The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1889-01-25
MONEY IN POULTRY.
BY W. b. GERMAN.

In opinion, concerning tbe question, If
there any money in poultry, and / will
endeavor to give some information
from my own experience: and
from what l can get from
others. And let me say right
here that this essay is for your good,
50 sit still and listen with the valve of
your understanding well open: five or
ten acres of ground and four or five
hundred pullets will make you more
money, with half the labor, than ten
times the amount of land, and ten
times the amount of labor and capital
employed in any other branch of farm
ing. Yet you despise it, and say:
"Pshaw it is only good for the
women to attend to. Well then if you
think it beneath you, why then just
give the women folks as you call them
chance. Give them a good start,
and let them have all the profit, and
see if they don't beat you making
money. Profit in Poultry, says JAS
Rankin, in the Homestead: l have 16
cows in my barn; neighbors call them
good ones. The milk is sold in the
neighborlng village at remunerative
prices. 1t requires the labor of two
men and one team, to milk, care for
these cows and deliver the milk.
| have three hundred and fifty Pull
lets in my yard. And with but little
of the labor and capital employed,
these Pullets last winter made more
than double the clear money my cows
did. Take another instance: Two
young mer are running Poultry and
Dairy farm conformity. The one is
an invalid and keeps one thousand
hens. The care Of which occupies
about one half of his time. The other
keeps thirty COWS, from which he
makes butter of SO good quality, that
it readily commands from 8 to 10
cents more than standard price. This
man raises the usual farm crops, reads
the papers carefully, knows something
about labor and its applications, aud
runs his gang of or men with an
eye to business. Yet the invalid
brother, with less than one tenth of
the labor and capital employed clears
double the money from his 1000 heas,
than mis- brother does from the whole
farm. Geo. A. Preston, of B nghamp-
ton N. Y. says: The 1st and 2nd year
ne kept poultry that he sold fowls and
eggs to the amount Of $4,000 He
says after he counted over the fgnres
twice to be sure that he was correct,
he put on his hat and walked out to
the hen house, stuck his hands down
into his pockets and whistled "Hail
Columbia" because his enterprise was
a success And he says his sales have
been gradually increasing aud the first
eleven months of 1887 his books show
ed the vast amount of sixty-one hun
dred dollars. He says he had lots of
fun in the business and his friends
made lots of fun of it. They called
him the hen man, and young feather
legs. Some people say Oh! the chick
Ell business is good enough for the
boys, but we men upon whom rests
the fate of the nation, must sit around
the grocery, talk politics, and spit on
the stove or worse. He says we are
sending our beef and pork to every
market in the world, yet begging Of
Bismarck eggs to settle our coffee, and
five out of every dozen of those added
or stale. Mr.. Preston further says
the poultry business is made up OF
small items, yet in the aggregate
exceeds the value of beef and porl
combined. He says / have heard ot
cattle dealers who boast of making SO
per cent. on herd of Holsteln, bur
it is a poor manager who can no
make flock of so hens pay 200 pc
cent. l have heard men say here ir
Millville that there is danger of over
stocking the market. Well my frienc
just let me ask you, if there is DANCE
of overstocking the market, why is i
necessary for US to import as man,
eggs as we do to supply the demand
Why is i that we bnv three mill
ion dollars worth of eggs from
Germany annually. Aud why is il
that Canada cackled over sending III
three million dozen eggs last year.
can tell you it is because the American
hen has never produced enough egg
to supply the demand, and until she
does you need not worry about tn,
market. | wish to make one poin
clear. Too many men pet one kind o
stock aud abuse another. You shoul,
make this rule, if you have too muci
stock, or more Than you can take car,
of properly, and as it should be done
SILL the surplus, aud buy feed for tn
rest with the proceeds, if you keel
poultry. Provide every needed aeon
modatir To make it a success yor
must do it. When you feed you
poultry do it literally. Don't call 3,
or 40 hens around you at night to Civ
them grain of corn apiece, aud per
haps begrud se them that, but throw
them all they will eat up clean. A he
is a machine. If you furnish her tn
proper food, aud keep her in a comfort
able place, she must lay eggs, but i
any thing is lacking she will not lay
and you can't blame her, as a grea
mnay farmers do not know what o
how to feed for eggs. l will Civ
what is now con idered TO be about tn
best method. This may come unde
the head of management of poultry
nevertheless l will give it, ant mop
that many may profit from it. In th
, frat place let me ask, how many kno,
what an egg is composed of. 1t seem
necessary to know this before we ca
J tell just what to feed. The shell G
an egg chemically speaking is con
t posed of or consists chiefly of carbon
ate of lime and very small part c
, phosphate of lime. The white
J composed of eighty parts of water Fl
teen and one half parts of albumen an
four aud one half parts mucus. TT
yolk consists of water, oil, albumel
and gelatine. Now as we know VIII,
an egg is composed OF we are bett,
able to tell what is necessary to Zee
|. for eggs.
al In the nrst place the hen must ne
) essarily have something to form shell
. and oyster shell heads the list. +,
in it You have almost the genuine eg
shell. Burut bones are good, lime