Evening star., 1915-06-26

make OIL 1t all he can. 1 am more ina IL
willing to do this for the reason that
Jim has started a savings bank ac-
count, and announces an intention 10
make and save enough money to take
him through an agricultural coiiese.
He is very firmly determined to be
farmer, and with a chance at scientific
training l am satisfied he will make
good one He is making a little money
on his pigeons. but isn't very weti
satisfied with the returns for the work
involved He thinks he would rather
keep chickens. and if l could figure out
any practical way of keeping the
f1ocks separate l would set him up In
the poultry business.
Making Wages on Berries.
Both Jim and Ned have been earning
considerable money picking berries for
Jane. and with the blackberry season
now starting, they are counting on
good wages. They picked both straw
berries and red and black raspberries
for several neighbors on shares, and
Jane paid them for all they brought
her at few cents below the market
price. This was a slow method of
money-making, though, for they had
to pick from three to four quarts of
berries in order to get one. With
blackberries it will be different. With
in radius of a mile of the house black
berries are to be had literally by the
bushel, and the owners of the land on
which they grow have given them per-
mission to pick all they want. Jane
will pay them at. the same proportion
ate rate as she paid for the berries
picked on shares, and the boys expect
to clean up a good many dollars while
the berry season lasts.
Jane has her canning and preserving
plant in full blast, and is putting up
a
added several new conServes to her
list, but the bulk of her pack is of
standard kinds put up in standard
packages, to be sold through retail
dealers. one of the hotels has agreed
to try a limited quantity of her pre-
serves and jams put up in individual
glasses Should this result in an or
der of consequence for next year, 1t
will be her most profitable line, for she
will get almost as much for one of
these small glasses as she does for tne
larger ones.
One of her experiments this year is
to be with canned chicken. The chick
en- is to be cooked, the meat taken
from the bones and packed tightly IN
glass jars. The city housewife who
wanted chicken salad, chicken pie or
even chicken and dumplings would
need only open the can. warm the con-
tents if desired, and the meal would
be ready.
Solution for Poultry Problem.
If a demand at remunerative prices
could be created for canned chicken it
would solve one of the most difficult
problems of the poultryman-profitab
disposal of hens when they have
passed their usefulness as layers. The
desirable time to dispose of hens is
late in the summer, when they have
finished their laying season and are
about to begin the annual molt.
Noting hens cannot be sent alive
to market. Their looks would kill any
chance of selling them Few poultry
plants, except the very large ones, and
practically no farmers. are equipped to
kill and dress poultry properly before
shipping it. After 2 hen begins her
molt if she has to be fed three
months without any return in eggs. she
would represent loss instead of a
profit. The result is that at the be-
ginning of the molting season SO
many hens are sent to market that it
becomes glutted and the price falls
away almost to nothing.
If the hens were being marketed
cooked and canned, the killing of them
could be deferred until it was certain
they had finished laying and had
actually started the molt. The price
of the canned chicken, of course, would
not be subject to fluctuations due to
overstocked markets. The price would
have to be high enough to cover the
labor cost of cooking and canning, but
even at that it would be all meat and
there might well be times when it
would be more economical for the
housewife to buy her chicken canned
than in the ordinary way. 1t is true
chicken in cans may be had now. but
it isn't a home product. 1t doesn't
taste like the chicken mother used to