Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-30

independence from a comparativ small original investment. The average producer has 2400 hens, although there are many with more than 10000 hens in their flocks. The largest producer of them all has 50000 chickens on 45 acres.
 The poultry men of Petaluma have distinguished themselves as students of cheir craft. All men, it has been observed, feel instinctively that they are endowed by nature with the in telIigence to do three things: write a play, rear child and run a chicken farm. It is widely accepted that any one, without reference to previous training, experience or inclination, may by inspiration alone, achieve success in these fields of endeaYor. Whatever
 may be said fer cur children and our plays, it is known that the poultry notion is a popular fallacy. And there l is hardly a rural region in all the land i that cannot point to the ruins Of a ! chicken farm laid out in enthusiasm 1 by some rebel against the city's dross l only to be abandoned later in despair. 1 Raising chickens in Petaluma is a 1 highly specialized science. Success has | been bought with persistence and the application of accrued experience. It | is true that some of the towns most | representative men came to Petaluma i from office jobs, frequently broken i in health and lacking in capital. But l they studied as they worked, and learn 1 ed from their neighbors. Petaluma is a friendly town where one can learn
 from his neighbors.
 Most poultry men, like dairy men, ! find it profitable to grow the feed for l their livestock. But it is different in Petaluma. As one Petaluman put it, ! The man who raises chickens has no
 time for raising grain. He must do one or the other if he wants success. D The acres about Petalurna are fertile | enough for any farming, but, speak ing generally, it simply is not done The true chicken specialist would no
 more be distracted by planting corn than an office manager would be an-
 moved by manufacturing desks.
 It was in this atmosphere of speci- alization that a Petaluma pioneer dis covered the hardy characteristics of
 newly matched chicks.
 It does not seem reasonable to SUD- pose that a day-old fluff" can leave mother, incubator and all for a 72 hour
 parcel post trip with any hope of ar
 irving at it's destination in health and spirits. In fact when such a mad jour.
 hey was originally proposed some 2s
 years ago the suggestion provoked more
 nerriment than did the blue prtnts for the first steam boat, But since that time the scoffers have been in.
 creasingly busy emtying their inc1Tba.
 tors into mailing boxes, and recently the Petaluma postoffice has beer , handling about 10000 chicks a day. The poultry specialists learner tha, nature makes strange provision fol the welfare of baby chicks. Just be.
 fore they break forth from their sheIs
 they absorb the yolks of the eggs int their stonachs. Their food problem t solved for while, and through al the ages that preceded the invention Of tradeEna<ked poultry food, this on, hearty meal had to suffice until tn, chick was strong enough to scratcf
 for itself.
 It was also observed that tha eg, in which the chick developed wou1s qualify rather low as a fresh air r9a ; vif1ion, and from this fact 1t was de duced that the chick could proba Ioi,
 travel 6rs=inE the early hours of tts If, in q ventilated cardboard box with out frequent eYe-opensrs from an5 oxygen bottle. Putting these two dis
 coveries together led to the presan tremendous traffic in newly hatcae. , poultry.
 't As the possibilities for shipping then