A Bird in the Hand
(Special Information Service, U. 8. Department of Agriculture.)
HOUSING THE BACK-YARD FLOCK
Two Piano Boxes, Combined and Covered, Make This Kind of House.
GOOD HOUSE FOR
BACK-YARD FLOCK
Comfort, Not Luxury, Is Impor
tant for Flock's Need.
OLD SHED IS SATISFACTORY
Made Warm and Airy, and With Hen
Conveniences, Is All That Is Nec
essary ? Divide Yard for Grow
ing Green Feed.
A house for the buck-yard flock need
not be expensive. It should be com
fortable. Often there Is an unused shed
or building on the place which can
easily be converted Into a chicken
house. The front of the poultry house
should face toward the south, If possi
ble, so that the sun will shine into it.
A house which provides a floor space
of three or four square feet for each
bird is ample In sine and fowls are
often successfully kept with an allow
ance no greater than two and one-half
to three square feet. Houses must be
dry and free from draft, but must al
low ventilutlou. Very satisfactory
houses can be made cheaply frtmi pi
ano boxes or other packing cases.
"Where there Is a board fence it is
sometimes possible to take advantage
of this by building the poultry house
in the corner of the fence, making the
fence itself, with the cracks covered
by strips or battened, serve as the buck
and one side of the house.
A cheap house 8 feet square can be
made of 2 by 4-lnch pieces and 112
inch boards and covered with roofing
paper. Such a house would be large
enough for a flock of 20 to 25 hens,
It can be built quickly and is cheap In
construction. l'lans for building It,
which can be easily followed, with a
description of all the material needed,
are given in a new publication of the
United States Department of Agricul
ture, Farmers' bulletin 889.
* _ I * 1
If the back yard is well drained, the
ground Itself should be dry enough to
serve as the floor of the house. Often
a slight dampness can be corrected by
filling up the floor several inches above
the outside ground with sand, cinders,
gravel or dry dirt. Three or four
inches of the surface of the floor, and
of the run, if a very small run is used,
should be removed and replaced with
fresh dirt two or three times a year.
If the ground is so wet or damp that
the condition cannot be corrected by
filling, it is best to provide a board
floor, as this will keep the house dry,
will allow easier cleaning, and will pro
mote the general health and welfare
of the hens. A house with a board
floor should be set on posts or blocks
5 to 12 inches above the ground, Built
in this way the floor will not rot so
quickly and rats are not so likely to
take refuge under it.
To keep the flock in a clean and san
itary condition dropping boards should
be provided and roosts above them.
This makes it easy to remove the drop
pings each morning, and helps greatly
to keep the house ?ree from objection
able odors. A little sand sprinkled on
the dropping boards after each clean
ing will make the cleaning easier. The
dropping boards and roosts should be
placed against the back wall. Here
they are out of the way and at the
same time where they are less likoly
to be reached by drafts. The drop
ping boards should be about 20 to 30
Inches from the floor, depending on the
height of the building. This gives
space enough under them so that the
hens have room to exercise and it is
not too high for the heavier hens to
fly to. The roosts should be three or
four Inches above the dropping boards,
A piece of 2 by 4 or 2 by 3 laid on
edge, and with the upper corners
rounded off, makes a good roost.
Nests must be provided and may be
very simple. Any box about one fool
square and five or six inches deep is
suitable. An ordinary orange box wltb
a partition in the middle serves this
purpose very well, each box forming
two nests. With the top removed the
box is laid on its side and a strip three
or four inches wide nailed across the
lower front. Nests can be> fastened tc
the walls of the house or set on the
floor. It is preferable to fasten them
agnlnst the wull, as they take too much
floor space if set on the floor. One
nest should be provided for euch four
or Ave heus. Straw or other material
used in the nests should be kept clean
^ and not allowed to become so low that
the eggs will strike the wooden bottom
of the nest. This may cause the eggs
to break and will start the hens to
eating them ? a very troublesome habit
and one that is very difficult to break
up once it is formed.
