PRACTICAL EGG FARMS. 
THE YARD PROBLEM. 
The Poisoning of the Ground. Crops for Fresh¬ 
ening the Ground. The North and South 
Yard Combination. 
In keeping fowls on the semi-confinement 
plan the yard problem presents not a few diffi¬ 
culties. Where fowls are given the run of even 
a considerable plot of ground, they annihilate 
the grass within a year or two (and frequently 
the first season), then the surface of the ground 
becomes sodden with the accumulated drop¬ 
pings, and is “ sick, ” or, as some express it, be¬ 
come s poisoned. It certainly becomes ob¬ 
noxious and offensive to the fowls and causes 
lack of energy and loss of stamina and vigor. 
The fowls become more or less listless, and seem 
to have no interest in anything,—in fact, life 
seems to them not worth living. This condition 
presents a serious difficulty and one which has 
caused disaster to many a confiding poultry- 
man. The difficulty of foul yards has caused 
many poultry writers to antagonize permanent 
poultry houses and yards; they argue that mov¬ 
able poultry houses, either with or without yards 
(the yards being movable if supplied), were 
much more successful. And some have argued 
in favor of the colony-house plan with the poul¬ 
try houses themselves being movable and brought 
together for winter; an example of which we 
give in one of the illustrations of this chapter. 
There is no doubt but that a grass run is of 
greatest advantage in poultry keeping; if the 
runs can be kept clean and sweet. Discussing 
this question Mr. Louis Wright, in the New 
Book of Poultry says: 
“These are the best of all for poultry, giving 
natural green food at nearly all seasons in Eng¬ 
land (not in America), and also exercise and 
more or less insect food. Where space can be 
given for grass, no single condition will do so 
much for fowls and owner; but it is no use in 
attempting grass unless there is adequate space, 
and a great deal is required. Experience taught 
us very clearly that in England, one hundred 
and twenty fowls required an acre of run if 
kept on it permanently; and the larger breeds 
should not exceed one hundred per acre. But 
this is not the very best way of using the land, 
which will be kept healthier in the long run by 
over stocking it to the extent of even double, 
provided each run can be vacated for three 
months every year. This also brings runs into 
more compact compass, and so we arrive at a 
grass run of about twenty-five feet by fifty feet 
for a pen of six large Asiatic fowls. 
“A run of this reduced size, thus tenanted, 
will last for several years, even when occupied 
without cessation, with no apparent detriment, 
if constantly attended to; but it does gradually 
become 'sickened, ’ unless it can be vacated for 
freshening and purification. Amongst a num¬ 
ber of runs this can be managed, either by three 
months annually, or six months bi-annually. 
This time need not be wasted wherever grass or 
hay can be used, as a crop may be taken a week 
or two before the tenants are returned to it. 
The runs will also need moving tolerably often, 
even while occupied; since, although too over¬ 
crowded for permanent occupation, this does 
not mean that the grass is kept down. Near 
the house it may be, but less so the farther away; 
and it must be mown whenever it is long, else 
the fowls may get balls of long, tangled grass in 
their crops, and may eat blades of it, parts of 
which are contaminated. Such fouled grass is 
simply poison. All this is avoided, worms and 
insects made more accessible, and the droppings 
more quickly washed into the actual soil, to be 
absorbed, instead of adhering to the grass, by 
proper mowing as recjuired. Keeping the 
grass constantly mown short is the one matter 
of greatest importance in the management of 
limited grass runs. Grass cut during full occu¬ 
pation should be burnt, and the ashes mixed 
with the other manure. 
“ Regular cutting is of equal importance to 
runs meant to be constantly occupied, and 
which are therefore of larger size. Much grass 
will then go to waste, yet the conclusion must 
not be drawn that so much space is not needed; 
long experience has shown that it is, if the ten¬ 
ancy is to continue longer than five to six years, 
up to which time a crowding of considerably 
more than the hundred per acre may be gener¬ 
ally carried on without apparent harm. But 
somewhere about that time Nemesis comes, and 
often with no apparent warning. ” 
Mr. Wright says: “Keeping the grass con¬ 
stantly mown short is the one matter of greatest 
importance in the management of limited grass 
runs, ” but how many poultrymen understand 
the necessity of that, or live up to it if they do 
understand it? Going over the runs with a 
lawn mower, say once a week in the growing 
season, entails a labor charge that would be a 
serious problem to many poultrymen, and 
would suggest the question of employing some 
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