The Dollar Hen Part 6

The Norfolk fine Sand and Norfolk Sandy Loam of the U.S. soil survey, are types of such soil.

These soils absorb the droppings readily and are never covered with standing water. The winter snows do not stay on them. Crops will keep greener on them in winter than on clay soils three hundred miles farther south.

The disadvantage of such soils is that they lose their fertility by leaching. The same principles that will cause the droppings to disappear from the top of the ground will likewise cause them to be washed down beyond the depths of plant roots. This loss must be guarded against by not going to the extreme in selecting a light soil and may be largely overcome by schemes of running the poultry right among growing crops or by quick rotations.

Land sloping to the southward is commonly advised for the purpose of getting the same advantages as are to be had in a sandy soil. In practice the slope of the land cannot be given great prominence, although, other things being equal, one should certainly not disregard this point. In heavy lands it is necessary to raise the floors and grade up around the houses. The quickly drained soil does away with this expense.

Timber on the land is a disadvantage. Poultry farming in the woods has not been made a success. It's the same proposition of the droppings going to waste. I know a man who bought a timbered tract because it was cheap and who sc.r.a.ped up the droppings to sell by the barrel to his neighbor, who used them to fertilize his cabbage patch and in turn sold the poultryman cabbages to feed his hens, at 5 cents a head. Of course, this man failed, as does practically every man who attempts to sc.r.a.pe dropping boards and carry poultry manure around in baskets, instead of using it where it falls.

There is little to be said in favor of uncleared land for the poultry business, but there is something that can be said in favor of the poultry business for uncleared land. A man who buys a timbered land for trucking can get no income whatever the first year, but the poultryman can begin his operations in the woods, clearing the land while he is raising a crop of chickens on it. The coops may be placed in the cleared streak and most of the droppings utilized. In fact, the plan of a streak of timber alongside the houses is not bad for a permanent arrangement--the birds certainly enjoy the shade. But the shade of growing crops is the most profitable kind for poultry.

Marketing--Transportation.

The possibilities of working up a local trade of high grade eggs at fancy prices varies greatly with the locality. Large cities and wealthy people are essentials. Other than this the princ.i.p.al distinctions are that regions where a general surplus of eggs are produced offer little chance for a fancy trade. Where the great bulk of eggs are imported fancy trade is more feasible. St. Louis is the smallest western city that supports anything like a fancy trade in eggs and there it is only on a small scale. Minneapolis, Omaha, etc., would not pay 3 cents premium for the best eggs produced, but cities of the same size east of the Appalachians and especially in New England, will pay a good premium. The Far West or the mountain districts will pay up better than the Mississippi Valley. The South will pay a little better than the upper Mississippi Valley, but has few cities of sufficient size to make such markets abundant. The Southerner has little regard for quality in produce and the most aristocratic people consume eggs regularly that the wife of a Connecticut factory hand wouldn't have in the house. The egg farmer who expects to sell locally had best not locate south of Was.h.i.+ngton or west of Pittsburg, unless he goes to the Pacific Coast.

Where marketing is not done by wagon the subject of railroad transportation is practically identical with the question of marketing. It is the cost in freight service and freight rates that count. The proposition of transportation, especially for the grain buying poultry farm, catches us coming and going and both must be considered.

A poultry farm in Section 7 will buy one hundred pounds of feed per year per hen and market one-third of a case of eggs. On this basis the grain rate from Chicago or St. Louis and the egg rate to New York must be balanced against each other. Don't take these things for granted. Look them up.

Jamesburg and Freehold, two New Jersey towns ten miles apart and equi-distant and with equal freight rates from New York, might seem to the uninitiated as equally well situated to poultry farming. We will suppose two men bought forty-acre farms of equal quality and equi-distant from the railroad stations at these two towns. Suppose, further, they each kept five thousand hens. Jamesburg is on a Philadelphia-New York line of the Pennsylvania and its Chicago grain rate is the same as that of New York, namely: 19-1/2 cents per hundred. Freehold is on a branch line; its rate is 24-1/2 cents. In a year the difference amounts to $250. Figured at six per cent.

interest, the land at Jamesburg is worth just about one hundred dollars an acre more than that at Freehold.

