of experience with poultry or with any form of farm life 

 it may be noted that the writer was city born and bred, 

 an accountant by profession, and that when he started 

 he hardly knew a hen from a duck. 



Should the reader by chance be a poultryman of experi- 

 ence his indulgence is craved for much to be found 

 herein that will to him seem simple, even laughable. He 

 is asked to remember that such things are addressed pri- 

 marily to him or to her who knows as little about the 

 birds and the work as the writer did when he started. 

 A special effort is m.ade to save the inexperienced, as far 

 as may be possible, the anxieties and extreme discom- 

 forts suffered by the writer during his first few years in 

 the work, and to make plain and comparatively easy the 

 many little points, simple in themselves, which to the 

 beginner seem veritable mountains of trouble. 



But the writer makes bold to suggest also that even the 

 experienced may find matters herein well worthy of 

 thought and consideration. The problems concerning 

 the industry are in many respects far from being solved, 

 and unless those who operate on comparatively a large 

 scale adopt a more liberal — it might even be said a franker 

 attitude than is now commonly encountered — such prob- 

 lems may never find a solution. This is to be regretted, 

 especially so since it involves a financial loss not only to 

 the individual operator but to the industry as a whole. 



Many points covered herein have their promptings from 

 calls we have had for advice and counsel either from be- 

 ginners or from others in the work who encounter some 

 especial difficulty. These calls become more numerous 

 every day and this work, unselfish in its prompting, may 

 lighten the burden by affording an easy means of answer- 

 ing such calls for help. 



