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Show - BACK YARDJARMER Interesting Pointers on Gardening Garden-ing for the City Man or Suburbanite. WHAT TO PLANT AND, -WHEN Advice by an Expert on Agricultural Matters Squab Raising Hazardous Hazard-ous Make Hens Lay Growing Grow-ing Vegetables In a Flat. By PROF. JOHN WILLARD BOLTE. Squab farming as a specialty cannot be classed as a means of making a living. liv-ing. In fact It is usually a rapid way of losing an Investment. Widely advertised In the east, and to a certain extent In other sections of the country, It has attracted a great many people by its limitless possibilities possibil-ities on paper. They have invested money In "breeding stock" houses and pens. Most of Chat money is still Invested, In-vested, but a wide acquaintance with poultry men and conditions all over this country has failed to bring the writer in touch with a Bingle squab farmer who has made a financial success suc-cess of it, and the poultry papers do not write about them, which Is a pretty pret-ty sure sign that this builness has not ieen followed successfully up to this time. We might qualify this statement by admitting that some of the sellers of breeding pigeons seem to have been iquite successful In their field, but their success has been at the expense of the prospective squab raiser. : It is too bad, too, because it is such a fine way to make a living, on paper. You see the pigeons mate in pairs and stay mated for life. They raise two squabs, as the young ones are called, every month, the cock and the hen taklDg turns in setting on the eggs. This makes twenty-four squabs to market mar-ket a year, the average price running from $5 to $6 a dozen and the old birds will live on from $1 to $1.50 "and support the young on that allowonce, a clear profit of $10.50 a pair yearly. Figuring fifty pairs of pigeons to a pen 10 feet by 20 feet with 100 feet of covered yard and then figuring that , one man can look after not less than 10 pens, we easily determine that our yearly income will amouTit to $5,250. That is the kind of figuring that leads ore to. Invest In the breeders' "breeding stock" at $3.50 a pair. It is sufficient to say that instead of getting get-ting twelve pairs of squabs from each pair of pigeons, you will be lucky to i get an average of four pairs, In large numbers. They could not bring in Dver $4, leaving a margin of $2.50 a year from each pair of breeding . pigeons, or $1,200 gross profit from 500 pairs of breeders. The cost of a suitable house for these pigeons will not be less than $1,250 and the breeding stock will cost as much more. Interest, depreciation, deprecia-tion, non-productive stock, parasites and diseases will all cut into the gross profits and the squabs will bring in closer to 25 cents a pair than 50 cents, unless they are extra fine. WTe have had eighty-three adult pigeons killed in one night by rats. This loss involves the loss of thirty-six thirty-six squabs and over forty eggs, as their parents were either killed or their matings broken up. The squab farm Is all right when confined to a small flock, and pigeons are lots of fun for the boys, but it is a poor financial venture on a large scale. Let it stay on paper, where it thrives best. Feeding Hens for Eggs. Any good, healthy pullets wilPpro-iuce wilPpro-iuce eggs profitably during, the winter months if they were hatched early tnough, regardless of the exact feed- .tig method used. This fact is perfect- y true to a degree, and if we had to jhoose between late hatching with iclentific feeding and early hatching with unskilled, but plenteous feeding, we would choose the latter every time. The hen is not very particular where she finds her food, and she has in omniverous appetite, but nature nakes her balance up her ration sretty well, provided she has access a the various elements needed. At the same time, the early-hatched owl will be benefited just as much by icientific feeding as will the late-latched late-latched one, and the few simple rules foverning poultry feeding should be horoughly understood and followed )y every poultry keeper. By scientific feeding we mean the learest practical approach to the ex-ict ex-ict requirements of the fowl's body n producing eggs, tissue, heat and energy. en-ergy. If a hen needs a pound of protein or lesh-forming food and needs only four tounds of fats and starches, we must lot feed ill corn, because in this case t ihe will have to eat about twelve lounds of starch to get her pound of iroteln, and the surplus eight 'Ounds of