MANAGEMENT AND’ PROFIT OF FOWLS. aa 
turnips, refuse cabbage, and the waste bread and meat scraps from his 
hotel, and sour milk from his farm; also burnt bones, lime, &c., for 
shell-making. During the past ten years Mr. L. has annually raised 
‘ about 3,000 chickens, 450 turkeys, and 500 ducks and geese, and he 
thinks that the business might be made generally profitable, especially 
in rocky neighborhoods, and on a scale more extensive than his own. 
He says: 
The great secret of my success is in keeping near the conditions of nature. At the 
outset I became convinced that, above all things, fowls must have space and cleanli- 
ness; that they cannot be expected to do well if confined in cramped and oftensive 
quarters. With space and cleanliness, I cannot understand why the number need be 
limited. 
He has never kept an account of his poultry business, being satisfied 
with its continuous success. He pays $250 per year and board to one 
man to attend his fowls, and buys about 200 bushels of grain each 
year, which, with the vegetables and refuse from his hotel, interest on 
land, and cost of buildings, make up the regular expenses. 
The committee of the American Institute Farmers’ Club, appointed 
to visit poultry yards and ascertain the best mode of wintering poultry, 
reported through its chairman, Mr. J. B. Lyman, that Mr. Leland had 
the best winter quarters for his hens, ducks, and geese, they had ever 
seen. The following description of his winter management of poultry 
is taken partly from the report of the committee, and in part from 
statements given by Mr. Leland. For the winter quarters of his flock— 
which at that season is reduced to 300 early spring pullets, 30 cocks, 
30 turkeys, (sometimes many more,) and a few geese and ducks—he has 
a stone building 75 feet long and 25 feet wide, which faces the south. 
The openings on the north side are small and filed with window-glass, 
and in some cases with double sashes. Those on the south are much 
larger, consisting of double doors, which are opened on sunny days. In 
the middle of the north side is a wide old-fashioned fire-place. Nearly 
every day in winter a fire is kept up with chunks, knots, and logs that 
would otherwise be useless. The walls being of stone and the floor of 
earth or rock, the fire can be left without danger. The chimney can 
easily be closed, or the logs rolled out into the middle of the building, 
and feathers or sulphyr be used for fumigation, which is done whenever 
hen-lice appear. Smoke is found to be better than carbolic acid, or ker- 
osene, or whitewash, to drive away vermin. On cold and wet days the 
fowls gather before the fire, warm themselves and trim their feathers; 
and when the fire dies out they wallow in the warm ashes. Lime and 
plaster are freely used in the building to absorb odors and compost 
droppings. MRoosts are made of oak slats aninch thick and two and one 
half inches wide, fastened to the rafters near the ridge. About two 
feet below the perches is a scaffold of boards that fit closely. This is 
covered with pilaster and ashes from time to time, which, with the accu- 
mulated droppings of the hens, are frequently swept off, put into barrels 
with all refuse filth, and used upon corn land. The manure is valued 
at $1 per year from each hen, as the same amount of fertilizing salts in 
bone-dust which would cost $50 is annually saved from fifty hens. 
The wide perches used enable the hens to cover their feet entirely with 
their warm feathers, and prevent freezing in the coldest nights. The 
oifal of the farm and refuse from the kitchen are thrown into this hen- 
house to be picked over; and besides this the poultry is fed about a 
bushel of corn per day in winter, and half a bushel in summer. Mr. 
Leland raises excellent crops of corn, having the best manure, and he 
teeds the product of four acres in keeping and fattening his poultry... 
