IN QUANTITY, FOR MARKET. 



31 



food in thia country. Boiled rice and potatoes, and shorts or 

 " middlings " of wheat are excellent. Small potatoes and 

 broken or even " damaged " rice, which can usually be ob- 

 tained in any large city, serve an admirable purpose, and will 

 be found economical for every-day feeding. Occasional allow- 

 ances of barley or oats, or both, are highly advantageous to 

 laying fowls. Sunflower seeds, which can be easily grown p'ro- 

 f usely along the entire range on both sides of all fences, with- 

 out taking up room or causing any trouble save the original 

 planting, are one of the very best alteratives and changes in 

 diet that can be obtained, and fowls will devour these with a 

 gusto, always. In the writer s judgment, fowls should never 

 be stinted in food. As much as they will eat without waste, 

 and of the best, is deemed the most economical in the end. 



Male chickens intended for the market may be kept together 

 advantageously in considerable numbers in the same coops, if 

 brought up together from the outset. No pullets should ever 

 be placed in these cages or yards. As fast as the birds reach 

 the proper size and weight for killing, they should be disposed 

 of. For this particular purpose, cock chickens are the most 

 profitable, as they furnish more meat at a given age, and are 

 of no account (in numbers) otherwise, after they attain to a 

 size suitable for the table. These male birds should be well 

 fed from the shell. They will generally pay a large profit upon 

 the investment, and may be killed at three to six months old. 



The plan of a fowl house already given (see B'igs. 1 and 2) 

 is such as the writer had in use for some years, in size, propor- 

 tions and appointments. Below is the design of houses 

 adopted by him also for many years, for summer use only, in 

 which large numbers of chickens were annually raised. 



FIG. 4. — SUMMER OPEK CHICKEN HOUSES — KEAB. 



