Country Life
BErrEa Fewnwa.
Amid the gloom persistently sprayed over the industry of farming in Britain, it is refreshing to find that our scientific bodies are outside the area of utter pessimism. The reports issued by the "Advisory Economists" of our agricultural colleges coincide in their evidence that certain sorts of farming are paying well, and, indeed, give better profits than at any time in the past. From my own experience I gave some account in this place of a Cambridgeshire farmer who made nearly 21,000 profit from his hens within the year. A report from the Cambridge Economists goes beyond this. They give details of a net return of 2310 on a capital outlay of 2400 on poultry. This is very much what was claimed by that very ingenious experimenter, Mr. F. G. Paynter, who said it should be ideally possible to start afresh and clean up at the end of the year and show a profit of 100 per cent. even on that brief period. In another report by the East Anglian Economists it is shown that 2429 invested in poultry amounted within the year to a profit of 2483, or 113 per cent. The authority of the Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture— always an interesting and sound production—can be quoted for the verdict that "with modern knowledge of poultry- feeding and the aid of the improved laying strains now avail- able" profitable results can be obtained from poultry kept on a much bigger scale than is represented by three or four hundred pounds.
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