406 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



should be made. There should be sufficient indoor room, 

 and that in a suitable building or coop for both fowls and 

 chicks, and a generous allowance of room outdoors. While 

 it is unquestionably better for foAvls not given enough room 

 outdoors to have a room}' house than to be crowded indoors 

 as they are out, and better for fowls given coops on\y big 

 enough to roost in that the}' have a good range during the 

 day, the best results cannot be obtained by subjecting fowls 

 to unfavorable conditions half the time ; and it makes little 

 difference whether that half is day or night. 



For best results there must bo uniformly good conditions. 

 "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well." If it is 

 worth while to utilize the farm land for poultry, it is worth 

 while to properly house what fowls are kept. If the ex- 

 pense of putting up buildings for what fowls can be kept on 

 the land is too great at first, the proper balance of conditions 

 can be maintained by reducing the numbers kept to what 

 can be properly housed. The conmion experience of poultry 

 men who make a specialty of poultry is that the flock so 

 limited in numbers not only pays a better profit per head, 

 but also a greater total profit than when the premises are 

 overstocked. Market reports this season have furnished an 

 illustration of this point on a very large scale. After prices 

 of grains went up last fall, buyers of poultry throughout the 

 country reported that the stocks on the farms were being 

 very much reduced, and it was predicted that on this account 

 there would be a shortage of eggs and poultry this season. 

 There was a shortage of eggs early in the winter, because 

 even fewer flocks than usual were producing ; but after the 

 hens began laying the production was greater than last year. 

 It is altogether probable that this is l)ecause the reductions 

 of the farm flocks made the conditions so much better for the 

 fowls that remained that their average production was very 

 much increased. 



In conclusion, let me urge on farmers who want to make 

 their poultry as profitable as possible, a point which^ when 

 first stated, may not seem to fit the subject of this article. 

 It is this : never stint your growing chicks on feed. Let 

 them liave all thev can eat and digest properly. Don't 



