FIRST LESSORS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 133 



LESSON XVII. 



Getting Ready for Winter. 



THE ideal state of the work in a poultry yard is to be always prepared ready lor the 

 special work of each season as it comes. When this condition exists, the work Is 

 easier, and results more reliable. 



We may say in discussing the matter academically that this ideal condition ought 

 always to exist, and that in as much as he fails to attain it, the poultryman shows poor man- 

 agement or poor j udgment. But in practice we find even the best poultrymen able to maintain 

 this ideal condition only occasionally, even when their operations are on such a scale that so 

 far as it depends upon them, nothing that needs to be done need be delayed or neglected. 

 When, as is ofteuer the case, the poultryman is diligently making the most of every promising 

 means of adding to the proceeds of the year's work, a setback making a difference of only a 

 few days in certain preparations or results may easily handicap him through the remainder of 

 the season. 



Besides such delays as this, there are occasionally others for which he may not be at all 

 responsible. Of this kind are delays in getting out chicks, due to disappointing fertility in the 

 first eggs set. The effects of such delays may extend through more than one season in spite of 

 all that the poultryman may do to overcome them. 



I call attention to these things not to discourage anyone, but because a full appreciation of 

 possible difficulties in the way of any undertaking is nearly always a condition of success in 

 it, and the average poultry keeper is too prone to put off special preparations until the occasion 

 for them becomes urgent. A mistake at any season, such procrastination is doubly danger- 

 ous at this season, for fall weather is uncertain, winter may set in earlier than anticipated, and 

 winter conditions often make it impossible to do work that needs to be done. There is less 

 chance of recovering lost ground at thie) season than at any other. Hence the urgent need of 

 forwarding the development of the stock, and the preparations for winter protection and 

 comfort. 



Keep the Young Stock Growing. 



There may be some very early pullets thtit by moving about, and by light diet, need to 

 be held back from laying until October, but the greater part of the young stock should be fed 

 new all it will stand, and it should be able to stand very heavy feeding. 



The conditions now are especially favorable to rapid growth. In northern latitudes where 

 excessive heat is rarely long continued, growth should have been good right through the 

 summer. Where summer heats are oppressive, the growth of the chickens may be very slow 

 through July and August, but with September they take a fresh start, and to make up as far 

 as possible they should now be pushed to the limit of safety. 



With the cooler weather of this season we have still days that are long enough to get in three 

 good meals, and still have time for the digestive organs to rest a little in the daylight interims. 

 Later when the days grow so short t Jat the meals come closer together the fowls will not take 

 and assimilate as much food, and that is one reason why it is so hard to push them when It is 



