No. 4.] POULTRY KEEPING. 283 



chickens make the jM-eparation of "first foods" for chicks as much 

 work as the preparation of an elaborate dish for the table. For nearly 

 twenty years the writer has fed little chickens from the start the same 

 mash he gave to hens (and, when he had them, to ducks and geese), 

 and has fed them from the start whole wheat and cracked corn. 

 Chickens on this diet will not grow as fast at the start as those that 

 get more concentrated foods and more variety, but losses will be light, 

 and they will develop rugged little bodies that later will stand heavy 

 feeding and make better and more rapid growth. 



For exercise for adult fowls on the farm leaves on the floors of the 

 houses save labor for the poultryman and utilize in the best way a 

 waste product. Straw in Massachusetts is worth more for other pur- 

 poses than it is for scratching litter. A good many poultrymen buy it 

 and use it, but at prevailing prices it is questionable whether they can 

 afford to do so. Almost every farmer can get leaves enough either 

 from trees on the farm or from woods near by to provide scratching 

 litter for his hens, and use the leaves hberally. The advantage of 

 leaves ovet straw is that by frequently adding a few fresh leaves, 

 which are immediately scattered quite evenly over the floor, grain 

 thrown in the litter is at once concealed, and does not have to be cov- 

 ered with a fork or raked in. The cleanings of the house when leaves 

 are used as litter are also in much more satisfactory shape to apply 

 to land for fertilizing purposes. 



With regard to cleanliness in poultry houses. The labor of cleaning 

 the houses daily or frequently is a heavy item in the course of a year 

 and if the house is constructed right, ventilated properly, and the 

 fowls are normal, is quite unnecessary. This doctrine, I know, seems 

 almost repulsive to those to whom the idea of dirt of any kind accu- 

 mulating seems intolerable and the practice inexcusable. But with 

 due regard for the conditions mentioned there is really no valid objec- 

 tion to the time-honored practice of cleaning the poultry house only 

 once or twice a year. 



Most of the sites on which poultry houses are placed in Massachu- 

 setts are well drained. The soil is light and sandy, and makes the 

 best kind of floor for poultry. The moisture in the droppings is ab- 

 sorbed or evaporates (or is absorbed and evaporates). The dry drop- 

 pings mixed with the earth of the floor and with finely broken litter, 

 and covered over with a layer of coarser litter, give off no odor, nor 

 does the presence of such material in the floor where the hens are fed 

 have injurious effects on grain with which it comes in contact unless 

 grain accumulates and lies there too long, and with litter becomes damp 

 and heats. Ordinary good judgment in feeding and ventilation is all 

 that is necessary to avoid trouble in this connection. It should be 

 noted that the conditions described are quite different from those that 

 ol)iain where droppings accumulate without mixture with earth or 

 litter, or without ojjportunity to dry as they accumulate. 