Lumber rates or local lumber prices should also be taken into consideration. Whether one plans to s.h.i.+p his product out by express or freight will, of course, be an important consideration in deciding the location.

As a general thing, the individual poultry farmer will, for s.h.i.+pping his product, use express east of Buffalo and north of Norfolk. The poultry community could use freight in these same regions and get as good or better service than by express.

The location in relation to the railroad station is equally important to the freight rate. Besides heavy hauling frequent trips will be necessary in marketing eggs. These on the larger farms will be daily or at least semi-weekly. On the heavy hauling alone, at 25 cents per ton mile, distance from the railroad will figure up 1-1/4 cents per hen which, on the basis of the previous ill.u.s.tration, would make a difference of twenty-five dollars per acre for every mile of distance from the station. One of the most successful poultry farms I know is right along the railroad and has an elevator which handles the grain from the cars and later dumps it into the feed wagons without its ever being touched by hand. The labor saving in this counts up rapidly.

The poultry community can have its own elevator and the grain can be sold to the farmer to be delivered directly into the hoppers in his field with but a single loading into a wagon.

Availability of Water.

One more point to be considered in location is water.

The labor of watering poultry by carrying water in buckets is tremendous and not to be considered on any up-to-date poultry plant.

Watering must be accomplished by some artificial piping system or from spring-fed brooks. The more length of flowing streams on a piece of land, provided the adjacent ground is dry, the more value the property has for poultry. Two spring-fed brooks crossing a forty-acre tract so as to give a half mile of running water, or a full mile of houses, would water five thousand hens without labor.

This would mean an annual saving of at least one man's time as against hand watering, or a matter of a thousand dollars or more in the cost of installation of a watering system.

If running water cannot be had the next best thing is to get land with water near the surface which may be tapped with sand points. If one must go deep for water a large flow is essential so that one power pump may easily supply sufficient water for the plant.

The land should lay in a gentle slope so that water may be run over the entire surface by gravity. Hilly lands are a nuisance in poultry keeping and raise the expense at every turn.

A Few Statistics.

The following table does not bear directly upon the poultry-man's choice of a location, but is inserted here because of its general interest in showing the poultry development of the country.

It will be noted that the egg production per hen is very low in the Southern States. This may seem at variance with my previous statements. The poor poultry keeping of the South is a fault of the industrial conditions, not of the climate. Chickens on the Southern farm simply live around the premises as do rats or English sparrows.

No grain is grown; there are no feed lots to run to, no measures are taken to keep down vermin, and no protection is provided from wind and rain. In the North chickens could not exist with such treatment.

The figures given showing the relation between the poultry and total agricultural wealth is the best way that can be found to express statistically the importance of poultry keeping in relation to the general business of farming. These figures should not be confused with the distribution of the actual volume of poultry products.

Iowa, the greatest poultry producing state, shows only a moderate proportion of poultry to all farm wealth, but this is because more agricultural wealth is produced in Iowa than in all the "Down East"

states.

Table showing the development of the poultry industry in the various states, according to the returns of the census of 1900:

No. of Percentage of No. of Farm value eggs per farm wealth eggs of eggs per capita earned by per hen dozen States poultry

