CHAPTER II. 



Housing and Yarding 



SYSTEMS OF POULTRY KEEPING 



The two systems of poultry keeping in general 

 use are known as extensive and intensive, but there 

 are so many degrees of intensiveness and so many 

 gradations of areas over which fowls are permitted 

 to run, that it is hard to know where one ends and 

 the other begins. 



The Extensive System 



The extensive system in general may be defined 

 as a system by which fowls are kept on free range 

 without yards. Such a system was in use for many 

 years at Little Compton, R. I., where a community 

 of farmers built up by the simplest methods a very 

 successful poultry business. The houses were scat- 

 tered over the farms, allowing each flock room to 

 forage for its own green feed. Feed was hauled to 

 the houses by wagons or sleds once or twice a day, 

 and the method of feeding was of the simplest. A 

 system like this is the easiest and safest of all, but 

 it requires a great deal of land. 



The Intensive System 



Fowls kept on the intensive system are yarded 

 more or less closely, some in yards which have 

 hardly space for the fowls to move about, some in 

 yards where there is considerable room for exer- 

 cise, others in yards where a good deal of green feed 

 can be grown. The health of the fowls depends not 



