THE BOOK OF POULTRY 



a stock of 300 birds, of which all except a 

 few were reared on the ground. I have four 

 incubators, capacity 5CX) eggs, and hope next 

 season to have a stock of 1,000. 



" I started in March, 1912, with a few White 

 Wyandottes and White Orpingtons, and as I 

 had no land I had to build my hopes on the 

 new system (the intensive) by building two 

 colony coops to hold six each. I found this 

 system so successful both for getting a good 

 supply of eggs and for keeping the birds 

 clean and healthy that I have extended it, so 

 that my plant now consists of fifteen houses 

 to hold 250 layers, besides incubator house 



I feed my layers at a cost of ijd. per head 

 per week, and can fatten chickens at an 

 average cost of id. per head per week from 

 birth until four or five months old." 



Mr. Jackson's system of feeding, it will 

 be noticed, is less elaborate than that of Mrs. 

 Baynes, if wet mash is used, and, with 

 the exception that we give the soft food 

 or mash at night instead of in the 

 morning, is what we have found work very 

 well for three years on an experiment con- 

 ducted by us on intensive lines in our own 

 garden. Our object was to test the effect on 

 the general health of birds kept under such 



Kxperimental Intensive Plant in the Editor's Garden. 



(500-egg capacity, four machines) and corn 

 store, and all in my garden. 



" You will see by the photograph how they 

 are placed. There is no difficulty as to getting 

 eggs in winter, as I get more then than in 

 summer. My next move is to build on half 

 an acre some large intensive houses to hold 

 100 birds each, which I am going to rear this 

 next season, and so increase my stock tenfold. 

 I reared my young stock this season on a 

 quarter of an acre adjoining my house, and 

 when four months old the young birds all go 

 into intensive houses for stock or table birds. 



"I use for scratching material dry leaves, 

 road dust and chaff, which cost next to 

 nothing. I feed on soft food in the morning, 

 green food at noon, and small grain at night. 



close confinement, and though necessarily, 

 owing to our business duties, the bulk of the 

 attention to the birds fell to gardeners and 

 others hitherto altogether unskilled in poultry- 

 keeping, we must confess that we were agree- 

 ably surprised as to the results obtained in 

 this direction, and also as to the number of 

 eggs secured during the winter months from 

 birds thus penned up. 



In order to show that it is not essential to 

 scrap existing houses to test the system, we 

 give a photograph above of our experimental 

 intensive plant, only one of the houses in which 

 is of true intensive type, viz. that in the fore- 

 ground. The older types of houses in the 

 background have yielded equally good results, 

 and are certainly easier to work and clean out. 



