POULTRT-CRAFT. 13 



mature mind ought to be in a position to know how to make best use of his 

 capital, and also how to make a business which he managed alone or with a 

 little cheap help, pay expenses almost from the start. The course just 

 outlined is that by which expert knowledge and skill are obtained at least 

 expense. It is not always practicable. There are other ways. A partner- 

 ship may be formed with an expert poultryman who thus becomes his partner's 

 instructor. An expert may be engaged for a time as manager and adviser. 

 After such arrangements as these the next best plan is to begin keeping fowls 

 in a small way, increasing the flock as ability to manage larger numbers 

 profitably is developed. In this one needs to be careful not to overstep the 

 limits his experience places to profitable work. To those who have the 

 capital the temptation to go too fast is very strong. Until one has thoroughly 

 mastered the elements of poultry keeping, until he is "fit" to succeed, he 

 ought to proceed as cautiously as if he had no capital but the profit from the 

 flock.* 



1 1 . Beginning With Small Capital. Without Capital. A poultry 

 business may be started on a very small capital, practically without capital, if 

 one has other occupation which, while furnishing the means of living, leaves 

 him time to properly care for his fowls. By careful management the gradually 

 increasing income from the flock may be added to the capital until the operations 

 are large enough to make poultrying the principal thing. The combination of 

 circumstances favoring a growth of this kind is rare. For those who think of 

 beginning in this way the caution : Be sure of your ground before making 

 any move involving expense, needs to be repeated. In small beginnings of 

 poultry keeping as an adjunct to dairying, gardening, etc., it is not usually 

 difficult to make time to care for the poultry, and the poultry plant can easily 

 make rapid growth. The important things in developing a plant begun in a 

 small way, are : 



Keep no more stock than can be given proper care. 

 Keep out of debt. 



12. Poultry for Pleasure. For Family Use. When fowls are 

 kept for a definite purpose, and that not the profit to be made from them, it is 

 not wrong to say they are kept for pleasure. This statement holds good even 

 when fowls primarily kept for pleasure afford some profit. Most " family " 

 hens are kept for pleasure, the pleasure their owners get from producing their 



* NOTE. Those who, wishing to learn poultry keeping, do not meet favorable oppor- 

 tunities, are advised that it is in their power to materially assist the movement for special 

 instruction in poultry keeping at the agricultural colleges. This they can do by showing 

 those in charge of these institutions that a strong demand for such instruction exists. 

 At the Rhode Island State Agricultural College a course of study in poultry culture was 

 given in January, 1898. This was designed as the initial step in a movement to make 

 instruction in poultry keeping a feature of the work of that college. Other states will 

 follow the example of Rhode Island as fast as those interested make it clear that a course, 

 once established, will be sustained. 



