ty in clean cartons of one dozen each, with
a stencil of Four Oaks and a guarantee that they are not twenty-four
hours old when they reach the middleman.

In return for this $3 a year, what do I give my hens besides a clean
house and yard? A constant supply of fresh water, sharp grits, oyster
shells, and a bath of road dust and sifted ashes, to which is added a
pinch of insect powder. Twice each day five pounds of fresh skim-milk is
given to each flock of forty. In the morning they have a warm mash
composed of (for 1600 hens) 50 pounds of alfalfa hay cut fine and soaked
all night in hot water, 50 pounds of corn meal, 50 pounds of oat meal,
50 pounds of bran, and 20 pounds of either meat meal or cotton-seed
meal. At noon they get 100 pounds of mixed grains--wheat and buckwheat
usually--with some green vegetables to pick at; and at night 125 to 150
pounds of whole corn. There are variations of this diet from time to
time, but no radical change. I have read much of a balanced ration, but
I fancy a hen will balance her own ration if you give her the chance.

Milk is one of the most important items on this bill of fare, and all
hens love it. It should be fed entirely fresh, and the crocks or earthen
dishes from which it is eaten should be thoroughly cleansed each day.
Four ounces for each hen is a good daily ration, and we divide this into
two feedings.

Our 1600 hens eat about 75 tons of grain a year. Add to this the 100
tons which 50 cows will require, 200 tons for the swine, and 25 tons for
the horses, and we have 400 tons of grain to provide for the stock on
the factory farm. Nearly a fourth of this, in the shape of bran, gluten
meal, oil meal, and meat meal, must be purchased, for we have no way of
producing it. For the other 300 tons we must look to the land or to a
low market. Three hundred tons of mixed grains means something like
13,000 bushels, and I cannot hope to raise this amount from my land at
present.

Fortunately the grain market was to my liking in January of 1898; and
though there were still more than 7000 bushels in my granary, I
purchased 5000 bushels of corn and as much oats against a higher market.
The corn cost 27 cents a bushel and the oats 22, delivered at Exeter,
the 10,000 bushels amounting to $2450, to be charged to the farm
account.

I was now prepared to face the food problem, for I had more than 17,000
bushels of grain to supplement the amount the farm would produce, and to
tide me along