JULY 1, 1912 



423 



exceeds the area of Pennsylvania. It would prob- 

 ably be just as correct to say that all of Penn- 

 sylvania was coal land. The Manatee book and 

 the developments of the Manatee district have been 

 most carefully selected, and they do not tell of the 

 maximum possibilities of intelligent and careful 

 agricultural methods under the best conditions in 

 that section, as we used the most conservative 

 method. Mr. Foreman would doubtless be surprised 

 to know that the Palmer interest, who already have 

 a very large interest in Manatee County, have re- 

 cently purchased 680 acres of land just south of 

 P>radentown, the consideration said to be $23,000, 

 or nearly $40.00 per acre. Land to bring this- sum 

 must have value, and it was sold to people who al- 

 ready have an interest in the landed area of that 

 section. Another Illinois citizen is reported to have 

 purchased 250 acres in the Manatee district for the 

 purpose of developing- citrus groves. Price is not 

 reported; but the location of the property leads us 

 to believe that it was no small sum per acre. If 



Mr. Foreman will take the United States census rec- 

 ords, showing the almost marvelous increases in the 

 population of southern Florida, Manatee County es- 

 pecially, for the past ten years, I am satisfied he 

 would have a better line of information on the State 

 than now appears to have reached him. 



Norfolk, Va. J. A. Peidb. 



It is quite a joke on our good friend 

 Foreman that the Rural New-Yorker does 

 carry the advertisement of the S. A. L., al- 

 though it may not be exactly the advertise- 

 ment that friend Foreman refers to. I bap- 

 pen to know quite a little about Mrs. Potter 

 Palmer's })urchase, for it is right close by 

 the ^'Robinson Crusoe" island where I spent 

 two winters. 



!P®QoDftD°^ E)@^aiD°il[n]®DDil 



STODDARD'S CONVERGENT POULTRY-YARDS 



How Many Miles can a Hen Travel in a Day ? or, if 

 you Choose, How Many Miles does a Hen Travel 

 in a Day ? and. Finally, How Many Miles can a 

 Hen Travel in a Day Without Impairing her Egg 

 Record ? 



Some of you who have not considered the 

 matter may say a hen does not travel even 

 one mile; and may be you will add that, if 

 she is to make a good egg record, she ought 

 iiul to travel half a mile. Philo, you know, 

 has been trying to teach us that a hen will 

 lay more eggs, if she does not travel at all, 

 than if she has the run of the farm. He 

 would, however, dig up the ground in her 

 little pen, and bury in it some grain so as 

 to induce her to do work that would prob- 

 ablv be the ecpiivalent of ciuite a little trav- 

 el. ^ 



Some years ago I visited our good friend 

 Hunter, at Seven Mile, Ohio. He is the 

 i:reat seed-corn man, you know. His dwell- 

 ing is set on a very pretty little bill or 

 mound. The ground slopes away from the 

 liouse in every direction; and corn-gTowing 

 has been so much of a bobby all his life 

 that his cornfields come clear up to the 

 lionse in every direction. As fences Avoiild 

 '<• in the way, so far as I can recall he has 



liie. The men start out from the barn 

 i ear the house with a team in the morning, 

 and go off cultivating half a mile or more in 

 every direction, doing something useful, 

 "^ioing and coming." Instead of going 

 lluough a long lane to get to their work, 

 their work commences right at the stable 

 and then ends at the same spot. Well, 

 friend Hunter has a lot of chickens. They 

 pick up their food while roaming through 

 the cornfields, following the plows, picking 

 up grubs, etc., and earning their living in 

 many ways besides the eggs they lay. 



Do you ask how he can have any garden 

 without fences? Well, he endeavors to have 

 liis garden so far away that the chickens 

 will not get up to it. When I was there 

 he had a beautiful garden nearly a cjuarter 

 of a mile from the house; but some of the 

 most enterprising of his poultry had found 

 it and "got there" after all. I think I never 

 saw a handsomer or healthier lot of cliick- 

 ens. The}' just crowed and cackled and re- 

 joiced from early morn till dewy eve — 

 chickens little and chickens big; and I be- 

 lieve that he or his good wife or the children 

 always have excellent "luck" with chickens, 

 wlule a neighbor who had all modern appli- 

 ances, including lami^-heated brooders, had 

 dead chickens by the score. At the same 

 time that friend Hunter's chickens were go- 

 ing everywhere in the field, this neighbor 

 had Ms chickens shut up, and lamps burn- 

 ing to "keep them warm" so they could not 

 " catch cold." Pardon me if I am telling 

 this story over and o\er again, for it is one 

 that can not be told too often nor with too 

 much energy and vehemence. Mankind all 

 over the world are si lending money in build- 

 ing air-tight houses in order to avoid drafts 

 and catching cold, when plain common sense 

 ought to send them outdoors into the fields, 

 where they can get health and strength by 

 digging and scratching for a living. I am 

 talking about chickens and people both. 



Well, perhaps you would like to know 

 what I am driving at. Suppose a laying 

 hen can walk a mile or half a mile, and still 

 do a good job at laying eggs. What of it? 

 Well, T am proposing that this same lajdng 

 hen shall run errands and help earn her 

 own living as well as lay eggs; and I hope 

 she will lay more eggs while she is doing er- 

 rands and saving her owner steps. I have 

 not yet got around to the point where I can 

 send her to the postoffice, gxoceiy, and other 



