POULTRY. 1081 



obtained also vary according to locality and season. Very 

 early in the season broilers sell in Boston, New York, and Phil- 

 adelphia as high as seventy-five cents per pound dressed, or 

 from one to two dollars per pair alive. Later in the season the 

 price declines, and customers demand greater weights ; but, 

 generally speaking, broilers can be sold at a profit up to the 

 middle of July or first of August. Of course, every body can 

 not market their spring chickens in the cities named, but there 

 is not a city of any consequence in the United States where 

 prime broilers can not be sold in season at paying prices. 



Spring chickens, to command the highest prices, must be 

 plump and well feathered, and, if sold dressed, must be dressed 

 neatly, and put up in good shape. 



The best way to go into the spring-chicken business, or any 

 other branch of the poultry business, is to begin in a small way, 

 make it pay as you go, and work up until there is all that one 

 pair of hands or one family can manage profitably. Many fail 

 in this, as in other things, because they attempt too much to 

 begin with. Remember that it is more profitable to raise twenty 

 dozen prime broilers than it would be to raise twice that num- 

 ber of inferior ones. The best will always sell at paying prices, 

 even when the market is overstocked with poor poultry, while 

 the latter often sells for barely enough to cover the cost of 

 transportation and commission charges. 



Eggs for Hatching. In selecting eggs for hatching, re- 

 member that the newest laid are the best, and that those from 

 the second litter are better than the first laying. Eggs from 

 the first litter, especially from pullets, are generally smaller, and 

 are not so likely to be fertile as those from later litters. To 

 insure fertility of the eggs destined for hatching purposes the 

 fowls should have all the exercise possible, plenty of green food, 

 and the males should run with the flock at least a week before 

 the eggs are used for setting. Care should also be taken not to 

 overdo or underdo the rooster business. For the Plymouth 

 Rocks, Dominiques, Wyandottes, and the non-sitting breeds, one 

 vigorous cock to every fifteen or twenty hens when the fowls 

 have free range; but when confined to yards the number of 



