MANAGEMENT OF FOWLS 119 



fowls early became very popular with farmers in this section, 

 but as they were non-sitters, those who kept them had to keep 

 hens of another breed to hatch and rear the chickens. When 

 an incubator factory was established at Petaluma, California, the 

 farmers in that vicinity began to use incubators, and some small 

 egg farms grew up in the town. White Leghorns were kept 

 almost exclusively. Before long the egg industry here had 

 grown to such proportions that it was the most important local 

 industry, and the district became celebrated as a center of egg 

 production. Although the product is different, and a different 

 type of fowl is used, the conditions at Petaluma closely resemble 

 those in the roaster-growing district of Massachusetts. The 

 special egg farms are small, each containing from five to ten 

 acres. The houses for the laying hens are larger than the colony 

 houses used in Rhode Island, and are arranged in groups of 

 three, each group containing about five hundred hens. 



The egg farmers grow their own pullets but, as a rule, do not 

 breed or hatch them. The hatching is done by custom hatch- 

 eries, the eggs coming from flocks of White Leghorns on farms 

 that do not specialize in poultry but keep a flock of Leghorns 

 under more favorable conditions than exist on the egg farms. 

 Here, as in the Massachusetts district, the bad effects of inten- 

 sive methods are reduced for a time, because the fowls affected 

 by them are not used for reproduction. 



POULTRY FANCIERS' FARMS 



A large proportion of poultry fanciers are city people who 

 have very little room for their fowls. Some have no room at 

 all for growing chickens, although, by giving them the best 

 of care, they can keep a small flock of adult birds in fair condi- 

 tion. Such fanciers have to find farmers to grow chickens for 

 them. This is not so easy as is commonly supposed, for the 

 farmers who are sufficiently interested in poultry to give them 



