Sharp County record., 1878-11-21
FARM TOPICS.

PROFITS OF POULTRY.-If possible,
the buildings intended for poultry
should be placed in the orchards, and
should all be inclosed by fence, or not,
as the circumstances demand. Fowls
and pigs are the very best cultivators
and enrichers possible to find for fruit
trees. While the trees are young, q lit
tie protection of the bodies from the
swine is necessary, but fowls are not in
furious to young trees or growing fruit:
On the contrary, they are a benefit and
protection. They keep the earth loose
about the trunks, and clear the premises
of insects. When in health, fowls are
continually scratching and picking, and
tearing up the old sod. 1t is their ma
ture. They stow away in their gizzards
many noxious worms and insects that
damage either the growing fruit or the
tree itself. By all means locate your
hen-houses in your orchards and fruit
yards, or plant orchards and fruit trees
in the yards.
An "egg farm!" And pray why not!
Ten good hens will pay as large per-
centage on the money invested as a
good COW, and with less labor, and no
expenditure of utensils or fixtures, be-
yond comfortable home, and quiet,
unmolested quarters. A single hen does
not require much ground for
range and forage, but where many
are kept, considerable area is
necessary. A hen will produce from
$50 to 200 eggs in her first year; and,
reckoning at the lowest number from a
single hen, amounts from 10 fowls to
1900 eggs, or 125 dozen annually. AL
lowing the average price of 1Sc. per
dozen, it amounts to $22.50. A hen
will consume bushel of grain annual
ly. (Some hens will not do it, and 9th.
ers will require more.) The hens
should be kept in good laying condi-
ton. No account is made, of course,
of the grass, or other green food or an
imal diet, as it foots up little or nothing
in cash outlay. Allowing bushel of
corn to hen, 10 fowls will need 10
bushels, and reckoning it at 6Oc. per
bushcl (Which is more than the farmers
have been receiving on an average for
the past, or will receive for the coming
season., amounts to Sc, which, taken
from the total yield, leaves $16.5O. This
might be called net profit. The first
outlay for the hens, if purchased. should
not exceed $40. Good hens, choicely
bred, can be bought for that sum. OF
course fine hens, bred to feather, with
fine points, will always command a
higher figure, as their beauty fits them
for exhibition purposes, but their plain
er sisters are equally as good, if not bet
ter, for production. Besides,
there is chance of getting few fine
chicks. A still larger profit may be OBJ
tanned where the fowls are raised in
ones own yard.
Eggs pay better than the raising of
chickens, but chickens must be reared,
as the stock of hens should be kept up;
and if the yearly supply of pullets is not
raised, the business runs behind. There
are not many who follow the poultry
business. Most lose their stock of pa
tlence from one cause or another the
first season. Hens give their owners
quick cash returns. A good common
farmers COW is worth from S45 to $50.
A good COW will make two 80 pound
tirkins OF butter per annum, which, at
~ cents per pound, amounts to S32.
This is not clear profit. The keeping
OF the COW, at the lowest estimate, costs
5O cents per week, which, for 81 weeks,
amounts to S26, leaving Sc to pay for
the work. Beside this, the refuse milk
will keep a pig growing through the
summer, which, with the aid of little
corn in the fall, will make from 15O to
300 mounds of nnnr.lr AZ z on,4-- -.