Class : S p Lj. g 7

Book _ C ^ ?•/

Copyright N°

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Copyright, July, 1903.

By

CYPHERS INCUBATOR COMPANY,

BUFFALO, N. Y.

Boston, Mass., New York City.
All Rights Reserved.

Chicago, Ill.,

-V

Baby Chicks In Brooders, Fairview Farm.

Chickens in the Blackberry Patch, Fairview Farm.

Pallets in the Cornfield, Fairview Farm.

Growing the Future Layers.

H. J. Blanchard's Fairview Farm, Groton, N. Y.

Profitable Egg Farming.

A Practical Book; Telling What To Do and How To Do it to make a
Success of this Profitable Branch of the Poultry Business ; Describes many
of the Large and Successful Egg Farms and the Methods Employed on them,
with many Valuable Pointers on Breeding for Eggs and Feeding for Eggs.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED.

PRICK FIFTY CKNTS.

PUBLISHED BY

CYPHERS INCUBATOR COMPANY.

\ \

BUFFALO, N. Y.

1903.

Book No. 4 Cypher* Series on Practical Poultry Keeping.

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THE LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS,

Two Copies Receiver.'

JUL 25 1903

_ Copytignt Entry J

Judy 2,K)o3
CUSS /CL YXc. No

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

j 'HIS is Book No. 4, of the Cyphers Series on “ Practical Poultry Keeping,"
j ^ and treats of " Profitable Egg Farming." It tells how to make a
3) success of this branch of the poultry business, and describes some
of the large plants and the methods employed on them. It contains many
valuable pointers on breeding for eggs and feeding for eggs.

Book No. 1 of the series is “ Profitable Poultry Keeping in All Branches,"
and treats in a general manner of what is being done, how to start, prac¬
tical breeds, egg farms, market poultry, combination farms, standard-bred
poultry and the use of incubators.

Book No. 2, is “ Profitable Care and Management " It covers the whole
field of work with poultry r from the egg to eggs. It tells the reader what
to do and how to do it.

Book No. 3, on “ Profitable Poultry Houses and Appliances," gives plans
and specifications for poultry houses in sufficient variety to meet the needs of
all, and tells in detail about many necessary and useful poultry plant
appliances.

Book No. 5, “ Profitable Market Poultry," tells all about growing, kill¬
ing, dressing and selling market poultry, including squab-broilers, broilers,
roasters, capons, green ducks, turkeys and geese.

We have endeavored to make these books thoroughly practical and suitable
alike for the beginner and the veteran in the poultry business. They are
thoroughly - up-to-date and contain the best and most reliable information that
is obtainable on the subjects treated.

CYPHERS INCUBATOR CO.

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11 profit from poultry starts from the
egg. hence the production of eggs is
the very foundation of a profitable
poultry business. Whether a
man markets the eggs himself or produces
eggs for the general market, or whether he
turns the eggs into chickens and market' the
chickens, it is obvious that eggs are the founda¬
tion of all the profit he derives from his poultry
work.

In this book it is our purpose to tell some of
the methods of profitable poultry work, the
special purpose being the eggs-for-market side
of the business ; and the various phases of breed¬
ing for eggs, feeding for eggs, the best methods
to employ for the best profit from egg pro¬
duction. the care, handling and marketing of
the product, etc., will be considered. It is ob¬
vious at the outset, however, that in such a
book as this we cannot go into the discussion of
all phases of this important question, nor need
we concern ourselves with such lesser questions
as eggs in literature, eggs in mythology, or
superstitions about’ eggs. etc., etc., however
interesting they may be.

The great bulk of the eggs produced are
either utilized in the hatching of chickens or
consumed as human food and in the very
numerous ways of preparing human food, and
we write this with full recognition of the great
quantities of eggs that are consumed in man¬
ufactures. the arts. etc. ; great as is the use of eggs
for many other purposes probably more than
nine-tenths of all eggs produced the world
over are consumed as human food.

The Uses of Eggs.

