356 Home Production of Foulhy. 



Bromley, in their " polished homes," with every attention, it 

 ranges far over what it does with my gipsy lot, or what it will 

 do on our Company's farm when the birds are penned according 

 to the plan I intend carrying out." Mr. Schroder's principle is 

 that the fowl in its normal condition is a scavenger, therefore 

 it must be fed as cheaply as possible ; and horseflesh, &c., is the 

 cheapest article of diet procurable by him. Ordinary farmers, of 

 course, cannot follow this system, because they are unable to get 

 a sufficient supply of such meat ; but in their favour is the circum- 

 stance that they always have by them much waste grain and 

 vegetable produce, rendering flesh unnecessary. 



The most important experiment in poultry production is that 

 of the National Poultry Company (Limited), which (under the 

 management of Mr. Geyelin) commenced operations last year in 

 the " Poultry Home" at Bromley, Kent. The present Manager 

 is Mr. F. H. Schroder, with Mr. William Massey as Deputy- 

 Manager and Resident-Supei-intendent at Bromley ; while in 

 conjunction with the main establishment is Mr. Schroder's 

 Hertfordshire concern, and another small farm (In prospect) near 

 Watford. The Bromley Home (at present only a portion of the 

 premises originally projected) consists of a principal building, 

 sheds, houses, yards, &c., and market-gardens, occupying 6 acres 

 of dry gravelly soil. The main erection is a greenhouse-looking 

 affair of wood and glass, 340 feet long, 20 feet broad, and 12 feet 

 high to the central ridge. The pens are arranged along each 

 side of the long central passage, which has a floor of red tiling 

 with shafts admitting cold air in summer and warm air in chill 

 weather, ventilation being provided for above ; and vines, trained 

 up the front of the pens, meet overhead with a pleasant cooling 

 shade of green leaves. The pens are in two tiers, that is, a 

 ground-floor and a story, each occupying 12 feet length of 

 frontage, with a breadth of 3 feet from the wired front to a wall 

 of boards, and outside the boards is a similar range of pens of the 

 same size, having for their outside wall a framework of wood and 

 wire. Thus a cock and six hens have the range of an inner pen 

 12 feet by 3 feet, completely shut in from the weather, and also 

 of an outer pen of equal size, roofed, but exposed to the open air 

 through wire of about 2-inch mesh. This was thought to be 

 rather close confinement for all but the most inactive breeds 

 of fowls ; and therefore there have been lately added to the 

 building open runs, each of about 30 feet square, in which 

 the different pens of birds are permitted to exercise and scratch 

 in turn. Of course the birds can be confined to their inside 

 quarters by means of a sliding trap-door. Water is supplied 

 to them in a porcelain fountain in each inner pen, mounted 

 upon a shelf out of the way of the dirt ; and food is given 



