ri) * awh an THT oe ne tie EOE Rahs ao reas 7 ie ve oi IE AL , Kreeiys tee fs Saas: ry i 6 Ce Sato =~ Seer vain © any Rat seh AS Ke nee ae = Yoeey 4 Se a re Wade. eerste sat set f ‘ee ese - 7 vat i Shp Sere ross “* REX rae coe Fs ‘< “ss ate Oe eens eatin . Foot rtees Tes, oe en er eee Pome in ane PER AT Bee tate ears Na ae tec = 7s anwar SS, " Lt eis Six cast as: SAN EN 3 MRIS Eo Lee n) Sates Vat , “es Seen! sain Re enti ba te 7} ay ray) fy 5 \ WHOS COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: TOA QUNG ES, a GE JESS ob oleisyebs! cal rahe llst Ib "1061 ‘W@VNVOD NI °° “S "A NI GALNALVd "+ * SUMO SWOTTO MA "IW ey} sSeyew J94}O JO s}sou 9a[sUTS uUvU} SSd]T }SOD 0] Sus ou) sigs OM} JO] 9SN jUv}SUOD UI Udeq aAKvY }vy} Uad SIU} UI S}SoU Ud} Jv slay], “asm jenjoe WSEAS SUNG PN cal ot TVA] Jo ydessojzoyd . WO1} SI 9UO}-J]VY STY The Crap West Cert Book By F. O. Wellcome Pr): Dove. ¥ ea Copyright 1902, by F. O. Wellcome All rigbts reserved. ite ‘‘Unreasoning acceptance is the most baleful hindrance to reform. He who believes all that his elders teach, without the consent of his more mod- ern mind, unconsciously admits that the world is at a standstill. Every step ahead in history has been made by those who would not agree with sanctioned dogma. Galileo would not believe the world stood still, Columbus did not believe that it was flat. In spite of sainted mothers and venerable sires, we do not now favor their pet theory.”’ From “‘SEARCHING FOR TRUTH.”’ THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Two Copies Received JAN 15 1903 Copyright Entry Ake ./ 5-190 CLASS & XXe, No. LEe US ow COPY &. HIS. BOOK JS RESPECTFULLY BEBIG AEE TOUTHE THOUGHTEUGE READER ‘The advent of Trap Nests has been the means of more good in Poultry culture than any other invention of recent years. They are the only guides to success.”’ Boyer. NOTICE TO EDITORS, PUBLISHERS, AND WRITERS FOR THE "POULT RY*PRESS. It is the author’s desire that whatever there may be of value in this work should be as widely known to poultry keepers as is possibly con- sistent with my business interests, I to be the sole judge of that. The original matter, other than that directly connected with the construction of the Ideal nests, is covered by copyright solely to guard against the detestable practice of plagiary that is so common in poultry and other literature and in some poultry supply catalogues. While I should prefer that those who desire to quote from this book ask my permission, I realize that when brief reference is desirable this is not always convenient. In such cases, whether the accompanying opinions are favorable or unfavorable, I respectfully request that credit be given to The Trap Nest Text Book by F. O. Wellcome. Matter in this book not original with me and not written eaten for the book is not covered by my copyright. Respectfully, F. O, WELLCOME. The Man Whose Watchword’s “Wait” ROY FARRELL GREENE. ce = FROM SUCCESS.’? USED BY EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE SUCCESS COMPANY, OWNERS OF COPYRIGHT. ‘“‘Great deeds’’, said Uncle Hiram, ‘‘I’ve ob- served, ’tween me ’an you, For every man that does ’em there are ten agoin’ to do; There’s lots 0’ men can sit aroun’ an’ entertain a crowd With how they’re goin’ t’ plant a field they’ve likely never plowed: Bill Jones was such a feller, ’an I used t’ hear him tell Of ascheme he had fer killin’ weeds that sounded mighty well; Machinery could do the work,—a man need never sweat,— But I find that William has’nt set the world afire yet. ‘When Simpson’s boy from college came, the fam’ly prophesied, Within a year or two, the world would view him open-eyed. And marvel at the wonders ofimprovement he’d advance In scientific methods, if he had but half a chance. He stayed around the town awhile an’ worked quite hard, I jinks, At poundin’ little rubber balls o’er aye he called ‘the links.’ We've scientific problems still that make pro- fessors fret, But I note young Simpson has’nt set the world afire yet! ‘“ An’ so,’’? said Uncle Hiram, ‘‘future action does not count Toward betterin’ of our present state to any great amount; A million ‘goin’-t’-do-its’ wouldn’t balance one ‘has-done,’ An’ a pound of ‘right-this-minute’ ’s worth ‘to- morrow’s’ half a ton. I’ve noticed in my lifetime scores of fellers, sad to state, Who’d have prospered if they had’nt for their watchword taken ‘Wait;’ Fellers sure to do great wonders ere the next day’s sun had set,— But I’ve noticed none of them has set the world ALTE aye PREFAGE! N this book IT want to have a heart-to-heart talk with the Thoughtful Reader. Tf have the advantage that I can talk all of the time and the reader cannot talk back. The reader has the advantage that he can “cut me out’’ at any time, if he become bored. I shall not try to exhaust my subject or vocabulary and do not wish to exhaust the reader. I am not talking to the novice all of the time, I am talking to the reader whoever he may be. There are some things in this book that I am sure some people do not want the novice in poultry keeping to know. I do want him to know them. That is the difference. The reader is for the nonce my friend and I propose to let bim in on the ground floor. If he does not like it he can move out. We poultry raisers are a free-and-easy lot. We can talk glibly on any subject whether we know anything about it or not. Guessing counts and those who guess the nearest alike guess the oftenest. A plausible guess is contagious and we are now apparently enjoying a sort of guessing epidemic. Down South we don’t guess so much but «‘I reckon” is the same disease modified by environment. It saves a great deal of trouble and worry to be able to guess freely and often. ‘Of the making of many books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh.” Guessing saves study. When it ‘auses weariness it is when it makes someone else tired. Guessing promotes economy. Should we suspect that our hens are not as good as any, we can guess that they are better and so save buying new blood. We never guess that what costs nothing is well worth it for that would not be a practical guess. Guessing courage- ously and without too many unpractical, unbusiness-like scruples will increase our ege yield fifty per cent. This form of guessing antedates the flood. It will never be stamped out. It thrives best in warm weather but survives the most frigid cold. If we guess ourselves out of the hen business we can guess about for- mer egg records The longer we keep it up the bigger they grow. If we rupture a heart string, and spend money we can guess that we will be swindled and after the goods come we can guess that we have been; and so it goes, this merry guessing bee. We could not stop it if we would and some of us would not stop it if we could. The reader is beginning to guess now and when he has read this book he will guess again. Wesimply cannot help it. We have all got the complaint; some have it worse than others, that is all. 6 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK There are several theories touched upon, some of them briefly dis- cussed, in this modest little book. While I regard good theory to be better than bad practice, for any student, still I appreciate that unproven theories should be approached cautiously. The test of time must be applied to every new theory as well as to every old theory that has been brushed up and offered once more. The old veteran will see them through. However firmly I may hold to certain views outlined herein, I do not expect others to wholly or even partially agree with me unless their own convictions will permit. My business interests have not, to my knowledge, had the most remote influence upon my opinions. I think some things that I have written may be opposed to my interests but I rather like to give my pen the right of way and let it go. ; I am not a mind reader so the man who ‘always knew that’ will not be given credit for such of his ‘‘original ideas” as I may have used. I give credit wherever I know that credit is due and hold the rest in trust for the owner who succeeds in proving his claim. The first per- son singular will be used quite frequently without regard to precedent or contemporary opinion. There are but one of us and I am he, in this book. Should the reader meet with anything that he does not like, a little skipping will discover something different. Our human nature is such that we applaud what others applaud, or what agrees with our present convictions, and condemn the rest. If we are all right, then poultry knowledge is the most paradoxically mixed up mess of modern times. My instructions for preparing and using the Ideal Trap Nests and the drawings that illustrate them are as simple and as easily to be understood as I know how to make them. Brevity is said to be the soul of wit but contemporary poultry literature shows that accuracy of statement can be very easily sacrificed to brevity. I am not one of those who believe that ‘‘all there is to know” about poultry raising, for profit or anything else, can be couched in language so simple that a child can understand. I have tried to avoid unnecessary conplication in my choice of a not very large number of words in expressing a few of my ideas in regard to a part of what there is to know. A quart of milk cannot be deliy- ered without a suitable vessel to put it in. Iam dependent upon the Thoughtful Reader for an understanding, on his part, of what I have to say. This book is not designed to be an encyclopedia of poultry wisdom. There are books that claim to be. There are many things connected with poultry keeping of which I shall say nothing. It is of no conse- quence to the reader how much or little regarding those things I may or ~I THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK may not know. Suttice it to say that it is considerable, both ways. The Poultry Press, long may it live and prosper, make a business of eiving both general and specific instruction in poultry culture. Some of this instruction is from competent sources and is reliable, some of it we will not discuss here. There are a number of good poultry papers and I have no doubt that there would be more if Mr. Edward C. Madden of Washington, D.C. kept hens and realized the importance of promoting the poultry business in all of its legitimate branches. May he never get a stale egg in his Tom-and-Jerry. This is a special book issued for a specific purpose. Primarily to show how to make and use the Ideal Trap Nest under a license con- trolled by my patents. I have thought best to include a discussion of several subjects, some of them intimately and others remotely connected with the use of trap nests. These articles have been written at different times and we feel differ- ently at different times. ~I[ am sorry that photographs of my feel- ings at different times were not ready in time to have cuts made. What may seem to be a strange intermingling of seriousness and foolishness in some places, is easily accounted