The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-11-27
WOMEN AS POULTRY KEEPERS.
A Business Peculiarly Adapted to Amer
lean Women.


lean Women.
We wish particularly to call the at
tention of American women to the busi-
ness of poultry raising. Thousands Of
their sisters ''ovcr the water" pursue ii
as vocation through life-not merely
to furnish eggs, ducks. geese and
chickens for the family table and the in
evitable feather bed with feathers, but
they go into it rs an occupation, means
OF support, or even a source OF COM
parative wealth.
In this country, far more than in
Europe, women in the middle and lower
classes. as well of course as those in the
higher or richer classes, depend On the
income, or on the daily earnings Of the
husband and father; and they ''abound
or suffer need in proportion rs the
masculine purse is well filled or snantily
supplied. But they do not, when the
latter is the case, in regard to the fam
lily funds, attempt, as general thing,
to supply the deficiency by son.u effort
of their own at money-making, rs
French, German or English woman
would do under like circumstances.
When loss of work or loss of health
lays aside the legitimate dread
winner of the house, the American
wife and mother is compelled 10 turn
over various schemes by which she can,
herself, support the family. If she had
money she could open a little shop. and,
by the sale of small, needed articles,
keep the wolf from the door; but she has
no funds, and that idea must be lban-
doned. Washing might be obtained,
but she has neither strength nor con-
veniences for that laborioUs occupation.
She might do sewing, but the pittanee
she would earn would do little more
than buy the extra wood and light which
such work would demand; and so one
thing after another is suggested and
abandoned, till the sad conclusion il
reached that ''there is nothing a woman
can do?" Let all such women (and the
advice applies to every female who needs
an addition to her income) try poultry
raising. The outlay in the beginning
may be small, the accommodations may
be rude, the grounds very limited; hut,
with the instruction to be gained from
poultry books and publications no one
need fail in the undertaking. A wom-
ans thrift and gentleness, her instrue-
tive fondness for the thing OF which she
has the care, make her the best possible
attendant in the poultry yard. Fowls
are easily terrified, and boy or man's
quick, heavy step, his loud voice, and
his rough seizure when any of the flock
require to be handled, frighten them
half out of their small wits. They run
to the nearest shelter and cover and
hide long after the danger is past; and
if the egg, due the next day, ''coIues
up missing" it must be charged to the
half eaten or half digested supper, the
late settling on the roost. the DISTURBED
circulation and the feverish habit, in
duced by yesterdays scare. A WON an,
on the contrary, with her quiet, COM
passionate ways, her faithful devotion,
her disposition to learn the best meth
DDS, her pleasure in the constant, IL
small, receipts, fit her particularly for
this success in it; and it is our most
earnest wish that thousands of our
country women, who need this exercise.
this out-of-door care, and the money to
be gained from it, may be induced to
give the business a thorough, persistent
and intelligent trial. Even aside from
the profits the keeping of fine poultryis
entered into by manv English ladies, as
adding much to the interest of country
life, and to the attractiveness OF coun-
try homes; and there seems to be no
good reason why the fashion should not
be adopted in our own rural and subur-
ban homes for the same reasons
Rocky Mountain HusbdnlD.dn.