POULTRY. 303 



120 dozen eggs at market price, .... 125 16 

 Fowls brought, 10 16 



135 32 

 Cost of keep, 22 09 



$13 23 

 By three fowls increase since January 1, . . 1 00 



Net profit, 114 23 



Two and a half barrels of hen manure now saved. Price of 

 corn from $1.60 to $2.16 per bag. Price of eggs, from 14 to 

 18 cents per dozen, except in January, when they were 22 

 cents. 



These statements demonstrate that there is a profit in keep- 

 ing hens in addition to the manure they make, although kept 

 under circumstances not the most favorable. The fowls have 

 been shut up in a coop 35 x 40 feet nearly the entire year, being 

 allowed to range outside only about a month in the spring and 

 two months in the fall. 



They have had, besides the grain specified, the scraps from a 

 small family, occasionally grass, refuse cabbages, broken bones, 

 and rarely, pork scraps. They have also had access. to heaps of 

 old plastering and part of a barrel of ground bone ; egg shells 

 saved and fed to them mainly in the winter, when they often 

 had warm food and warm water. 



They are of mixed breeds, native, Poland and Shanghai com- 

 bined. The last element diminished as much as possible of late. 



The stock has been renewed every year at- an unusual cost, 

 in consequence of the necessity of cooping the breeding hens 

 and the devastations of rats, hawks and neighbors' cats upon the 

 unprotected chickens. 



The hens have been set in a small place apart from the laying 

 hens and have not hatched very successfully. 



The hatching and rearing of poultry is much more profitable 

 where the fowls can have the range of the barnyard and farm 

 for the year (except in planting season) . There is no difficulty 

 in making hens lay in winter provided you have a stock of 

 spring pullets well housed and fed ; — the more animal food the 

 more eggs, — access to gravel, lime in some form, and water 



