The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1898-05-28
A Profitable Flock.


At no time in the more than twenty
i've years that have been writing for
the agricultural papers has there been
as much interest shown in and so
many questions asked about the care
and management of poultry as now,
says writer in Home and Farm. l
believe that one reason for this is that
during the years Of low prices for sta
pie crops the farmers who kept poultry
and cared for it well found that they
paid the grocery bills easily and that
hundred or more dollars could be
made from poultry easier than from
any other product of the farm. One
reason why so many farmers fail to
appreciate the profit from poultry is
that no account is kept with the hens
and no credits given, and the average
farmer could not give an intelligent
guess as to what it costs to keep a
hen year or tell whether she paid for
her feed or not. On many farms the
poultry is neither fed nor watered, but
are expected to forage and steal from
hogs and other stock what they can,
and they get no care except from the
farmers wife, who already has more
duties than it is possible for her to at
tend to properly.
For several years past / have taken
I'll the care of my poultry, and have
fed them as regularly as do my work
teams, and have seen that they had
plenty Of pure, fresh water to drink,
free from ice in winter and changed
two or three times a day in summer
and that they have had grit and a
dust bath accessible at all times. The
result has been that l have had eggs
in abundance. In 1897 kept 12O Ply
mouth Rock hens and thirty-three lay
ing Pekin ducks. We raised nearly 200
ducks and $50 chickens l cannot give
the exact cost of feed, for we fed two
litters of pigs from the same bins OF
meal and bran that the poultry was fed
from, but estimate that we fed our
poultry about 300 bushels Of corn and
oats, two tons of bran and $40 worth
of special food, such as bone meal
meat meal and oil meal, and in add1-
ton large quantities OF lettuce and
cabbage, which cost but little, as we
can grow 15O pounds of lettuce to the
square rod, and we only feed the I'M
merchantable cabbage after marketing
the salable heads. 1t is a liberal eStt-
mate that our feed cost $50.
Feed was cheap this year, corn sell
ing at II cents bushel and bran at
$3.50 per ton. Our sales for the year
from the poultry were $2S6.46, but
about $12O of this was from eggs for
Matching, which were packed carefully
and sent by express, and this source OF
profit would not be available to farm
ers generally. One hundred dollars
worth of eggs were sold at market
prices to the grocer, and these were
sold at from cents per dozen to 20 !
cents, but not many at either Of these |
extreme prices, but the average was
not far from 10 cents a dozen, and we |
sold $63.7S worth of poultry, mostly
ducks. It will be seen that we sold |
S163.7S worth Of poultry products at
ordinary prices, and If the eggs sold |
for Matching had been sold in the mar
ket instead of for Matching our sales
would have been just about $3.50, in
stead of 1886. And in showing that
poultry is profitable this smaller sum
is the fair one to consider. The reader
will probably conclude that the feed
should be deducted from this, leaving
800 as net profit.