POULTRY RAISING 31 



CHAPTER XII. 



Caring for a yarded plant. 



I am now going to tell you how to handle a yard- 

 ed plant for the greatest possible profit, to those who 

 are so unfortunate as to own one, for such plants sel- 

 dom pay unless it is used for breeding fancy stock. 

 I have experimented 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 i p. m. another feeding of processed 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 sur- 

 prised at the results. Your fowls will always be in 

 the pink of condition and practically no sickness 

 among them. Roup, colds and cholera will scarcely 

 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 10x60 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 netting, 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 ofif. In this way they will 

 be supplied with green feed all summer long. I am 

 satisfied a yarded plant can be made to pay, run on 

 this new line and cut your mashes entirely out. If 



