35 



ably 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 position where 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 alluring 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 

 farmers' point of view, keeping in mind the extra burdens which 

 intensive methods impose on the one who has care of the poultry. 



When one begins to plan 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 width to correspond with the di- 

 visions of the houses, generally making them no larger than is 

 necessary to get the minimum allowance of yard room per fowl 

 considered safe. The result is, that in nearly every case the 

 yards, while sufficient if breeding pens of a few fowls each are 

 kept in them, are entirely inadequate when the compartments of 

 the house are stocked, as they usally are, to their full capacity. 



The truth is that the parts of the system do not fit. The amount 

 of yard room needed to keep fowls so that the poultryman can 

 save on his labor cannot be had in connection with the pens in the 

 long houses which are the principal feature of the intensive system. 

 As the farmer who cannot let his poultry have free range must 

 have yards, the obvious thing for him to do is to lay out and pro- 

 portion his yards according to the size of his flocks, limit the total 

 of fowls kept to the capacity of the land available for yards, make 

 the houses of such dimensions as are required, and place them 

 singly or in pairs, where they can be most conveniently reached 

 by the attendant when making the rounds of the place. 



This has been done here and there ; but many who ought to use 

 such a method have never given any attention to it, and quite a 

 number who have been interested in it as they saw the system in 

 satisfactory use have hesitated to adopt it for themselves, because 



