A dozen years later, at the age when a person knows more than all the rest of mankind, I could see golden opportunities in poultry raising as a business Poultry papers and poultry writers had told me of the lot of money that might be made by raising chicks and eggs for market. Estimating profits on paper, from imaginary figures, is always an easy enough matter. One hen gives a year clear profit; hens must give That was as clear as day light, and needed no proof. Any how, if I had no acquaintance with the real facts, I had unlimited faith in these figures, for figures can not lie; and if I was without practical experience, I was fully convinced of my own superior smartness. If others had suc ceeded. I could, and possibly in a greater degree. So I made my plans, and racked my brains about the construction of an incubator and brooders, etc., things little thought of in those times. Next I be gan active operations with about 150 laying hens which were kept for the purpose of getting eggs to sell in the open market. It did not take.me long to find out that 150 hens housed in one building, no matter how large, will not lay 10 times as many eggs as 15 hens kept by themselves, and given a large range. Grain was then much dearer than it is now, although I grew what corn and oats I needed, and eggs were selling at the lowest prices I have ever either paid or received for them. In short the outcome was so discouraging that, instead of in creasing my stock of layers, as originally intended.
