27 



BULLETIN OF 



.Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



POULTRY KEEPING ON THE FARM. 



Bt Arthur A. Brigham, Ph.D., Kingston, R. I. 



When requested to write " an article that will give hints to be- 

 ginners and be a help to those who are about starting or thinking 

 of starting in poultry and egg production," my thoughts imme- 

 diately went back to some of the experiences of my boyhood 

 days on the old farm in Massachusetts. M}' memory recalls very 

 vividly how one of my attempts to combine horticulture and 

 poultry culture was brought to a sorrowful end, because of rats. 

 As an ambitious young gardener, I had constructed a hot-bed, 

 made two sashes to fit it, and had woven of rye straw a thick mat 

 to cover the whole during cold nights. My early farming under 

 glass prospered, and the plants had been transplanted to the open 

 garden, where they were all, with the exception of the cucumbers, 

 thriving finely. A severe frost one night destroyed the cucumbers 

 completely, thereby teaching the young gardener a seasonable 

 lesson, and perhaps saving several members of the family from 

 the dangers of " summer complaint" later. 



The early hatched chickens were doing finely in their regular 

 quarters. A neighbor had that spring obtained some nice Buff 

 Cochin fowls, and later in the season kindly furnished me with a 

 sitting of their eggs. These were given to the care of a motherly 

 sitting hen, and in due time four little golden puff-balls showed 

 themselves. Where to place the yellow-feathered treasures was a 

 puzzle, until the empty hot-bed was thought of as just the place 

 to keep them safe and happy. Here for several days they flour- 

 ished, to the great satisfaction of their young owner; but pride 

 goes before a fall. One day the four pretty creatures were found 

 stark dead. The youthful poultryman had forgotten that as a 

 gardener he had sought to poison the rats which invaded his hot- 

 bed ; and the diminutive chicks proved that the rat poison was 

 fatal to chicken life, if not to rodents. 



