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do need enough exercise to keep them in good trim. Where 

 hens have free range they will attend to the matter of exercise 

 themselves although a hen having free range knows enough 

 not to work when it is very hot or very cold. But when in con- 

 finement exercise must be provided for them. The floor of the 

 hen house, or scratching shed, should be kept carpeted with six 

 inches of litter in winter, and the fowls should be made to work 

 for all the grain they eat. This litter, as I have already said, 

 should be frequently shaken up and occasionally renewed. 

 Straw, fresh hay and dead leaves make the best litter. Dry 

 planer shavings are good if they are not allowed to become 

 too fine. 



THE POULTRY YARD. 



In summer the hens should be out in their yards. The yard 

 does not need to be very large. Indeed, unless the yard is large 

 enough to grow all the green stuff that is needed for forage, a 

 small yard is better than a large one, for it is more likely to be 

 kept clean. Much money is spent each year for wire netting 

 and foundation boards for. fences that could be laid out to much 

 better advantage in some other way. There should be shade 

 of some kind in the yard. If the yard is small it should be 

 raked and swept every week and the surface droppings re- 

 moved. It should be spaded up from time to time. In the 

 spring the surface soil to the depth of three or four inches 

 should be removed and spread on the garden and replaced with 

 fresh earth. If this is done there is much less danger with a 

 small yard than with a big one that is never cleaned. 



GRIT, CHARCOAL AND OYSTER SHELLS. 



Nature has not provided fowls with teeth, and consequently 

 they cannot masticate their food as can the higher animals. 

 The food passes from the crop into the gizzard, where it is 

 prepared for the intestines by trituration ; that is, as the food 

 passes through the gizzard it is triturated, or ground up, by the 

 little flinty particles which line that member. Unless the fowl 

 is well supplied with grit the food passes into the intestines- 

 improperly prepared, and the result is indigestion. It is a great 

 mistake not to keep the fowls well supplied with grit. Char- 

 coal is an alterative tonic, and should be before the hens all the 

 time. Oyster shells are necessary to supply the lime needed 

 for the egg shells, and nothing can take their place. 



