Evening star., 1915-06-05

Maine and California. What we have
got to do is to specialize and intensity.
The specialization must take account
of soil, market and climatic conditions,
and the intensifcation must have re-
| spect for the man on the job.
Many Kinds Of Farming.
One man might do it with lettuce.
another with cucumbers and still an
other with strawberries. None of
these things makes more than a
Kitchen garden" appeal to me. If 1
am going to make success of farm
ing I must follow the branch of 1t that
appeals to my tastes and aspirations.
] used to think that farming was just
farming and a farmer a farmer. with
out any distin ctions worthy of consid-
Grafton. I don't think 1 am going too
strong when l say there are as many
different kinds of farmers as there are
doctors. and you'll admit that gives the
husbandman a pretty wide range of
choice.
But getting back to the question of
specialization and intensihcation, chick
ems are the one item that is down on
enough in the poultry business SO that
we think we know pretty we'll what it
offers in the way of opportunity. We
long ago recovered from that hen
madness which induces city people
bitten by the country bug to look upon
chickens as royal road to riches. If
ever we dreamed such dreams as SIS per
year profit per hen we woke up early
in the game. We are proceeding on
the assumption that by sensible and
prudent management we can make 81
per year profit per hen. With that as
our goal we are going to have our
plant orr a 1,00O-hen basis as soon as
we think we can get it there safely. 1t
less 1t demonstrates, after several
years on the 1,000hen basis. that 1t
will pay us to make poultry our prin-
cipal business. I like chickens. but I
like cows better If chickens are to
have the preference they must prove
their worth.
Cow and Her Combination.
Eighteen acres of land. of course. is
not sufficient for dairy farm, II cows
are to be depended upon as the chief
source of revenue. but chickens and
cows seems to be combination that
ought to work well. We plan to raise
sufficient corn, oats and wheat. so tina
we will not have to buy any grain for
the hens, but we must have something
else to feed, either cows or hogs. in or
der to use up waste material. | would
like to try the experiment of keeping
five or six cows. Under the arrange
ment proposed by Mr.. Brown, to buy
our cream to help fill the contract he
has made with an ice cream factory,
we would have all our skim milk, which
is mighty valuable food both for
chickens and for pigs. Keeping that
number of cows certainly would be |
profitable and would add to the fertil- |
ity of our land. but the question to be !
not be made by devoting an equal
amount of labor to the care OF an addi- |
tional number of hens.
I have been devoting considerable |
time to the project for cooperative |
poultry association, which we had un- |
der consideration last winter, and 1 am
meeting with considerable encourage |
ment. The original notion of co-opera- |
tive selling of general produce through |
the Friendly Neighbors' Club didn't pan
out, chiefly because Of conflicting in
terests and the utter lack of uniform
ity in produce and pack.
Poultrymen's Interests Alike.
But these fundamental objections
would not apply to a poultry associa-
ton. Poultrymen have but two things
to send to market-eggs and chickens
The grading of eggs is SO well estab-
lished that there would be no reason |
for trouble on that score, and as the |
plan we had under discussion called for
central fattening and killing plant
for all kinds Of live poultry there
would be no difficulty about uniformity |
of product. The selling of Matching
eggs and baby chicks would be left for
each member to handle individually. In
order to build up the flocks of mem
bers the association probably would |
buy Matching eggs and breeding stock, |
which it would sell at cost.
The plan also contemplated central
hatchery, If it developed that suffi- |
cient number of members would want |
their Matching done; but next to SELL |
ing the buying of feed and supplies in |
quantity would be the greatest advan-
tage. Mill feed and meat meal and
such things would be bought in car
load lots and could be sold to members
at a saving of at least one-third Of |
current retail prices. The thing has
large possibilities and 1 am confident
it could be worked out on practical
basis. E. S. NJ