186 THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 



politan when prices are high, or the supply in market defective in quality. 

 He does not keep exact account of his eggs, for as a rule he says the best 

 thing to do with an egg is to let a good motherly hen make a chicken of it. 

 Your Committee conclude their report by an expression of opinion that 



THE COMMON IDEAS ON THE SUBJECT OF POULTRY RAISING, 



on a large scale, are erroneous. It has been said, again and again in this 

 Club, and in farm journals, that there is no use in trying to keep more than 

 about fifty hens. If one goes deeper into the poultry business there is backset 

 from lice, and roup, and gapes, and cholera, and the sudden death of hens 

 and chicks from causes unknown. This is a fallacy. In the manner above 

 described, by the wise use of smoke and lime, and ashes, and a fire, by clean- 

 liness and a wide range in mild weather, we find Mr. LELAND taking about 

 four thousand feathered animals through the season, for year after year, with- 

 out calamity or loss, and on an expense that is very trifling, and unfelt on a 

 large farm. Your Committee will visit other farms, where the special object 

 is eggs, and announce the result of their observations. Dr. SMITH, a member 

 of the Committee, said that, in conversation, Mr. LELAND said that his suc- 

 cess depends upon letting his poultry alone. He repeated it over and over 

 again, "let them alone; let them alone; give them liberty, and they will 

 take care of themselves. Dr. TRIMBLE, another member, said that Mr. 

 LELAND told him that in 



RAISING TURKEYS 



his plan was to have three or four sitting at the same time. When they had 

 hatched the eggs, he gave all the young turkeys to one hen turkey, and she 

 and her enlarged brood were removed to a distant part of the farm, away 

 from other fowls. There a large coop was built, in which they could be shut 

 up at night. They were not allowed to range in the morning until the dew 

 was off. In the day time the hen was tethered to a stake ; and each day her 

 stake was removed to a new place, so that she and her brood had a new range. 



