must write a few words here on a combined plant for those who want to go on either a small or large scale, and do not want their eggs all in one basket; or to those who like a variety in life — for variety is the spice of life. There is no combination of business, that I know of, so profitable, and at the same time will give so much pleasure in various ways as this. First of all, •every poultry plant should be covered with fruit. This is the very first thing you should do. To pro- vide your poultry with shade and a peach tree gives the quickest shade of them all. Then the plum and the apple, and you are bound to get immense crops of fruit, where vou culti\'ate your ground, and use your poultry manure around your trees. And when you are feeding your poultry, how nice it is to have all the peaches you want to. eat, or plums, or pears, grapes, and, in fact, you should plant liberally of all kinds of fruit, and }Ou will find life worth the living. Now }'Ou want bees to fertilize your blossoms, so you will get large crops of fruit, and bees are very profitable and aft'ord a great amount of pleasure. They are very profitable, in fact, they often turn in a greater amount of jU'cfit, time and capital taken into consideration, than anything I know of. I have •cleared as high as $25.00 from a single hive in a season with but little labor. You have to give them no at- tention to speak of. from Octoljer ist to May 1st, and for only two months. May and June, do they need any great amount of attention. I advise everv one who keeps poultry to make of it a combined plant, Poultry, Fruit and Bees. 68 BRIGGS' SVSTEM OP" Yon must remember tliat fruit trees you must have on your poultry plant for shade, if you expect your poultry to do its best, and there is but little labor to care for a big lot of fruit in this way — and there will be years when your profit from fruit alone will not only give you a good living, but will give you a good fat bank account as well. Just think of eating peaches, for instance, from the first of July until November. This can be done, if you will plant several kinds from the earliest to the latest. You can also have all kinds of apples, plums, cherries, -and other fruit in the same way, grown at no expense, on your poultry farm, and anyone should enjoy life under such circumstances. Dark Brahma Bantams POULTRY RAISING. 69' CHAPTER XXIII. Breeding for layers. There is no question but what it pays to use a good trap-nest and breed up your stock for layers. A few of your best flocks could be used for this purpose. Pullets would give you the best test for this, for after a month or two you would know which ones were laying the best, and at the end of the first year you could take all with a h\g egg record and keep them over, especially for your own breeders. In this way you could soon build yourself up a wonderful strain of layers that if cared for and fed on my system of free range, you would soon have flocks averaging you 200 or more eggs a year. It is not possilile in any other way, in my opinion, and this is the only sure way of breeding high class show birds. Those that win the blue in the hottest competition, and it would not take so much extra time as you would think, for you could release your hens on every round you make. By breeding from the yearling hens that gave you the big egg yield as pullets, you would not have to trap-nest your hens the second year. In this way, you could easily develop a wonderful strain of layers which would more than repay you for time spent. In fact a big plant could well afford to hire an extra man for this purpose alone — that is, on a three thousand lay- ing plant, it would pay to hire a good man to do noth- ing but take care of your eggs and trap your hens. In this way I am positive you could soon have noth- incf but 200 egg hens. 70 BRIGGS" SYSTEM OF 1^^^^%%^^ Pen White Leghorns— Boston Winners POULTRY RAISING. 71 CHAPTER XXIV. Moulting. I wish to say a few words here in regard to moult- ing, especially on a yarded plant, for on a free range plant 1 believe in keeping them laying right through the moult for as a rule when they have practically their entire new coat, they will in most cases stop lay- ing and take a rest, for a hen must have a rest and time to build up. For as a rule on a free range plant when you continue your harrowing and sowing oats you can keep your birds laying pretty well all through. Octo- ber and November, wdien they will drop off and have their rest then you should have }Our pullets under full headway if you are in the market egg business. But if you depend on selling eggs for hatching, then I advise you to let your hens have their rest during November and December and get them under full head- way in January, then you will produce eggs that will hatch, and if other things are favorable }'Our eggs should run c,o to 95 per cent, fertile from January ist on, and hatch' eijual to eggs laid in March and .Vpril, providing-yoUr