CHAPTER XXXIII 

 BY-PRODUCTS OF POULTRY 



The progressive poultryman is interested in any device that 

 will add to his profits. He will spare no expense to make his 

 fowls comfortable ; he will take great pains with the feeding and 

 watering, and he will devise every conceivable plan to increase 

 egg production, if that is his specialty. Not for a moment would 

 he tolerate conditions that might endanger the welfare of his 

 establishment. No doubt he prides himself that he is on the look- 

 out for opportunities to buy and sell to the best advantage, and 

 perhaps he also flatters himself that he can detect a leak in any 

 of the farm's operations. 



At the same time it is likely this very same poultryman may 

 be neglecting one of the most important, or at least one of the 

 most stable, sources of income — the revenue to be derived from 

 by-products — those things which are usually held as a nuisance. 



Many thousands of dollars are wasted each year in the careless 

 handling or neglect of poultry droppings, while still other thou- 

 sands are wasted because no attention is paid to saving feathers. 



The manure from fowls is rich in nitrogen; it heads the list 

 of farm manures, being worth four or five times the value of stable 

 manure. 



Quantity Produced. — The Maine Experiment Station con- 

 ducted a series of tests on the subject of hen manure, and in one 

 of its bulletins it states that the weight of night droppings from 

 a fowl will average thirty pounds a year, and that this manure 

 contains 0.8 pound of organic nitrogen, 0.5 pound of phosphoric 

 acid, and 0.25 pound of potash. Ordinarily, the value of these 

 elements would amount to a trifle over twenty cents. The way 

 prices have soared on fertilizers, these elements are now worth 

 considerably more. 



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