A litter of straw or leaves about
three or four inches deep on the floor
of the house helps to absorb the drop
pings, and by feeding the grain in this
litter the hens are obliged to exercise
by scratching for It.
Wire fencing is preferable to boards
as It is cheaper and the hens are less
likely to fly over. If cats prove trou
blesome, where one is raising young
chickens, it may be necessary to cover
the top of the yard with wire also.
This is practicable for small enclos
ures. A board should not be used at
the top of the wire fence as this gives
the hens a visible place to alight and
tends to teach them to fly over. A 5
foot fence Is high enough for most con
ditions, but if the hens show a ten
dency to fly over such a fence the
flight feathers of one wing should be
clipped. The larger the yard which '
can be provided, the better the hens
will do, as it not only gives them bet
ter opportunity to exercise but also
makes it possible to maintain a sod
in the yard. In most cases not enough !
yard will be available so that a sod j
can be maintained. If the yard Is fair- 1
ly large it can be divided into two
parts and green crops, such as oats, 1
wheat, rye or dwarf essex rape, allow- '
ed to start In one yard while the hens
are confined to the other. The yard
should be turned or spaded up fre
quently, if not in sod, to keep it in
the best condition. This will not only |
tend to keep down any odors which
might arise but also allow the drop
pings to be absorbed into the soil more
readily and therefore keep the yard
in better condition for the hens.
Although It Is necessary to keep the
hens confined to their yard most of
the time. It Is sometimes possible to
let them out where they may range
on the lawn for an hour or so durlug
the evening when someone can be at
hand to watch them, or at certain sea
sons of the year to allow them to run
in the garden plot. The next article
on back-yard poultry keeping will dis
cuss the feeding of the flock, with sug
gestions as to the use of kitchen waste
and the amount of grnin and other
feed needed.
THIS HOUSE FROM PIANO
BOXES; FOR 12 HENS? $12.
A very satisfactory hen house
enn be made of two piano boxes.
The Unxes are placed back to
back 3 feet apart, the back and
top of each removed, a frame
for roof and floor added and the
part between the two boxes
built in with the boards remov
ed from the boxes. The whole
Is covered with roofing paper.
A portion of the door should be
left open or covered with a piece
of muslin to allow light and ven
tilation. and windows in the rear
may be cut if desired. With pi
ano boxes at $2.50 each, such a
house can be easily and quickly
built for $12. It will accommo
date 12 hens comfortably.
As it is bettor to have a cold, dry
poultry house than a warm, damp one,
some means of ventilation should he
provided. A cloth curtain over an
opening has proved a very successful
method of ventilation.
If the poultry yards are to be on
only one side of the house they should
be located on the south side in order
that the fowls may have the benefit
of the first dry ground In early spriug
and the warmth from the reflection of
the sun on the house during the win
ter.
Tour flock need not be objection
able to the neighbors. There will be
no disagreeable odors if dropping
boards are provided in the chickea
? I house and these are cleaned dally. The
? noise of the male bird is as unneces
> | sary ns ihe male himself in a flock
kept for eggs. Hens lay just as well
without the male.
This Is Our Winter
of Test
ER VINO food Is n lr>
rsil prohid?. for ea<'h
community. I'rlce*
and definite rules for
every one cannot l?e
formulated. It
Is a duty for
each one to
eat only so
much a? Is
necessary to
maintain the
human body
nealthjr and strong. Tills winter
of 1918 Is the period when Is to
be tented here In America wheth
er our people are capable of vol
untary Individual sacrifice to
?ave the world. That Is the pur
pose of the organization of the
UoIt6<l States flood Administra
tion ? by voluntary effort to pro
vide the food that the world
needs.
U. S. FOOD A DM J "ISTRATION
NEED BIG HERDS
Europe's Meat Supply Must Come
From America.
Warring Nations Have Depleted Live
Stock at Enormous Rate, Evei
Killing Dairy Cattle For Food.
American stock breeders are being
nuked to conserve their flocks and
herds In order to meet Europe's tre
mendous demands for meats during
the war and probably for many years
afterward.
