THE CALL OF THE HEN. 13 



one of those unprofitable holes would have started a fine poul- 

 try plant, and the good little hens, would have brought in a 

 living for their owners. 



There is money in poultry ! Every inch of a hen is valuable. 

 I would like to give you one of the values in the hen and what 

 it costs to keep her. 



First, there are the eggs she will lay if properly fed and 

 treated. Twelve do*: en eggs per year is the average, although 

 I personally know poultry plants now being operated in South- 

 ern California where the output as shown by carefully kept 

 records is sixteen dozen per year. The average price at the 

 Arlington egg ranch for the past year was thirty-one cents a 

 dozen, because the proprietor arranged to have his hens laying 

 when eggs cost the most in the fall and winter months. 



Sixteen dozen eggs at thirty-one cents a dozen means each 

 hen brings in $4.96 in eggs whilst her food costs ten cents per 

 month or $1.00 per year, leaving $3.76 as profit for eggs. 



There is still another source of profit in the hen and that 

 is in the droppings. At several of the Experiment Stations it 

 has been found that a hen voids about 100 pounds of droppings 

 per year. These droppings have been analyzed and show a 

 value as fertilizer of from thirty to thirty-five cents per hen; 

 the value being controlled not only by the market demand but 

 also by the quality; the droppings being richer as fertilizer 

 where the food was rich in protein, and where the hens are 

 fed the ''full and plenty" method. 



"What do you do with the hen droppings?" I asked a be- 

 ginner. "Throw them away, glad to get rid of them," was the 

 reply. At the rate of ten dollars per ton that was a vAaste of 

 fifty cents per hen. Two of our neighbors had lawns which 

 were in so bad a condition from the soil being worn out that 

 they were on the point of having them dug out and new soil 

 put in, and the whole re-sowed, when they thought of their 

 hen droppings. These they had spread over the lawns and 

 then raked off again and the lawns well watered. In a month's 

 time those lawns looked beautiful, better far than if they had 

 been re-made and at far less cost. 



When I lived in the Eastern states my window garden 

 was the envy and admiration of every one that passed; there 