Eggs form an economical and nourishing food
and are a staple article of diet with nearly even'
family in the land. The housewife could almost
as well do without her kitchen range and cook¬

ing utensils as do without eggs. There is no
other branch of the poultry business which holds
out such promise or assures so good a profit in
return for a little common sense work as the
production of fresh eggs. There are few places
where eggs cannot be profitably produced: if
not sold to the local market the}' can be readily
shipped to the large markets, even at a consider¬
able distance from the point of production;
there is no other farm product that can be so
easily packed and shipped to market. The
chief requisite in building up a trade in fresh
eggs is to establish a reputation for handling
only the best: the consumers will do the rest.
In some markets brown eggs are preferred above
the white one>. while in others the white ones
are the more salable. But in nearly all markets
it will be found best to grade the eggs, packing
only those of one color and quality in a case, as
better prices are often obtained by so doing.
When eggs are received by the wholesaler they
are inspected and candled before being sent out
to consumers. This testing or candling is done
by passing the egg before a strong electric light,
which is placed behind an egg testing device in
which are two holes before which the operator
rapidly passes the eggs, determining their quali¬
ty and relative freshness by their appearance
as they are passed before the light. Only per¬
fect eggs are sold. Those which have been
cracked or which have very dirty shells are
canned and frozen. Such canned eggs are sold
to the large baking establishments at a price
considerably lower than that paid for fresh eggs.
Some of these frozen eggs are also sold to the
tenement house family trade. It has been
found that these frozen eggs cannot be success¬
fully used in making custards unless they are
previously passed through a fine sieve.

Even the spoiled and rotten eggs find a
market. Millions of tainted eggs are used each

5

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

year in dressing the leather for gloves and in
book-binding. They are also used extensively
in the preparation of shoe blacking, mucilage
and other manufactures; besides these uses
many millions are also used for clarifying wine,
and in calico print works, and in the preparation
of photographer’s paper, and by dye manu¬
facturers.

In the time of low prices when the supply of
eggs exceeds the demand at a good figure, the
eggs are stored in considerable quantities in
cold storage houses, to be held against the season
of scarcity when they bring better prices.
These cold storage rooms are kept at a tem¬
perature of from 33 to 34 degrees, and eggs will
keep in reasonably good condition in such
rooms for six or eight months. Eggs from birds
which have not been running with the male are
best for storage purposes as they are not fertil¬
ized, and “April” eggs are quoted at higher
prices than those stored in summer.

The introduction to Farmers’ Bulletin No.
128. published by the V. S. Department of
Agriculture, on “ Eggs and Their Uses as Food,”
says: “Perhaps no article of diet of animal
origin is more commonly eaten in all countries
or served in a greater variety of ways than eggs.
Hens’ eggs are most common, although the eggs
of ducks, geese, and guinea fowls are used to a
greater or less extent. More rarely turkeys’
eggs are eaten, but they are generally of greater
value for hatching.” ********

“ Eggs are especially rich in protein (the
nitrogenous ingredient of food). This material
is required by man to build and repair the
tissues of the body. Some energy is also fur¬
nished by protein, but fats and carbohydrates
supply the greater part of the total amount
needed. Combining eggs with flour and sugar
(carbohydrates) and butter, cream, etc. (fat),
is perhaps an unconscious effort to prepare a
food which shall more nearly meet the require¬
ments of the bodv than either ingredient alone.
When eggs, meat, fish, cheese, or other similar
foods rich in protein are eaten, such other foods
as bread, butter, potatoes, etc., are usually
served at the same time, the object being, even
if the fact is not realized, to combine the differ¬
ent classes of nutrients into a suitable diet.
The wisdom of such combination, as well as of
other generally accepted food habits, was proved
long ago by practical experience. The reason
has been more slowly learned.”

The Place of Eggs in the Diet.

“ Eggs are used in nearly every household in
some one form or another, in varying amounts.
From the results of the numerous dietary studies
made under the auspices of this Department
and by the agricultural experiment stations,
it has been calculated that on an average eggs
furnish 3 per cent, of the total food. 5.9 per cent,
of the total protein, and 4.3 per cent, of the total
fat used per man per day. Cheese was found
to furnish 0.4 per cent, of the total food, 1.6
per cent, of the total protein, and 1.6 per cent,
of the total fat, while the milk and cream to¬
gether furnish 19.9 per cent, of the total food,

10.5 per cent, of the total protein, and 10.7 per
cent, of the total fat. Milk and cream together
also furnish some carbohydrates, while eggs
and cheese furnish no appreciable amount of
this group of nutrients. Considering some of
the common meats, beef and veal together
were found to furnish 10.3 per cent, of the total
food, 24.6 per cent, of the total protein, and

19.5 per cent, of the total fat. The correspond¬
ing values for mutton and lamb together were
1.4, 3.3 and 3.8 per cent.

“It will be seen that, judged by available
statistics, eggs compared favorably with the
more common animal foods, as regards both the
total food material and the total protein and
fat furnished by them in the average daily
dietary. In other words, investigations show
that the high food value of eggs is appreciated
and that they constitute one of the very im¬
portant articles of diet in the American house¬
hold.

