Time Table for Scalding, Blanching and Sterilizing of Fruits and Vegetables by One Period Cold-pack Method

CHAPTER IV

LIVESTOCK FOR THE GARDEN HOME

I

N earlier pages the claims of various kinds of small

livestock logically pertaining to the home in a

garden have been set forth from the standpoint of so many elements entering into the luxurious table. Something has been said of methods as related to the small holding, since it would not be feasible to keep chickens, for example, as they are usually kept on the farm. The true garden home is a condensed farm, to the extent of supplying many things for family use: and livestock must be housed and fed in accordance with this principle.

Housing methods have been touched upon in preceding pages. In dealing with these and also with rations for chickens, squabs, rabbits and goats, I have followed formulas supplied by the Government, or drawn upon the experience of persons with whose work I am familiar, and whom I know to have been especially successful. There are, of course, many different ways of housing and feeding hens. Elsewhere I have spoken of Charles Weeks and his methods of housing. His suggestions for feeding laying hens are as follows:

Dry Mash: 4 parts cracked wheat; 1 part medium cracked corn (Indian corn or maize); 1 part good quality dried-beef scrap; 4 part soy bean meal (coarse

ground); 14 part oil cake meal (linseed); 1⁄4 part charcoal.

Grain mixture: 3 parts whole wheat and 1 part Egyptian corn (perhaps Kaffir corn, where Egyptian is not grown). If hulled oats and barley are added to this in same proportions as Egyptian corn, it will add variety. Mr. Weeks gets best results by keeping this grain before his hens, the same as the dry mash. He has a hopper with two compartments of equal sizeone filled with the dry mash, one with the mixed grain. He never, under any circumstances throws the grain on the floor, as the hens will eat more or less filth and kick up a dust that is very bad for them.

Mr. Weeks gives the hens a variety of fresh green feed. The three best are kale, wurzel beets and alfalfa. Barley, beets, cabbage and rape for winter, and kale, beet-tops and alfalfa for summer is his programme. He says you must have plenty of rich soil and good water and keep the green stuff growing and in front of your hens to make them produce the eggs.

Mr. Clarence Ray King, of Hayward, California, one of the most successful producers in the country, uses this ration for squabs: Wheat, Egyptian corn, milo maize, small yellow corn, dry peas, hemp seed and buckwheat, mixed in certain proportions which vary at different seasons. For example, he feeds more whole corn in winter, because it is very heating. A little lettuce once a week is nice, but not of vital importance, according to Mr. King. Plenty of fresh water should always be on hand, as they like to take frequent baths. The experience of Mrs. W. W. Hevener as an incident of acre-farming has been referred to elsewhere. She

makes the following suggestions with reference to the delicate art of raising turkeys:

"Let them fast the first day after hatching, then for two weeks feed them bread-crumbs, hard boiled eggs (shell and all), and onion. Feed sparingly, as too much is sure death. However, they may have all the lettuce and onion they will eat. They must have grit, charcoal and pure water at all times. When two weeks old, mix in a little cracked wheat, and about six weeks before Thanksgiving, start them on corn." Mrs. Hevener started with five turkeys in a coop 10x12, letting them range over about an acre of ground, when they got older, allowing them to roost in the trees at night. (This was in California.) Later she had thirty in all.

In regard to rabbit rations, the United States Department of Agriculture supplies the following:

Clean oats (whole or crushed), bright, well-cured hay, and a small portion of some kind of greens daily is the steady diet used in most rabbitries. Crushed barley may be substituted for oats; clover or alfalfa may be used with green oats or timothy hay; and the greens may consist of carrots, rutabagas, prunings from apple and cherry trees, and plantain, dock, burdock, dandelion, cauliflower, lettuce or lawn clippings. All grass should be clean, and not fed when moldy or fermented. A variety of feed is essential.

Warm mashes should be given daily to the nursing doe and to young rabbits for a time after they are weaned. All rabbits are benefited by warm mashes in very cold weather.

The quantity of grain required by rabbits depends

on their age and condition, and also on the kind and quantity of other feed they receive. Some rabbits require more grain than others. Only by noticing the condition of each animal day by day can its feed be properly regulated. They never should be allowed to become heavy with fat unless wanted for the table. Eighteen or twenty young rabbits from three to five months old having a pint of crushed oats or barley a day, in addition to plenty of dry alfalfa and greens, will grow very nicely.

Fattening rabbits for meat may begin at any time after they are 10 weeks old, and should continue 3 weeks, the animals being confined in small quarters to prevent their getting too much exercise. Reduce the proportion of their green feed, increasing that of their grain. By gradually replacing half the usual grain ration with corn meal the rate of fattening can be increased.

Most breeders feed rabbits twice daily, giving greens in the morning and dry and warm mashes in the evening, but keep a supply of dry hay constantly before them. Rabbits that are fed two or three times a day should not be supplied with a larger grain ration than they can clean up in a short time. Water should be given every morning, but in freezing weather it should be removed when the rabbit has finished drinking. Salt should be supplied with the oats two or three times a week; or a small piece of rock salt may be kept inside the feeding pan.

Hay, oats, or other coarse, dry feed should not be fed to young rabbits before they are weaned, and only limited quantities should be allowed them for a week afterward, as such feed eaten in excess causes indiges