hens are fed under my system. Now in caring for a yarded plant you will find your hens will slack off heavy during July and August and during September, October and November, you- W'ill get but few eggs from the large breeds, and as a rule, all things considered, taking the eggs you get in consideration and getting your stock in the best possi- ble condition for Winter eggs, I advise keeping your hens on nothing Init processed oats and beef scraps, for this will put them through the earliest moult of any- thing I have ever tried, and your oats should contain sprouts one-half inch long for this and will cost you about 12 cents per bushel. You will also be surprised ;72 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF at the amount of eggs you will get during this period. December ist put before them their hoppers of wheat screenings or cheap wheat and to every pail of processed oats add one teaspoonful of cheyenne pep- per and one of salt, wdiich makes your hens very thirsty, and the more water she drinks the more eggs she will lay. Your hens will respond to this treatment and surprise you on eggs and should lay as well during January as any month in the year. POULTRY RAISING. 73- CHAPTER XXY. Erection of a Yarded Plant. I must say a few words here to those who have but a Httle land and must yard their stock. First you will want a good laying house and in order to house a large number of birds, at the least possible expense, and to economize in lal^or, I advise a plain house with- out an alleyway, one about 80 feet long for the least labor, for in a house without an alleyway you must open 'all your doors in passing through. I would di- vide this house in eight pens, 10x15 feet, build your house 15 feet wide, 80 feet long, 7 feet high in front and 5 feet in rear, put one fair size window in each depart- ment about two feet from the ground, fit your windows loose and slide up to roof and make your holes for letting hens out under the window, fitting wooden slides very loose to slide sideways so you can open and shut them with your foot, put in your wire netting ])artitions everv ten feet, hang your doors two feet from front of house with spring hinges and have your doors all swing one way. then you can walk right through the house and your doors will always clSse themselves. In making your partitions, you should always run a ten-inch board across at bottom and vour door should swing over this. You can also fit a Van on shelf over this board between partitions, and in this way you can water two fiocks at once. Your nests can go on one side and your feed hoppers on the other. This house should be filled in with at least six inches of sand and then it will always be dry. Dropping boards can be placed on back side of house, a platform 3 feet wide is about right with three roosts over it 10 inches apart, all on a level i foot from plat- 74 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF form is about right. You can keep thirty leghorn lay- ers and two male birds to a pen nicely in such a house, or if the larger birds twenty-four females and two male birds. They should have yards 50 to 150 feet long, the longer the better and you should at once set these yards with peach or plum trees for shade, and plow them several times during the Summer if possible. You will want a feed house handy by for feed. You can use your own judgment in building this; size will depend largely on size of plant. I advise a board floor in it and you can put bins in it and also leave a part for a picking room. Now you will want a good brooder house. The length of this will depend on the size of plant you build or the amount of room you have. It is always best to build too large. I advise a house fully "15 feet wide, ■ would raise it one foot from ground on posts, and put in a board floor. ^Vould also board this i foot space with rough boards and under this floor put a cat and ; you will never have a rat in your brooder house. Can put a window or two so 3'our cat will have some light. I would build this house 7 feet high at north side, and • 4^/2 feet at south side, a single pitch roof. Put along north side a 3 foot alleyway, and cut your house up in 6 foot pens. They will be 6x9 about, outside of hover and each pen will accommodate 100 chickens. I i advise Cyphers Heating System, but not the open top * system. Leave one foot only between hover and alley- j way. You will want a felt curtain on both sides of j hover. You will need a window in each department, | hang it at bottom as it will open inside. Also put \ some ventilators along north side of house, and every ten feet just fit in a board 3 inches wide, 3 feet long, put on hinges and let it open inside of house, and you will find these ventilators very fine for hot weather. You will want a slide in every pen for letting chicks ■outdoors, also a slide between every pen in house so you can run chicks right along from one end of house to the other. You should use a lo-inch board to divide all your pens. This will also hold your pipes, and « I POULTRY RAISING. 