238 

 Continued Use of Same Ground. 



(Prof. J. G. Halpin, Madison, Wis. ) 



To my mind one of the greatest faults with the average farmer's 

 poultry is that he raises it in too close to the buildings and on the 

 same ground year after year. I firmly believe that as our farms are 

 occupied more and more years that we will begin to have a great deal 

 more trouble with poultry diseases, especially with the parasites, 

 etc. I believe the only way that we can ever carry on suc- 

 cessful poultry raising for the next hundred years, is to branch 

 out and use more of the farm as a poultry range. I believe that a 

 great many of our troubles and diseases will disappear that is, we 

 will be able to starve out many parasites and perhaps rid some of 

 our sections of avian tuberculosis if we move our fowls from one sec- 

 tion of the farm to another yearly. 



We have a large number of farmers in this state who raise 

 chickens year after year in a little yard, often right in close to the 

 main poultry house. In fact, in many instances the ground occupied 

 by the little chicks is also used as a run for the general farm flock 

 during at least a part of the year. If parasites gain a foothold in a 

 flock like this, the old hens will be bound to infest the ground, which 

 later will cause disease to spread among the chickens. 



Of course in a section where the farms have only been occupied 

 a few years, farmers will smile at any idea of this kind, but as soon 

 as you get into the older sections of the country, I believe that you 

 will find that the farmers are more and more inclined to admit that 

 they have got to adopt a system of raising poultry that will allow 

 them to move about from one par.t of the farm to another, cultivat- 

 ing the ground in the meantime to remove the accumulated filth and 

 starve out the parasites. 



Should Exchange Mongrels for Pure Breds. 



(Prof. Theo. W. Wittman, Allentown, Pa.) 



As I size up the situation, the most difficult thing to persuade the 

 average farmer to do, is to make a start in better poultry; namely, 

 get him to .exchange his nondescript and worthless mongrels and 

 dunghills for pure breds. One of the dullest tools on the average farm 

 today is this same dunghill poultry. No sane or thinking farmer or no- 

 such individual in any walk of life would think of going into fruit 

 growing or producing with an orchard of say seedling apple trees. The 

 matter of varieties and improved varieties would be his first thought. 

 So it should be with chickens. 



Unfortunately it is not as yet as easy as it should be for a farmer 

 to get the kind of pure-bred poultry he wants and needs. Too much 

 poultry breeding up to this time has been for mere external points, 

 such as serrations of comb or markings of feathers, and too little along 

 the line of valuable internal points, such for instance as heavy laying. 

 The best poultry breeders of the country owe it to themselves and 

 owe it to their business to make strenuous efforts to produce still 

 better utility pure breds. There is an enormous field among our 

 farmers waiting for such. 



