CHAPTER XLVI 



THE SKIM-MILK TRUST 



THE third quarter of the year made a better 

 showing than any previous one, due chiefly to 

 the sale of hogs in August. The hens did well 

 up to September, when they began to make new 

 clothes for themselves and could not be bothered 

 with egg-making. There were a few more than 

 seven hundred in the laying pens, and nearly as 

 many more rapidly approaching the useful age. 

 The chief advantage in early chickens is that 

 they will take their places at the nests in Octo- 

 ber or November while the older ones are dress- 

 making. This is important to one who looks 

 for a steady income from his hens, October 

 and November being the hardest months to pro- 

 vide for. A few scattered eggs in the pullet 

 runs showed that the late February and early 

 March chickens were beginning to have a realiz- 

 ing sense of their obligations to the world and 

 to the Headman, and that they were getting into 

 line to accept them. More cotton-seed meal was 

 added to the morning mash for the old hens, and 

 the corn meal was reduced a little and the oat- 

 meal increased, as was also the red pepper ; but 



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