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332 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
down into the grounds for shelter and roosts. The wings of none are 
clipped, and the hens may scratch and turkeys fly at pleasure within the 
limits of the grounds. After a ttial of some years, Mr. Leland has dis- 
earded coops, finding that the greater freedom he allows the more 
healthful and profitable are his fowls. The principal features of his 
system are freedom, cleanliness, proper and sufficient food during the 
year, and change of cocks every spring. In summer, with the range 
they have, his fowls secure a good supply of animal food from the fields, 
in worms, grubs, bugs, grasshoppers, &c. They are also supplied at all 
seasons with the refuse scraps from the Metropolitan Hotel. Mr. Leland 
says: ‘‘Hee-making is no easy work, and hens will not do much of it 
without high feed. They need just what a man who works requires— 
wheat bread and meat.” He feeds wheat, even when it costs $2 per 
bushel. No old nests are allowed. After each brood is hatched the 
boxes are taken out and whitewashed inside and ont, and after lying in 
the sun and rain a few days they are half filled with clean straw and 
returned for use. The old straw is burned. Each of the 250 to 300 
hens on hand in the spring is permitted to have one brood during the 
year. Four or five will have broods the same day, and to the hen which 
appears to be the best mother ail the chicks are given. The others are 
given a cold bath and placed in confinement a few days, after which 
they return to the flock and their nests. Mr. Leland produces a great 
many eggs, which pay for food and attendance, and makes sales of 
poultry, amounting to several thousand dollars annually. If a hen 
comes off about the Ist of April with ten chickens, by the middle of 
June they will weigh twenty pounds and be worth $5. Mr. L. asserts 
that he can produce a thousand pounds of poultry cheaper than he ean 
produce the same weight of mutton, beef, or pork. He finds as great 
_ profit from turkeys as from hens, and greater with more attention. 
One-year-old turkeys are found to be the best mothers, and gobblers of 
that age are also preferred. Three hatchings are put with one turkey 
in a large coop, half hidden in tall grass, as bare ground is fatal to the 
young. The chicks do not require food until the third day, when 
cracked wheat is given them. They require great care during the first 
two weeks, and must not be left out in the rain or wet, but after that 
age they grow without much care. After the season of grasshoppers 
they are fed on corn, and late in September they are ready for market. 
In the fall of 1868 Mr. Leland sold 450 turkeys, grown that year, for 
$1,752—nearly $4 each. He also sold 320 ducks for $352, and over 80 
geese at $1 80 each.’ No food is given the geese after they have feath- 
ered; yet Mr. L. says other poultry is better and more profitable. He 
holds ducks—a cross between pure-bred Muscovy and English, which 
are hardy, finest for meat and best for eggs—in high esteem. The latter 
are fed on corn. His young chickens in 1868 numbered about 3,000, 
and his stock of all kinds of poultry about 4,000. It was estimated to 
be worth $4,000 in November of that year, when poultry was higher 
than it has since been. Mr. Leland prefers the large bronze turkeys, 
Poland geese, which lay earliest, and light Brahma hers. His cocks 
are of all kinds, as he finds excellent results from the crosses secured, 
and no old coeks are allowed on the piace. When nine months old his 
early spring pullets begin to lay, and he gets 200 to 256 eggs daily 
during the cold season. He prefers the Brahmas because they mature 
early for spring chickens, are handsome, hardy, good layers, look well 
when dressed, and are of large size. No other hens are kept. The 
Black Spanish and White Leghorn have been found better for eggs, but 
they are undesirable for the table. He feeds corn, wheat, chopped 
