Hasan Shuman explaining to the delegates from Libya how the chicks grow

this quantity is prepared — that is, plucked and packed in nylon bags — in less than half a day! And the orders come

to the farm huge and insistent, so that it is impossible to fill them all. All this success is thanks to vigilance and devotion in work, and the fruit of coupling work with the continuous study which Nahla and Hasan keep up: no sooner have they finished the day's work than they stretch out in their small, elegant salon and join in reading the books and world magazines devoted to their branch, in discussing and taking decisions on a given question, in carrying out those decisions firmly and without hesitation... and in keeping records of the results..

Hasan, the agricultural engineer, explains the technical side of the matter, saying:

The chicken made ready for sale weighs 800 grams. At first it did not reach this average before three months; now, thanks to healthful feed and the observance of the rules of cleanliness and of science, the chicken reaches this weight by the end of the second month only — and what a saving there is in that!

On the Shuman farm there are now 400 laying hens and sixty roosters. The average daily collection of eggs is 175. And all this does not meet the demand,

so the farm imports 500 chicks a week from Holland..

From these figures one may conclude that the trade in chickens and eggs, when it is given proper care, is a profitable trade, and that on the Shuman farm it surpasses the ideal level... But it is not these virtues alone, for all their importance, that set this farm apart from others... What sets it apart is the "spirit" in which the loving couple work. Their unique house, complete in every provision of taste and comfort, is an open inn — not only for friends and family, but for everyone whom his ambition or his curiosity moves to inquire and to learn... He will find in Hasan and Nahla alike a friendly, cheerful face, and truthfulness and sincerity in answering every stray question that may cross the mind of the inquiring visitor.

And those in authority have taken notice of the technical and practi-cal level the project has attained, and have begun sending to the farm their students who come to this branch from the Arab coun-tries for study and specialization. The last to visit "the Shuman

farm" were two young men from Libya, sent by their government in cooperation with the American Point Four.

It is worth mentioning that Hasan and Nahla do not confine their activity to the farm and the house, but carry it beyond, to "Hizzin," through their constant contact with the people of the village. They encouraged them to build a school with the help of "the Eagles Foundation," to which the two belong (and of which we spoke in a previous issue); and one result of the people's zeal was that they bore the entire cost of the building... In Hizzin too, with the help of the Public Health Department of the American University of Beirut, there is a free clinic; health films are shown at the evening gatherings; and Nahla herself undertakes to teach the mothers of the village how to care for themselves while they are with child, and for their children generally; and she gives first aid to everyone the whole year

round..

Hasan and his assistant before the chicken cages