The United States food adminis
tration reports that American stock
raisers have shown a disposition to
co-operate with the government in In
creasing the nutlon's supply of live
stock.
Germany today Is probably better
supplied with live stock than any oth
er European nation. When the Ger
man armies made their big advance
Into France and then retreated vir
tually all the cattle In the Invaded
territory ? approximately 1,800,000
head ? were driven behind the German
lllM'S.
ISut In England ? where 2,400,000
acres of pasture lands have been turn
ed Into grain fields ? the cattle herds
are decreasing rapidly. One of the
reasons apparently Is the declining
maximum price scale adopted by the
English as follows: For September,
$17.76 per 100 pounds; October, $17.28 ;
November and December, $16.08; Jan
lary, $14.40. The effect of these prices
was to drive beef animals on the mar
ket as soon ns possible.
In France the number of cattle ns
well as the quality have shown an
enormous decline during the war.
Where France had 14,807,000 head of
cattle In 1913, she now has only 12,
341,900, a decrease of 16.6 per cent.
And France is today producing only
on? gallon of milk compared to two
and one-half gallons before the war.
Denmark and Holland have been
forced to sacrifice dairy herds for beef
because of the lack of necessary feed.
Close study of the European meat
situation has convinced the Food Ad
ministration that the future problem
of America lies largely in the produc
tion of meat producing animals and
dairy products rather than in the pro
duction of cereals for export when
the war will have ceased.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT
HELPS PAY FOR BREAD
There lias been much misunder
standing about the bread program in
England. It is true that the Euglish
man buys a loaf of bread for less than
an American can, but it is poorer
bread, and the British government is
paying $-00,000,000 a year toward the
cost of it.
All the grain grown in Great llrlt
ain is taken over by the government
at an arbitrary price and the imported
wheat purchased on the markets at
the prevailing market price. This is
turned over to the mills by the govern
ment at a price that allows the adul
terated war bread loaf of four pounds
to sell at 18 cents, the two pound loaf
at 9 cents aud the oue pound loaf at 0
cents.
In France* under conditions some
what similar, but with a larger ex
traction, the four i?und loaf sells lor
10 cents.
MAKING MEATLESS
DAYS PERMANENT.
In the meatless menu there is a fer
tile field for developing new and nour
ishing dishes, according to E. II. Nile.*,
tvriting in the Hotel Gazette, who be
lieves that the present shortage of
meat and fats will not end with the
coming of peace, but may grow m.?re
acute and continue for five or six
years, thus making it worth while to
develop menus of grain, vegetables
and fish on a more or less permanent
basis. Meat can be replaced by cereals
and other protein foods, or may be
served in very small portions as a Un
voting for other food. In making up
meatless menus this author finds our
American Creole and soul hern cuisine
a broad field for Investigation.
FORCED TO WORK
IN KRUPP PLANT
Deported Men and Prisoners Are
Driven Into Slavery by Ger
man Authorities.
MAKE STARTLING DISCLOSURE
1 Hollander Tells ho-v Deported Bel
gians and French Prisoners of
War Are Compelled to Work
in Munitions Factory
in Essen.
By W. J. L. K1XHL.
(Correspondent of the CMcago News.)
The Hague, Holland. ? A Netherland
er who until four days ago was em
ployed at Krupp's munition works in
Essen, Germany, makes the startling
disclosure that some 4,(X)0 Hollanders
are working at Essen in the munition
and war material factories. Moat of
these men get there through the machi
nations of what this "escaped" Hol
lander calls "Seeleuerkaufer" ? Oohsn
& Ossendegner of Rotterdam, who
seeni to act as agents for supplying
Germany with greatly needed labor.
Eighty or ninety men a day generally
find their way across the border by
means of their agents, lured by the
prospect of very high wages and good
food. What they find in reality and
how next to impossible It is made for
them to return fo their own country
is thus told in the Hollander's words:
No Return Pass Given.
