PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
infrequently dt mands more—and at that season 
bees need little or no attention and the less 
they are meddled with the better, excepting 
to give them a look-over in the middle of the 
day to see that all is going well; in the honey 
storing and swarming season of May, June and 
July there is call for more attention to the 
apiary, and the time then can easily be spared 
to it. There is both pleasure and profit in this 
combination of bee and poultry interests. 
Here is an item, clipped from the Reliable 
Poultry Journal, which emphasizes the great 
benefit poultry may be to an old orchard: 
“ One part of the land bought and added to 
Mr. Duston’s poultry plant was an old orchard. 
Writing of this purchase, Mr. Duston says: 
‘The past fall we must have gathered better 
than 100 bushels of apples from these old 
and practically abandoned trees. This produc¬ 
tiveness I attribute entirely to the ranging of the 
hens under the trees. The old apple orchard 
had not been trimmed or had anything done to 
it for at least 15 years; the few apples the trees 
did be,ar were measly little things, but after the 
birds had run on the land only one season, we 
got a fair crop, and the next year still more. A 
year ago these trees were trimmed up, and this 
year we had Hubbardstons that would make 
your mouth water, and many of them would 
weigh a pound apiece, I should think. ’ ” The 
shade of the trees is of most decided benefit to 
the fowls, protection from the hot sun being 
essential to their comfort in summer; in furnish¬ 
ing this much desired shade the trees reciprocate 
the benefits received from the fowls, which can, 
in an orchard, find both shade and sunshine at 
will. 
An excellent example of the benefits of thin¬ 
ning plums was reported bv Mr. C. H. Wyckoff, 
of Groton, JST. Y. His plum trees (which were 
in the poultry yards) promised a heavy crop, 
and odd half hours were spent in thinning out 
fully half of it, the result being that the fruit 
grew to double the size of that on a neighbor’s 
unthinned trees, and ripened to a plumpness and 
fine flavor that are impossible where the trees 
overbear so that they haven’t the strength to 
properly mature it. At harvest time the choice 
fruit from the trees that had been thinned sold 
quickly (and “more” was "wanted) at Si.50 per 
bushel, while the neighbor’s poorly-matured 
plums could hardly be sold at 50 cents a bushel. 
3 he thinned fruit was fully equal in quantity 
(in number of pounds or bushels), and was of 
the juicy plumpness which captures the palate 
at the first taste; it was of the much desired 
“superior” quality of which the market never 
gets enough and will gladly pay a big price for, 
while poor-quality fruit goes begging. 
A most desirable place for grape vines is along 
wire fences of permanent poultry yards; the 
foliage of the grape vines giving additional 
shade and shelter for the hens and the wire 
netting making satisfactory trellises for the 
vines. It is best to train grape vines well up 
towards the top of the netting; then they furnish 
desirable shade and the fruit is up above the 
reach of the birds. If there is danger of the 
fowls scratching or digging too deeply just 
about the trunks of grape vines or fruit trees, 
some small stones the size of one’s fist, or a few 
half bricks scattered about, will sufficiently 
protect them. 
In setting out an apple orchard, one should 
consider the future growth of the trees and 
good authorities advise setting standard apple 
trees 35 to 40 feet apart each way, and even 
with that distance apart in 20 years the trees 
will probably begin to crowd. It is not at all 
necessary that the apple trees be given the 
whole of this land at first, and an excellent plan 
is to set peach or plum trees between the apple 
trees each way. The quicker-growing peach 
and plum trees will develop, bear fruit several 
years and die of old age before the apple trees 
need all of the ground; as they decline in fruit¬ 
fulness or the apple trees encroach upon them 
they should be cut out, so that the roots of the 
apple trees may have all the room they need. 
Plantations of bush fruits, such as black¬ 
berries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries, 
and vineyards also, make superior chicken 
runs, especially for small and half-grown chicks; 
and it is an excellent plan to put brooders of 
chicks out in the small-fruit plantations, as 
early in the spring as brooders can be set out¬ 
doors to advantage. Small pens of temporary 
fencing will be needed to inclose the chicks the 
first few days, until they get used to running in 
and out of the brooders, then the fences may be 
taken away and the chicks be given free range 
among the rows of bushes. The chicks will not 
injure the growing fruit, and, indeed, when the 
fruit is ripe, will only very, very rarely touch 
it; and then it will be only a berry or two from 
the lowest stems e>r branches, and this lowest 
fruit is of indifferent quality. 
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