THE DOLLAR HEN FARM 
around and dumping into hoppers, about two loads of feed per 
week 
But, young chicks must be reared, and this is more labori- 
ous. For this reason I advise going into some other industry 
on a part of the land, which will not require attention in the 
young chick season. One of the best things for this purpose 
is the cultivation of cane fruits as blackberries, raspberries 
and dewberries. The work of caring for these can be made to 
fall wholly without the young chick season. Peaches and 
grapes for a slower profit can be added, but spraying and cul- 
tivation of these is more liable to take spring labor. All these 
fruits have the advantage of doing well in the same kind of 
soil recommended for chickens. Young chickens may be 
grown around such berry crops and removed to permanent 
quarters before the berries ripen. Strawberries would be a 
very poor crop because their labor falls in the chick season. 
Another plan, and perhaps a better one, is to have about 
three fields, and rotate in such a manner that a marketable 
crop may be always kept growing in the third field. Any crop 
may be selected, the chief labor of which falls between July 
and the following March. Late cabbage and potatoes, or cel- 
ery, will do if the ground is suitable for these crops. Kale 
and spinach are staple fall crops. Fall lettuce could also be 
grown. If the market is glutted on such crops, they can be 
fed out at home. Whenever a field is vacant, have some crop 
growing on it, if only for purposes of green manuring. Never 
let sandy ground lie fallow. 
A modification of the above plans suited to heavier ground, 
is to seed down the entire farm to grass. It is then divided 
into three fields and provided with three sets of colony houses. 
Coops are entirely dispensed with, and cheap indoor brooders 
are used in the permanent houses. The pullets stay in these 
same houses in the same field until the moulting season of the 
third year, or until they are two and a half years old. One 
field will aways be vacant during the fall and winter season 
which time may be utilized for fresh seeding. 
The difficulty of maintaining a sod will necessitate some- 
what heavier soil than by the previous plan. The houses 
should be moved around occasionally, as the grass kills out 
in the locality. This plan is a lazy man’s way, taking the least 
labor of any method of poultry keeping known. It is adapted 
to the cheaper ground in the region farthest from market. On 
the Atlantic seaboard, the more enterprising man will use the 
third field for rotation, and sell some of the fertility of the 
western grain in the form of a truck crop. 
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