"When this firm of agents secured
my services they did not mention war
work," he said. "I was given to under
stand that field labor and trade work
was requfred. Also I was promised
that I could return any Saturday to
Holland to stay through Sunday. The
promised wages were high and food
was said to be plentiful. I accepted,
my pass was ready in a few moments,
but I did not know that the signatures
and vises required for my return to
Holland had been omitted, as they al
ways are in the passes given bythese
agents, no doubt because they know
perfectly well that after a week in
Germany no single Hollander would
ever think of returning there after his
week-end in Holland.
"Soon after my entrance upon Ger
man soil at Elten, where I found sev
eral compatriots like myself, we were
met by an agent from an 'arbeits bu
reau,' who secured our services for
shellmaking at Krupp's by telling us
that food was good there and wages
very high. He said that in other
branches of labor food was but indif
ferent and the wages nothing like
Krupp's, so we men went to Essen.
How good the food was there you can
judge of by the fact that my weight
was reduced by 24 pounds while there.
"For breakfast we received two
slices of bread without any butter or
fat whatever. For dinner potato soup
that left us hungry an hour after
eating. Then in the evening again
two slices of bread like at breakfast.
If the Hollander felt too ill or feeble
to work the Germans simply took away
his bed from under him to make him
get up. Oh, yes, there is a doctor, but
he always diagnoses the same. 'You
can work ? if you don't work you won't
eat' ? 'nicht arbeiten ? nicth essen,' as
we used to put it.
"The laborers are housed by the 500
together in barracks, which are but
Insufficiently warmed and imperfectly
cleaned. Typhus claims many victims.
In the barracks where I was housed
I found four men lying dead of typhus
beside my crib one morning. After a
few days of this sort of thirig it is not
to be wondered at that many Holland
ers try in every way to get back to
their country, although the vises on
their passes are lacking.
"If they are captured they are
thrown into prison for a fortnight on
bread and water. If they survive they
are then drafted back to Krupp's, and
set to work again. Production Is
pushed to the utmost. Numbers of sol
diers are employed as a change from
the front, and these men are so afraid
of being again sent to the front that
they would rather work themselves to
death at Krupp's.
Where Deported Belgians Work.
"Deported Belgians and French pris
oners of war also work at Krupp's.
Discipline is strictly enforced, and any
utterances of anti-German views are
at once punished.
"I got the impression that Germany
flung itself like mad into munition
work as its last card. But raw ma
terial is getting scarce, especially cop
per. In Essen all copper faucets and
the like had already been replaced by
iron and tin. The general idea in Ger
many Is that the war can be prolonged
nt the utmost for another half year, so
they are employing their last forces
for a supreme effort.
"Every evening at Krupp's alarms is
made ? 'Flieger Gem?ldet* [airplanes
reported]. All lights nre then extin
guished. This is done so that we
should not know when flyers really
came to bombard the factories. No one
is allowed to talk of the damage done
by allied bombs? and the newspapers
are enjoined to keep silence on these
matters. Still, I can say that some
damage has been done, although I can
not say how much nor exactly where.
On the other hand, stories likely to
stimulate the energy of the people are
eagerly promulgated, such as those of
enormous submarines of dreadnaugbt
type, o* guns that can shoot 90 kilo
meters that are soon tv> be used against
the allied armies."
HOW OUR MEAT
REACHES EUROPE
Meat and Other Food Saved by
Tar Heel Farmers Helps
to Win the War.
HOME MARKETS NOT SUPPLIED
Pork Sent to or Left at Local
Markets Reaches Soldiers or
Starving Women and Chil- j
dren by Proxy ? North Caro- '
lina Cities and Towns Draw
ing Thousands of Pounds of
foodstuffs From Central
West and Thereby Decreas
ing Supply Available for
Shipment to Europe ? Must
Save All That Goes From
Now On.
Raleigh. ? "How will the meat I
save reach a soldier or a needy per
son in Europe?"
This inquiry has been received by
the Food Administration from scores
of patriotic country p^ple in North
Carolina who have not been able to
figure out just how pork which they
save can be made to do war service
or prevent death from starvation in
the allied or neutral countries of Eu
rope.
