100 



FIMST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEFING. 



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With 



Equally without queBtlon,'! thinlr 

 that for other seasons of the year It 

 le the worst system. If a large num- 

 ber of fowls are to be kept on a small 

 piece of ground, we must consider 

 the continuous house system the best 

 for such circumstances; but it is a 

 mistake, and a bad one, for a person 

 who wants to keep a large stock of 

 fowls to use intensive methods. 



I do not mean by that that poultry 

 cannot be made profitable under such 

 conditions. It would be absurd to 

 claim that they could not — for they 

 have been kept at a good profit under 

 such conditions by a great many peo- 

 ple. But the profitable life of the 

 intensive poultry plant seems to be 

 short. The ground becomes contam- 

 inated, and the stock does not thrive 

 as It did when the plant was new. 

 The system is a laliorious one for the 

 poultryman — keeping his nose on the 

 grindstone all the time, and unless he 

 .is uncommonly pleased with that pro- 

 cess, when results begin to be less 

 satisfactory he becomes discouraged, and grows somewhat 

 careless and slack about his work, and his plant soon 

 becomes an unsatisfactory proposition. This has been the 

 history of many a venture in which the poultryman, after 

 a few years struggle, succeeds in getting his intensive 

 poultry plant on a paying basis, only to discover after a 

 few years more how difficult or impossible it will be to 

 keep the plant up to the mark made in those fat years. 



For all times of the year but winter, and perhaps we 

 should include early spring, the easiest way to handle fowls 

 is to give them either free range, or yards so large that 

 they have all the advantages of free range. To keep fowls 

 in this way houses of one or two pens are used. What- 

 ever may be said of the relative merits of warm or closed 

 and cold or open houses in winter, there will be no dis- 

 agreement on the proposition thatalmost :my old leaky shed 

 will do for summer. 



Section of Continuous Rouse 



Connecting Pens. 

 A ground plan, A 1 front, A 2 partition 

 between pens. 



The Ideal poultry plant I would consider a plant that gave the best conditions for both 

 winter and summer. That means practically two sets of buildings; continuous houses con- 

 venient to the dwelling and to other outbuildings for winter, and separate houses distributed 

 about the farm for summer. This is what I would have If I were keeidng a large stool; of 

 poultry on a large farm. On a place of but a few acres, or on a small lot, I would be governed 

 by circumstances. On my place now I have the two pen building described in Lesson IX., and 

 five smaller one pen houses distributed about the place. Winter before last we had these small 

 bouses up near the barn, the two pen house being farthest from the dwelling. In the spring 

 all the sniiill houses were put beyond the two pen house, the farthest away being some 200 ft. 

 from It. Lust winter the small houses were used as in summer, because I did not care to 

 move them in and then back again In the spring. The intention Is to have the south end of 

 the barn basement fitted for poultry, and keep In It through the winter about as many hens 



