MY DEAR FRIEND: — Now I am going to write a pretty long introduction; but I want to know all the people who have sent for this book and I want you all to know me WELL. Know me well enough to have confidence in me that I will do just what I say I will and give you a good square deal. So I want you to read this through.

The old saying, "Nothing…

Publishers' Foreword

This work has been prepared by Michael K. Boyer, one of the foremost poultrymen of the United States. In its preparation he has drawn on his own great storehouse of experience, and on those of his many friends who are authorities on poultry. It is packed full of information not generally known to the average poultryman.…

The series of articles from the pen of Rev. G. R. Smith is a faithful presentation of information and inspiration that deserves placing in a permanent volume. For many years Mr. Smith has been a leading contributor to the poultry magazines of the country. As the "Poultry Item" was his "first love" there is mutual honor in compiling this knowledge…

Just plain chicken talk is the title of this book and just a plain everyday poultry man wrote it. The idea of writing a book had never occurred to the author, but after talking and explaining chickens to hundreds of men and women engaged in this particular business he was led at their earnest solicitation to set forth his ideas and the ideas of…

No branch of stock-breeding is, or can be, so general as poultry-keeping, which is within the opportunity of almost every section of the community, each carrying out the work in accordance with its immediate conditions. That is certainly the case with fowls, and to a lesser extent with ducks. Geese and turkeys can alone be profitably bred where…

I have frequently been asked to give my opinion on poultry-rearing in Great Britain as a means of counteracting, at all events to some extent, our imports. The sum annually paid out of England for poultry and eggs is L8,000,000. In venturing to respond to the invitation thus addressed to me by many who have noticed my successes as an exhibitor of a…

CHAPTER I.
Ancient domesticated Poultry — Ruffs and Reeves — Poultry in the Nine-acre Field — Egg Importations — Poultry- keeping in Towns and Suburban Residences — Hens eating their Eggs — Laying at the best Season — Construction of the Fowl-house — Perches — White-washing — Sheds — Dust-heaps — Height and Size of Houses — Runs — Pining…

For those who want to know about poultry keepings for those who wish to learn poultry keeping and for poultry keepers who cannot always remember things they know at the moment they happen to need them, this book was written: to the small army of writers of permanent and current poultry literature nearly every one of whom has in some way contributed…

In undertaking the task of writing a treatise on broilers and market poultry, it shall be the aim of the writer to overdraw nothing, but to present things in their true light. It is with the object of teaching the novice, and avoiding mistakes so often made by those who take their maiden step into the business, that this book is written.

No…

American farms vary widely in size and other characteristics, but farming is still an industry of family businesses. Ninety-eight percent of farms are family farms, and they account for 82 percent of farm production. Small family farms make up most of the U.S. farm count and hold the majority of farm assets, but they produce a modest share of U.S.…

This book is to be compiled in dead earnest. Poultry keeping may be a fad with a limited few but in a vast majority of cases it is a serious matter, a question of bread and butter, of a livelihood, and any book writ-ten or compiled on the subject of Success with Poultry should view the poultry business in this light. We shall not put into this book…

For those who want to know about poultry keeping, for those who wish to learn poultry keeping, aid for poultry keepers who cannot always remember things they know at the moment they happen to need them, this book was written: to the small army of writers of permanent and current poultry literature, nearly every one of whom has in some way…

Before taking up the regular work of this course every reader who intends to follow it through the year should consider carefully a few propositions about poultry keeping. These may not be in accordance with some ideas about it which he has absorbed, he knows not where; but if he is to get much benefit from these lessons he must accept them, at…

Why Only Broilers and Roasters are Considered.

This book will treat especially, and almost exclusively, of broilers and roasters because these are the two classes of market poultry in which one making a specialty of growing poultry (chickens) for market is interested. It might be said that broilers and roasters are the only chickens grown for…

It has been my constant aim in writing this book to use common sense, and to give the public as much good practical information as I possibly could, and remember, that this book was written by a man who is out working with his chickens every day. It was not written by a man sitting at a desk in the office with a pencil, dreaming of what could be…

"Can I make a living with poultry?" is a question that comes as regularly to the editor's desk as the months appear on the calendar.

"Is there a living in poultry? " is but a twin sister to the first inquiry.

The latter question is more easily solved than the former. That a living, and a good living, can be derived from poultry culture, has…

Just a few words in the way of introduction to those who have never heard of me or of my new methods. I was born a poultryman; my father before me bred fancy stock all his life; from a small boy I gathered the eggs, took charge of the poultry, exhibited them at the county shows and had birds of my own. I have bred fancy stock all my life and tried…

"Our Domestic Birds" is a book for children too young to read books written for adults, and for older people too busy to read more technical works for the information of general interest which they contain. Its purpose is to teach the things that everyone ought to know about domestic birds. It is a book about these birds and their relations to man,…

This series originally appeared in Farm-Poultry serially in 1905-06. The third year course series is now running in that paper.

CONTENTS

Twenty-four cuts of the most popular breeds.

It tells how to erect the best poultry house in use; gives cuts the number of feet of material, cost, etc., etc.

It tells you how to test your eggs so they will hatch, and gives cuts showing different stages of fertility.

It tells you the effect of altitude on the hen and…