122 POULTR T- CRAFT. 



work and cost the probable better results would justify. Once in a while an 

 amateur poultry keeper allows his efforts to make a few hens lay to take time 

 and create expense not warranted by the best possible results. 



It is not good advice to every poultry keeper to urge him, by all means, to 

 get the largest possible egg yield. Those who make a business of producing 

 market eggs must, if the business is to pay its way and make the living, keep 

 the flocks producing nearly all the time, and must secure high average yields 

 of eggs ; but even for such it is a question whether extraordinarily large egg 

 yields will in every case be most profitable. It should be a part of a poultry- 

 man's business to determine this point in accordance with his circumstances, 

 and he should work always for the most profitable egg yield large or larger 

 as the case may be remembering that profit is measured in dollars and cents 

 when the books are balanced, and remembering, too, that it is often easiest 

 to increase profit by reducing expenses. 



Of amateur poultry keepers whose interest centers in the production of eggs, 

 there are many whose regular occupations leave them time to give a few hens 

 as much care as will keep them laying fairly well under favorable conditions, 

 but will not admit of their giving the fowls the careful regular attention 

 necessary to secure particularly good results in eggs. There is a limit to 

 what any person can do. A workingman, a business man, a professional 

 man is not always able to give his hens the little extra attention required for 

 a better egg yield : even a farmer's ability to make the most of every 

 opportunity afforded by the possession of land, is limited though some 

 people, not farmers, seem to think otherwise. It is the easiest thing in the 

 world to plan all sorts of extra work for other people. When it comes 

 to doing, most people have to choose between one thing and another, and 

 leave the less important thing undone, or do it indifferently. The latter 

 course is the only one open to very many poultry keepers. Those who are 

 wisest get what good they can out of their fowls, and are not disgusted 

 because their hens do not lay as well as the best. Poultry keeping that yields 

 profit with little trouble deserves consideration as well as that which is made 

 profitable by great painstaking. Many who are not able to give hens the best 

 care, are still concerned that what time they can give them shall be used to 

 do the things it will pay best to do. Many whose fowls need little care want 

 to know enough about what good care is to know what does and what does 

 not constitute neglect under the conditions to which their fowls are subjected. 

 However little time the reader is able to devote to his fowls, he is urged to 

 study the chapter as a whole ; for until one has a general knowledge of the 

 ways and means of handling laying stock, he cannot determine how to handle 

 his stock most satisfactorily. 



To avoid repetitions the text of the chapter is adapted to business poultry- 

 men making a specialty of market eggs. Information and suggestions for 

 other classes of poultry keepers is placed in parentheses, or given in the foot 

 notes. 



