SYSTEMS OF POULTRY KEEPING 93 



of market poultry hatched from eggs purchased of farmers who 

 kept their stock under extensive conditions. That is still the com- 

 mon practice, though a few growers keep their own breeding stock. 

 Besides, the business is the growing of " winter chickens," and the 

 stock is off the land during the summer and early fall, thus admitting 

 of regular growing of crops that remove the fertilizer from the soil. 

 At Macdonald College, Quebec, the poultry department has 

 adopted, with very satisfactory results, a plan of using colony 

 houses in the summer and drawing them together in the winter 

 (see illustrations). The houses are in fenced fields without division 



Fig. 98. Winter arrangement of colony houses at Macdonald College 

 (Photograph from the college) 



fences, all houses in a field being occupied by fowls of the same 

 variety. This gives the hens good range when they can be out on 

 the ground, and brings the houses together for the season when, in 

 that country, it would be impossible to manage poultry in widely 

 separated colonies. This plan is more likely to be carried out as 



eggs are most in demand, the newcomer among the growers usually experiences 

 some difficulty in getting good eggs. Many of the growers, after getting out 

 what chickens they need for their own business, use their incubators to hatch 

 eggs for the farmers. Thus during the greater part of the year the eggs from the 

 farm flocks are used for hatching purposes. The income of the growers all comes 

 in during a few months in the spring and early summer. A grower whose credit is 

 good is " carried " by his grain dealer, who perhaps is carried, in turn, by his 

 bank, through the season when expenses are heavy and income nothing. The 

 entire product of the district is marketed by a few men who buy chickens, as 

 they become ready, from the grower, paying cash for the live birds, dressing 

 them, and shipping to the Boston market. 



