The Red Cloud chief., 1898-04-22
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
\ Profitable t'iork.

At no time In the more than twenty
i've years that | have been writing Tor
the agricultural papers has there been
as much interest shown in and 50
many questions asked about the care
and management OF poultry as nov,
says Il writer in Home and Farm. !
believe that one reason for this is tuat
during the years of low prices Tor sta
pie crops the farmers who kept poultry
and cared for il well found that they
paid the grocery bills easily and that
"A hundred or more dollars could be
made from poultry easier than from
any other product of the farm. ono
reason why so many farmers fail l"
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 II costs 10 keep Il
hen a year or tell whether she paid Tor
her feed or not. On many farms the
poultry is neither fed nor watcred, but
are expected to forage and steal from
hogs and other stock what they can.
and they get no care except from inc
farmers wife. who already has more
duties than 1t is possible FOR her to al
tend to properly.
For several years past | have taken
all the care OF my poultry, and | nave
fed them as regularly as | do my wo'N
teams, and have seen that they haH
plenty of pure. fresh water TO drink
free from ice IN winter and thanBeu
two or three times IA day in SUMMER
and hat they have had grit ana Il
dust bath accessible at all times. Inc
result has been that | have had eggs
in abundance. In 1897 ] kept 10 Ply
mouth Rock hens and thirty-thrce lay
ing Pekin ducks. We raised nearly .oV
ducks and $50 chickens. l cannot give
the exact cost Of feed, for we fed TWO
litters OF pigs from the same Dihs vi
meal and bran that the poultry was ie"
from, but | estimate that we icd our
poultry about 800 bushels OF orr anu
oats. two tons Of bran and $40 worth
OF special food, such as bone meal
meat meal and oil meal. II III auni-
ton large quantities OF lettuce anu
cabbage, which cost but little. as we
can grow $50 pounds OF lettuce TO the
square rod, and We only feed the m
understandable cabbage after marketing
the salable heads. II is a liberal esu-
mate that our feed cost $50.
Feed was cheap this year, corn sell
ing at II cents Il bushcl and bran AT
$3.50 per ton. Our sales for the year
from the poultry were $2S6.4o, Out
about Sl2O Of this was from eggs Tor
Matching, which were packed carefully
and sent by express, and this source OF
proft would not be available to farm
ers generally. One hundred dollars
worth of Egg were sold At market
prices to the grocer, and these were
sold at from I cents per dozen to 20
cents. but not many at either or these
extreme prices, but the average was
not far from 10 cents a dozen. and we
sold sG3.7S worth OF poultry, mostly
ducks. II will be seen that We sold
slG3.1S worth of poultry products at
ordinary prices. and il the eggs sold
for Matching had been sold in the mar
kct instead of for Matching our sales
would have been just about $3.50, in
stead OF $3.50. 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
500 as net profit.