75- from this board up, you can use wire netting a foot of one inch mesh netting first, and from this to roof you can use two inch mesh. If you breed leghorns you will want this house wired to the roof. Of course you must have a gate from alleyway in every pen. A brooder house like this comes in very handy on a free range plani for raising chicks during February and March, for you can never get out too many early chicks. You will also want several colony houses in yards to grow up your young stock in. A little house, 3x5, will ac- commodate 60 to 75 nicely until they are large enough to roost in trees if you are fortunate enough to have trees in your yards. If you have not, by all means set out peach trees in them at once for your chicks are never as healthy as when roosting in trees during the hot summer months, and the oftener you can plow your yards and sow with oats the faster your chicks will grow, and if you have kept them growing without a setback your most forward pullets should be laying, at four months of age. 76 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF CHAPTER XXVI. Conclusion. In closing np the poultry department of this book there' are some things I want to impress on you, so you will thoroughly understand everything. In order to get the greatest egg yield always add some chey- enne pepper and salt to your processed oats daily the year round, not less than a teaspoonful of each to a ten quart pailful of feed, for the greater amount of water a hen drinks the more eggs she will lay. In hot weather keep your oats well wet down with cold water so they will not spoil ; wet them thoroughly twice daily if nec- essary. Never wet them before feeding. Any common feeding oats will grow just as well as high priced ones, and if you want them at any time for green feed only, let sprouts get 1^/2 to 2 inches long. But remember they have more feeding value and are the greatest egg producers when sprouts are j-z to i inch long. Re- member for young chicks there is nothing that will grow them so fast as these processed oats and a little cheyenne pepper added, same as for hens is very good for them. Give your young chicks all they will take three times a day sure. Also remember they are a great feed for young ducks and will grow them very rapidly and increase their size. Do not be afraid to give them all they will take two or three times daily. While I find a good grade of wheat screenings far ahead of any other feed for hopper feeding, I also find it very hard to obtain and at times I am compelled to feed wheat. If you cannot get good screenings by all means use a cheap grade of wheat. Red wheat is bet- ter than white wheat. I also wish to impress on you the importance of a free range plant for you cannot fail if you build one POULTRY RAISING. ^^ of my free range plants, and liandle it under my sys- tem. I know of no business that will make you money faster, all things considered, than the poultry business if handled properly. And I know of ho business where money can be lost faster, all things considered, than in the poultry business. I have taken plants that have had to go out of business and started them in again under my free range plan with leghorns and they have made money very rapidly on same plant, where under the old system they lost everything, so you can see it is in the proper feed and care that makes success certain. If your little chicks die badly during first two weeks you will find your trouble is with your breeders almost every time. To all who follow my free range system success is certain. If your chicks are closely confined in small yards and l)egin to die and dwindle away at 3 to 4 weeks of age. you must begin to feed them green cut bone when 3 weeks old sure. Give a liberal feeding every noon for nothing else will bring them ahead. Also spade yards up and sow with oats as often as vou can until you get them on more range. I am always ready to give you advice and help all I can, time permitting. 78 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER All oats will not grow satisfactor}-, and if you get some that will not nearly all grow, try another lot of another dealer, for when they grow satisfactory you will have a complete mass of roots and sprouts which should be one-half to one inch lone:. Have several large lots of oats growing for a large plant, and do not get out of them, for this is your main feed for producing eggs and for growing chicks. There is nothing like it. Give them all they will take three times a day, sure. As they live and grow on this as they will on nothing else, and it forms fully 80 per cent of their rations after they are a week old. If you fail to make the success you expect under this system, write me, enclosing stamp, and I will straighten yoti out. For you cannot go wrong if you follow my instructions to the letter. If your little chicks have board floors, you should clean their pens out every four days, sure, and put the leavings in runs of your old hens, they will clean up all seeds and oats not eaten by chicks. Cover your floor lightly with clover, there is nothing as good. Your Leghorn pullets should lay at five months of age, sure, if you have fed and cared for them as laid down in this book. If they do not, you have failed to carry out some important part, or your stock is not the laying kind. POULTRY RAISING. 