1906.] POULTRY MANAGEMENT. IO7 



make life worth living. The trolley, the rural free delivery, 

 and the telephone are destined to become important factors in 

 removing from the farmer's life that isolation to which he has 

 hitherto been subjected, and to make the farm a more desir- 

 able place for a home. I can conceive of no branch of agri- 

 culture that to me would be as congenial, and at the same 

 time as remunerative as that of fruit and poultry culture. I 

 believe that the two make an ideal combination. One naturally 

 goes with the other. The people never get quite enough good 

 fruit to satisfy an ever increasing appetite. When we scan 

 the market reports and note the price of strictly fresh eggs 

 at forty, fifty, and even sixty cents per dozen, we are com- 

 pelled to believe that the poultry industry is not overcrowded, 

 and I believe we have no conception of its future possibilities. 

 In this line of work we need not fear competition from any 

 source. I think it is a conceded fact that no better fruit can 

 be grown anywhere than on the hills of old New England, 

 and the market reports tell us that southern and western eggs 

 are always sold at a discount, while, upon the other hand, 

 fresh eggs coming from near-by localities always sell at a 

 premium. 



Now, for a young man to engage in fruit and poultry cul- 

 ture, I doubt if any locality could be found anywhere better 

 suited for such work than right here in old Connecticut. We 

 are blessed with a healthy climate. Land is cheap. You can 

 buy a good farm for less than the cost of the buildings origi- 

 nally erected upon it. W^e have the best of markets right at 

 our door. And last, but not least, our environment here is all 

 right. We have all the advantages of the twentieth century 

 civilization. 



I am aware that many believe that poultry cannot be profit- 

 ably kept in large numbers. They will tell you that a few 

 hens will pay all right, but when you increase the number you 

 diminish the profit. You will hear it frequently said that a far- 

 mer kept forty or fifty hens and made them pay, and made 

 them net him perhaps over a dollar each. Well, that, upon the 

 amount invested, was a better return than anything on the 

 old farm. Some farmers have thought that if fifty hens paid 

 well they could increase their poultry and their profit by add- 

 ing to the number, but have found to their sad disappointment 

 that a hundred hens did not pay as fifty formerly paid. Hence 



