MANAGEMENT 115 
siderably cleaner. The droppings should 
be stored in a dry place and every effort 
made to keep them perfectly dry. If the 
droppings start to decompose and there is a 
strong odor given off, then they should be 
gotten onto the land and mixed with the 
soil as soon as possible. 
Use of Droppings. The best way for the 
average poultryman to utilize the droppings 
is to scatter them on the land which he 
intends to plow up and reseed each season. 
This plowing-up and reseeding process should 
be carried on over one-third of the land used 
every year as range for young chickens, thus 
insuring a good sod in succeeding years and 
keeping the land sweet and clean. 
Oats as Nurse Crop. When this reseed- 
ing is done it will be well to sow oats as a 
nurse crop or cover crop. The oats will fur- 
nish the poultryman with all the litter that 
he will need during the ensuing winter. The 
oats may be cut when ripe, stored in the 
barn and used as litter without having been 
threshed, because the hens will do just as 
good a job at threshing as any threshing 
machine and will do it much cheaper. There 
