252 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



pour coal oil over the nest boxes and roosts and set on fire." Fritz 

 overlooked the essential of removing the nests and roosts out ot 

 doors, and set them on fire where they were. 



You may laugh. Time and again have I given advice to people 

 seeking it concerning something needing righting with their poultry, 

 and they did just as crazily as Fritz did, or worse; and if they did 

 not burn down their coop, they wound up their chickens. 



THE EBSENTIALS. 



Now, in a nutshell: I have not entertained the thought of telling 

 you in one short hour how to make a success of the poultry business; 

 but I will in a very few words endeavor to tell you how Pennsyl- 

 vania might have more success, make more money, with their 

 poultry. 



First. Change the stock; change lo pure breeds, or at least change 

 to pure-bred males. Fight shy of cheap stock, especially if you are 

 a beginner, fight shy of cheap stock- That word "cheap" more than 

 all other things together spells failure for perhaps as many as three- 

 fourths of the beginners. You cannot buy good poultry cheap any more 

 than you can buy good clothes cheap. When you pay shoddy prices 

 you get shoddy goods. When you pay fair prices you get a good 

 serviceable suit. And when you pay a fancy price you get a dress 

 suit. All of which applies exactly to poultry. If you want to get a 

 good serviceable stock, males, for instance, you must pay at least 

 |5 each. If you want a fancy bird you must pay |100, and perhaps 

 |50U; and, by the way, you will find more trouble in buying a |500 

 bird than a $.5 one. But the $5 one will, or should, answer all prac- 

 tical purposes. You can't make a success with poor indifferent 

 stock. 



Second. Better poultry houses. Note that not enough money is 

 spent in the average Pennsylvania poultry house. But they are 

 planned wrong, built wrong, situated wrong, and wrong as wrong 

 can be. The ideal poultry house wants all the sunshine and fresh 

 air possible; wants a tight roof, and, if possible, tight walls north, 

 west, east, and it does want to face the south or southeast, and not 

 be situated in a depression. If you leave the south side wide open 

 the year round you are pretty near right. 



Third. Better feed. Less corn, more meat. A year ago when on 

 this platform I spoke on "Why Lehigh County Farmers Are Not Get- 

 ting IMore Eggs," I was told I must have it in for the farmers. But 

 I fear if I was to give you my sti-aight opinion of the usual city 

 "fresh eggs," filthy farmers' eggs would seem clean in comparison. 

 Milk from garbage-fed cows is condemned by common sense, by the 

 medical fraternit3\ and by the laws of this State. What about city 

 garbage-fed hens? A hen will eat unutterable garbage, garbage the 

 dirtiest cow would not touch. And what about the eggs laid by the 

 tubercular hens, so common in the city back yard? And the liver 

 sick hens? 



Fourth. More room. Less tainted ground. Less sickness. More 

 vigorous, more hardy, rich, red-blooded stock. 



Four simple things which, if you men are leaders in the agricul 

 tural thought of the State will emphasize on all possible occasions, 

 will go far towards better poultry keeping. 