79 A poor memory is a poor thing for a poultry man and will put you out of business. By all means put your memory in your business. Nothing can be neg- lected or forgotten, if you wish certain- success. Trap and poison all rats during the Fall and early Winter, for you cannot raise the two on the same plant. "Common Sense Rat Exterminator" is the best rat poison I have ever used, and if you cannot get it of your dealer, write H. H. Cannon, Irvington- on-Hudson, N. Y., who carries it in stock. Hopper feed only wheat feed, such as a good grade of screenings or a cheap grade of wheat. Do not hopper feed corn of any kind and then wonder why you are not getting results. Remember, you cannot get a hen laying in a day or two. It takes from two to five weeks, depending on the condition of the hen and the time of the year. So, for big results, do not neglect your hen and let her stop laying. Do not neglect your houses and let them get full of mites and lice. Go over your roosts at least once a month during Summer with kerosene and carbolic acid, half and half — or a good lice exterminator. Also clean droppings from board floors once a week sure, at all times of the year, for lice multiply very rapidly in droppings in the Summer time on board floors. On the ground, it is different. 8o BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF DUCK CULTURE Believing this book may fall in the hands of many who raise a few ducks, and possibly in the hands of some who may raise thousands annually, and as I have raised from five to ten thousand yearly for many years very successfully, until I now am able to raise nearly every duck hatched that has strength enough to eat and drink. i will take up the care of the breeding stock, as the foundation of success all lies with the breeders. First, you must select your breeders and in every case they must be young ducks. Never keep an old duck over the second year, for they will not lay before February, as a rule, while young ducks start in December, if properly fed and housed. I prefer breeders hatched in April to any other month, as they get fully matured early in the Fall and are hatched from our strongest eggs. All breeders should be hatched from April 15 to May 15, and such ducks should begin to lay in Decem- ber. Your breeding ducks can be kept very light dur- ing September and October. Do not let them get too poor, for if you do, you may lose some. If you are on a farm you can give them range and but little feed. A mash of wheat bran and gluten meal, ecjual parts, makes a very cheap feed to Sum- mer them on. About November first, you must begin to feed them up and house them, if you wish to get early eggs. This is where the profit comes in. Give a mash, morning and night, from November first on, as fol- POULTRY RAISING. 8i lows. One part bran, one part middlings, one part corn meal, one part clover, five per cent beef scraps, two per cent grit and oyster shells. Give all they will eat of this, night and mor;iing, and keep water by them if they have not a pond. Also give them water in ther houses at night. A butter tub, sawed down, makes a handy thing. About December first, increase your beef scrap gradually, from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, and lift your ducks occasionally by the neck and see how thin they are. Do not let them get too fat if they begin to lay in December and in January, If they do not gain much, and are thin in flesh, gradually increase your corn meal and add some whole corn and whole wheat. The more they gain on eggs, the heavier feed they must have to keep them in good flesh, for a good Pekin duck should lay from 75 to 100 eggs without stopping, you should also raise their beef scraps from 10 per cent to 15 per cent and give more oyster shells and grit. It requires great judgment in feeding a flock of Pekins for the most eggs and to have them run good and fertile. I have seen flocks of breeders knocked out the whole season by getting them too fat before they got to laying good. Your breeders for best results should be mated up one drake to five ducks and your eggs should run fully 90 per cent fertile from ]\Iarch 20th on, and if they do not as a rule you Avill find your breeders are to fat. If 3^ou keep ducks for the greatest possible profit, you will find none to ecjual the Pekins as layers, and for quick growers whicli stand close confinement they head the list of market ducks to day. In hatching duck eggs I find a