MY FAILURES 
was kept clean and warm at all times. 
I have raised, since then, very many 
chickens and tried many kinds of brooders 
and systems of brooding and feeding, and 
I have never had a flock of chickens do 
better than this flock did. 
I account for the great success of this 
flock in this way: There were no other 
chickens on the place, at the time, and 
there must have been plenty of insects and 
worms for them to get; the green grass 
was just starting when they hatched, 
which gave them plenty of green food; 
they had a large range to run over; they 
had plenty of air and sunshine, and I 
never gave them much food at one time; 
the food I gave them, such as scraps from 
the kitchen, crumbs from the dining-room 
table, together with a little grain, was the 
very best food that could have been given 
them. Their mealtimes were far apart, 
which caused them to get hungry and go 
a-foraging for insects and worms, which 
gave them plenty of exercise, sunshine 
and air; in short, they were surrounded 
with almost natural environment. 
The fact that we are seldom situated 
so that we can surround our fowls with 
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