Alabama 124 4.9 48 9.7 cents Arizona 80 4.5 60 19.9 Arkansas 235 6.8 58 9.1 California 197 5.4 74 15.8 Colorado 127 5.4 71 15.0 Connecticut 105 11.3 89 19.1 Delaware 231 14.7 68 13.7 Florida 96 8.2 46 13.1 Georgia 156 4.4 41 10.4 Idaho 213 5.0 67 16.2 Indiana 338 10.0 77 10.5 Iowa 536 7.4 64 10.1 Illinois 215 3.7 62 10.3 Kansas 597 8.2 73 9.9 Kentucky 198 8.3 62 9.8 Louisiana 111 4.0 40 10.0 Maine 233 11.0 100 15.3 Maryland 126 10.4 71 12.6 Ma.s.sachusetts 56 11.7 96 19.9 Michigan 270 9.7 82 11.2 Minnesota 296 5.8 67 10.5 Mississippi 144 4.7 43 9.9 Missouri 291 11.6 68 9.8 Montana 148 4.3 67 21.0 Nebraska 463 6.1 66 9.9 Nevada 68 3.7 71 20.8 New Hamps.h.i.+re 238 11.5 96 17.3 New Jersey 76 12.0 72 16.2 New Mexico 45 2.7 65 18.7 New York 102 7.1 83 13.9 North Carolina 112 5.7 55 10.2 North Dakota 249 2.6 64 10.5 Ohio 265 9.6 77 11.2 Oklahoma 315 6.4 60 9.3 Oregon 224 6.2 72 15.1 Pennsylvania 112 10.8 75 13.5 Rhode Island 90 19.7 77 20.4 South Carolina 80 4.0 41 10.3 South Dakota 502 5.2 68 10.0 Tennessee 189 8.4 61 9.8 Texas 228 4.8 52 8.0 Utah 146 5.1 76 12.5 Vermont 219 7.5 94 15.3 Virginia 165 8.9 67 11.1 Was.h.i.+ngton 171 7.1 74 16.8 West Virginia 216 10.2 74 10.9 Wisconsin 268 7.1 68 10.5 Wyoming 121 2.4 79 17.4 Entire U.S. 205 7.4 65 11.1

CHAPTER V

THE DOLLAR HEN FARM

As has already been emphasized, the way to get money out of the chicken business is not to put so much in.

Land, however, well suited to the purpose, should not be begrudged, for interest at six per cent, will afford a very considerable extra investment in land well suited to the business if it in any way cuts down the cost of operation.

The Plan of Housing.

The houses are the next consideration. On most poultry farms they are the chief items of expense. I know of a poultry farm near New York City where the house cost $12.00 per hen. The owner built this farm with a view of making money. People also buy stock in Nevada gold mines with a view of making money. I know another poultry farm owned by a man named Tillinghast at Vernon, Connecticut, where the houses cost thirty cents per hen. Mr. Tillinghast gets more eggs per hen than the New York man. Incidentally, he is sending his son to Yale, and he has no other visible means of support except his chicken farm.

For the region of light soils and the localities which I have recommended for poultry farming, the following style of poultry house should be used:

No floors, single boarded walls, a roof of matched cypress lumber or of cheap pine covered with tarred paper. This house is to have no windows and no door. The roosts are in the back end; the front end is open or partly open; feed hoppers and nests are in the front end.

The feed hoppers may be made in the walls, made loose to set in the house, or made to shed water and placed outside the house. All watering is to be done outside the houses; likewise any feeding beyond that done in hoppers.

The exact style of the house I leave to the reader's own plan. Were I recommending complex houses costing several dollars per hen, this certainly would be leaving the reader in the dark woods. With houses of the kind described it is hard to go far amiss. The simplest form is a double pitched roof, the ridge-pole standing about seven feet high, and the walls about four. The house is made eight by sixteen, and one end--not the side--left open. For the house that man is to enter, this form cannot be improved upon.

The only other points are to construct it on a couple of 4x4 runners so that it can be dragged about by a team. Cypress, or other decay-proof wood should be used for these mud-sills. The framing should be light and as little of it used as is consistent with firmness. If the whole house costs more than twenty-five dollars there is something wrong in its planning.

This house should accommodate seventy-five or eighty hens.

For smaller operations, especially for horseless, or intensive farming, a low, light house may be used, which the attendant never enters. A portion of the roof lifts up to fill feed-hoppers, gather eggs or spray. These small houses may be made light enough to be moved short distances by a pry-pole, the team being required only when they are moved to a new field.

Not one particle of poultry manure is to be removed from either style of house. Instead, the houses are removed from the manure, which is then scattered on the neighboring ground with a fork, or, if desired to be used on a field in which poultry may not run, it may be loaded upon a wagon together with some of the underlaying soil.

There have been books and books written on poultry houses, but what I have just given is sufficient poultry-house knowledge for the Dollar Hen man. If he hasn't enough intelligence to put this into practice, he has no business in the hen business. Additional book-knowledge of hen-houses is useless; it may be harmful.

If you are sure that you are fool-proof, you may get Dr. Feather or Reverend Earlobe's "Book of Poultry House Plans." It will be a good text-book for the children's drawing lessons.