Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-04

yielding 10 or Is per cent are classed as
extra hazardous" Yet the chicken BUSH
ness. with profits of 200 to 300 per cent
waiting to be plucked, appears to be I'M
dercaptalized. 1t must be undercapi-
itaiized else the supply would catch up
with the demand and city people would
get eggs at reasonable prices without or
ganiZing boycotts and the like. If that
isn't an upset to the laws OF trade, which
are supposed to be as immuatable as those
of the Modes and Persians, / don't know
what it is.
Here's another thing that puzzles me:
We know that good many ambitious
chicken ventures have failed, and I can't
for the life Of me see how failure is pos
sible when tthe margin of profit is SO
large Bad management, they say. But
it doesn't seem ever management could
be devised bad enough to dissipate these
profits. Authorities tell us that 1t costs
about a dollar to hatch a pullet and feed
her until she begins to lay eggs, and that
the cost of her keep from that time on is
about $50 a year. So, at the end of
year of egg laying. the hen would repre-
sent an investment of about $3.50. Ac-
cordiAg to the New Jersey mans figures.
her earnings should represent a profit on
this investment of more than go per
cent What in the world could man.
agement do to wipe out that margin Of
profit and make a failure Of 1t?
Jane Strong for Chickens.
Jane is all for chickens, and believes
We ought to go in strong for them.
think, myself, that we may give them a
whirl. Suppose, instead of S6.45 profit a
hen We can make a profit of only 81 or
$3.50. Four or five hundred chickens run
ming around the place would make a
mighty nice addition to our income. The
poultry magazine We are reading q full
of letters from people, many of them
women, giving figures to show that their
hens pay profit of 50 to So year each
They don't seem to be Offering anything
for sale, and unless brag is a sort of dis
ease which chicken keepers catch, they
must at least think they are telling the
truth.
But even atthese scaled-down figures.
can't get the logic, of it into my head.
If profits of So to So a year are to be
made on an investment of $3.50, why
don't more captains of industry go into
poultry raising. and why do poultry farms
ever fail? Also, why do eggs continue to
get scarcer and prices higher? There
surely is "cullud pusson'' concealed
somewhere in the woodple. lot of men
like me, tempted into chicken farming by
the promise of such profits. must have
discovered his hiding place. l wonder
why they don't tell. | promise here and
now, that if | find him I'll not join any
conspiracy of silence as to his where
abouts.
Jim thinks he'll keep pigeons and sell
squads to the Washington hotels. There
is a pigeon department in the poultry
magazine and he has been reading it. He
has S15 in the savings bank, which he
figures will be sufficient capital for d
start. Ned hasn't decided yet how he'll
earn money, but l think l have discover
ed the trend of his ambition. He in
quired yesterday if Mr.. Brown, who
owns a farm next to the place we have
under consideration, hired any cowboys
Both the boys are inclined to think they
might find a gold mine somewhere on
the eight acres. They are planning to
spend their Saturdays prospecting for it.
Predicts an Early Spring.
We think, if We take the place. we
ought to get on to it by the middle of
this month. Uncle jim, one of the mes
senSers at the department, says the birds
tell him it is going to be an early spring
| want to get started soon as possible
for l know L nave lots to learn and eX-
pect l shall make good many mis-
takes. By making them early, l may be
able to profit by the experience and man
age to grow something more than a rad
| ish or two before the summer is over.
II must pe tne spirit OF some IdTlIlHS
ancestor that is clamoring inside of me.
] fairly itch to get out and dig in the
ground. As ! never did any digging ex-
cept for fishworms when a boy, it seems
| strange that I should have this yearning.
| Perhaps desire to till the soil, to plant
seeds and make things grow. Is dormant
in every man. needing only the right
touch to awaken it to life. Oh. 1 know
my hands will blister and my back ache
| but I'm strong physically, have good
health and am only forty years old. My
muscles ought still to be flexible enough
| to get used to work. 1t makes me al
most ashamed to think that in all my life
] l hardly ever have handled a tool heavier
than pen.
Joe Robinson offers to bet that I'll carrN
most of my vegetables out from town:
but I've decided Joe doesn't hold the
country quite 50 meanly as he pretends
| to. The fellows at the Office We're talking
Yesterday of farm life, as they re always
doing now and Joe told of hog killing
time down on his boyhood home in Vir-
ginia. never saw hungrier look i'm a
| man $ eyes. E. s. NJ.
| If you want work. read the want col
1 The Star