170 
AMERICAN AGrlilOULTURIST. 
[May, 
with yards (excepting for some special pur¬ 
poses), and imitate a country town , where is sta¬ 
tioned at every farm-yard a flock. This method 
we know lias succeeded for hundreds of years , 
since men became partly civilized; so it is no 
new experiment, and it is based on a state of 
things still older , extending beyond the period 
of domestication. Across a tract of 62’h acres, 
100 rods square, run parallel wagon roads, 10 
rods apart, with fowl-houses located quincunx 
style, every 10 rods. In this way each house is 
surrounded with six others, and is 10 rods to 
11 and a fraction, from each. Now, when a 
flock is attached to each farm-yard in a village, 
and runs at liberty, the premises may be as 
near each other as 8, or 0 rods even, without 
danger of the birds straying, ordinarily, when 
once fairly domiciled. This is because the 
neighbors’ premises have a different look, and 
the buildings, garden, orchard, shrubbery, and 
fences, serve as landmarks to enable them to 
find their way back. To make each flock upon 
[9 O <§_ 9 _0 
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DIAGRAM OF EGG FARM. 
our tract know its home, we have three styles 
of buildings, so unlike in color and other re¬ 
spects, as to be distinguished by their occupants, 
and these alternate in such a way as to prevent 
mistakes. Here the ancient instincts of the 
birds are our reliance, their powers of discrim¬ 
inating locality being very strong. It must be 
kept in mind that any faculty which was of use 
when the race was wild may be definitely 
counted on, unless it has since been persistently 
bred out. The buildings are white, black, and 
uncolored, in succession, so that the six imme¬ 
diately adjoining any one, are none of them 
like itself. The white and black coloring arc 
of the cheapest sort—lime-wash and coal-tar. 
In the diagram, showing a portion of the 
farm, the quincunx order is shown, and the 
position of the wagon path is indicated by the 
dotted line. The alternation of the colors of 
buildings will be understood from the white, 
black and tinted dots. 
While pursuing the experiments which led to 
this system, we early perceived that while a 
flock thus situated would stay near home so 
long as no person approached, when feeding 
them, we were followed by birds from neigh¬ 
boring flocks, and there was confusion. Then, 
so accustomed do fowls become to associating 
the sight.of their keeper with a boon, that they 
will- follow, him from one station to another, 
where on his rounds collecting eggs, dr attending 
to other matters. True, their ability to find tlieir 
way back is WO-ndeffuT, but fighting follows "in¬ 
trusions, and thus the 'quiet and order-so : essen¬ 
tial to laying are impaired. Besides, frequent 
association Of this kind will, after awhile; break 
down all distinction between neighboring flocks. 
Such a trouble would be fatal to the wfliole plan. 
The solution of this difficulty is original with 
our system, and the key to its success. The 
feeding business is the cause of the trouble, and 
the only reason why fowls follow their keeper. 
The remedy is to bring about the feeding indi¬ 
rect!}'. From earliest chickenhood the birds are 
brought up so as to never perceive that the 
keeper has any thing to do with their feed. The 
small coops for young chickens (on a separate 
part of the farm) have boxes where the feed is 
placed, and a simple contrivance attached, that 
does not admit the chickens until some time af¬ 
terward. This device will be described in the 
article on buildings. Adult fowls are given 
soft feed early in the morning in a feed-box in 
their house, so constructed that the keeper is 
not seen by them at all. All the hard grain for 
the day’s allowance is deposited in a pile of 
straw outside, before they are let out of the 
building, and it is a day’s work for them to 
scratch for it. This employment is very salu¬ 
tary to their health and spirits, and assists in 
keeping the flock together. The bright eye and 
keen faculty for prying and searching are em¬ 
ployed, instead of the birds moping or standing 
listless. They feel as if everything was right 
and natural, and this influences laying to a sur¬ 
prising degree. The sight of the keeper is asso¬ 
ciated with no gift or boon whatever, scrupulous 
care being taken during the 15 to 18 months 
that limit the lives of most of the main laying- 
stock, never to throw to them, directly, a morsel 
of food or allow them to see the drinking-vessels 
filled. All motions near the fowls should be 
slow and gentle; they should never be fright¬ 
ened, and should regard their keeper with nei¬ 
ther fear nor aversion, but with total indiffer¬ 
ence. The two points, of differently appearing 
premises at different stations, and indirect feed¬ 
ing, both being attended to, we are enabled to 
keep separate flocks in freedom upon one farm 
without yards. The method of overcoming, by 
use of a team, the loss of time in attendance 
caused by the scattering of the buildings, will 
be described in its proper place, as well as the 
ways of securing throughout the greatest econ¬ 
omy in labor and lumber. The description of 
soil and location, buildings, breeds, and general 
management, will also appear in future articles. 
