186 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



pared with the outlay for these unpretending or more, and full corn cribaifor many rods in 

 monuments of art, our cities aud our towns, witli length, where the hens went at pleasure, and they 

 all tlieir wealth, are left far ])ehind. You will [made nests under the trees, and among tlie bushes, 

 scarcely believe me Avhon I say that the fences of | and all about the buildings, and in the back 

 this country cost more than twenty times the kitchen, and just wliere they had a mind to : and 



amount of specie that is in it. 



KEEPING POULTRY IN LARGE NUM- 

 BERS. 



Ldther Tucker, Esq.: — In the Country Gentle- 

 man of 25th inst., D. II. R., of Ilartfurd, Conn., 

 wants to know how to build a chicken house for 

 ''about 1,000 fowls." If my poor opinion is 

 worth anything, he vill not build it at all. Fowls, 

 in any large number, will not thrive unless they 

 have a wide range. Tliey are, partially, a gra- 

 zing animal. AVhen the ground is bare of snow, 

 in winter, they pick the grass if they can get it, 

 and arc fond oi (jrccn vegetables of any kind. In 

 summer they pick and eat grass every day. They 

 are great scavengers after slugs, insects, and all 

 kinds of flesh. They are better, also, for having 

 some flesh food in winter ; and abundant air, 

 fresh and pure, the must have always. Although 

 I have seen it tried, I never knew a large collec- 

 tion of several hundred fowls succeed in a confined 

 place. 



A few years ago some enterprising man from 

 the country camo near town, and enclosed an 

 acre or two of ground with a high picket fence, 

 and put up a building, at an expense of near or 

 quite a thousand dollars, intending to supply eggs 

 for the Buffalo market. He had his barn well 

 done off with any quantity of roosts, nesting 

 places, and other conveniences. He started his 

 concern with seven or eight hundred chickens, 

 and for a few weeks, crowing, cockfighting, lay- 

 ing and cackling went on to his heart's content. 

 He had food of all kinds for them and great anti- 

 cipations were indulged of fortune-making in his 

 chicken enterprise. But three or four winter 

 months told the story. The fowls got diseased — 

 the hens first eat the feathers off the roosters — or 

 what were left of them after they had fought 

 themselves almost bare, and then the hens un- 

 fleeced, in the same way, each other. They stop- 

 ped laying, were tormented with lice, got .the 

 "roup," went moping about the place, and died 

 off like a pestilence ; aud by spring, but a few 

 miserable, sickly things were left, witli scarce life 

 enough in them to crow up the morning ! 



The diiBculty was not in want of food nor care. 

 But, from the necessity of the case, they were 

 crowded in their roosts ; they were disturbed by 

 each other in their nosts, and had not room enough 

 any where, oven with the outside range of an 

 acre of land. The truth is, tiiat to flourish, hens 

 must liavc their liberty, when kept in large num- 

 bers. They want to range the fields Ijy day and 

 not \)ii crowded at night. They want a variety of 

 food and to help themselves to it. They need ex 

 ercise, pure air, and enough of both. I knew one 

 man, or rather the man's wife, in the Scioto Val 

 ley in Ohio, who kept five or six hundred fowls 

 — that is, she told me she had that many — and I 

 don't doubt it, fbr the whole territory, for acres 

 about the farm, was speckled with tliem by day, 

 and the trees and the corn-cribs and tlie barns 

 and the sheds were filled with them at night. 

 They had a great big farm of a thousand acres, 



they Silt on their eggs and hatched out their 

 chickens at will — a self-sustaining poultry estab- 

 lishment, in fact. This plan worked ; but as to 

 the profit of it, I douljt whether the old lady 

 could give any intelligible account in the matter. 



No ; I believe the only way to make poultry 

 profitable is to keep them in the "old way." 

 Proportion the number to the ground and build- 

 ings you have. Give them liberty to run at large 

 for a portion of each day in warm weather, with 

 comfortable quarters in winter, and pure air,_ al- 

 ways. I have known sundry other enterprises, 

 like the Buffalo one I mention, tried ; but 1 never 

 knew one permanently successful. They were all 

 in turn abandoned. Yours truly, L. f. a. 



Black Rock, Jan. 2, 1855. 



Country Gentleman. 



For the New England Farmer. 



GUANO WITH RYE STRAW. 



Mk. Editor :— The letter of Mr. William C. 

 Little, in your issue of March 10th, is a valuable 

 one, and will doubtless influence many farmers in 

 regard to the use of guano and superphosphate of 

 lime. That both these agents are valuable in the 

 highest degree to the farmer, is very certain ; but 

 it is equally certain that we still need mucli light 

 in regard to the use of them. While souie among 

 us have derived much benefit from them, others, 

 thus fiir, have been inclined to think that they 

 had "l)etter have let guano alone." 



Last season I blundered upon an experiment, 

 with the results of which I feel highly satisfied. 

 Perhaps some of your readers may be benefited by 

 the hint. Late in the spring I had in my barn a 

 large quantity of rye straw, and did not exactly 

 know what to do with it. I was unwilling to sell 

 it at a low price, thinking it would be more for my 

 interest to return it to the soil. But how to get 

 it there was the question. The stalks were long, 

 stout and stubl)orn. I first spread it in the barn- 

 yard, and allowed it to l)e thorouglily soaked in 

 the rain ; I then threw it into a heap, hoping it 

 would heat and become frialjle ; but after waiting 

 a week, I perceived no signs of fermentation. 1 

 then opened the heap, and proceeded to recon- 

 construct it, sprinkling guano in small quantities 

 upon the layers as they were laid up. In a few 

 days the steam issuing from the heap, showed that 

 my wishes were about to be realized. But l)y this 

 time it was past the beginning of June, aud wliat- 

 evcr was to l)e done in the way of planting must 

 be done quickly. I took the straw (a great part 

 of it still unaffected by fermentation,) and put- 

 ting it into hills, planted corn upon it, intending 

 to cut it up for fodder. 



My neighbors smiled at tlie operation as if if 

 were labor thrown away. I feared myself that 

 it would be pretty much so. The seed came up 

 very quick> and grew rapidly. Tliere was a pro- 

 fusion of stalks in each hill, and their deep green 

 color attracted the notice of passers-by. As it 

 grew near the time of "cutting up" I could not 

 bring myself to do it ; 1 told a neigldjor that i^f 

 he would cut out all but four stalks in 



each 