“Many families of moderate means make a
practice of buying fresh meat for but one meal a
day — i. e., dinner, using for breakfast either
bacon, dried beef, codfish, or left-over meats,
etc., and for lunch or supper, bread and butter
and the cold meat and other foods remaining
from the other two meals, with perhaps the
addition of cake and fresh or preserved fruit.
It is the thrifty housekeeper, who uses all her
material as economically as possible in some
such way, who is likely to fall into the error of
excluding eggs at higher prices almost entirely
from her food supply. If her economy was
directed principally to restricting the use of
eggs in the making of rich dessert dishes,
cake, and pastry, one might not only refrain
from criticising but welcome the circumstances
which necessitated the making of simple and

6

INTRODUCTORY.

therefore more wholesome desserts. But usu¬
ally the housekeeper economizes by the more
obvious method of omitting to serve them as a
meat substitute.

“ The statement so frequently made by house¬
keepers that eggs at 25 cents a dozen are cheaper
than meat is true in one sense. Not of course,
with reference to the total amount of nutrients
obtained for the mon£v expended, but because
a smaller amount of money is needed to furnish
the meal. That is to say, whereas at least Im¬
pounds of beefsteak, costing 25 cents, at 20
cents per pound, would be necessary to serve
five adults; in many families five eggs, costing
10 cents, at 25 cents per dozen, would serve the
same number and probably satisfy them
equally well. If the appetites of the family
are such as to demand two eggs per person,
doubling the cost, it is still 20 per cent, less than
the steak. Many persons eat more than two
eggs at a meal, but the average number per
person it is believed does not generally exceed
two in most families. A hotel chef is authority
for the statement that at least oneMialf the
orders he receives are for one egg. Frequently
when omelets, souffles, creamed eggs, and other
similar dishes, are served in place of fried,
poached, or boiled eggs or meat, less than one
egg per person is used.

“These statements must not be understood
as advocating a free use of eggs at any price, but
merely as pointing out that even at the higher
prices the occasional use of eggs in place of
meat need not be regarded as a luxury.”

Description and Composition of Eggs.

“Size. The eggs of different kinds of domes¬
tic poultry vary in size as well as appearance,
and there is also a considerable range in the
size of eggs of different breeds; thus, hens’ eggs
range from the small ones laid by bantams to
the large ones laid by such breeds as Light
Brahmas. On an average, a hen’s egg is 2.27
inches in length and 1.72 inches in diameter or
width at the broadest point, and weighs about
2 ounces, or 8 eggs to the pound (1£ pounds per
dozen). Generally speaking, the eggs of pullets
are smaller than those of old hens, those of
ducks somewhat larger than hens’ eggs, while
those of turkeys and geese are considerably
larger. Guinea eggs, on an average, measure
1^ by H inches, are rather pointed at one end,
and weigh about 1.4 ounces each, or 17 ounces
to the dozen. Goose eggs weigh about 5.5 to

6.7 ounces each, or about 5 pounds to the dozen
— that is, more than three times as much as
hens’ eggs. The eggs of wild birds are said to
be smaller than those of the same species when
domesticated. Wild ducks’ eggs are said to be
on an average, 1.97 to 2.17 inches in diameter,
domestic ducks’ eggs 2.36 to 2.56 inches.

“ Composition. — The shells of hens’ eggs
constitute about 11 per cent., the yolk 32 per
cent, and the white 57 per cent., of the total
weight of the egg. According to tests made at
the New York Experiment Station, white-
shelled eggs have a somewhat heavier shell than
brown-shelled eggs.”

Increase of Eggs.

The last U. S. Census Report says :

The increase in total egg production is a fair
index to the growth of the poultry and egg in¬
dustry in the several states during the past
decade. In the North Atlantic division the
increase in eggs was 37.5 per cent., Rhode Island
leading with a gain of 59.2 per cent. In the
South Atlantic division the increase was 59.1
per cent., West Virginia showing a gain of 73.8
per cent. The production of eggs in the North
Central division exceeded the product returned
in 1890 by 54.5 per cent. Minnesota with a
gain of 112.3 per cent., and North Dakota with
109.4 per cent., showing the greatest progress.
The South Central division gained 80.8 per
cent. Oklahoma returned but 989,625 dozens
in 1890, when the territory was just opened to
settlement, and the figures for the present
census, 13,724,900 dozens, showed a gain of
1,286.9 per cent. Tennessee and Kentucky
both showed decreases in number of fowls, but
increases of 37.3 per cent, and 43.1 per cent,
respectively in egg production, proving con¬
clusively that the industry prospered there, as
already explained.

