POULTRY UPON FARMS. 



149 



Mr. Forman, Brockey Farm, Stapleton, 

 Hinckley, has kept fowls for six years. He has 

 500 to 600. His birds are White and Silver 

 Wyandottes, White and Black Leghorns, White 

 Orpingtons and Black Mmorcas ; while in first 

 crosses he has JMinorca-Wyandotte, Leghorn- 

 Orpington, Houdan-Orpington and Campine- 

 Wyandotte. Of the crosses he prefers the 

 Minorca- Wyandotte. He says that either pure 

 bred fowls or first crosses lay better than mon- 

 grels. He runs as many as sixty to the acre, 

 and so far has not tainted his land. The food 

 given is chiefly wheat and maize. He has no 

 difficulty in procuring winter eggs. He rears 

 artificially and with hens, but prefers the 

 rearers. He does not consider that the manure 

 is a sufficient off-set to the labour involved. He 

 allows 6 per cent, depreciation per annum on 

 home-made houses. The farm is 130 acres, and 

 is farmed in the usual way and stocked with 

 shorthorn cattle and Shropshire sheep. He 

 says that they pay all right, but, like many 

 others, does not mention exact profits. At any 

 rate, he intends to keep on as he is going. He 

 finds that laying hens pay better than table 

 poultry, and markets his eggs locally at from 

 fourteen for a shilling in summer and seven for 

 the same price in winter. He believes in March 

 hatching for winter layers. 



Mr. Ward, Oak Farm, Burbage, Hinckley, 

 is a poultry farmer pure and simple, and keeps 

 about 600 laying hens and rears enough chickens 

 to keep up his stock on ten acres of grass. He 

 has been at it on the same land for nine years. 

 All his land is divided into pens, and he does 

 most of the work himself. His breeds are 

 Leghorns and the Houdan crosses from them, 

 some Buff Orpingtons and Houdan-Buff 

 Orpingtons. He has also done well with some 

 Brahma-Leghorns. He says that healthy fowls 

 lay so well the third season as to make it worth 

 while to keep them on and reduce the rearmg. 

 Another very large poultry farmer has recently 

 expressed the same opinion. There is no doubt 

 that with better management the hens are much 

 healthier in the third year than formerly, arid 

 that the practice of keeping them longer will 

 become more general. Mr. Ward gets lOs. 

 worth of eggs from each hen per annum, and 

 his food costs more than half of that sum. His 

 average profit is about four shillings per hen. 

 He has not been seriously troubled with any 

 disease, and his fowls look healthy ajid well, 

 although, taking the rearing into consideration, 

 there must have been eighty fowls to the acre 

 for some years. He admits that farmers with 

 unlimited range, stubbling and arable land for 

 a chancre can set more eggs than he can. He 



finds that fowls do not lay so well in large 

 flocks as in lots of from six to ten, but thinks 

 that the extra houses, netting and attendance 

 would about equalise things. Mr. Ward prefers 

 incubators and rearers to hens. He is a keen 

 business man and buys very closely. He has 

 recently filled his granary with maize at 25s. 

 per 480 lbs., good white oats at i8s. 6d. per 

 352 lbs., and wheat at 2gs. 6d. per 504 lbs. He 

 considers 20s. per week a fair wage for attend- 

 ing 500 hens, but not enough to rear also the 

 chickens to Keep up the supply. 



The reasons why poultry are still thought 

 nothing of upon many farms are not far to 

 seek ; but the curious thing is that they pay 



the worst just on that system of " a 

 Conditions fg^y round the homestead " so re- 

 Success. commended by certain writers. In 



days when other branches of farm- 

 ing paid well, a few fowls were kept just to 

 supply the house, and left to the women : thus 

 the farmer never knew anything about them, and 

 never regarded them as having money in them. 

 Any outlay was never thought of, or return for 

 it believed in ; the fowls were kept on till very 

 old, left to breed together indiscriminately, the 

 stock was mostly of bad layers, and half the 

 eggs were stolen by the farm hands. All this 

 must, of course, be changed if profit is to be 

 realised. A paying stock must be selected, and 

 thereafter bred for laying or for table ; neces- 

 sary food and expenses must not be grudged ; 

 and eggs especially must be systematically 

 collected and marketed promptly, special care 

 being taken that none of doubtful age are ever 

 included in consignments. 



As to the stock, it is doubtful if a hen or 

 pullet that lays less than lOO eggs in a year 

 pays at all, while it has been proved over and 

 over again that beyond 150 is perfectly attain- 

 able ; while many farm hens lay under 60, and 

 do not account for all of these. All old stock 

 must first be got rid of, and then selection must 

 follow. There are strains now bred and adver- 

 tised for laying properties, as distinct from 

 mere "fancy" points, from which a good start 

 can be made in breeding stock : but if any 

 farmer has a prejudice against "pure breeds," 

 there is another course. Let him watch any 

 neighbouring market, and get birds or eggs 

 from any neighbour who brings in a good lot 

 of eggs in winter. After that he must select for 

 himself, hatching chickens only from his best 

 layers, and crossing his pullets or hens with 

 cockerels also from his best layers, and so on. 

 It is simple as A B C, and in this way the 

 average — that is, the "thing his hens lay on " — 

 will be infallibly raised. If he or his people 



