Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1902-09-02
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS.
POULTRY BUSINESS NOT FOR THE MANY
TOO MUCH OCCUPIED WITH OTHER
THINGs-ATTENTION TO DETAILS.

| Success with poultry is only obtained
by the utmost care and watchfulness.
A crop of wheat after the seed is sown
requires no attention until harvest.
Corn demands considerable cultivation,
but there comes time when that, too,
can be laid by. But the cows and the
poultry must be cared for every day,
from the beginning of the year until it's
end. And of the two think the poultry
require the more unremitting care.
| How foolish, then, for the man who
has had little success in general farming
to rush into poultry raising on a large
scale because he reads in the poultry
books or papers that there is money in
it. Perhaps, too, his wife, by giving a
small flock the care it requires, has done
we'll with few hens. But let no man
think he is going to get easy money out
of hens. If given proper attention they
will pay a profit, and so will most other
farm animals and crops. OF course.
there is not so much hard labor required
Us in some other branches of farm work,
but it is work, nevertheless. A farmer
who has liking for poultry will be
more likely to give flock the food and
II
La man during the winter months, when
he has little else to do, might be able to
make good profit on his fowls. But
it must be remembered that they will
also require attention in the spring and
summer when other work presses.
| Spring, too, is the time when most
of the Matching is done. To have good
winter layers one must have early
Matched chicks; to have these one must,
in most cases, raise them himself. A
farmer who is busy on the land is not
likely to spend his Moons and evenings
| looking for head lice or in taking pre-
cautions against rats and other chicken
enemies. Yet this must all be done or
many of the chicks will never reach ma
tury.
If farmer has family of daughters,
or a son whose time is not fully Occu-
pied. and who will give the poultry due
| attention, it will be all right to increase
the size of the flock. A large majority
of men will not give poultry the care
they should have. Most women will do
so, and the attention in small details,
the ''fussing'' which makes the differ
ence between success and failure in
poultry raising, is far more character
istic of the average woman than the man.
| A woman will watch the little chicks
more closely than will the mother hen;
she will apply grease to their heads or
change the feed at the first sign of
dropping. If the fowls show symptoms
of scaly leg, she will have them dipped
in kerosene at the first appearance of
the disease-but the scaly leg is a
filthy disease not likely to appear in
woman's flock, unless brought there by
purchased fowls from some ''mere man.
If fowl becomes cropbound she will
have the crop opened, sewn up again,
and the fowl will be well before the ordi-
nary man would know there was any
thing the matter.
So turn the flock over to the women
folks, if they have not already all the
work they should do. Let them have,
of course, the gross receipts from the
poultry, and they will soon be buying
incubators and other up-to-date appli-
ances, and thus the farm poultry busi-
ness may increase in natural and profit
able manner.-B. H., in Tribune Farmer.