102 GARDENING WITH BRAINS '8? 



better to eat if they get plenty of green fodder 

 from the garden. Lettuce plants that refuse to 

 head are punished by being pitched into the 

 hen yard instead of our salad bowl. Lawn clip- 

 pings, clovers, and all tender weeds are relished 

 by them, but the best thing is a row of Swiss 

 chard, because the huge outside leaves can be 

 broken off frequently, being replaced in a few 

 days by others. To make the chickens eat the 

 maximum of greens I always throw the leaves 

 in early in the morning, when they are raven- 

 ously hungry, and half an hour before their 

 other meals. 



Burbank has created a Rainbow variety 

 which makes chard ornamental as well as 

 useful. 



It is really astonishing how the feed bill can 

 be reduced by making the garden tributary to 

 the chickens. The other day we had five broilers 

 for ourselves and guests. I roughly figured out 

 the cost to us of these five as about four dollars. 

 At New York City prices for broilers it would 

 have been twelve dollars. We have twenty hens 

 which lay on the average three dollars' worth of 

 eggs a week. That pays for the grain we have 

 to buy for the whole flock of fifty chickens. 

 Making allowance for this, our broilers cost 

 even less than the sum I named. 



As for hens, I have heard that they can be 

 made entirely self-supporting by letting them 

 eat their own eggs. I haven't tried this; it 



