\ WY = ra gn & New Pork State College of Agriculture At Cornell Gniversity Ithaca, M. DY. Library Brill Memorial Collection Giass 1888 The Corning egg farm book, Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http :/Awww.archive.org/details/cu31924003126566 CORNING STRAIN UTILITY COCKEREL Four Months and Twenty Days Old THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK BY CORNING HIMSELF BEING THE COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC STORY OF THE CORNING EGG FARM FROM ITS INCEPTION TO DATE TOGETHER WITH FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD AND SYSTEM THAT HAVE MADE THIS THE MOST FAMOUS POULTRY FARM IN THE WORLD BOUND BROOK, NEW JERSEY THE CORNING EGG FARM PUBLISHERS Igiz CoPYRIGHT, IgI2, BY GARDNER CORNING CONTENTS PAGH INTRODUCTORY ......... 13 CHAPTER I THE BUILDING OF THE CoRNING Ecc Farm. . . 21 Started with 60 Buff Rock Eggs. . . . 22 More Money in Eggs . . . . . . . 25 Adopted White Leghorns . . 2. . . . 25 First Use of Roosting Closets. . . . . 27 We Count only Livable Chicks . . . . 30 Percentage of Cockerels Low. . . . . 31 The Great Flock System Succeeds . . . 33 Foreigners Visit the Farm. . . . . . 34 Investigated for Germany . . . . . . 35 Selection of Cockerels - . . . . . . 36 Pullets Lay in 129 Days . . . . . . 37 Keeping Down Labor Bill. . . . . . 39 Adopted Hot Water Incubators . . . 40 Why Great Farms Fail. . gl gt tae Sal gt CHAPTER II Ecce FarMiInG THE Most PROFITABLE BRANCH OF Pouttry KEEPING . . . . . . . 43 Developing the Great Layer. . . . . 43 Corning Method in Small Flocks. . . . 44 On Large Farms. . wee oe 4G CHAPTER III Wuatis A Freso Ecc? Aw Ecc SHOULD BE SANI- TARY AS WELL AS FRESH . .. . . . 48 Manure Drainage to Drink . . . . . 48 3 4 CONTENTS Diseased Meat to Eat . As the Food, so the Egg A Perfect Egg a Rarity . . ‘ Unlimited Demand for Quality Eggs : CHAPTER IV PREPARATION OF Eccs FoR MARKET. . .» CHAPTER V SELECTION OF THE BREED.— THE STRAIN Is oF UT- Most IMPORTANCE ‘ S. C. White Leghorns Outclass Al. Line Breeding — Not Inbreeding How Corning Farm Produces Unrelated Cockerels CHAPTER VI ADVANTAGES OF LarcE FLocK SysTEmM — REDUCES Cost oF Housing AND ECcONOMIZES IN TIME AND Lazor . Draughts the Stumbling Block . 2,000 Birds to a House . CHAPTER VII WHaT 1s A WINTER LAYER? —THE PROPERLY HATCHED AND REARED PULLET Must Feed Green Food . CHAPTER VIII A Great LayvInc STRAIN—THE SELECTION OF BREEDERS TO PropucE It Eighteen Months Old Trap Nests a Failure Type Reproduces Type PAGE 49 49 50 50 54 58 59 61 62 64 CONTENTS CHAPTER IX Best Time to Hatcu . Experiment in Late Hatching . CHAPTER X SuUCCULENT GREEN Foop — SatTisractory Ecc Pro- DUCTION IMPOSSIBLE WirHouT IT . Sprouted Oats Best . : How They are Grown on the Farm . Timothy and Clover Cut Green CHAPTER XI ANTHRACITE Coa AsSHES—A SUBSTITUTE FOR Many More Expensive NECESSITIES . Better Than Charcoal CHAPTER XII Eacs For BREEDING SHOULD BE LaID By A REAL YEARLING HEN go,000 Orders for 40,000 Eggs CHAPTER XIII PoLICING THE FARM WITH BLOODHOUNDS, ETC. . Shoot First — Investigate Afterward . Socrates, the Great Bloodhound CHAPTER XIV NEcESSITY FOR Pure Water-—— AN Eco 1s CHEM- ICALLY 80% WATER . Oe Automatic Fountains Essential Hot Water in Cold Weather Hens Drink More in Afternoon 82 82 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER ‘XV Harp Coat AsHES, OysTER SHELL, AND GRIT . CHAPTER XVI BEEF ScRAP AND GREEN BoNE SUBSTITUTES FOR Na- TURE’S ANIMAL Foop Green Cut Bone Nearest Nature . CHAPTER XVII A TIME FoR EVERYTHING — EVERYTHING ON TIME Fixed Feeding Hours Four Collections of Eggs Daily Mash Fed in Afternoon CHAPTER XVIII INCUBATION ON THE CorniNG Eca Farm Hen Reigns Supreme . . Livable Chicks — Not Numbers . Uniform Temperature Most Important Ventilation and Moisture Next Hot Water Machines Best . Corning Incubator Cellar Unequaled . é Eggs Turned from Third to Righteenth sae , 103 Degrees Maintained Cool But Never Cold Cover Glass Doors .. : All Good Chicks Hatch in 20 Days : Set Incubators Toward Evening . Tested Only on Eighteenth Day Moisture .. : Chicks Handled Only Once Baby Chick Business Cruel . PAGE 99 . IOI . Ior 103 . 103 . 105 . 105 . 106 . 106 . 107 . 108 . 108 . I10 . III II2 « ITZ . 113 . 114 . 114 . 15 . 116 . 117 . 117 118 CONTENTS 7 CHAPTER XIX PAGE RgarInG CHIcKs IN Brooper House — Tue Fot- LOWING Two Years’ Resutts Depenp Up- ON SUCCESS IN BRooDING . . . . . I2l Corn Not Proper Chick Food. . . . . 122 Follow Nature’s Teaching . . . . . . 122 A Balanced Food . . toe oe a % 72g Never Build a Double House. . . . . 126 Must Drain Chick Runs . Borge Se. at a! 27 Concrete Floors Mean Dampness. . . . 127 Corning Heated Brooder House . . . . 128 Corning Feeds Dry Food aly ee ee oe TG Three Feeds Daily . . . eos Gee a 29 Green Food Third Day. . . . . . . 130 Animal Food Tenth Day . . . . . . 130 Avoid Moving Chicks Often . . . . «. 132 CHAPTER XX HANDLING Birps oN RANGE— THE YOUNGSTERS Must se Kept GRowiNG ALL THE TIME . 134 A Corning Wrinkle. . ba kep > og E35. Grain and Mash Once a Day . Bo dee Gel. SZ. Plenty of Shade. . 139 Removed to ee House Middle of Septem- ber. . . 140 CHAPTER XXI FEEDING FoR Eccs— WHOLESOME NouRISHMENT — Not DESTRUCTIVE STIMULANTS . . 143 Easy Assimilation . . ee WO ae -w 943 Perfect Health or No Eges os & » « 344 Abundant Animal Food . . . . . . 144 The Corning Mash the Secret. . . - . 145 “Egg Foods” Kill Layers. . . . . . 146 Mustard Increases Egg Laying . . . . 147 Mustard Increases Fertility . . . . . 148 4,000 Layers Fed Mustard. . . . . . 149 8 CONTENTS Mustard Maintains Health . Keep Appetite Keen . CHAPTER XXII Breepinc Hens Durinc Moutt— CoMING BREED- ERS Must Be Kept Exercisinc THROUGH Tuis Periop . : Do Not Overfeed CHAPTER XXIII FEEDING THE BREEDING COCKERELS CHAPTER XXIV PREPARING SURPLUS COCKERELS FOR MARKET . Must Have Green Food CHAPTER XXV $6.41 PER HEN PER YEAR . $6.41 Not Extravagant Claim. . , Corning Farm Makes More Than $6.41 : CHAPTER XXVI THE BUILDINGS ON THE CorNING Ecc Farm . No. 1, Brooder House, Incubator and Sprouted Oats Cellars . . . Building No. 2, Work Shop, etc. . Building No. 9, Horse Stable . Building No. 10, Wagon Shed . Building No. 12, Office Building . CHAPTER XXVII ConstRUCTION oF LayINc, BREEDING, AND BREED- ING CocKEREL HouseEs . Nearly Six Feet from Ground . Double Floors ‘ PAGE . 150 . 150 » 153 . 154 . 156 - 157 . 158 . 159 . 160 . 161 . 163 - 164 . 167 . 169 . 170 . 170 < 19T . 172 . 173 CONTENTS 9 PAGE Canvas Windows . . . . . . . . 174 Double Doors . . < a & «170 Draught-Proof Roosting Closets | . . 177 CHAPTER XXVIII THe Cotony Houses — THERE ARE FoRTY-ONE ON THE Farm. . . . 7. SC «C80 Cotton Duck Windows . . . . . . . 181 CHAPTER XXIX: MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR Layinc Houses. . 182 Bill of Material for the Construction of Colony House . . ..... : . 183 CHAPTER XXX THE OricINAL THirty Hens. . . . . . . 184 CHAPTER XXXI Ecc Recorps. . 186 How Corning Baan? is Able to Get Great Fee Records. ; . 187 Highest Percentage of Fertility 2 oe ee 188 CHAPTER XXXII PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF Diseases . . ~. I90 CHAPTER XXXII A Worpd IN CLOSING . . . . . . . 4) . 192 Nothing to Hide. . oo a & # 193 Illustrations are Photographs . oe ee 193 The Corning Success . . . . . . . 193 Our Advice to Beginners . - . . 194 Single Comb White Leghorns Only - . . 194 It’s “Strain” You Want . . - . « 194 Utility, Not Show Birds . . . 195 Corning Largest Specialty Farm in 1 World | 195 Points That Mean Success. . . . 196 ILLUSTRATIONS Corning Strain Utility Cockerel . . . Frontispiece FACING PAGE Lay-Ont of Farm 2 «2 « » @& « « » « 16 Interior Sterile Laying House No. 3, in 1910 . . 22 Entrance to Farm in ig09. . . . . . «24 As You Approach the Farm, 1911 . . . . . 28 Office Building . . . . @: fae Bade ih. 330 Breeding Cockerels, Fallof 1909. . . . . . 34 Interior Laying House No. 2, in 1910 . . . . 38 Panoramic View of the Farm. . . - . . 46 Thirty Dozen Corning cuslags Fresh Pees — to Ship . . . ‘ 54 The Strain that Makes the Cong Pe Farm Fa- mous . . 58 Three Sterile Laying Houses Containing 4,500 Pul- lets . . . 64 Interior Laying House No. 1, in 1910 . . . . 68 One of the Breeding Houses just after Mating, 1910 72 Sprouted Oats Cellar . . . . . 7 Two-Weeks-Old Chicks in Brooder House Runs . 84 Yearling Hens in Breeder House before Mating . 90 ° II 12 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE “ Socrates,” the Great Bloodhound Which Heads the Corning Kennels . . . .- «. - + + + + 92 “Socrates II” and “Diogenes” . . . - + + 94 Buster, America’s Greatest Ratter . . - - + 94 Corning Automatic Drinking Fountain. . . - 96 Part of the Old Incubator Cellar. . . . « + 104 Brooder House, Showing Chick Runs . . . . 