The Springdale news., 1888-11-02
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
Facts and Fiction in Poultry Raising.

stories that make the practical poul- tryman smile. but which are calculated to work an injury to the poultry indus try by deceiving the uniniated and in- experienced. Such stories mislead peo- pie and induce them to go into the poultry business filed with great ex- pectations and erroneous ideas Then when failure and disappointment comes-as it invariably does to such beginners-they retire in disgust, de- nouncing the whole thing as fraud, and declaring that no money is to be made out Of chickens Whereas, the cause of their failure is not because there is no money in poultry-culture. but because they took hold of it at the wrong end. Back of their failure is also the wrong done them by the writers of fictitious yarns about the immense profits in chieken-ruising.
 Yarns of the kind referred to are likely to cause people to lose sight of the value of eXperienee-the price of knowledge. The man who knows how to handle poultry successfully had to pay something to find 1t out. There was a time when his position in the poultry world was uncertain when he was battling the difficulties Tn the road; when his disappointments se- verely taxed his strength. and be, tired and weary, was almost ready to quit. IL was only by hard work and perse- verance that he reached the point where the world called him successful. He knows the cost Of it; the time and labor expended; the working and wait ing He knows also that he has not struck a gold mine. and that the profits of it are not fabulous. And further, that story like the following. which is taken from a Southern exchange. is mostly pure fiction. We select only d few paragraphs:
 'sMr. Dodge. Of Atlanta. last year fed fifty blooded fowls at an expense of S20, using at night handful of corn to every two fowls, and in the morning mostly wheat bran. meat and pepper. From these fowls. kept on lot 40X50 feet, he sold $1. .009 worth Of eggs and S20 worth of manure. thus clearing thousand less some small expense for labor. etc"
 Reader, do you believe that? w. don't. Now what are the facts. or rather what are the possibilities under such circumstances? If Mr. Dodge's fowls were of the very best laying strain. they might have laid him about 15o eggs each in a year, or 7,50o eggs in all. The value Of these eggs at the average market price of a cent and quarter each for the whole year would be $ss 75, or 911.2 less than h. is said to have sold them fer. Bat it is said that Mr. Dolge's fowls were thoroughbred. IL is possible then, that he sold some at fancy prices. We will grant that he had a trade of this kind and that h. not only sold some but that he sold every egg laid during the three breeding months March. April and May-at the rate of two dollars per thirteen eggs. or about seventeen cents each. At that season of the year his fowls would average about fifteen eggs per month each, or forty-five eggs each for the three months of fancy trade. q total of ?. 250 eggs. which at seventeen cents per egg would have brought him $3S2 50 Add to this the value of the other 5.25Q eggs disposed of at fifteen cents dozen. and We are forced to ad- init that under the most favorable cir cumstanees possible, and presuming that Mr Dodge is fancier Of such prominence that he can readily dispose of every egg laid in his yard during the breeding season at S2 per thirteen. he could not possibly make over S44s.12 off of his fifty thoroughbred hens At the same time We are able to point out the fact that if he should dispose of hls eggs at fifteen cents a dozen he would realize SSs 75 for them as at first stated, or S66.75 net over and above the cost of keeping his fifty hens, very handsome profit indeed. and yet reasonable one. and quite possible. Then there comes from the East the story of a man who kept 500 young hens all winter in building 6ox40. sub-divided into pens of l5x40 feet containing 150 hens each, and that from the 600 hens this thrifty man gathered every day in the winter 20 eggs. which were taken up eagerly at the very door for forty-two cents per dozen. enabling him to clear eleven dollars per day in return for a few hours light work Now let Us get at the