PROBLEMS OF LOCATION 75 



live and sustain himself, poultry can be kept and, if the scale of 

 operations is properly adjusted, can be kept profitably. It is 

 sometimes supposed, and occasionally stated as the result of an 

 individual experience, that poultry cannot be kept in certain locali- 

 ties or under certain conditions, as high altitudes, proximity to 

 salt water, etc. In most cases these views are erroneous. Usually 

 they are based upon instances where failure was due to causes not 

 peculiar to the locality. Adaptability to a wide range of climatic 

 and other conditions is, as has been stated, one of the most valu- 

 able characteristics of poultry, but individual birds are not always 

 affected alike by radical changes of environment, nor is the same 

 individual always equally able to adapt itself to all changes. The 

 process of acclimatization requires time. An individual, or a stock 

 generally, may be so unfavorably affected by a change that it is ad- 

 visable to discard it and try other stock, but, as a rule, by judicious 

 care and breeding a stock may* be established anywhere within a 

 few years. 



Nor are there such differences in results from poultry under 

 different climatic conditions as might be supposed, because, on the 

 whole, the advantages and disadvantages due to such conditions are 

 equalized in a year's work. Thus the long, rigorous winters of north 

 temperate regions are offset by the long, hot summers of the South, 

 and the undesirable features of each, though opposite in nature, 

 may have the same effects on financial results. 1 



1 Theoretically, there should be an intermediate belt in which conditions 

 approached the ideal. If all other conditions could be made uniform for purposes 

 of observation, it might be possible to make a survey that would locate such a belt ; 

 but no such uniformity can be obtained. The adaptability of poultry to climate 

 alone presents an insuperable obstacle to exact computations of the effects of cli- 

 mate. The birds could not be kept standardized to one climate while living in an- 

 other. The general tendency is for birds of the same breeding to give like results 

 within a wide range of climatic conditions, if the food and care are appropriate. In 

 milder climates cheaper buildings may be used, and the labor of caring for the 

 poultry in winter is reduced ; but in general, production is better where outdoor 

 occupations are restricted in winter and the poultry keeper is compelled to give 

 his birds careful attention to get any profit, than where many outdoor occupations 

 can be carried on all winter and the birds may be given less care without hardship to 

 them. Though the season of winter egg production begins earlier in the South, 

 production during the period of high prices does not seem to be enough greater 

 than in the North to give southern poultry keepers generally larger receipts for 

 the winter than are obtained in other sections. 



