The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-04-09
POULTRY.
A Description of a Poultry Farm in En-
gland.

An English correspondent gives the
following description of the way many
iocks are kept on an English farm with
comparatively little trouble or expense.
This farm is situated at Stratton,
about four miles from the old city of
Dorche ster, the capital of Dorset. The
| owner, Mr.. Thomas Chick, lives in a
quaint old low house, next to an old
fashioned square-towered church, and
the hamlet lies around and about.
These houses and farm-buildings are
prettily ensconsed in the narrow valley,
| on both sides of which is the land occu-
| pied by Mr. Chick. Here he has re-
sided for forty years. The farm is
| about five hundred acres in extent, and
is chiefly devoted to eep-breeding,
dairy-farming, and poultry keeping.
Corn or wheat growing is only very
minor portion of the work. The herd
of Devon cattle is a very good one, and
| have seldom seen finer collection of
| these beautiful animals. Mr.. Chick de-
votes his attention to economic breeds,
of which he keeps several varieties, aud
|
of eggs and chickens to market, but hs
supplies TO small poultry-keepers ana
other farmers eggs for sitting and pure.
bred stock birds. This, however, is a
! perfectly legitimate part of the system,
and one which very many farmers
might encourage. to their own profit.
During the egg season, higher prices
are obtained than if merely for the
table, and the extra shilling received
for stock birds always add to the bal
ance at the years end. This is all done
without regard to mere fancy consideya-
tons. All that is necessary is to give
| thought to the selection and mating of
the breeders
1.-The fowls are divided into families,
and spread all over the farm. This is
SO far done, that, at the time of my
visit to Stratton, it was necessary to
walk between three and four miles in
order to see all the various flocks
Nearly every large field has a small
poultry house in it, with a pen of fowls,
and in some of the largest fields there
are a couple of these houses. OF
course. they are put as widely apart as
is possible, and where there are two in
one field, these are placed at the ex-
IRENE limits. There is no fencing or
wire-netting used to form runs, and the
birds have the fullest liberty. The farm
is studded about with fine large trees,
principally elms, and these give splendid
| shelter to the fowls. Cattle are kept in
the fields, and the only attention the
birds get or need is to be fed and have
their houses cleaned daily, and moved
occasionally. Each flock, generally a
distinct breed, appears to keep it's own
company, and was told at the time OF
| my visit that it was the rarest thing for
a bird of one lot to be found mixing
with any of the others.
1.-THE houses are movable ones, SO
made that they can be lifted and carried
by couple of men, handles being pro.
vided for the purpose. These houses
are of home erection, and roughly put
together, but are well and substantially
made. They stand upon legs about two
feet high. thus giving a shelter to the
birds below. The inmates reach the
house by hen-ladder. Every day the
tiocks are carefully looked over to see
| If any are missing, or whether any
| show symptoms of disease, but the lat
ter is very rare indeed. The hardy,
natural way in which they are kept,
and the common-sense fashion of feed
| ing, made disease more conspicuous by
its absence than by its presence. In
two or three instances permanent
buildings were occupied by pens of
fowls; but throughout, in no case are
the poultry allowed to interfere with
the regular work of the farm, or to
occupy that which would otherwise be
| increased.
ut is only the adult birds or the older
chickens that are put in this way out on
the farm. The chickens are Matched
| either at the residence of Mr.. Chick OF
at farmsteading some two miles away,
where lives the man who has the poultry
| specially under his care. In one or the
| other OF these places the chicks are
| kept until old enough to be put out.
Many of them, of course, are sold OF
killed when quite young, either for table
or as stock fowls. The number of eggs
sold off this farm every yearis about fif-
teen thousand, and there are six to eight
hundred chickens Matched every season.
1t is true that these numbers are not
very wonderful, but it is also true that
if every farmer who has the same acre.
age would do the same the number OF
eggs and poultry produced would be in.
creased several hundred per cent
This, however, is not what | wish to
point out. for figures applicable to En-
gland are not relevant to the United
States. My object is, in this way, to
exhibit what l regard as the true
method of poultry-keeping on farms
namely, planking movable houses out
in the field, each capable of holding a
score of chickens or a dozen adult
fowls. This can be done very easily on
pasture or feeding lands to very large
extent for there can be no difficulty in
having one house to every ten acres OF
land like this, and, even on wheat on
eorn-growing farms, fowls may be
largely kept almost to the same extent.
| know farm where the crops are
chiefly corn or roots, and in the corner
of nearly every field stands a poultry
house. Within yard or two of the
house the ground is barred. but this is
all, and, though the birds wander in
and out among the grain and roots, |
they do ar. henry, .-a....