124 City Homes on Country Lanes 



past few years, especially in California, where 

 thousands of people are getting their living in whole 

 or in part from very small holdings. Such people have 

 often found that the best chance for cash income lies 

 in specializing in poultry; and that the way to secure 

 heavy egg production on the smallest space is to engage 

 in the intensive cultivation of the laying hen. 



The old plan of turning the hens out to pasture in the 

 neighborhood at large is completely abolished. Mrs. 

 Hen is always "at home" to her callers. She is fre- 

 quently without a family of her own — no husband or 

 children, but plenty of brothers and sisters. Infertile 

 eggs are preferred in the market, and sometimes com- 

 mand a superior price. For the increase of the flock, 

 setting eggs are purchased ; or, more frequently, day- 

 old chicks, which are turned out by the million in large 

 hatcheries. The egg-farmer specializes on eggs, while 

 others specialize on fine settings and ready-made chicks. 



The plan is ideal for the garden home, where hun- 

 dreds or thousands of families may be living on lots 

 ranging from a quarter of an acre to one or two acres 

 in size; and where the object of the small, neat, well- 

 kept poultry house is to supply the family with plenty 

 of fresh eggs and fat chickens to go with the other 

 products of the place in making up the elements of 

 the luxurious table. There are so many methods of 

 intensive poultry culture now in vogue that it is diffi- 

 cult to do more here than to indicate the place of the 

 Laying hen in this new way of life. It is plain, of course, 

 that we must have eggs, and we must have chickens; 

 just as we must have the nicest vegetables and fruits, 

 and all kinds of delicious jams and preserves; and it is 