120 Old Arrangement of Brooder House. . . . - 124 Chicks Six Weeks Old. . . 128 Colony Range Feed and Water ae with “ «Billy * ” 136 Feeding on the Colony Range. . . . . . . 140 Baskets of Eggs. 2. wt docks 4 Gig. Ge 50 Breeding Cockerels, Fall of i911 . . . . . 156 No. 3 Laying House Filled with 1,500 Pullets . . 158 The Workshop on the Corning Egg Farm . . . 162 The Celebrated Corning aa aicda ee House NGi 33a eS ‘ . . 170 Laying House Prepared to Receive 1,500 Pullets from Range . . . . . . . . . 172 One of the Breeding Houses in 1911. . . . . 174 The Corning Colony House . . . . . 178 Breeding House in i amid Orginal Coming House .. . eS e. 8 182 Pullets in Laying House No. 2, Fallof gir. . . 184 Diagrams and Detailed Plans of Buildings, etc. .“ . 199 INTRODUCTORY Tur Method, and the style of the buildings, evolved and worked out on The Corning Egg Farm, when put into book form proved so helpful to so vast a number of poultry keepers, that the sale of this first literature, which for a time was added to as the months went by, reached the enormous total of over 140,000 copies in eighteen months. The writings were the simple, plain statements of facts, and enabled others who followed them to reach a success which, until this System was used, may have been dreamed of, but was never realized. The literature from this Farm has gone out over the entire civilized World, and the visitors, who ar- rive in ever increasing numbers from month to month, come from every quarter of the Globe. The Corning Egg Farm has been written of in periodicals of every nature, and in almost every lan- guage the World over. For the last twelve months the requests for further, and more explicit, detailed information relative to breeding and feeding for eggs, the specialty from which The Corning Egg Farm has never swerved, have become a demand. So that, after mature deliberation, it was decided to write the his- tory of The Corning Egg Farm, from its inception to 13 14 INTRODUCTORY date, including the work of the last two years, which has never before been fully published. “The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corning Him- self” is to-day the only publication giving facts in regard to the Farm and its unique Method right up to date. As the book is read it must be borne in mind that, in breeding to produce a great layer, at first very marked increases in the number of eggs during the first ten months of laying may be gained. The gen- eral average number of eggs laid each year, from offi- cial reports, is less than 100 per hen. On The Corning Egg Farm, when the average had reached 143.25 eggs, the next jump, in the following year, was more than had been expected, and the record of 145.11 eggs for each hen for ten months, though showing an increase apparently small, in reality was a very great advance indeed. From this time on, the gain, although representing a narrower margin of increase, was in reality a much greater achievement. The trotting horse may serve as an illustration. When Dexter trotted his famous mile he clipped off a number of seconds from the previous record, and it seemed as if it would be a matter of considerable time before his mark would be lowered. But within a comparatively short time a number of trotters turned off a mile in two-ten, and from this figure, within a short period, a large company of famous horses had reached the two- INTRODUCTORY 15 five mark, but every quarter of a second which re- duced this mark meant greater achievement in breed- ing than was represented by the reduction of records from two-sixteen to two-five, and we have not yet seen the horse which, in single harness, without a running mate, can turn the mile track in two min- utes flat. The Corning Egg Farm realizes that from this on improvement will be shown by fractional figures, but these fractions will represent a greater progress than the figures which have gone before. Two years ago the unequaled results of The Corning Egg Farm had seemed unsurpassable, but ' to-day we are able to look back from higher ground and see the road over which we have traveled to reach a point very considerably beyond the unequaled position of two years ago. It is our hope and aim, year by year, to improve the present position. The man who believes he has learned all there is to learn is a failure. The suc- cessful man is the one who is sure there is an op- portunity to advance considerably beyond the point he has already attained, and The Corning Egg Farm believes this to be true, and has constantly worked with that idea before it. With an experience back of them of nearly six years the Builders of The Corning Egg Farm know that this Book furnishes the necessary guide for suc- cess in poultry culture. What has been, and what 16 INTRODUCTORY is being, done at The Corning Egg Farm is not ex- perimental work. Successful results follow the Method and System employed as surely as day follows night. It is no longer necessary for the novice to try out the various plans proposed to him by the literary poultryman, whose methods are worked out on a mahogany desk, with pen and ink, or more often, perhaps, by dictation to a stenogra- pher. Years of careful thought and study, and the ex- penditure of much time and many thousands of dollars in developing the Corning Method have eliminated all necessity for experimental expenditure. The building up of an Egg Farm is within the reach of any man who will follow the Corning plan herein described faithfully and persistently. The man or woman who determines to pursue some branch of the poultry industry must first decide what particular branch. Shall it be to raise poultry for market? Ii so, what? Squab Broilers? Soft Roasters? Or Capons? Perhaps all of these. Some utility line is the best to start with. Fresh, sanitary eggs are a necessity and command the highest price in the market, daily, for spot cash, just as readily as stocks and bonds command a daily cash value in any financial market. There can be PULLET RANGE & COLONY HOUSES EACH HOUSE 6x10° BUILT ON SKIDS MOVABLE EJ fe} oO oO Oo oO Oo | J EJ oO oO oO oO oO oO oO | oO oO Oo oO oO oO oO oO Oo o a ie} ua | “XN oO Ed oO oO Oo DO =) oO Oo OO | LAYING HOUSE NO.3 _ BREEDING mae, LAYING HOUSE NO.2 YARD FOR wane T) BREEDING HENS SHED 120'x/50‘ wanow LAYING HOUSE NO./ Macon a BREEDERS HOUSE sTaBLe SHED TUTTE — 22’xX /46’ 16°X 118° = ADMINISTRATION BU/LDING BROODER HOUSE AND INCUBATOR CELLAR Fo FICE WELLII7’ DEEP AND WINDMILL COCHEREL YARD 100 ¥ /50 eee > a fr BROOK TROLLEY LINE SOMERVILLE M 2M INTRODUCTORY 17 no better proof of the truth of this than the success of The Corning Egg Farm. In whatever line a beginner decides to start he needs to go straight down that line without devia- tion, taking as his motto, “ This one thing I do.” In the fullness of time, having established a reputation for the quality of his eggs and birds, the demand for his eggs for hatching purposes and for his birds as foundation stock for other people, will naturally come to him, and it is very profitable. One certain fact should be settled in the under- standing of evety beginner, to wit: it is not possible to invest from five hundred to five thousand dollars in the Poultry Industry and double your money in the first year, or even to earn 50% on the investment. Neither is it possible with $300.00 to build a Laying House with a capacity for five hundred birds, if the house is properly built for warmth and meets sanitary conditions. Housing for hens must be free from dampness. Concrete absorbs dampness, therefore, avoid it. Any person starting in the poultry industry for profit, and, intending to follow it for a livelihood should begin in a small way, realizing that, like any other business venture, it must be built up and grow from year to year, and that, certainly for the first year, no money can be drawn out for living expenses. These statements are made clearly and emphatically 18 INTRODUCTORY because quite the contrary has been given out as a fact. Such reckless representations, because untrue, are misleading and injurious to both those engaged in the poultry industry and also to those who contem- plate entering it, and should be branded as false, and the authors of such statements should be prohibited from using the United States Mails. We are not, and make no pretense of being, philan- thropists. We have written this Book primarily with the expectation that it will make The Corning Egg Farm and the Corning Method of Poultry Culture even more widely and impressively known to the World, and so benefit us by increased demand for our stock, eggs, and all other goods we may have for sale. Secondly, we know that