I© 4 - — <§> S BUCM— --■-— 
Ogden Farm Papers—Ho. 17. 
A subscriber of the Agriculturist writes: 
“Will Mr. Waring please give a balance-sheet 
of his farming operations at Ogden Farm an¬ 
nually? If he will, it would be valuable infor¬ 
mation to many of us farmers. We are will¬ 
ing to try similar farming/believing it will pay 
in time; but would like to know how much we 
must sink before it will pay, that we may know 
whether we can stand it.” This reminds me, 
“ Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go 
with him twain.” The inexorable public, at 
whose behest I stand, draws from me month 
after month a good many details of my farming- 
affairs, and I am, of course, glad that they are 
interesting to so many readers; but there is a 
point beyond which it hardly seems necessary 
to go. The line must be drawn somewhere. I 
draw it at a balance-sheet. 
It would be impossible now to offer, any fail- 
statement of the true position of an Operation 
like that at Ogden Farm. The investment of 
moiicy has hardly been made in a single - in¬ 
stance with a view to immediate results, and’ 
the'exRct effect it has on the filial condition of 
the farm and its finances cannot be justly esti¬ 
mated in advance. I cim only say that what¬ 
ever has been done has been with a view to 
profitable improvement, and while the mistakes 
that are inseparable from new undertakings 
have not been entirely escaped, I hope that the 
issue will show that my outlays, viewed as a 
whole, have not been injudicious. 
Some years hence, when I can sJiow a profit, 
I shall have no hesitation in making-a public 
exhibition of my accounts, for it would do good 
as an encouragement to others; but until I can 
show a profit in money , there would be no good 
end subserved by parading my balance-sheet. 
No such statement can be of much value as a 
guide to other farmers, except in a very general 
way; for circumstances 'alter cases, and farm¬ 
ing is a business of circumstances which are 
never the same in any two instances. From the 
farmer himself to the land he works, there is to 
be found in every thing some reason for doing 
or not doing what,under other conditions, would 
be most proper or most improper; and what¬ 
ever be the facilities at the farmer’s hands, and 
however much or little capital he may invest, 
the measure of his success is usually to be 
found in his ability to make the most of his op¬ 
portunities, to decide on the wisest course to 
pursue, and, having decided on it, to stick to it 
through thick and thin, no matter how discour¬ 
aging it may sometimes seem. When I can 
show a profit, my showing will induce some 
people to undertake to follow in my tracks, and 
many of them will fail, because they should 
have laid out new courses for themselves; 
others, who are wiser, will see in the example 
only the fact that good farming, well followed, 
is a good business, and they will feel secure in 
adopting such improvements, not as have been 
found best under my circumstances, but as are 
best suited to their own. 
Were I obliged, now, to make a balance- 
sheet that expressed my own estimate of the 
state of affairs at Ogden Farm, I should make 
it include a long look ahead, comprising not 
only the value of the manure I have already 
accumulated, but the effect on a naturally good, 
but long abused soil, of the application and re¬ 
application of this manure—of the chemical 
action of the air, and the rain-fall, that thorough 
draining and thorough cultivation will allow to 
have its effect in developing the native fertility 
of the land—and of that greatest of all amelior¬ 
ating influences, the decay in the soil of the 
roots of good crops. And the whole of this 
part of the estimate would have to be sustained 
only by faith: the faith, namely, that good 
farming is sure to prosper in the end. In this 
faith I work and write; and I do not shrink 
from the responsibility of urging all who care 
for improvement to accept it entirely, and to 
guide their actions by it. 
Whatever may be said on the question of 
profit, we arc now drawing rousing dividends ; 
drawing them with double teams, out of the 
barn-cellar. I have seen a great deal of manure 
in my time, but I think I have never seen such 
“richness” as this. We use no litter, bedding 
our animals with beach sand. The consequence 
is that our manure is worth, load for load, fully 
three times as much as that made with profuse 
littering, to say nothing of some 25 or 30 tons 
of wheat-bran, and 800 bushels of corn, and 
considerable other grain that will have been 
consumed by the stock by the time the feeding 
season has ended. 
Another correspondent asks: “What can a 
man do on 50 acres of fair land at green-soiling 
cows for buttermilk, and will "it pay where there 
