CHAPTER XIJ 

 Caring for a Free-RcMigc Plant Without Labor 



In this chapter, I will tell you how to care for a free- 

 range plant with practically no labor, only gathering your 

 eggs and caring for them. 



First, make a feed hopper, as I have described, to hold 

 a bag of feed. You should have three of these, fill one 

 with wheat screenings, one with oats, one with cracked 

 corn. Also your small hopper with beef scraps and your 

 three-department hopper with grit, oyster shells and 

 charcoal. And if your plant is built on a stream of water 

 and inclosed with a wire-netting fence, as I have de- 

 scribed, all the work you have to do is to gather your 

 eggs every night and send your man around once a week 

 and fill all your hoppers. He should also put carbolic 

 acid and kerosene, half and half, well mixed, on the 

 roosts once a month during the winter and twice a month 

 during the summer. In September he should clean the 

 houses out thoroughly and coat them over with new 

 sand. Your hens will go to the creek to drink, and in 

 winter, if ground is covered with snow, let them eat snow 

 and they will lay more eggs. The hole which lets them 

 out of the house should never be closed, day or night, 

 winter or summer. In the winter time your windows 

 \\'ould have to be kept closed and your hens will pay you 

 a fine profit under this system with practically no labor. 

 You will not get a big tgg yield during the winter, but 

 you can depend on a profit of one dollar or more from 

 each hen on thi;^ no-labor system. You will be surprised 

 at the results. .\nd for a business man in the city, who 

 owns a small place in the countr)', and wishes to make 

 some mone}' at home \\hile he is away, there is nothing I 

 know of that can pa)' him so large a profit on his money 

 invested as a poultry plant run on these lines. Of course, 



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