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Show MANNER OF STICKING FOWLS Common Pocket-Knife, With Medium-Sized Medium-Sized Blade, Makes Excellent Instrument In-strument for Operation. When the market calls for a bird to be bled, the best plan is to stick It in the mouth; and by so doing avoid the unslghtJiness so common where they are hacked about the throat. . Using this method, one should first of all have a stout cord f A iD kV i -gj?oov jn soar r V I ' j orjtroiru.. Where to Stick a Bird. fastened to the ceiling, with a two pound weight attached to the lowei end. This should be just high enough to hang the bird to be picked at a convenient height. The weight it used to save tying a knot each time; as all that is necessary is to wind the string around the bird's legs, and the weight will hold it securely. Use a box or barrel to catch the feathers; and a small paint-can, with a hooi fastened to the handle, is hooked Into the bird's mouth to catch the blood and prevent its soiling the feathers. It requires very little practice prac-tice to kill the birds in this manner After the bird is hanged, by the legs cross the wings at the back and grasp the head in the left hand, the back of the head in the palm ; and with the end of the second finger hold the mouth open; then, with the knife in the right hand, make a diagonal diag-onal cut across the roof of the mouth just where the arteries enter the head. Then,' with the point of the blade, pierce the brain in about the middle of the roof of the mouth, which will loosen the feathers. Th moment the operation is finished, the bird should be plucked, as the cooling cool-ing of the body makes the feathers harder to pick. A common pocket-knife, pocket-knife, with a medium-sized blade, makes a good instrument for sticking. DUST BOX FOR WINTER USE Combination of Hard Coal Ashes and Powdered Tobacco Stems Keeps Hens Free From Lice. Thinking the hens did not use their dust bath as much as they ought, and believing the reason for this to be because the dust material mate-rial was so cold, we changed conditions condi-tions in this way. A dry goods box three feet long, twenty Inches wide by eighteen inches deep was obtained, obtain-ed, says a writer in the Homestead. The bottom boards were removed and a new bottom nailed on, which was one-fourth Inch thick. Another box, just enough larger to allow the first to slip Inside easily, was next found. This was placed In the Runniest Run-niest spot In the hen house and filled to within four inches of the top with fresh horse manure. On top of this the smaller box was set and filled to A Winter Dust Box. within six Inches of the top with sifted hard coal ashes and some powdered pow-dered tobacco stems. In a short time the ashes felt warm and the hens soon found this out. They have kept remarkably free from lice, due. we believe, to the tobacco. Fresh horse manure is put In two or three times during the winter. SALT IN THE POULTRY FOOD No Living Thing Can Get Along Entirely En-tirely Without It and Chickens Should Have Food Salted. Many people labor tinder the impression im-pression that no salt should ever be put Into poultry food, simply hecauso highly salted food, such as salt fish or pickled meat, has soiMmes killed chickens. As a matter of fact, no living liv-ing thing can get along entirely without with-out salt in some form. Chickens can always pet snlt In summer by ealint; irrass, which absorbs a certain imount from the soil. Hut In winter it is different. During cold weather ill prepared chicken fond, such as mashes and boiled vegetables, should be salted In about the same proportion propor-tion as for human food. If this Is 3ono, the poultry will be healthier and more productive. |