FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 411 



crop of buckwheat or oats and peas will furnish much food at little expense. 

 Bran, meat, meal, wheat screenings, and oats purchased for poultry will 

 bring returns in eggs and will also add materially to the fertilizer supply. 



OPPORTUNITIES AFFORDED BY THE DAIRY. 



Dairymen'who have town or city milk routes, and market gardeners 

 who retail their produce, have exceptional opportunities for marketing fresh 

 eggs and poultry at the highest prices. They become well acquainted with 

 many of their customers by their daily visits, and they are looked upon as a 

 direct channel of communication between the country and the city. They 

 should by all means make the most of this advantage, for any class of agri- 

 cultural producers who can reach the consumer without the intervention of 

 the middleman is indeed fortunate. 



CAN POULTRY RAISING BE MADE PROFITABLE? 



Mrs. Asa Ames, Before the Tama County Farmers' Institute. 



To the question embodied in the subject of this paper the answer is easily 

 and emphatically "yes." The proof may be found in the fact that not a 

 farm in our broad country but is interested more or less in the poultry busi- 

 ness. Even in all of our small cities and towns a large per cent of the fami- 

 lies are keeping a few chickens, regardless of their neighbors' gardens and 

 the quarrels engendered thereby. Such a condition would not exist univers- 

 ally at a loss. So we are compelled to answer our subject in the affirmative. 

 If the little flock only furnishes eggs and meat for the owner's table, it pays. 



In these days of energy and progress it is not unusual to hear of one who 

 has been singularly successful in some especial branch, but unless it comes 

 under our direct observation, it does not touch us in the right spot, and we 

 are prone to forget the matter and pass it by without a second thought. 



It was to call attention to the salient features of the case and remind us 

 again of the vast importance or value of these products that this subject was 

 placed upon the programme. Your committee could not have hoped it was 

 possible to say anything both new and true about poultry raising. 



In a very small way and for a very limited time I have been fairly suc- 

 cessful with my poultry. Not as a fancier, or on an extended scale, but as 

 a farmer with a little flock of about one hundred hens, and caring for them 

 as a side issue, without other help than an occasional cleaning of the 

 houses. This I secured usually after many hints, much begging, ending by 

 making others so uncomfortable and myself so disagreeable that from sheer 

 desperation the work was done. I do not attribute any success I have had 

 to my own ability, but to what I have learned from the reading of farm 

 papers. 



Nor am I able to talk of the raising of pure bred poultry, where the 

 fancy points must be considered and the standard for beauty as well as utility 

 be the object in view. I have tried a few breeds for pleasure, but have not 



