^ c essful Farm M a.va gement. 
103 
w 10 sells all Ins eggs from two farms. Each year he sells every fowl off one farm, in autumn, and 
buys chlckens at about 9d. to is. 2d. each, and so never has any fowls over two years old, and docs 
not rear chicks. One week, when I met him, he had brought in sixty-eight score for the week, and 
I believe contracts all the year round at is. 4c!. per score.” In other words, his egg sales that week 
would amount to £ 4 10s. 8d. 
1 he last example we shall quote is peculiarly interesting for two reasons : — (1) because it is 
that of quite a large farm— over 700 acres ; and (2) because it is often laid down as an axiom by 
ceitain ex cathedi a instructors, that fowls can never possibly pay if any fair charge is made for 
care or labour. For the details of his poultry we are indebted to Mr. J. Knox Lyal, of Pecpy 
Faim, near Stocksfield-on-Tyne, the acreage of which has already been stated, and poultry had 
been thus kept for some three or four years. An old man who was getting unfit for other work 
has their care as his sole duty, and his wage of is. 3d. per day and a house is entirely charged 
to them. No balance-sheet had been kept in strict form, but there were figures enough to show 
the real financial bearing of the concern : thus, it had been ascertained that the weekly expenditure 
(including wages) did not exceed at most £2, and that the receipts for 1886 were A130, showing 
a clear profit of A3°> besides the eggs and fowls used in the household, none of which were 
charged in the above receipts. All eggs were, however, counted, and amounted to 28,300 for 
the year. These were laid by a stock of 220 hens and 17 ducks ; and to replace a portion of 
these 80 pullets were reared, and a lot of ducklings, and 112 cockerels, 86 ducks, and 73 hens 
were sent off the farm during the year. Several kinds had been tried, but the preference was given 
to a cross between Langshan and either Leghorn, Andalusian, or Minorca, the Leghorn cross 
being most easily fattened. Such crosses have been recommended by us in previous pages, and 
account for the egg average, which it will be seen is pretty high for so large a number. Hens 
are never kept beyond three years old, hence about one-third the number of pullets are reared 
annually ; pure-bred cocks are always procured. The eggs are sent twice a week to provision 
and dairy-men in Newcastle and Gateshead, the price during the year ranging from seven to 
sixteen for a shilling. The stock is divided into three flocks, and the houses are all fixtures, two 
being of stone, and the other of wood with a felt roof. The hens are fed twice a day: in the 
morning with scalded meal (barleymeal preferred), the water being boiled in an outside boiler, 
and small potatoes and household fragments also going into the copper ; in the afternoon whole 
corn, fattening birds getting maize, and the laying stock wheat or barley. The chickens after 
hatching are put into coops in the stackyard or a field adjoining, the cockerels when feeding for 
market in a wired run, which has been previously used for mating hens. In the autumn the birds 
pick up a lot of food, when of course the hand-feeding is diminished to save expense, but at no 
time did the weekly outlay exceed that stated, including wages. The poultry are not made a 
“ hobby ” in any sense of the word, but “ only a part of our farm management,” to use the words 
of the writer. It is from this point of view that the example is so specially valuable. How many 
farmers would dream of expending £2 per week upon the poultry as a part of their farm manage- 
ment ? Most of them would consider any man who proposed to do so little better than a lunatic. 
But the poultry paid it all back, with a handsome profit besides. 
Other cases could be given, but space forbids the citation of more than these typical 
examples, given simply to prove from actual testimony that poultry pay upon a farm , though 
systematically fed with good food. It may now be well, before concluding this chapter, to make a 
few practical observations upon the best methods of extending poultry and egg production in this 
country. 
One of the points which has become most apparent is the fact, that a collecting mechanism is 
