THE POULTRY YARD. 207 



eui be kept to an acre. If the yards are kept clean by an occasumal spading, 

 however, green staff may be grown elsewhere and thrown over to them. 

 This may consist of cabbage, grass, turnip tops, kale, mustard, lettuce, etc. 

 Watering must not be neglected, or the meals given irregularly. Care must 

 be observed not to feed too much, as over-fat fowls will lay few eggs, and 

 such eggs will not hatch. A good poultry manager is always among his 

 fowls, and observes everything. The breeds have special characteristiea 

 also. The large fowls must be batched in March, if early pullets are desired 

 for ^vinter laying. This applies to Brahmas, Cochins and Plymouth Rocks. 

 If the manager finds this impossible, he should at once substitute cocks of 

 the Leghorn breed, which crossed with large hens, make good marketable 

 chicks, and produce pullets that mature early. A knowledge of the charac- 

 teristics of the several breeds is indispensable to snccess. Crossing pure- 

 bred cocks with common hens is excellent, but " fancy poultry " is not 

 profitable to any but those who understand thoroughly the mating and 

 selection of the several breeds. 



Poultry on a Large Scale. — People thinking of raising chickena on a 

 large scale will do well to note the following sound advice by the Poultry 



MoiUhly: 



" There are many persons of moderate means who have had perhaps some 

 little experience with breeding poultry, and who get to wondering if it will 

 v to breed poultry on a large scale; whether it will pay to embark in the 

 ceding of poultry for market purposes as a business, and if it is good policy 

 give up a fair pa^-ing clerkship or small business to engage in it. Such 

 lestions are very difficult to determine to the satisfaction of all persons 

 ucemed, for much more really depends on the person than on the b". -■• - 

 nearly every department of human industry, and where one pers' 



ike a success of any undertaking another one may fail, though i ., 



a-ted with equally as good chanc«e of success. Poultry, to be successful 

 a a large scale, must be kept in small colonies of about fifty birds each, for 

 many more than that number in a single house is apt to cause sickness or 

 disease, ere long, among them. Small flocks hke that can be given better 

 •'ention than larger ones, and the first approach of disorder can be seen 

 adily and promptly checked, while there is less danger of great loss when 

 thus kept in small flocks, as the trouble can usually be confined to the flock 

 in which it started by proper and prompt sanitary measures. When the 

 breeder is not too far away from large retail markets, and especially wliere 

 the breeder can market them himself, thus saving commission, fi^ight, and 

 loss, it pays best to breed and keep poultry for the eggs they produce, as 

 eggs known to be strictly fresh are always in good demand at quite an in- 

 crease in price over that received for the ordinary " store " eggs. Such 

 breeds as the wliite and the brown Leghorns, and birds bred from them, 

 either pure breed or cross breed or grade, as a basis, are first-class egg pro- 

 ducers, while a game cock is also valuable to breed to good common hens, 

 producing, as a rule, vigorous, active pullets, which are invariably good 

 layers. Those who wish to raise poultry principally for the flesh should 

 raise the Ught Brahnias, Plymouth Rocks, dark Brahmas, or some of the 

 Cochin breeds, the first two named, however, being general favorites in this 

 respect, and also combining with it good laying qualities under favorable 

 circumstances. Those who cannot or will not give the poultry regular or 

 constant attention, shelter them properly, supply proper food in liberal 

 ^uantitie« and at frequent and regulair intervals, and pay a strict attentioQ 



