28 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



POULTRY KEEPING AS A PRINCIPAL FEATURE OF 

 DIVERSIFIED FARMING. 



By John H. Robinson, Editor of "■ Farni Poultry," Boston, Mass. 



In the issue of the crop report for August, 1900, Dr. A. A. 

 Brigham very concisely and plainly presented the elementary facts 

 in regard to poultry keeping on the farm. 



When I was asked to prepare an article for this issue on some 

 supplementary line, two good reasons for discussing the rela- 

 tions of poultry keeping and other branches of agricultural work 

 at once presented themselves to my mind. In the first place, the 

 need of such discussion — the advantage to farm poultry keepers 

 of a proper presentation of the facts in the case — has been very 

 forcibly impressed upon me by what I have seen in the course of 

 a series of visits to poultry farms, extending over some four years* 

 time, and including farms in many sections of the country, but 

 mostly in eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In the sec- 

 ond place, I had recently given a great deal of thought to this 

 subject, and therefore felt better able to present it at short notice. 

 Whether my judgment on this last point was good, or the reverse 

 of good, the reader must determine. 



POULTRTMAN OR FARMER POULTRYMAN. 



It has been a serious and too common error of poultry farmei's 

 in recent years that they have made themselves poultry men, and 

 nothing more. Many have gone even further in the wrong way, 

 and have tried to make of themselves specialists in a single branch 

 of poultry keeping. With a few notable exceptions, those who 

 have limited their effort to narrow special lines have not made 



