PUBLISHER'S INTRODUCTION. vIr 
the question at once arises: Why cannot $3,000 be made from 
3,000 hens? In the first place, it is rare to find in such calculations 
that anything is set down for labor, the care of thirty fowls being re- 
garded as mere pastime and occupying, we will say, only three-quar- 
ters of an hour per day. But, let suppose that our flocks increase 
to 600 birds—a comparatively small number. We now find that 
instead of three-quarters of an hour per day we have to give 
fifteen hours per day—a demand upon time and strength which 
would soon break down any ordinary man, 
Somebody, claiming to have 3,000 fowls, tells us that we ought 
never to let a day pass without examining personally each bird, so as 
to see if it is in health, and he further declares that ouly in this way 
can we be sure of success. Let ussee. Suppose it takes just half a 
minute to examine a fowl carefully; then, to examine 3,000 fowls 
will take just 1,500 minutes, or 25 hours, which is a Zé/e more time 
than we have ever been able to put into a day’s work. The fact 
is, that very few people have any idea of what a thousand is, and 
none have any idea of what a million is. One man wrote a book 
of recipes, etc., and has advertised it as “A Million of Facts for the 
People.” His book consists of about 1,000 pages; there are 53 
lines to the page, and about 10 words to a line, or 530,000 words 
in the book, so that if his claim be well founded, every word must 
embody the statement of at least two facts!! It is needless to say 
that the claim has no foundation in fact. 
The same unsound calculations which seem to infest poultry 
keeping are found to affect almost every other business, and suc- 
cess is only to be attained in any undertaking, by intelligence 
industry, economy and perserverance. As soon as we get beyond 
a very narrow limit, the influence of personal work becomes a 
trifling element, and we have to depend upon the help of human 
beings quite as much as upon the good qualities of our fowls. 
And every one knows how uncertain and unreliable most human 
help is. 
We do not make these statements for the purpose of deterring 
any one from entering upon the raising of poultry on a large scale, 
provided they bring to the undertaking the requisite amount of 
