122 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



divided them, a hundred being put in the new four pens, 2^ 

 in each. The result was 70 and 75 eggs a day from that 

 hundred, while the others, more crowded, were laying only 

 40 to 50 per cent. 



Mr. C. H. Wyckoff, of Groton, New York State, began 

 sixteen years before the date of the account, without any 

 capital, his father being security for the purchase of his 

 farm, his own weekly wages being devoted to paying the 

 interest on the price. His first year he had 25 mixed hens ; 

 these were replaced by Rocks and Brown Leghorns, from 

 which he realised 75 dollars during winter and spring, which 

 was invested in Leghorn eggs. Thus he went on upon the 

 principle (obligatory on him, since he had no means other 

 than the hens and his labour) that the hens must pay their 

 way as he proceeded that all-important rule we have tried 

 to enforce As he could, therefore, he improved the yard, 

 and put up buildings, and extended stock. It took some six 

 years thus to "get fairly under way;" but for about ten 

 years the place had been paid for, and his sales average 

 4,000 dollars a year, of which seven-eighths is earned by 

 Leghorn hens. We can only take a few details. In 1898 

 he had on the farm seven double-houses, each 12 by 40 feet, 

 each half of which has a run 33 by 128 feet, the pen taking 

 50 fowls. The houses are built of double timber with 

 building-paper between, which is warm enough in winter 

 not to need heating. Plums and peaches are planted in 

 the runs, and realise about 200 dollars per annum. There 

 is also a brooder-house 16 by 60 feet, and a few odd single 

 houses. Five or six hundred hens are kept for winter 

 laying, and 1,500 to 2,000 birds are raised every year. The 

 Leghorns are bred with care for laying, and six hundred of 

 them averaged one year 194 eggs per bird ! Three 3OO-egg 

 incubators are in use. 



Mr. Isaac Wilbur, Little Compton, Rhode Island, is 



