POULTRY. 105 



vermin, and a warm, shelter for the winter, a young hen may be 

 depended on for 150 to 175 eggs per year. At lowest prices 

 these wi 1 sell for $3.50 ; and at highest prices the keeping will 

 not exceed $2, leaving $1.50 net profit. 



Then the manure, if properly managed, will furnish a suffi- 

 cient stimulant for the various crops of a large garden. The 

 droppings of twenty-five fowls is a sufficient basis for ten bushels 

 of compost, better than any foreign guano. A farmer who cul- 

 tivates four acres of hoed crops can afford to keep forty fowls 

 from November to April, for the manure alone, making no 

 account of eggs. This may seem a strong statement to those 

 who allow the droppings of the hen-roosts to dry up and go to 

 waste. But repeated trials, for a series of years, have satisfied 

 your Committee that it is correct. The method pursued in 

 saving and preserving the manure is this : A slight excavation is 

 made in the ground under the roosts, and boards a foot wide are 

 set up round this space, into which all the droppings fall. Late 

 in autumn this is carefully cleaned out, and three inches of 

 fresh sand is spread over the bottom. No water from the eaves 

 or higher ground must be suffered to run into the bed. In 

 April, before the warm weather starts fermentation, work over 

 thoroughly bottom sand and all, adding a little dry sand, if 

 necessary, to pulverize it. Prepare a sort of mortar bed in the 

 barn cellar or shed, or wherever rain and sun can be kept from 

 it, to which transfer the mass, as fermentation under the roost 

 will injure the fowls as well as dissipate the ammonia. In this 

 bed work into it twice its own bulk of pulverized peat or fine 

 loam, and half its own bulk of fresh ground plaster ; cover up 

 and let it alone till wanted for use. The best way to make the 

 compost, is to spread peat or loam at the bottom, then a layer of 

 hen manure, then a layer of plaster, each in its proper propor- 

 tion, and so repeat, till all is used. If immediate effect is 

 desired, at planting time mix a little wood ashes with such part, 

 as you take it to the field ; but never put ashes in the heap, as 

 it will set free the ammonia ; and cover from the air as soon as 

 dropped in the furrow. For small and tender seeds it should be 

 worked into the soil. For corn, beans, beets, &c, drop in the 

 furrow and cover lightly with the foot before dropping the seed, 

 as direct contact will often destroy the life of the seed. When 



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