temperature of 102^ plenty high for good results, and you will get much better hatches in warm weather by airing your eggs both morning and night. AVhen they hatch put them in your brooder and give warm water to drink. Watch them closely for two days and teach them to go where the heat is and after that vou have no further trouble. Give warm 82 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF water to drink for first two weeks sure, for cold water will give them cramps which quickly kills them and if they do not die it will so stunt them that they never get over it. I have at last found a perfect feed for young ducks first hatched, and that is Spratt's Patent chick feed. I pour hot water on it which increases the bulk about one-half; when cool feed and you will find every duck that can be raised, or better every duck that has strength to eat, will live on this feed and they grov^ very rapidly on it. In fact they could be put to market on it but it would not pay as the feed is to high priced ; but it pays well to start them on it, for they eat but little the first two weeks. I would not be without it in raising ducks. After they are two weeks old you can gradually change them on a mash made as follows : One part wheat bran, one part middlings, two parts corn meal, ten per cent beef scraps, a little grit and you will find they grow ver}^ rapidly on this. Twenty per cent of green feed can be added with grand results. After the seventh week double up your corn meal and in- crease your beef scraps to 15 per cent and if you have the large kind of Pekins they should be ready for market on this feed at nine weeks of age and fully 80 per cent of your flock should average five pounds each, dressed weight ; and many will go over this weight. Spratt's chick feed will cost you $6.00 per hundred, and even at this price it is the cheapest thing I know of for starting young ducks, for every one li\es on it that is fit to leave the incubator. It is the natural duck feed, although not generally known. In dressing ducks for market, hang them in pairs on a line and stick in roof of mouth with a sharp knife and at the same time hit them a solid blow on top of the head and pull out their main tail feathers and wing feathers, except flight feathers or plainer feathers on last or outside joint of wing. Soon as dead take them down, wash out mouth, and take them POULTRY RAISING. 83 by the head, two at a time, and dip them in a kettle of boihng water until feathers come easy. You will quickly learn this with little practice. Have a pail of cold water ready to wet your fingers and take the feathers from the breast first and then turn it over and remove the rest, taking all large feathers ofif. They are then laid on a shelf for a finisher, which generally gets three cents each, they clean them up, then they go in tubs of cold water and later in a barrel of ice water, from which they are packed in barrels and heavily iced and shipped to market. As soon as your Breeders are doing laying about July first, they should be sent to market alive. You will never get more profit out of them as a rule. You can also make a fine profit selling duck eggs for hatching at $8.00 per hundred. A duck plant can make a fine profit if handled right, as sickness and lice are not known in the cluck lousiness. Duck eggs do not hatch near as well as hens eggs in incubators as a rule, but you have no loss after they are hatched. I have carefully experimented with processed oats for ducks during 1906, and find them a wonderful feed for young ducks. After they are two weeks old give all they will eat twice daily, say 10 a. m., also 3 p. m., and you will find them the greatest growing feed ever fed to a duck, and it also greatly reduces the feed bill, and your young will be ready for market fully one week sooner. They are also a fine feed for old ducks and will greatly increase the egg yield. Give the old Breeders all they will possibly take noons. And if your old ducks do not run on grass, give them all the processed oats they will take twice daily, about 11 a. m. and 3 p. m., and it will not only produce a larger number of eggs but very fertile eggs as well. Always select your largest, finest ducks for breeders. In case your young ducks are in very small yards and tlo not get sufficient exercise, and begin to go back or have bowel trouble on Spratt's Chick feed, why then you can mix bran with it also stale bread, soaked in water, say equal parts of each, and feed every other 84 BRIGGS' SYSTEM OF ; feeding on this until you change their feed after two weeks of age, and you should have no further trouble. You must remember one thing in going in the duck business, it means lots_ of hard work and is no business for a lazy man. But if you live near a good size city and can work up a good private trade for your young ducks among private families, markets and hotels, and not have to depend on the commission man, why you will find a fine profit