POULTRY. 545 



GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



IN order to make poultry raising profitable, certain things are essential, such as proper 

 buildings, sufficient range, suitable food of proper quantity, access at all times to pure 

 water, etc. Farmers who permit their poultry to pick up a precarious living, roost in 

 the winter in the apple trees, and care for themselves generally, as was formerly the practice 

 in many localities, cannot expect to attain the highest success in poultry raising. In such 

 cases eggs were rarely supplied to the family in winter, while the hens stole their nests in sum- 

 mer, which were perhaps not found until the eggs were past being suitable for use, or the hen 

 appeared with her family of chicks about the farm house, this frequently occurring so late in 

 the season that the chickens could not possibly be of any profit to raise. How often have we 

 known the good housewife, standing in some farm house door, with sleeves rolled up to the 

 elbows, and hands whitened with flour, call to &quot;one of the boys&quot; to hurry and look up a 

 nest, because eggs were wanted at once to finish the baking. And so the search would com 

 mence, ladders and scaffolds were climbed, hay mows searched, sheds and shed lofts carefully 

 scrutinized. An opening under the barn would be utilized as a means of access to the wide 

 range afforded under the barn floor, or perhaps one or two boards would be taken up in the 

 barn floor to admit of access to this place so delightful often to a hen, as a place of security 

 for secreting her nest. Piles of old rubbish would be peered under, every currant bush and 

 place of security in the kitchen garden searched, until covered with cob-webs, dust, and hay 

 seed, and tired out with the effort, the task might perhaps be rewarded with a few fresh eggs, 

 but quite as frequently with those past their state of usefulness as an article of food. 



Intelligent farmers of the present day have learned that there is an easier and more 

 profitable method of managing poultry than this, and so on the best kept farms, those where 

 the general appearance is indicative of the most thrift and jiidicious management, we see a 

 better system adopted, where the commodious and tasty outbuildings of the farm have some 

 where ample provisions provided for the comfort and care of the poultry, as well as the 

 other domestic animals on the farm. A poultry house need not of necessity be expensive, 

 but it should be comfortable and provide warm quarters for the poultry in cold weather, and 

 shelter from the storms at all times. But the rearing of fowls need not necessarily be 

 restricted to the farm. A constant supply of fresh eggs may be had by keeping poultry, 

 whether on a farm, or even a village or city lot. &quot;With the average farmer, fowls are per 

 mitted to have free range about the farm, where they obtain a large portion of their living, 

 especially insects, grass, and a variety of other food. They are scavengers with respect to 

 clearing the premises of insect pests, grasshoppers, beetles, grubs, etc., sometimes proving 

 very useful in aiding the farmer by exterminating the beetle or potato bug from a potato 

 field ; some hens, however, will not eat the latter insects. 



We know of nothing better for a farm garden in ridding it of insects and small worms, 

 than to have a chicken coop located near its center,- where the young chicks can forage all 

 they wish. The chickens cannot scratch enough to do mischief in that way, while the hen, 

 being confined within the coop, will keep a sharp look-out for danger, and give any necessary 

 call of alarm. It is an interesting sight to see a flock of hens follow a fresh-turned furrow and 

 pick up the worms, beetles, etc., that are distributed throughout the soil, none escaping their 

 keen eye. A flock of chickens are also of great service in an orchard, in freeing it from 

 injurious insects. A gentleman in France, owning a fine estate, planted near his mansion 

 large orchards containing all the choice fruit trees that could be acclimated, among which 

 were about three acres in plum trees, which were healthy looking, grew finely, blossoming 

 every spring, but owing to the ravages of the curculio the fruit never came to maturity. 



Becoming disgusted, he turned this plum orchard into a chicken yard, leaving the plum 