the Book will benefit others if they will follow the Corning Method and System herein laid down, and so prove of mutual ad- vantage to readers and authors as well. The Single Comb White Leghorn is par excel- lence the Egg Machine, provided always first class and the best strain of birds is procured, and the Corning Strain, without doubt or question, is the very best strain of Single Comb White Leghorns yet de- veloped anywhere in the World. We know this new, large, complete and thoroughly up to date Book will be the means of bringing us, and our unequaled Strain of Single Comb White Leg- horns, into favor with thousands of people who, as yet, do not know us, just as the publishing of the INTRODUCTORY 19 small and older booklet put us into touch with other thousands who are now doing a prosperous business by the use of this same Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorns, and by following the Corning Method now more completely elaborated and ex- plained in “ The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corn- ing Himself.” EpWARD AND GARDNER CORNING. The Corning Egg Farm, Bound Brook, New Jersey. December, 1911. The Corning Egg Farm Book CHAPTER I The Building of the Corning Egg Farm Havine determined, in 1905, to engage in some business connected with the feathered tribe, we de- cided to try out the squab proposition versus market poultry. After searching over a period of many months, in various parts of the country, with the idea of finding a place where the existing buildings might be utilized for our needs, we finally were obliged to abandon this idea and purchased, early in the year 1906, twelve and a half acres of land, now known as Sunny Slope Farm. This property lies about two miles west of Bound Brook, New Jersey, which town is reached by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Philadelphia & Reading and the Lehigh Valley Railroads, and the Farm is most accessible, as it is on the trolley line which con- nects Bound Brook and Somerville. In the early Spring of 1906 we began our build- ings, erecting a house, for raising squabs, which would accommodate five hundred pairs of breeding 21 22 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK birds, a hen house of the scratching shed variety, capable of accommodating some two hundred and fifty hens, and a work-shop with living apes OnEDIS for the resident man. We also sunk a well one hundred and seventeen feet deep, erecting over it a sixty foot wind-mill tower, which carries an eighteen hundred gallon tank. From this pipes were laid to convenient parts of the property. Three hundred pairs of Homer pigeons were placed in the house built for that purpose, and we went dili- gently to work to prove that this was the quick and easy way to wealth which the ingenious writers of squab literature proved so conclusively on paper. On the chicken side of the experiment we seemed to lean (possibly because of the fact that squabs take one into the slaughter house business) towards one or more of the market breeds, and, to meet the needs of this part of the business, we understood that any of the “Rock” family were best for the purpose. Started with 60 Buff Rock Eggs We purchased an incubator with the capacity of sixty eggs, being fearful of attempting the operation of a larger machine, because, like a great many novices, we had the feeling that an incubator was a very dangerous thing, and that anyone without a vast amount of experience should not attempt to handle it. We placed in this diminutive machine sixty Buff Rock eggs, and obtained a very fair hatch. With o16I NI £ ‘ON ASNOH DNIAVI ATYALS YOIMALNI THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 23 daily contact our fear of the machine decreased, and we exchanged it for one with a capacity of one hun- dren and twenty-five eggs, and this, in turn, was ex- changed for one holding two hundred and fifty eggs. We obtained fairly large flocks of youngsters that season, but, as we had the usual hallucination that poultry culture was really a miracle, and required neither work, capital, nor brains, that all you had to do was to accept the profit and the chickens did it all themselves, we did not get so very far. The growth of the birds was so slow they did not reach a profitable weight until the broiler market had dropped the price to its lowest level. The pullets which we carried through the winter never produced an egg, for the simple reason that we had never studied the question — out as to how the hen produces an egg. In other words, our lack of knowledge of the right methods was the reason for charging up a considerable loss instead of profit so far as the first season’s work with hens went. We very early discovered there must have been a considerable amount of fiction in the writings on the squab industry. One reads that a pair of pigeons eats nothing like the amount of food which is re- quired for one hen, and that they never eat more than their exact wants require, and that when they have young in the nest, this amount is very slightly in- creased. We found, however, that they ate in sea- son and out of season. In fact one recalls, in this 24 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK connection, and with considerable amusement, the song, in the light opera “ Wang,” of the elephant who ate all day and the elephant who ate all night. During our work with pigeons we tried out a num- ber of different varieties: Homers, Dragoons, Runt Dragoon crosses, Homer Runt crosses, Maltese Hens, and the various crosses with Runt Dragoons; also Carneaux. We were led to buy these fancy breeds through the stories of extreme prices paid for large squabs, and we bred some heavy weights only to find, from the commission man who made a specialty of these birds, that it was impossible to pay the price which such birds were really worth, as trade for this class was extremely limited. Very early in our experience we realized that the poultry side of our experiment was very much more to our liking and offered so much greater and more profitable outlook for our energies that we rang down the curtain on Squab raising — and turned our attention exclusively to the Hen. While our minds were still running in the line of poultry for market purposes we tried out the Black Orpingtons, the idea being that, on account of their size, they would make ideal roasting fowls. We found, however, that they were a very much inbred variety, and it was almost impossible to hatch the eggs. Out of one hundred eggs, for which we paid twenty dollars, eight chicks hatched, and these were not of sufficient vitality to live. 6061 NI WUVA AHL OL AONVULNA THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 25 More Money in Eggs During all this time, however, we were studying the poultry question, and had arrived at the conclu- sion that there was more money in eggs, properly produced and marketed, than in any other branch. One of the difficulties we met with in our investiga- tions was the fact that so many different writers had such a variety of ideas on the same subject, and prac- tically no two of them agreed on any given part of poultry culture. What seemed to us even more con- fusing was that, in most cases, the writer. summed up his article by contradicting everything he had said in the previous chapters. We were finally forced to the conclusion that the raising of poultry had not yet been reduced to a science, but was almost entirely made up of guesses. In our investigations, however, we found in the writings of the late Prof. Gowell, of Maine, an entirely different condition. He was the first man, so far as our observations went, who worked on the principle that effect followed cause, in poultry as in everything else. We studied his bul- letins with great interest, and decided we would en- deavor to prove that the same results gotten by him could be duplicated by others. Adopted White Leghorns We had also been studying the condition of the egg market, so far as New York and vicinity was 26 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK concerned, and had found that this market paid a premium for a white shelled egg. This, then, was the determining factor in the selection of the breed of fowls, and after gathering all the information we could regarding birds which laid white eggs, we were satisfied, taking everything into consideration, that for an Egg Farm, the Single Comb White Leghorn, was the only fowl. In the Spring of 1907 we collected a breeding pen, from different sources, of thirty Single Comb White Leghorn yearling hens, and three strong, vigorous cockerels. We purchased an incubator holding three hundred and ninety eggs, and three