Dry-picking poultry for market 



I also learned that it was easy to get mixed up with the means and 

 forget the end in view. All thought and theory and no manual labor 

 will produce no results. All manual labor with no careful thought 

 behind it will get nowhere. It requires capable hands with concise 

 thinking to bring results. Above all, concentration to the one purpose 

 in view. 



Concentration and application with a reasonable amount of 

 common sense along with physical labor are the qualities of a successful 

 poultryman. I also began to learn the true type of the heavy-laying 

 hen and how useless it was to keep unproductive hens. I also learned 

 that there was more and easier money in egg production than in meat 

 production. 



These are some of the essentials discovered in these first five years 

 of hard work and experimenting: First, that you must have a good 

 hen. The best feed and care in the world will not bring eggs from a 

 poorly-bred hen. Second, this well-bred hen must have a large variety 

 of green feed every day in the year if she lays eggs at the greatest 

 profit. To have green feed requires a rich soil with abundance of 

 irrigating water. Third, this hen must be kept in a small flock with 

 absolutely fresh air and no dust. Plenty of sunshine, dry, clean 

 quarters, and all the good, clean, wholesome feeds before her all the 

 time, with pure water to drink. Well-bred hens, well fed, and well 

 housed in small flocks, and there is a sure profit. In this hasty review 

 of the road gone over you can see better how I have at last arrived to 

 the present system of poultry keeping. In future chapters I will give 

 the truths thus far discovered in incubation, brooding, feeding, mating 

 and marketing. 



34 



