HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 271 



turn toward the land for a livelihood gets to 

 thinking about chickens as affording the safest, 

 surest and quickest route to success. Yet it 

 isn't often that you hear of anybody making a 

 fortune out of chickens, nor even a decent liv- 

 ing. There must be a screw loose somewhere. 



It isn't hard to find in practice. The fac- 

 tor that's the most fascinating of all, when 

 you're working with paper and pencil, is the 

 very factor that defeats you when you get to 

 working with hens. A flock of poultry does in 

 fact increase at an almost unbelievable ratio; 

 the increase is so rapid that the poultryman, 

 if he's just an unskilled amateur, can't possibly 

 keep up with it. It overwhelms him, throws 

 him into hopeless confusion; and before he's 

 able to bring order out of the chaos he finds 

 himself involved in losses he couldn't foresee 

 and can't afford to bear. So, plumb discour- 

 aged, he sells out and quits. I dare say that's 

 been the history of ninety-nine out of every 

 hundred ventures in commercial poultry rais- 

 ing. 



The facts are that a farm flock of forty or 

 fifty good hens or thereabouts, if given good 

 farm care and kept down to that number, is 

 usually highly profitable. A flock of a thou- 



