CHAPTER XVII. 



THE INTENSIVE PLAN. 



The condensed or intensive plan is to the itinerant 

 colony or' extensive system of poultry keeping what a 

 greenhouse is to ordinary farming. In the former, as 

 many fowls or chicks as practicable are yarded in a small 

 space and also kept much of the time under a roof, 

 while in the latter, comparatively few are allowed to the 

 acre of ground and they are kept, for the most part, 

 without yards, and never under a roof when it can 

 be avoided. 



During the last quarter of a century, the interest in 

 pure bred fowls has been wonderful, and the money 

 spent in disseminating breeds enormous in amount. 

 Poultry associations and poultry exhibitions have multi- 

 plied and the hen 'fever has spread like wild fire. Mil- 

 lions of eggs of pure bred birds, for hatching purposes, 

 have been sold and shipped to every corner of the land. 

 But among the results have been disappointment, cha- 

 grin, and loss immeasurable. Thousands and tens of 

 thousands of dollars have been squandered. Though 

 the use of the scratching bin or shed has been well 

 understood, and though it has been very generally 

 provided of late years, it has proved impracticable for 

 the ordinary fancier to mix the grain and straw often 

 enough to induce the needful amount of exercise. He 

 cannot stand around all day to secure the exercise of a 

 few fowls, while if the large-scale man goes the rounds 

 repeatedly to his hundreds of flocks, with rake or pitch- 

 fork in one hand and a basket of grain in the other, and 



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