Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-03-16

until early spring l took advantage
of the high price and sold them.
Later in the summer. finding 1 was
not quite bankrupt, ! reorgan''.ed the
chicken business and enlarged tn
plant in accord with the needs that
experience seemed to demand.
tried fall matches. but found tina
not only did the eggs fail to irlcupa''
as well as in the spring. but the chick
that did break through the shell lack
ed vitality. OF course knew Ia
chickens were more difficult to rails,
but who would have thought the aver
age hatch would be less than ~ Pc
cent and the death rate OF thos
which pecked through their lin'estons
castles would be % per cent!
The same condition of poor tntches
during the fall continued during thu
spring and was not confined to my ex
perience alone, but was general con
dition throughout the country. showini
that fertility Of eggs and vitality o.
embryo depend on conditions fo'
which the chicken raiser is not stlway
to blame. Instead Of Matching 1,00t
per month, as / had expected, l was
getting 400 to 500 chickens. Whei
winter came there were about 1.2o
sickly looking incubator babies In thu
big brooder house.
Ravagcs Of a Neighbours Hog.
MS. k,~,,l>1oo In,yhlaN union nv
handy colored hired man became sick
There Is an old adage about colored
man loving chickens, and my coloree
man certainly loved to care for those
chickens. But might a. we'll end this
part OF the story right now. A. new
green black boy came to care for tn
poultry and to help end the business
What chickens didn't die under his un
skilled care disappeared in other way
Rats. which had not troubled Tie be
fore. took a full hundred In n ,sing
night, SO that out Of 1000 hatched |
nine months less than seventy-tiv
broilers ever reached the market.
did manage to raise a few by the oil
hen method and also raised nbou
seven billion lice. A neighbours fin
bird dog visited the yards on severc
nights and before she was detected
disposed Of about 100 of the nnes'
chicks. I now have $50 chickens left
in all conditions except those required
by the marketman), and the price has
dropped from SO cents for broilers, live
weight. to cents per pound. The chick
ems eat their beads of every three
months, figuratively speaking. If they
would do so literally there would be
no kick coming from me.
Ny third years experience in get
ting poor out Of chickens shows re-
ceipts Of $723 and expenses of ST..
675.12. or net loss for the year CT an
optimistic disposition and $772.13. In
looking over my accounts for the past
two years find the plant has cost me
$500. It cannot be sold for over 1900
My total loss FROM this experiment in
trying to beat Dame Nature" was
1882.
IL you should ever get the idea into
yOul uSdu LAut yOu Sdu upPlJ Lie ! uiGS
Of geometrical progress to the baby
chicken business. Just remember that
one hen in few years at that rate
would have such a lot of grandchil-
dren and great-grandc hildren that there
would be Standing Room Only signs
shown at all the hen theaters In the land
Old Dame Nature is a wise old girl.
You can fool her part Of the time, but
sooner or later she will fool anybody
who thinks he can feed her wooden
nutmegs for steady diet.
Once in long time some one a,.tu-
ally. makes money out Of the chicken
raising business. but 1t is generally
some one who has used printers ink
SO literally that when you pay $50
for trio you are paying 50 for thres
chickens and $4S for the chicken fan
cier's reputa ton.