The people who have been making
this inquiry can use poultry, rabbits
and other substitutes for meat and
are in better position to swell the
supply of pork available for export
than any other class of people in the
State, because the substitutes for pork
and beef on the market coat more in
most instances than these products
do themselves.
In the course of a letter to Mr. E.
N. Lindsay, a Wayne county farmer,
Mr. John Paul Lucas, of the Food
Administration, stated emphatically
that: "Every hog marketed by the
farmers of North Carolina finds its
way by proxy to Europe where it aids
in sustaining a soldier or saves from
starvation a woman, child or man. be
cause the marketing of a hog in our
towns and cities releases for export
the Central Western hog which would
have been imported by the town in
which the local hog was sold.
"The cities and towns of North Car
olina have to depend for their pork
and beef supplies largely upon the
Central West in stead of upon the
farmers in their own State. The Food
Administration, of course, is going to
see that all of the people at home
are supplied with food products be
fore any is exported, and this means
that solid cars of meat which might
be saving innocent people in Europe
from actual starvation are being
brought into North Carolina and other
Southern States to supply the mar
kets which should be supplied by our
own farmer's.
"Not one per cent of the people of
America have any conception of the
horror of the situation that confronts
the civilian population of England,
France and Italy, and the still more
pitiful plight of the people of Fin
land. Switzerland and other neutral
countries of Europe. Any surplus that
we have is first divided with our Allies
and the neutrals can gat only what is
left. Whether they get any at all
depends upon the degree in which our
people substitute other products which
we have for the products which, be
cause of their concentrates nature and
keeping qualities are best adapted for
export.
"Our normal surplus of wheat and
moat has already been exported. What
the people of Europe get from now on
can come only from what we save out
of our normal consumption of food
products. Even at the best, tens of
thousands of men, women and chil
dren will starve during the next four
months; but every particle of food
that is saved or marketed by any
American will find its way over ac
tually or by proxy to feed some sol
dier or to help save the life of some
child, some woman, or some man in
Europe.
"Facing these facts, can any nor
mal human being, blessed as we in
America are blessed, refuse to econo
mize in the use of all foodstuffs and
to substitute for wheat, beef and pork
products other things that we havs in
abundance? We are sure that no
North Carolina family which is ac
quainted with these facts will refrain
from doing its utmost to save life and
suffering on the other side."
WHAT THE FOOD SIUATION IS
The men of England, Scotland, Ireland, France,
Italy and Belgium are fighting; they are not on the
farms. The food production of these countries has
therefore been greatly reduced. Even before the war
it was much less than the amount consumed. The dif
ference was supplied by the United States, Canada,
and other countries, including Russia, Roumania,
South America, India and Australia.
The difference between production and consumption
is now greater than ever, and, at the same time, food
can no longer be obtained from most of the outside
countries.
Therefore, our Associates in the war for Democracy
depend upon North America for food as they ha\*e
never depended before, and they ask us for it with a
right which they have never had before. For today
they are our companions in a great war against a com
mon enemy. For the present it is THEY who are doing
the fighting, the suffering, the dying ? in OUR war.
One million of the finest Young Men of the United
States will soon be fighting side by side with the mil
lions of brave soldiers of France, Great Britain, Bel
gium and Italy.
Millions of the men, women and children of the
United States cannot go abroad and fight the enemy
face to face. But they can fight by
HELPING THE FIGHTERS FIGHT
"When It
Pours, It
Reigns"
Luzianng and Com Pone
?Yum -Yum!
HEN you see your mammy, Honey,
bringin' in the coffee and the pone, you
can tell before you taste it that the coffee's
Luzianne ? sure-nuf? by the whifs a-streaming,
steaming in the air.
It's the coffee ? Luzianne ? you remember
and you hanker after it until you get another
cup.
Luzianne Coffee (your grocer has it) comes
put up in tins. Try it tomorrow morning for
breakfast. If it isn't all you expect, you can
get your money back.
Luzianne for aroma, fragrance and snap.
Try it