VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 77 



we shut our hens up in order to reduce their flesh. We have one house 

 367 feet long and 15 feet wide, with two windows in each department; 

 we put those hens into those rooms, which are 15 feet square. One 

 window has wire netting in front of it; this we open to give plenty of cir- 

 culation of air. We give them a scant ration and plenty of water, and 

 it takes about two weeks. At the end of the two weeks we open up the 

 windows of the house and let them out, so they can range out into the 

 sunlight in a fourteen-acre lot, and they look like so many balls of snow. 

 It is a very attractive sight. Then we begin to feed richer food and 

 more of it, but we want to use some caution and watch their digestion. 

 We give them sunflower seed, peas, oats, wheat and corn, a variety. 

 We raise the sunflowers ourselves, and this seed is very nourishing and 

 oily. Just as soon as the chickens begins to put on flesh the oil in the 

 sunflower seed, don't you see, works upon the feathers, and that will 

 make them begin to shed, and they will throw off their old plumage until 

 almost in a state of nudity. They will then go to work and replume 

 early in the season. They don't suffer any inconvenience, as the weather 

 at that season is mild and they do not get chilled. You don't see them 

 standing around shivering and looking sick, forlorn and disheartened, 

 for they are happy. They will soon put on their new plumage, and as 

 the feathers begin to come out, their eyes will begin to sparkle, their 

 combs will turn red and they will begin to cackle. That is the time to 

 gather the eggs. 



When you are in the poultry business in the way I have pointed out. 

 you can pick up eggs when they are profitable, the finished product; and 

 it is just like picking up the money; you feel as if you were doing some- 

 thing. I want to be in a business that I can realize that I am on earth 

 for some purpose. We have no use for a dead man. And I tell you, if 

 you cannot do anything else, get out in the street and begin to shout 

 and crow — that will make your blood circulate; you will feel happier and 

 have a better appetite. If you have plenty of confidence in this business, 

 and look after all the little details, you are sure of success. That is the 

 beauty of it. You want to keep your hen-house dry, and avoid disease 

 in that way. We clean our roosts every Saturday. After the droppings 

 are taken off we put on South Carolina rock, which we buy by the car- 

 load, and it absorbs the moisture, and this gives us a fertilizer that is 

 astonishing. A hen will produce a bushel of manure a year. This means 

 a better farm and better crops, don't you see. Just as soon as the roosts 

 are cleared we paint them with a mixture, made as follows: Take a 

 pound of carbolic acid crystals (and you can get that for forty cents), 

 put it in a crock and set it in a pan of warm water and let it melt; then 

 pour the contents into a gallon jug and fill it up with kerosene; then 

 take another gallon of kerosene and put about four tablespoonfuls of 

 that combination into that gallon of kerosene. And I want to say to 

 you that, with that South Carolina rock and wallowing box, with ust a 

 little care every Saturday, you will never see a louse nor a mite on your 

 premises. We are very particular. We fight the lice before they are 

 born; that is the best time to fight them. 



