POULTRY RAISING. 
131 
root' is accessible, draw it out into a nearby meadow or corn field. The 
sides of the house may be enclosed with wire which should be covered 
with cloth or burlap on the north and east. This will prevent a direct 
draught on the chicks. The general trouble with summer houses is 
from too little rather than too much air, yet a direct draught should 
be avoided. 
The mash feed at this time should be similar to that used earlier. 
A mash composed of two parts corn meal, one part bran, and one part 
middlings has been found very satisfactory. This feed may be placed 
in a self-feed hopper and the pullets allowed to help themselves. They 
will be able to find plenty of meat in the form of insects on most ranges. 
A flock of growing pullets will do more to rid a meadow of harmful 
insects than a lot of such pests as crows, and one will find that even 
in the corn field they do no harm if properly fed. With a large run 
they do but very little scratching, as they seem to prefer to run down 
an iusect rather than dig one out of the ground. They will, of course, 
appropriate a small place for a dust bath unless you furnish them with 
one. 
The house should be constructed so that *it can be locked. Leave a 
place, however, where the pullets may go in and out at will. If they 
are allowed to do this you will find that about three o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing they will come stealing out and scatter over the meadow. The 
grasshoppers are now sluggish with the cold dew and are readily picked 
up and devoured. Perhaps the good that the pullets do to the crops 
has been emphasized more than the good they derive from the open 
range, but a single trial should convince the most sceptical that the 
healthiest kind of fowls can be raised in this way. 
In case the owner of the fowls lives in a village, so plan your chicken 
house, yards and garden that the hens can be readily changed from 
one place to another. As soon as the early vegetables have been re¬ 
moved from one part of the garden, seed the ground to rye. When the 
rye has made a good start, turn the pullets in and let them dig and 
scratch all they will. Some may say that this is too much trouble, 
but those who have tried it are satisfied with the results. One cannot 
expect to raise strong, healthy chicks on ground that has been poisoned 
for years by preceding generations of fowls. Plow up the old yard 
and use it for a garden for a year or two. If it is not too rich it will 
prove an excellent garden and the old one will be greatly benefitted 
by a year's rest and fertilization by the droppings from the fowls. 
Many people have failed in poultry raising simply because when they 
increased the number kept they did not increase the size of their houses, 
yards and runs. For instance a farmer or villager is doing well with 
thirty hens. He determines to increase the number to one hundred. 
The next spring he hatches about three times as many as formerly and 
raises them on the same range. The range probably could be kept 
sanitary with fifty chicks, but when increased to one hundred and fifty 
they do not grow strong and vigorous. Before increasing the size of 
the flock consider the possibilities for greater facilities to accommo¬ 
date and handle them properly. Provide ample house room to .accom¬ 
modate the increased flock for winter. Each hen should have about five 
square feet of floor space. Measure the house and see how many hens 
