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Show san In his leisure moments breeds a special cock for crowing, and that, which can outcrow his fellows has reached the highest pinnacle of perfection. per-fection. The plan adopted is to place the cages containing the roosters in a. long row, for it appears that proximity-creates proximity-creates that spirit of emulation without with-out which the proceedings would fall flat. A marker appointed by the organizers or-ganizers of the show is told off for each bird, his duty being to note carefully care-fully the number of crows for which it is reponsible, in the same fashion as the laps are recorded in a bicycle race. The customary duration of the match is one hour, the winner being the cock which scores the highest number of points in the allotted time. DAIRY AND POULTRY. INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR OUR RURAL READERS. Bow Successful Fanners Operate This Department of the Farm A Few , Hints as to the Care of Live Stock and Poultry. "Keeping; Tab." (From the Farmers' Review.) One of the most successful farmers it was ever the good fortune of the writer to become acquainted with was considered a' "crank" and much too book learned by his neighbors for the simple reason that he carried on his .large farming business in a perfectly business-like way. To be sure, he did carry things to an extreme in some re- spects, as, for instance, the opening of a complete double-entry ledger account ac-count with each field upon his large farm. In this he would charge against the field each load of manure hauled upon it and also the expense for work of man and team and similarly record every penny of expense on one side and against it the gains of the field not , only in actual crops grown and sold, ibut in accrued gain of fertilizing matter mat-ter held over from one crop to the next and of new manure produced from the waste products of the field. Such a man would be generally expected ex-pected to fail on the basis of the old iidea that "he who stops o count the cost will ne'er put hand to plow." This idea of not counting the cost is absurd and erroneous; it is behind the times and misleading, however trite and apparently ap-parently wise It may look to the thoughtless who do not want to bother with figures. We need to count the cost nowadays. We need to follow the example of this man who kept such an elaborate set of books, in principle at least if not in fact We need to "keep tab" of every operation of the farm, and nowhere is this more necessary neces-sary than upon the farm where a herd of swine is kept Annually there is great loss of pigs and consequently of profit by failing to keep tab of the date of serlce of each sow. A ledger account should be opened with each pedigreed sow, at least, even if the fields are not so dealt with. On one side of this account should be set down the cost .price of the sow and all expenses included in-cluded in purchase, etc. Here, too, a record should be kept of her time of service and opposite it in good season sea-son the returns from that service in number of pigs and later on the returns re-turns from the sale of those pigs. By so doing it is possible to detect at a glance how a sow Is breeding and paying pay-ing for her board and at the same time to decide which sow is the most profitable profit-able In amounts obtained for products which indicate, unless pedigreed, the weight of the hogs sold from her and the price obtained for those products. It will also appear whether she is a shy or steady breeder. In a large herd such facts are soon lost sight of unless some such record is kept, and without it sows are liable to bring forth their pigs when not expected and in places where many succumb to the rigors of inclement weather or the attacks of other swine.' By the keeping of a record the pedigrees of swine are easily kept track of, for It is always better to know just where facts are .to be found in writing than to attempt to record them merely in the mind; a great knowledge of science is impossible impos-sible unless a man can remember just where to lay hands on a book in his library which contains the facts he requires re-quires to consult But there is another anoth-er fine point to be mentioned in this matter of keeping tab. It does not so much concern the figures of profits as the record of results in product of pork or weight at selling time, and after all that is but another form of , ,. dollars and cents. We refer to the keeping of what may be termed the "experiment record." Here should be set down each week or month a correct cor-rect account of the feeding operations going on at the time. Each lot of hogs should be weighed and close track kept of the amount and kind of food consumed con-sumed by each. The work should be patterned after that so well done at every one of the agricultural experiment experi-ment stations throughout the country and will show at the end of the year or feeding period exactly how a lot of hoga have been fed, what gains have been made from the feeding and what profits have been made from the sale of the products. If every hog raiser were to keep tab in this way of at least a "check lot" of feeding hogs he would have a safe guide to follow yearly, and by changing his methods and again keeping tab would be able In time to tell exactly for his special location lo-cation and circumstances the method of feeding which was the most profitable. profit-able. The principle of keeping tab is what we desire to urge In this short article. It cannot be fully elaborated here; what we have said may be sufficient suf-ficient to set the hog man thinking, and that is the main object of this column of the paper. Roosters Crow for Prizes. Roosters that crow for prizes are familiar sights to the residents of various sections of Belgium, notably the Liege district. The Belgian arti- |
