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door to open and shut freely, and to keep the ground exposed 

 if possible, so that on warm days, when the door is left open, 

 the hens can come out for sunshine and fresh air. Some people 

 believe that hens are badly injured by walking on the snow, 

 but this is erroneous. During the summer months, especially 

 if the yard is small, much attention should be given it, or the 

 surface of the ground will become badly contaminated and 

 odors will be sent forth throughout the neighborhood after a 

 warm rain and hot sun. Frequent cultivations are therefore 

 necessary. One of the best methods of handling a poultry 

 yard is to spade it once in two or three weeks and sow oats, 

 covering them as well as possible with a rake. The hens can be 

 turned out of the house immediately after the oats are sown. 

 For the first few days they will be scratching out dry oats, and 

 for the next few days sprouted oats, and later will be eating 

 the green shoots as they come up. After a period of two weeks 

 the ground will have been worked over thoroughly by the hens, 

 and the process of spading and sowing can be repeated. A 

 larger yard can be divided into sections by a movable gate or 

 gates, and while the hens are working over one part of it, oats 

 or rye can be started in the other portion, and an alternating 

 system throughout the summer used. This method of yard 

 management makes the hens work for their food out in the 

 open air, — a very good health renewer. If grapevines, trees, 

 berry bushes or other vines are not planted around the outside 

 of the yard it is well to sow sunflower seed early in the spring. 

 The seed should be planted a foot or more from the fence, so 

 that the hens cannot reach through and eat off the small plants 

 as they come up. These will furnish splendid shade during the 

 hot summer months, and the seed will make valuable fall or 

 winter feed. 



Poultry Hygiene. 



As most back yard poultry keepers purchase pullets each fall 

 and keep them until the following summer, there should be 

 a thorough housecleaning after the hens are sold, so that the 

 new flock may find their quarters absolutely free from disease 

 germs. The old adage "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is 

 very applicable to poultry work, due to the fact that hens are 

 kept in flocks and handled collectively rather than individually, 



