278 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



getting ready for a thousand hens, we should 

 have to increase our housing capacity many 

 fold to accommodate the breeders and the 

 broiler hatches. That would call for another 

 $500 at least. 



Plainly, instead of our original small yard 

 we should have to devote at least twenty acres 

 to our flock for yards and range ; and besides, 

 with a thousand hens to be fed and their 

 hatches to be prepared for market, all the rest 

 of the farm would have to be given up to the 

 production of chicken feed. The twenty acres 

 of range and yards would have to be fenced 

 and cross-fenced, and the business would call 

 for an investment in incubators and brooders 

 and other equipment. Then, as in any other 

 business whose management was fit to be called 

 intelligent, we ought to have a moderate cash 

 capital for operation. Without it we should 

 be running into unforeseen snags. 



So, you see, if we were going into chicken- 

 raising on a commercial scale and on a safe 

 basis that would justify us in expecting good 

 profits, we must make a very substantial in- 

 vestment. In addition to what we had in the 

 land, we should need $3,000 or $3,500 maybe 

 more to get the business a-going. We hadn't 



