6 CAPONS FOR PROFIT. 
to $1.00 per hen. ‘This result was obtained under 
an unusual combination of favorable conditions; 
but I had already reached the limit to which I could 
hope to extend the business safely and profitably. 
Where the conditions are less favorable (and that is 
the usual case), either the number of fowls kept 
must be decreased accordingly, or the profits will 
dwindle down rapidly. 
Poultry as ordinarily kept on the farm and other 
rural homes (in limited numbers mainly) does pay, 
and usually pays better than any other kind of farm 
stock. There cannot bea particle of doubt about 
it. The anxious question, ‘‘ Does poultry-keeping 
pay?’’ can only have reference to extensive opera- 
tions. When I hear of any one, who is out of 
profitable employment, starting out to keep 1,000 
hens for egg laying, or to raise spring chickens by 
means of incubators and brooders, I always feel 
sorry for him, and make up my mind that after a 
while he will have a bigger stuck of experience and 
a smaller amount of money. 1 say this advisedly. 
I well remember the delightful day I once spent 
with poultry editors Jacobs and 
thee Boyer, visiting the chicken-rearing 
establishments in Hammonton, N J. 
What I saw there interested me greatly, but it did 
not fire up my enthusiasm to the point of making 
me take hold of the business. Right there, with 
climate and soil conditions about as favorable as 
one might imagine, with good counsel to be had at 
first hand from the older neighbors who diligently, 
perseveringly, but carefully, had worked their way 
gradually into moderate success, with plenty of 
