her with that of a little garden of
small fruits before and after working hours The chickens fed largely
on green food in summer.

In selling your surplus at a profit, the same principles apply as in
raising a surplus to sell at a profit.

While poultry and egg raising does not require that you must be
first, it does require that you market your produce at a time when
the prices are highest.

You must hatch at a time which will allow the young hens to begin
laying as winter approaches; the food must keep up animal heat and
the house must be warm enough to make the hens comfortable, and the
conditions must be such as to keep them laying.

As an experiment, we once raised six pullets. They were hatched in
May, and in December they began laying. All during the winter they
laid never less than four and some times six eggs a day, and kept
this up until spring.

They were fed on wheat and corn and plenty of meat scraps and green
food. They were kept in what was practically a glass house,
receiving the benefit of the sun during the day, and were protected
from the winds. The effect was to bring as near as possible the
condition of the warm months; these paid very well.

Ducks are less frequently raised than chickens and often realize
good returns.

The popular fallacy that ducks require a stream or pond is gradually
passing away. There was a time when nearly all ducks were raised in
this way, feeding on fish as the principal diet, but experience has
proved that ducks raised without a stream or pond tend to put on
flesh instead of feathers, and they have not the oily, fishy flavor
of those raised on the water. Nearly all of the successful duck
raisers now use this method.

This is bringing the duck more into prominence as an article of
food; as James Rankin says in "Duck Culture," "People do not care to
eat fish and flesh combined. They would rather eat them separate."

The white pekins are the popular birds, because they are larger,
have white meat, and are splendid layers. They lay from 100 to 165
eggs in a season and are the easiest to raise. They can do entirely
without water; and Rankin tells of selling a flock to a wealthy man,
who afterwards wrote asking him to take them back, because he had
bought them for an artificial lake in front of his house, so that
his wife and children could watch them disporting in the water. He
complained that they would not go into the water unless he drove
them in and would rema