478 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



of any branch of farming neglected will most surely turn what would 

 be success into sere defeat. 



Here is a man wholly carried away with what the wife is doing with 

 her hens, and says she shall be afforded every means that will make for 

 her success, but she shall remain as the manager of them. He can 

 build houses according to her plans and furnish the feed in abundance 

 as she wants, but wishes her to always have the say in the matter — 

 not that he is afraid of his own judgment, but because she has made 

 good and he already has considerable to manage. 



This successful woman says that she wants but the one breed of poul- 

 try, as that would call for different methods of management, and she 

 says that there is enough for anyone to study in the one breed. With 

 her I agree on this point, and I could call the names of two or three 

 men that became discouraged in the poultry business, I believe, just 

 because they could not handle several varieties instead of just the one. 

 They could not be content with one, and could not, or did not, success- 

 fully handle more. But I must go back to my text. The second year 

 another incubator was purchased of the same make, but a larger ma- 

 chine, a 200-egg. This year she raised something over 250 pullets, but 

 not all early enough for winter layers, however, I believe she said 

 that she got about 200 out in time for November laying, and with her 

 flock of the previous winter she had nearly 300 that were laying in No- 

 vember and early December, This was her second year.- She had some 

 losses, but the most was from the later hatches when the weather was 

 hot. 



I will not attempt to go into detail here as to how she handled the 

 little chicks except that she raised them mostly in brooders without 

 mothers, as the hens were not sitting at the time of the first hatches. 

 Later she gave them to hens, but had more losses than from the early 

 ones, and says that she does not feel very favorable to the incubator 

 during the hct weather. It seems to her that they are better for cool 

 weather than for hot. 



There is considerable orchard and small fruit on this farm, and, of 

 course, this is all in line with poultry. The by-products from the orchard 

 and gardens are excellent for the hens. Recently when I was there they 

 had some over 400 hens and pullets and from the noise they were making 

 they are surely producing the eggs. Not having very much time to 

 spend there I failed to secure exact figures on what th's farm is produc- 

 ing in the line of poultry, but it is very plain to see that it is proving 

 a very profitable side issue and also proves that no farm is complete 

 without some good poultry, al;-o that when pure-bred stock is kept that 

 they are more likely to be cared for and everyone that is experienced will 

 agree that much depends on their care. 



The greatest need of the poultry industry in the grain belt today lies 

 in the direction that improvement has been made in this case. When it 

 is considered that poultry products to the extent of more than $600,- 

 000,000 are produced annually in the United States and when it is fur- 

 ther considered that the greater part of this comes from inferior grade 

 flocks, it is not unreasonable to suppose that merely changing in the 