out-door brooders, and built a number of small Colony Houses to move the birds into as soon as they were large enough to be transferred from the brooders. The hens chosen for the initial breeding pen of the Farm were most carefully selected, for even then we had in mind the result which we intended to reach, as to the ultimate type of layer on the Farm. We placed the resulting eggs from this breeding pen in the incubator, using a primitive turning machine to keep them in proper condition until the requisite number was acquired to fill the incubator. Our hatch was a very good one, and we succeeded in raising a fair number of the youngsters hatched. During the Summer we erected what is now known on the Farm as the No. 1 Laying House. This was built one hundred feet long, by twelve feet wide, and THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 27 on the same twenty foot section construction which has proved to be so successful a plan for poultry houses. The one mistake in this house was its width, and that has now been remedied by widening it to the standard, sixteen feet in width, and sixty feet in length have been added to it. The youngsters on range grew rapidly. We mar- keted the cockerels at between eight and ten weeks of age, and they weighed from one and a quarter pounds to a pound and three quarters. These were sold “on the hoof,” as we had decided for the future to do nothing in the slaughter house line, and to this decision we have strictly adhered, shipping alive also all culls and birds of any age showing imperfections, the majority of our stock finding ready market for breeding purposes when we are ready to dispose of it. As a correct record of the mortality of our hatch- ing, and the number of cockerels marketed, had been kept, we found that we should have in the Colony Houses about two hundred and twenty-five pullets to place in No. 1 House. In catching up the birds we found that the number figured on was about right. These two hundred and twenty-five birds went into the House, October 31st. They were already laying on the Range. First Use of Roosting Closets It was a very interesting sight to us to watch these birds at work in the first house which had ever been 28 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK successfully built without partitions, in other words, one large flock with the run of the entire house. Others had tried it, and had failed. They had had draughts, and had found the house, therefore, very undesirable. We conceived the idea of roosting closets, with a partition extending some little distance beyond the dropping boards, running from the ceil- ing to the floor, thus breaking the house up so far as extended circulation of air went, and at the same time giving the birds the benefit of the larger area. It was also a matter of great interest to two novices to watch the egg output in this first house. On the first day of November five eggs were gath- ered; on the second, seven; the third saw a drop to four. Of course these pullets had been giving us more eggs than this on the Range, but a transfer from one place to another always means a set-back to a layer. The middle of the month saw the hens producing above seventeen eggs a day. December was started with an output of forty, and from that the birds ran into larger numbers daily until the last of December, when, with the mercury registering well down around zero, they were turning out one hundred eggs a day. The increase in the egg output continued steadily, and we found that March was the record month, but the highest single day was in April, when the pen produced one hundred and seventy eggs. AS YOU APPROACH THE CORNING EGG FARM FROM THE PUBLIC HIGHWAY, IN IogII Showing 264-Foot Brooder House, Breeding Cockerel House and Office THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 29 We were well satisfied with the result of the Win- ter’s work with these pullets, and, although we did not have the knowledge that has since come to us in feeding for eggs, the output was a most creditable one, and we found a ready market at a good price. Early in the Fall we had mapped out our plans for a very decided increase in plant for the coming season. The excavation for the Incubator Cellar, sixteen by fifty feet, had been made, and the Brooder House above it was enclosed without difficulty before weather of any great severity overtook us. We were blessed with a very late Fall, and mild weather con- tinued, with only occasional dips, well into December, 1907. We installed in the Cellar ten incubators, with a capacity of three hundred and ninety eggs each. The Brooder House, with its arrangement for Hovers and Nursery pens, was all completed, and the month of March found us placing eggs in the machines. In the Fall of 1907 we had enlarged our Breeding House, so that we were able to place in it some two hundred and fifty breeders. Out of our original pen of thirty, we had lost two. From different sources we bought yearling hens, and with our original twenty-eight, made up the breeding pen. Of course, as we had planned to endeavor to pro- duce some three thousand pullets for the Fall of 1908, we were obliged to very materially supplement 30 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK the product of our own breeders, with eggs from other sources, and this we did, buying eggs from different breeders, in widely separated territories. As the hatching season advanced we added one more incubator to our battery of ten, and we placed in these incubators a total of eleven thousand eight hundred and four eggs, of which two thousand and ninety-six showed dead germs and clear eggs on the fourteenth day test. The resulting number of chicks placed in the Brooder House was five thousand eight hundred and sixty-six for the entire season. We found that the eggs purchased did not produce anything like the number of chicks, that is, strong, livable chicks, that did the eggs coming from our own breeding pen, which proved to us that the method of feeding and caring for breeding stock, pursued by others, fell very far short of the results gotten by our own methods. We Count Only Livable Chicks The lesson of incubation, which it is so difficult to make people understand, is not so much a question of how many chicks may be hatched from a given num- ber of eggs as of how many strong, livable chicks are brought out. We very early in our hatching ex- perience decided to count only those chicks, which were strong, and apparently capable of a steady growth and a sturdy maturity. Thus, the count of ONIGTING AOIAAO THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 31 the number of chicks produced, does not really show the number which came out of the shells. We were extremely fortunate in handling the youngsters in the Brooder House, and our mortality was very low, and when the youngsters were placed in the Colony Houses, which had been built during the early Spring months, and placed out on the Range in readiness for them, they were a sturdy, vigorous crowd. Percentage of Cockerels Low The number of cockerels was very low, and these, as rapidly as they developed, were taken away from the pullets and placed in a fattening pen which had been provided, and as our stock was still an “ un- known quantity” in Poultrydom, we marketed the larger part of them at broiler size. The pullets came on finely, and the records show that a large number of them came into eggs when they were a few days over four months of age. Through the connivance of an employé we made a heavy loss in the way of theft, and, when the final round-up of the pullets came, we found we had one thousand nine hundred and fifty-three. During the Summer, we had built the No. 2 Laying House, sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet long, and in this house the first fifteen hundred pullets were installed, the balance going into No. 1 Laying House. 