THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 185 



vermin. The roosts are oak slats, an inch thick by two and a half inches 

 wide, fastened to the rafters near the ridge. They are nailed at different 

 hights, and at proper intervals. About two feet below the perches is a 

 scaffold of boards, that fit quite closely. This is from time to time covered 

 with plaster and ashes. About once a month the accumulations are shoveled 

 down, and piled up for the corn-field. He calculates that fifty hens yield, in 

 the course of a year, as much compost as would be worth fifty dollars in bone 

 meal ; that is to say, if he threw away his hen droppings and had to buy the 

 same amount of fertilizing salts in bone-dust, it would cost him fifty dollars 

 to replace fifty hens as producers of manure. He has paid special attention 

 to the comfort of his 



HENS ON THE PEKCH. 



They sit on a slat two and one-half inches wide. Their breast feathers come 

 down and cover their feet, and protect them from freezing in the coldest 

 nights. Of course, there is no lack of dry ashes in their house, and he finds 

 that after the fire goes out the hens use the hearth as a place to nestle, and 

 shake ashes through their feathers. They enjoy it, and it keeps them sound 

 and comfortable. The offal of the farm, as entrails, feathers, heads, scraps 

 from lard, and all the odds and ends from the kitchen are thrown into this 

 house, and the hens pick it over, eating all they want. Then, as soon as 

 spring opens, all this trash is shoveled and scraped out, composted and taken 

 to the corn-field. Besides this refuse, his poultry eat about a bushel of corn 

 a day in winter, and half a bushel in summer. He raises large crops of corn, 

 because he has strong manure to feed his crops with, his calculation being 

 that about four acres of corn go to feed and fatten his poultry. In spring, 



AFTER A HEN HAS HATCHED, 



her nest is taken out, the straw burned, and the box whitewashed inside and 

 out, then filled with fresh straw, and put back for another family party. 

 After many trials of breeds, he has settled upon the white Brahmas. They 

 lay more uniformly the year through ; make the best mothers, and the chicks 

 grow the fastest. During summer his poultry have a wide range, and scour 

 the fields for half a mile or more, 



CONSUMING GRASSHOPPERS. 



His turkeys nearly make their weight on grasshoppers and beetles, with a 

 handful of corn night and morning. One man has little to do in spring and 

 summer but to take care of chickens and young turkeys. In winter they re- 

 quire but little attention, and this man then attends to the calves and lambs. 



THE COST OP HIS POULTRY MEAT, 



and he often kills in a season three hundred turkeys and three thousand 

 chickens, he considers to be about two hundred and fifty bushels of corn, and 

 the wages of his hen-wife for half the time. His gains he cannot give exactly, 

 for the poultry is eaten very freely by a large family, and sent to the Metro- 



