POULTRY: A SUCCESS STORY 95 



the American Standard of Perfection as Hamp- 

 shires. This is one of the best of the "all purpose" 

 breeds. The birds have tremendous resistance to 

 disease and cold: my laying hens live in what was 

 once the cowbarn, with no artificial heat, and with 

 doors and windows open to the weather the year 

 around. They are quick-maturing, relatively heavy 

 producers of splendid brown eggs; and at all stages 

 and ages they are elegant eating. Of course if one 

 is handling chickens commercially it may be better 

 to specialize in -either an egg- or meat-breed: Leg- 

 horns or Brahmas, for example. But in that case 

 one must be content with poor eating on the one 

 hand or poor laying on the other. For home use 

 the all-purpose breeds, which combine compara- 

 tively good laying with excellent eating, if lesser 

 gross weights, are best. 



The second good rule with poultry is to start 

 small. The investment is heavy in proportion to 

 returns. Even though I built no housing but uti- 

 lized part of the barn I still have a hundred dollars 

 or so in plant and equipment, with a laying flock 

 averaging only a hundred birds that are them- 

 selves no inconsiderable investment. It is dead easy 

 to become over-enthusiastic and sink thousands of 

 dollars if you have them to sink in a poultry 

 project. Then a trifling error or oversight can up- 

 set the applecart. One winter, in spite of all that is 

 written to the contrary, I put too much artificial 