32 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK A number of visitors had called at the Farm dur- ing the Summer of 1908, and we had listened to the different stories of the ease with which five thousand laying pullets were produced annually, but at the end of this season we had much more respect for the number five thousand than we ever had before, and realized very fully what it meant to produce that number of females each year. With the placing of these fifteen hundred pullets in this House of one hundred and sixty feet in length by sixteen feet wide, without being divided into separate pens, each hen having the entire run of ‘the House and no more (that is, she did not leave the house for a yard, but stayed right in that space and did her work), we accomplished what, from the stand- point of all authorities on the subject of Poultry, was an impossible thing to do, and have the hen produce anything. And yet each hen had only two and one third square feet of floor space, which included the dropping boards. The secret of being able to work the hen success- fully in such a limited space per bird is in the length of the house. In reality, every bird has one hundred and sixty feet by sixteen feet in which to exercise and roam. The four hundred and fifty-three pullets which were placed in No. 1 Laying House were given the entire run of this house, of one hundred feet by twelve feet, and yet the Egg Record for the ten months, in which THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 33 these birds never left either house, is rather in favor of the house containing the fifteen hundred pullets. The average number of eggs per pullet in these houses, from December Ist, 1908, to September 30th, 1909, was 143.25. Many people who had seen the No. 2 House filled with the fifteen hundred pullets could hardly believe what they saw. The Great Flock System Succeeds The extreme health and great vigor of the birds was evident to anyone who looked in through the wire doors. Articles were written in numerous papers stating that the thing was impossible, and that, be- fore many months, absolute failure would result. But in spite of all the prophecies the great flock sys- tem, in the Corning style House, proved by its great success, that a decided forward step had been made in economical management and housing of poultry. We had gone ahead handling poultry in just the same way that any business would be handled, plus the scientific study of the anatomy of the hen, and what it was necessary to breed in order to accomplish a great success as a producer of large, white, uniform eggs, with the ability added to that formula, of turn- ing them out in large quantities. Callers at the Farm brought very forcibly home to us the fact, then quite unappreciated by us, that the methods employed, and the results obtained, were very remarkable from the standpoint of anything 34. THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK done in Poultry Culture up to that time. It was pointed out that in almost every other case it was not known by the poultryman just where he stood at any time of the year, let alone being able to tell where he stood every day of the year. The success of The Corning Egg Farm really has that feature as its foundation stone. Before the close of the ten months of laying of the 1953 pullets we had received a number of overtures to put our methods and results into a book, and, after a time, such a book was written. The tremendous sale and success of that book is now a matter of his- tory, and the great number of people who were helped to better things in poultry, and the still greater num- ber of novices who were started on the road, were enabled, through this book, to reach a success which, as many of them testify, would have been impossible without it. In eighteen months over one hundred and forty thousand copies of this first book were sold. Hundreds of people came to the Farm to find out for themselves whether or not the statements in the book were true, and these people found everything, down to the smallest detail, just exactly as represented. Foreigners Visit the Farm The Visitors’ Register, which is kept at the Farm, shows callers from almost every nook and corner of the Globe. In Scotland, a short distance from Glas- gow, there is now almost a perfect duplicate of Sunny 6061 JO TIVA ‘STHYAMDOD ONIGAAUNE THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 35 Slope Farm. The owner, who has twice crossed the ocean and come to the Farm, states that if you were blindfolded and taken from Glasgow the three miles out to his property it would be quite impossible for you to tell whether you were in New Jersey or Scot- land, so absolutely alike are the buildings in every detail. In England, a short distance from Tunbridge, the Corning Laying House is again found. At this Farm both White and Black Leghorns are carried, and the owners write that they are meeting with great success in following the Corning Method. Investigated for Germany Germany sent a man who spent twelve months in- vestigating the different methods of poultry raising and housing, and he visited all the plants of any note whatever from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including Canada, down to the Gulf of Mexico. He did not make his mission known, and it was only after his return to his native country that his identity was dis- closed. His report is of more than passing interest to The Corning Egg Farm, as it states that the Method and System envolved on The Corning Egg Farm surpasses anything that has as yet come under his ob- servation. The investigator is not only conversant with what he saw in the line of poultry breeding dur- ing his twelve months’ sojourn in America, but he is thoroughly posted in regard to everything in Europe. 36 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK The pullets were hardly placed in the Nos. 1 and 2 Laying Houses, in the Fall of 1908, before we began to plan for the Spring of 1909. We had enlarged the Breeding House again, so that we now had housed some four hundred and seventy-five yearling and two year old hens. These were made up from our breed- ing pen of the year before, and as many of our two hundred and twenty-five pullets as qualified. We bought a few other yearling hens from different sources, and likewise the necessary complement of cockerels. Selection of Cockerels We gave great care to the selection of the males heading the breeding pen, every bird having perfect head points, being strong and vigorous, and as large as we could find him, where we felt sure that no out- side blood had been introduced. The Brooder House during the Fall, was mate- rially added to, giving us twenty Hover Pens, three feet wide, and twelve Nursery Pens, each nearly five feet wide, this giving us a Brooder House 118 feet long by 16 feet wide. We again this year (1909) supplemented our own breeding pen with purchases of eggs from different sources. THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 37 Pullets Lay in 129 Days Our hatches this Spring were very successful, and the chicks which went up into the Brooder House were strong and vigorous. The mortality was low, and when placed on Range they grew rapidly. The pullets came into eggs, as they had in the two previous years, within a few days after they passed the four months’ mile-stone. We had added some six Colony Houses to our range equipment. The building originally designed for pigeons we planned to change over into a Breed- ing House, for, in the Fall of 1909, we would have a sufficient number of yearling hens to carry quite a breeding establishment. This house was about com- pleted in the month of May, when it mysteriously took fire, and was a complete loss. Fortunately the fire broke out at about ten o’clock in the morning, and, by the tiniely assistance of the boys of the Wilson Military Academy, under the able direction of the Military Officers of that Academy, we were able to confine it to this one building in spite of the fact that a high wind was blowing, which carried the sparks directly on to the other buildings. The water supply on the Farm proved more than adequate to the ne- cessities of the occasion, and the loss was entirely covered by insurance. As we desired to recognize the services of the young men, and at the suggestion of the Commanding 38 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK Officer, medals were struck off commemorative of the fire and of the bravery displayed by these young men at this time, and were presented to them. An addition to the Breeding House, extending over the site of the burned building, was immediately erected, and the small building which had been used as a fattening pen for cockerels was rebuilt, and be- came the breeding pen for the production of unrelated cockerels. Also during this season the No. 3 Laying House was built, this being an exact duplicate of the No. 2 House. Our selection of Breeders for 1910 was of course made from the birds which had completed their first ten months of pullet laying, in the houses Nos. 1 and 2. The mortality during these months had been about 7 per cent. With our method of selection only 950 of these birds qualified to be used as yearling breeders, and these were placed in‘the Breeding House which had been prepared for them. We had made a most careful selection of cockerels, and these we had reared in two Colony Houses, placed in a large yard, where we were