AMERICAN POULTRY FARMS, 123 



believed to have about the largest poultry farm in America ; 

 and it has been the gradual growth of forty years, on a 

 200-acre farm which has been in the family for generations. 

 Forty years ago the chief produce was beef ; and the first 

 step was to multiply the usual farmer's flock of fowls by 

 two, for which Mr. Wilbur was duly ridiculed by neigh- 

 bours ; now he has a hundred houses, each with about forty 

 head. These are an exception to the usual poultry farm 

 practice in America, being scattered over several fields on 

 the unfenced or "colony" plan, recommended by Mr. H. 

 Stoddart a quarter of a century ago. The houses are about 

 8 by 1 2 feet, and placed about 1 50 feet apart, in long rows, 

 with no fences at all. A low waggon with the food is 

 driven from house to house in turn twice a day, and at the 

 second trip eggs are collected ; the breakfast is cooked 

 vegetables and mixed meals, the last feed whole (Indian) 

 corn. The houses are rough and cheap, costing 20 dollars 

 each, and no pains are taken to make them wind-tight ! 

 The most surprising thing to us is that such shelter should 

 be enough for the American climate anywhere ; but the 

 farm is close to the seashore, where snow is unknown, and 

 the fowls " run " all the year. Hence they are hardened 

 and become hardy ; but the egg-yield must suffer, and it is 

 not to be wondered at that a year ago Mr. Wilbur was 

 planning a new large house on the plan of adequate shelter 

 and " scratching shed," somewhat as presently described of 

 Mr. Hunter's own farm. Several other farms on the open 

 or "colony" plan are devising similar modifications. One 

 avowed reason for such changes is the admitted danger of 

 contagious diseases in the colony or unfenced system. We 

 have an account of one case, where a thousand hens were 

 kept in flocks of forty each (Orange Co., New York), in 

 which "a scourge of roup swept through the flock" in 

 1895. Such an occurrence means wholesale disaster 



