TENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 623 



proper care, they will lay. Whenever you see a flock of well-cared-for- 

 poultry, you will hear no complaint about the egg basket. 



Work brings its reward! You must have a love for poultry, or let the 

 other fellow have them, for unless they are properly cared for they will not 

 give the best results. Care and good judgment are what make poultry 

 profitable. ' 



Comparatively few farmers realize how profitable it is to keep a few 

 hens that are well cared for. The old-fashioned farmer considers the hens 

 as something for the women folks to look after and are not worthy the 

 good man's time, or even his thought, and generally regarded them as a 

 nuisance to have around. I'll admit they are, on some farms, for they 

 grudge the hens a few feeds of corn in the winter, when everything is 

 covered with snow and ice, and they positively refuse to clean out the hen 

 house or take any pains to make the biddies comfortable, to say nothing 

 about their happiness. Yet these same old fogies do not object to a fresh 

 egg for breakfast or a fried or stewed chicken for dinner. Poultry jour- 

 nals tell us that where all the feed is bought hens will yield from 100 to 

 200 per cent profit yearly. Now, if this is true, why can't the farmer have 

 as large a yield? They can! If they will only get rid of their old scrub 

 stock. Breed up your flock. Get a few thoroughbred chickens, pen them 

 in the breeding season, set only full-blood eggs, and in two or three years 

 you will have a flock of chickens you will be proud of and that will more 

 than repay you for the care you have given in producing it. Then let 

 the farmer give them as good care as he does the rest of his stock, and I 

 can assure you that 3''ou will have fresh eggs, winter and summer and a 

 neat profit besides. 



Raising poultry takes brains, energy and business judgment. These 

 are essential and necessary to success. The poultry business, as an in- 

 vestment, requires the same careful business management as any otner 

 commercial enterprise. Give the poultry half a chance, and it will make 

 every other branch of farming take a back seat when it comes to piling 

 up the bank account. 



THE FARMER AND HIS HENS. 

 By O. K. Whitlock, Steawberry Point, Iowa. 

 (Before Clayton County Farmers Institute.) 



Most people who keep poultry believe they know all there is to be known 

 about the business of rearing poultry. Many of them do know a great 

 deal, but none of us know so much but what v>'e may learn something of 

 others who have made a success of the business. Almost anyone can set 

 a hen, but not all of us can make her set if she does not want to, and 

 fewer of us can raise all the chickens she hatches out. For the majority 

 of us, the hen is the cheapest and most satisfactory incubator and brooder. 

 When managed with wisdom and run to her full capacity, she is a strong 

 competitor of the man-made machine. Have a good dry nest with plenty 

 of soft straw or hay, then give the hen all the eggs she can cover well; 

 this may be thirteen to seventeen, according to the size of the hen and 