planning to eventually erect a Cockerel House for the housing of cockerels specially selected for breeders. The balance of the birds from Nos. 1 and 2, to- gether with our breeders of 1909, were sold, and we were able to face the hatching season of 1910 with a very decided step forward towards the realization of INTERIOR LAYING HOUSE NO. 2 IN 1g10 THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 39 the ideal yearling breeder, which The Corning Egg Farm is working nearer to each season. We placed in the Laying Houses Nos. 2 and 3 about 2750 pullets, and our respect for the man who could successfully, yearly, produce and raise to maturity five thousand pullets, increased materially. Keeping Down Labor Bill The question of keeping down the labor bill on the Farm has at all times been a matter of careful study, and the machinery which is in use is of large capacity, enabling us to turn out whatever may be required in a very short space of time, and allowing the men to. get at other work. As an illustration; the Clover Cutter on the Farm has a capacity of 3000 pounds. an hour, cut in one-fourth-inch lengths, which enables | us, when we are cutting green food, to turn out the’ amount required for the day, fill the tubs, and have if on the way to the Laying Houses, in less than fiftee minutes. The question of economy in time in handling the Incubator Cellar had been a problem, which we finally solved by piping gas into the Cellar and Brooder House, from the mains which are laid in the road passing the Farm. Thus we did away with the dan- ger of fire from sixteen incubator lamps (for we now had in the cellar sixteen machines) and the twenty Hover lamps, and the time and labor of cleaning and filling them. We placed a governor on the gas main, 40 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK so that it was impossible to increase the pressure at any time of the day or night, and the gas worked most satisfactorily in incubation and brooding. The extensions on the Farm planned for 1910 were a Cockerel House, for the housing of breeding cock- erels, and the widening and lengthening of No. 1 Lay- ing House. These alterations were made in No. 1, so that it was an exact counterpart of Nos. 2 and 3. We also planned, as soon as the breeding season was over, and the rg1o breeding pen was shipped to the various buyers who had purchased these birds for August delivery (and the entire pen was sold early in 1910), to add another section to the Breeder House, and to build a few more Colony Houses. Then we built what we thought would be an adequate Office to handle the business of the Farm, but which has since proved large enough for only one quarter of the pres- ent requirements. We increased the size of the Egg Packing Room, and installed a freezer with a capacity of over two thousand pounds of green bone. This practically covers the enlargements on the plant for IQIO. Adopted Hot Water Incubators For three years we had been investigating quietly the so-called Mammoth Incubators, or in other words, the Coal Heated, Hot Water Incubator, and before the close of the hatching season of 1911 we had de- cided to install two such machines in a cellar 146 THE BUILDING OF THE FARM 4I feet long by 22 feet wide — this cellar to be built so as to allow us to extend the present Brooder House to the same length and width as the cellar. This cellar has since been constructed, with a Brooder House over it, so that we now have capacity for the incubation of 15,600 eggs at one time. The Hot Water System for heating the air supply- ing the Hovers has also been installed, and the Brooder House now has a capacity of some 12,000 youngsters, before it is necessary to move any of them to the Range. The Breeder House has again been enlarged, and, with the addition, a year hence, of another Breeding House, which is planned to be 180 feet long by 16 feet wide, and a larger house for the breeding of un- related cockerels, The Corning Egg Farm will have reached the limit planned for since the inception of the Farm. We shall then have a capacity of 4500 sterile pullets, 3500 yearling hens for breeding purposes, and housing for 1200 cockerels. Why Great Farms Fail One reads of Poultry Farms carrying anywhere from twenty to forty thousand layers. Experience has taught us that the plant that gets beyond the size where those financially interested can supervise and know the condition of the Farm from one end to an- other daily, falls down of its own weight, as it is impossible to find men, unless financially interested, 42 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK who will look after the endless details, which spell success or ruin on a large poultry plant. The planning and designing of all buildings on The Corning Egg Farm was done by ourselves, and all the construction has been done under our personal supervision. In the first two years we did not con- tract even the labor, employing simply “handy men ” who worked with us under our instructions. Lat- terly, with the large amount of routine and office work pressing upon us, we found it to be wise economy to contract the labor, ourselves supplying the material and supervising the work. The buildings, with the arrangement of all equip- ment, are built in accordance with ideas thought and worked out by ourselves, on lines which seemed to us common sense, and economical in time and money for the handling of Poultry. Until within the last two years we had never seen another poultry farm, and those we have seen have only strengthened our conviction that no serious error has been made in laying out The Corning Egg Farm Plant. CHAPTER II Egg Farming the Most Profitable Branch of Poultry Keeping THE profits are surer and larger. The reason this is not more widely known is because, in the past, few people have been able to resist the temptation of at- tempting to cover a number of the different branches of poultry culture. They have tried to get into the “ fancy,” and have dreamed of taking a blue ribbon at Madison Square Garden, or at some other large Show. Then the broiler branch has engrossed their attention, and from that they have gone on to soft roasters, and the other phases of the slaughter house side of poul- try for market purposes, and they have endeavored to cover all the different branches from which money is made in poultry, while entirely overlooking the fact that this is an age of specialization, and that the per- son who would succeed in any business must make up his mind to follow one branch of it, and bring that branch up to the highest efficiency. Developing the Great Layer From the start the Builders of The Corning Egg Farm, at Bound Brook, N. J., realized these condi- 43 44 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK tions, and were never led into side issues but gave their entire thought and attention to the development’ of a great layer, realizing that if this was to be accom- plished everything except an egg must be considered a by-product, and disposed of along the line of least resistance: in short carrying out the Scriptural in- junction, “ This one thing I do.” This one thought has been so successfully adhered to that the develop- ment of The Corning Egg Farm in five years has been remarkable in its production of the greatest laying type of hen yet produced, the Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorn, placing the Farm head and shoulders above any other Egg Farm anywhere in the Country. Egg Farming is profitable not only when carried on in a large way, but, to the suburban dweller, a small number of hens in the back yard is a profitable in- vestment, and the system, as worked out on The Corn- ing Egg Farm, succeeds with a few hens, and enables the owner of a small plot of land to always have sani- tary, fresh eggs, to reduce his grocery bills, and ma- terially increase the pleasure of suburban life. Corning Method in Small Flocks Two illustrations of the working out of the Corn- ing Method in a small way would doubtless be of interest. While it is true that the 16 feet wide House is the most desirable from all standpoints, the length of the house may be anything from 20 feet to 200 EGG FARMING MOST PROFITABLE 45 feet, as the house is of sectional construction, 20 feet being a section. In the back yard of a gentleman living in Bound Brook was kept a small pen of birds, in all eighteen, composed of hens and pullets. These were a mix~- ture of Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. The pullets were of early hatch and should have come into eggs at least in the first week of October. The hens completed the moult much earlier than is generally expected, and still the owner was without eggs. Different methods, and nostrums of guaranteed egg producing foods, were tried, but all without suc- cess. After a call at The Corning Egg Farm, he stated that in one week and three days the first eggs were found in the nests, and the continuance of the Corning Method of feeding and working the hens produced eggs steadily through the Winter months, beginning with the middle of December, and the birds continued to lay more than an average output until they went into the moult the following Fall. A gentleman, who has.a small place within a mile of The Corning Egg Farm, some four years ago pur- chased hatching eggs from our Breeding Pen, and the following Fall he also bought a small pen of Breeders. He aitns to produce and carry through the Winter about one hundred pullets, and for four years now, by adhering strictly to the Corning Method, and with the Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorns, he has met with a success almost phenomenal. 