CHICKENS OR A GARDEN?

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 123, 18 June 1881, Page 4

CHICKENS OR A GARDEN?

Here is a man who is in a " peck of trouble ." He says—" Wife and I have got hold of a conundrum that is one too many for us, and we want you to help us out. I own one and a half acres of land ; the house, front yard, back yard, and garden occupy one acre, and the half acre is in grass. I work in a machine shop, but out of ' hours,' and at odd times, I cultivate, with the help of my twelve-year-old boy, a garden which furnishes half our living from early spring until late fall. So far, good ; but now my wife has taken the ' hen fever,' and insists upon devoting that half acre to the cultivation of chickens and eggs, and I am afraid that in the future my garden will not be good at all, unless I spend a small fortune in fencing it. We live upon the outskirts of a large village, and we are obliged to pay a big price for every egg that we use, and chickens are so high tbat they are almost beyond the reach of our pocket-book. Wife insists that taking into consideration the eggs and chickens that we should have for the table, and what we could sell to our neighbors, we would find poultry raising quite as profitable as the garden, and I am not sure but she is right ; but still I don't want to give up the garden. Can we manage both ? and if not, which shall we have, chickens or a garden?"

I see no reason why you cannot manage' both. Situated as you are, I should certainly advise your wife to try her hand at poultry-raising, and I think you will find it quite as profitable as the garden. Yo can raise no crop on that half acre that will pay better than eggs and chickens.

Fence off, say, one-half of that halfacre lot, aud-^put up a house that will accommodate twenty-five fowls. That number will be enough to commence with, but after you get your hand in, you can keep double that number on your half-acre. You need not spend a " small fortune" on fencing. Set posts twelve feet apart, nail a board to the posts close to the ground, another near the top of the posts, and then get some laths, a hammer and nails, and set " that boy" to finish the fence.

Get dark or light Brahmas or partridge Cochins to stock up with. These varities stand confinement well — cannot fly over a four-foot fence, are good winter layers, and will count when you come to sell by weight. You need not fence in your garden. Keep the fowls in their yard during the day until an hour or so before sunset ; then let them out for a run on the grass plot, and my word for it they will not trouble your garden, but will improve the time by devouring the young and tender grass, as if they never expected to get another bite during their natural life.

When it comes to raising chicks, you will find it a good plan, after the seeds are fairly up, to place the mother hens in coops in the garden. The little chicks cannot scratch enough to do any harm, but they can do much good by destroying insects. We have tried it, and know that the chicks and garden are both benefitted. — Fanny Field, in the Prairie Farmer.