The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-11-09
Poultry Raising in California.

The Post contains an amusing account
of the experience of two Washington
young men who hired place eight miles
from San Francisco and began the busi-
ness of poultry raising.
"We secured the country" says one,
'for setting hens and had scores of them
on clutches of eggs all marked with
charcoal on one side so the hens would
know enough to turn them over every
day. Eggs won't hatch even if they
amt turned over every twenty-four
hours, you know. It's so, but l don't
know why.
1--WE had hens in half-barrels, hens in
boxes, hens in coops, hens in the house,
hens everywhere. Partner and l had
just counted up wealth till we couldn't
rest. We figured out from what eggs We
had set, allowing half were roosters and
that the pullets would only lay 100 eggs
each for the first year, that by the end of
the second year we would have 3S7, 600
hens, 100000 chickens, $1,000 eggs a
day and an income of $500, per an
mum. Some of the eggs were bad, occa-
sionally weasel would kill hen, and
once in a while biddy would throw up
the sponge before the twenty-frst round
was finished, but we had very good luck
and the chickens began to sprout pretty
fast, and we had nearly 300 shucked and
peeping around forty hens tied TO stakes
with pieces of red tape.
Then partner saw an advertisement of
an incubator and he sent and got cir
cular. 1t told how the Egyptians had
raised millions of chickens for 600 years
from Matching ovens. And now Am
erica the circular continued in a splen-
did peroration, again leads the world
with the greatest invention of the age, a
self operating incubator The circular
had a cut of the incubator, with eggs
showing through the Stats and hundreds
of chickens jumping around. 1t was a
great treat to watch them. Partner in
sisted on having one and objected, but
he stuck to it and finally gave in and
eggs-it held 400-got boiled hard in the
dicator. We ate hard boiled eggs fol
weeks. The second lot came on finely
much to my surprise, and when the lit
tie fellows were born, $50 day, part
ner increased the profit to an even mill
ion. / enthused a good deal myself. II
did look easy.
The chickens" the narrator con
tinues. "did right well. We had Chi
naman to do the heavy work, and part
ner kept the books. He didn't know
much about book keeping, but he would
figure out a surplus like Democratic
orator talking about the treasury. Iuse(
to sit under white umbrella and watch
the little puff balls cut up. One woulC
find a worm another would catch hol(
and pull, then half dozen would catcl
on each side and they would have {
regular tug of war. 1t always ended b,
the worm turning peacemaker. H,
would come in two-divide to keep tn,
peace.
Zone day / saw a chick standing i'll tn
sun on one leg, His neck was all drawn
in and his eyes closed. His feather:
didn't seem to fit. Every few seconds b.
would reach out his neck and screw i
around as if he had on a collar which
chafed him, else was trying to swallow
quinine pill. Its funeral took plac
within twenty-four hours, and hundre,
more puff balls tried to swallow grief ant
balance on one leg. 1t was the pip o
the roup or some other infatile hen dis
ease. Matters we're serious. We had owe
1000 chickens, and in less than a week
was trundling a wheelbarrow full of tn
chickens and planting them in the can
yon.
'In another fortnight We deserted th,
ranch, leaving forty setting hens, abou
, hundred roupy chickens, an incubato
and Chinaman. They may be ther
vet"