350 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



will it be for the profits if the poultry keeper is a shrewd 

 salesman. One thing at least should be insisted upon : the 

 farmer's wife or son or daughter who undertakes to care for 

 the poultry should receive the income which comes from all 

 products sold, and full value for all eggs and chickens fur- 

 nished for the table. The laborer in the poultry yard is 

 worthy of his hire. 



The Poultry Keeper should be an Account Keeper. 



One thing further I desire to emphasize most earnestly ; 

 that is, the keeping of records and accounts. Here is where 

 most farmers and poultrymen lack. They do not know act- 

 ually how their business stands financially, and are really 

 often working at a great disadvantage, because they do not 

 actually realize Avhich part of their farm operations are 

 bringing profit and which are entailing loss. In the case of 

 the poultry keeper, the matter is not one of diflSculty and 

 need not require much time. A record should at least be 

 kept of the eggs laid daily by each flock or pen of fowls ; 

 and after the doing of this has become a habit, it will not 

 require much urging to induce the interested poultryman to 

 keep individual records of the egg production of his best 

 breeders. 



The financial record is also a simple affair. An inventory 

 is made at least once a year of all the capital invested in the 

 land, the buildings, fences, furnishings, tools, fowls, and of 

 the estimated value of the poultry products on hand. The 

 sum total of all these values is, in commencing the account, 

 charged against the business ; that is, placed on the debit 

 side of the account. Then, during the year (or shorter 

 period of time, if desired), everything that is purchased, in- 

 cluding food, tools, lumber, nails or supplies of any kind, 

 new fowls, etc., and every hour of labor at a fair price, is 

 charged against the business. On the other hand, the value 

 of every egg and every fowl sold or used for the house table 

 and of everything that is disposed of, including the poultry 

 manure and the feathers if they can be sold, is placed on the 

 credit side of the account. At the end of the year, or, in 

 fact, whenever the poultryman wishes to balance his ac- 



