6 COMMERCIAL EGG FARMING 



effect that no one could make poultry farm- 

 ing pay. The term of my effort was put 

 down at two or three years. 



What had finally induced me to embark on 

 the egg farm was that I cleared $1100.00 

 above cost of feed on 425 hens in 1906. I 

 felt sure that if I could do this with 425 

 birds, 1000 birds would show, relatively, 

 nearly as good a return. 



That first egg farm was a success, though 

 when I started I could not obtain cash for 

 my eggs, but had to get my returns by "taking 

 it out in trade." This of course gave the 

 storekeeper the opportunity of fixing the 

 price on the goods I sold him as well as those 

 he sold me, a condition similar to the one 

 under which most general farmers in 

 America labor to-day. 



When I left the small community where I 

 began egg farming, it was, through coopera- 

 tive effort and following my methods, pro- 

 ducing and marketing annually for cash 

 $100,000 worth of eggs. 



Though I did not work as hard as my 

 neighbors, all farmers, and I made more 

 money, the labor conditions in British Co- 