46 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK Before he became conversant with the Corning Method (and with the stock he was then carrying be- fore beginning with the Corning Strain) his success was represented by zero, but to-day his balance sheets, which he displays with great pride, are extremely in- teresting reading. This gives a very fair illustration of two small flocks of different size, and of the results obtained. On Large Farms Turning now to the story of two egg farms which have been built within the last two years, one in New Jersey and the other in Pennsylvania, we find again most interesting and successful conditions. The Pennsylvania Farm started its first season by the purchase from us of fifteen hundred hatching eggs. The owner came to our Farm and asked our assistance in planning his campaign of growth. His hatch from the fifteen hundred eggs, and he never had run an incubator before, was some 75 per cent. of all eggs set, and, by following the feeding methods prescribed, his mortality was very low. He placed in his Laying House that Fall some five hundred pul- lets, and in July, 1910, he had sent us an order for three thousand eggs for the season of I9QII. As he told this story on a visit to The Corning Egg Farm, in the month of February, 1911, he had done the almost impossible, simply by following the Method laid down in the literature published by The Corning - a PANORAMIC VIEW OF PART OF THE CORNING EGG FARM, PHOTOGRAPHED IN OCTOBER, 1910. -AMIC VIEW OF PART OF THE CORNING EGG FARM, PHOTOGRAPHED IN OCTOBER, 1910. EGG FARMING MOST PROFITABLE 47 Egg Farm, and had made money from the second month that his pullets had begun to lay. The quality of his eggs was such that he took over the trade of the largest hotel in a neighboring city, so far as he was able to supply their wants. The Jersey Egg Farm referred to is owned and run by a gentleman of advanced years. His first season’s start was on a very small scale, but he was most suc- cessful in bringing his pullets to the laying point, and getting a remarkable output of eggs through the Win- ter months. In his district he was able to dispose of all his eggs to people who came to the door and paid the cash for them at prices ten to twenty cents per dozen above the market. The Corning Egg Farm received from him a very large order for hatching eggs for the season of 1911, and this Fall he had an elegant flock of pullets ready to house and turn out an ever increasing supply of eggs for the coming Winter. These four illustrations are a few of the many which The Corning Egg Farm is able to point to as the re- sult of the use of its Method. CHAPTER III What is a Fresh Egg? — An Egg Should be Sani- tary as Well as Fresh THE answer one generally gets to this query is, an egg so many hours old, and, as the average grocer prints the card, “just laid.” “Fresh” and “new laid,’ as applied to eggs, mean nothing. Hens im- properly fed lay eggs not only often unpalatable, but that are carriers of disease. The hen’s productive organs are so constructed that bacteria which she may take into her crop with impure food are passed into the egg. Manure Drainage to Drink An egg being eighty per cent. water, consider the effect on eggs produced by the farmers’ flocks, where the water supply is mainly pools in the barn yard, which receive the drainage from the manure piles, and where the principal food supply is scratched out of manure heaps, consisting of undigested grain that has already passed through another animal. A hen must have a large proportion of animal food to lay well, and to produce rich, nutritious eggs. 48 WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? 49 Diseased Meat to Eat Consider what in many instances this animal food consists of, carcasses of glandered horses, tuberculous cows, and putrid and maggoty meat. If a dish of putrid beef were placed on the table before people they would shrink back in horror, yet they will eat eggs which have been produced by hens which have been fed on these identical ingredients, apparently entirely oblivious of the fact that the hen performs no miracle in the production of an egg, but simply manu- factures the egg from the materials, whatever they may be, which she gathers into her system. As the Food, so the Egg The Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. De- partment of Agriculture, says that while such con- ditions undoubtedly do exist it cannot be proven that such eggs are shipped from State to State, and that, therefore, it does not come under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and cannot be controlled under the National Pure Food Law. What is needed, then, is to know that eggs are not only fresh, but sanitary. The Corning Egg Farm layers are fed the best quality of grains and meals that can be procured. The animal food is supplied by fresh, green bone, cut and prepared daily. This bone comes from inspected cattle only, and the Farm is equipped with a large freezing plant for the purpose 50 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK of carrying the bone in a perfectly fresh condition. The hens are housed and cared for under absolutely sanitary conditions. A Perfect Egg a Rarity The growing interest in Poultry Culture is bring- ing the Public to a realization of the fallacy of the old idea that “any egg not rotten must be a good egg.” Comparatively few people have ever eaten a perfect egg. With the growth of real egg farms through the country, the time is approaching when the words “fresh” or “strictly fresh” will no longer mean anything to the purchaser, and the word “ sani- tary” will take their place, and in some way the egg trade will be controlled, and the grocer, and butcher, and peddlers of eggs, will not be allowed to put cold storage eggs out as a sanitary article of food. Some of the New York papers are now beginning to agitate the question of Sanitary Eggs, notably the New York Commercial, which is a leader in this educational line. The day is coming when the person who is operating an egg farm that is known to pro- duce the egg of real quality will have no difficulty in obtaining the price that such an article is really worth. Unlimited Demand for Quality Eggs There is an unlimited demand for an egg which can be depended upon as to quality. The difficulty that the seller meets with when going to a hotel or WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? 