66 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
would have been £94, while if Mr Hall had sold all his eggs and 
bred no chickens his profit would have been just under £70. It 
should be noted, however, that as Mr Hall used less than £50 
capital, he shows a larger yield on his money. Mr Hall was able to 
use considerably less capital than myself because, during his working 
year, fowls and buildings and appliances were very much cheaper 
than in 1916, when my experiment was made. He also informs me 
that he bought a good many of his houses second-hand, and judging 
from the figures he sets down he got them remarkably cheap. 
A number of his smaller appliances were made by himself. 
All my fowl-houses were new, and made in the most substantial 
manner, two of them having brick foundations and two with 
wooden floors. I take it that my buildings will outlast those of 
Mr Hall, by many years, so that I need not have put down ten 
per cent. for depreciation as I have done to be on the right side. 
Mr Hall, as I said, bought his original stock at a very low figure, 
and he had the good fortune to buy his food-stuffs at least forty 
per cent. cheaper than I did, and he had the great good fortune 
to get nearly as much for the fowls he sold as I did. I certainly 
got a larger price for my eggs, but this hardly compensates for his 
cheap foods and the excellent market he found for the birds he sold. 
No doubt the reason why I got so many more eggs than he did was 
because nearly all my fowls were so much younger than his flock. 
While I sold £183, 15s. 6d. worth of eggs, he sold only £104 worth. 
His actual number of laying birds, he tells me, was 138, and he 
had no fewer than 70 broody hens sitting for the better part of 
nine weeks, the average number of hens laying during the year, 
he thinks, not being more than 100. With such a large proportion 
of his hens being used as broodies, it is not of much account to 
work out his average, but if we include in 188 as I did the whole 
of my stock of 160 the average works out at 110 per bird. Where 
one half of one’s hens are used for hatching it is, of course, quite 
misleading to quote an average for eggs. I was more of an egg- 
farmer and Mr Hall was more of a breeder, but in both instances 
the profits were very much alike. 
The detailed statement of the balance-sheet which Mr Hall 
