Newspapers / The Courier (Asheboro, N.C.) / April 21, 1910, edition 1 / Page 8
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Home Course In Poultry Keeping 1. What Branch of the Poultry Business. By MILO M. HASTINGS. Formerly Poultryman at Kamej Experi ment Station. Commercial Poultry Ex pert of the United States Depart ment of Agriculture. Author of "The Dollar Hen." . . MILO M. HASTINGS o & m&M .. m imsm mm,, mm Copyright, 1910, by American Press Asso ciation. POULTRY keeping more per haps than nny other Industry Is engaged In for the double purpose of pro lit and pleasure. The farmer Ls rarely conscious of the fact that he Is keeping poultry for pleasure, yet the farm without its cus tomary flock of chickens would seem rather dreary, and the farmer's table without its customary supply of fresh eggs and fried chicken would be sadly deticleut. The object of pleasure enters more largely in the case of those who keep poultry in towns and villages. Not only does the flock of chickens give the Tillage or suburban resident an oc cupation which Is a pleasure after con fining Indoor work and supply his ta ble with a quality of food he cannot purchase in the murket, but in the ma jority of cases villagers us well as many farmers fiud great pleasure iu poultry breeding and exhibition us a hobby. The extent to which this phase of poultry keeping has been de veloped is readily seen from the multi tude o" poultry shows held throughout the country during the fall and winter mouths. in attempting the study of a series of lessons in poultry keeping the poul tryman or would be poultryman should form a clear'conceptiou in his mind of the relation iu his own case of these various objects or ends for which the poultry business is commonly engaged in. The Farm Flock. The prime object for which the farm er keeps chickens is for his own ta ble, and in order that be may have sufficient poultry products to supply his table throughout the year there will of necessity be at certain seasons a surplus for the market; hence the farmer who starts out to furnish his own table soon finds himself in the market end of the poultry business, and as a flock of 100 hens require but little more labor in their care than h ' A I 'AC 1 L "GOOD MORNING!" twenty-five or thirty we find that the most prosperous and intelligent farm ers keep a flock of about the former size. Now, if the farmer's quota of bens goes much beyond this figure It will be come necessary to divide the flock into smaller units and go to other troubles that are rather Irksome for the general farmer who considers poultry as an about the house job rather than as a part of his regular farm operations. For the farmer who looks at it in this way simplicity In methods Is ad visable, for a general utility flock of this size will not yield a sufficiently large Income to warrant more expen sive methods of housing and care that would be perfectly proper In the case of a breeder of fancy fowls or a poul try farmer who kept several hundred bens. The farm ls an excellent place for breeding standard bred poultry, and I have nothing but encouragment for the farmer who is interested in the show bird end of It. In this case be will require separate bouses and yards and a building wherein be may coop single fowls during the show season and will in general find It necessary to put more time and expense on bis poultry work if he expects to make a success of the breeding stock' part of the business. The Village Poultryman. The villager 1 would by all means advise to keep standard bred poultry and to take an interest in poultry breeding and poultry shows. From the nature of bis surroundings be is obliged to keep his fowls yarded, and, as the time be spends with bis chick ens ls recreation, the more Individual care, which be will find it desirable to give fancy fowls, will not be be grudged. , The production of poultry products it sell at ordinary market prices la always profitable for the farmer, for on the free range plan of his poultry keeping labor and food coats are both much reduced. Poultry keeping can also be made profitable when engaged la on a targe scale, la which case, be- cause of the large number of chickens to be attended to, the labor can be re duced to a systematic basis and will require but very little time per fowl. On some of the well known egg farms one man feeds and cares for from 2,000 to 3.000 hens. The village poultry plant where but a few dozen fowls are kept must neces sarily have a larger feed bill than thf farmer and n higher labor expense per fowl than tit her farm or com mercial poultry plant. For these rea sons the villager who hires a man to take care of his poultry or expects it to earn wages for his own time is, it the product is sold at ordinary market rates, very likely to be disappointed. Now, if the villager takes up fancy poultry breeding and devotes his time to the art he lias excellent chances of becoming well known as a breeder and mailing a good profit in the business. Meanwhile he should have enough love for his work so that he will be content ro get lii'l; a little more than his actual money outlay and give his time for the pleasure of the work and the .iiij-.