St. Landry democrat., 1884-11-29
WOMEN AS POULTRY KEEPERS.
Business Peculiarly Adapted to Amsr-
lean Women.

= >"h-AN ~ t~S L- E>-b-l A-ta%@E
a Business Peculiarly Adapted to Amer
lean Women.
We wish particularly to call the att
tention Of American women to the busi-
ness of poultry raising. Thousands Of
their sisters cover the water pursue it
as a vocation through life not merely
to furnish eggs, ducks. geese and
chickens for the family table and the in
eyitable feather bed with feathers, but
they go INTO it as anoccupation, 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 OF richer classes, depend on the
income, or on the daily earnings of the
husband and father; and they abound
or suffer need in proportion as the
masculine purse is well filled or scantily
supplied But they do not when the
latter is the case, in regard to the fam
lily funds, attempt, rs a general thing,
to supply the deficiency by some effort
of their own at money-makipg, as a
French, German or English woman
would do under like circumstances.
When loss of work or loss of health
lays aside the legitimate s.bread-
winner of the house, the American
wife and mother is compelled to turn
pyer various schemes by which she can,
herself, support the family. If she had
money she could open 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 aban-
doned. Washing might be obtained,
but she has neither strength nor con-
geniences for that labo1ious occupation
She might do sewing, but the pittance
ahe 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 is
reached that there is nothing 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; but,
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 instrUc-
tive fondness for the thing of which she
has tue care, make her the best possible
attendant in the poultry yard. Fowls
are easily terrified, and boy or mans
quick, hSayy 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, ''comes
up missing it must be charged to the
half eaten or half digested supper, the
aa@es settling on the roost. the disturbed
circulation and the feyerish habit, in
duced by yesterday S scare. A woman,
on the contrary, with her quiet, COM
passionate ways, her faithful devotion,
her disposition to learn the best meth
pds, 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
he gained from it, may be induced TO
giVe the business thorough, persistent
ltnd intelligent trial. Even aside from
the profits the keeping Of fine poultry is
entered into by many English ladies, as
adding much to the interest of country
life, and to the attraetiveness of coun-
Try homes; and there seems to be no
rood reason why the fashion should not
be adopted in our own rural and subur-
ban homes for the same reasons. -
RocbY dfoasa1tQii3 H1tsBaaatl11san.