POULTRY FOR PROFIT 11 



ence, make a flying leap into "the chicken business." 

 You would not think of doing it with any other busi- 

 ness. Why imagine that poultry culture is so mean 

 and insignificant a thing that it needs neither 

 knowledge nor preparation ? The best way to learn 

 the "poultry business" is to hire out to a poultryman 

 and learn to do by doing. The second best way is to 

 begin with a few hens in your own back yard, keep 

 accurate account of every cent received and spent, 

 of poultry and eggs used by the family, and of 

 losses, and see at the end of the year what your 

 profit is. When you have made twenty-five hens pay 

 a profit of a dollar or more a year per hen, you are 

 ready to increase the number, and not till then. 



Some people have the knack of raising poultry; 

 some have not. Put no more money into it than you 

 can afford to lose till you have found out which sort 

 of person you are. 



BEFORE YOU BEGIN 



Most of the people who read this book already 

 know something about chickens, have "kept hens" 

 after a fashion and raised chicks with hen mothers. 

 Perhaps you have now some common stock on which 

 you can practice. If you have not, buy or borrow a 

 sitting hen. She will probably cost a dollar if she is 

 large enough to be a good mother, and a setting of 

 eggs will cost another dollar. Learn how to set a 

 hen, how to keep her from breaking the eggs and 

 from dying on the nest from the attacks of mites; 

 how to save some of the chicks which do not pip the 

 shell, how to raise every chick hatched, barring 

 accidents, and how to keep them growing. Study 

 Mother Biddy's ways and learn how she keeps her 

 babies warm and at the same time hardens them. 

 She is mistress of the art of combining warmth, 



