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Show POULTRY I'- 1 IWB nMMaaua COMMERCIAL POULTRY C. S. Gorline. v CHAPTER II. i The boy continued to breed! this variety for several years and met Avitlv a measure of success as an exhibitor and all the time he was learning, and after he had left school and began clerking in a mercantile establishment establish-ment he continued to take an interest inter-est in poultry. Then, his father died, and when the estate was settled, the young man engaged in business for himself, but the work was not to his liking and he met with but small measure of success. While driving in the country one day his attention was attracted to a flock of White Wyandottcs ranging on a green rye field and at sight of the pretty picture, pic-ture, all of his old love for poultry seemed to instantly revive, and there and then, his mind was made up. lie would dispose of his business and devote de-vote the balance of his life to poultry poul-try raising. In a few years his name began to be heard of in connection with a breed that has a world wide popularity. His entire time and attention at-tention was -devoted to the industry. A larger farm was purchased and as his prestige as a breeder grew, his business increased and while not an old man yet, he has accumulated a neat fortune and enjoys an annual in-conic in-conic that many well to do' banker might envy. His name? You will sec it in any poultry publication. Well, you say, that is all well for a boy and fo'r a man to do, but what;' could a girl do? Nothing. Do you think so? Let us tell you. Once upon up-on a time there was a little girl out on a ranlh in California we don't like to say how many years ago, because the little girl is a lady now, and with ladies age is one of the unmentionables unmention-ables for they always shy at the word just like a high strung horse at a piece of white paper, so this once we had better forget that time is flying. Well, this eleven year old was "mother's "moth-er's chicken girl." She set the hens and gathered the eggs and coddled and fed the "babies chicks, of course and out of the proceeds of sales of chickens apd eggs, she had many a i v mmmmmmmmmfXi ml , L l nice new frock of calico, set off by a .stiffjy starched white apron, red' stocktt?-ings stocktt?-ings and new shoes and then thcrcwa : wonderful string of blue beads and a nice black rubber comb to keep the wilful brown curls out of the bright blue eyes of "mother's chicken girl,"-jand girl,"-jand mind you, all of thisjfincry came about through Mary'5 helping with the clfickcns, and faithfully and well did she mind them and all the time she wa$ learning and going to schooi in the little log school house and growinglinto a tall slim healthy young lady witlf the glint of sunshine in her 1 eyes and the warm rose tint in her checks, and then, Jimmic came along and after a brief acquaintance each " concluded that they could get along better together, and so a little homo ., was set up and,, for a time the hap- pincss of Heaven seemed very near, but Jimmic was never very strong looked like he had never been sick a (fay in his life, but there was some - thing wrong with his heartsome hcriditary weakness and the hard work of the ranch and the rough riding rid-ing were too much for him, and then Mry remembered her chickens and she got Jimmic interested and taught him all she knew and so well was her teaching heeded that almost ibcforc she was aware of it, Jimmic had outstripped out-stripped her and had developed into one of the foremost fanciers of the Pacific Coast. His whole time and attention were now devoted to thf' building up of the famous White Leg- v horn ranch for the production of market mar-ket eggs and with the strictly fancy as a side line. No fancier has ever lived who was better loved and respected re-spected by his brothor fanciers, and while at the very heighth of popularity popu-larity and success, his hcriditary en-cmy en-cmy laid him low. Ahl Could each of the friends who mourned his loss that day have sent him but one white feather from the birds he loved so well, there would have been enough to form a shroud with which to cover his grave. And what became of Mary and the two little children left fatherless. father-less. Did she sit down and cry and wonder what she could do, and finally go back to father? Not a bit of it. There was the little ranch, the chick-ens chick-ens and the two little children, and there was the sunshine and the fresh I nir and a chance for independence I find profit, and Mary set bravely to I work. She loflked after her own