102 Poultry's Place in a Rotation. 



to grain when mixed with chopped meat. He is able to buy 

 lean-meat scraps for a very small price. If he was unable to 

 get them, he says he would certainly buy a bone-cutter. There 

 is very little sickness in this flock because great pains are taken 

 to keep out all disease. Mr. Johnson believes in the "Doug- 

 las Mixture " to a certain extent, and uses it moderately when- 

 ever the fowls appear dumpy or out of sorts. Whenever a 

 hen seems really ill she is taken out of the house at once and 

 placed in a coop by herself. Mr. Johnson says that 500 hens 

 are all that one man can handle successfully. They can be 

 made to pay a profit of $1.50 each as a winter job alone. Not 

 the least valuable thing about this business is the way the 

 manure is utilized. Hen-manure is of ten called unsatisfactory 

 because it makes potatoes "run to vine." The trouble is that 

 it is not well balanced that is, it contains a greater propor- 

 tion of nitrogen than a perfect manure should. Mr. Johnson 

 found this out after many trials, and he went to work in the 

 right way to remedy the matter. The hen-manure is first 

 mixed with plaster. This keeps it dry and holds the nitrogen 

 in it. In the spring, instead of using the clear hen-manure, 

 Mr. Johnson uses a mixture of 400 pounds dried and sifted 

 manure, 200 pounds dissolved bone-black, 100 pounds muriate 

 of potash and 150 pounds of plaster. This, when fined and thor- 

 oughly mixed, makes a fertilizer which is equal, on his soil, to 

 the best chemical fertilizers sold in the market. It is particu- 

 larly good for potatoes and strawberries. In many respects 

 this is the best use that can be made of hen-manure. The 

 proportions of bone and potash will vary for different soils 

 and each farmer must determine the right proportion by ex- 

 periment. A combination of this sort will be very sure to 

 give better results than when the manure is used alone. 



Those who desire to apply the droppings alone will find little 

 value in the tough hard clumps in which dried manure appears 

 in the spring. Mr. P. H. Jacobs is an advocate of keeping 

 such manure wet. We give his views here in order to con- 

 trast his method with that of Mr. Johnson : 



