32 



regard to the cost of labor. There has been a very general opinion 

 not yet dissipated, that it was a good thing for the poultry industry 

 and a mark of progress when it became a man's occupation, and that 

 when men took it up they would work out more systematic methods, 

 better adapted to the handling of poultry on a large scale. In some 

 cases and to some extent they have done this. It has been a good 

 thing, too, that men have learned a better appreciation of the value of 

 poultry; but in many places it was clearly a mistake for men, espe- 

 cially on farms, to take on themselves the care of poultry. This many 

 men are beginning to find out. 



The work of a farm which has a properly diversified culture affords 

 opportunities for profitable outdoor employment for every pair of 

 hands on the farm. A proper division of the variety of tasks which 

 make up the routine of the day, the season or the year requires that 

 those capable of doing any of the work shall devote their time and 

 skill to doing the things that others cannot do. It is not good man- 

 agement on a farm, or anywhere else, if skillful hands and strong hands 

 are engaged in doing work not especially requiring either skill or 

 strength, while those who could do these tasks are idle and add- 

 ing nothing to the family income. It is a doubtful kindness to the 

 feminine members of the farmer's family that relieves them wholly of 

 outdoor duties. There has been as much masculine selfishness as con- 

 sideration for the gentler sex on many farms where men have taken 

 over the care of poultry. Even if it be granted that the head of the 

 family and proprietor of the farm takes the care of the poultry because 

 he likes it, that does not acquit him of the charge of selfishness, if by 

 taking this work himself he prevents other members of the family 

 from becoming interested in it. I have known men — altogether a 

 good many of them — who persisted in looking after the poultry 

 themselves, though not notably successful with it, when their wives, 

 daughters or sons would have done it much better had they left it to 

 them, — and let them alone. I have known a good many men who, 

 though failures as poultry keepers, declared they would stick to it 

 until they succeeded, — and succeeded according to their original 

 plans, — and kept on losing money and neglecting work for which 

 they were better fitted, when had they turned the poultry over to 

 other members of the family to do with according to opportunities, 

 and given their own time to work at which they could make a living, 

 all would have been better off. 



These, of course, are the extreme cases. In the average instance 

 the wise course is for the farmer to keep his interest in poultry, exer- 

 cising a measure of supervision over it or assisting with it when neces- 

 sary, but in this and every other part of farm work planning to let 

 other members of his household do such work as they are able to do 

 and interested in doing, allowing them to get such pleasure as they 

 may from it and giving them a fair proportion of the proceeds, whether 

 a fair proportion means a little or all. 



I was on a farm in Rhode Island a few years ago where a couple of 

 thousand chickens were grown annually. The family consisted of the 

 father, mother and two daughters about sixteen and eighteen years of 

 age. The daughters were unusually attractive girls, refined and lady- 

 like in demeanor, as self-possessed and as able to look after themselves 

 as any girl in country or city ought to be. The family were just begin- 

 ning to establish themselves on this farm. Money was none too 

 plenty with them. The father was trying to carry on the farm work 

 and handle the hens without hiring help. These girls, in addition to 

 what they were doing in the house, took all the care of the chickens 



