IN SEARCH OF A PAYING POULTRY FARM.

SOME seven years ago a weekly paper, the County Gentle- man, published a series of articles by the well-known writer who signs himself " Home Counties," entitled " In Search of a Paying Poultry Farm." Did such a thing exist, and if so, where was it to be found, and under what methods was it managed ? That was the question to which " Home Counties " set out to find an answer, and the conclusion at which he arrived was disillusioning. He did not find one. He could not discover a farm which produced only poultry and which paid its way. It seemed an unlikely conclusion to a prolonged search, for with a perpetually increasing demand for fresh eggs and chickens for the table, it might have been supposed that somewhere, under some kind of economical method, some one would have discovered a process by which that demand could have been supplied at a profit, and would have devoted himself solely to poultry farming—thus com- bining a life in the open air on the land with an agreeable way of making an income. But no such person was to be found. Where poultry were found to be profitable, they were a side- show, so to speak ; they were fed on stuff from the farm and the house, or there was no separate rent to pay for the land over which they ran, or there was no bill for labour, or no expense in marketing. Some factor was always present which put the poultry farm, as a farm by itself, out of court. The future of poultry-farming, " Home Counties " concluded, was with the intelligent farmer's daughter; there was no satis- factory prospect for the would-be smallholder with only chickens to make him an income.

Is this no longer the case P The Journal of the Board of Agriculture gives the first place in its December issue to an article on " Chicken Rearing on an Intensive System," which is, in fact, an account of an experiment conducted at Hounslow during the spring and summer of the present year under the auspices of the Daily Mail. For the last three years a poultry- rearer of experience and business capacity, Mr. F. G. Paynter, has been "working out his system in co-operation with the Daily _Mail," we learn from Tuesday's paper, and the financial results are now published in fall. Before we come to them let us look at the conditions under which Mr. Paynter worked. He had a " holding " of three and a half acres at Hounslow— a single grass field, well drained, and fairly well sheltered by trees and hedgerows. He kept no adult birds, and reared all his chickens with incubators and foster-mothers. The object was to produce 100 to 120 chickens every week, and each week's hatching was given its own wired-in run, measuring twelve yards by a hundred yards. Each run was provided also with two small Sussex chicken "arks" for sleeping accommo- dation. The idea was to begin hatching chickens on the first of January, so as to be able to sell the first hatching in April

the birds being sold at the age of from twelve to sixteen weeks. However, owing to unavoidable difficulties, hatching did not as a fact begin until February 13th, so that the first birds were not sold until May 28th. The last birds were hatched on June 11th, and sold on November 1st. All birds were hatched from bought eggs, and the cost of these eggs was £31 13s. ld. In addition, £4 19s. was spent on day old chicks, presumably to make up the hatchings to the required numbers, for it was found that, taking the season right through, on an average two eggs were required for every chicken reared. Other current expenses were £4 12s. 9d. for oil for the incu- bators and foster mothers, £142 4s. 3d. for food, and £14 6s. 2d. for occasional outside labour. The quantities of the different foods are interesting. They were : wheat, 10,978 lb. ; fine sharps, 7,888 lb.; biscuit meal, 3,257 lb.; barley meal, 1,827 lb.; meat meal and green bone, 1,589 lb. ; bran, 1,224 lb.; maize, 703 lb. ; rice, 370 lb.; oatmeal, 359 lb.; and fat, 28 lb.; in addition about 2,000 lb. of mixed chick feed was used. Milk, it will be noticed, formed no part of the diet, as it could not be bought at a reasonable price. The birds were given a good supply of sharp flint grit, and water was supplied in earthenware troughs. It was also found that in spite of the heavy stocking there was a good growth of grass always available for the birds. We come now to the returns.

