I can hear the hens cackling and singing up and down the long rows 

 of poultry houses, with their feed troughs filled with this nourishing 

 variety of green feed, and I know that greens cause the hens to sing, 

 and I know that singing hens are healthy, and I know that healthy 

 hens produce the eggs, and I know that eggs produced under these 

 conditions sell at a profit even today with feed prices more than double 

 and eggs at 35 cents per dozen. 



A feeling of comfort and satisfaction comes over me as I watch the 

 eight-inch stream of water running from my centrifugal pump down 

 between the luxuriant rows of vegetation, making everything grow so 

 crisp and succulent. To gather cart loads of this green feed and run it 

 through the cutter and feed it to choice, well-bred hens with combs as 

 red as blood, is an exquisite pleasure that only a poultryman can 

 appreciate. 



As I pause in my writing and gaze out through the open window, I 

 see John in the vegetable garden, with a large pan of lettuce, and onions, 

 and peas, and radishes, and turnips, and beets; and I see contentment 

 on his face as he sorts through the garden selecting materials for our 

 midday meal, pausing here to see how the beans are filling, or looking 

 longingly at the strawberry bed just beginning to be specked with red, 

 or meditating on the rows of corn, thinking of juicy ears of corn on the 

 cob; and as he turns and crosses the lawn, bringing this wealth of the 

 garden to the kitchen, my heart is filled with thanksgiving and grati- 

 tude, for I know that, no matter how high food supplies soar, that my 

 family will have luxuries that money cannot buy. A fragrance from 

 the blossoms of the blackberry vine comes in through the open door 

 and the bees are busy gathering honey and storing it in the hives along 

 the fence from which we get golden sweets for the table, and the cow 

 is knee-deep in alfalfa from which she makes rich milk to go with the 

 honey, and the hens are laying eggs, and it is no wonder that I have 

 peace of mind, and steady nerves, and health of body, for it is the 

 natural life. Fresh air for the lungs, cheerful sunlight, good food and 

 calm, sleep, and the wealth of the world could buy no more. 



This is the critical time for poultrymen, and they should make 

 every effort to hold all their best producing young hens, and tha only 

 way to get them through is to raise many varieties of green feeds and 

 stuff them until they consume little grain. I have proven that with 

 several varieties of succulent greens it is possible to not only keep 

 hens healthy but laying with very little grain. You cannot do it on 

 one or two kinds of green, but with many the hen will consume enough 

 to get along beyond expectations. 



Plant kale, beets, chard, barley, alfalfa, carrots, rape and cabbage, 

 and with these eight varieties fed in abundance there need be no fear 

 of grain prices. To grow these crops in California requires plenty of 

 irrigating water. In these critical times the poultryman without 

 irrigating water is absolutely up against it, for without greens with the 

 cheapest grains, it is impossible to make a profit. It is the spring-time 

 conditions kept before the hens all the time that makes eggs at a profit. 

 There are four distinct profits to the credit of a large variety of green 

 feed. First, there is a great saving in loss of hens, for hens with greens 

 are kept in better health than without; second, with a large variety of 

 green feed only about half the grain need be used; third, with plenty of 



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