134 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



they will take ample exercise in pleasant weather. To 

 Iceep them out of doors the noon feed of whole barley 

 (or buckwheat) and night feed (before sunset) of 

 wheat is scattered upon a graveled space immediately 

 in front of the houses. Each family of fifteen has a pen 

 within the house twelve feet square, or 144 square feet 

 of floor space, which gives about ten square feet per 

 fowl. The floor is the earth covered about six inches 

 deep with screened gravel. On this gravel inside the 

 house the grain is scattered in stormy weather, in 

 spring, summer and early fall, when we want the birds 

 to stay indoors. When cold weather approaches, exer- 

 cise must be stimulated, and we cover the pen floors 

 three or four inches deep with meadow hay or straw, 

 into which the grain is scattered, and the biddies have 

 to dig it out. Some poultrymen use dry leaves for pen 

 litter ; chaflF from a threshing mill, or buckwheat hulls, 

 would be most excellent, nothing could be better ; and 

 we have found one or two cases where common corn- 

 .stalks were used. With us, straw or meadow hay is 

 most easily obtained, and we use that. What the 

 scratching material is, is of far less importance than 

 that the scratching material is there. 



"Whole wheat is the best grain food for fowls, 

 whole barley is the next best, and buckwheat next. We 

 make barley or buckwheat the noon feed five days in 

 the week, and wheat the night feed five or six davs in 

 the week. We do not make the mash on Sundav, be- 

 cause we want to reduce the work to its lowest terms 

 ■on that day, doing no more than the regular feeding 

 and watering and collecting the eggs. 



"Monday we feed oats (or barley), wheat, whole 

 corn; Tuesday, mash, barley (or buckwheat), wheat: 

 Wednesday, mash, cut bone, wheat: Thursday, oats, 

 tarley, wheat (or corn) : Friday, mash, barley, wheat; 

 Saturday, mash, cut bone, wheat ; Sundav, mash, bar- 



