EGGS FOR MARKET 31 



ways or almost always commence from a draught (combined with 

 lice). Comfort means also pure, fresh air without any draught, and 

 pure, fresh water to drink. 



Exercise 



You know how in the human family exercise is recommended. 

 Physical culture, gymnastics, Ralston exercises, Swedish move- 

 ments, fencing, etc., and those who may be too feeble to exercise for 

 themselves, pay others to rub, pound and knead or massage them to 

 get the same effect. 



Exercise is as necessary for the hen as for the human being and 

 more so, for the hen's exercise of scratching develops the egg pro- 

 ducing organs and strengthens them, and hens which exercise lay 

 many more eggs than lazy hens. If you have a vigorous scratcher 

 among your hens, you may be sure she is a good layer. 



Exercise a hen must have to develop the egg-making organs. 

 She absolutely must scratch if she is to make a living for herself 

 and you. I consider a scratching pen as necessary for hens in con- 

 finement as food. My scratching pens were twelve or fifteen feet 

 long and eight feet wide, but in small yards I have made very satis- 

 factory little pens by nailing four boards six feet long together, 

 forming a square. The boards should be twelve inches wide and 

 the pen filled with wheat straw or alfalfa hay or any good litter. 

 I do not like barley straw on account of the beards, which some- 

 times run into the hen's eyes, nostrils, or mouth and cause death. 

 Foxtails, burr clover and wild oats are all dangerous on this ac- 

 count. 



I feed all the grain scattered over the straw and my hens scratch 

 and dig happily all day long. The straw or hay is soon broken 

 into short pieces and fresh straw must be added about once a week, 

 and the whole cleaned out and used for mulching trees when the 

 straw becomes dirty. This will depend upon the size of the pen and 

 the number of hens using it. 



Proper Food ' 



What it is and how much to give. The scientists tell us that 

 the proper food or the "balanced ration" is composed of one part 

 of protein to four parts of carbo-hydrates. Before discussing this 

 "balanced ration," let us interrogate Nature and find out how a hen 

 balances her own ration. 



Let us take a hen as she comes in from foraging in the fields 

 after a long day in summer. Let us kill her and examine her crop. 

 What do we find? Grains of wheat, barley, corn, according to 

 where her rambles have led her ; bits of grass, clover and vege- 

 tables ; some bugs, worms and grasshoppers ; here and there a bit 

 of gravel and a lot of matter partially digested that we cannot 

 recognize. The first thing that impresses us is that the hen likes 

 variety, and the second thing that this variety consists of animal 

 food (bugs, worms, insects), grains and green food. This is the 

 "balanced ration," balanced by the hen herself to suit her needs in 

 the summer time when eggs are plentiful. If we want eggs in the 



