No. 4.] POULTRY ON SMALL FARMS. 419 



I don't want readers to infer that I attribute to the use of 

 inappropriate methods all the failures to make poultry pay 

 oil these New Kn<>:land farms. A g;ood many of these un- 

 used [)oultry plants arc monuments to incxperiei\ee, laek of 

 capital or utter lack of adaptability to the work. Many of 

 them are the sei)ulchrcs of foolish exi)ei'tations of city-bred 

 men, full of ideas and theories, but with no knowledge of or 

 training in any of the pursuits of country life. It is not 

 such failures as these that we are now discussing ; it is the 

 failure — • or, Avhere failure has not yet come, but seems im- 

 pending, the situation — of the farmer who might reasonably 

 be expected to make his poultry profitable, that just now 

 concerns us. 



The common trouble in these cases has been that, whether 

 few fowls or many were kept, when the owners could not 

 let them run at large because they would trespass on the 

 premises of neighbors, they have gone to the other extreme, 

 and, adopting the methods of small city poultry keepers and 

 of exclusive poultry keepers, have put themselves in a posi- 

 tion Avhere they could not properly look after both the fowls 

 and the other farm work. Generally all the work on the 

 farm has suffered, in consequence. 



It must be admitted that intensive methods present some 

 features which in practice as well as theoretically are allur- 

 ing to most of us. The plant is compact, and is generally 

 so arranged that most of the work of caring for the fowls can 

 be done under cover. It saves the attendant from exposure, 

 and it saves steps. It seems to place us in the zenith of 

 comfort, and offer us the acme of economy in labor. Let us 

 look into it a little more closely, from the small farmer's 

 pf)int of view, keeping in mind the extra burdens which in- 

 tensive methods impose on the one who has care of the 

 poultry. 



When one begins to [)lan to keep fowls by intensive 

 methods, he first decides how many fowls he will keep, in 

 how many flocks, and how many in each flock. Then he 

 plans his house to fit the flocks, and makes his yards of 

 Avidth to correspond with the divisions of the houses, gener- 

 all}^ making them no larger than is necessary to get the 



