62 THE CULTIVATOR. Feb. 
MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 
Frequent inquiries are made by farmers, as to the 
.. cheapest and-best mode of managing poultry, and the 
question is not always satisfactorily answered.The most 
perfect mode is to have a fine, airy, well-lighted poul¬ 
try-house, connected with an ample, well fenced yard. 
Hens may be also kept confined three-quarters of the 
day in a poultry-house only, if it is fully lighted and 
cleaned daily, without the addition of the yard, with a 
run of an hour or two in the adjacent grounds, before 
going to roost. The third and more common way, is 
to let them run at large at all times, picking up what 
they can find for a subsistence. Each of these modes 
has its advantages and objections. 
1. The advantages of a house and large yard are,— 
the hens are perfectly provided with food, and room for 
exercise, and all the other comforts of life, without in¬ 
terfering with other parts of the premises. The disad¬ 
vantages are, the cost of the house, the cost of a high, 
picketted, yard fence, and the land occupied where the 
yard is large, as it must be, to answer properly the in¬ 
tended purpose,* besides the expense and care of pro¬ 
viding a constant supply of food and water. 
2. The advantages of a house without a yard are,— 
the expense of a large yard is avoided; and the intru¬ 
sions of the hens elsewhere are entirely prevented, as 
during the short interval of their liberation each day, 
they pass hastily through garden or other grounds, 
picking up only insects, and avoiding scratching, and 
returning of their own accord to their resting places for 
the night. The objections are, the indispensable neces¬ 
sity of a well aired, well lighted, perfectly clean house, 
requiring large windows, care in ventilation, daily 
sweeping, and frequent white-washing internally. A 
constant supply of food and water must be given. This 
mode is also apt to cause hens to eat the fresh eggs, 
as well as to render them less prolific. 
. . 3. Suffering hens to run at large releases the owner 
from all care in feeding them.* They pick up refuse 
matter from the kitchen and elsewhere, devour insects, 
and devour the seeds of various weeds growing in waste 
grounds and unfrequented places. But there are seve¬ 
ral objections to this mode of management, or rather, 
■ -absence of management. Being compelled to pick up 
their own living, they often pick in the wrong place, 
,and pilfered grain and uprooted garden seeds are the 
result. They often choose wrong places for roosting, 
. as ,the backs of carriage seats, over saddles, and on 
farm tools, to the serious annoyance of the owner. 
Sometimes, too, a large nest of eggs is spoiled, in con- 
: sequence of being located in some unknown hiding 
place. 
Each of these three modes having its merits and dis¬ 
advantages, it becomes necessary to choose between 
,; : them. This choice must be made according to eircum- 
l stances. Those who wish to raise poultry and eggs in 
. .large quantities for market, and those who do not re¬ 
gard the cost of a house and yard, and who can pro- 
.cure plenty of feed, should choose the first mode. The 
second may be adopted in villages, or where little land 
can be afforded, and where at the same time there is 
some person in the family to give nearly constant at¬ 
tention to their wants, to see they are well supplied with 
food and water, that strict cleanliness is uniformly pre¬ 
served, and that the eggs are secured before they are 
devoured by the hens themselves. The third is more 
•'applicable to large farms, where the barn is remote 
. from the garden, and where the carriage house, grana¬ 
ry, tool-house, See., may be entirely excluded from their 
visits, and consequent defilement. There is so much 
refuse matter around barns which they may pick up as 
food, that farmers may usually have a dozen or two of 
hens with scarcely any cost whatever. It will,, how¬ 
ever, be found a very great convenience, which w& wish 
here strongly to recommend, to have a small apartment 
for their accommodation at nights, built as a lean-to, on 
the south side of the barn, and properly lighted with 
windows. If this opens to the inner part of the barn, 
and also to the barn-yard, they may at any time pass 
out to either place unrestrained; and as soon as they 
become accustomed to their lodgings, they will at once 
resort there, without any trouble, or without any dan¬ 
ger of annoying the farmer by depositing their slime 
elsewhere. Where a hen-house without a yard has 
been built, it is often difficult to induce the hens in win¬ 
ter to frequent it; a difficulty which would vanish if 
they could pass to it freely and immediately from the 
barn they frequent during the day. 
Hens may often be easily confined to the barn and 
barn-yard, by a row of short pickets set on the high 
tight fence which surrounds the cattle yard. T. 
A FEW WORDS ABOUT LANDMARKS. 
Messrs. Editors —Perhaps it may be useful to the 
farmer, and not aside from the general object of the 
Cultivator, to offer a few remarks on this subject. It 
is not only important that land be well cultivated, but 
that the owner know definitely his limits. By strict 
attention to the maintenance of boundaries, much col¬ 
lision would be avoided, and the quiet and good feeling 
among neighbors, in many instances, essentially pro¬ 
moted. 
The original corner, for instance, may have been a 
tree, which for some cause has been cut" and removed; 
the stump remains awhile to mark the spot, but at 
length it decays, and finally every vestige of it has dis¬ 
appeared. The surveyor is called on to run one or 
more lines, wfith a view to ascertain the corner, which 
he is generally supposed able to do by adjusting his 
compass to the ancient bearing of the line in question. 
This, however, is expecting more of the magnetic 
needle than it is able to accomplish, or will be, so long 
as the laws which govern its variation are but imper¬ 
fectly understood, though an approximation to accura¬ 
cy can usually be obtained. An experience of more 
than twenty year’s occasional practice in the various 
branches of surveying, has furnished repeated instances 
of the inconvenience and vexation resulting from the 
neglect complained of in this article. 
Akin to this subject, is the mode sometimes adopted 
of describing land or roads as follows: Beginning near 
such a place or thing. One of the roads in a certain 
town is recorded thus, “ Beginning near the sign-post 
of S-H-’s tavern.” Now, aside from the diffi¬ 
culty of ascertaining the precise location of “ near,” the 
said sign post has been missing for 30 or 40 years; and 
if coming events cast their shadows before, sign posts. 
I mean, of course, those where rum is sold, are not 
likely to be the most “ permanent fixtures ” for bounda¬ 
ries hereafter. I trust, Messrs. Editors, that the preser¬ 
vation of “ the ancient landmarks ” will not be thought a 
matter of little or no importance, but receive a share at 
least of that attention to which it is entitled. 
G. Butler. 
Clinton . Jan. 1, 1847. 
