1906.] 



The Poultry Industry in America. 



491 



cheaper land and food being more than balanced by the high 

 price of labour. 



Large egg farms appear in some cases to be profitable when 

 conducted upon business principles with sufficient capital, and 

 where in addition to the sale of eggs for market, a trade can 

 also be secured in eggs for hatching, in stock birds, or in day- 

 old chickens, or in combination with fruit culture. 



An important point in connection with large poultry farms is 

 the liability of the soil to become tainted, and thus lead to out- 

 breaks of disease among the birds. Owing to the dry hot 

 summers and the long cold winters the activity of the manure 

 is much decreased, and this difficulty is not one which has up 

 to the present received much attention in America, more 

 especially as the abundance of cheap land makes it easy to 

 utilize fresh soil when necessary. American experience pro\ es 

 however, the importance of securing immunity from taint in the 

 soil, either by the adoption of double yards to permanent houses, 

 the ground being alternately used for poultry and cultivated, 

 or by systematic removal to fresh ground. 



Mr. Brown considers that the portable house system so 

 largely used in the United Kingdom should be maintained 

 where poultry are a part of the ordinary stock of the farm, but 

 where farm.ers and others desire to devote part of their land to 

 poultry and make poultry keeping a more important feature, 

 the colony system of Rhode Island is one which might be use- 

 fully adopted. Poultry farming has been carried on success- 

 fully in Rhode Island for very many years, and within half a 

 dozen miles of Little Compton in every direction there are 

 scores of farms where poultry are kept and raised in large 

 numbers, in fact hundreds of poultry houses can be seen from 

 the roadway in the course of a mile or two. The main object 

 is egg production, though the local breed— Rhode Island Reds — 

 do not appear to be heavy layers. The farms are usually from 

 60 to TOO acres in extent, consisting of both pasture and arable 

 land. The former is used for feeding stock or is cropped for 

 hay, and the latter is cultivated for grain. 



Whilst the number of fowls kept upon these Rhode Island 

 farms is large, and to some extent the methods adopted are in- 

 tensive, the poultry section is but part of the farming operations. 



