POULTRY AMD PROFIT (?).

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 148, 13 June 1908, Page 3

POULTRY AMD PROFIT (?).

liy One Who Now Hates Chickens. | Perhaps in the first instance 1 was more to blame tor it than my wife; it was 1 who brought the Iwok home*. It was a book on the way to make a fortune out of keeping poultry, and I sat up till two o'clock reading it to my wife; and, of course, she believed every word it said. Xext omrning I wired to the ollice to say that 1 was down with influenza, and went out early and Ixwght fifty yards of wire netting, about ten pounds of nails of various sizes, and a couple of squares or so of timber. I should have that poultry-house fixed up by I lunch-time, I reckoned, and the rau wired in by sunset, ready for the birds in the morning. My wife undertook to get the birds; she had stayed on a farm for some months when she was a girl, and reckoned that she knew all about the rudiments of poultry-keeping, anyhow; and as this was to be her special pet bobby, so to speak, she thought she'd like to select the breeds for herself. The house itself was a simple matter. I finished it early in the afternoon, and got it to stand up all right when it was leant against the garden wall out of the wind, and then 1 thought 1 would tackle the run. 1 unwound the wire for the first five yards or so, measured oft the required "quantity, and started | in to cut it with a pair of nippers. That , began it; the wire evidently t»ok offence at being cut, and behaved in a manner that was simply disgusting. ! For an hour the dog and 1 fought that wire-netting single-handed. 1 would get it tacked-up to the post at one end, and, choosing a moment when I thought it wasn't looking. I'd start in to tack the other end up as quickly a» 1 could, and then the first end would tear itself away in one wrench and fly at me from beliind. and the whole piece would wrap itseli round me, en masse, and trip me and fling me. panting and breathing, to the earth. .\nd when we were down, the dog would come to my rescue and make frantic .snaps, and get itself pricked all over the nose, in con- ' sequence, with the jagged ends. It was : In-art-breaking: ' My wife arrive.! about -even o'clock.

\i-rv tir'-d and -hull tempered. ami -aid I -lie' had Well to lull a dozen jx.uUi - , fanciers, and some of tliem-had advi-ni j Ikt to j;o in for fattenin*: table birds; , others had told Ikt t<> '"i* <'%¥*• lmthin" but mid others li;id said | I that there was ali-olutcly 110 money in , poultry unk— yon went in for breeding • -how bird-. and offered to tit her out with -took for this purpo-e for the moderate --"111 of fifty live pound- ten -hillings net. At the end, -he had plumped tor table liird-: it would ronie so economical when we asked anybody round to dinner, she said; and for her part -he didn't care for So she had actuallv paid ten pounds for one of the most expensive type- ot incubator, and an outfit of one hundred fresh e«gs to start with. " Frwh" rggs, miud you. not even " new laid ! Well, after all my work over that Iten-lKui-e. I was naturally a little nettled. Here had I -pent the whole dav erectin;.' a -ul.stantial cdihcc ill our ' I rack a"rden for tin- reception of towls: here had 1 l>cen Ti-kin- my life Willi ■ tiftv vardsof wire-netting, und-anil---Thsit i*n<l ; j - -\ud

iir-t. I mn-t »ny, I 1 1" :,n.l after it iUIII attmilnl tr > '* ro"ulirly. My "if" wimlrt u'.'t up a( m\ an<l <>{>«'» tin' imiw'i'* ;,n.l .lir ami all H>.>l audi unlllil ?'•! U|> in tlh- Ull'ldl'' «'l til'' lll^ll -m,l t.-,t tli.' ti-mp.'r.itiir" and tiia! tlM' tiling li-i'ln'l t'k-ii til'': >t

r 1 -Teat lull. ■' " And. then, on the tuc,! i n,-l dai. •Umv wife. iile. had g..,„. dov-n early a--1ei,,;„,,.,.., me running up-tail - again w,t, '■ | •'• (it-urge," tiii-re'- a chicken!'' 11 I I da-le-d into mv thing- a- 'U'"'' l .? |a- po-ible. and went down, and put i f | il-toie in lie- lonl-hou-e to warm |M I matters ue. and got together all the ' bits of old ll.imiei f could find, and '•' generally (lid what I could to maU

the little stranger; and then my wife things comfortable for the reception of and I sat round that incubator, and waited for the others to hatch out.

'1 1m; girl brought us our breakfast at eight o'clock, but nothing had happened; and at nine o'clock 1 sent n wire to the ofliee and prepared lo spend the morning waiting development*. l!ul nothing did develop. We took it in turns to watch, ami all that day and night ami the next day, one of us was always at that incubator's side. On the morning of the third day the first chicken died—roup, or something -and in I lie afternoon my wife, who had been reading up the subject 11 the book, was suddenly seized with a brilliant idea.

"Ceorge," she said, "it says thai—'occasionally it may lie found'necessary ' to help the young' chicks out by chipping the shell: this, however, must be done very carefully,' etc. Of course, that's what must lie the matter. Chip' one, George!" Now, I have been in farmyards in the height of summer; i have stayed in a friend's house that was near a chemical works; but never—never in all my life have I experienced anything like that egg*»that 1 chipped! It was like nothing earthly! It was awful! Well, we gave a boy, who belonged to a travelling shooting-gallery, fourpence to take those eggs'away; lie took the fourpence, and gathered up the eggs, and coolly commenced to "blow" them in our back garden. It cost ine another sixpence and the help of an axe to get him off the premises; and now I am advertising lifty yards ol wire-netting, a quantity of'odd timber, and a brand-new incubator, in exchange for -an ornamental water-tank with a fountain and goldfish.