St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-04-18
A Parsons Experience with Seven
Hens and a Rooster.

Hens and Rooster.
A country parson to stimulate his
parish to pay off their debt, subscribed
fifty dollars for that purpose; butas ne
was in this worlds goods very poor ne
despaired of raising this amount until
he happened to think of the seven hens
and a rooster that were scratching IN
his back yard. In happy moment ne
resolved that they should during the
wear pay the amount of his subscrlp-
ton. This thought, expressed to his
parishioners, made the old farmers
smile and think of the saying about
counting ones chickens before they
were hatched. The rooster and several
of the hens were Buff COchins, the rest
of the flock were of all sorts. The par
son opened his ledger and upon clean
page made the following entry:
Chicken account. April 2, 1873. DR..
To eight fowls $500. He then went to
the barn to gather the eggs. AS fast as
he could he set the hens. In due time
the chickens came out of the shell but
then difficulties began to accumulate.
Many sickened and died. One night
weazel got amongst brood, and In the
morning the best of them were found
dead in the orchard. Chicken thieves;
foxes, wildcats, pole-cats, were roam
ing the neighbOrhood at night to the
destruction of many fiocks of poultry,
and these alarmed the parsons fears.
The parsons garden suffered a good
deal from the devastation of his old
hens. Still, in spite of all, he persever-
ed patiently with his undertaking, dur
ing all the while keeping an accurate
account, debt and credit, with his feath-
cred bipeds. Last Tuesday, just one
year from the time when he first began
his experiment, he was gratified to dis
cover how completely successful he had
been. His flock of eight fowls multi
piled in one year until it numbered
eighty -four, seventy-six chickens COM
ing to maturity. OF these forty One
remain, worth, at the present market
price, $3.50. The early pullets began
to lay the last day of September, so
that the eggs produced during the year
by the seven hens and their pullets, by
actual count, amounted to 165 dozen
and three, which sold for $34.25. The
guane saved was worth $500 more. In
one year, therefore, eight fowls worth
81 produced 1851 worth of poultry,
eggs, and guano. When this statement
became known the farmers were aston
ished to find that keeping poultry pays
better than keeping cows. But the par
son found that pecuniary profit was not
the only advantage he derived from his
little flock. His feathered pets called
him out of doors and gave him just the
kind of exercise he needed that cured
his dyspepsia and saved him expenses
of doctors and medicine, and gave a
more cheerful tone to his sermons. In
the ways of fowls he found much to
amuse him, and to supply food for
philosophical thought. To the children
they were better than the most expen-
sive toys. His success with chickens
was the means of breaking down the
barriers which are apt to separate one
who works with his brain for his living
from those who depend upon the labor
of their hands. From considering him
mere theorist they said to him, "You
are quite an agriculturist."
| Now, If a few hens in one year can
increase four dollars to seventy eight,
surely in these hard times there are
many poor families in Hampshire cOun-
ty, without capital enough to set up
dairy, who could, nevertheless, add
good sum to their income by keeping
poultry. There are many boys who
would find it of great value to them to
have a flock of poultry of their own.
The successful care of it would educate
the boys to keep accounts, to buy and
sell, and to manage business for them
selves.
The secret of the parsons success is
that he kept his flock warm, gave them
pure air, and furnished them all they
wanted to eat. Give hen these three
things, and she will lay summer and
winter, and add rapidly to her owners
wealth. The parson fed his chicks from
the shell, all they would eat, so that
they should come to maturity early in
the fall. The old hens he killed as
soon as the pullets began to lay. The
staple food during the winter was scald-
ed cracked corn, beef scraps and lime
IN the form of plaster, crushed bone or
oyster shells. In summer he fed wheat
bran and middlings during the hot
weather, and gave his flock free range
through the orchard, in which they so
thoroughly destroyed the moths that
during the whole winter, he never found
single worm in an apple. The time
will come when all kinds of fruit, plums,
peaches, and cherries, as well as apples,
will be successfully raised in New Eng
land by making the orchard the poultry
yard Northampton Gazette.