POULTRY KEEPING

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10715, 8 October 1920, Page 8

POULTRY KEEPING

AND MARKET GARDENING. EXPERIMENTS IN COMBINATION. A scheme for combining market gardening with pouHry-keepjng has been proposed by the English Ministry for Agriculture with a. view to finding out how far ii> is possible, to carry on a system of market garden cropping on a small area and at the same timo to keep upon it a certain number of fowls'. Three acres of one acre each have been selected, namely, at Titchficld, in Hampshire; Methwold, in Norfolk; and Rolleston, in Nottinghamshire. The acre is in each case to be divided into four quarters, and the "cropping, on each quarter is to be arranged so that the birds, 150 in number, are three months of year on each quarter. A central fowlhouse is. to be constructed, so that by means of sliding doors the birds can be admitted to any of the quarters according to tho state of the cropping and the period during which ' they are intended to occupy any particular quarter. The manure produced each three months iu any one section will _be equally distributed over that section. The cropping is arranged so as to admit of the land being properly worked in the interval following the removal of tho birds. Oatch crops, and mustard and ryo for green manure, will also bo introduced where possible in rotation. It is hoped that by these experiments some information will also be gained as to (1) the value of poultry manure for crops on ground in a low state of fertility; and (2) the rate a* which poor land may be brought into ; a fertile condition'by poultry manure alone.