The Western division, with its almost unpar¬
alleled advance in all lines of agricultural in¬
dustry, gained 112.3 per cent, in egg production.
Idaho and Montana made the greatest progress,
the gain for the former being 290.3 per cent,
and for the latter, 260.0 per cent.

The total value of poultry raised on farms
and ranges in the United States in 1899 was
Sl36.891.877; the average value per farm of
poultry raised was $26.86. ■

The five states of the highest rank in the
value of poultry products in 1899 were Illinois,
Si 1 ,307,599 ; Missouri $9,525,252; Iowa,

7

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

S9.49 1,819; Ohio 88,847,009; and Indiana 88,-
172,993.

The production of eggs in 1S99 was 1,293,-
819,186 dozens, an average of 5.5 dozens per
chicken. (This does not include eggs of tur¬
keys, geese and ducks). The value of these eggs
was 8144,286,158. Iowa was the banner state
in egg production, it reported 99.621.920 dozens;
Ohio ranked second, with 91,766,630 dozens;
Illinois third, with 86,402,670 dozens; Missouri
fourth with 85.203,290 dozens; and Kansas
fifth, with 73.190,590 dozens. In value of eggs
produced Ohio ranks first, with 810,280,769;
Iowa second, with $10,016,707; and Illinois
which was first in value of poultry raised was
fourth in value of eggs produced, reporting
S8, 942.401 ; being outranked by Pennsylvania
with 89,080,725, and followed closely by New
York with 88,630,062.

Storage and Uses.

Only perfect eggs are stored, those cracked in
transit and the small and dirty-shelled ones
being canned and frozen. Such eggs are sold
to large baking establishments at prices below
those of fresh eggs, thus taking the bakers out,
to a large extent, from the winter demand, and
having a moderating effect upon prices. In
1900 over 1,000 dozen eggs were frozen in Kan¬
sas City alone. Eggs found to be tainted are
used in dressing leather for gloves and book¬
binding, an industry largely carried on in foreign
tenement districts of large cities. A disinfec¬
tant is also made of the tainted eggs, and they
are extensively used in the preparation of a
shoe-blacking. The shells are used to make
fertilizers.

Besides the culinary use of eggs, millions are
used each year by wine clarifiers, calico print
works, dye manufacturers, and in the prepa¬
ration of photographers’ dry plates. A con¬
siderable trade in dessicated eggs has sprung
up in recent years. By a process of evaporation
all or most of the white or yolk, as the case may
be, is dried out. Eggs thus treated are used to
some extent in the family trade, but more by
bakers, and are of special service in provisioning
camping parties and expeditions.

When placed on the market the dried eggs
are usually ground. Sometimes salt, sugar or
both are used as preservatives. If the process
of manufacture is such that the resulting
product is palatable and keeps well, the value of
evaporated eggs for many purposes is evident.

THE EGG.

From Wright's New Book of Poultry.

Every animal, of whatsoever kind, is devel¬
oped from the egg form, or as physiologists ex¬
press it, “oynne animal ex ovo.” But the mode
of that development differs, in one detail espec¬
ially. In mammalia the egg is retained through¬
out within the body of the mother, which is its
sufficient protection, and the development is
uninterrupted. In oviparous animals, such as
birds, the egg is enclosed in a hard protecting
shell, and, at a certain stage of development, ex¬
truded from the body of the mother; in this
case development is arrested at that point, and
may, or may not, be resumed and completed.

Fig. I. — Ovary of Laying Hen.

The ovary of a hen during or near her laying
season presents an appearance much like that
of a cluster of fruit, and is accurately shown by
the illustration. There are, strictly, two such
organs in every bird; but one remains merely
rudimentary and undeveloped, the fertile one
being almost always that on the left of the spine,
to which it is attached by means of the periton¬
eal membrane. By the ovary the essential part of
the egg, which consists of the germ, and also the
yolk, is formed, each yolk being contained with¬
in a thin and transparent ovisac, connected by
a narrow stem or pedicle with the ovary. These
rudimentary eggs are of different sizes, accord¬
ing to the different degree of development, and
during the period of laying the}’ are constantly
coming to maturity in due succession.

8

INTRODUCTORY.

