THE LEGHORNS 



119 



not start to lay much before they are six months old, 

 for if they are force-fed for early egg production and lay 

 at S months, they likewise will go into a secondary moult. 

 While in Vineland I had the pleasure of attending a 

 meeting of the Vineland Poultry Association. At that 

 meeting the cost of producing the pullets was discussed 

 and it seemed to be the general opinion that the sale of 

 cockerels would about half pay for carrying the pullets 

 to laying age. After starting to lay the cost of feed was 

 estimated at from 10 to 12 cents per bird per month. 

 The average egg yield of the flocks was variously esti- 

 mated at from 120 eggs to 150 eggs 

 per bird per year. 



A Successful Vineland Plant 



There are on the Vineland tract a 

 number of really successful White 

 Leghorn egg farms. One that inter- 

 ested me especially was that of Paul 

 Van Deusen, who lives at the edge 

 of the city. He has gas for the hov- 

 ers in his brooder house and running 

 water on h's plant. He has just 

 2 2-3 acres of ground. The poultry 

 buildings and yards cover lyi acres. 

 If it were not that the soil is very 

 sandy and birds can be kept on the 

 same ground year after year, I would 

 say that Mr. Van Deusen had too 

 small a plant. Last year he kept 

 525 pullets and 250 hens. Mr. Van 

 Deusen said that the pullets averaged 

 165 eggs each during the year. The 

 best ten months of the year the hens 

 averaged USyi eggs each. This was 

 from November, 1909, to September, 

 1910. Mrs. Van Deusen, who kept 

 the books, gave me the following 

 figures, which cover the year: 



Total receipts $3,733.02 



Feed, straw, grit, etc 1,283.22 



The difference is in the income for the year's work. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Van Deusen do all the work themselves. 

 In the springtime, however, when Mrs. Van Deusen is 

 out with the little chicks, she hires a neighbor to come 

 and help in the house, and Mr. Van Deusen hires a man 

 to whitewash for him each year, also a farmer to plow 

 his garden. 



Mr. Van Deusen went to Vineland nine years ago 

 and rented a 40-acre farm. He moved to his city plot five 

 years ago. His income is not wholly from his commercial 

 poultry and eggs, as he has quite a trade among the new 

 comers to the Vineland Tract who wish to "stock up." 

 I mention him in this connection, however, for the rea- 

 son that he went to Vineland willing to farm it and work 

 hard, and he drifted into the poultry business because the 

 greatest profit was to be derived from it. As a poultry- 

 man he has worked hard. Many, I fear, seek the poultry 

 business underestimating the amount of work to be done 

 and the importance of it. 



Figs. 1 and 2 shown on page 118 are reproduc- 

 tions of photos taken on Mr. Van Deusen's plant. They 



illustrate a watering pan and shade cover for the use of 

 the growing chickens on range in the summer time. The 

 pan is of galvanized iron 4 inches deep and 16 inches 

 square and it holds 16 quarts. Mr. Van Deusen said that 

 there was sufficient water in it to last 100 growing birds 

 for one day. 



I was interested in a home-made brooder on the plant 

 of J. W. Scull. Brooders resembling this one in con- 

 struction are in operation on several plants in the Vine- 

 land Tract. The top is of burlap tacked to a wooden 

 frame. A 2-inch black iron pipe is used and the fumes 



City Market. 



of the lamp rise and pass out through this pipe, which 

 becomes warm and the heat radiates from it into the 

 brooder. Directly over the lamp blaze is an elbow in the 

 pipe, for the lamp sets on the outside of the brooder 

 box instead of underneath it, as is the case with other 

 similar brooders on the Tract. The heat from the lamp 

 rises against the elbow and warms it very much. Over 

 the elbow is a stove-pipe sleeve. The cold air passes in 

 at the bottom of this sleeve and being heated by the 

 warm iron elbow, rises into the hover, thus in addition 

 to the radiation of the heat from the iron pipe, there is a 

 continual supply of fresh, warm air entering the hover. 

 Judging by the chickens I saw in these brooders, I should 

 pronounce it a good one. 



When I visited Mr. Scull some of his brooders had 

 not been cleaned for three weeks, but his chickens were 

 good. To the unreflective who visit his plant or some 

 of the other Vineland plants, the methods employed 

 may appear as "crude," but since they produce satis- 

 factory results it seems to me they should be spoken 

 of as being good. Certainly they are well worth the time 

 I spent in inquiring into them. 



