190 COMMON SENSE 
I am aware, of course, that with persons who already have some 
other business, and merely wish to work gradually into poultry 
keeping the case is different, Such a person might begin with roo: 
fowls, and by investing the profits from these in new houses and 
more fowls, he might soon work up to a business of respectable di- 
mensions. And this would certainly be a very judicious course, as 
experience would be acquired: just as it was needed. But by the 
time the poultry yard is yielding a fair Jiving, the owner will find 
that he has invested in it a sum not far from the amount named,. 
and Lam very much. mistaken if he would take that amount for 
his establishment. 
Another error commonly made is in getting the wrong kind of 
land, and too little of it. Although I managed to succeed tolera- 
bly well with 1,000 laying hens on about nine available acres, yet 
I am satisfied. that less than an acre and a half to each hundred 
fowls is not good economy. On Jess than an acre it is difficult to 
carry out that proper rotation of crops that is absolutely necessary, 
and the fowls, from want of range, do not acquire that vigorous 
health which I found so desirable. Less than fifteen acres for one 
thousand birds is not desirable. Attempts have been made-to keep 
poultry in comparatively small coops, but it has never paid, except 
in the case of fancy birds, where time and labor were no-object. 
The Jand should be all capable of cultivation, and should be as 
productive as it is possible to get it. Heavy clay and light sand 
are to be equally avoided ; the former because the birds rarely keep 
in good health on such soil, and the latter because it is so unpro- 
ductive. A good deep gravelly loam is the kind to select. Such 
land does not remain wet long after a rain, and it retains manure 
and gives good crops. If we allow fifteen acres of such land to 
each 1,000 fowls, we can raise on it a very large proportion of all 
the food that is needed. It is supposed that five acres are occupied 
by coops and yards, and ten acres in cultivation—growing clover, 
corn, cabbage, etc. Under our system of high cultivation and 
abundant manure the corn ought to yield at Jeast 40 bushels to the 
acre, or 400 bushels if the whole were devoted to this crop. This 
would be about half the corn reyuired. But since clover and cab- 
bage give larger yields than corn, and as a portion of the ground 
