| Show WORM I 1 afke HEN ay alls div 1 HIRED MA FED OLD DOBBIN CHICKEN FOOD CHANGING ANIMALS HABITS GAVE POULTRY WRONG STUFF equine tries to go to roost while egg layers become accustomed to being harnessed and may do plowing caldwell N J bush a truck farmer living near this village brove into town the other day and to a group of men gathered in the local hardware store told a story of i mix ip on his farm which it true Is rather unusual the tale was elicited by the of a sorrel horse that attached to a light farm wagon stood hitched front ot the place of business the animal was pawing up the ground not with bold swinging strokes of the front hoofs as horses usually do but with a peculiar scratching mo alon of all tour feet that resembled the efforts of a shanghai rooster trying to secure the early worm every few minutes he would give vent to a pe cullar kind of which if not an exact imitation of a rooster s crow was about the nearest thing to it that ever a horse uttered that darn fool of a horse has an idea he s a booster and it all because I 1 trusted a green swede to take care of my stock last winter was mr bush s comment on the actions of the quadruped last fall my wife heard of some new tangled chicken food guaranteed to make hens lay in the coldest weather nothing else would do but had to get her some old dobbin was kind of run down id worked him nearly 20 years and so I 1 got him some condition powders at the same time that I 1 got the patent chicken food for my wife I 1 ve got a green swede working for me and I 1 told him to mix a little of the chicken food with the hens food and to throw a handful of the condl alon powders into dobbin s manger along with hia oats every time he fed him I 1 thought nothing more about the matter for more than a month and tl on ole that s the swede s name said that he was all out of both the food and powder my wife too was complaining she said there was something strange up for she haan hadn t got an egg since I 1 first brought the new producer of hen fruit home I 1 noticed that dobbin s appear ance haan hadn t improved either it any thing he looked worse than ever his hair stood out on his back like so many feathers I 1 asked ole it he had done as I 1 told him he assured me he had so I 1 de to make another trial next time I 1 got twice as much chicken food and condition powders as I 1 had at first and told ole to double the dose it there was any virtue in the stuff I 1 was going to find it out at easter we had to buy eggs in stead of selling them and my wife was madder than any settin hen you ver saw id been havin such a good time all winter around and lettin the swede work that I 1 haan hadn t noticed things much but auvin to buy eggs with a hundred bens on the olace set me to thinking I 1 dian didn t say anything but began to 1 take observations in a quiet sort ot way when I 1 went out in the yard johnnie that s my boy had two hens hitched to a little cart and was darivin em around just as they were used to it all their lives johnnie said he could drive any of the hens the same way what s more pa be sas the chickens don t roost on their perches any more when night comes they just lay down in the straw in any old place sure enough I 1 found what johnnie told me was true and when I 1 went into the stable I 1 saw dobbin had broken the manger down trying to roost on the rail well I 1 asked olo to show me what he had been geedin them critters all winter it was exactly as I 1 had begun to suspicion the darn swede coulden couldn t read and bel been giving the hens condition powders and dobbin patent chicken food the result was what anyone might expect they d been feadin on the dobbin tries to roost on the manger blame stuff so long that their nature were completely changed its more than a month ago since I 1 first found it out but you can t undo in that time what it takes four months to accod I 1 ve almost given up hope ot ever getting things back where they was last tall with old dobbin and my wife chickens yesterday I 1 started in to do some plowing but I 1 had to quit because dobbin stopped to eat every angle worm he could scratch out I 1 guess have to let johnnie finish the job with the hens k well there ain t any angleworms in the gravel of the road out there in front of the store interjected the pro krietor of the place and as I 1 don t care to have a well dug you d better move on As dobbin and his master passed out of sight around a bend in the road those on the store stoop heard the horse give another very close illta alon of a rooster a crow A neighbor of mr brush who came into town la the evening said it took the old man four hours to drive the four miles to his home dobbin wanted to join every flock of chickens he saw on the road |
