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POULTRY MADE PROFITABLE
The first ten
years of my housekeeping we kept a large flock of chickens, which I fed
extravagantly on high priced feeds at any hour of the day when I found it
most convenient to throw it out to them, and except two months in the
spring, when the laying season was at its best, I bough eggs for table
use. My own birds did not furnish a sufficient amount to supply our
needs.
Then my husband suggested that we would not try to raise
chickens that year, as we could buy them just a cheaply and save me the
labor of caring for them. I quickly interpreted the statement as
equivalent to saying I wouldn’t, or did not know how to handle them, which
was mortifying to me.
I made up my mind that if the fault was mine I would find it
out and I would also find the cure. We were taking a little poultry
journal and I began studying its suggestions with a determination to win,
and I did.
That year I hatched seventy-eight biddies. I saw that they
were properly housed, that they had fresh water three times a day, that
their pens were kept scrupulously clean, that they had access to plenty of
sand and grit, that while they were young they were fed at regular hours
on a dry feed and were never overfed. It was great to watch them grown.
I lost only two of the entire lot.
Since I have adopted the more modern methods of handling my
chickens we are never short of eggs at any season of the year. Out table
is well supplied and always some for the market.
Mrs. D. Mc., La.
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WATER FOR THE FARM
HOME
There’s no excuse
for carrying water into the home by pail from a pump in the barnyard. Every farmer these days has either a wind
mill, or a gas engine, which can do the pumping better than the women can,
and not only the pumping, but the carrying. It is possible to pipe water
into the house and barn and by elevated tanks, or by air pressure, force
the water wherever you want it.
Those fortunate enough to have a running stream with
sufficient fall can install a system operated by a ram, pumping water from
a spring, or well, for house use. Some may have a spring on ground high
enough above the house to give a good water system by gravity pressure.
These systems can be operated by gas engines which are now on
almost every farm, or by wind mills. By putting all pipes below frost, or
inside the buildings where no frost can reach them, they will give good
satisfactions. Be sure and keep all above ground pipes exposed so they
can be reached if necessary. Never hide a water pipe in a wall unless you
are dead sure that it will never freeze or leak.
Get a water
system, have a bath and wash room, hot and cold running water in the
kitchen, and live as you would live if you retired and moved to town.
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