fo vr ri Sy be enough for a thousand mature hens THE FARMER COLU Some Practical Suggestions "Worth Knowing From the De” artmment of Agriculture. STARTING POULTRY RAISING Many requests from all sections of the State reach the Pennsylvanit De- -partmént of Agriculture for advice in ' starting in raising poultry and from | time to time the expert poultry men or ‘the “Department are called upon for their assistance. J. T. Campbell, one of the poultrymen in speaking of starting in the poultry business says: “If I were starting in poultry work I would make hardiness and strong vitality the leading consideration. Vi- gor is the cornerstone of permanent success, If you have strong, vigorous stock, treat them properly, and breed for vigor first and foremost, you will have freedom from disease and small loss from young chicks dying, which within a few years will amount to far more net profit than to follow the fool ideas which are popular. You may not get quite so many eggs frm a few individual hens, and not break any records, but what doth it profit a man if he have one hen that lays 400 eggs and a flock of really unprofitable stock that gives a loss of sixty per cent. of the chicks in raising. “If you want to succeed in poultry work and build on a sold basis it will be well to grow into it gradually. it is an entirely different pronositon to take care of a thousand fowls than to care for a hun.:--d. The little things you do for a hundred will be practic- ally impossible with a thousand, and if you attempt to bestow the same a- mount of time and care on a thous- and that you put in on a hundred, the labor ‘will consume all possible profits. “The best thing to do is fo start with some good, strong, vigorous breeding fowls, say a pen of fifty. If you buy these in September or October you will ‘get them cheaply as breeders sell a lot of good stock cheap at this time. From this pen you can raise what pul- Jets ‘you can handle and learn some- thng of the care of larger numbers during the first year. The next year you can make a futher increase grad- ually growing into the business as you learn to handle the-fowls successfully. “I think the big records made by the English stock can be accounted for by selection of indivduals for the contests and to change of climate, I! know of no American bred English stock masking any hotter in than FONP 8 1Aorigan, ed h have 16a during the ay to: produce weakly id AWe.corather have for breed-- je on pdt, vigorous hens that have not through the winter with plenty ‘of good fend, than yilicie or Jaevy laying hens. “ A i= YA sixty by: sixty foot fois will ac-