No. 4.] POULTRY CULTURE. 237 



laying maturity during the late summer or fall, so that the out- 

 put of the duck plant now practically covers the entire year. 



What has been said in regard to the efficiency of the duck 

 business is almost as true of the South Shore soft roaster busi- 

 ness. The art of caponizing and the skill in using modern poul- 

 try equipment are enabling the people of that section to take 

 advantage of the high prices during the period of scarcity of 

 meat from March to July. 



It is easily seen from the above that poultry culture has not 

 only made rapid strides in the last few years, but it is fast 

 being placed upon a sound business basis. 



Labor. 



Successful poultry keeping like everything else requires plenty 

 of well-directed labor, but it is not of the heavy, strenuous 

 kind found in many other lines of farming. About the heaviest 

 work connected with it is handling bags of grain, and if one 

 has a well-placed grain room the feedman will do that. Keep- 

 ing poultry may well be termed busy work, and that is one 

 reason why it appeals to retired or broken-down business men 

 who are not capable of existence unless they are working. 

 Whether the labor is productive or not does not concern some, 

 as long as they find pleasure in the work. Most of the labor on 

 a small poultry farm can be done by women or men not capable 

 of doing heavy work. Another very attractive feature about 

 poultry keeping is that very little night work is required, due 

 to the fact that hens go to their roosts and come down from 

 them with the sun. Of course, during the incubation and 

 brooding seasons, and those periods when the poultry-man is 

 selecting his breeders and studying his birds, some late labor 

 will be necessary, but work of that kind is so interesting that 

 it is considered a pleasure rather than a drudgery. 



Transportation Facilities. 



No State in the Union is more fortunate than ours in trans- 

 portation facilities. It is literally covered with a network of 

 railroads, besides being cut up in a similar way by trolley lines. 

 The places, therefore, that are not reached by either one or the 



