CHAPTER XXV. 



HEALTHY, VIGOBOUS BIRDS. 



The introduction of mechanical contrivances in tend- 

 ing fowls marks a new era in poultry raising on a large 

 scale. Hereafter the poulterer, working under the old 

 system, can no more compete with those who have the 

 new machinery than he can raise hay for cattle and use 

 only scythes in competition with stockmen who have 

 mowing machines. The ordinary scratching room, or 

 "scratch pen," would be all right if the time could be 

 afforded to mix grain with the litter often and a little at 

 a time, but nobody ever did or ever will do this thor- 

 oughly by hand, daily, for any length of time. If done 

 by hand it will be at a loss, and the more you do it 

 without machinery the more you will lose. The country 

 is full of abandoned incubators and brooders because 

 the eggs used for hatching lacked, at the start, the 

 vitality that nothing but exercise of the parent stock 

 could bestow, and also such chicks as could be coaxed 

 out of the shell died by inches for want of exercise in 

 the brooders. Writers on poultry urge the sprinkling 

 of millet on litter for the young broods, to induce 

 scratching exercise ; but doing this two or three times a 

 day amounts to but little. It will slightly retard the 

 mortality, the "leg weakness," the general debility and 

 the "plastering up" at the rear of the body of the 

 poor unfortunates, but will not wholly prevent these 

 troubles. 



Speaking of the disgusting and disheartening trouble 

 last mentioned, complaint of which appears in the cor- 



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