for. When a man begins to read up ‘‘the reason why chicks die in the shell” and gets to the point where he is asked to consider if the hen does not feed the chick through the shell, hence it starves to death in the incubator, he must move slowly. When his manly brow begins to throb and what appears to be the unquestionable fact that freshly- fertilized eggs are more likely to hatch well in a well-operated incuba- tor than under the average sitting hen comes in to perplex, itis well to unbend and indulge in a little harmless frivolity. This takes off the strain and he can more safely take up tlie latest ‘Law of Sex.” If the house cat happens to be a female she will be a good subject for ex- periment. Any rule that will work with her will also work in the poultry yard. When a youth I spent a short time each year, for sev- eral years, on the peaceful shores of Lake Winnepesaukee but I failed to note that a quiet and contented mode of life and absence of friction with the outer world and its strenuous (immortal word) struggle for existence and supremacy had produced so many females among the population that soprano and contralto were the only parts taught in the winter singing schools, Probably this was because I was not there in the winter. The reader who fails to catch my point is referred to current gossip in poultrydom. A talented writer who has published a very good book that claims to contain ‘all that there is to know’’ about poultry keeping has not yet answered the following perfectly reasonable question addressed to him last spring by the author of this book: «‘Can you furnish me with 8 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK a— —_—— cockerel, hatched from a brown egg that was laid by a hen that you know to have been a persistent layer?” <‘If so, at what price?” The courteous inquiry and a stamp failed to bring a reply to that question. A second letter also failed. I received samples of shell that indicated that the hen that laid the ego had neither laid freely or long. I do not know if the Sage of Wolfboro knew that or not although he claims that we can learn all that we wish to know by observation without the aid of trap nests. _ In my serious writing I desire that my words be taken at their face value. The personal equation as a factor in discussion is often given undue weight. An error is none the less an error because promulgated by those who command a high place in society, litera- ture, politics, religion or business. A fact is a fact however humble its source. Behind this little book is the authority of a fairly good number of hens. To me they represent competent au- thority when we question them one at a time and do not endeavor to form our opinions when they are all talking at once. There is nothing in this book that can harm anyone, nothin that need require much expenditure of time or money. Any time that an Ideal user becomes tired of using the nests as traps he can use them open and he will have as good open nests as I have ever seen. I have been told that I take this business too seriously. That de- pends, of course, upon our point of view. A business that produces so many ‘‘wrecks along the shore’? cannot be taken too seriously. These wrecks are not always due to the spending of too much money in preparing for the voyage. Many of them are due to a lack of knowledge of the laws of poultry navigation and the neglect to study the charts that show the rocks and the shoals that menace, and the beacon lights that guide or warn the poultry Keeper. There is nothing more important in the conduct of any pursuit, for business or pleasure, than intelligent thought. Nothing more harmful than hysterical assumption. , A man can keep hens, at a profit, for forty years and yet know very: little about hens in general, or even his own-hens. Current discussion proves that men may read and criticize and yet know very little of what they read or criticize. This can be applied to poultry keeping, the coal strike, or anything else that gets into print and attracts attention. | Scientific advertising, when it degenerates to scientific lying, may arouse sincere condemnation, but many judge too hastily and allow their own ignorance to mislead them woefully. What may appear in- credible to us is often a common-place truth to those who know. I have read exposes, written by apparently competent authority, that bore the undeniable hall-mark of presumptuous. ignorance. Because THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK ) one editor is bribable we are not warranted in assuming that all editors are. Because one hundred advertisers are known to be obtaining money under false pretences, we are not justified in assuming that even a single one of thousands of others are. Popular thoughtlessness is responsible for much that is obnoxious to the intelligent observer in modern advertising. If the showman did not add a few hundred pounds to the bill-board weight of the fat lady, or the strong man’s burden, he would get less patronage. The subscriber’s unwillingness to read, think, reason and learn is in ereat measure responsible for the unquestioned and bare-faced lies that adorn the advertising columns of our poultry papers and are thought by many business men to be necessary to success. The plain unvarnished tale lacks interest with by far the great maj- ority of people. The author who attempts to disprove this is running much risk unless he be well fortified by both money and acumen. The great trouble with those people who are sincere in the belief that the trap-nest idea is not capable of general application is that a full understanding of the question is wanting. They fail, first of all, to comprehend that means for obtaining such understanding has been generally lacking. The author of this book has been largely instru- mental in making such means available, not only directly in connection with the Ideal nest, but indirectly in other ways. If it is not meet that he should say this for whom should he wait? Many very incorrectly assume that a popular recommendation of the trap-nest system in the abstract embodies a failure to understand the conditions under which poultry keeping, as a general proposition, is (or must be?) conducted. To dismiss this as briefly as possible, I will say that no one who cannot get his money’s worth from a pratical trap- nest outfit can breed and maintain hens, either in large or small num- bers, year in and year out, at a legitimate profit. Occasional ill-advised endorsements of nests that are impracticable should not effect the honest claims of other and practical nests, one of which is described in this book. Within my reach at this moment are the descriptions and specifications of a large number of trap-nests the like of which the poultry world has not yet heard of and some of them are good. The poultry keeper who is obliged to be away from his birds nearly or quite all of the day is in constant evidence. He is not a fair repre- sentative of the poultry business, as a business, and were we to cease promoting appliances and supplies as of general utility that are of little use to him, most of us, editors and all, would shut up shop. The most serious fault possessed by an accurate trap-nest is that it is willing to work first, last and all of the time for the user’s interests. The writer is not a scientist and there has been no effort to adopt a 10 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK scientific tone in any of my writing, past or present. [ have scught for the most simple language that would correctly define my meaning. There is a tendency in poultry literature to simplify at the expense of accuracy. We are told, for instance, that too much corn will make a hen become broody. Such is not, necessarily, the case. figure. The glowing reports and the figures in millions that have their proper place in our poultry- and farm-journal sometimes show the great possi- bilities of the poultry business; -— rarely the probabilities. Should this chapter be read by any one who is suffering from a se- vere attack of poultry-hysteria I would caution him to go slow. There are immense Opportunities for losing money in the poultry business. It is one of the most simple things in the business to hatch and raise ¢hickens. What are you going to do with them after you get them? The common ambition to keep 500 or 1000 hens is one form of mild in- sanity. The ambition to learn where to obtain, and how to breed and naintain as good hens as possible is a worthy one. 108 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK The ambition to produce as many eegs as possible at the least expense is also worthy. There are flocks of 50 that are now producing more eggs daily than other flocks of 200. The man who can breed and main- tain a flock of 12 hens that will pay a good profit (assuming that all the food was purchased) is warranted in practicing with 50 the next year. Some who make a profit on flocks of 1000 or more save enough by buying their feed by the carload at a favorable time to account for much of their profits. That requires capital. If they bought their food as the small breeder buys his, some of them would make little or no profit. But for every paving flock of 1000 I believe that flocks one half, or less, as large that are paying a larger net sum could be found. There is perhaps no business that can be studied so closely and at so little expense prior to the time of actually embarking in it. With poultry a person can begin with a small capital and pay for his experience from his other source of income. He should not, and need not attempt to get a large profit, or indeed any profit from his experimental flock. Thousands of people rush headlong into this business, invest all the money that they can get hold of in fancy stock and all kinds of appliances and learn a little when it is too late. ‘They all fail in their aims, and have no opportunity to learn much about hens. The beginning should be small, always. Growth should be gradual and depend upon accurate knowledge of what can reasonably be expect- ed. Asa general proposition the less a man knows about his hens and the results obtained from them the smaller will be the amount that he will acknowledge to be the cost of maintenance. A man could devote his whole life in the attempt to find out how many hens there are in the country, their average yield and cost, and he would get no reliable totals. The people who own the hens could not give information that they do not possess and, unfortunately, those who know are not always worthy of credit. The census taker asks the farmer how many hens he has and the aver- age farmer gives a guessed-at number or purposely underestimates even when told that his hens will through fear of increased taxation, not be taxed. There can be no douht that there is money in the poultry business and that the general and specific instruction given in the best poultry papers and books contains the general principles