-s of profits later on Poultry Farming as a Business. 1 presume there will be some whe read lids course in poultry keeping wan will be desirous of engaging in poultry production as a business. To those 1 would say that after many years of precarious existence poultry farming is now established as u sound brunch of agriculture. Although there is no greater money to be made from poultry than from many other branch es of modern scientific agriculture, there is something about the business that has induced large numbers of Ig norant people to invest their savings in poultry ventures, hopelessly bury ing their money In expensively equip ped plants designed by themselves or others equally ignorant of the business. As is generally recognized, the only seuslble plan for one who proposes tc go into poultry keeping as a business is to begin in a small way, either in a village or on a farm, and keep poultry for a few years in conjunction with some other occupation. If he is suc cessful in this, it will then be time tc consider the keeping of poultry on a more elaborate scale. A few general re marks on commercial poultry farming I will append, however, as a matter of general interest. The branch of poultry keeping that Das proved most universally success ful in a large way ls egg farming! The broiler- farms have almost invariably been failures, and the principle is now pretty thoroughly recognized that the broiler should be considered as a by product of the egg business. Just as sklmmilk is a byproduct of the produc tion of butter. Half or more of all chicks hatched will be cockerels and must be disposed of as broilers, for with Leghorns and other egg types of fowls male birds are worthless If al lowed to mature. This large surplus of broilers from egg farms and from the general farm of the country ls suf ficient to meet the demand and to re duce the price to a point which will permit of little profit to the man who produces broilers exclusively. The idea of the broiler business as attempted fifteen or twenty years ago was to produce chickens during the winter and early spring season by the use of incubators and brooders and secure fancy prices at the season of the year when no young stock was coming from the general farm. This business, which did not prove success ful then, would be even more imprac tical now, as our modern methods of cold storage have become so efficient that it Is entirely practical to freeze up a supply of inexpensive summer broil ers and to meet the demand the fol lowing winter and early spring with this cheaply produced stock. Another phase of poultry production which is successfully prosecuted in limited localities ls the growing of roasters. In this style of poultry flesh pro duction heavier breeds of slowly ma turing fowls are used, and both sexes are allowed to reach maturity and are then marketed as fancy stock. The possible profits of the production of extra fancy market fowls in this man ner have been limited, however, by the custom of fatting or crate feeding farm grown cockerels as now engaged In by poultry packers and by many farmers as well. Crate or milk fed chickens offer a prime quality of young poultry flesh, and hence, except for a few markets where roasters from cer tain communities already bave a repu tation, it would hardly be advisable to take up this line of poultry production. A recent development in specialized poultry work ls the public batcbery. This business Is usually conducted it conjunction with large poultry plants The shipping of day old chicks long, distances by rail Is now quite a fad and baa probably been overdone. An other abuse of the public batcbery It the selling of chicks from egg of un certain origin. Beginners should no undertake public hatching. rJfVXlRl fill.. uT4i:i IB W Vi.-i;.:: !;VV;-AA'II B VM vk M dt-t V ;..-V.-- B ? i v n rr ihf ivif. " v? - i -wfciiin aav " t.vs - i ii 1 1 ri jfut' K- wri t. . 7 - ' ' in r .. i. .Jl.-.l LL-VL.. a Mill 1 ': KWS&w x.il:r.yr, II I . T W, TT-R 1,". I 1 la' 'a-.-V - At' W ATI, v i s I ifr B I" -v i' '..' v . ; : 411 II- mm W. Iifit. Kmim!! t.' 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The Courier (Asheboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 21, 1910, edition 1
8
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