The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-05-01
POULTRY.
(By Mrs. B. F. McPherson.)

(By Mrs B. F. McPherson.)
In mercantile life the first few days
Of the year are usually devoted to TAX
ing stock, and in, our business l think
1t proper that we should begin the year
In the same way. do not mean mere
ly that we should balance our accounts
on our ledger and ascertain on which
side our balance is. This, while i'm
portant and necessary, Is only begin
ming. The most imperative need is that
we realize the mistakes we made last
year and find a way to correct them
and that we recognize the opportuni-
ties before us and fit ourselves to make
the most of them.
This country has both advanta ges
and disadvantages that we did not meet
farther east. In the first place we do
not have such heavy dews and seldom
have rain to interfere with raising the
young chicks, while on the other hand
the scarcity of shade Is very hard on
them and for some reason which I
cannot explain, chicks that are hatch
ed late do not grow off as the early
ones do. OF course we can provide
shade for them by planting corn or
sunfiowers, and by Matching very ear
ly we will avoid the other difficulty.
should advise having all chicks Matched
before May. This plan, If persevered
in, will serve US in another way, as 1t
will give us early pullets for winter
layers and they will be grown up and
out of the way while the warm weather
lasts. Then, too the feed question has
been something of a problem to me. I
like to feed a good deal of corn as
think the young chicks grow and de-
velop faster and get a much greater
egg yield from my hens when feed it,
for at least one-third of their ration.
/ have only been able to buy it at times,
when 1t was shipped from the east. But
the worst handicap to poultry raisers
here is the exhorbitant price of lumber
and this seems to be disease for
which there is no remedy. If one by
any chance is found I am sure the
whole poultry fraternity will bless the
one who discovers 1t. When + go into
my hen houses ana see hundred hens
crowded into the room that should be
occupied by but SO and realize that
have spent as much on one as two such
houses should have cost, feel that a
crime has been committed that should
be answered for either by Individual or
corporation.
wonder If my fellow poultry rails
ers all keep an account of what their
hens feed costs and what eggs and
poultry will sell for so as to know just
how much profit accrues to them for
keeping them? 1t seems so much a
matter of course to gather up few
eggs and take to the store that the
ten I've heard the egg money men
toned in the way they would II they
had found 1t, but in other cases have
heard the hens bemeaned as having
eaten their heads off, etc. and this
when no account of expenditures and
returns had been kept. You will never
know certainly for yourselves that
your hens are the most profitable of
any stock kept on your farm till you
have kept this account for at least a
year, and II you keep it year you will
not quit, for 1t will be revelation to
you.s Some may object that their hens
are not kept yarded and consequently
they do not know how much their
living costs them. Very well, then put
1t this way. the hens help themselves
to what? The grain left in the straw
when threashing was done; what ia
scattered while you are feeding that
nothing else would get; what Is thrown
out of the barn in manure. and per-
haps other things that are worth about
a. much to you. and in this case what
they give you in return reminds me Of
Z story I read the other day. An old
ee,orsd man went TO . white man and