238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. . I am very glad to have this poultry ques- 

 tion brought up for discussion. I have looked into this 

 matter for a year or two, and have come to the conclusion 

 that it is one of the most neglected branches of industry 

 on the farm. The paper which has been read, I hope will 

 set us thinking and investigating. It costs us to produce 

 beef and pork, six, seven or eight cents a pound, and that 

 is all we can get for it. To produce poultry per hundred 

 pounds or per pound costs no more, I believe, than it does 

 to produce pork ; and it will produce, live weight, more than 

 double what pork will produce, dressed weight. 



I heartily agree with the speaker when he says, "En- 

 courage the boys ; give them something to keep them at 

 home ; give them something to interest them in the farm." 

 Two years ago I visited the hennery of our lecturer, and 

 bought a trio of fowls for my boys ; I made them a Christ- 

 mas present of them. They were shut up, and an exact 

 account kept of everything that was fed to those fowls. 

 Some of the chickens were sold for broilers, some were sold 

 for breeding purposes, some of the eggs were sold in the 

 market and some were sold for settins:. At the end of the 

 year, the result proved that from those three pullets and a 

 cock $5(5 and some cents had been realized, which, with the 

 balance on hand, made up $66 and some cents. Now they 

 are working out the problem this year: If $14 can be pro- 

 duced from one fowl, how much can be produced from fifty? 

 What the result will be I do not know ; but I would urge 

 upon farmers that they give their boys something to interest 

 them. IMake your l)oy a present of some poultry, let him 

 manage them himself and have the proceeds, and he will 

 take a great deal more interest in the farm, and not be so 

 apt to want to leave it the first opportunity. 



Mv. Ballakd. I have not heard any one bring out one 

 point so fully ns the lecturer has, and that is, in regard to 

 milk for feeding fowls. I have followed the practice for the 

 last ten or fifteen years. About seven years ago I was feed- 

 ing my pigs nu'lk ; the price of pork was pretty low, and I 

 said, " After this I will feed all my milk to my fowls." I 

 have made up my mind that I can make more on one dollar 

 with fowls, by feeding my milk to them, than I can on four 



