186 



THE CANAiUAN HORTICULTURIST 



i POULTRY DEPT. | 



T Oonduc:t«ci by Tf 



J S. Short, Oltawu ^ 



oM'^^ oa%>« oo^^ oa%>) ^ia^>t 



Poultry can be kept with profit by any 

 person who has a small garden. Three runs 

 should be supplied so that they will not be too 

 closely confined. Apple and plum trees and 

 black currants may be planted in two of the 

 runs for shade purposes, and the third run may 

 be used to grow early vegetables. 



The fowl may be kept in the two runs con- 

 taining the fruit trees until just before the 

 fruit ripens, when thep may be changed to the 

 run which has grown the early vegetables, for 

 the fowls are fond of ripe fruit. In this way 

 the land produces fruit and vegetables, as well 

 as furnishing a run for the poultry. I have 

 kept fowl in this way for years. The hens and 

 the garden work in harmony and benefit one 

 another. 



A sensible breed of fowl must be kept, that 

 is a breed that can be easily managed, and one 

 that is hardy and does well in confinement. In 

 the poultry world there are varieties and colors 

 to suit all tastes. The best breeds for a subur- 

 ban home are the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes 

 or Orpingtons. These combine laying and 

 table qualities. Fowl of the breeds mentioned 

 will seldom fly over a fence five feet high, made 

 by a bottom board a foot high and four-foot 

 poultry netting stretched between posts. 



Hens in a garden do considerable damage in 

 a very short time. If at liberty they go at once 

 to wherever the ground has been freshly dug 

 to scratch and dust themselves, They eat 

 half-grown gooseberries and red currants, rasp- 

 berries and strawberries, but not black currants. 

 They deUght in picking holes in the tomatoes 

 just as the latter are coloring, they walk over 

 freshly painted verandah floors and go into sheds 

 and upset things if you let them. But there is 

 a place for everything, and the hens should be 

 confined in their runs during the summer. 

 Early in the spring, before vegetation starts, 

 they may be allowed their liberty and will 

 scratch up and devour many a cut worm, pine 

 beetle and other destructive grubs that do much 

 damage later on. After cultivation begins'they 



may be i..(iwed to run through the garden half 

 an hour bel .re roosting time, and they will net 

 stop to scratch, but dart through the birry 

 patch catching bugs, worms and inserts that 

 are just coming out from the ground p.t dark 

 for their nightly prowl, a fact well known to 

 the hens. Darkness drives the hens to roost, 

 and you have only to shut the gate to the run 

 before going in for the night. 



Another benefit is derived by xmfining in a 

 portable coop, placed in the gardjn, a hen with 

 a brood of chickens. The hen cannot get out, 

 but the chicks can, and being too small to 

 scratch, they roam through the garden picking 

 insects from the leaves and stems of plants, thus 

 doing good. I always put chickens in this way 

 among my asters, and have no trouble with the 

 aster beetle. Lastly, a valuable fertilizer is 

 obtained from the poultry which gives excel- 

 lent results when applied properly. 



Overripe com, peas, tomatoes and other vege- 

 tables can be fed to the fowls and much reduce 

 the cost of their food. Hens treated in this 

 way lay well, keep in good condition for table, 

 and the chicks grow rapidly. If hens are kept, 

 by all means keep pure breeds, for as flowers, 

 fruits and vegetables are exhibited, so may pure 

 bred fowl be exhibited, and the showing^ prove 

 just as interesting, and in many cases just as 

 exciting, as the exhibiting of any other line of 

 agricultural production. 



PROFIT ON A CITY LOT 



A reader of The Horticulturist en(|uires 

 as follows: "Can hens be kept profitably on a 

 city property where they have a run of j.bout 

 30 X 6 ft., and how many fowl could be kept 

 properly on such a space?" 



Not more than eight females and one male, 

 nine in all, should be kept in a run of the above 

 size. That number, with ordinary and regu- 

 lar care, would do exceedingly well the first 

 year, so well perhaps, that the temptation 

 would arise to increase the number, which 

 would be a fatal mistake. As the first crop of 

 fruit or vegetables from new ground is always 

 the heaviest and largest, so will fowl always do 

 better the first year in new quarters. 



Any of the utility fowl would answer. If 

 the soil is sandy or porous, white birds would 

 look well, but if the soil is heavy or clayey dark 

 plumaged birds are better, becavise they would 



CREIGHTON POULTRY YARDS 



Barred Plymouth Rocks 

 and White Wyandottes 



Three pens of laying stock for sale, $15.00, 

 each consisting: of eig^hl females and one 

 male; two pens barred Rocks and one pen 

 of white Wyandottes. A gfood opportun- 

 ity to acquire a handsome pen for a sum- 

 mer home. Eggfs $2.00 per setting-. 



Mention the Canadian Horticulturist when writing 



MARCHMENTS 



Sure Growth 



COMPOST 



Supplied to the largest nurserymen and 

 fruit growers in Ontario. Shipments by 

 car at reasonable prices. 



