Poultry prefer to pick their food off the ground. "No plan," says Mr. Baily, "is so extravagant or so injurious as to throw down heaps once or twice per day. They should have it scattered as far and wide as possible, that the birds may be long and healthily employed in finding it, and may not accomplish in a few minutes that which should occupy them for hours. For this reason every sort of feeder or hopper is bad. It is the nature of fowls to take a grain at a time, and to pick grass and dirt with it, which assist digestion. They should feed as pheasants, partridges, grouse, and other game do in a state of nature; if, contrary to this, they are enabled to eat corn by mouthfuls, their crops are soon overfilled, and they seek relief in excessive draughts of water. Nothing is more injurious than this, and the inactivity that attends the discomfort caused by it lays the foundation of many disorders. The advantage of scattering the food is, that all then get their share; while if it is thrown only on a small space the master birds get the greater part, while the others wait around. In most poultry-yards more than half the food is wasted; the same quantity is thrown down day after day, without reference to time of year, alteration of numbers, or variation of appetite, and that which is not eaten is trodden about, or taken by small birds. Many a poultry-yard is coated with corn and meal." If two fowls will not run after one piece, they do not want it. If a trough is used, the best kind is the simplest, being merely a long, open one, shaped like that used for pigs, but on a smaller scale. It should be placed about a foot from one of the sides of the yard, behind some round rails driven into the ground three inches apart, so that the fowls cannot get into the troughs, so as to upset them, or tread in or otherwise dirty the food. The rails should be all of the same height, and a slanting board be fixed over the trough.