AMERICAN POULTRY FARMS. 129 



and late with an energy and manual skill of which English 

 farmers have not even an idea. In an account of Mr. 

 Latham's plant (Lancaster, Mass.), not included in the 

 above because not giving actual results, but the tested 

 success of which is guaranteed by the fact that he had 

 previously built two poultry plants on other ground, and 

 was now building the third on a new farm " to get things 

 right? we find his new plan to be a shed 360 feet long and 

 14 wide, of which 4 feet is passage-way. The rest contains 

 twenty sections, each with a roost 8 by 10 and open 

 scratching shed 10 by 10, with a run 150 by 18 feet in front 

 of each. These houses are raised a foot above ground level, 

 and are built on a stone and mortar foundation. If put up 

 by paid labour, this must mean a heavy capital per acre.* 

 Such enterprises show, moreover, an adaptability of mind 



* Since the text was in type we have received from Mr. Hunter direct 

 replies on some points here discussed, and which have impressed us so 

 strongly. They emphasise and confirm the conclusions here expressed. 

 He works out his own stated profit per bird by reckoning his 175 eggs 

 each (this is not theoretical, but actually attained} at the average price 

 during six years past of 27^ cents per dozen (varying from 15 cents to 42 

 cents) at which they are collected from him by the grocer as "strictly 

 fresh" ones. The food costs i'35 dollars each. He sells his birds after 

 one year's laying only, at about 50 cents each. Thus he reckons 3-15 

 dollars profit ; but this allows nothing for the cost of the fowl, an important 

 omission. Nothing also is charged for labour, on the theory that most 

 American farmers are small freeholders, and that this labour is the "way 

 they make their living." Yet if any more labour has to be hired, which 

 must be beyond a certain scale, this principle cannot apply, though it does 

 apply to the small rearers and feeders in Sussex. His buildings for the 40x5 

 fowls on one acre are reckoned to cost about ,300 (on one acre) if put up ; 

 but here, again, as we have supposed, " the cost is reduced by we small 

 farmers doing our own work." Most of his were so put up. He states, 

 finally, that, as a rule, there is no difficulty with the fowls fouling the land, 

 with any reasonable runs ; the soil is mostly sandy loam, and grass or other 

 green crop seems able to dispose of "all it gets." The differences which 

 have struck us as above, between American and English circumstances, are 

 thus confirmed and emphasised. 



