No. 4.] POULTRY CULTURE. 239 



mediate, and even if he starts with eggs for hatching, broilers 

 will be ready to market in from ten to twelve weeks, roasters 

 five to seven months, and the pullets will begin to lay when 

 from five to eight months of age. The opportunity to turn 

 one's capital several times during the year is equivalent to 

 having double or triple the amount. This compared with some 

 other lines of farming, where one or more years are required to 

 produce a crop, gives poultry keeping a big lead. Another 

 thing of great importance is the fact that every kind of poultry 

 business is done on a strictly cash basis. This means quick 

 money and no bad bills. 



Poultry and Eggs as Delicacies. 



Eggs and poultry have long been considered delicacies for 

 the table. Our greatest of all feasting days, Thanksgiving Day, 

 is not enjoyed to the fullest extent unless the table is decorated 

 with the king of fowls, the New England turkey, and yet on 

 account of the scarcity and high price of these the last few 

 years many of us have been glad even to get a good capon, 

 fowl or chicken. Throughout the entire farming sections of the 

 country the highest honor paid to a guest at the dinner table 

 is to place before him a delicious chicken or fowl cooked by the 

 farmer's wife herself. 



Eggs, on account of the ease with which they can be ob- 

 tained, their palatability, digestibility and the many ways in 

 which they can be prepared, have become one of the principal 

 foods for the sick and convalescent. Their almost absolute 

 freedom from injurious disease germs highly recommends them 

 for this purpose. The size of the egg and condition of the shell 

 make its use not only convenient, but very economical, as it 

 contains all the rich nutriment that a child or invalid should 

 take at one time. The structure and condition of the case with 

 which the hen encloses the egg preserves it for a considerable 

 length of time without deterioration. There is practically no 

 waste, therefore, in the use of eggs, and they are unsurpassed 

 in richness of flavor. Again, the fact that an entire carcass of a 

 fowl is purchased at one time, and that its size can be regu- 

 lated to meet the convenience of the family, gives it a great 

 advantage over that of other animals on the farm. 



