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sufficient to carry his stock through unproductive periods, or must 

 work and plan to secure in some way sufficient income to pay cur- 

 rent expenses. Failing at these points, he must ultimately go out 

 of the business. If he has stock enough to take all his time, that 

 prevents his making a few dollars elsewhere when the dollars from 

 poultry are not coming in, thus making him wholly dependent 

 upon his poultry for an income and a living. His crowded stock 

 requires, proportionately, far more labor to keep it healthy and 

 productive than does stock kept under the half-natural conditions 

 on the general farm. It must produce better to pay for the food 

 he buys for it and for his labor, and he must strain every nerve 

 to avoid losses, for every chick or fowl lost must directly or in- 

 directly be paid for in cash. No exclusive poultry business could 

 stand such a percentage of loss as occurs on the average farm. 



With sufficient capital and ability, many persons have made a 

 success of poultry keeping by intensive methods. No doubt some 

 succeed this way who would not succeed if they attempted to com- 

 bine poultry keeping with farming. But that does not prove that 

 it is the best way or the most profitable for the greatest number 

 of poultry keepers ; and the present evident reaction from in- 

 tensive methods furnishes good evidence that those who have 

 tested them have often found them wanting. Poultry keeping 

 readily enters into combination with almost every branch of 

 agriculture, and the attempt to keep it entirely separate generally 

 does violence to its development along natural lines. 



Leaks in Exclusive Poultry Keeping. 



It has been said that poultry keeping is readily combined with 

 almost any branch of agriculture. It may also be said that 

 poultry keeping naturally combines with several branches of 

 agriculture. When one undertakes to limit his effort to an ex- 

 clusive poultry business, he is likely to find that there are some 

 very practical objections to that course, and that circumstances 

 combine to force him to engage in several side lines of work. 



Fowls must have shade. Fruit trees and vines planted in the 

 yards will furnish shade, and will grow and bear better than under 

 almost any other conditions. So, almost without thinking about 

 it, many poultry men drift into fruit growing on a small scale. 



A large stock of fowls makes in the course of a year a great 

 deal of very valuable manure, the greater part of which is lost to 

 the poultry keeper, unless applied to crop-producing land on the 

 same farm. The night droppings, which can easily be collected 

 and kept in condition to sell, constitute but a small part of the 

 manure made. The most of it falls either on the earth floor of 



