140 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



cent is a very good average hatch, and that one 

 should not expect more. 



In September, when the young birds were 

 separated, the census report was 723 pullets and 

 764 cockerels, showing an infant mortality of 

 622, or twenty-nine per cent. The accidents 

 and vicissitudes of early chickenhood are serious 

 matters to the unmothered chick, and they must 

 not be overlooked by the breeder who figures his 

 profits on paper. 



After the first year I kept no tabs on the 

 chickens hatched ; my desire was to add each 

 year 600 pullets to my flock, and after the third 

 season to dispose of as many hens. It doesn't 

 pay to keep hens that are more than two and a 

 half years old. I have kept from 1200 to 1600 

 laying hens for the past six years. I do not 

 know what it costs to feed one or all of them, 

 but I do know what moneys I have received for 

 eggs, young cockerels, and old hens, and I am 

 satisfied. 



There is a big profit in keeping hens for eggs 

 if the conditions are right and the industry is 

 followed, in a businesslike way, in connection 

 with other lines of business ; that is, in a factory 

 farm. If one had to devote his whole time to 

 the care of his plant, and were obliged to buy 

 almost every morsel of food which the fowls 

 ate, and if his market were distant and not of 

 the best, I doubt of great success ; but with food 

 at the lowest and product at the highest, you 



