A CO-OPERATIVE DEPOT. 141 



operative incubating, rearing, fattening, col- 

 lecting, and selling Society. 



To give some idea as to the size of this 

 industry at Street, the long cow-shed of the 

 old farm is now turned into a fattening shed 

 capable of holding 700 birds in their coops, 

 ranged along the walls. This side of the 

 business entails the employment of a man 

 who is fattening with a crammer, and plucking 

 birds practically all the year round, and this 

 department last year brought in a net profit 

 of £200. Birds were bought from members 

 at about Is. 9d. each at twelve weeks old, and 

 so well were they fattened and so skilfully 

 presented for the table that the price rarely 

 dropped below 3s. a bird, and this, it should 

 be remembered, was the wholesale price. Ten 

 thousand out of fifteen thousand birds were 

 fattened in this manner. 



The large stone granary of the old dairy 

 farm has been converted into an incubating 

 shed, where twenty - two incubators, capable 

 of hatching at one time 6870 chicks, stand 

 on the non - vibrating earthen floor, and the 

 loft above is used for storing chicken food. 

 Then there is the cool stone-walled room like 

 a cellar, where 85,000 eggs were preserved in 



