COST OF PRODUCING EGGS, CHICKS, AND FOWLS 227 



labor expensive. He, in common with most other 

 trained business men, believed his best profits must 

 come from lessened cost of production. Ultimately, he 

 worked into a plan of using the low, square laying 

 houses as brooding houses, with an aisle down the center 

 and three pens on a side. Toward autumn, the divi- 

 sions were removed, instead of moving the pullets. 

 Thus, there was no check to laying. This he names " a 

 real factor in successful brooding." This plan is, he as- 

 severates, an outgrowth " to meet the practical condi- 

 tions of a money-making plant." He points out its 

 economy, its adaptability to a man's ideas of saving 

 work and expense, its avoidance of the exposure of work 

 with outdoor brooders, its gain in space, its increased 

 yarding possibilities, its all-the-year use of the buildings. 

 It will be noted that all these points are in the line of 

 both efficiency and economy. 



Passing to talk of eggs, this man says : " Our eggs 

 are in a class by themselves, and we do not seek to follow 

 market quotations." Prices were fixed at 40 cents and 

 60 cents a dozen, according to season, and, on this basis, 

 in the second year, a clear profit of ^4.17 per layer was 

 reported. I have not the figures of the cost of produc- 

 tion ; all costs have been subtracted from the income — 

 not merely that of feed. 



Some producers have reported the cost of production 

 of their eggs at less than three cents a dozen. An ex- 

 perienced editor replied to a query as to " cost of eggs 

 for the average farmer " that it ought to be about six cents 

 a dozen. It has been stated that 98 per cent of the poul- 

 try business of the country is conducted on the farms ; 

 but to "average" five million farms and farmers, more 



