98 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



tery": a four-story, eight-room, unheated and unlit 

 affair that houses a hundred or so birds up to 

 twelve weeks or more. Within ten weeks from 

 hatching we start taking broiling and frying roost- 

 ers of two and one-half to three and one-half 

 pounds out of this machine. My records show that 

 the revenue either real or cash from meat birds 

 covers the whole cost of raising the hatch: that is, 

 I have my pullets free. 



With the exception of the incubator, which is 

 in my study where it can be under constant obser- 

 vation, the bird-raising plant is all in the cellar. 

 This sounds insanitary. Actually it is perfectly hy- 

 gienic and healthy for both birds and humans: the 

 very proximity of the chickens is a constant incen- 

 tive to their proper care. The humidity of the cel- 

 lar is just about right for growing stock, and the 

 temperature is steady. With proper feed, which in- 

 cludes plenty of good cod-liver oil, chickens thrive 

 and grow as well under artificial light as in the 

 sun. 



The poultry department is the biggest user of 

 electric light and power on the farm. Six months 

 of the year there are two sixty-watt lamps burning 

 all night in the laying house. (Contrary to general 

 belief artificial light does not increase a hen's total 

 egg production: it levels up the production curve 

 by stimulating laying in what nature designed to 

 be an off season.) Three more sixty-watt lamps 



