California Poultry Practice 



CHAPTER I 



SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF CALIFORNIA IN POULTRY 



RAISING 



Climate. — First of all, the advantage is our unsurpassed climate, 

 where chickens can forage outdoors every day in the year without any 

 inconvenience whatever. Here we can raise the best specimens of all 

 breeds outdoors. Breeds that require a long season to make their 

 growth have no trouble to make it without being put in houses at all, 

 except as chicks. 



The very cheapest of poultry houses can be used with comfort to 

 both hens and attendant. A good roof constitutes the making of a 

 good poultry house, as the rest is a small item. 



Good Markets. — Very few places, except the vicinities of New York 

 City or Boston, have such good markets for all poultry products as we 

 have in all parts of the State, Good railroad facilities carry the 

 product to the cities. A growing country can always be depended on 

 for good markets; the Pacific Coast, at least the California part of it, 

 has just commenced to have growing pains, and these will continue 

 for many years yet. All the cities are growing faster than all the 

 rest of the United States and there is a reason for it. Men are getting 

 tired of bufifeting blizzards in winter and falling down with heat 

 prostration in summer. They are looking towards California for a 

 haven they can call home. 



Continuous Green Feed. — In the eastern poultry papers we read of 

 experiments with silos for storing poultry feed for winter, and cellars 

 for oat sprouters. All these things cost money and labor and without 

 doubt they are all necessary adjuncts of an eastern poultry plant, but 

 not in this State. All the year around we can go out in the garden and 

 get our green succulent feed for the hens; all the year around the 

 hens can be turned out on the alfalfa to pick their own green feed. 

 Only those who have lived in a cold climate can appreciate what this 

 means to a poultryman, both as regards the cost of feed for the winter 

 months and the amount of labor necessary to provide something of a 

 succulent nature for the winter months. 