51 restaurant is the fact that the proprietor has been fooled many times. As they have put it, “ people start well, and for a time keep up the quantity, and the quality is all right, but when the stringent time of year comes they fall down as to quantity, and a little later they have evidently been tempted to keep up the quantity by gathering eggs from other sources than their own, and then we meet with the question- able pleasure of having a patron at our tables return to us an egg just ready to hatch.” When one seeks private trade for the output of his hennery it is possible to obtain extreme prices, pro- vided the buyers can be convinced of the absolutely high quality of what they are purchasing. In New York, last year, for a few weeks, a man, gotten up as a veritable “ hay-seed ” farmer, sold eggs from house to house through the streets running from 45th to 65th, in large quantities. They were all marked in red ink with the date on which they were said to be laid. He did not last very long, and his liberty was cur- tailed, and for some time he graced one of the free institutions where iron bars obstruct the view of the surrounding country. It developed that this enter- prising crook was buying the culls from cold storage houses, and, in a basement on 43d Street near the North River, he had eight girls steadily at work mark- ing the alleged dates when these eggs were laid. The difficulty seems to be that when you reach the 52 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK question of a “ fresh egg,’”’ everyone, almost, becomes a fakir. The grocers, many of them, buy case after case of storage eggs, and, when the retail price reaches sixty-five cents a dozen for so called “ fresh eggs,” they are supplying all buyers with the cold storage product, in quantities practically unlimited. Their counters are always decorated with baskets of these “ just laid, perfectly fresh eggs.” Therefore, it becomes necessary for the Egg Farmer to satisfy customers, beyond peradventure, as to his ability to himself supply the goods which he contracts to deliver, and after once doing this his experience will be the same as that of The Corning Egg Farm, not to be able to keep’ and properly look after enough hens to turn out half the eggs he could sell at profita- ble prices, because the price he asks does not dis- courage customers who are willing to pay well for a really satisfactory article. The following is the basis on which The Corning Egg Farm makes all its contracts for table eggs. WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? SUNNY SLOPE FARM (THE Grerat Cornine Ece Farm) PRODUCES EGGS FOR THE TABLE ‘‘WHICH CANNOT BE SURPASSED’’ WHITE, THEY ARE: STERILE, ——————_ SANITARY, FRESH, STERILE. The hens producing Eggs for the Table are housed by themselves and their eggs do not contain the life germ, giving a purity not otherwise obtained. SANITARY,— because of the clean, fresh air housing and best quality of pure food and water. People are learning the necessity of investigating the source from which Eggs come more carefully than milk or water, as it is now known that Eggs can be a greater carrier of disease than either milk or water. ERESH,— because eggs laid one day are deliv- ered the next. OUR METHODS and feeding formulas give these eggs a delicious flavor, peculiarly their own. EVERY EGG gold by us is produced on Sunny Slope Farm, and is guaranteed as above stated. ONCE BOUGHT, ALWAYS SOUGHT SUNNY SLOPE FARM BOUND BROOK NEW JERSEY. 53 CHAPTER IV Preparation of Eggs for Market Ir high prices are to be obtained for eggs they must not only be good, but have a look of “ class,” to the would be purchaser. They must be spotlessly clean, and, as far as possible, each dozen should present a uniform appearance. One is able to know each day the exact price of the class of eggs which he is selling, for the Egg Market is like the Stock or Bond Market, and one who is in the Egg business is dealing with a commodity which at all times is salable at a price. At The Corning Egg Farm we receive daily the reports from the Ex- change, as given in the New York Commercial. These are cut out and placed in a scrap book, so that, from year to year, we are able to tell exactly what the conditions were on any given date, and form a very close idea as to what can be expected in regard to prices. And so we have an absolute basis of prices for contracts. The nearest quotation to the egg which is produced by The Corning Egg Farm is what is termed “ State Pa. and nearby Hennery, white, fancy, large.” This we take as a basis and arrange our prices from it 54 CORNING EGG FARM 30 DOZEN CORNING SANITARY FRESH EGGS READY T@ SHIP PREPARATION OF EGGS FOR MARKET 55 daily, adding the advance which the Corning sani- tary table egg brings. It is quite impossible, with the growth of the coun- try and the demand for better things in all food prod- ucts, to over-do the production of Sanitary Eggs. The following pages show the manner in which the quotations are placed in our Scrap Book. 56 THE CORNING EGG FARM BOOK NEW YORK COMMERCIAL OCTOBER = 1913, were pt ald 2 S001 Cat it sera sfoua At te i Bi re Ces aaale Ti eit tae Hi { pts Aba - Many desiers are Aram iag ep vtnsie alt WU seidione é i ot tom » Low y value, | ets Jor "alias a unto morit: Vrime dlety | et eoRs are stcad ‘wanted. iy packed hs ft nie off, and. boyers quite williUy t rn, wre tec for be uate Bad Bde for browns. 51 38 t 30 2 ot Browa, 4 jatues trond Gatuered, Li OCTOBER. 18, 1911 a 20a —Hecetpt surdaey BEI canes, which Tipit Bernd Bl eke olan eee ccd ° market shows bo Toperiast, changes floce “our iaet review. Baye: aks hold viserousiy, many “D tate Seer tots. “ake recelpty from all sections equals un i fred ext store Rae aurplus, ate class ta amock ip heloy weed te the ex geo ton of currant recent Fail on thera Ohlo i SERBME BESUSUNBEHUESS 6 SOBRE EeShAscguess a BERGE SN8& wwe ee ote bes, seme PST On ak Pero cae e121 TEBO ~uriar OCTOBER 17. 1911 EGCS.—Raceipts yeaterday heaioc 1.100. casen, jn it ere change, can tted. Supplics uch Held, fi ttle, ietles, i toes taro free : NEW YORK CITY S) ee. OCTOBER 19, 1911 passing from tha great tua of tbe Supply, It tas buyers" mar: tet. ‘urrent . : ae, een ean a ey 5 n N '®, O O O 3did Y3ILVM 1OH bid | ir = . ee f 2.99 : en ara Sue sy a Bs ss ax x i Ss ‘n K——,,0,01 ——9. 0h ‘uad J9AOFT 0} Aagy[e woz 9383 soueIWUa Jo SurmMerp YM ‘Kemuns posury pue ‘yyeausspun sadid s9yem joy Burmoys BS wool YWHAOH 40 NOILOYS SSOUD 10. » i fSssssssssssssh i FLVO W007 ROOFING PAPER /"BORROING|| 210" RAFTERS | 2°x9"L Are || SASH | 2x 4STUDOING ROOFING PAPER BORRDING * BROODER HOUSE WINDOWS AND VENTILATORS Showing details of construction. CROSS 10'0-———5 —-7'0" SECTION OF BROODER HOUSE AND INCUBATOR CELLAR ie] Q Ce) — GS Ouse INCUBRTOR © CELLAR K t ~ ROOFING PAPER ROOFING PAPER. T’FLOORING GRR aera ROOFING PAPER. E°CONCRETE 2°X10°FLOOR BEAMS DETAIL OF BEAM FILLING Where building is over 16 feet, i jin width, floor beams are 2” x 12”, UVTIAD UOLVANONI JO NVId WOOT ‘JaqUINU ay} sqnop 0} adeds pues ‘Burjjos e ye sBZa 009‘S1 Joy Ayoeded e& YUM “Joay Zz Aq yoaz OHI 2b/ vy NIG 1703 YALVIH- == n we SS oo YILOTH ‘sully @ 3B syeO JO sjaysnq OOr Surnoids 10} Ayoedeo YUM UVTITAD SLVO GaALNOUS pik OF > 40,91 DAE SINE OT WV7ITID SivO INILNOYdS EE ’o | Ojo K—— /0'O" VESTIBULED ENTRANCE TO INCUBATOR CELLAR Also giving access by inside stairway to Brooder House. L J | U iA kh idhdh TIATIT? SPIEPIIIFIIT DI WEST END OF BROODER HOUSE Opening into Sprouted Oats Cellar, and by stairway up to Brooder House. ‘yaoy OT Aq Joo} OOI BI UIE 837 Sumsi0+ sy] uo ssoyy, “yISusy possep Aue 0} papueyxe aq UvO pue ‘suOt}O9S JOOF OZ UL YING ST YA ASNOH DNIAVT ONINUOD FHL re "2 v7} rity ay vo ay co ie an rt 4 is tt {! . i H iv ' vo ay ' a a Hau ’ agen 2 aBbes Ss *. Ay 7 | Sy J ! ' ' i 1 H ’ q 1 } seme, | i H i H v : 1 7 1 4 q 4 4 f ‘ ‘| H H H H f H q q A H ' ‘ f ' 4 ! : H 4 y 1 y y q q % q ' 1 u tl ' 7 ’ f) q H y H \ ; H i : ' 1 ' 1 y q : { ' H i \ y H 4 t ! H ' i 4 u 1 H H ' H H fee Oe T T fl 7 HI J HI KI Ti Hl er ! : ‘oye ‘surejuno} Bururip ‘sjsou jo JuaMAZueIIe pue ‘sjosoj> BuNsool jooid-ysneIp 94} Surmoys ASNOH ONIAVI AO LNAWADNVUNV YOIMALNI x ke 20O,09/ 6 > = siaisiyianly / o) ES 6] sy (tae aoe TTFHE USD \ 'yood! WOLLLLVE PRIM ITFEAOW-¥: ~ rey Heese 8 I ee ee = i = (f = ~ | fo" sl 2X10 FLOOR BEAMS 8X8 CEDAR POST RESO IS OP SAO SR OIA CROSS SECTION OF LAYING HOUSE Showing method of raising perches while cleaning dropping board. <———__ 3'o” —_____» = <—/2"—> Ss o DETAILS OF MASH BOX FLOOR <—_——_ ,O2 ——A 4 3 z u) 3 x USSZ N N x 0 : Q . 3 be mW @ % & = S x z Q Q | hess 2== = Q v ae s % | Q % bitss229 & ra 8 5 < 30" > DOORS OF LAYING HOUSE Showing outside half wire door and solid interior door with observation window. Y 4 is" BOARDING AIR SPACE y ROOFING PAPER, DETAIL OF SILL CONSTRUC- TION OF LAYING HOUSE es | WIRE 0" CORNING VENTILATOR Showing full details of construction. Used in Laying House. L103 oth ~.—-----. = " fe € 3’ o" ¢ 9" GRIT, SHELL AND ASH HOPPER COTTON DUCK 7 if CORNING COLONY HOUSE The Cotton Duck Windows when hooked up forming awnings. ee lk. 5'o"_-»* DETAIL OF WINDOW 4 FRAME ‘rx4 RKeT SIDE ELEVATION KK -a-— _-_-.s~ 3 Ps ~ &<— TRENCH “Ss ~S oO Tae fF CO ———— /0' 0" ISN ui" Faq-T4- qed tet \ if % Fs NA ¥ ry t Vv Nis Ai i NTs Ad 2 V , 3 aN at Q bla tI tb leh bob ot Ct ate | @! . 4-F449ta~ BETTS Oo 4¢ my as Nh v Ww 49) 8, 4 ws Shes PPtai pet its ob dale ba ob ss FLOOR OF COLONY HOUSE Showing skids, and brace construction. Also Storm Trench. LANP WIRE PARTITION ! PLAN FOR UTILIZING COLONY HOUSE AS A BROODER 47 4 Tx 3 Covered withCanvas 2° a” < q° 0” DETAILS OF LAYING HOUSE WINDOW, y Showing Handy Button Fastener. OF edietinedndited ML) Cc SLIDE Se 4/0 —— ——————— 4'o”’ BOX FOR MOVING PULLETS FROM Tie a RANGE TO LAYING HOUSE 6' 0” K 3'O” SLIDE ® EACH END 552 a BOX FOR CARRYING YOUNGSTERS FROM BROODER HOUSE TO COLONY HOUSE. ‘ com) K 4+ ‘6" * CATCHING HOOK SIDE — H PRESS OF THE VAIL-BALLOU CO, BINGHAMTON, N, Y, S \