No. 5. 



Chicken Yard. — Choked Cattle. 



147 



sides being less liable to be preyed upon by 

 weasels, minks, rats and other enemies. 



In this yard, we would have two divisions: 

 in one we would keep the roosters and laying 

 and setting hens. In the other, the hens with 

 chickens. Into this latter yard, we would 

 remove the hens and their young ones as 

 they might be hatched out. The hens to be 

 confined in coops so made as to protect them 

 and their broods from the rain. In addition 

 to these coops, the hens with chickens should 

 be provided with an open shed, facing the 

 south, in which they might be placed during 

 long continued rains. Fresh water to be 

 supplied in shallow troughs, twice a day, to 

 the inmates of both departments of the yard. 

 In each we would have a cart load of good 

 sand, in which the fowls might dust them 

 selves whenever they pleased. Besides this, 

 we would have, in each yard, a small heap 

 of ashes, as a preventive of vermin, and a 

 small quantity of lime to assist in digestion 

 and the formation of the shells of the eggs. 

 The house in the yard allotted to the laying 

 and setting hens should be tight, but airy 

 and sufficiently capacious to hold the fowls 

 with comfort. Good roosts should be provi- 

 ded. In the formation of the ?iests, we would 

 have them so constructed as to draw out, to 

 facilitate the operation of cleaning. Always 

 before setting a hen we would have the draw- 

 er taken out, well cleaned, and white washed 

 inside, which operation should be repeated as 

 each hen hatched out her brood. The nests 

 should be often renewed with clean hay or 

 straw, and always before setting a hen. The 

 old chickens should be regularly fed, twice a 

 day in summer, and three times in winter — 

 the young ones at least four times. 



If it be objected against this plan, that it 

 would take more to feed them than in the 

 present one, we answer — it is not so. At 

 present, the chickens are, or ought to be, 

 regularly fed, the old ones once or twice a 

 day, the young ones oftener. Besides this, 

 they all have access to your stack yards, barn 

 and stables, where they glut their appetites 

 as often as they please. In our plan of feed- 

 ing, you would know what they really did 

 consume as well as its cost; as it is, you are 

 completely in the dark upon these subjects. 

 Again, it is known, that chickens, which 

 have access to cattle in winter, are apt to 

 generate lice on them, and that cattle thus 

 annoyed, do not thrive well. By our plan, 

 this inconvenience and nuisance would be 

 avoided. 



If it be objected, that the ground appropri- 

 ated to the chicken yard would be lost to 

 culture, we meet the objection by the denial 

 of its truth, and for the following reasons. — 

 For fifty hens, and the requisite number of 



roosters, an acre of ground would be suffi- 

 cient, and certainly no one will tell us, that 

 this number of fowls, with the range of the 

 barn, stable, and adjacent fields, would not 

 destroy, independent of their regular feed, 

 more than the product of one acre of ground. 

 But by our plan the ground would not be lost 

 to culture at all ; for we propose to plant in 

 the chicken yard, say from forty to fifty 

 Apricot, Plum and Damson trees, or a like 

 number of other choice fruit trees, whose 

 product would pay for the rent of the ground, 

 ten times told. Placed in such a situation, 

 we believe the trees named would hold and 

 ripen their fruit, because from the natural 

 insectiferous propensities of the chicken, but 

 few of those insects, which prey upon the 

 Apricot and Plum, would escape their watch- 

 ful eyes and all-devouring beaks. 



We think we have made out a case of 

 economy in favour of our plan, and shall 

 leave it to our readers to adopt it or not as 

 to them may seem most meet and proper. 



A few words more and we are done. The 

 hen house, and shed should be cleaned out 

 and white-washed every Spring, Summer 

 and Fall. — Amer. Farmer. 



Choked Cattle. — A friend from Wrent- 

 ham informs us that he succeeds, with great 

 ease in relieving choked cattle in the follow- 

 ing manner: 



Raise the animal's head, with a rope or 

 chain attached to some convenient beam. 

 Procure an old cart-wheel box, through which 

 a man may thrust his arm. With the aid of 

 one on each side, place this box in the ani- 

 mal's mouth and keep it steady. Then run 

 the hand through it into the throat, putting 

 the fingers carefully beyond the potatoe or 

 apple in the way. Draw it out slowly and 

 carefully and relief is experienced immedi- 

 ately. Our informant has tried it repeated- 

 ly, and thinks every farmer ought to have a 

 cart-wheel box or something of the kind al- 

 ways ready. — Mass. Ploughman. 



Last Monday we picked seven barrels full 

 of charming Baldwin apples, from a young 

 tree that was taken from the nursery fifteen 

 years ago. This tree has borne more or less 

 for these ten years past : it stands near the 

 barn and extends its roots far in that direc- 

 tion. On digging up some loam under the 

 barn, we found apple tiee roots in great plen- 

 ty three rods from the trunk of the tree. 

 This tree is as large as four others that were 

 set at the same time, but they had not equal 

 advantages. The roots of trees extend much 

 farther than most people imagine ; and dig- 

 ging up the soil three or four feet each way 

 from the body gives but a partial relief to the 

 roots. — Ibid. 



