The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-04-11
L FOR

POUL ky FOH VI ks.
To pay out a few cents a day may
not be missed, if n has plenty of
money, but if the desire is to accumu-
late a surplus for a future need, a
steady income Of even fifty cents a day
will grow to a fortune in a lifetime, if
properly invested The poultry of the
average farm could be made the source
of such a fund. A writer in the Stock
man and Farmer says: In spite of the
evidence advanced by the opposition
that poultry does not pay, it has been
repeatedly, c~onclUsively and positively
demonstrated that poultry can be made
to pay when rightly managed. Special
lists, with their modern methods and
appliances, have given that fact ample
demonstration. The object of this
article, however, il not to prove what
needs no proof, but to point out some
of the reasons that create the opposi
ton party referred to above. Lot us
locate the same: Go into almost any
rural district and probably six out Of
ten average farmers will admit that
poultry may be made to pay the
specialist. with his cOnveniences, ETC.,
but that for the ordinary farmer it is a
losing investment. Not infrequently
an overwhelming mass Of figures is in
troduced to prove this assertion, and
the practical experience of various
well to do farmers of the neighbor-
hood, given as additional proof.
Very seldom is it possible to convince
people against the evidence of their
own eyes. Better try convincing them
with that evidence. Farmers are not
fools. Probably no class of people is
as thoroughly awake to its vital in
terests as the agricultural class to day.
Every intelligent farmer knows for
himself whether his own ventures have
paid him. He may concede a profit in
YOUR case, still knowing of a loss in his
own. The loss is quite as much a fact
as is the profit. There is a cause for
both, and it is more expedient to show
him the difference in the causes that
govern his affairs and yours than to
attempt to prove a profit where none
exists. The causes of success are many ;
so are the causes of failure. But the
latter list prevents a number of prac-
tees holding preferred claims against
the estate of failure. Not infrequently
a day in the farm yard of the agricul-
turist who has found poultry raising
an expensive luxury will tell the whole
story of the illegitimate expenses. Let
us suppose the season to be winter;
the time, morning. Our friend has
hurried out to feed his stock. After
their wants are attended to perhaps he
thinks about the chickens, perhaps not
until he has been to the house to warm.
A few ears Or quarts of corn as the case
may be are thrown hurriedly on the
frozen ground. Tt doesn't matter that
the temperature of the corn is about
zero; that the fowls coming from such
hooks and corners as they were them
selves able or fortunate enough to find,
are already in a chilled condition that |
calls for an increase rather than an ex-
penditure of warmth with the tardy
meal; or that the exposed position Of
the feeding ground renders the morn
ing meal rather a dread than a pleasure
to the suffering fowls. Indeed, I have
myself seen cases where, the birds hav-
ing to wade through deep drifts to
reach the feed, preferred to dispense
with at least n meal a day and suffer
hunger rather than the exposure this,
too, on farms that people generally |
considered models of thrift and com
fort.
Let the farmer remember that the
cold feed that sends him with his own
chilled fingers to the kitchen fire, is
sure to give the same chill to the
stomach Of the unfortunate for which
it il. prepared, and that the latter, in
stead of a warm fire before which the
knife 1dge of the chill may be melted
off must probably hunt some corner
around the urn and there expend the