REARING: NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 59

The Rearing Ground. — In planning a farm so much ground must be
reserved for rearing purposes. An acre or more would not be too
much where chicken-rearing is carried out on extensive lines. It is
a wise plan to plant fruit bushes all over the rearing ground. Let
me give you an idea of what a rearing ground looks like when the
hatching season is in full swing. On one side will be a range of foster-
mothers with wire-netting enclosures (four feet high). These runs
will be fastened to stakes hammered into the ground, and when the
grass gets worn they can be rolled up and transferred to the other
side of the fosters. By this arrangement the ground can be rested
and the chicks provided with fresh grass. Each enclosure may be
ten yards or more each way, and the operator can step over the wire-
netting when he wishes to enter the run. The range of foster-mothers
will be placed under the shelter of some hedge or belt of trees if possible ;
but, of course, not directly under the same. Dotted all over the
rearing ground will be scores of coops, each holding a hen and her brood.
