IN THE- POULTRY YARD. 49 
Now, it so happened my wife had kept accurate accounts of all 
our income and outgo in regard to the hens, and although the con- 
ditions were not quite th2 same as now, yet they were sufficiently 
so to enable me to get at the figures I needed. 
I found that in former years it had cost $1.25 per bird for 
the year’s sustenance. But, in this case, the cost had been diminished 
by various little items, such as waste from our own table, etc. 
But, as we had previously bought all the food, whereas now we 
could easily raise a considerable portion of it, these two differences 
might perhaps be allowed to offset each other, and [ therefore put 
down $1.30 as the cost of keeping one hen ‘n food for a year, 
The receipts from eggs alone ought to be at least ten dozen eggs 
at 30 cents per dozen, which would be $3.00, and this would leave 
$1.70 for labor, interest on houses, fences, etc., and for profit. 
So far the calculation was quite simple, and the data not diffi- 
cult to get at, for even if I had had no record it would not have been 
difficult to tell what it cost to keep for a week the seven hens anda 
rooster which I had now cooped up, and then a very simple sum 
in arithmetic would have given me the information I needed. 
But when it came to the cost of housing, attendance, range, etc., 
the exact figures were not so easily got at. A dozen or twenty 
fowls may be housed by means of makeshifts which may be said to 
cost nothing, because even the labor is merely pastime, and the atten- 
dance is mere amusement. One thousand fowls cannot be cared 
for in any such way, and I had no data, and did not know where 
to look for any. Geyelin’s work is very explicit on the subject, but 
the conditions are very unusual, while Stoddard is singularly deficient 
in those statements of time and cost which are so important in a 
matter of this kind, and which are so apt to creep into a record of 
actual experience. 
After much thought and figuring, I came to the following con- 
clusions :— 
1. That if the cost of housing and attendance were left out of 
the calculations, I could make a clear profit of $1.70 per hen. 
2. That with my present help and facilities, I could take care 
of about 250 hens and their young. To do.this work there was 
