CHAPTER I 

 Profits in Poultry 



NOT A QUICK-GET-RICH SCHEME 



Father: "Now, see here! If you marry that 

 young pauper how on earth are you going to live?" 



Sweet girl: "Oh! we have figured that all out. 

 You remember that old hen my aunt gave me?" 



"Yes." 



"Well, I have been reading a poultry circular, and 

 I find that a good hen will raise twenty chickens in a 

 season. Well, the next season that will be twenty-one 

 hens ; and as each will raise twenty more chicks, that 

 will be 420. The next year the number will be 8400,. 

 the following year 168,000, and the next 3,360,000. 

 Just think! At only fifty cents apiece we will then 

 have $1,680,000. Then, you dear old papa, we'll lend 

 you some money to pay off the mortgage on this. 

 house." 



She had figured it all out like many another person- 

 has and got rich on paper, but, unfortunately, the hen 

 died. In no line of work or business are such large 

 fortunes made (on paper) in so short a time as in 

 poultry keeping. Here is how an incubator manufac- 

 turer puts it in his catalog: "Suppose one starts with 

 fifty hens, for example. If the hens are properly 

 selected, and one year old, they should yield from 

 twenty-five to forty eggs per day from December until 

 June ; say 245 eggs per week. These eggs, placed m. 

 incubators weekly, should insure at least 175 chicks per 

 week, after the hatching begins. As broilers are 

 usually marketed when three months old, one would 



