92 



soft end of the broom one or two nights until they are glad to get 

 on the roost with the rest. 



The worst feature of the poultry business is its slavery. The 

 poultryman must be on deck 365 days in a year, and in leap years 

 366. Sundays and holidays bring little relief ; for the stock must 

 be fed and watered, the eggs collected, and the chicks and sitting 

 hens looked after as well as at other times. On small plants it is 

 difficult to get a man to step in for a few days, who will not 

 demoralize the whole thing. No man should go into the poultry 

 business who does not have a real love for it; otherwise the 

 monotony and slavery will become intolerable. 



What rewards may a well-equipped poultryman expect? Not 

 a fortune. You can count on your fingers, almost, the men who 

 have made fortunes in the poultry business. And these men have 

 made their money by selling birds and eggs to breeders rather 

 than by catering to the regular trade. But a careful, industrious 

 man, one who has a real liking for the work and has gone into it 

 intelligently, may reasonably expect a good living, a pleasant 

 home, health, and the independence that comes from being one's 

 own master. 



NOVEL WAY TO BREAK UP A HEN. After you have tried 

 every other method you can think of to break up a hen, without 

 avail, just tie a piece of red string or tape to her tail. Tie it so 

 that there wilt be two loose ends, each about six inches long, to 

 flutter behind. The hen will at once lose all interest in a seden- 

 tary life, and will start out of the house as if she was going to a 

 fire. She will run until she is tired out, when she will stop ; then 

 she will start in and after a short rest run again. When night 

 comes you will find her on the roost, cured. Take the ribbon off 

 her tail, if she has not got it off herself. This may seem an heroic 

 method, but as Shakspere observes : 



"Diseases desperate grown 

 By desperate appliance are relieved, 

 Or not at all." 



ECONOMY, PRACTICABILITY. In preparing this book I have 

 been governed by two considerations : economy, practicability. 

 By economy I mean not only frugality in the use of money, but 

 also frugality in the use of time. I am aware that the great 

 majority of those who keep fowls are not able to devote their 

 whole time to the business, but must combine poultry keeping 