that contribute to SuUCCeSS. The business presents great opportunities to those who have a ca- pacity for hard and long continued effort, and are willing to begin small and study faithfully, and postpone the necessity for profits until sufficient knowledge and skill are obtained to make profits reasonably certain. There is, apparently, a great and ever increasing demand for good stock. It requires considerable experience and knowledge to be able THE QUESTION OF PROFITS 109 to tell what is “good stock.” Stock is not good, better, or best, merely because we own it. or because it appears to be good to our unskilled judgment. One peculiar feature of this peculiar business is that experience can sometimes sell a bird for several dollars that is worth about eight cents per pound while inexperience is often obliged to send to market really valuable’ breeding cockerels; and he often fails to market those early enough. It is one thine to produce, another thing to sell at a profit. The ef- tect of competition, while healthful in the main, is to block ourattempts to sell our goods at a profit. The shoemaker will agitate the question of shorter days and higher wages and then try his best to beat down the price when he buys a pair of shoes. It is the same with all products. Complex and unreasonable human natures make all problems of profit in business complex and difficult of solution. The demand for poultry and eges is, however, greater than the sup- ply; hence there is plenty of room and reward for industry, intelligence and capital in the business. There is an immense difference between the methods of different suc- cessful poultry keepers. [have in mind two cases that illustrate the point. A— keeps from 1000 to 1500 hens (mongrels) and one farm hand cares for them. They are fed cheap feed and every thing about the plant is cheap, yet a profit has been made for many years. A— is an exceptional man. What measure of success he obtains is not due to his choice of stock and methods of maintaining it but in spite of them. His own personal aptitude for making money is responsible for his profits. Being a modest man he thinks, of course, that they are due to lis ‘*prac- tical’? methods. B— keeps 200 or 300 pure-blood birds in nice houses, uses the best of every thing in feeds and appliances, sells breeding stock and eges for hatching, and makes a good profit. He could not succeed by A—’s methods and A— could not succeed by his; yet each will tacitly con- demn the other’s system and recommend his own. The whole matter of success lies in the men themselves and not in their peculiar methods or pet theories. Sometimes a successful man in explaining the ‘+secret’’ of his success will wander into romance and tell a pleasing story that is largely made up of the things that he has often dr samed of doing, but rarely has done. Successful men have their dreams, but they do not let the dreams in- terfere with present duties. When we arbitrarily dictate to the poultry-beginner, tell him that he must do this and must not do that, there is danger of giving him advice 110 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK that will do more harm than good; for the personal equation, which is the greatest factor of all, is unknown to us and may not be at all adapt- ed to our favorite system and theories. Most of us have theories. To us they are facts, to others they are delusions. If I believed that ten per cent. of those who appear to be successful with poultry were as successful as they believe, or are willing that others should believe, I might look at this a little differently. IT have obtained a profit from hens when profit was the last thing thought of, but there would have been no profit had I adopted the pop- ular theories with which 1 am very familiar. A hen will eat a pound of food-in from two to five days according to the hen and her productiveness. How much does our feed cost per pound? How does it figure out for the year? How many eges must she lay at market prices to pay for the food, interest on investment, and our time? Any answer to the latter question must be modified by local conditions. but it will probably figure out about double the product of the average hen. There are three general ways of converting what is generally a losing proposition into an occasionally profitable one. First: keeping the amount invested in stock and equipment, and the cost of maintenance down to the lowest possible figure and marketing what product there is as favorably as is consistent with the general plan of the business. The welfare of the stock or the interests of the con- sumer, ‘‘sentiment,” do not enter into such a proposition to a sufficient extent to occasion any outlay of money. A man with the faculty for making money without spending money often succeeds by this method. Such a man will sometimes provide his mongrel hens with a rotting pile of stable manure, renewed frequently, in which they revel in filth and sing contentedly. He boasts of his mongrel flock, their egg vield, and the low cost of maintenance. Much of the grain that the hens get is first passed through the other stock, so costs nothing’.( ?) He is welcome to his mongrel hen and her stinking flesh and eggs. I want none of them. During eighteen years of city life I often found it difficult, at times, to get anything else in the line of poultry and eggs. Second: investing in a fairly good equipment, fairly good stock, and taking fairly good care of the stock; endeavoring to produce goods of a little better quality than the average. For such goods a bright person can get a little better price, in time, than the average. He will have to work to get it. People want the best, but they are not particularly anxious to pay more for it. Sometimes they will call at the door for tresh eggs and complain because we charge ‘‘as much as they do at the store.” . Third: investing every obtainable dollar in such a way as to make it earn money. The more dollars the more money. ‘*Them as has, gits.” The cost of buildings, equipment, stock, feed, and labor is not con- sidered only to the extent that everything shall count toward obtaining desired results. The aim is to produce the very best quality of salable goods, in the greatest possible quantity for the size of the plant and the money expended. The welfare of the stock and all who are concerned in its maintenance is considered to be important as a means to an end; as are also the interests of consumers who want good quality and will pay for it. THE QUESTION OF PROFITS 111 Exceptionally good stock, well fed and well cared for, will produce a profitable vield of egos, and a quality of meat and eggs that are fit for human consumption : : which much of the stuff in eve ry market is not. Every poultry paper or magazine that seeks to instruct its subscribers in the art of properly breeding and maintaining poultry is a public benefactor, and should be universally recognized as such. ‘Ditferent methods of keeping hens represent different individual qual- ities in poultry keepers: for the man is always father to the method. Get any method and a inan that fits it together and financial success will follow. The misfits will fail every time. As different men fit different methods so do different hens. The trap nest points out those hens that fit the man and his methods. Some people buy, at a big price, poultry appliances that cause much actual loss, and others that are of no practical use to them: yet other people may find those same appliances both useful and profitable. To wildly endorse, without good reason, every new idea, or to as wildly condemn it are essentially the same thing as far as the novice is concerned. One is as likely to niislead him as the other. I believe in cleanliness, comfort, convenience, and all improved methods and appliances in so far as any individual can make them of profitable or pleasurable use. All such, when they are worthy, should be generally recommended without regard to the amount of space that their promoters are able to buy in the advertising columns. I am looking for poultry food of good quality, vet the Chemist- Writer who examines such foods and writes about them in a poultry paper can- not mention a good one by name ‘for it would be improper.” What folly! One would think that the man or firm who sells goods was a criminal who must be confined to the advertising columns for life and only allowed in sight of the public when he pays for the privelege. Then he can rob them ad libitune it he likes. We should not expect editors to discriminate between different arti- cles that are worthy but when a-contributor finds that one firm’s meat scraps are good he should be free to say so for the benefit of the one reader in a thousand that may want to know. Let some spiteful individual find fault with some specific article that is not advertised ‘‘over its head” and he will be accorded a hearing in some mediums, benefiting no one and perhaps injuring many. The more diplomatic his langu: ive the more easily it will pass, and the more harm it will do. When a ian produces a strain of fowls, an individual bird, a food, a condition powder, a louse destrover, an appliance, or conceives an idea, that is superior or useful he is in a position to benefit his fellows and we should, on general principles, credit him with honest aims until we find otherwise. It is quite rare that criticism does not diminish in proportion as the size of the ad., or the amount of personal favor that the advertiser en- joys, increases. This is almost universally recognized among our people to such an extent that honest endorsements and valuable and instructive ‘write ups” are condemned at sight by a large proportion of readers. The average subscriber to a poultry journal may bea child in poultry raising but he is not a child in other respects. One journal promises us all ‘that we ought to know?) What is it that we ought not to know? Why should we not know it? ie THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK There is nothing known about poultry or the poultry business that should not be available for every one who wants it and is willing to pay for it; he to be the sole judge. If he is not willing to pay for it he is not entitled to it. These opinions are not from the advertiser’s stand- point, for, as an advertiser the writer has in most cases been treated courteously and generously. I am writing from the standpoint of a reader who wants to know and is obliged to grope in the dark for many things. Not only beginners, but exper ienced poultry keepers all over our land are maintaining hens that are not, and never will be profitable in their hands. Manv of them waste money and time in the effort to push the average production of the flock up toa profitable point, overworking the good lavers and uselessly urging the poor layers to do what they are incapa- ble of doing. Again and again we are told «*cull out the poor layers:*” ‘Keep only the profit: ible hens.”’ The query, ‘How can [ distinguish the profitable hens?” is met with equivocal and vague references to ‘active hens:” ‘those with red combs;’’ «those that sing and hustle and cackle;” ‘those with lone, deep bodies:”? and a lot more qualities that are possessed by the major- ity of hens anv way, whatever their laying ability may be. They al- ways avoid the direct claim that all hee althy, active hens are profitable layers, for we can prove otherwise; yet that is all that is left when their generalities are boiled down. Where in any history of human or animal improvement can we find any proven precedents upon which to base the almost universal theory that great ege pe ae tion in fowls Is mainly a matter of feeding and care? We find the flock of heavy layers fed by a man who claims that his system is the main cause of the results. What are we to do with the other man who follows a system that is radically different, yet gets as good or better results than the former? With all this we are more or less at sea. The man who never got half eggs enough, if sold at mar- ket prices, to pay for his feed may stoutly maintain that his hens are prolific layers. ae There is a tremendous lack of figures, of carefully iceep accounts showing results in this business. One man’s guess is about as good as another's, take all guesses as they run. If we br eed or buy hens that lay well under our system of feeding, it is because they have the inherent ability to lay well: bred into them somewhere, sometime, by someone. If this is not so, if it is alla matter of feed, then the poultryman nal his 1000, 2000 or more mongrels is the shrewd poultryman; for in many localities his mixed lots of egos, all sizes, shapes and colors. han- dled as he handles them, pay him as well as would a more even lot ob- tained by other methods that would not fit him or his conditions. Some men claim to make money by buying cheap pullets in ae y or February, feeding them for eggs until they begin to «‘shed’’ August or September and then selling them for as much or more dian they cost. These men never hatch a chick and keep no stock during fall and early winter. Another way is to buy cheap stock, leave food before them all of the time, market those who eet fat or sick and sell the eges that are sure to be laid by the others, if the food supply contains anything to make THE QUESTION OF PROFITS 115 them from. If we are to discount progressive methods we can take up some of these primitive ways of making poultry pay that are practiced all over the country, but are not reported in the papers. All systems of handling hens are good for those who are adapted to the system, if not for the consuming public. Some men make a good living buying eggs and poultry as low as possible from those who do not produce enough to ship away, sorting them and selling at the best obtainable price. The producer keeps the hens and pays for the feed, the middleman takes whatever profit there is, in Many Cases. If poultry raising as a general proposition pays, where does the great demand for ‘Red Albumen” and the other more popular nostrums to ‘‘Make hens lay’? come from? Certainly not from those who know their hens and get a market profit from them. To me the condition appears to be one of generally unprofitable main- tenance of stock incapable of profitable production, by people who are indifferent or believe in false theories regarding the hen and her product. The advertising page and the circular take advantage of the condition as it is and work the poultry raiser for all he is worth. The best poultry papers and magazines appear to be endeavoring, to the extent of their light, to improve this condition and teach the truth. They should never be denied a favorable mailing rate, for, with all their conflicting theories and chaotic mixture of interests they are helping us to an understanding of poultry and the poultry business and materially assisting the general public, the consumer, to get poultry and eggs that are fit for human food. A consideration of the poultry press is intimately associated with the question of profit and progress with poultry. The individual poultry journal reflects the personality—the character and understanding—of its promoters and its editorial staff. The poultry press as a whole shows clearly to the earnest student the state of the industry, Some of these periodicals appear to be founded upon a base of ignorance, personal pre- judice and greed, and unprincipled demagogism. If the writer’s view of the average reader is anywhere hear correct such papers cannot long endure. The paper that in the slightest degree appears to cater to the natural dishonesty and selfishness of what itiay mistakenly believe to be a large proportion of its readers must in time disgust even that class. Whatever our own business practices and theories may be we all respect straightforward honesty even though it be opposed to our own selfish interests. Thoughtful readers of high class periodicals such as The Scientific American, The Outlook. Success, The Youth’s Companion, and the like will, if interested in poultry (and thousands of them are) welcome to their homes those poultry journals that combine with a broad understand- ing of the industry an honest desire to uplift it «*with charity for all and malice toward none.” The combative attitude of ignorance and selfishness toward science, invention, investigation, or an endeavor to improve in any direction, cannot receive even the tacit sympathy of a journal without such sympathy being clearly reflected in its columns, by omission as well as comunission. It is a mistake to assume that the poultry raisers in our rural com- munities, villages and city suburbs are mainly ignorant people. If we ijl! THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK are to assume that, we must at the same time grant that poultry raising presents no better industrial Opportunities for the individual than the digging of ditches or the cutting of wood. Any literature, industrial or otherwise, that has any valid excuse for existing, other than the mere getting of money, should present things as they are without regard to what thei ignorant or selfish reader imagines or desires them to be. Not only are the low-grade poultry papers misleading and harmful to what few ‘actual paid in advance subscribers’’ they may have, but they are of little use to the honest advertiser of worthy goods. Either trial with «‘keyed” ads. or a careful study of their columns for a year or two will prove this to be so. The contributor whose knowledge of the equities of life is inadequate to dominate his or her crude notions of business or hens often finds space available in some papers that evidently have little use for a waste basket. The journal that works harder to get advertisers than subscribers is of no particular use to either advertisers or subscribers. The only mediums that can assist us to get knowledge, pleasure or profit from anything are those that furnish a quality of reading matter that is worth reading, even if they have to pay for it, and have a list of patrons that read what they have paid to get. The comparisons of breeds which we meet are often productive of much perplexity and misunderstanding. A—— has tried a few hens of several breeds and has decided what shall be «the best breed.’”?> BM examines a few hens on his own account and gives expert evidence that he has found ‘*the best breed.” (———- is hunting for ‘‘the best breed’’ among several millions of hens, no two of which are alike, and as long as he believes that the excessive- ly limited observations of A———— or B —---— would shed the slightest ray of light upon the matter he is likely to keep on hunting’ to the end of the ch: apvels All poultry-qualities are not included in the requirements of the Standard of Perfection or discernible by the skilled eve of the judge. The practice of conflicting systems of breeding pure-blood fowls by people with all kinds of ideas and standards of mente: and the distribu- tion of this blood all over the land indiscriminately, producing mixture upon mixture without guide or reason, should show anyone that there can be no uniformity of utility qualities in any breed, considered broad- ly as a breed. ; A man’s chances of establishing a family of exceptional lavers ought to be just as good, if not better, with the Asiatics or Americans as with the Mediterraneans, if he goes about it in the right way. It is probable that there is more Mediterranean blood in the country than any other pure-blood, which would of itself be sufficient to account for any ‘popular theory of supremacy in laying qualities that may obtain, even if no logical reason for the theory existed. Some breeds possess qualities as breeds that adapt them to conditions that would not be as favorable to other breeds. The same appears to be true of families or “strains” within breeds. The glowing tributes to this, that, or the other breed of fowls that we commonly encounter are excessively general in character. “They are splendid layers.” How much of a layer must a hen be to be a ‘splendid’ layer? Thirty-six eggs per spring-time-hatching-season, SOMETHING ABOUT PATENTS 115 at two dollars per setting, or fifteen dozen per annum at an average of tweny-five cents per dozen? The words ‘‘splendid,” ‘‘good,’’ ‘‘great,’’ “fine,” ‘‘better,” ‘best’ etc. are capable of many specific meanings according to our point of view. The student should not be misled by the glittering optimism of the poultry journals and show rooms. It is all right enough as a vent for self-interested enthusiasm, but disappears in vapor under close examination. The compounding of ‘scientific’ rations, the devising of new and improved poultry houses and fixtures, the natural beauty of pure-bred fowls, the cheerful rivalry and the incentives to effort produced by the poultry shows, and a natural love for animals, all contribute to awaken and maintain an interest in poultry. When the interest is sufficiently supported by hard work, money and ability, progress is sure to be made whatever the aim— even to the extent of profit—but the success is due to an intelligent working interest in good stock. It is not neces- sarily due to the particular ration employed or the expensive or unnecessary equipment or methods. It is perfectly possible to get a good egg vield while paying more for the eggs than they are worth. This fact is recognized by those who sincerely believe that trap nests cannot be profitably used by the aver- age poultry raiser. I believe that they understand the average poultry raiser better than they do the practical trap nest, its proper use and possibilities. I have saved time and money enough many times over by avoiding unnecessary but commonly-employed and -recommened methods and expenditures to offset the keeping of my individual records. The attention of the nests has not yet appeared to me a very arduous undertaking and I shall be unable to reckon that factor at all