118 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



drawn within reach. I do not think the above invention 

 has ever been patented, and it is too good to keep. By 

 its use one person may handle a coop of fowls, which 

 without it would require at least two or three persons to 

 accomplish. 



PASTURING POULTRY. 



The farmer whose acres are broad can enclose his gar- 

 den with a fence, and let the poultry run at will, but 

 villagers and suburban residents, living on small lots, 

 must enclose their chickens if they desire to cultivate 

 either a garden or the good will of their neighbors. 

 During the spring and summer months it is necessary 

 that chickens have a supply of fresh, tender, green food, 

 if kept in a healthy, growing condition. They cannot 

 eat grass when it is tall enough to mow, and the refuse 

 of the garden is little better than husks. A good plan 

 is to pasture the chickens. Make a wire cage, put it on 

 wheels having flanges, lay a track for the wheels to run 

 on, and sow oats between. The frame is three feet high, 

 six feet wide, and eight long. The upper part is 2 

 by 2-inch pine ; the sills 2 by 4 inches. The wheels 

 are sawed from 2-inch oak plank, and turn on 1-inch 

 bolts. The flanges are 1-inch stuff, nailed to the 

 wheels. The track is 2 by 2-inch stuff laid on the 

 ground, the strips being thrown on top as the cage passes 

 along. Wire half the thickness of fence wire is strong 

 enough. The soil between the rails should be worked 

 over, and sown with oats early in the spring and in suc- 

 cessive sowings. "When an inch high it will do to pas- 

 ture. Have a small door in the poultry yard to match 

 the one in the cage. Half an hour's pasturing each day 

 will do the chickens more good than any amount of 

 green stuff thrown to them. When the crop seems ex- 

 hausted, let the fowls scratch it over ; then sow again. 



