Odds and Ends. 121 



HEN PASTURE. — Where there is land enough it pays to have parti- 

 tions in the chicken yard so as to give pasture for the hens. A crop of 

 Crimson clover in the Spring will provide 60 per cent of the hen's food 

 while it lasts. Rape is excellent for hen feed, and a patch of it may be 

 ready when the clover is done. Another small patch of oats may follow 

 this, and the place where the Crimson clover grew may be sown to cow 

 peas. After the oats are done this patch may be seeded to Crimson clover 

 and turnips, thus keeping up a succession of green food. 



DOUBLE CHICKEN YARDS.— Our henhouses are built so that they 

 open into two large yards. The family garden is alternated back and forth 

 between them. This year the hens run in what was last year's garden ; 

 next year they will be put where the garden is now. This plan is a good 

 one where there is space enough for a large yard. The droppings of the 

 hens are utilized and the soil is cleaned up and purified by cropping. On 

 most of the garden soil it is possible to follow the last crop with Crimson 

 clover or rye, which make good Spring pasture for the hens. These 

 chicken yards are long and narrow. We find that it pays to go in with 

 a horse and small plow frequently and turn the soil over. This gives the 

 hens an abundance of worms and helps fit the ground for next year's 

 garden. 



CATCHING HENS. — The two devices shown herewith are useful 

 to save chasing a hen and running her down. The upper one is like a 

 small-sized shepherd's crook — a 



wooden handle with a bent wire «=; =^=====, 



attached. This wire can be reached 

 out to catch the hen by the leg 

 and hold her. The other is a 

 good-sized fisherman's hand net 

 with a long handle. With a little 

 practice it becomes easy to catch the hen in this net. 



POULTRY AS INSECTICIDES.— Poultry eat large quantities of 

 insects when permitted free range. They are particularly fond of earth- 

 worms, grasshoppers and the like. We have never known hens to eat 

 Squash bugs, or Potato beetles, though' there are reports from good authori- 

 ties that they have done so. We once kept a large flock of hens and 

 chicks in a potato field, after the plants were about six inches high. They 

 certainly ate many of the egg clusters of the Potato beetle, but, so far 

 as we could see, none of the hatched insects. We have kept chickens in 

 a cornfield with very good results. A well-known method of fighting the 

 Asparagus beetle and the Onion maggot is to scatter coops with hens and 

 young chickens over the field. In an orchard poultry consume many injuri- 

 ous insects, and greatly help the trees. Ducks are perhaps the best insect- 

 killers of all domestic poultry. It is reported on good authority that 