in ducks. » FOR SALE White Wyandotte Eggs Produced under my free range system in any quan- tit}', $6.00 per loo; $2.00 per setting, from prize mat- ings. Single Comb Wliite Leg Eggs from the finest free range stock in this country, $6.00 per 100, or $50.00 per 1000, in any quantity. No order too large. Single settings $2.00 per 15. These eggs hatch chicks that are bound to live if given half a chance. I can also save you money on Cyphers' Celebrated Incubators and Brooders. Get my prices on beef scraps and Chick Feed. Cash must accompany all orders. Reference: D. Lincoln Orr, Orrs Mills, N. Y., ex- Prosident American Poultry Association. EDGAR BRIGGS NEW ROCHELLE, - NEW YORK. CYPHERS INCUBATORS & BROODERS ARE NECESSARY TO YOUR SUCCESS. These Machines Are Most Simple to Operate. Patented, Self-Regulating, Non-Moisture and Self- Ventilating. They are Guaranteed to Hatch More and Stronger Chicks Than Any Other. This answers the question — "Which Incubator Shall I Buy?" CYPHERS SCIENTIFICALLY BALANCED CHICK FOOD. The reason why Cyphers Poultry Foods are so generally used by leading poultrymen is because they give value for value and are unequalled in results. This is shown by the large number of exhibitors who use nothing but Cyphers Foods' and consequently win at the big shows. It is easy to realize why, w'hen you know that we are so careful to have -our foods delivered to the custo'mer unadulterated t'hat we put them up in sealed bags and advise our customers to re- fuse them if the seal is broken. We guarantee that no screenings or weed seeds are used in our Foods.. Nothing but health-giving, strengthening, pure grains scientifically balanced by our experts to form flesh and feather. Sold by 2,500 dealers and at all our branches. Ask for it and accept I no ot'her. Compare it (the Food in the sacks — not small ♦ samples) with other Foods and judge of its value. ^ SOLD IN SEALED BAGS: j Cyphers Laying Food, Cyphers Forcing Food, Cyphers t Chick Food, Cyphers Mealed Alfalfa, Cyphers Scratching j Food, Cyphers Developing Food, Cyphers Shredded Alfalfa, ; Cyphers Short-Cut Alfalfa. 1 Write for Free Illustrated Catalogue of 260 pages, en- j titled "How^ to Make Money with Poultry and Incubators. ' It's a big one. We pay posta,gie. It contains six of the I most valuable chapters ever published on Poultry. Chap. I. \ — ^Magnitude of the Poultry and Egg Industry; Chap. II. — \ Review of Our Great Poultry Markets; Chap. III. — Profit- j Making Broilers, Roasters and Capons; Chap. IV. — The Profitable Pekin ]\Iarket Duck; Chap. V. — Successful Ohick Rearing; Chap. VI. — Profitable Egg Farming. Also photographs of successful poultry plants, both fancy and •commercial; photographs of Government Experiment Sta- tion Experts, America's Foremost Exhibitors, Owners and Managers — their Poultry and Duck Houses, Incubator Cel- lars and Brooding Houses; Our Complete Line of Incubators, Brooders, Poultry Houses and Supplies. If in return for this book, you will send us the names and addresses of two acquaintances who keep poultry, we will consider it a favor.- Address nearest office. CYPHERS INCUBATOR COMPANY, FACTORY AND HOME OFFICES, BUFFALO, N. Y. Branch Stores and Warehouses: — 2^^ Barclay St., New York, N. Y.; 26-30 Union St., Boston, Mass.; 310 Fifth Avenue, Chi- cago, 111.; 701 Linden St., Oakland, Cal. ; 2325 Broadway, Kansas City, Mo.; 1 19-125 Finsbury Pavement, London, E. C, Engiland. SPRATT'S PATENT THE BEST AND CHEAPEST CHICK FOOD. It is the best dr}- Chick Food that can be compounded^ and it is the cheapest, because none but the best can be the cheapest. Chicgrain is a perfectly-balanced, semi-cooked, partly malted grain, insect and vegetable ration; easily digested and highly nutritious. It is a compound of grains, meat, milk, etc., and the original formula has been used and im- proved upon for over twenty years. Chicgrain can be used as the staple food from the very day the chick is hatched, by breeders who believe only in a dry food. It prevents and checks the percentage of mor- tality. Bowel trouble is almost unknown where it is used,, and it gives t'he chicks a start in life that makes tnem grow like weeds. Chicgrain if fed according to directions, will grow a larger fowl, with less trouble, labor and expense than any drj- food on the market. Price in packages, loc, 25c., 50c., $1.00 and $3.50. SPRATT'S PATENT CHICK MEAL NO. 5 is prepared strictly according to modern scientific methods- and is the result of careful and exhaustive experiments. It has been demonstrated and is admitted by all experts that to rear birds successfully and bring them to t'ne highest state of perfection, they must have, while very young, a cooked food, and their corn diet must be carefully limited. This food should be composed of cereals, meat, vegetables, bone and shell in judicious combination. Such is Spratt's- Patent Chick Meal No. 5. We also manufacture special)}- prepared foods for