ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF POULTRY CULTURE 35 



the poultry industry now generally agree that this type of plant 

 cannot be maintained on a large scale continuously. 1 



Farm methods. Egg farming by the colony system has been 

 developed on an extensive scale in the district about Little Comp- 

 ton, Rhode Island. The colony plan is used to some extent in 

 other places, but in this district almost every farm makes the 

 keeping of poultry for eggs a specialty, and all use the same plan 

 of housing, and in general the same methods. 



By the colony plan the stock of fowls is distributed over the land 

 in small flocks. Ideally the system is to move the houses at least 

 once a year, but in practice they are usually allowed to remain in 

 one place much longer. That, however, is largely dependent upon 

 the convenience of the farmer and upon other uses which he may 

 wish to make of the land. Land good for other purposes is not as 

 likely to be continuously occupied by poultry as land which cannot 

 be advantageously cropped. No fences are used. 2 The houses are 

 frequently placed in pastures, and it is not unusual to see fowls, 

 geese, and cattle in the same pasture. Houses may be only a few 

 rods apart, or there may be but four or five houses (each holding 

 about thirty-five birds) on as many acres of land. The usual prac- 

 tice is to renew about half the stock each year. This requires the 

 rearing of not many more chickens each year than there are old 



1 A great many persons who profess to be, or are by some considered, competent 

 to speak on this point may still be found who will assert that this statement is 

 incorrect, and cite instances of large intensive plants said to be financially success- 

 ful. To the author as a poultry journalist trying to learn and make public the 

 truth about such things, these plants and the claims made for them were trouble- 

 some, until he adopted the plan of declining to accept the existence of such plants 

 as proof of the value of their methods unless the plants had been in operation 

 under the same ownership for ten years. Other tests might have been applied, 

 but this was found sufficient. With the exceptions to be noted in this chapter, 

 instances of large intensive poultry plants in operation for ten years under the 

 same management are very rare. Of those started with large capital not one (so 

 far as the writer can remember or learn) lasted so long. This fact puts the bur- 

 den of proof on those who claim to succeed by such methods. The reader, if not 

 convinced, by what he learns of the principles of poultry keeping, that such claims 

 are not valid, should at least decline to accept them until they are established by 

 evidence beyond dispute. As a rule the reports and financial statements put out 

 are incomplete, inadequate, and therefore essentially false. 



2 Except when pullets are first put in the large colony houses, when a small 

 yard is made, of stakes and poultry netting, to keep them from wandering off 

 before they become wonted to the house. 



