Black Minorca Hen 



An associate editor of the Pacific Rural Press of San Francisco, recently 

 said in this valuable journal: 



"My wife and I started the poultry venture with $1,275. We bought ten 

 acres, paid $400 down and went in debt $1,000, and with $875 we built a place to 

 live in and a brooder house. Then I went to work at the carpenter trade, building 

 poultry houses and brooder plants on other ranches, and earned enough to buy 

 hatching eggs in a short time, and by the help of my good wife we raised our first 

 flock, which consisted of 500 fine pullets. We had a long, hard pull, .with hard 

 work and sacrifice, but we built up a business that pays well for the extra effort. 



"Today we have a beautiful home, with trees for shade, well tilled garden, 

 and greens for poultry, with 3,000 choice laying hens that have been selected for 

 egg production, and they make us an income above the average salaried positions." 



This is about the goal which good management will reach, starting with 

 limited means. With knowledge of the business and adequate capital to equip 

 the farm in an Eastern State, 3,000 hens have paid about $2.50 each net, or $7,500 

 yearly. This has allowed something for interest on capital invested, and repre- 

 sents a purely commercial poultry farm, the production of poultry and eggs for 

 the market. 



In a Western State on three acres of ground a grower has for several years 

 kept 700 hens and these have returned him an average net income of $1,300. 



In California on four town lots, 500 hens are the chief factor in producing a 

 yearly income of about $2,000. The owner's books showed a profit for one year 

 of a little more than $2,300. In this case a large business is done in hatching and 

 shipping chicks, and the work is all done by the owner and his boy, save occasional 

 whitewashing by hired labor. 



This matter of hatching and shipping chicks is, so to speak, a by-product, 

 but helps to increase the income. Where the returns are as good as indicated in 

 these examples, it must be remembered that years and experience are behind 

 them, and if we were to repeat equally well accredited instances of success in this 



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