THE INTENSIVE SYSTEM ae 
I have an absolutely open mind on the subject, and if anyone 
could show me a larger profit on the intensive side I would adopt 
it forthwith. I am also free to believe that a few more eggs may 
be gained by the intensive farmer, especially in winter, when eggs 
are dear, but I greatly doubt whether the slightly larger yield, 
supposing it to exist, compensates for the disadvantages I have 
enumerated. 
No doubt it is good to protect the bird from storms, from rough, 
biting winds, from extreme cold and above all from damp and rain. 
Other things equal, there ought to be rather more eggs, but are 
other things equal? Is the bird that is kept indoors all day and 
every day, seeing only the sunshine through window or wire, 
breathing only as much fresh air as comes in through the open 
front, deprived of free exercise, robbed of its natural food, for which 
substitutes can only partially be found—I say, is it reasonable to 
expect a fowl so situated to maintain its vigour and persist in its 
creative impulse, as perfectly as the bird that is as well sheltered 
in bad weather and at the same time free to go abroad into the 
sunshine and select part of its food ? It may be so, but we have 
no proof that it is so, and the fact that the intensive habit is 
not adopted on large egg farms is partly conclusive evidence that, 
whatever virtues the intensive system may possess, it is not so 
good a commercial proposition as, say, 
Tue Semi-INTENSIVE SYSTEM 
This system is a compromise between the wholly free and the 
wholly confined methods. It is now the almost universally 
adopted method of the large egg-farmer, and has proved beyond 
doubt to yield better results for large-scale farming than any other 
plan. Stated simply, it means that a house or scratching-shed 
is provided large enough to give the birds every accommodation 
necessary for their movements during wet and stormy weather. 
On a very cold, very wet or very windy day the birds remain in- 
doors, just as we would do if we were not obliged to go out. Thus 
they have the protection of the intensively kept birds in bad 
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