Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1907 — CHICKEN COOP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHICKEN COOP.

It la Built to Stand Level, Facing Downhill. I have adopted the plan of substituting a large roosting coop for each thirty or forty chicks as soon as they are large enough to roost. This is made from a dry goods box four feet long, three feet wide and three feet high, 'the front and bottom are removed. Two strips are nailed perpendicular on the front corner, projecting a foot below the bottom of the box. This raises the front and gives the roof the necessary pitch when facing a downhill po-

sition, explains a writer in American Agriculturist. Two strips nailed on each side form a support for perches which are fastened together by crosspieces so all may be removed at one operation to be sprayed. We move this coop twice a week, and It is always clean and fresh. The open front and bottom seem a little risky, considering the possibility of wandering cats, rats or weasels. Blit we are willing to run some risks If we can fill our own and customers' pens in the fall with large, robust stock. This one plan has enabled us to produce Orpingtons well up to standard size, which some fail to do. The accompanying sketch of coop will explain Itself. Aid to Fruit Growers. Perhaps the greatest aid to successful fruit production today Is co-opera-tion. Many small lots of good fruit are sacrificed In the wholesale market of our large cjties because they are lost sight of In >he great bulk of stuff arriving. Large consignments receive consideration that is scarcely worth while to give to a few odd or packages. It would be a great tage in shipping if the growers'at one point could co-operate and send their fruit not as small Individual consignments. but as car lots. Commission merchants are glad to come to the growers and buy at the railroad if they can buy from a company, society or exchange, bnt they have not the time to hunt up growers to buy small lots. An association of growers can employ an agent to keep in telegraphic touch with market prices, while few Individual growers can. An association can secure uniform grades of fruit and can do a large business under a known brand. Baskets and fertilizers can be obtained by shipping associations at wholesale prices. Cars, rates and concessions can be obtained from the railroads by an association that no single Individual could hope to Maryland Experiment Station. - ***» ’*■»

HILLSIDE CHICKEN COOP.