24 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



Actually our moving to the country was inspired 

 less by the notion that we could reduce the cost of 

 living than by the conviction that we could live better 

 than we had in the city. So far as food was concerned, 

 better health was more in our minds than saving 

 money. We sought pure food and fresh food rather 

 than cheap food. The discovery that home production 

 made it possible for us to enjoy better food at a lower 

 cost than we had in the city, came later. 



We landed in the country on April ist, a little late 

 in the season, we have since learned for starting chick- 

 ens. But since raising chickens was almost the first 

 item in our food raising program, we went ahead, 

 anyway. Eggs had always been an important factor 

 in our dietary, we wanted to have plenty of them, 

 and the supply of fresh chicken which would ac- 

 company egg production would, we felt, cut down 

 what we had been in the habit of spending for meat 

 of all kinds. 



We knew nothing about chickens. For instructions 

 we turned to the bulletins of the Department of 

 Agriculture in Washington and of the state agricul- 

 tural university. We pored over bulletins dealing 

 with incubation, with raising chicks, with feeding 

 hens for egg production and fattening poultry for the 

 table. We followed in a general way the instructions 

 in the bulletins about equipment and housing them. 

 But we nevertheless decided to feel our way and to 

 try out our book-taught knowledge before venturing 



