PROFITABLE MARKET CHICKENS. 



How the Work of Hatching and Rearing Four Thousand 



Chicks Annually is Done on a Successful Poultry Farm — 



A Description of the Equipment Used — How the 



Chicks are Fed and Cared for — Marketing 



the Products. 



By Arthur C. Smith. 



Dotted among the hills of Norwell and the adjacent coun- 

 try are many establishments for raising soft roasters for 

 the Boston and New York markets. These are famous as 

 South Shore capons. .Briefly stated, the business is this: 

 The chickens are hatched from August first to October fif- 

 teenth. The cockerels are caponized at the proper age and 

 placed on the market when ripe. This is generally between 

 April first and July first. This soft roaster business is one 

 of the best .propositions connected with the poultry indus- 

 try, but it certainly requires a man who understands run- 

 ning incubators and brooders, to conduct it successfully. 



This (the use of incubators and brooders) is the part of 

 the business that we want especially to study and we shall 

 for the time neglect the details of the soft roaster industry 

 to study this, an incidental part of the business. 



We selected the plant of Mr. Smith, located in Norwell,. 

 as the subject, and we were fortunate in our selection, for 

 not only did we find a splendid plant for utility uses, a 

 ^fiock or two of splendid chickens, but we met splendid peo- 

 ple. To talk with Jlr. Smith on any topic is to talk with 

 a thinker an4 you are compelled to think whether you are 

 inclined to or not. Mr. Smith belongs to a class of poultry- 

 men who do their work with their heads rather than with 

 their heels. How he does it we shall endeavor to explain 

 in this article, paying particular attention to the arrange- 

 ment and management of the brooder house. 



There is a reason for this. The chicks that the writer 



