PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
Scratching Shed Houses with North and South Yards. 
other method, say, for example, that they va¬ 
cate the yards for two or three months in late 
summer and freshen with some growing crop, 
and this may be done in one of several ways. 
Some broiler raisers freshen their brooder runs 
in this manner, by spading up the runs and plant¬ 
ing some quick growing crop in them, as soon as 
the chicks are shipped off to market. Duck 
raisers follow the same plan of plowing the yards 
and seeding with winter rye or some such crop 
as early in the fall as it is possible to get to it. The 
duck growers have the great advantage of only 
temporary yards, which can be removed at any 
time, and thus the entire space used for runs is 
open for plowing. Some system of temporary 
fencing of permanent poultry runs would not be 
an insuperable difficulty; it would be possible to 
attach the fencing to the posts in some manner 
that it could be easily removed and rolled up 
out of the way for such time as is needed for 
plowing and seeding the yards. Some poultry- 
men have panel-gates next the poultry house, 
which can be lifted off from the posts, permit¬ 
ting the driving of a team through the yards 
from end to end of the house for cleaning and re¬ 
newing the earth floors of the house, and such 
panel-gates admit a team for plowing when the 
yards can be plowed and seeded for the desired 
freshening. In the illustration of the scratch- 
ing-shed houses with double runs, these panel- 
gates are shown and a short substitute run in 
rear of each pen, into which the fowls can be 
turned for such time as the main yards are being 
plowed up and seeded; this plan of housing and 
yarding presents many advantages that are well 
worthy of adoption. It does not require any 
greater amount of land for houses and runs; in¬ 
stead of giving all of the space between the row 
of houses to a long run, a fourth of the space is 
given to the short runs in the rear of the nearer 
house and the other three-fourths to the per¬ 
manent runs of house number two,—the sub¬ 
tracted space would be made good by similar 
runs in rear of pens of house number two. 
The soil upon which the poultry plant is lo¬ 
cated will in a measure determine the method 
employed. For example, at Lakewood Poultry 
Farm, and in other such sandy-soil locations, it 
is claimed that the droppings are washed into 
the sand by every rain, and that, consequently, 
the surface is always kept fresh and sweet,—is 
free from poison. Whether this is wholly true 
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