72 LL55ONS IN POULTRY KLLPING SECOND 5LRIL5. 



ing for all his experience as he goes, but it is the most expensive way to learn, and also the 

 most discouraging, and where one persists and makes a success scores give up either from dis- 

 couragement or lack of funds. Even with plenty of capital it usually takes three or four years 

 to get a poultry plant started this way in running order and netting anything above expenses. 

 A man who knows the business may begin with only a few hundred dollars, a good reputation, 

 and good .credit., and by hard work and the most rigid economy, boih on the plant and in the 

 household, may get along and ahead, but it is not an easy road to affluence. 



What Poultry Keeping Offers Those For Whom a Change of 

 Occupation is Desirable. 



To a great many people engaged in occupations injurious to their health, or utterly distaste- 

 ful to them, or in which compensation is small, and chances of advancement smaller, poultry 

 culture seems to offer a way of bettering themselves. Yet I have found comparatively few, 

 ever, of these, who were willing to work themselves into the business in ways that gave reason- 

 able assurance or their being able to continue in it permanently. The bane of the poultry busi- 

 ness seems to be the desire of everyone starting in it to "boss,"' to be his own boss if possible, 

 if not to secure a position as manager and ''boss" for someone else. 



There are many poultrymen in the business, making livings of all grades, from a bare sub- 

 sistence to comfortable independence and a bank balance that shows a gratifying increase 

 nearly every year, who got into it from one of the classes we are now considering; but so far 

 as I have known them they have worked into poultry culture gradually. Either they went to 

 work for poultrymen and learned the business thoroughly, or they found it possible to build up 

 their stock of poultry in the days and hours which had they had only their other occupation 

 would have been idle. In a great many instances, too, the help of one or more of the other 

 anembers of the family has been an important factor. Perhaps the most common case is where 

 a wife equally interested with her husband looks after the poultry when he is unable to do so. 

 Occasionally perhaps I should say often the wife is the better poultry keeper, and better 

 inanager of the two, though rather averse to being known to the world as the head of the con- 

 cern. In most instances where women successfully carry on a poultry business in their own 

 name the male members of the family give such assistance as they can, though occasionally a 

 woman is left entirely dependent upon her own efforts and such help as she may hirf. 



In general it may be said that to make a satisfactory exchange from some other line into 

 poultry keeping requires exceptional conditions. Many who would like to do so cannot, and 

 >ome who would be better for the change could it be effected find it impossible. It should be 

 *aid also with reference to poultry culture as a business for those not in robust health that their 

 adaptability to it will depend more on whether they can stand steady work and exposure than 

 Jipon ability to do hard work. A poultry keeper must be about in all weathers. He may 

 tn range his plant to make his labor as light as possible, and to have everything adapted to the 

 comfort of fowls and chicks; but still occasions will arise when in heat, or cold, wind, rain, or 

 snow he must get about and look after his stock, and if he cannot stand such exposure, and 

 Cannot occasionally work long hours he had belter not go deeply into poultry keeping. In 

 j*ome diseases long hours and exposure are not injurious, provided there is not too much over- 

 time, and one takes proper c?<re of himself after exposure, and in such cases poultry keeping 

 may be unexcelled as a health >.2Storer. The great thing is to keep the business within the 

 limits which will not make it too great a burden. 



What Poultry Keeping Offers Those With Money to Invest or 



Land to Occupy. 



Under this heading we consider poultry culture as an investment for men who do not intend 

 to give their poultry plants their personal supervision, or who plan to hire an expert to run 

 the business until under his instructions they become qualified to manage it for themselves. 



A great many people every year contemplate poultry culture seriously from this point of 

 view. Men with money to invest, having heard reports of large profits from poultry, imagine 

 that by investing money in a poultry farm they can have their money pay them ten or twelve 



