AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
227 
ON THE COST OF POULTRY KEEPING. 
Perhaps there has never been a time since 
the poultry fancy began to spread and to 
become general, when this inquiry could be 
entered upon with a greater chance than 
now, of setting the fowls upon the debtor 
side of the account; and all who have reared 
poultry, even although it may have been for 
amusement only, must have felt it very up¬ 
hill work to keep up a stock, without allow¬ 
ing them continually to perform that singular 
feat so detrimental to the interest of the 
breeder— i.e., eating off their own heads. 
The early part of the present season was so 
inimical to rearing early chickens, those fa¬ 
vorites of the stock which often prove, in 
every way, more profitable than all which 
are raised later in the year, that the most 
mature among the young birds in many 
poultry-yards are now positively April chick¬ 
ens. The excessively high price of corn, 
even up to the present time, has also acted 
detrimentally in more ways than one ; the 
stock of the breeder has become so burden¬ 
some to feed, that, instead of following the 
more beneficial plan of allowing the fowls to 
await the demand, he has permaturely del¬ 
uged the market with a number greatly ex¬ 
ceeding the demand, thus naturally reducing 
prices below the real, not to say fancy, value. 
As the result of the plentiful harvest with 
which our country has been blessed, these 
things will naturally right themselves in 
time ; but in the meanwhile, the breeder will 
have to consider the best course he can pur¬ 
sue to prevent that pleasure becoming ex¬ 
pensive from which he had naturally hoped 
to realise aprofit. We are led to make these 
reptarks in reply to the following communi¬ 
cation from one of our correspondents. 
“ Some time ago, I, like many others, took 
it into my head to keep poultry. I have a 
great delight in them, but have never been 
able to make them pay their way. I have 
seen some very enticing accounts in some of 
the poultry publications to green-horns such 
as .myself, as to the profit there is to be de¬ 
rived from the keeping of poultry, in addition 
to the pleasure and amusement they afford ; 
as to the amusement and pleasure I quite 
agree with them, but as to profit I dispute 
hem in some measure ,• however so far as 
my experience goes, I have not been able to 
make them yield the cost of their own meat; 
and I am inclined to think that it is a very 
difficult thing to make it a profitable business. 
I am sorry for this, knowing as I do, many 
working men who take a great delight in 
their poultry, but who at the same time have 
been as unsuccessful as myself, and will ul¬ 
timately be compelled to give them up on 
this account. Working men can not afford 
to keep their stocks of poultry for mere 
amusement; for in general that is the best 
amusement to the lower class, which affords 
the most of the necessaries of life, and ena¬ 
bles them to bring up their families in the 
best circumstances. 
“ I have, however, an impression that our 
want of success may be the result of igno¬ 
rance, and therefore apply to you in the 
hope that you will lay down a plan on which 
working men can keep poultry to profit, as 
well as pleasure; 1 may add, that here the 
produce of the poultry-yard must be sold for 
culinary purposes, and no such prices as 
those got by breeders can be obtained ; for 
instance, chickens will not bring more than 
Is. per score, taking the average of the year. 
I will illustrate my point by supposing a 
person beginning with six good hens and a 
cock; such, according to poultry writers, will 
lay on an average 3 eggs each per week, or 
about 150 each per anumn; six hens at this 
rate would yield 900 eggs, which if sold at 
20 for Is. would amount to 45s. The cost of 
these seven head, or the amount of corn con¬ 
sumed by them, will be somewhere about 
one-third of a pint daily each; or, in the ag¬ 
gregate, 852 pints per annum. Now if this 
corn is good, and of various sorts (as I am 
informed by one of your correspondents in 
this week’s Chronicle it should be), it can not 
be bought for less that Id. per pint, which 
will make their eatage amount to 71s., add 
to this 9s. for extras during illness, moulting, 
animal food, &c., &c., and you have the to¬ 
tal cost 80s. which leaves the keeper of them 
minus 35s. for the year, giving his trouble 
into the bargain both of attendance and sel¬ 
ling eggs. Now, sir, this is something like 
what does occur here, and if you can put us 
into a better plan, or inform us of a stock that 
will yield so that they will clear their way, I 
shall be for ever thankful, as there are few 
who will not gladly give their trouble for 
their pleasure. If you can comply with this 
in your Chronicle, I shall be forever obliged. 
R. D.” 
We are not among those who fancy that 
the amateur can make great profits, but we 
believe any stock of fowls, of a good sort, 
may be made more than self-supporting, and 
leave the pleasure for profit. We must de¬ 
fine what we consider the limits of amateur¬ 
ism ; we do not mean speculators who lay 
out large sums with the expectation of sel¬ 
ling and getting a profit; we rather consider 
these to belong to the class of dealers, but by 
the amateur we mean the person who, hav¬ 
ing supplied himself with good stock birds, 
according to his means, depends on them to, 
at any rate, support themselves. 
The most expensive kind of feeding for 
poultry is keeping them entirely on one kind 
of food; this idea is the result of experience. 
