NATURAL LAWS. 29 



build a long 1 poultry house, fence them in and I am O. K. 

 But he finds, as many others have, that crowding-, fencing- 

 and yarding 1 Poultry is not a success, and he fails. A hun- 

 dred diseases get at his stock, they did not lay, and he quits- 

 in disgust. But if this man had given these 1,000 hens the 

 same chance those ten hens had, he would certainly have 

 made it pay. In other words, he should have put them out 

 in the field in colony houses 200 yards apart in the spring, 

 and so arranged that the 1,000 hens would not range over 

 the same ground. For instance, you have a Poultry house 

 near your barn. Keep, say 100 hens, and those hens will 

 range over the range every day on the same ground and go- 

 back at night and roost. If you had a large house, the 

 chances are poor for each hen getting a full crop of bugs- 

 and worms, and not only that, when roosting in a house full 

 of 200 hens it is not healthy because of so much manure and 

 bad air. Breathing in the same air causes disease. They 

 sweat all night and on coming down in the cold morning air 

 catch colds. Now, if the hens are divided off into small 

 lots all over the farm they are not overrun on the range 

 nor over crowded in the houses. If the sheds are open on 

 one side the air is always pure and sweet and the birds have 

 all the room they want on the roost and do very well both 

 for eggs and for the market. If I could convince a wealthy 

 man that this colony house Poultry farming would pay and 

 he would invest $10,000 in a farm and plant, and stock it up, 

 I would manage it for half of what there was in it any time, 

 after it was well started. This pays better than fancy 

 Poultry for show and for breeding stock by far. If you 

 want to go in for the fancy business it takes ten years of ad- 

 vertising, at a cost of $5,000, then another $5,000 for house 

 machinery, etc., and $3,000 for fancy show stock; hire an ex- 

 pert at $75 to $100 a month and pay $50 to $100 at every show 

 for entrance fees, and with other expenses there is very lit- 

 tle money in it after all the expenses are paid. You must 

 also spend a large part of the night writing letters to those 

 who want eggs, stock, etc. I have been through it all, and 



