PRACTICAL EGG FARMS. 
“ I advise following the directions just as they 
are given by the Cyphers Incubator Company. 
Chickens that are confined in small quarters 
must have plenty of cut straw to scratch in for 
exercise, or off their feet they will go. Green 
stuff in some form must be given every day, 
keep cracked charcoal before them as well as 
cracked oyster shells and plenty of water. 
Shade is very necessary.” 
Mr. Harris began raising chickens for market, 
producing fall and winter chickens. He has 
marketed as high as 5,000 fall chickens in a sea¬ 
son, and always had the reputation of producing 
a thoroughly good article, which commanded 
top prices. As an instance of what he has done, 
we cite the case of ninety-six chickens returning 
to him the sum of $200.32 net, above the ex¬ 
pense of picking, expressage and commissions. 
This was received in the latter part of the month 
of May, and was not extraordinarily high priced, 
and is simply one instance of many which could 
be quoted. 
He now makes a specialty of furnishing eggs 
for hatching as well as breeding stock, and 
shipping fresh eggs to special trade in Boston 
market. When asked how many eggs hens 
would average to lay in a year, he thought that 
150 eggs per hen would be a fair average. Some 
hens would lay 200. They are kept in flocks of 
from twenty-five to thirty-five each, according 
to the size of the pens. While Mr. Harris be¬ 
lieves that ten scpiare feet of floor space is the 
proper amount for each hen, yet he seldom 
practices what he preaches in this respect, for 
almost always his fowls have less room. 
His buildings nearly all have closed fronts, 
and are a variety of shapes, showing the growth 
of the owner’s convictions with regard to utility. 
Several of the buildings have slanting fronts, but 
Mr. Harris very positively affirms that no more 
buildings with slanting sides will be* built on his 
place. The latest type has a nearly flat roof, 
there being no more than two or three inches 
drop from the front to the rear. The roofs are 
covered with two-ply tar-paper and the sides 
with one or two-ply. These are washed with 
hot coal-tar and given a generous sprinkling of 
fine sand or gravel. 
The hens are given rye straw as a scratching 
material, and are fed soft food of one-half bran 
and one-half meal, with about ten per cent, in 
bulk of the best beef scrap added. This is 
mixed with hot water in cold weather and with 
cold water in warm weather. They have as a 
hard food, two-thirds cracked corn and one- 
third wheat, with an occasional feed of Kaffir 
corn and buckwheat. Some ground oats are 
used, but very few whole oats are fed. 
The example which Mr. Harris presents is 
that of a man who begins with a few birds and 
with little or no experience, and who, by close 
application to the business, and by the use of 
brains and energy, has built up one of the 
biggest egg farms of New England, with a prod¬ 
uct which meets with the highest cash prices. 
ANOTHER NEW ENGLAND EGG FARM. 
That Illustrates What can be Done in This 
Practical Branch of Poultry Keeping. 
Strictly Fresh Eggs Always and Everywhere in 
Demand. 
One very strange fact discovered upon looking 
over the field of opportunity in the various 
branches of poultry culture, is the neglect which 
has covered up the importance of the production 
and marketing of strictly fresh, new-laid eggs. 
This today is perhaps the best and most profit¬ 
able end of practical poultry keeping. This 
field as yet is comparatively unworked and the 
demand far exceeds the supply, and the few who 
have been far seeing and quick-witted enough 
to grapple the opportunity thus offered them 
are reaping large profits. 
There is today, in New England especially, 
and in all large settlements throughout the 
whole country, a cash demand for newly laid 
eggs which it is impossible to supply with the 
stock at hand. In support of these statements 
we offer the experience of Mr. Wm. P. Eddy, of 
Dighton, Mass., who speaks by the book and 
who has ample knowledge of this subject, both 
practical and theoretic. 
From Strawberries to Poultry. 
Mr. Eddy is a thorough business man who 
has traveled extensively for various fertilizer 
concerns, and who has had the opportunity to 
discover the best paying part of the poultry 
business in this section of the country. Mr. 
Eddy was formerly the largest producer of 
strawberries in the town of Dighton, but various 
changes in the methods of growing and shipping 
berries having caused some uncertainty about 
this crop, Mr. Eddy decided to try poultry 
keeping and egg marketing on a larger scale 
than he had heretofore. 
67 
/ 