If a stock is fed entirely on barley, or on 
barley-meal, it is astonishing how soon they 
will come to the end of a quarter. We there¬ 
fore strongly recommend a variety, and let 
the owner of the fowls (and of the corn) give 
it out, although he may employ another to 
scatter it among them ; this piece of advice 
is not given with any reference to the honesty 
of those who may have charge of the poul¬ 
try, but that the owner may know the exact 
quantity which will satisfy the fowls, know¬ 
ing also that they are satisfied with it. 
Kill, sell, or get rid of all stock which is 
not likely to become productive, as soon as 
you can. From the middle of the year to the 
end of it, the chickens are expensive to feed, 
especially the cockerels ; which, if intended 
for eating, should, for economy’s sake, be 
killed at five months old, or little more. 
The past eleven weeks may be considered 
about the most expensive of the year, many 
of the chickens being grown up and not many 
sold or eaten. During these eleven weeks 
our own stock has included 155, reduced 
during the time by selling, eating, and death, 
to rather more that 100, giving an average of 
about 125. They have consumed about three 
sacks of barley, one of oats, and three bush¬ 
els wheat with meal in proportion, and more 
delicate food for chickens as given below. 
Forty-one were old fowls,and the remainder 
chickens of various ages. The cost has 
been during these eleven weeks: 
£ s. d. 
Corn.4 0 6 
Barley Meal and Pollard.2 17 4 
.. Pearl Barley, Groats, and Rice.3 0 0 
9 17 10 
This, vvith a little meat occasionally and 
other small expenses, might be reckoned 
close upon one pound a-week, which was 
considered too much to spend on a stock in¬ 
tended to be self-supporting, although it 
gives a smaller average to each fowl, than 
that, of R. D. So much for past experience; 
now for our plans for the future. The breed¬ 
ing stock is reduced to what is considered 
the requisite number, i.e., three families or 
fifteen fowls ; twenty-nine Cochin hens and 
pullets with one cock are also kept; these 
being good winter layers it is reckoned they 
will with their eggs pay for meal for all, 
whether the eggs are sent to market or used 
in the family, reckoned at shop prices. In 
addition to these, there are thirty young 
fowls which will remain on hand ; being con¬ 
sidered good enough to take their places, 
when the opportunity shall arrive, in the 
yards of other amateurs. The remainder 
are chickens for eating. 
The plan of keeping a good number of 
Cochins for the supply of eggs through the 
winter, we have practised with success for 
several years, and we believe those who 
have a number of these truly useful fowls, 
from a good laying stock , need never be with¬ 
out eggs. But how few persons consider 
them with reference to their most valuable 
properties ; we should like from curiosity to 
know if any of our readers, in supplying 
themselves with Cochin China fowls, have 
put the question “is this a good laying stock ?” 
or have all asked only “ do they breed clear 
in color V' We have this year bought—no 1 
we beg pardon, not bought—such an unusal 
occurrence in our housekeeping as the pur¬ 
chase of eggs was quite forgotten at the right 
time, so we borrowed two eggs, and three 
Cochin hens, ashamed, no doubt, of such an 
occurrence, immediately began to lay. 
At the risk of repetition, we will conclude 
with the items which we think likely to make 
fowls self-supporting, where the market for 
them, and for their produce is bad, and re¬ 
munerative where it is pretty good. 
1st. Keep a small number of fowls in pro¬ 
portion to the space they can have. 
2d. Let the food be varied, and if possi¬ 
ble, let the owner give it, or let him at any 
rate see that it is not scattered in waste, and 
yet that the fowls have enough to satisfy 
their hunger. 
3d. Keep no useless fowls. Select as 
early as practicable those which are worth 
keeping (because they will become produc¬ 
tive, either for eggs, or for breeding stock), 
and those which from the beauty of their 
points appear likely to realise a good price ; 
and eat the rest, or send them to market 
while still young. 
All the scraps from the family may be 
turned to good account among the poultry, 
and the use of bran and pollard as a cheap 
help in feeding, ought not to be overlooked. 
Poultry Chronicle. 
To Preserve a Boquet. —A florist of many 
years’ experience gives the followins recipe 
for preserving bouquets for a universal 
period, which may be useful to our lady 
readers: “ When you receive a boquet, 
sprinkle it lightly with fresh water. Then 
put it into a vessel containing soap-suds, 
which will nutrify the roots and keep the 
flowers as bright as new. Take the boquet 
out of the suds every morning and lay it side¬ 
ways, the stalk entering first in the water. 
Keep it there a minute or two, then take it 
out, and sprinkle the flowers lightly by the 
hand with water. Replace it in the soap¬ 
suds, and it will bloom as fresh as when first 
gathered. The soap-suds need changing 
every three or four days. By observing 
these rules, a bouquet can be kept bright and 
beautiful for at least a month, and will last 
still longer in a very passible state—but the 
attention to the fair but. frail creatures, as 
directed above, must be strictly observed, or 
the last rose of summer will not be left 
faded alone, but all will perish.” 
If there is a heaven on earth, it is on a 
soft couch by your own fireside, with your 
wife on one side a smiling baby on the other, 
a clear conscience, and a dozen cigars, and 
a knowledge that you arc out of debt., and 
don’t fear the tailor, sheriff or fievil. 
