A BLIND POULTRY FARMER.

Evening Star, Issue 12765, 19 March 1906, Page 1

A BLIND POULTRY FARMER.

The latest occupation for the blind ia pouitey-fanmng. It is being carried on J a at. least one case with remarkable success by a man who, suddenly bocomina blind, set himself with, courage, aJid ingenuity to find new interests in life, and at the same time to provide an addition to his income. In 1899 Captain Pearson Webber, serving on the Afghan frontier, was stricken with sunstroke, and lost the use of his eyes. When he came Home he shuddered at the idea of continned inertness, and after learning the usual accomplishments of the blind, mapped out a novel plan for himself. He studied all there was to be studied about poultry-farming, and finally took a farmhouse, with which he acquired the poultrv rights over the surrounding hundred acres of ground at Stockton, in Warwickshire. That was three yeans ago. Since then he has raised two thousand' chickens and. ducks and conducted a profitable business at Highfield. In the course of conversation, its proprietor said : " As to my work here, I find ii quite within my grasp, but the great things necessaay for any blind person who takes up poultry farming are a thorough knowledge of the business, an unbreakable determination to and the greatest care and painstaking in the actual practical work. I came here three yeans ago, and I started with one incubator. In the first year I reared 700 chickens. The work came to me after a time, and I 'gained a certain amount of skill, despite my blindness. For instance, when the eggs, are put into the incubator it. is necessary to place the portion of the egg containing the air apace in a certain T>ositk>n. A person with sight can' ascertain where that is bv holding the.egg up to the light. I, on the other hand, bresEheon each end of the egg, and then find that the end with air space is the warmer. When the 'chickens are hatched and I put them into the ' brooders,' I know any one of them that is ailing by its note. There is a distinct .difference between the call of a chicken that is ill and one that is well. If I hear that peculiar chirrup I put my hand down and run it over them. The feel of the( feathers and! the body of the chicken tell me instantry when I touch the ailing one. My blindness does not prevent me from judging poultry i I'get get hold of .them, and .from the feel-.of the feathery, the shape.'of. .the head and beak, the size and shape of the spurs, and the general conformation, of ; the body. I can tell'vdthin a.little the breed of the bird, its condition, its age, and other partacukritdes. We live qxute the simple life here, doing away with regular servants,'; .and enjoying ourselves veiyjmnch. \ ;My blmdnesß does.. not; prwem" my- gfetthig about. I had a sevjen-rhile walk with :Sh4,dog this 'morning. Though lam to a# intents and purposes blind, I can yet diseern. the direction, l oi ihia lismufcai ii ia shimrrg^brightly."