"Altogether 2,192 chickens were sold; they were sold alive on the holding and collected by the purchasers, so that no deduction from the price has to be made for marketing or other expenses. The total sum realized was £301 55.3d., the average price obtained per chicken being thus 2s. 81c1.; ranging from 3s. in May and June, to 2s. 6d. in September, October, and November. The margin thus left to cover the labour of the smallholder, rent, deteriora- tion of equipment, risk, and interest on capital outlay was £103 10s., plus the value of the manure, which was regularly swept up from under the houses and around the feeding places." We are further reminded that, since the last chickens

were sold on November 1st, this is the net result of not more than nine or ten months' work, and that "if it had been possible to commence hatching at the beginning of January, 3,000 chicks would have been reared, increasing the margin very considerably." That is counting 800 chickens as successfully reared in the first six weeks of the year, which seems rather a large number, considering the proportion of eggs laid in December and January which are likely to be infertile. But without disputing the figure, let us now see what were the capital expenses which were needed in order to bring the poultry farm into existence. and cost in full :-

4 incubators at 26 5s.... ...

1•, •••

14 brooders at £3 10s....

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24 houses at £1 10s.

31 rolls 4-foot netting at 9s. 6d. 12 rolls 2-foot netting at 9s. 6d.

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500 stakes at • ••

••• •••

Pegs ... ••• ••• 24 water pans at 7d. •••

•••

24 grit pans at 7d.

••• ••

24 feeding tins at 4d. ••• ••• 14 grit tins for brooders at Is.

••• •••

48 food tins at

•••

12 food boxes at Is.

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2 barrows at 16s.

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1 water barrow ...

6 tins for mixing food at 3s. 3d.

2 corn bins at 7s. 6d.

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4 „ „ at 4s.

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6 market baskets at ffs. 6d. ... •••

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3 food baskets at Is. 6d. ... ••• 60 food tins at 41d. ••• ••• 1 weighing machine ... ••• 1 „ ••• Buckets, &c. ••• Kettles and sundries ... •••

We give

1.0

••• .•• • • • ••• ••• ••• ••• •• • ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• • -• ••• ••• •••

the equipment

£ 5. 41. 25 0 0 49 0 0 36 0 0 14 14 6 5 14 0 1 010 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 14 0 0 14 0 0 8 0 0 14 0 0 8 0 0 12 0 1 12 0 1 10 0 0 19 6 0 15 0 0 16 0 2 11 0 0 4 6 1 2 6 1 10 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 6 0 £150 5 10

Thus a capital outlay of £150 was needed for plant; in addition, it would be necessary to be supplied with ready money for eggs bought in the first four months of the year, before there would be any return from the birds sold. In all, therefore, apart from any expenses as regards purchasing land, or building or renting a house, or his current living expenses, the smallholder intending to make his income out of poultry would have to be supplied with a capital of some £250.

Well, have we discovered a paying poultry farm P Let us examine one or two of the items of expenditure which in the Hounslow experiment have been, so to speak, " given in." The profit for the year was £103 10s. Out of this has to be deducted rent. If we take the odd £3 10s. as the rent of the .and at £1 an acre, we come to the rent of the necessary 4ttage or house. An agricultural labourer's cottage might possibly be obtained at a rental of 3s. a week ; but would that price be possible in conjunction with a rent of only £1 an acre for land P The cottage would have to be on or adjoining the holding, or the poultry farmer would not be able to look after his incubators. Besides the rent of the cottage there must also be reckoned wear and tear, rates, interest on capital, insurance, and living expenses ; all that has to come out of £100. Then comes the question of labour, and of finding a market. Here we meet with a difficulty at once. How many smallholders are likely to he so fortunate as to be able always to sell their chickens alive on the holding, to be collected by the buyer, at a price averaging 2s. Sd. P One of the greatest of the small producers' difficulties, without the aid of co-operation, is to find an assured market. In the Hounslow experiment there is no money allowed for dress.. ing and packing the poultry, or for carriage, or for com- mission. It is difficult to see how these expenses can be left out of consideration in any average case ; and the exceptional case proves nothing of real value. 'Unless, indeed, it is this, that a man of exceptional attainments, such as Mr. Paynter, cannot earn at poultry farming, even with land, a house, and a market thrown in, more than 30s. or £2 a week. We fear that the truly paying farm is still in the distance ; but Mr Paynter's experiments have at all events brought a non-losing farm into the nearer possibilities of the small holding. We notice that he has been provided by the Cheshire County Council with a seven-acre holding on which to demonstrate his system to other smallholders, and we shall watch the progress of his further experiment with interest.