until I learn of some reason why I should. A few drones sent to market, that would be retained were it not for, the nests, pavs for the nests. If they are kept instead of being sold it is no fault of the nests. When the user becomes skillful in recognizing the persistent-laying habit and the different individual tendencies of his birds, and abandons whatever previous theories he may have had that blind his eyes to plain facts he will be able to cull wisely and often, retaining the cream of Ins flock while marketing the others. No man can dispute the logie of getting rid of every bird that cannot be profitably retained, just as soon as its unprofitableness is determined or its self-limited profitableness has ceased, and retaining every bird as long as it is profitable to do so, be it six months or five years. Trap-nest experien e will enable the poultry keeper to do just that and help to solve the question of profits. CHAPTER XII. SOMETHING ABOUT PATENTS. The golden rule of invention: Find out what has been done, keep track of what is being done, learn what needs to be done, and then do 7f. HE United States has advanced materially beyond all other countries because it has welcomed invention, encouraged and protected inventors by the best patent system on earth, and hailed as a 116 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK public boon every new and better way of doing an old thing. Perhaps I can best describe to the reader what our patent system is designed to be by first explaining what an inventor is. Any person is an inventor who devises a new thing or finds a new use for an old thing. If this new thing or the new use for an old thing is useful—of utility and value to others—they ought to have the use of it, and derive the benefits to be obtained from its use. Here is where the patent system comes in. The Government employs. trained experts to determine if inventions submitted to them are new and useful. These experts being human beings like the rest of us are not infallible, but they know quite a good deal about their business. What they don’t know your lawyer, or my lawyer, or someone else’s lawyer tells them,—sometimes, when it becomes necessary. It is not for you or IJ to tell them their business or question their decisions unless we have a personal interest in the matter and know more about it than they do—quite possible. When the patent oftice experts have searched all of the records and find that what the inventor claims to be original with him has never before been described, either in this or any other country, and there is no evidence of its being known to the public for more than two years prior to the application, -and it appears to be of public utility, they grant that the invention is the property of the man who invented it and, being his property, he shall have exclusive control of it for a term of seventeen years. After that it becomes the property of the public; for it is presumed that the inventor, or someone who has purchased his patent rights has succeeded in getting it into use and has obtained his reward. In this way our patent system accomplishes two things. It grants the right of the inventor to own and control his own property so that by selling it in whole or in part, or by letting it out for rent in whole or in part he can stand some chance of vetting paid for his labor and also be able to make his invention of use to others. The inventor or his assigns are obliged to advertise the invention, or the goods that are made with the invention, or the benefits that the people can obtain from. the invention, in order to get his pay. That lets the people know about the new thing and they can purchase that which is designed to be of use to them. Some people do not like the patent system for the reason that they are selfish and do not believe in justice. Justice does not ask us what we want, but seeks to give all of us what belongs to us, and protect us in its posession. Justice is well ouneeemnen as being blindfolded. That is why she sometimes fails to connect with the right owner. It is a popular delusion that we can rightfully make a patented device for our use without asking anyone or paying anything for it. Shyster lawyers sometimes foster such a notion in the hope that they may get a chance to defend the infringer in a suit at law. He gets his pay, win or loose. No one can legally make or use any kind of a pat- ented invention except by means provided and controlled by law and the owner of the patent. The patent system, directly and indirectly, has done more to promote our progress in every direction than all other causes combined. : Agriculture has been benefited wonderfully asa result of our patent laws. Dishonest schemers have made popular ignorance and popular SOMETHING ABOUT PATENTS 117 greed and selfishness a means of perpetrating fraud under the guise of patents. Inventors who have been granted patents for inventions are quite frequently as ignorant of patent law as are the people. If we question a man who has become rich out of some patent he may swell up and tell us that he knows all about patents when he knows very little about them. He may have become rich by owning a patent or by stealing one. Some look with disfavor upon patent ownership because they think that were it not for that they could receive the benefits from the patent without paying for them. We have a good chance right here in this book to examine that idea. A few years ago there did not exist on the face of the earth such a thing as the trap nest described herein. It is a case of a ‘new thing under the sun,” unless proven, in the courts provided for the purpose, to be an old one. Now how would the reader have ever heard of it if I had not spent my good money to advertise it? Why should I do that if not to make something so that I can advertise it some more, and make it of use to a lot more people? | Sometimes people say, ‘‘Well, I will make it a little different that will be all right.””. Now that has no bearing whatever. We cannot tell by looking at a patented thing what the inventor’s rights in it are based upon. Another thing that is not commonly understood is the matter of im- provements on patented things. A change in the appearance, the form or the working of a thing does not constitute improvement unless the change creates greater efficiency or utility in some direction favorable to the public. It must be in fact an improvement that expert opinion will recognize as such. An im- provement even if a patent is obtained for it does not grant the right to use any previously patented feature of the device. For this reason it is the rule to either sell such an improvement to the owner of the patented device or purchase from him the right to use his part of the improved thing. He can grant such use or not, as he likes. Those who would dabble in invention with a view to the obtaining of a patent or avoid- ing infringement upon the rights of others should consult a regular patent lawyer of good repute. : That reminds me of a story. It is said that an old lawyer by the name of John Strange was about to die. He was consulted in regard to his epitaph. He requested that the stone be incribed “Here lies an honest lawyer.” Asked if that was all he replied ‘‘That is enough.” ‘¢Why! your name must be added,” his wife said. »**No” he replied, ‘swhen they read that they will say: ‘Here lies an honest lawyer, that is Strange!’ ” Now I don’t know if the point is in the ‘‘honest lawyer” or in the idea that a lawyer could lie in death as well as in life. The reader can judge. The Patent Office publishes a Gazette that Wlustrates all patents and gives the claims upon which the rights of the inventor are based. This Gazette is published for the benefit of the public and shows them what they cusnot make or use except by consent of the owner. The inter- pretation of patent claims is work for which patent lawyers and experts only are qualified. The description of the patent and its illustrations describe the invention so clearly that, at the expiration of the time limit of the patent, those who are skilled in the art to which it apples n 118 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK van make it. Whena picture of a patented device is published with the statement that it is patented intentionally omitted we are justified in concluding that contributory infringement is intended. Innocent people might infringe the patent not knowi ing that it belonged to another. There is no reason for the air of mystery that the people Rae have hedged about the subject of patents, except the reason. that s many prefer to guess about things than make a little effort to get oe facts. Every citizen should be interested in our patent system. It not only confers great benefits upon all of us, but any person has a chance to benefit himself and the people by devising some new and. useful thing and getting it patented. SOME AMERICANS HAVE NOT DISCOVERED IT YET. Scientific American says that some three years ago the Japanese govern- ment sent to this country a certain Mr. Takahashi to study our patent system. Mr. Takahashi pays a glowing tribute to the American system. ‘““We saw the United States not much more than one hundred years old,”’ he said, ‘‘and we asked, ‘what is it that makes the United States such a great nation?’ We investigated, and found it was patents, and so we will have patents.’’ CONCLUSION. Let all the considerate people have their way and see how they will come out. Carlyle. “When a man is always striving just to please others he lacks the moral courage to do right.’’ It is a difficult matter to draw this text book to a close, there is so much that remains to be said in the interest of the persistent layer and her owner. It was not without due consideration that I have introduced exam- ples of good results that many people will find it impossible to believe if they chance to read them. Poultry keepers of the old school have persisted in the declaration that hens would lay well without the ex- cessively careful methods of feeding and care that are generally advocated in our poultry literature. Many of them absolutely refuse to read such literature, because they find so much that they know is not true; this added to what they imagine is not true causes them to discredit the whole thing. It has suited my purpose to look into the matter somewhat with a view to finding out at least a part of the exact truth. The facts are, as nearly as I can yet determine, that the persistent layer will lay a great many eggs under apparently unfavorable conditions. She is likely to be found almost anywhere. It does not appear to be a question of breed, The skeptical farmer probably does not always possess such good hens, or get as many eggs, or as much profit, as he sometimes tries to make us believe. He is often a cheerful guesser, and is skilled in the art of verbal self-defense. The poultry writers whom he discredits with good reason exaggerate the value of their favorite breeds, foods, and practices, in connection with good laying and profits from good layers. The truth seems to lie between these two extremes. The flock that contains a considerable number of vigorous, healthy hens that possess a strong ege-producing tendency is likely to lay profitably, from amarket- CONCLUSION 119 ege standpoint, under conditions that to many people would seem to be very unfavorable. The flock of common-place layers,—hens whose ege producing ten- dencies are no stronger than other tendencies that interrupt or interfer e with egg production may be coaxed to lay—by careful housing, feeding and care —well enough to pay a good profit when a considerable part of the eges are sold for hate hing, and stock is sold for breeding. When the flock of exceptionally strong layers can be giv en exception- ally good care there may be an exceptionally large egg yield. The profits would, as in all other cases, depend upon the factors outlined under the heading ‘*The Question of Profits’? in this book. Such books as ‘‘PoutTRY CRAFT,” ‘‘WINTER EGGs AND How To Get THem,’’ “ALL Apoutr BRoILEeRS,” and some others, treat of tech- nical work with poultry from the standpoint of practical workers. These books do not contain all that there is to know about poultry maintenance or breeding; for the reason that no one individual or combination of individuals have yet learned all that there is to know about poultry. The authorship of the books that I have mentioned is an absolute euarantee that they contain valuable and practical information. Our poultry papers and magazines periodically bring to the reader both old and new facts, old and new theories , current poultry news and gossip, and a general symposium of the good, bad and indifferent methods and ideas of a large number of writers, and an occasional mimic. Some of these writers are similar to the politicians whom Thomas B. teed described in the sot: ‘‘Every time they open their mouths they subtract from the sum of human knowledge.”’ We are, of course, all aware of the truth contained in the statement of Bulwer: ‘‘He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of. others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own.” The poultry keeper who is searching for truth will be sorely perplexed by the mixture of conflicting testimony that will confront him which- ever way he turns. He should not be deceived by the personality of the writer or speaker. Some of the most harmful and serious errors being promulgated to-day are fostered by people who have some handle or other to their name, or a skill in the use of language and the further- ance of their own personal interests that gives them the appearance of wisdom and sincerity. Some of the strongest poultry-facts are presented in our periodicals by people of humble station whose work is rude but helpful. On the other hand those people, high or low, who are ignorant of the moral ethics of business and life, or for personal reasons choose to ignore them, are continually fostering wrong ideas in the minds of the people. The person who needs or wants anything about which he has no special knowledge is between the devil who wants his money and the deep sea of going without what he needs or wants. He should be will- ing to buy what ‘he wants. He should not expect his favorite paper or magazine to furnish it at the expense of those who are, or may be, able to supply him through a regular commercial transaction. The journal already gives the subscriber much more than he, or it, pays for. What he desires generally exists and can be easily obtained at a price that in- tormed people know to be a just price,—but where? He does not know, and those who do know generally will not, and 120 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK very often feel that they should not tell him. If they do tell him, their sincerity and disinterestedness may be doubted. Germany has a law that forbids an advertiser lving or appearing to lie in his advertising. The exact truth nay be barred unless it be self- evident, ‘The best in the world,”’ even if true, as 1t quite frequently must be, will not pass the censor. Some enterprising American Manufacturers are said to have been un- able to circulate their expensive and convincing literature in Germany for thatreason. We have no such law here. This is afree country. I have before me the literature advertising two brooders. One I know to be a good one, the other has not a single feature that would recom- mend it to any person who knew any thing about brooders. It is an expensive, worthless contraption, from my point of view, vet its claims, advertising and illustrations are the most pleasing of the two—to in-~ experience. There is a great difference in the character of the testimonials, how- ever. Most people are sufficiently doubtful. Too much so as a rule.. In talking with people about commercial products in general I find a com- mon tendency to doubt about everything that is true and useful—and costs something. The love of money appears to be the root of much ignorance as well as evil. On the other hand many will swallow the most absurd proposition, bait, hook, line and bob, and gleefully pay the price. The fact that such a large part of our population is of this class accounts for the very condition of things that I am describing. They apparently have no use for honest business men or methods. In all comparisons of appliances, breeds, foods or w hatnot, the poultry keeper is up against this condition and he should know it at the start. The only thine for him to do is to think, reason, and learn as much as possible from the disinterested opinions of others, if he can find such. The man who has his own bigotry, prejudices, or past opinions to sus- tain is not a disinterested adviser. There are a great many honest men selling goods. There are a thousand dishonest men among buye rs to one among sellers. Twenty-five years of intimate observation of a mail-order business that dealt with people in various parts of the world has given me some idea of human nature. The poultry keeper who advertises stock or eges has got to beware cf the crafty buyer. A large per cent. of the “(dissatisfied customers of mail-order business men are those who tried to cheat the seller and failed. We run more risk when sending goods to strangers in advance of payment than we do when paying for goods before we get them, vet many very good people don’t seem to realize it. ; The idea that the poultry business is a short and easy road to wealth is not quite as common as it used to be, vet the old pipe dreams are sometimes resurrected and the victim’s money distributed around. Colonel Seller’s argument that there must be «:millions in it,’” because every one has sore eyes and would buy a bottle of his eye wash at $1.00 per, is not valid in the poultry business. Every one does not want fancy poultry or fancy eges, and all of those who do will not buy ours, even if a fortune spent inadvertising happens to attract their attention. Some people assume that the majority of poultry keepers are simple- CONCLUSION vot minded people who could not understand the truth even if it came to them through the mail. The majority of poultry keepers who are looking for instruction are bright, intelligent people and have wit enough and education enough -o understand anything that seriously interests them, if it. be presented fairly without circumlocution and evasion. There is nothing any more mysterious about a hen and her performance than there is about any other members of the animal kingdom and their functions. The air of mystery has been maintained because it paid, and because the hen has not been generally studied as an individual. * * Ee * * We cannot keep poultry or engage in any business or pursuit in- telligently unless we start right. Our thinking and our work must be founded upon the bed rock of fact, not the shifting sands of superstition, popular misinformation and commercial humbug. Any degree of merit in our fowls begins with the ege. Just as worthJess a chick (to us). can emanate from a fiftv-cent egg as from a one-cent egg. Yet it pays to get high priced eges when we know just what we want, and have reason to believe that our.chances for getting some of it are contained in those particular eges. If the mysterious principle that determines future excellence in any direction is not present in the vitalized germ of the ege that is to produce the chick no method of feeding or care ever devised will cause the resultant life to be of genuine value. No matter how good the breeding may be it will all come to naught unless the chick is enabled to grow and develop sufficiently well to prove its breeding. . At this point we tind one of the greatest bugaboos of the whole busi- ness. Being bred right the chick must be hatched right and provided with suitable food and care. All of these factors combined determine the extent of future excellence; no single one can be credited with all of the success and not always with failure. Yet how common it is to select a single element upon which to bestow the whole credit or blame. as the case may come out. Usually that which we purchased is. con- demned when results are bad, and that which we ourselves provide is held blameless. : To my way of looking at things many much-recommended methods of poultry maintenance have evolved trom a general attempt to get good results from ill-begotten, or poorly-hatched or -grown stock. Too many hens give grand results in egg production under conditions that Inany suppose to be wholly bad, for this point to be ignored. While it is apparently true-that egg production is often controlled by agencies that are not yet fully understood, it also seems to be true that a hen with a bred-in-the-bone ege producing tendency will give a more profit- able ege yield under ordinary conditions of maintenance than the ordinary layer can possibly do under the most approved scientific methods. What are we to say of the pullets hatched in June and not removed from their out-door brooders until November: crowded. always in the way. forty of them wintered in a shed 11x12 and roosting room 11x6, some of them laying over 200 eges each before they were eighteen months old? We know that this is a bad and a risky way to raise chickens, but we also know that these chicks were well hatched from eges laid by healthy, vigorous hens with a known, individual, persistent- laying habit, at a time favorable for strong prepotent fertility. That is 122 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK the ereater half of the battle. These hens were no better than hundreds of thousands of hens; not nearly as good as many, probably. Why should they be? All the good layers that use trap nests and prove their worth to their owner are called ‘exceptional hens.’ It is far more reasonable to infer that those owners who know which are their best layers and breed from them are exceptional poultry keepers. ‘Good methods of maintenance should follow good breeding, but they can never, only to a a limited degree, offset bad breeding. We will never get eood results from hens that are inherently unable to give good results. Suitable methods of feeding and care enuble our hens to re spond to their own individual ege-producing eee they do not make them lay. The feeding and housing of poultry, or their general maintenance, can never by any possibility appear in the same light to large numbers of breeders. No one set rule in these matters would work the same with different flocks. It is, therefore, impossible that any one method of feeding and care, however good it fay be, can ever obtain a sufficiently general adoption to greatly ‘benefit the ‘industry. (ood breeding proves itself under many widely differing systems of ‘maintenance: but rational systems of maintenance rarely, if ever, prove anything but the breeding. Certain methods of breeding practiced along the same eonerad lines— not specifically the same,—by many breeders having practically the same aims have established the general Standard qualities of our leading breeds and improved them to a ‘degree that probably was not dreamed of two generations ago. There is no evidence that such a course has ever been pursued with the utility qualities kept to the front. Observation has been the only means generally employed for selection, and observation is powerless to discover and keep track of the dest layers, except with a few fowls given a great deal of attention. Large numbers of birds are of great advantage to any breeder who has room and time for them, as they give him a large field for selection. This is so true that expert selection for the show room often wins the ribbons away from the expert breeding that actually produces superior average merit. This principle is as true with utility as. with faney points. There is no available evidence that proves that the average . pure-blood hen lays any better than the average mongrel under similar conditions. Our not wanting this to be true will not change the present facts im the matter. A comparison of pure- and mongrel- blood sufficient to dis- prove this would also require proof that the specimens tested fairly represented the average of each class. Uniformity of performance can never be obtained and maintained with impure blood: if it has yet been reached with pure blood the cases are probably rare. It can only be determined by the individual record. It would seein from the general view that there is plenty of room for improvement in the utility qualities of any of our popular breeds with- out permanently sacrificing any rational Standard qualities. Those who will start with the best Standard blood that they can get, cull closely, with utility always to the fore, ruthlessly discarding heavy laying on high scoring specimens when they are unsuitable “for the breeding pen, never inbree ding closer than is consistent with constitu- tional v igor, and never ‘ei ei A blood witless it 7s known to be in harmony with the end in view,—those who will pursue such a course CONCLUSION 123 with the lively, intelligent interest and persistence that has characterized the work of thousands of fanciers who aimed at the blue ribbons will do what few have yet done and should achieve what has seldom been achieved. When improvement is once started alone lines that become generally recognized as correct it expands and grows with ever increas- ing rapidity through the distribution of improved blood throughout the land. There are many fanciers and many farmers who actually do not know what a good ege yield is; and, furthermore, many of them do not care. Of all poultry breeders the fancier should possess the highest standard of ege production, for the established Standard-bred bird presents the surest and the shortest route to prolificacy. Karly in the game | became convinced that the practice of keeping hens in small flocks, devoting more time and money in caring for them than they were possibly worth, in order to force or coax them to. the limit of their capacity for egg production solely to get 200-ege hens to to use in the breeding pen, was a great mistake. It is theoretically and practically wrone. If a bird is able to lay 200 eges in one year that should suffice without using force to compel her or coddling to coax her to prove it to the limit of her vitality. It is often far more wise to hold her back. When the experts rose up and declared that we could not tell if the hen was able until she did it they unwittingly exposed the utter fallacy of the observation theory upon which the whole matter has rested from time immemorial. Large flocks of cheap hens have laid profitably within range of my observation for many years. Similar flocks no doubt exist all over the land. Their owners neither read, nor contribute to the poultry press. These are not the exceptional flocks. The flocks that we read about are the ones that are exceptional, for the reason that written-up flocks, good or bad, are a small part of the whole number of flocks that exist. The 200-eeg hen as an individual can be no new thine. She has been here all the time. She wears the patchwork coat of the mongrel and the fine raiment of the prize-winner. Fine clothes do not make the man nor fine feathers the hen, yet both contribute to an appearance of merit. The discovery of the 200- -egga hen is what is new to an ever increasing number of poultry keepers. Like political capital they are being pro- duced unknowingly all of the time by already est: tblished factors. The reason that the ay erage production with well-cared-for flocks is commonly so low is that so many poor layers and ordinary layers are re- tained in service. Suppose we have several pens of fowls of twelve females each. One pen averages 150 eges per hen in nine months. If we have individual records of all of the females in all the pens, and select from the records of the whole lot the twelve heaviest lavers, and quote an average of 225 eves each we would be criticised because the twelve birds were not all in one pen. But what sense would there be in such a criticism? One hen or any number of hens are entitled to credit for what they do individually. If they do good work handicapped by unworthy associates and unfavorable conditions their value is emphasized and they should ~ 124 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK be more entitled to credit. We are obliged to treat a flock as a unit in many respects, but the flock is not a unit. It isa number of in- dividuals differing from each other in specific merit. No man denies that one flock of hens will average a great many more eggs than another flock of equal size and maintained equally as well. This of itself, with no other evidence, shows that the same differences in performance may exist between individuals in the same flock. What this reasoning suggests the individual record proves, thus es- tablishing the fact beyond question. One condition that makes it so difficult for the poultry student to get exact information is due to a peculiarity of the American people. We are great experimenters. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is an original genius—in his own mind. We read, study, think and experiment superficially ; or deliberately copy from someone else, thinking that the country is so large it will never be found out. This is a big country eeographically, but electricity and steam bring us pretty close together after all. rey Our markets are glutted with incomplete inventions and compounds; our patent office shelves are groaning under a load of experimental folly; our people make experiments and draw conclusions therefrom when the nature of the experiment precludes any possibility of its prov- ing anything but its own weakness. Some of our writers in all kinds of literature are continually discover- ing something new to them, but obsolete to the informed, and burst out with a lot of old misinformation dressed in new garments. The history of the trap-nest idea is replete with illustrations of this practice. 3 The advertising and press notices of the pioneer promoter of a record nest stimulated imitation, investigation, theft, and honest invention, just the same as do all successes, or apparent successes. The crudest nest trap is a wonderful thing to the enthusiastic poultry keeper who tries it for the first time, and a very unpracticable thing to experience. So those first crude traps and their later imitations, now obsolete as far as practical trap-nest work is concerned, are still pro- ducing misinformation regarding the trap-nest idea that varies in- character according to the point of view of the observer. One prominent writer wrote a very wise criticism of trap nests in veneral. He had never had the opportunity to see or use a practical trap-nest equipment, and he had never seen any one who had. Thus it is that premature wisdom makes itself utterly absurd at times. People are likely to endorse or condemn what does not exist if they mimic all they read or hear. CONCLUSION hes A few letters or conversations reporting smoke have caused some people to imagine that the world was on fire and they have sought to quell the conflagration with printer’s ink. Those who desire to post themselves regarding the actual trap-nest situation will have to spend more time and money in research than most of the critics have yet shown evidence of having done. One of our very best and most practical poultry editors has had an especially favorable opportunity to judge of the working of some unpractical trap-nest equipments and methods, and his very moderate and con- servative opinions regarding the general adoption of the trap-nest idea are well justified from his point of view. Those who have the legitimate interests of any industry at heart should consider that the prospect of commercial success is generally the in- centive that leads to improvement in any direction. The more successful the undertaking becomes, financially considered, the more wide spread will be the benefits, and the more rapid will be the progress made. The attitude of the industrial press toward inventions, the patent system, and the interests of honorable commercial effort—present or possible— in general, gives a good forecast of the probabilities of success for any proposed improvement. Commercial failure never proves lack of merit, even when it clearly accompanies if. ‘The right thing must be advanced at the right time in the right way in order to be successful. New things do not flash upon the world in a full burst of success at once. They are opposed by all sorts of conditions, most of which are wholly out of the view or possible knowledge of any but those most in- timately interested. In estimating the relation of the individual system to time and money we should study each element of the system separately and understandinely. If an insufficient number of nests are installed the necessity for