AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 
fence, and more or less serious injuries to combs 
and heads will be the result. Use no top rail 
unless absolutely necessary to support the fencing 
material and then the fowls will have no ostenta- 
tious object to aim at in flying up to mount the 
fence. 
Protection from the hot rays of the summer’s 
sun is as necessary to fowls as protection from the 
Shade in chilling blasts of winter. Of course 
the Runs natural shade is best, but if that is not 
available, shade can and should be provided. 
Arrangements for artificially shading parts of the 
yards include wooden shutters, frames covered 
with cotton cloth, and supports on which are 
placed birches and evergreen branches. ‘These 
“covers”? also make good shelters from hawks 
where such enemies to poultry are present. 
Trees, etc., for Shade. Natural shade can be 
secured by means of bushes, shrubs, or trees of 
almost any kind. Two birds may be killed with 
one stone, as it were, by planting those trees that 
bear fruit or nuts, as the trees will be a source of 
revenue as well as providing shade for the fowls. 
Plum, peach, apple, pear, apricot, and cherry 
trees—all are excellent for poultry runs. Trees 
bear exceptionally well here on account of the rich 
poultry manure deposited in the yards by the 
fowls and because the poultry keep the trees free 
from injurious worms and insects. In some local- 
52 