ad- vertising, answered all corrcspond- (Mftii $j4h, looked after the incubators and -brooder and the little chicks, while a hired man did all of the heavier work and the orders came in and the business busi-ness grew and today the ranch is all paid for and the income is sufficient to keep Maraud the children com- fortabfy, andtUc, business is stilly I growing. How .much better this life !L of free independence with something !to live for ami something to donvith hands and (brain than helpless dependence depend-ence and deplorable niourningjpfor that which has been, but can ljc no more. ) Hut, you insist these plants arc-not' commercial poultry plants but dcvQt- i'ed to the fancy and if devoted to market productions would not besus-, besus-, taining. Strictly speaking, Hiat is not true. The last one mentrbned, especially. espec-ially. There the fancy istonly a profitable pro-fitable side line, the jinain business I being devoted to the production of market eggs, and this Iwc have always maintained is Commercial Poultry, pure and simple some thing in the poultry line that will sell for a profit somc thing produced to sell. Across the bay and north of San Francisco lies the town of Santa Rosa, famous as the home of Luther IBurbank, the wo "3 greatest plant breeder, and north of Santa .Rosa is another town, the world's greatest poultry town- Pctaluma the White Leghorn queen of the Coast In 1871-f-som.c thirty-seven years ago there wandered into this then wilderness wilder-ness of evergreen covQtxd hill and dale, a young medical student, who in his boyhood davs had witnessed the hatching of eggs from warmth generated by the decomposition of manure, and' herclfc set about the I invention f an artificial hatcher, and . slowly and patiently evolved from the I huge redwood trees the incubator that was destined to revolutionize the I poultry industry of the Coast, and I about this incubus grew the present city of ten thousand inhabitants, nine out of ten of whom are engaged solely sole-ly in the poultry business. From this point thousands of dollars worth of poultry and eggs are shipped each week and every hionth in the year. I Here, as 'elsewhere, wherever a suc-l suc-l cessful incubator has been manufac-1 manufac-1 mred and modern methods bf'brood- . J ing have been followed, the poultry industry has grown to wonderful proportions. pro-portions. In the vicinity of Pctaluma are egg ranches of from one thousand thous-and to twelve or fifteen hundred acres t in extent,, where anywhere from six thousandjfto ten thousand' laying hens arc maintained where the prepared egg foodlis hauled out to themi by the wagon load twice daily and a wagon loadpfresh eggs gathered and ship-pccl ship-pccl each day. Some of these egg ranchers have a daily income from the sale of their eggs of from $25 to $50. There was one man especially that we want to tell you about call him Mr. Brown, for short. Brown had a small cattle ranch in the early eighties, and while he was making a comfortable living for those days, he was not any more than barely holding his own. Well, the incubator put in its appearance and egg ranches began to spring up, and Mr. Brown thought it might be well to take that up also. Accordingly. he purchased one of the incubators and some brooders and 'began 'be-gan with a few Leghorn hens. His egg business proved so profitable in a few years that he disposed 'of his cattle, turned the pastures into poul try runs, built colony houses along the creeks for more than a mile and allowed the birds to roam in flocks of thirty-five or forty. Then he had to buy more land -he had six hundred acres to start with and increased his, hatching plant, and still he was enamped for room, until finally he had fifteen hundred acres utilized as a ooultry ranch, with ten thousand lay-nig lay-nig hens roaming like snow-drifts about the green hills. Verily, ye lovers lov-ers of poultry, such a sight would feast your eyes aiid fade from your mcirjory ' never it would fill your hearts with pride and your pockets with coin just as it has Mr. Brown's. Nowhere else on earth may be seen such a sight such contrasts of color for stretching away to the west, lies Shimmering in the sunlight the cmicrald gleam of the mighty Pacific; to the north and south lie the little hills and vales carpeted with the softest soft-est and greenest of vt dure and cov ered with the moving snow-drifts capped with (crimson and red the myriads of White Leghorns- their combs of brightest scarlet nodding in the, sunlight, form a picture that once seen will never be forgotten. W (To be continued.) |