892 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Nor. 2. VMS. 



A Permanent Poultry Farm. 



G. BRADSHANA" , 



Introduction. 



In !i scries of articles on suhurhan pdiilti-y yards, of wliicli tliis is the 

 second, there is one coiidition which has hccii kept in view, viz., that each 

 oiie dealt with sliouhl he i)f known stahilitv. To those iinac(Hiainted with 

 fowls and fowl-farniin<z- this provision may apjx-ar unnecessary, as farms 

 of whatever soi't, stot'k or cro]>s, are considei'ed to he established with 

 the ohject of inalsin^ a liviiit:' and ]iroht to those condueliiiL; thciii: and 

 when farms are spoken of they are understood to he pi(ihtal)le, of per- 

 manence, and stability. 1''rom sevi-ral catises it, unfortunately, is not 

 so with farms devoted solely to fowls — not throu;^]! the inability of hens 

 to i)roduce a reasonable profit, but rather to the undue booming which 

 this branch of culture has, in the past, been subjected to, resultin<f every 

 year in a lar<;e numl)er of people without any t'xperience goin<.i^ into tlie 

 business, the larger jDercentage of them in one or two years abandoning 

 it, and, in most cases, retiring with e\])erience which had possilily cost 

 them their entire capital. 



It needs no gainsaying that in most l)usinesses there are a ]iroportion 

 of failures each year. Siu'h may be due to sickness of the owner, unfair 

 competition, losses throiiLih liad debts, mismanagement, (U' a score of 

 other things. Indeed, witliin t)ie last dozen years, quite a number of 

 jteople who had failed in other businesses personally consulted me on tlie 

 subject of j)oultry-keeping, leaving the im})ression that they regarded it 

 as a sort of refuge for the destitute. One case is illusti'ative of others, 

 the only difference being tliat of degree. A wi(h>w lady, a new arrival in 

 this count I'y, who had |>ossibly seen something in the |)apers al)out the 

 profits from fowls, consulted me on the j)ossibilitv of an investment of 

 some J;2()() in j)oulti'y-farming, this being the eiitii'e amount then left of 

 her husband's estate. She believed she had an intuition for manag-ing 

 poulti-y, but candidly a(biiitted she had had no experience. 



My advice Avas " Don't." However, she was one of those people wlio 

 ask advice all round, then folhiw their own idea. Six months afterwai'ds 

 she brought a case of eggs to tlie (iovernment cold stores, which was tiie 

 first time I learned that she had invested all she had in a farm in a 

 Sydney suburb. 'I'hree months aftei' this it was in the mai-ket, and 

 witliin twelve months from its inception it was sold, £7') l)eing bi'ought 

 out of tlie place. 



Witliin the following three years the farm hail tliree tenants, all of 

 whom lost more or less money. At the ])resent time it is a going concern, 

 small, but affording a living for those working it : for the simple reason 



