8 



SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



(a diit floor preferred) is thoroughly dry, and the problem 

 of a Buitaole home for the first floek is solved. Th* expense 

 is small. 'We have known several persons to invest $50 in 

 standard-bred poultry and make th& first year from $200 to 

 $450, nothing being deducted for feed or labor. On the 

 farm the feed is not missed. Where all the feed has to be 

 bought, one dollar will keep each fowl one year. As for the 

 labor, less than two hours a day is required on an average to 

 care for the fowls, old and young. 



There are two especially good places in, this world to 

 raise poultry — in a barnyard and around a kitchen door. 

 The first pen of birds can be kept, almost, «n the scraps that 

 come from the average kitchen. If the owner keeps a horse, 

 or a horse and cow, the fowls will thrive around the barn 

 and kitchen at small expense for food. 



The first year a small advertisement inserted in a local 

 newspaper, or in- a near-by poultry paper will enable you to 

 dispose of your surplus stock. You will want to keep your 

 old birds for two more years' breeding, and also one or two 

 pens of the best of the young stock, as you will wish to en- 

 large your business from year to year. 



By following the simple and easy plan here briefly out- 

 lined, any person of intelligence and industry can get a start 

 in pQultry culture that can be developed into a business that 

 will pay ^rom $1,000 to $5,000 a year. 



We maintain that the standard-bred poultry business is 

 only getting fairly started, for the reason that more than 

 ninety out of every one hundred flocks of poultry in this 

 broad country are mongrel stock. This will not be so, just 

 so sure as poultry keepers once discover the actual advan- 

 tages in raising none but pure-bred fowls. In nine cases out 

 of ten the farmer much prefers pure-bred fowls, and he will 

 buy them if an opportunity offers itself and the prices are 

 low enough. As an example of this, let some farmer or far- 

 mer's wife or son or daughter, living in any neighborhood, 

 become interested in standard-bred fowls and send to some 

 breeder for stock or eggs. As soon as a handsome flock is 

 produced the neighbors show a keen interest and begin to 

 buy. First, 50 cents a sitting is charged for eggs, then 75 

 cents, and finally $1 or more, as the demand increases. One 

 dollar, and then $1.50, and finally $2 is charged for "roost- 

 ers." That is the way it goes until some one breed of pure- 

 bred chickens (Barred Plymouth Bocks, or Light Brahmas, 

 or Brown Leghorns, for example) is found on a dozen or 

 twenty farms in the one neighborhood. And the person who 

 "keeps up'' his stock by adding new blood each season, and 

 who puts care and thought into his work, will be drawn on 

 each year for "new blood" to help out his neighbors. In 

 this way a regular and paying business is soon built up, a 

 business that may be greatly extended by a person who has 

 a business mind and is adapted to poultry raising. 



IN BEHALF OF HIGH^LASS, FUSE-BKKD FOWLS. 



Today hundreds of men and women of widely different 

 ages are breeding standard-bred poultry for profit. It is a 

 pleasure always, and it should be profitable in every case, 

 providing only that those who embark in the business start 

 right and then display a proper amount of good sense and 

 diligence. 



By starting right we mean that, at the beginning, the 

 dime of investment should not be held so close to the eye 

 ' that the dollar of profit just beyond cannot be seen. 



Let us illustrate: The writer himself remembers well 

 of writing to a veteran breeder of Light Brahmas, for two 

 pens of high-grade breeders. We did not ask him how cheap 

 a pen we could get, but what two high-storing pens of six 



birds each would cost. He replied, $100, providing we took 

 the two pens. We did so. We have never reg'retted that 

 purchase. We have the breeder and good common sense to 

 thank for getting a right start. 



But to continue the illustration. Those twelve birds 

 cost us $100. That looked like an outlandish sum to pay for 

 a dozen "chickens." Our acquaintances all thought so, and 

 not a few of them said so. But we were conceited enough 

 to think that we knew what we were about. This is how we 

 reasoned: "One hundred dollars is a good deal to pay for 

 twelve fowls, but these birds are among the finest that long 

 years of careful breeding have been able to produce. By 

 paying this sum I get the cream of all those years of study 

 and work. I expect to raise the first year three hundred 

 young birds from these two pens. Every one of these three 

 hundred young chicks will have in its veins the royal blood 

 of its parents, and on its plumage will be stamped indelibly 

 the evidence of its proud pedigree. At the end of the first 

 year I will have, not twelve birds,' but three hundred and 

 twelve, and instead of being ordinary stocTi, the whole num- 

 ber will be ehoioe to extra choice — the legitimate result of 

 long years of systematic breeding. It will cost me no more 

 to raise the tnree hundred fine birds than it. would to raise 

 three hundred of the veriest scrubs, but what a difference in 

 the results!" 



We were not disappointed. We sold a few eggs from 

 those old birds at $4 per thirteen and got as high as $10 each 

 for some of the young cockerels. The first season's young 

 stock paid for the old birds three times over and left us' 

 thirty fine breeders in addition to the first eleven — one hen 

 had died. When we bought the old birds they were pullets 

 and yearling cocks. The cocks we used three years as breed- 

 ers and the pullets four years. 



This gives the reader a glimpse into the profitableness 

 of that first purchase of ours. We were fortunate enough 

 to get started right, and as a result we are -in the business 

 today on a scale that was not dreamed of when we wrote 

 our first inquiry for stock. One hundred dollars was a big 

 sum to put into twelve birds, but when this amount was 

 distributed over the large number of fine birds we raised 

 from them, the $100 dwindled down to a few cents per head 

 and we reaped a harvest. 



We have made public this much of our private exper- 

 ience because we know that it contains a valuable lesson 

 for the scores of others who stand today where we stood 

 at the beginning. We wish to have them profit by our ex- 

 perience. As long as fully 90 per cent of the poultry in 

 this countrjr of the dung-hill, mongrel variety, there is 

 no fear of overdoing the business of raising and introducing 

 pure-bred fowls. 



Finally, a man can be a man in the poultry business. 

 The earth is beneath his feet, the open sky above his head. 

 He can find a market anywhere for his produce, and need 

 ask odds of no man. But by all means let him move for- 

 ward cautiously. Let him "begin at the beginning" and 

 not expect to accomplish wonders in a fortnight. If there 

 were no drawbacks to the business of poultry-raising, if 

 there were no obstacles to overcome, if there were no dis- 

 appointments in store for you — if all were smooth sailing, 

 with a fat purse for your compass, there would be no money 

 in the business, none whatever, for in that case ©very 

 thoughtless, reckless, shiftless Tom, Dick and Harry who 

 tried it would succeed and there would be nothing left as a 

 reward for earnest effort, careful methods, and perseverance. 



Editor. 



