LOCATING AND LAYING OUT POULTRY PLANTS. 75 



LESSON VII. 



Locating and Laying Out Poultry Plants. 



THE owner of a piece of laud upon which he wishes to engnge in pouitry lieeping has 

 to »d»pt the business to his location, markets, and his own aliility. He makes his 

 liusinesB fit his conditions as be understands them. If his ability and experience 

 are small he may make many mistakes, and be is likely to make some mistakes, no 

 matter how able or expert. 



The mistakes people make in locating and laying out their plants vary both in kind and 

 in degree. There are mistakes that make success impossible. Of this kind is the common 

 error o( buying land that is of a nature unsuitable for poultry keeping, or so located that 

 extra expenses, due to location, eat into the profits to such an extent that the net returns are 

 reduced l)elow the lowest figure at which it is possible to maintain operations. In the earlier 

 days of interest in poultry culture as a means of livelihood, the idea was land unsuitable for 

 any other purpose was just what was wanted for fowls. Those who bought on that principle 

 have had cause to regret it. From as far back as our poultry literature goes it has also been 

 customary for most authorities on poultry culture to advocate sandy and porous soils that 

 were drained well; and a site with a southerly or southeasterly exposure was considered 

 preferable. Nowadays pouitrymen are not quite as particular about those points, though they 

 do not wish to get too far away from them — particularly when arranging winter quarters 

 for laying stock. 



As is so often the case, when these points of location were insisted upon as cardinal points 

 there was a general tendency to try to secure them, even at the expense of other desirable 

 features. As a result of this, a great many pouitrymen have located in places where they had 

 to contend with a multitude of other adverse conditions as well^s with the faults of locations 

 which would always be dry. 



For best results most easily secured a medium soil is to be preferred. Perhaps the ideal 

 location is one which gives a high and well drained site for the pouitry buildings, but with adja- 

 cent low land that remains moist through the di vest and hottest summers, to which the runs 

 may be extended. A sandy soil that cannot be kept in sod becomes intensely hot on hot sum- 

 mer days, and fowls and chicks confined to such a location cannot thrive. This has been one 

 reason for poor summer laying and for ditficulty in growing late chickens on many poultry 



plants. 



Another point given more consideration of late years is the adaptability of the land for 

 cultivation. Good grass or tillage land is usually good land for poultry. Not infrequently 

 poultry will pay better on it than any other crop that could be grown. There Is the further 

 advantage in the use of such land for poultry that the poultry running on the land enrich it, 

 and when the land by use for poultry becomes contaminated the poultry can be shifted to 

 another part of the farm, and this will grow extra fine crops while being renovated. As far as 

 I have discussed the matter with them— and I have talked of it with a great many pouitrymen 

 I have found no man located on a farm with little tillage land who would choose such a place 



