Farm and Garden.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 9 June 1904, Page 7

Farm and Garden.

I ORIGINAL ARTICLES. ) DRESSING POULTRY FOB MARKET. •ggpsljiL fowls should be fasted twenty(alS]|® | four to thirty-six hours before I killing. Where that is not done | the food decays in the crop and intestines, the result being that the flesh become? tainted and does not keep well. There ere two methods of killing fowls that ar£ considered proper. One is to kill by;, bleeding, which is accomplished by making a deep inoißion with a sharp knife in the roof of the mouth immediately below the eyes. The other is to kill tho bird by wringing or pulling the neck. Take the chicken in the hand, stretching the neck, holding the crown of the head in the palm of the hand, and giving a quick turn upward, and. at the same tiue a steady pull. That method is favored by exporters of dressed fowls, and is much cleaner than bleeding the fowls. It is claimed by the exporters that the flash will keep longer and will not be as dry as where the birds are bled. After the bird is killed, plucking should begin at once. Care should be taken to keep the head downward so as to allow the blood to collect in the neck. When the birds are allowed to become cool before being plucked, it is very difficult to avoid tearing the skin, and the plucking is much more tedious; all fowls should be plucked clean, with the exception of about two inches of feathers adjoining the head. After the chicken has been plucked it should be placed on a shaping board, and a weight placed on the top of the chicken to give it a compact appearance. If chickens are hung by the legs after being plucked it spoils their appearance, making them look thin and leggy. Many good chickens are spoiled by being packed before they are thoroughly cooled. Care should be taken that all the animal heat is out of the body before the fowla are packed, and that requires at least twelve hours. Chickens may then be packed in boxes about three feet long, seventeen inches wide and seven inches deep, lined with parchment paper. If the chickens are to be shipped a long distance each bird should be wrapped in parchment paper, which prevents them from bruising each other and checks decomposition Dj not use ordinary wrapping paper, as it imbibes dampness, and will cause the chickens to become clammy.

SOME ADVANTAGES OF INCUBATOBS. By Bsieg an incubator chickens caa be hatched earlier in the season, and by having early hatched chickens much better prices can be obtained; and the chickens mature earlier in the autumn and will commence laying before winter setp in, and if properly oared for a large number of winter eggs oan be obtained. Also by using an incubator, hens can be stopped from sitting and oan commence laying eggs again, a much larger number of chickens can be raised on a small lot; an incubator saves time in every way, inasmuch it requires fourteen to sixteen hens of a large size to cover two hundred eggs, and to look after those hens properly will require three times as much time a? a two hundred egg incubator. It would take about eight gallons of oil to the hatch with a two hundred egg incubator; and it will take half a pint of corn per day to properly feed a sittißg.ien. For sixteen hens four quarts per day would be required for twenty-one days, amounting to eighty-four qnarts, the cost of which would be considerably in excess of the incubator. It costs very much lees to heat the incubator than to feed the hens, and is very much more advantageous in many different ways. By having the incubator thoroughly disinfected befoie the eggs are placed inside the worry and trouble of lice and mites is avoided; such matters if neglected are always liable to become exceedingly troublesome and expensive to the poultry keeper.

EXPERIENCE WITH SHREDDED | FODDER A farmer in advocating shredded corn says that jhe annually raises about three hundred acreß of corn, aud for two seasons the jieldj has been about eighty bushels per acre,land the yield of fodder over three tonk per acre. All the stalks are cut up ana run through the shredder; e, careful account of the coßt of doing this work was] kept, and it demonstrates that, the fodder does not oost over four shillings a ton, after deducting the cost of gathering! and cribbing the corn in the ordinary *ray; therefore there is a ton of fodder that cost four shillings and is worth at*the least calculation half as much as ordinary hay, the present price of oaten hay being about or nearly eighty shillings a* ton. It will thus be perceived that it is a very profitable undertaking, and by a proper combination of this shredded fodder with other kinds of food, such as clover, cowpeas or grain, its value is greatly increased and becomes more valuable than oaten hay by itself. It is a first-class stock food that will keep in good condition [lots of oows and their calves, and raise | all the feeders on the farm. More moiiey can be made from properly adjusted feeding operations than if compelled to fieed any kind, of stock that one might casually obtain. The. price of land is largely jregulated by wbat it produces and what can be made out of it. On some of the high priced lands it is possible to raise three tons of good fodder an acre, shred it arid place it in a barn or rick at a cose not exceeding about four shillings a ton. Frbin one acre sufficient febd may be obtained to keep two or three cows, It is no time to say one cannot do certain things when present methods do not suffice j rather look for better and more rational methods and for ways and means of bringing about a condition of things that ought to exist; also while one is keeping a cow that is to raise a calf the manure mixed with the shredded stalks 'that arej' "sot eaten ia an excellent absorbent if properly utilised, and is worth all it costs to keep the cow daring the winter or other period when other forage is scarce, and in that way the cow repays for its food and costa nothing,