S. W. MARCHMENT 



19 QUEEN ST. EAST, TORONTO 



Telephone Main 2841 Residence Park 951 



LONDON 

 ONTARIO 



The Woodview Poultry Yards 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 



At the great "Ontario" .Show at Guelph, December Ilth to 15th, 1905 



— !— AVOODVIE-W PULLETS WON 



First in class open to the world; Special for best Barred Plymouth Rock 

 ^ciiia.e at the show: and the Canadian Barred Plymouth Rock Club's 



Special for best Pullet. 

 At the International Show at Detroit, January 6th to 11th, 1906 



WOODVIE-W BIRDS AGAIN "WON 



In competition open to the world. — First pullet; Second cockerel; Second 

 cock; and Special for the best shaped male at the show. 



OUK MALE.S ARE. BRIGHT STRAIN FEMALES LATHAM STRAIN 



the best obtainable. EGGS FOR HATCHIKG, $2.00 PER SETTING UP. 



MATING LIST MAILED FREE UPON REQUEST CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITBD 



Mention The Canadian Horticulturist when writing. JoKn Prin^le, Prop. 



not show the mud or dirt that would inevit- 

 ably stick to their feathers. Also, if the soil 

 is heavy, a dust bath must be provided. Kept 

 in such small quarters, grit and lime must be 

 supplied. An excellent plan is to get a load of 

 broken plaster from the ruins of a dwelling 

 house that has been pulled down. This ma- 

 terial may be had usually for the expense of 

 carting, and is a combination of grit and lime. 

 The fowl spend most of their time as near 

 the entrance to the pen as they can get, and 

 this part of the enclosure rapidly becomes 

 coated with droppings. These should l)e dug 

 under at the first indication of that fact. I 

 would not recommend trying to raise chickens 

 in this pen in addition to keeping the layers, 

 and would suggest that early pullets tje secured 

 from some breeder who has raised them on 

 grass runs, for reared that way the birds have 

 usually a much stronger constitution than 

 those raised in cramped quarters. 



COST OF BXTILDING 



Another question: "What would a building 

 cost to prot)erly house the fowl kept in such an 

 enclosure?" 



The cost would depend on the kind of house 

 built, and which is the best kind is a much de- 

 bated question. The trouble most breeders 

 have to contend with is to keep the frost from 

 forming on the walls inside. There are three 

 wavs of building to prevent this. The first and 

 chear>est is a building with walls of one inch 

 matched lumber, and windows hinged at the 

 top so that they may be opened on the insi.ie 

 every dav. Hou.ses of this description have 

 been used with success where the temperature 

 does not go helow zero. Thev are cold but drv. 

 Another form of building with walls two inches 

 thick is made of inch boards and matched lum- 

 ber with paper between. Large window frames 

 with strong grey cotton neatly stretched over 

 instead of glass, are hinged at the top so that 

 tl'cv may be opened from within. This gives 

 perfect ventilation. In each of these houses 

 the roosts are put in the warmest comer and 

 enclosed with tight boards on three sides and 

 the front closed at night bv dropping a curtain. 



The third wav of gettine good ventilation is 

 to build warmlv, use double \vindows, put in 

 a chimnev and use artificial heat. If the tem- 

 perature is above freezing, the frost will not 

 form on the walls, and any moisture in the at- 

 mosphere will pass off through the stove or 

 furnace. 



Fowls have done well in houses built in the 

 manner described in the first plan. Thev were 

 allowed to eat snow and had to rough it gen- 

 erallv. Thev did well under these conditions 

 in the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island. 

 The second plan would, T think, be better for 

 the colder parts of Ontario, and the third is 

 the method most used bv the professional 

 poultrv men, who keep Leghorns for the pro- 

 duction of eggs in winter. 'When building, 

 allow at least six sq. ft. for each bird, and the 

 lower the roof the warmer the pen. The shape 

 of the building mav be regulated, for the sake 

 of convenience, to the position in which it has 

 to be placed. 



Boiling' tV»«» Lime S\ilpK\ir 

 WasK 



En. Canapian HoRTicrT-TtrRisT: I notice the 

 article referrine to lime and sulphur used in 

 this section and the diversitv of opinion among 

 erowers. The criticism is a little misleading. 

 There is not as much difference as would aptJear 

 first as to boiling with steam and bv the action 

 of the lime alone. All agree that it is possible 

 to boil bv action of lime heat, if Hme i-: zood 

 and ever\ihinc; works rieht, but if something 

 happens vou cannot add more heat, as can be 

 done bv the steam, and therefore we feel that 

 it is not safe to encourage the grower to take 

 anv chances with having a bad batch, as ore 

 tank full of mixture not up to standard will 

 leave from 40 to 60 trees with scale not' killed 

 to breed for another season. The new beginner 



