POULTRY. 583 



favorable circumstances in my case were a splendid stock of breeding fowls, a healthy loca 

 tion, a thorough knowledge of my business in all its branches, and nearness to a first-class 

 market. Of course some doubting individuals stand ready to declare that it is impossible to 

 make five dollars profit on every adult fowl kept; but if they will stop and consider that I 

 get spring chickens into market during the months of April and May, when they sell readily 

 for one dollar each, that I sell ten and twelve pound capons for thirty cents a pound, that I 

 manage to have eggs to sell in winter when I can get from thirty to thirty-five cents a dozen, 

 and that I sell a few trios of exhibition birds every year, they will see where the big profit 

 comes in. 



Now don t stop here and give up all thoughts of raising chickens just because you cannot 

 get such prices in your locality, but wait until I give you a few hints from my experience. I 

 have kept poultry in the West where eggs sold at the stores for eight cents a dozen in the 

 summer, and poultry sold in the fall for seven cents a pound, live- weight, but I made it pay. 

 &quot;We lived on a line of railroad two hundred miles from a city market, but I soon found out 

 that all the poultry and eggs from our place went to the city, and I could not for the life of 

 me see why I could not ship such things just as well as the merchants. So 1 sent a thirty- 

 dozen package of fresh eggs to a commission house in the city; they sold them readily, and 

 there was a call for more. &amp;lt; These small packages of eggs, every one warranted fresh, are 

 just what we want, wrote the commission man. 1 did some more thinking, and then put on 

 my good clothes and went to the city. Once there, it did not take me long to find a grocer 

 who wanted thirty dozen of fresh eggs every week, so I shipped the eggs direct to him, and 

 saved the commission man s profit. In the fall I sold my poultry in the same way. 



There was no thoroughbred poultry in the vicinity except that in my yards, and when 

 people began to find out that my chickens were superior to the common mongrel fowl, they 

 bought a great many eggs for hatching. There was not one pair of any of the improved 

 varieties of ducks in the county. I sent a thousand miles for a pair of Pekins, and within a 

 month after they arrived every body had the duck fever, and I was overrun with orders for 

 ducks before a single egg hatched. I also procured some Bronze turkeys, and sold every egg 

 that I could spare, and every turkey I raised at good prices. 



Every woman who goes into poultry raising may not be able to get in these extras, but 

 every woman who desires to earn money by raising poultry, and goes into the business with 

 a determination to succeed, will be sure to make it pay, even if she sells every egg and every 

 chicken at market prices.&quot; 



DISEASES OF POULTRY. 



THE following on diseases of poultry was prepared especial 1 y for this work, by Mr. 

 G. P. Burnham, a breeder of poultry for more than thirty years. Unlike many writers 

 on this subject who enumerate forty or more diseases as applicable to the condition of 

 fowls more or less frequently during their existence, he claims that the number of diseases 

 commonly known to afflict the poultry race are few, and that many of the so-called diseases 

 are but phases or different types of the same disease; that the primal or chief diseases of 

 poultry may be set down pretty accurately in a very brief summary, although the following 

 category are often seen described as being common to domestic poultry: 



Apoplexy, Asthma, Roup, Vertigo, Paralysis, Indigestion, Catarrh, Canker, Pip, Colds, 



Gapes, Snuffles, Sore head, Hoarseness, Crop-bound, Inflammations, Drooping, Diarrhoea, 



Constipation, Dropsy, Scaly legs, Loss of plumage, White Comb, Black Comb, Diphtheria, 



Vermin, Lethargy, Rheumatics, Cramps, Dizziness, Egg-eating, Bumble-foot, Gout, Feather - 



VOL. II. 32 



