114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the hens can get to the ground underneath, but has a second 

 floor with room enough for him to pass through himself. He 

 carries about fifty hens to the building. The buildings are 

 set about fifty rods apart. The hens mix in the daytime, but 

 are home at night and in their pens. That man has realized 

 a net income from that flock of more than a thousand dol- 

 lars a year for his labor. He has not Boston or Taunton 

 market at hand. His product has to be shipped two hun- 

 dred miles. The other gentleman has to ship by boat from 

 Eastport. There is no industry in my knowledge where 

 there is such an opportunity to-day for the man or woman 

 who has a liking for it to realize as much on the expenditure 

 as in the making of eggs and poultry. 



Mr. CusHiMAN. What is your experience in regard to 

 killing hens the first, second or third year? 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. My impression is that there is more 

 money in killing birds when about fifteen months old and 

 selling them for spring chickens than in keeping them longer. 

 There is always a time, between hay and grass, when things 

 are in demand, and chickens that are hatched in March or 

 the first of April will go through the year and finish their 

 laying about the next June, and if they are fed for business, 

 and are not fat, will sell very close to chicken prices. This 

 has been my experience, and I am always ready to take 

 the chicken prices. I do not question that hens can be 

 profitably kept three or four years. Something depends on 

 the breed. 



Mr. James Rankin. I confess feeling a little hurt. I 

 cannot understand why my name is always associated with 

 that of the duck. I do not want these people to understand 

 that I raise only ducks. I raise hens, — all kinds of them. 

 I have crossed and recrossed them for some time, and I find 

 that there is nothing that will respond to kind and gentle 

 treatment sooner than a hen. After the war I sold chickens 

 for fifty cents a pound. My neighbors went into the busi- 

 ness, and cut the prices down. Then I branched off" onto 

 ducks. When they commence raising ducks, I do not know 

 what I shall do unless I take turkeys. 



To go back to poultry raising, I will endorse what the 

 gentleman has said, — there is no farm product that will 



