CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE EXERCISER. 



We have already shown some simple contrivances for 

 inducing fowls to run, in the few cases under the exten- 

 sive system where it was necessary or convenient to 

 employ yards or runways, but to induce them to scratch 

 is another matter, which becomes very important under 

 the intensive system, where yarding is the rule and open 

 range the exception. While formerly one attendant 

 could properly manage hundreds of yarded fowls, he can 

 now tend thousands by means of the new machine, 

 which is called the Exerciser. 



In its invention, the problem was to devise a recepta- 

 cle, suspended over the straw, to hold grain enough for 

 a day, or for several days, if desired, inaccessible to rats 

 and mice, and to discharge a little and often upon the 

 straw beneath ; for, as stated, if too much is distributed 

 at a time, the birds will become cloyed and cease work- 

 ing, and if too little is dropped they will also cease, 

 because they become discouraged. 



The dropper or distributer, which is more accurate 

 and precise than the feed shelf already described, and is, 

 therefore, particularly adapted to feeding chicks in 

 brooders,- is constructed as follows : Let e, Fig. 58, rep- 

 resent a strip of tin, 3 ft.xS in. ; a is a strip of wire 

 cloth, 3 ft. x3 5-8 in., with mesh 8 to the inch; #, c, 

 and d are strips of wire cloth of the same length and 

 width as e, and b has mesh 10 to the inch, c has 12 and 

 d 14 to the inch. All these may be ordered at any hard- 

 ware store. Figure 59 shows these strips, a, b, c, d, 



152 



