40 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
arrangements she sold all her birds in the middle of June, having 
kept them only 74 months. On this occasion she produced 
2262 eggs and made a net profit of £8,.10s. 11d. 
«The time spent over the work during the 74 months was 113} 
hours ; the profit earned was thus at the rate of 1s, 5d. per hour 
—5d. per hour more than in the preceding year. 
“The work of the two seasons sufficiently demonstrates the 
possibilities that lie in poultry-keeping on a small scale. X. had 
an advantage in having the birds at no greater cost than if she 
had reared them herself, but even if she had, for example, in 
the second year paid 7s. 6d. each for the pullets (leaving 2s. 6d. 
per bird as profit for the breeder), she would herself have realised 
a total profit of £5, 12s., or 1s. an hour, for her work. It must be 
remembered, too, that X. made this profit after purchasing practic- 
ally all the food. There are numerous households where house 
scraps would reduce the food-bill very considerably—in many 
families the scraps alone, with the addition of a little meal, would 
be sufficient to keep at least half-a-dozen hens.” 
I have given the experiences of X. at some length because they 
may serve as a guide to anyone taking up suburban poultry- 
keeping. 
Any intelligent person having a little space in a garden or 
back-yard can do as X. did and anticipate similar results. They 
may not be able to buy their stock as cheaply, but there is an 
ample margin of profit to work upon if ordinary market prices 
have to be paid. In the case of X. all eggs were sold at wholesale 
prices, so that where part are used in the household an extra 
sixpence per dozen, the difference between wholesale and retail 
prices, may be credited to the account. Ladies who have a little 
spare time could easily follow the example of X. and if necessary 
extend it. To all intents and purposes it is as easy to keep fifty 
fowls as twenty, if only one has the accommodation for them. I 
know two cases where ladies keep 60 and 100 fowls respectively, 
and both make a very handsome return to the family revenue. 
In each instance the owner renews her stock by buying settings 
of eggs and using broody hens to incubate and rear. There is 
