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Poultry Keeping in Fruit Plantations, [july. 



POULTRY KEEPING IN FRUIT 

 PLANTATIONS. 



G. H. Garrad, N.D.A., 

 Agnculiural Organiser for Kent. 



Poultry keeping and fruit growing is an excellent com- 

 bination. The poultry help the fruit trees by manuring the 

 soil, and if the land has previously been under cultivation 

 the birds will, by their scratching, keep it almost entirely free 

 of weeds and reduce much of the expense of keeping the land 

 cultivated. Moreover, they will consume innumerable cater- 

 pillars and other enemies of the fruit grower, and for a pest 

 like the pear midge, the maggot of which falls out of the fruit 

 to pupate in the ground, the keeping of poultry is the only 

 practicable rem.edy. 



This method of keeping poultry is also economical from the 

 fowls' point of view, for they occupy ground beneath the fruit 

 trees that would otherwise in many cases be unused, and they 

 feed to a large extent on insects that are normally regarded as 

 pests. They may occasionally do some damage to bush 

 fruit and cob nuts by picking out some of the buds from the 

 low branches, but this is not serious, provided that the birds 

 are sufficiently fed. Heavy breeds of fowl like the Buff 

 Orpington do less damage than- the lighter breeds, because 

 they do not climb so high into the trees. 



The primary object of this article is to show that poultry 

 keeping and fruit growing can be made a very profitable 

 combination. During the past five years the writer has care- 

 fully checked the accounts of a small holder in one of the fruit- 

 growing districts of Kent, Mr. W. Hall, of Grover Hill, West 

 Peckham, near Maidstone. Mr. Hall and his son occupy 20 

 acres of land on the lower Greensand Formation, on the face 

 of a steep hill facing the south, an ideal situation for poultry. 

 His land is cropped as follows : — 



7J acres standard apples, interplanted with cob nuts. 

 3J half-standard plums and damsons, interplanted with 



gooseberries. 



3 J half-standard apples, interplanted with gooseberries and 



cob nuts. 

 I arable land, 



grass land. 



The poultry are confined in permanent runs in the 14I acres 

 of fruit. At first it was the practice to dig the land over once 

 a year, and the fowls then kept it well worked for the rest of the 