Dogs,. Puppies, Cats, Rabbits, Poultry, Pigeons, Game, Birds, Fish. Send for Free Catalogue. "Dog Culture." whicn contains practical chapters on the feeding, kenneliuigi and general' management of do,giS, also chapters on cats. Write for copy of "Poultry Culture," whic'h contains much valuable information. -Market St., Newark, N. J.; 714 S. 4th St., St. Louis, AIo.; 1324 Valencia St., San Francisco, Cal.; 1279 Ontario St., Cleveland, O.; 11 Union St., Boston, Mass.; 988 Notre Dame- St.; Montreal, Can. SPRATT'S PATENT (AM.) LTD. That Which Half Completes — Fails Fight shy of failures and use the old, reliable standard remedies which have the endorsement of the leading poul- tr3'men of the world. CONKEY'S ROUP CURE conquers this most fatal disease of the poultry yard and re- stores the useless fowls to health and profit. Roup begins with a cold, followed by sneezing, wheez- ing, discharge from nostrils and eyes, which thickens and gives forth an offensive odor. Conkey's Roup Cure is guar- anteed to satisfy you, or your money will be returned without question. Just a thimbleful, according to directions, and the fever.ish fowls eagerly take their own medicine and cure themselves. Prices 5cc. and $i.oo, postpaid. CONKEY'S CELEBRATED BOOK ON POULTRY FREE An illustrated book of 48 pages, full of useful informa- tion to the poultry raiser. Housing, Breeding, Feeding, Matiugi, and poultry care generally. The price is.2SC., but you can have a' copy free for 4c. in stamps and names of two others interested. Send to-day. CONKEY'S STANDARD REMEDIES are used the world over. They are guaranteed to t'he and j'ou get your money back if they don't suit j-ou. will cure your fowls. Conkey's Roup Cure. Conkey's Bronchitis Remedy. Conkey's Cholera Remedy. Conkey's Gape Cure. Conkey's Chicken Pox Remedy. Conkey's Limber Neck Remedy. Conkey's Scaly Leg Remedy. Conkey's Rheumatic Remedy. Conkey's Healing Salve. Conkey's Poultry Laxative. Conkey's Poultry Tonic. Conkey's Laying Tonic. Conkey's Lice Powder. Conkey's Lice Liquid. Conkey's Head Lice Ointment. Conkey's Nox-I-Cide. Conkey's Sulphur Candles. Conkey's Fly Knocker. Conkey's Distemper Remedy. Conkey's Mange Remedy. THE G. E. CONKEY CO limit. They 416 Ottawa Bldg., Cleveland, Ohio. HAWKINS BREEDS AMERICA'S BEST PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BARRED, WHITE AND BUFF. WYANDOTTES COLUMBIANS, SILVER, WHITE AND BUFF. Winners at New York, Boston, World's Fair, and America's greatest shows for 20 years. 2000 Choice Birds for Sale EGGS From prize matings, i sitting $5.00; 2 sittings, $8.00; 3 sittings $10.00; 5 sittings $15.00; $20.00 per 100. Catalogue of AMERICA'S BEST free. fl.e. HAWKINS, LOCK BOX 3, LANCASTER, MASS. YOUNG'S STRAIN OF SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS I HAVE NO OTHER BREEDS. Winning- more prizes in the last seven years than all others combined at the World's Greatest Show, JMadison Sqnare Garden, New York, is positive proof that I have the grandest strain of Single Comb White Leghorns in America. Not only has my strain won highest honors for myself, it has also won for my cus- tomers, in almost e\'eryshow large and small in the United States and Canada. My winnings at Madison Square 1907: — Cocks, First, Second and Fifth; Hens, First and Third, Cockrels, Third; Pullets, First and Third; Breeding Pen, Second; Fourteen cash specials, and for the third and last time the American Leghorn cup for best Cock, Hen, Cockerel, Pullet and Pen. Stock and eggs for sale at all times; 1907 mating list free. Address D. W. YOUNG, RIDGEWOOD, - NEW JERSEY Roberts Poultry Farm BREED NOTHING BUT FIRST-CLASS WHITE WYANDOTTE Exhibition and Utility. \\'e have won First and Second four successive years at jMadison Square Garden and other large shows. They are not Httle "chunks" but are large business fowls that lay lot of eggs that hatch out chicks which grow to be broilers, roasters and great layers. We have a large flock of birds fed under free range system laid down in this book. PRICE OF EGGS: 13 for $3.00; 26 for $5.00; $6.00 per 100; $50 per 1000. ALLEN C. ROBERTS PARKER FORD, PA. Standard Bone Cutter Co. Manufacturers of Green Bone Cutting Machines FOR HAND AND POWER The Standard Bone Cutting Company manufac- ture eleven different sizes for hand and power ranging in prices from $6.75 to $195.00. All their bone cutters are built on the same prin- ciple; positive automatic feed, automatic stop, with horizontal cylinders, knives in cutter plate always in sight cutting across the grain Avhich are features of our bone cutters which excel those found in other makes. The bone cutters are substantially built, and will last for years with ordinary care. Every machine they ship is warranted and if it does not do as they represent in the catalog, you can return it and they will refund the money. They ship on ten days trial.- Write for catalog and free trial plan. Standard Bone Cutter Co., BOX 71, MILFORD, MASS. Mention this book when writing. ^ 1 fi 7 f{ ik ;i