Middletown transcript., 1893-10-28
estate agent who

California Before that time had known
very little about poultry, save in post
moytem condition. and the question Of
wealth III the poultry yard had not found
is way into my mind.
He figured the thing out in really at
tractiye way, on the back of an envelope
with the stub Of pencil. 50 that il seemed
to me that al last wealth was within my
grasp. resolved to be generous with ii
and to not forget the unfortunate. had
always intended to be generous when got
able.
began on i've acre ranch the agent
sold me, together with few dozen fowls
and an incubator. ! have since learned
that no man has ever had intimlte relations
with an incuhsting machine and pI IeseFyed
bis self respect. am no exception
would also state that boEght SO
worth Of corn, hushet Of oyster shells
and some pretty china eggs which The hens
were 10 use as an evidence Of good faith.
The California hen IS not beautiful
creature, even in the gentle and joyous
springtime of her sometimes long and
eventful life. She runs very largely to
limbs. If may be allowed to use the
expression, her legs are exceedingly abnor-
NAL Nature has also been lavish to her in
Prospect to neck, which is rather disadyaii-
tage than otherwise. / thought when I
found her reaching over q fence six feet
high and eating my tomatoes.
One morning was in formed by the man
aging editor Of my hen ranch that one Of
our lady fowls desired to set. He said s'set. =
but am inclined to think it would be more
correct to say sit
| It was piece of encouraging news. how
ever, for which We had been waiting for
some time. We took an account of stock
and found we had twelve eggs OH hand.
NY assistant said it would never do to set a
hen on an even number of eggs; we must
wait until we had thirteen
We waited q good long while; so long in
fact that the hen that wished to iucubate
seemed to decide that she was fooling away
valuable time sitting there day after day
on one china egg, so she suddenly quit and
went around looking mad. Up to that
time the thirteenth egg had not been laid.
then suggested to my assistant that we
might have put eleven eggs under the hen,
thus escaping the hoodoo of the oddnumber.
instead of waiting for the thirteenth egg.
He said that was 50, bnt it was new idea
to him; yet it seemed so easy after one
| thought of it,
When another hen manifested desire to
become mother we were prepared for her
case with the required number Of eggs.
She behaved beautifully at the start. sitting
patiently the day long and denying her
self almost entirely from the world. was
much pleased with her self-sacrifce and
spirit of determination until she came off
the nest one day with a solitary chicken
and refused positively to 60 back and finish
the job.
This was the first blow that began to
weaken my faith in hens.
My assistant said that what the hens
needed to make them lay was larger run
and something green
While was thinking how could bring
u
this about, the hens found their way into
my neighbor,s garden. where there was
quite large run and considerable green
stuff of one kind or other. The problem seem
ed to have solved itself, and was very well
satisfied with the condition of affairs until
I learned in roundabout way that my
neighbor was having chicken for dinner
most every day. On taking account ofstoek
I found I was short of hens, and decided to
invest some money in lumber to build q
higher fence between my neighbor and
myself
also bought some corn, and began to
notice corn was quite serious item in con.
nection with the poultry business.
My assistant said we ought to try the
incubator while the weather was favorable.
bought twenty four dozen eggs at thirty
cents dozen and tried it. The incubator
was heated by a kerosene lamp which was
fixed to be regulated by a battery. don't
think it worked very well for ithatched only
two chickens, though everybody spoke to
about it said that was pretty good for a
first effort with an incubator. With snc-
cess ike that at the beginning they thought
would be foolish not TO try again.
invested again in twenty-four dozen
eggs and gave the Incubator another chance.
IT got along very well until day or two
before the chickens were due, then it set it.
self on fire and burned up. That was the
only ray of light that iliumed my efforts
in the poultry business. was glad of it.
] said would now depend entirely on
hens to do the Matching; il was natures
way and evidently the best way. 30
bought some more hens also bonght
some more corn
we set three hens wh1cE held out faith
fpl to theend They each came oif the
Rest according 70 schedule Nth beautiful
brood Of chicks proud and h6ppy II
The chicks grew nisSlr uii{iI tlIe5
about bic enough V tfoII
found . hole IN The fsnce next is s z]is6l
ana took 20 wandering sway ii search q
noTel effects In & reen. Gradually thoy