JULY 1, 1912 



Hunter does, or, if you 

 choose, grow potatoes. 

 Down in Florida the 

 chickens would dig up 

 and eat a good lot of 

 the potatoes nearest 

 their house or home; 

 but I do not know but 

 potatoes or somethirg 

 equivalent would be a 

 cheap way of furnish- 

 ing them with green 

 food. Have a field big 

 enough so as to give 

 them all they want, and 

 still have some left. 

 Very likely it would be 

 wisdom to have a fence 

 or some gates so as to 

 keep them off the crops, 

 if need be, until they 

 are well started. 



In Texas, where my 

 friend Stoddard has his 

 up-to-date egg-f a r m, 

 the weather is so warm 

 (as it is in my Florida 

 home) that he declares 

 no roof is needed over 

 the roosting-places ; and 

 after having tried this 

 plan for two winters 

 they do seem to do 

 about as well without 

 any shelter. As they, 

 however, seem to j^refer 

 to run under shelter 

 when we have heavy 

 rains, I think I would 

 have a roof for each 

 pen that would give 

 comfortable shelter to 

 fifty laying hens in each 

 yard. For nests we will 

 have boxes with a slop- 

 ing roof, or, rather, a 

 a roof — coming inside 

 around the granary. Friend Stoddard has 

 sixteen yards, as I have told you, all run- 

 ning down to one narrow center. With fifty 

 hens in the yard this would make 800 on 

 the egg-farm. But one yard would be oc- 

 cupied by the lane running down to the 

 granary, or at least the lane would take uf) 

 a considerable part of it, and another yard 

 would probably be saved for sitting hens, 

 and possibly two or more yards for chick- 

 ens of different ages.* This would leave 



Fig. 2 shows my modification of Stoddard's convergent poultry-yard. 

 Yon will observe, however, that I liave only 8 yards instead of 16, and I 

 have 4 poultry-houses, each 8x16, divided in the cen'er by the wire netting 

 so as to make 8 roosting-places 8 feet square. These roosting-liouses have 

 a shingle roof at present, with doors so arranged that all the poultry can 

 be securely locked up nights. The granary is so arranged, as you will no- 

 tice, that the feed may be carried from the store-bins to the feed-hopper 

 only a few feet away ; and that is also arranged so that one roof will an- 

 swer for the two yards, and the feed-hopper is located right in the division 

 fence so that one hopper feeds two yards ; therefore you will observe that 4 

 hoppers answer for 8 yards. In like manner four series of nests answer 

 for the 8 yards, and also, in ilke manner, 4 feed-hoppers, and 4 watering- 

 dishes, or troughs. I have not thought it worth while to show the watering- 

 arrangement either in tlie cuts or diagrams. 



hinged 

 of the 



cover for 

 inclosure 



twelve yards to contain fifty laying hens 

 each, or 600 laying hens in all. Well, 

 friend Stoddard tells us in the Journal that 

 one who has had practice with such an ar- 

 rangement can feed the 600 fowls in one 

 minute, and not have them all crowding 

 and getting tlieir muddy feet in the food, 

 etc., either. The watering arrangement is 

 simply a dish into which water is constantly 



* In order to get the proper number of pullets for 

 our "egg-farm," we shall have to raise about an 

 equal number of males; at least there is no way as 

 yet for helping it to any great extent so far as I 

 can learn. Well, we are frequently told that the 

 Kexes should be separated about as soon as we can 



distinguish the cockerels, and we want a separate 

 yard for these. "With my arrangement of fences and 

 yards down in Florida my cockerels were so far 

 away that they sometimes got neglected ; and if you 

 want to sell them for broilers or "fries," as they call 

 them in the South, they need to be crowded with the 

 best kind of food and care. Well, just think of the 

 saving of time and labor in having these "young 

 roosters" (like all the rest) come right up to the 

 granary for food, water, grit, shells, meat, or what- 

 ever else you choose to give them. 



