I08 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



they came to the conclusion that poultry on a large scale 

 was a failure. Now if that was the fact, if poultry could not be 

 profitably kept in large numbers there certainly would not be 

 much encouragement in the development of the poultry indus- 

 try, and instead of my being here today to talk poultry to you, 

 it would have been better had I remained at home. If we stop 

 for a moment to consider methods, I think we will find that the 

 hundred hens were crowded into the same little house that for- 

 merly accommodated the fifty. There was ample room for the 

 smaller number, but it made a crowded house for the hundred. 

 And then again the scraps from the table helped to make a bal- 

 anced ration for the smaller number, but they did not amount to 

 much with the hundred. There was not enough to go around. 

 Now if, when they increased the number, they had 

 enlarged their accommodations, and had supplemented 

 the table scraps by green cut vegetables and cut 

 clover, so as to give them ^a balanced ration, they, 

 no doubt, would have more than doubled their income. I 

 believe, and I have my past experience and observation to sub- 

 stantiate such a belief, that there is absolutely no limit to the 

 number of fowls that may profitably be kept, provided, as we 

 increase the number, we keep pace with the increase by provid- 

 ing suitable accommodations and a well balanced ration. That 

 is the key to the whole situation. It is the gist of the whole mat- 

 ter. Here is a neighbor, for instance, that keeps a flock of hens, 

 perhaps forty or fifty. They pay well. Another neighbor keeps 

 an equal number and they pay. Perhaps there are a dozen 

 within a very short distance, each of whom keeps a lot of hens, 

 and they pay well. They are practically on the colony plan. 

 Most of the year they have free range, and they get a pretty 

 good balanced ration from the table scraps and from insects 

 and worms they can glean. Perhaps the women take care of 

 them, and, if they do, a good many of them get lots of pin 

 money out of the poultry. If we knew the facts in some cases, 

 I am sure we would find that the poultry pay for a large part 

 of the groceries. The pin money that the ladies get, however, 

 is not the whole story. They get good health. They get 

 needed exercise in the open air and sunshine which the caring 

 for poultry gives. I think if more of our ladies would engage 

 in poultry culture they would find it helpful in more ways than 

 one. 



