CHICKEN-REARING 87 
pressure in the hand and will fall apart as soon as it is thrown into 
the feeding-trough. This is the consistency known as “ crumbly,” 
and if one is not quite certain it is safer to make it rather too dry 
than too wet. 
Perhaps the great art of rearing chickens successfully is to 
keep them warm, dry and clean, and to see that in addition to the 
ordinary food they get plenty of green stuffs. With care the 
amateur should rear as successfully as the professional poultry- 
farmer ; indeed, my experiences go to show that on the whole the 
careful and intelligent amateur rears a larger percentage of his 
chicks than is usually accomplished by the commercial on the 
poultry farm where there is not the time and opportunity to see 
that each individual of the flock gets proper attention. 
ANOTHER SYSTEM 
The following system of feeding and management is that 
employed in the Chicken Rearing Demonstration at Morden 
Hall, where the birds were intended for table purposes. 
Rearing (Total period 12-16 weeks) 
The chickens are left in the incubator until the twenty-second 
day, when they are transferred to the brooders. For the first 
two weeks they remain in a portion of the rearing ground where 
they can be kept under constant observation. The brooders 
used at Morden Hall were each capable of accommodating 60 
chickens up to the age of from five to seven weeks. 
Each brooder is placed in a run enclosed by wire-netting 2 feet 
high supported by light stakes placed at intervals. These runs 
may conveniently measure 9 yards by 40 yards, and are used for 
the chickens up to the age of seven weeks. 
Each Sussex ark is placed in a run measuring 40 yards by 
20 yards, enclosed by wire-netting 4 feet high supported by stakes. 
Access is gained to the larger runs by an arrangement which 
permits of a short length of the wire-netting between two posts 
