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day with water until they have sprouted about three inches, when 

 they are ready to be fed. This sprouting I would do in the south room 

 of the house or basement. This room could be arranged with shelves 

 on which to place the trays of sprouting grain and would make a 

 warm place in winter in which to do the sprouting. As far as pos- 

 sible, this green food should be fed in small quantities every noon. 



POULTRY RAISING AS A BUSINESS. 



Poultry raising is a business the same as any other business and 

 must be thoroughly understood to be a success. It takes a business 

 man to run a poultry farm as well as it takes a business man to run a 

 savings bank. Every man cannot run a bank, nor can every man run 

 a poultry farm. If you have never had any experience in raising 

 poultry, then I would advise you to start by raising a small flock as 

 a side line for a few years. If you cannot make this small flock pay, 

 the chances are that you will not be able to make a larger flock pay 

 enough income to make it very profitable. If, after a few years, 

 you have decided that you can make it pay, then start into it as a 

 business, but, by all means, start slow and grow up in your business. 

 If you are building up your own plant, plan it all out before you put 

 up your first building and try to figure out what it is going to cost 

 before you start. That is what I call business. Starting into any- 

 thing without any plans and without any knowledge of the business 

 is what I call " risky business." 



ILLUSTRATION OF FIVE-ACRE POULTRY FARM. 



(By J. A. Ayres, LaPlata, Mo.) 



This plan shows the location of poultry houses, residence, out- 

 buildings, garden, driveway, orchard, fields, etc. I would grow on 

 this farm corn and clover. The amount of poultry that can be handled 

 on this size farm will furnish plenty of fertilizer to keep the land 

 growing continuous crops of corn, and one can realize more money 

 out of corn on rich land with the same amount of labor than any other 

 crop. I would count on one hundred bushels of corn to the acre after 

 the first year, putting all the manure from the poultry houses on the 

 corn land, and a cornfield is the finest place about a poultry farm to 

 grow chicks rapidly, strong and healthy. 



I would use the orchard for colony houses, and also place some 

 of them along the edge of the cornfield, and let the chicks have the 

 run of this field. I prefer to use colony houses about four feet wide 

 by six feet long, which will accommodate fifty chicks from hatching 

 time until they should be gathered into winter quarters, or could be 

 divided up into smaller quantities if the colony houses become 

 crowded. I would start my poultry farm with about fifty of these 

 colony houses. They are inexpensive and give most excellent re- 

 sults. 