very frequent attention is an indication that more nests should be put in. If the nests are so designed that it takes considerable time to remove a hen and prepare the trap for another it shows a specific defect that should not be charged to the fundamental trap-nest idea. If the system of keeping the records is clumsy and takes too much time a more simple and practical plan should be sought. If at first we are slow in handling the hens aud the nests and recording the data we should consider that practice will enable us to work much faster in time. If by keeping individual records and basing our practice upon the information so obtained we increase our egg supply and diminish the number of unprofitable hens we should consider that the time and money commonly spent in hatching. rearing, housing, feeding and 126 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK caring for unprofitable hens has been saved to the credit of our trap nests and records. If we will carefully note the condition of our hens as we handle them during the day when taken from the nests, we should consider that we are thus saved the necessity of looking them over at night after they have gone to roost; a time-consuming operation that is universally practised by careful poultrymen under the ordinary system. The question is not how much time will it take to care for a certain number of hens under this svstem, but how can we best apply our time so as to get the best results. Hf 200 hens will lay 30,000 eggs in one vear it hardly seems reasonable that we can save time and money by housing, feeding and caring for 500 hens in order to get the same number of eges. We should consider that it is very difficult to get any reliable basis for judgment by comparing the methods and results obtained by different. operators. The man rather than the method may be the determining factor. No man can justly compare the individual system with the common system of breeding and maintaining poultry until he become familiar with both systems. A practical trap-nest system given thorough and adequate trial is essential in order to obtain evidence of the comparative merits of the new and the old. The trap nest does not provide an easy way to keep hens for profit. Neither does anything else. There is no easy way. Successful poultry keeping under any system requires hard work and a careful attention to details. Trap nests are not essential to success. They contribute to success by making available information that can be obtained in no other way with large flocks, and not without more time- consuming labor with small flocks than would be necessary with them. I shall be glad to hear from any reader at any time in the interest. of the persistent layer and her owner. If a reply is desired a self-addressed and stamped envelope should be inclosed unless the matter directly concerns the Ideal Nest or specialties. ; I have no means of knowing how many practical nests exist, but I do know that a very few that are good are, or have been, to some extent commercially available. It is hoped that this text book will be found useful with any, should they be preferred to the Ideal. THE END. “Genius is two per cent. inspiration and ninety-eight per cent. perspiration.”’ Thomas A. Edison. THE OPTIMIST, SPRING 127 THE OPTIMIST, SPRING. A young man returned home from a yoyage about February 1, and began to brace up his father’s flock of hens. They had been neglected wl winter and had not laid an eee. The son cleaned up the pen, put in scratching material, fed veeetables, inmeat and mash, and along toward the last of the month the hens were laying well. Boasting of Ais success with «the old man’s hens’? to an old poultry keeper he was met with the cheerful statement: «Yes! good care is all right. but if I had hens that wouldn't lay now, anyway, | would cut their blamed heads off.’’ Blessed spring-time. How it aids us to cherish our little conceits, shows how indispensible our favorite methods are, proves the worth of certain rations and substantiates the claims of the condition powder or ‘‘egg food,” and allows us at last to truthfully claim that our hens are ‘good layers.” With happy memories of spring kept fresh in our minds. how easy it is to ignore the other nine months in the vear. All hail to. the Optimist, Spring. 128 TABLE. OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS. CEP EAR: Ac PAGE INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING AND USING THE IDEAL TRAP NEST 12-40 The Ideal Trap Nest : : ‘ : ais Ventilation ; : ; ; : , : ; aE To Make the Iu ehancal : : : : E 3 : ed. To put on the Attachment ! : spall To Operate ; : : : 3 bap CHAP APE ORE First Experiences ; : ; : ‘ 1 eae Number of Nests Reguieds : Fete Ba) The Location of the Nests in the Poultey House : 3 . 24 The Best Location Jeet ; 3 sf22 Eggs Laid Outside the Nests ; : . 24 CASPASE Reser The Best Style of Nest to Use : : i : ; : : . 28 One or Two Compartments; Which? : a0 The Care of the Nests : : ree i 3H Collecting Eggs ; ; i : i s : : : 32 Record Keeping : A ; » 35 Using the Nests Open : : : : : : . 38 Brief Pointers. z 4 : t E : : t : ; 7B) CHAR ER eVe Trap Nests vs. Observation : : Pec eA Culling for profit ; : : ; : ; : A : i - 44 CECA A ERG N/? Controlling the Brooding Habit : 3 ; 3 ; : : £53 Breaking Broody Hens : ; 2255 Is Broodiness Opposed to Promlable Hee Production’ Fong: By Can a Hen Lay Two Eggs inone Day? . : 5 : : - eee CHAPTER] Vie Fertility ; M62 How Soon after Waking am Preven Bedonts Bee wacned aud How Long will Fertility Continue after Mating has Ceased? The Question Answered . : : ; : 5 ee Causes of Failure with Incubators . ; : : ; é . 66 CHAP TER vine The Brown Egg. Origin of the Brown Be Fad ; : = 07 What the Trap Nest Says : : ; : . 68 Size of the Egg . : ' : : oo Explanation of the Terms Litter” ana “Clutch” ; : Ge TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII. Is it Advisable or Necessary to Force Egg Production Forcing Hens for Egg Production Egg Production during Molt The ‘‘Rooster’’ and the Trap Nest Egg-eating Hens CHAPT BR «IX. Nature’s Secret Revealed to the Breeder Single vs. Multiple Mating : The Fallacy of the So-called Law of Sex The Fallacy of the ‘‘Egg-type’’ theory ; Individual Merit from the Standpoint of a Buyer A Prophecy CHAPEBR: XX; The Unreliability of the Common Method of Reckoning Averages Illustrated Foods and Feeding Early Maturity ; Meat or Eggs, Which? The Exceptional Hen Treatment of Sick Hens Practice vs. Theory CHAPTER XI- The Question of Profits | CHAPTER: SELL. Something about Patents Conclusion 129 105 II5 118 THE IDEAL SPECIALTIES. THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK, By mail, postpaid, 75c. THE PLANS AND PERMIT FOR MAKING AND USING THE IDEAL TRAP NESTS AND ATTACHMENTS, Patented in the United States and Canada. BY MAIL POSTPAID, ° : : : : $2.00 THE IDEAL TRAP ATTACHMENTS, (for those who prefer to buy them Ready-Made.) Can be applied to any suitable box. One Attachment for a model, with each set of plans, free by mail. One extra Attachment by mail, postpaid, . ; . 50c. Extra Attachments by express, charges paid by receiver, each, 25c. Twenty-five Attachments by express, ; . i $ 6.00 Fifty, « aM ef A : : $11.00 One Hundred i s : ms : $20.00 These Attuchments sold only to those who purchase the pluns. They are useless without them. THE IDEAL “SPECIAL” A model trap nest. A specially con- structed nest box, handsome in design and perfectly ventilated, combining in one nest all the most desirable features of trap nest construction. This model trap nest is not necessary in order to fit up from the PLANS, but is especially designed for those who want the best nest box for a raodel and are willing to pay for it. It costs a little more than some others, and is many times better. Made to orderonly. Sent by express, (cheaper than freight for small packages), charges paid by receiver. It does not weigh much, : : - : Price, $2.00 WITH THE PLANS AND PERMIT, when ordered at the same time, A : : : ‘ : r : $3.00 THE IDEAL SPECIALTIES (CONTINUED). The Ideal Monthly Egg Record Blanks Sample for 2c stamp. Anyone can tnake them for themselves, but some prefer to buy them. Each sheet contains space for a complete month’s individual egg record for twenty-five birds and remarks concerning their condition, feed, etc. Handsomely ruled and printed on good paper. PRICES GIVEN ON APPLICATION. State nuinber required. Twelve sheets are sufficient for twenty-five birds one year. : Ideal Aluminum Leg Bands Sample for 2 cent Stamp. These bands are obtained from the manu- facturerin the blank and are especially stamped for the trap nest user with numbers large enough to be seen with the naked eye. Any number or letters desired. All leg bands are claimed to ‘‘stay on,’’ and so they will, - until they come off. A lost leg band often means a lost egg record with the trap-nest user. After losing a great many bands of many different kinds,—over go out of 100 in two years, with one of the most popular bands on the market,—the Ideal Aluminum was thoroughly tested and adopted. It isthe best band for the trap-nest user. It will stay on until purposely removed. The bird cannot get it off. These bands are light, handsome, (look like silver) easy to put on, easy to take off and easy to read. Prices upon application. State Breed, num- ber for males and number for females. The more are ordered the cheaper they come. All About Broilers 5) micuacu x. sover * > Second Edition Revised. Mr. Boyer has the reputation of being one of the leading au- thorities on these subjects. He believes that broiler raising in combination with other branches of Poultry farming is a profitable business, but as an exclusive business it is risky. This book ex- plains why. ‘‘All About Broilers’”’ is written to show the novice just what to do and what not todo. The preface states that no theories are used, but every line is the record of experience. This book tells how to run incubators and brooders, how to fatten stock, how to feed laying stock, gives poultry house plans, etc. Itis a valuable book at the low price of 25 cents. ‘All About Broilers and Market Poultry Generally’? will be sent free with every order for Ideal Specialties to the amount of $3.00 or over, if this offer is mentioned when ordering. No miention, no book. Address all orders and correspondence to... F. 0. WELLCOME, vexnourin Warne: “Beauty and Business” *. se SYSTEM OF .. sto 2 PEDIGREE RECORDS THE MOST COMPLETE, COMPACI>-7imie CONVENIENT SYSTEM EVER DEVISED. AN INVALUABLE AID TO SCIENTIFIC BREEDING, WHETHER FANCY OR UTILITY. COMPLETE,--T'oe marks, date hatched, sire, dam, weight at 3, 4, 5 and 6 months, leg band, date of first egg, full egg record, how mated or disposed ol, etc. aS KAS COMPACT.-- Full records of 15 breeding pens of 11 fowls each, and of 1500 chicks in space 3x3x5 inches. CONVENIENT .-- No bothersome ee. no useless pages, no skipping from book to book. The name or number of each pen in plain sight at all times. —@&S