SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



49 



drinking fountains on account of the tainted water and dis- 

 agreeable odor. 



"A simple, wholesome arrangement may be made as 

 follows: Place an ordinary milk pan on a block or shallow 

 box, the top of which shall be four or five inches from the 

 floor. The water or milk. to be drunk by the fowls is to be 

 placed in this pan. Over the panisplaced a board cover 

 supported on pieces of lath about eight inches long, nailed 

 to the cover so 'that they are about two inches apart, the 

 lower ends resting upon the box which forms the support 

 of the pan. In order to drink from the pan it will be neces- 

 sary for tne fowls to insert their heads between the strips 

 of lath. The cover over the pan an the strips of lat"h at the 

 sides prevent the fowls from fouling the water in any man- 

 ner, except in the act of drinking. When such pans are used 

 it is very easy to eleajise and scald them with hot water as 

 occasion demands. This arrangement may be carried a lit- 

 tle further by placing a pan, or what would be still better, a 

 long, narrow dish, something like a tin bread tray, on a low 

 shelf a few inches from the floor, and hinging the cover to 

 one side of the poultry house so that it canlje tipped up in 

 front for the removal of the dish or for filling it with water. 

 (See Fig. 3.) Whatever device is used it must be easily 

 cleaned and of free access to the fowls at all times. 

 Dust Boxes. 



"It is necessary to provide dust boxes for the fowls dur- 

 ing the winter months, if they are to be kept free from lice. 

 If the soil in the yard is naturally dry and porous, abundant 

 opportunities will be had for dust baths during the warm 

 summer months, but during the late fall, winter and early 

 spring, some artificial provision must be made. A compara- 

 tively small box will answer the purpose if the attendant is 

 willing to give a little attention to it each day. These boxes 

 should DO placed so that they will receive some sunshine on 

 each bright day, and be kept well filled with loose, fine earth, 

 ^oad dusf procured during the hot, dry months of July and 

 August from much-traveled roads has no superior for this 

 purpose. Probably there is no way in which the poultrymaii 

 can better combat the body louse than by providing dust 

 boxes for his fowls. 



Yards or Parks. 



"Where fowls are ^ept in confinement it will be -found 

 best to provide outdoor runs or yards for them during the 

 summer months. Give them free access to these yards 

 whenever the weather will permit. The most economical 

 form, everything considered, for a poultry yard is one much 

 longer than wide. Two rods wide by eight rods long is suf- 

 ficient for fifty fowls. Whenever a poultry plant of consid- 

 erable size is to be established it will b6 found most econom- 

 ical to -arrange the yards side by side, with one end at the 

 ■ poultry house. The fences which^nclose these yards may 

 be made of poultry netting or pickets, and should be at least 

 seven feet high. In either case it is best to have a board at 

 the bottom, for sometimes it will be desirable to give quite 

 young chickens the run of these yaids. If the poultry yards 

 are constructed as described there is sufficient room for a 

 row of fruit tree? down the center of the yard and still leave 

 ample room for horse cultivation on either side, either with 

 one or two horses. 



"These yards are to be kept thoifoughly cultivated. If 

 thought best, grain may be sown before cultivation to fur- 

 nish part of the green food for the fowls. Of all fruit trees, 

 probably there are none that are more suitable for the poul- 

 try yard than the plums. The droppings of the fowls will 

 manure the trees, and the fowls as insect destroyers perform 

 a great office in protecting plums from curoulio. After the 



trees are once well established a crop of plums should be 

 secured nearly every year. These, too, will require no extra 

 cultivation. The plum trees perform a valuable service in 

 providing shade for the fowls. Where trees are not avail- 

 able, sunflowers may be used for this purpose with a consid- 

 erable degree of satisfaction. However, some protection 

 must be given the plants until they are well established, and 

 even then many plants will be destroyed unless the fowxs 

 have an abundance of green food all the time. 



' ' Hamburgs and Iteghorns, if they are frequently moved 

 from one pen to another, will sometimes give the owner con- 

 siderable trouble in flying over fences, even though they 

 are seven feet high. If it is possible to place the fowls, when 

 they are quite young, in the yard where they are too remain, 

 much less trouble will be experienced. It has often been 

 noticed that hens would remain peacefully in the yard where 

 they had been reared, but if moved to another yard would 

 give the owner more or less trouble by flying over the in- 

 closure. 



Selection of Breeds and Breeding. 



"A mistake is oftentimes made in selecting fowls of a 

 breed that is not suited lor the purposes for which they are 

 to be kept. If egg-production is the all-important point, it is 

 a most serious mistake to select a breed of fowls that is not 

 noted for this product. If, on the other hand, meat is the 

 chief object, an expensive mistake will be made if any but 

 the heavy-bodied fowls are chosen. The small, active, ner- 

 vous, egg-producing breeds can not compete with the larger 

 phlegmatic Asiatics for meat production. Then, too^ if fowls 

 are kept for both eggs and m#at production, some breed of 

 the middle class, should be chosen. These, 'whUo they do 

 not attain. the great size of the Asiatics, are sufficiently large 

 to be reared profitably to supply the table with meat, and at 

 the same time have the tendency for egg-production devel- 

 oped sufficiently to produce a goodly number of eggs dur- 

 ing the year. The ' Wyandottes and Plymouth Eocks are 

 good illustrations of this class of fowls. While individuals 

 of these breeds have made excellent records in egg-produc- 

 tion, the records o£ large numbers do not eompareu^voraolj 

 with the egg-production of the Mediterranean f owls!^ All of 

 the so-called Mediterranean fowls have a great tendency 

 toward egg-production and require only the proper food and 

 care to produce eggs in abundance. 



"A serious mistake is also made in selecting fowls for 

 bi:eeding purposes and in selecting eggs for hatching. On 

 many farms the custom is to select 'eggs for hatching during 

 the spring months, when nearly all of the fowls are laying. 

 No matter how poor a layer a hen may be, the chances are 

 that most of her eggs will be produced during the spring and 

 early summer months. A hen that has laid many eggs dur- 

 ing the winter months is quite likely to produce fewer eggs 

 during the spring and early summer months than one that 

 commenced to lay oh the approach of warm weather. 

 Springtime is nature's season for egg-production. All fowls 

 that produce any considerable number of eggs during the 

 year are likely to be laying at this time. It is, therefore, 

 plain that whenever eggs are selected in the springtime from 

 a flock of mixed hens, composed of sonie god layers and 

 some poor ones, a larger per cent of eggs will be obtained 

 from the poor layers than at almost any o'her season of the 

 year. A. serious mistake is therefore made in 'breeding 

 largely from the unprofitable fowls. Whenever it is pos- 

 sible, fowls that are known for the great number of eggs 

 they have produced during the year should be selected for 

 the breeding pen. While it will be almost impossible, and 

 certainly impractical, in the majority of eases, to keep 



