POULTRY AS INSECTICIDES. 



CHAPTER IX. 



POULTRY-KEEPING IN ORCHARDS. 

 J. S. WOODWARD. 



WHILE hogs or sheep kept in an orchard will destroy 

 many insects and greatly help to keep them in check, 

 they do so only incidentally, and for the sake of 

 getting the infested fruit in which the insects may 

 be lodged. Not so with an old hen and a brood of young 

 chicks or ducks. They are ever on the alert, no insect escapes 

 their quick eyes, and they eat the " varmint " for its own sake, 

 and no insect but is agreeable to their taste. One such family 

 will destroy more insects than a hundred sheep or double 

 that number of swine. 



We have for several years made use of this means, and we 

 find the fruit of that part of the orchard in which they are 

 kept very much fairer and freer from insects than that pro- 

 duced on the other parts. So much have we been impressed 

 with this fact that we are extending the system to the whole 

 orchard. In order to have them all over the orchard we have 

 constructed a number of high, cheap and warm houses, 

 that are 8x12 feet, eight feet high on one side and five on the 

 other. The sides and ends are made of matched lumber 

 nailed to sills and plates of 4x4 stuff. The roof is made of 

 strips on which shingles are laid. The whole of the inside is 

 double-sheeted with tarred paper the under part of the roof as 

 well as the sides. There is a large window in the south side and 

 a door is placed in one end. Each house is provided with roosts 

 and nests and made in every way as comfortable as possible. 



