70 LL55ON5 IN POULTRY KE.LPING SECOND 5ERIE.S. 



LESSON VI. 



SECTION III. 



Branches of Poultry Culture and Classes of Poultry Keepers Con= 



sidered in Their Relation to Prospective Poultry 



Keepers* Expectations of Success. 



THAT is a longer title than I am in the habit of making, but nothing shorter seemed to 

 answer the purpose. I want to tell the reader and particularly the reader inter- 

 ested in the possibilities of poultry culture for pleasure and profit, or for that com- 

 bination of pleasure and profit which the great majority are seeking, what poultry 

 culture offers him, the conditions which it imposes, and the limits of different branches and 

 limitations of various individuals. 



Poultrymen have to deal with four principal classes of domestic fowls, chickens, turkeys r 

 ducks, and geese. The first class mentioned are o many times more commercial importance 

 than the other three combined. 



What Poultry Culture Offers the Farmer. 



The great bulk of our poultry products comes from farms where they are produced under 

 conditions which make the receipts for them practically all profit. This being the case it is 

 not often that an exclusive poultry business can be conducted profitably in any section where 

 the farms produce more eggs and poultry than will supply the local markets. 



And in these sections where exclusive poultry farms are rarely successful, it is not generally 

 advisable for farmers to go into market poultry culture on a scale that requires them to give 

 any considerable part of their time to poultry, or that makes poultry culture more than a 

 minor feature of their farm work. But between the conditions in which poultry is usually 

 kept on a farm and the limits I have indicated, there is a difference which leaves room for con- 

 siderable enlargement of farm flocks and improvement of farm methods, and a considerable 

 increase of receipts, and consequently of profits, from poultry without its encroaching on 

 either time or land which might more profitably be devoted to other uses. On most farms the 

 best policy to pursue in developing the poultry interests of the farm is simply to make the 

 most of farm 'advantages by farm methods. The best way to go about this is indicated in the 

 stories of the several farmers who developed as poultrymen. It is a mistake for a farmer, or 

 any one else whose interest in poultry is just beginning, to undertake to plan for a poultry busi- 

 ness on an extensive scale. The wise way is to extend and increase operations year by year,, 

 little by little, as results and experience indicate the most profitable lines to follow. 



Ordinary poultry keeping on the farm includes, almost universally, the maintenance of a flock 

 of laying hens, varying in numbers from a few dozen to several hundred, and the rearing each 

 season of as many chickens as can be conveniently taken care of. On most farms no special 

 attention is given to the production of eggs and poultry for the seasons of scarcity and period* 

 of high prices. 



The profits from the poultry on such a farm may, in nearly every instance, be much increased 

 by keeping better sfock, by more careful selection of breeding stock, by disposing of poultry 

 either before or after the seasons when most farmers are in the habit of disposing of their 



