52 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
livelihood from poultry the proposition becomes entirely different. 
One may keep ten fowls and make a profit of £8 per annum, but 
it is more difficult to make £30 from a hundred birds, and more 
difficult still—but still possible—to make £300 from a thousand 
fowls. It isnot a simple sum in proportion. There is the question 
of labour, rent and interest, never reckoned by the man keeping 
a few pullets for domestic purposes. There is the danger of disease 
in big flocks ; there is the packing, carriage and marketing of eggs ; 
there are the appliances, the egg-boxes and a hundred other items 
that eat up profits. 
What amount of capital is necessary to make £400 per annum 
from poultry ? Supposing one desired to buy a business already 
producing that amount of profit. In the first place, it would be 
extremely difficu!t to find such a business—there are probably not 
a hundred such in England. But having found the business, the 
difficulty would be to find anyone willing to sell it at a reasonable 
figure, for, despite its difficulties, a well-organised and profitable 
poultry farm is one of the most fascinating businesses in existence. 
It is a delight to see one’s baby chicks grow from little balls of 
wool, through their various stages, up to feathered giants laying 
their diurnal egg. Few industries bring us so close to creation ; 
few keep one so intensely interested. 
But having found someone willing to sell a poultry business 
yielding £400 per annum, what would one have to pay for it? 
First of all, not less than five years’ profits for the goodwill. 
That is £2000. One must suppose a stock of 2000 laying and 
stock birds. At 7s. 6d. each that is another £750. Put down 
buildings and appliances at only £750 and you have a total of 
£3500. This sum invested in Exchequer Bonds would produce 
£200 per annum without risk. A poultry farm, even for the expert, 
is not unattended with adventure, but for a novice it is a gamble, 
and a very real gamble at that. 
At the same time, I think that poultry-farming conducted upon 
sound lines is a good investment, provided there is a fair amount 
of business ability and some knowledge behind it. It is not a 
game for the slacker or the dilettante. And one had better begin 
