DIFFICULTIES OF POULTRY-FARMING. 



153 



was that in our absence all day it was peculiarly 

 hard to get even such a simple thing as cleanli- 

 ness maintained by a man — and we had three 

 in succession — in the sense we understood it ; 

 these American farmers say exactly the same ; 

 and efficient and faithful labour remains the 

 chief practical difficulty. One man might suc- 

 ceed here — i.e. in controlling labour — where 

 another would utterly fail. But a very import- 

 ant point to consider, before entering into any 

 enterprise of this kind, is the peculiarly exacting 

 character of the labour required. There can be 

 no holiday ; the birds can never be left. It is 

 work that never ceases, for long hours, day 

 after day, with no relaxation : absence of the 

 labourers would mean disaster, and of the 

 superintendent, peril and neglect. This is an 

 aspect of the business which we very rarely see 

 pointed out by writers on poultry matters, and 

 which never seems to strike some who desire to 

 embark in it. 



Management of the ground is better under- 

 stood at this date than formerly, and, in connec- 

 tion with this point, fencing is the chief difficulty. 



It is perfectly well known now that 

 Management j^j^j double-stocked for half the 

 Buns.^ year, or if need be every alternate 



whole year, to the extent of fifty 

 birds in a quarter of an acre, keeps perfectly 

 sweet, and will raise a good crop from the 

 manure meantime. So far back as 1880 we 

 suggested, with some hesitation, the cutting and 

 selling of hay in combination with poultry, but 

 the suggestion had never then been carried out 

 that we are aware of. In several cases known 

 to us since this method is practised. We were 

 once staying for a day or two with a gentle- 

 man who owns 123 acres, of which some is 

 wood and coppice for shooting, and who for 

 several years sold nothing off the land but 

 poultry products and hay. He could not be 

 called a poultry-farmer strictly ; for he had not 

 his living to make by it, and was fond of ex- 

 perimental changes in his operations. One year 

 he reared little but chickens and some turkeys ; 

 the next fewer chickens and a large number of 

 ducklings ; and he was then thinking of largely 

 breeding pigs. But he was confident that he 

 made more by this simple system out of his 

 holding than he could have made in any 

 other way, the only drawback being the diffi- 

 culty of extra labour in the hay harvest. 

 The land was scrubby and worn out when 

 bought, but about ninety tons of hay had 

 been cut the preceding season, worth say 

 £}, 5s. per ton, and this hay had been made 

 by the birds. One year 8,700 chickens were 

 marketed from the farm, which was not fenced 



in runs except for the breeders, but was 

 managed in natural fields. 



With flocks in defined runs, management 

 will be more difficult. Fowls fall off in egg- 

 production when in too large flocks, and cost 

 too much in labour when in too small. The 

 best compromise is generally reckoned to be 

 about fifty birds together. Double-stocked, such 

 a flock needs a quarter of an acre for six to 

 twelve months, thence to be removed to another 

 sweet run. If scythe-work can be managed, 

 double runs are easy enough, but there must be 

 removable lengths of fence to allow of a cart 

 passing for loading the hay. Cows and goats 

 and sheep have also been grazed in such vacant 

 poultry runs. Moving the entire stock to 

 anotherhalf of the whole farm would bebest of all, 

 but the fences of the runs hinder operations of 

 that kind. It is to be remembered that the mere 

 value of the manure, or of the extra crop, is not 

 the only point involved in this question of alter- 

 natingacropwith the poultry; it is that themanure 

 is thus consumed, and the land kept permanently 

 sweet, which can be done in no other way except 

 by an excess of land beyond what is needed. 



From time to time the proposal is revived to 

 economise plant and labour on an egg-farm by 

 ignoring fences and separation of flocks, and 

 keeping a large number together. 

 We are not here referring to the 

 well-known "colony" system in 

 America, in which separate houses wide apart are 

 provided for moderate flocks, absence of fences 

 being compensated by distance, separation, and 

 sense of locality. Such a system is really costly 

 in labour, but not necessarily unhealthy, and is 

 pursued with some success ; though it appears 

 to be declining in the localities where it has been 

 chiefly carried on. But it has been taught in 

 some quarters that hundreds of birds should 

 be kept for economy in one large house for 

 roosting, and with as many as two or three 

 hundred head per acre. Doubtless if the fowls 

 could be permanently kept in this way, the 

 manure they made at night being only cleaned 

 out at long intervals, the economy in labour 

 would be very great ; and as we have already 

 pointed out that overcrowding may often go 

 on for quite an unexpected period with ap- 

 parent success, as it had done on the very 

 place at Orpington which ultimately supplied 

 Dr. Klein with material for the study of con- 

 tagious fowl enteritis, the danger of such a 

 course does not always appear until some 

 time has elapsed. But, as already said in an 

 early chapter, sooner or later Nemesis comes : 

 and cases have frequently been reported in 

 which the following of methods of this kind 



Crowding 

 Impracticable. 



