CHAPTER XIII 

 Caring for a Yarded Plant 



I am now going to tell you how to handle a yarded 

 plant for the greatest possible profit, to those who are so 

 unfortunate as to own onCj for such plants seldom pay 

 unless it is used for breeding fancy stock. I have experi- 

 mented for many months on yarded plants and I find that 

 hens even over crowded in small runs will produce more 

 than double the eggs fed on the hopper system than they 

 will fed the other way. Just keep good quality wheat 

 screenings and beef scraps before them at all times and 

 give a liberal feeding of processed oats in the morning — 

 all they will eat — and at 3 p. m. another feeding of pro- 

 cessed oats — all they will eat. Remember you cannot 

 over-feed them on the processed oats, as they are light 

 and quickly digested. At night give a light feeding of 

 cracked corn in litter in winter and you will be surprised 

 at the results. Your fowls will always be in the pink of 

 condition and practically no sickness among them. Roup, 

 colds and cholera will scarely be known, even on the 

 same plants that have always been full of it, when the 

 hens had their daily mashes, all they could eat of it. 



I will also give you another valuable secret for a yarded 

 plant. If your hens have long, narrow yards, say 10 by 60 

 or more feet long, I will tell you how to keep green feed 

 in their yards all summer. Spade up half the yard, sow 

 it to oats early in the spring and put in cross boards eight 

 inches high, cover it over with one inch mesh wire net- 

 ting, stretching it tight and stapling it firmly to the 

 boards. As soon as your oats get a good start your hens 

 will eat them through the wire netting and your oats will 

 grow just as fast as your hens can eat them off. In this 

 way they will be supplied with green feed all summer 

 long. I am satisfied a yarded plant can be made to pay 

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