There IS An 
Off Season 
What They 
Learned 
That while some of the “strictly fresh’’ you pay for were really in the 
hen until comparatively recent times, many could prove an alibi if chal¬ 
lenged. 
A fact too often lost sight of is that there IS an off season for eggs as 
well as for strawberries. Strawberries out of season are the outward and 
visible sign of inward and arrogant oppulence. 
Same way with eggs—only we must have them. 
The farmer—most of him at any rate—handles his chickens just as 
Abraham handled his in the country about the Jordan. 
He accepts them as gifts from an all-wise Providence and seems ter¬ 
ribly afraid to interfere with the Providential plan. 
Often his poultry buildings resemble New Year’s Resolutions in being 
“fearfully and wonderfully made.’’ His chickens are alternately overfed 
and underfed. They molt when they will, take all the time they want to 
do it in, and lay when they have to. 
That’s why so many eggs blush when questioned about their age. 
Fancy poultry has been raised scientifically for many, many years. 
But not until recently did the world wake up to the fact that scientific 
methods could be applied to the utility poultry business with results most 
gratifying to the applier. 
For a longer time than you’d think possible, scientific egg production 
was paired with perpetual motion in the minds of poultrydom’s wiseacres. 
When the first edition of the “Million Egg Farm” was issued, people 
read with incredulity the straightforward story of the wonders achieved 
at Rancocas. When they found it stated that the same methods could 
be used with proportionately good results on a farm of any size, many 
gasped and exchanged a knowing wink with the mirror. 
Hundreds that accepted the invitation to visit Rancocas came to laugh 
and stayed to learn. 
They learned that Rancocas methods had caused Rancocas layers to, 
yield about double the number of eggs a year laid by the ordinary barn¬ 
yard hen. 
They learned that it was not only possible, but easy, to have young 
pullets come into the laying age at all seasons, and to get fresh eggs during 
the 80-cent as well as during the 30-cent period. 
They learned that hens could be forced to molt early and get back 
to daily deliveries at the very time when all fresh eggs are a luxury and 
most of them a delusion. 
They learned that watchfulness and a sane feeding system will make 
“chicken diseases’’ a meaningless phrase and cause debility in hens to be 
as scarce as teeth. 
They came, they saw, they marveled. Then they returned home to 
sow the seed of knowledge and reap the reward in gold. 
But, objects the doubting Thomas, the Rancocas plan may be entirely 
practicable for a person with even a modest amount of loose land and 
money, and still be wholly impracticable for the fellow with no land but 
a back yard and no capital but horse sense and a disposition to use it. 
The best answer to such an objection is the fact that discussion of 
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