THE CONSTRUCTION OF POULTRY HOUSES 209 



The straw and litter used in the houses for scratch material, 

 after it becomes of no further use for scratch material, is 

 valuable as a fertilizer on the field and helps to make humus 

 needed in the soil for the best crop production. 



One hundred hens will consume from 300 to 500 pounds of 

 oyster shell a year, some of which goes back to the land. 



Hens act as scavengers, not only consuming hundreds of 

 pounds of insects in the course of the year, thus protecting 

 the crops from pests, but act as scavengers by picking up 

 waste grain and other food material. 



The cost of raising hens on such free range conditions is 

 only about one-half as much as on the intensive method where 

 they are restricted in their range and eveiything bought and 

 carried to them. 



Poultry on range will go at least one-fourth mile to hunt 

 insects, always returning to their house at night, thus making 

 fencing on their account unnecessary. 



The injury poultry will do to a crop is not serious unless too 

 many birds are kept in one flock. The portable house should 

 be made to accommodate not more than fifty birds each.' 

 The houses should be located considerable distances apart. 



Poultry are beneficial to orchards as they check the increase 

 in parasites by destroying or devouring the bugs, slugs, and 

 worms. Orchards attacked by winter moth were found to be 

 almost entirely free after turning fowls in the orchard. 



Strawberry patches planted on ground following wheat is 

 often devastated with crane fly. The effect of allowing fowls 

 to run on these tracts prior to fruit farming has been to practi- 

 cally clear them of that pest. The destructive raspberry 

 beetles, which as a rule go down the stems or stalks of the berry 

 vines toward evening or at the approach of stormy weather, 

 are caught and devoured by the hens. Likewise the fowls 

 devour the saw-fly caterpillars often found on gooseberry 

 bushes. 



Fowls have been found beneficial to vineyards by ridding 

 them of parasitic life. In southwestern France poultry are 

 used extensively for this purpose. 



There is not much danger of fowls injuring most crops after 

 the plants are 6 inches high. 



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