68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



are looking for the dollar, and I would like to know whether 

 there is any advantage, so far as the productiveness of the 

 fowls is concerned, with his system as compared with any 

 other ? 



Mr, Almy. I will say in reply to that, that I think it is 

 possible to clear a dollar a year per hen, clear of labor and 

 everything. I do not think it will average so much as that. 

 I think if you are averaging seventy-five cents a piece you are 

 doing pretty well. Still, I think a dollar a year can be easily 

 realized with the right kind of care. 



The President. Gentlemen, I want to say that we have 

 with us this afternoon another gentleman from Rhode Island, 

 who is to speak on the subject of turkeys. Mr. Bolte of the 

 R. I. Agricultural College. 



Mr. Bolte. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I 

 would like to say that I am very glad indeed to be able to meet 

 so many interesting poultrymen and poultry women of this 

 state. I expected to meet you, but rather from the floor than 

 from the platform. In fact, my opportunity to address you 

 came unexpectedly, and for a time it was a little bit unwelcome, 

 because I did not receive notice of it, and did not know that 

 I was expected to speak until just after dinner today. Although 

 I have been searching my brain and the brain of several people 

 in the audience, to the best of my ability, to discover some- 

 thing which the other speakers have not or were not going to 

 touch upon, and which might be of interest to you, I find 

 myself rather in the position of a young man up in Mas- 

 sachusetts several years ago. He was just starting upon his 

 career as a public speaker. I think he was about fourteen 

 years of age. He had made a decided sensation in speaking 

 before church socials and other similar bodies, and with such 

 success that his friends got after him and induced him to 

 enter a speaking contest that was going to be held by the 

 grange. He worked up a speech that he thought would be 

 satisfactory, and he used to go out in the barn and talk to the 



