incubating cellar and found that 2109 chicks had been hatched
from the 4000 eggs. The last hatch was the best of all, giving 607. I
don't think we have ever had as good results since, though to tell the
truth I have not attempted to keep an exact count of eggs incubated. My
opinion is that fifty per cent is a very good average hatch, and that
one should not expect more.

In September, when the young birds were separated, the census report was
723 pullets and 764 cockerels, showing an infant mortality of 622, or
twenty-nine per cent. The accidents and vicissitudes of early
chickenhood are serious matters to the unmothered chick, and they must
not be overlooked by the breeder who figures his profits on paper.

After the first year I kept no tabs on the chickens hatched; my desire
was to add each year 600 pullets to my flock, and after the third season
to dispose of as many hens. It doesn't pay to keep hens that are more
than two and a half years old. I have kept from 1200 to 1600 laying hens
for the past six years. I do not know what it costs to feed one or all
of them, but I do know what moneys I have received for eggs, young
cockerels, and old hens, and I am satisfied.

There is a big profit in keeping hens for eggs if the conditions are
right and the industry is followed, in a businesslike way, in connection
with other lines of business; that is, in a factory farm. If one had to
devote his whole time to the care of his plant, and were obliged to buy
almost every morsel of food which the fowls ate, and if his market were
distant and not of the best, I doubt of great success; but with food at
the lowest and product at the highest, you cannot help making good
money. I do not think I have paid for food used for my fowls in any one
year more than $500; grits, shells, meat meal, and oil meal will cover
the list. I do not wish to induce any man or woman to enter this
business on account of the glowing statements which these pages contain.
I am ideally situated. I am near one of the best markets for fine food;
I can sell all the eggs my hens will lay at high prices; food costs the
minimum, for it comes from my own farm; I utilize skim-milk, the
by-product from another profitable industry, to great advantage; and I
had enough money to carry me safely to the time of product. In other
words, I could build my factory before I needed to look to it for
revenue. I do not claim that this is the only way, but I do claim that
it is t