starch will be wasted, make jer too fat to lay or make her sick. The whole secret is to mix the food in rder to save that surplus of starch and make the hen lay at her tot speed. Here Is what your flock must have in order to do their very best for you: Grain They should receive mixed grain twice a day, about one hanilfu! to the fowl, each feed. Cracked corn wheat and clipped oats makes an ex ccllent mixture. Barley may bo used in place of oats and kaffir corn is a good grain in the southwest. Do not teed whole corn to liens in a mixture as it is harder to digest and they ncg lect the rest of the mixture. Feed grain in deep straw during winter months Ground grain, or mash, is absolutely necessary for economical results, and it can be kept before them at all times in an automatic hopper;' an excellent ex-cellent mixture is two parts cornmeal, one part middlings, one part bran, one part oil meal, one part alfalfa meal, one part meat meal. Green food is essential to the fowls' health and the color and body of thf eggs. Pasture in summer and alfalfa cabbage, clover, chaff, sprouted oats etc., in winter will-serve the pur pose. Vegetable food is necessary foi health, and a semi-weekly feed ol roots, potatoes or cabbage will head off bowel trouble. Animal products are best supplied by a little green cut bone every othei day, but meat meal in the mash is au excellent substitute. They are of the very highest Importance to fowlf which do not have free range. Lime, for egg shells. Is supplied 1b crushed oyster shells, plaster or mar ble grit. Grinding material must be had, and marble grit serves a dual purpose here. Charcoal is an excellent corrective for digestive disorders. Water is just as necessary for fowls as for humans and It should be clean and always available. Vegetables in Window Boxes. If you live in a flat and have no ground available for gardening, do not give up the idea of raising some delicious deli-cious fresh vegetables of your own. Many vegetables will grow in pots and porch or window boxes just as well as they will grow anywhere. It is very easy to grow them, many of the plants are as decorative as flowers, aad the product will be much nicer and very much less expensive than store vegetables. veg-etables. The location of the vegetable boxes Is important. They should be placed where the sun will strike them nearly, all day. Windows, porches and roofs can be used to advantage, under proper prop-er conditions. It is usually better to use boxes or trays instead of flower pots, as the former will hold more plants to a given area, dry out less quickly, and are less liable to get broken. Any dirt-tight wooden box, eight or more Inches deep, will make a good vegetable box. These boxes have to be deeper than hot bed trays because the vegetables are to mature in them. Bore some half inch holes in the bottom bot-tom of the box to provide drainage. Put in two inches of cinders, gravel or other coarse material. Cover this with from four to six Inches of fine rich earth, prepared greenhouse earth, if possible. It should be thoroughly enriched en-riched with fine, well rotted manure, and some wood ashes will help, also. Coal ashes possess no available plant food. Fasten your boxes firmly In place and plant your vegetable seeds or plants as you would a regular garden.. If possible, these boxes should be planted a month or six weeks before they are going to be placed out of doors, so as to get a good start in the house. Put them in place when danger dan-ger of frost is past. Keep the soil well watered, and after aft-er the plants are up it will be well to keep the surface of the soil in u crumbled crum-bled condition, most of the time. Radishes, lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, spin-ach, onions, garlic and leek can all be grown from seed in boxes. Magnificent Magnifi-cent crops of cumcubers and tomatoes can be had all summer long. These plants should be pruned and trained on supports of some kind, either wires, stakes or strings. Egg plant and pepper pep-per will do very nicely, and we have seen a trellis completely covered with muskmelon vines growing in pots. Care must be taken to Water, cultivate, culti-vate, fertilize and spray for insect pests if any appear. If bees and insects in-sects do not reach the blossom to pollinate pol-linate them, It will be necessary to do this by hand, with some of the vegetables vege-tables mentioned. Take a camel's hair brush and transfer the pollen from one plant to another. This Insures In-sures fruit, and is quite important. |