As the yolk becomes fully matured, the en¬
closing membrane or ovisac becomes gradually
thinner, especially round its greatest diameter
or equator, which then exhibits a pale zone or
belt called the stigma. Finally, whether or not
fecundation takes place, the sac ruptures at
the stigma, and the liberated yolk and germ,
surrounded by a very thin and delicate mem¬
brane, is received by the funnel-shaped opening
of the oi'idact or egg-passage, whose office it. is
to convey it to the outer world, and on its way
to clothe it with other structures needful for its
development and preservation. This organ,
with its various convolutions a little modified
for convenience of
representation, i s
shown in the illus¬
tration, and in an
ordina r v hen is
nearly two feet in
length. It will
easily be seen how
two yolks may be¬
come detached and
enter the oviduct
at nearly the same
time; in which case
they are likely to
be developed in the
same white and
shell, causing the
“ doub le-yolked
egg” so well-known
to every p o u 1 1 r y
keeper.

Thus received
into the oviduc t,
the yolk becomes
enveloped in a
glairy fluid called the white, or by chem¬
ists albumen. This is secreted by the
mucous membrane of the oviduct, and added
layer by layer as the egg passes on. The uses of
the white or albumen are manifold. It is emi¬
nently nutritious, forming indeed the chief
nourishment of the chick during its growth in
the shell; as it becomes absorbed by the little
animal, and forming as it does by far the greater
part of the egg when laid, it gives the fast-
growing little body the needed increase of room;
it is a very bad conductor of heat, and hence
guards the hatching egg against the fatal chills
which would otherwise occur when the hen left
the nest; and finally it preserves the delicate

yolk and vital germ from concussion or other
violent injury.

At a still further point of the oviduct the egg
becomes invested with the skin or parchment¬
like covering which is found inside the shell. In
realitv this skin consists of two lavers, which
can easily be separated, and at the large end of
the egg they do separate entirely, forming the
air-chamber. At first this chamber is small,
but as the egg gets stale, it becomes larger and
larger, so that even in eggs stored, it fills at
length, a large portion of the space within the
shell, the egg itself drying up in proportion. In
eggs on the point of hatching it usually occu¬
pies about one-fifth of the space. It has been
proved by experiments that the perforation of
this air chamber, even by a needle point, is an
effectual prevention of successful hatching.

In the last portion of the oviduct, the egg be¬
comes coated with that calcareous deposit which
forms the shell, after which it passes into the
cloaca and is ready for expulsion. In some
breeds, coloring matter is added over the solid
ingredient, producing the deep-colored eggs of
the Cochin, and in other birds the splashed and
spotted patterns so well-known. In fowls which
lav colored eggs similar splashes often occur, and
we have had Brahma hens which laid eggs with
a white ground, covered thickly over by choco¬
late-colored spots. We have had others, again,
lay eggs covered apparently with a coat of
white-wash, which on being rubbed off with a
rough cloth, revealed the usual buff-brown tint
beneath. All these things obviously depend on
some peculiar condition of the secreting organs,
as does the shape of the egg of each bird when
finally laid.

Occasional departures from the ordinary
type of egg will now be understood. If the lat¬
ter portion of the oviduct be in an unhealthy
condition, or if the yolks be matured by the ovary,
faster than shells can be formed by that organ,
“soft” or unshelled eggs will bo produced. If,
on the contrary, the oviduct and its glands be
active, while the supply of yolks is temporarily
exhausted, the diminutive eggs, which consist of
only white and shell, and which not infrequent¬
ly terminate the laying of a long batch, may be
expected to occur. Disease extending to the
middle portion of the passage may result in eggs
without even the membraneous skin, and if the
entire canal be in an unhealthy condition, yolks
alone may probably be dropped without any
addition whatever, even of whites. This last

9

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

occurrence therefore denotes a serious state of
affairs, and should be met at once by depletic
medicines, or it will probably be followed by the
loss of the bird.

Let us now consider the egg itself, which is a
much more complicated organism than many
people are aware of. There is much even in the
shell to excite our interest. It is composed
chiefly of prismatic particles, so arranged as to
leave pores or interspaces between them. As
laid, the shell is of enormous strength, so that
it will resist great pressure between the palms
of the hands applied to the opposite ends;
though it is not correct that, as we have seen
stated, “the strongest man cannot break it” in
this way. Still, for its thickness and texture,
its strength is phenomenal. As hatching pro¬
ceeds, however, the carbonic acid and dioxide
formed by the breathing of the chick, dissolved

in fluid, gradually dissolve a portion of the
material, and thus the prismatic bodies are slow¬
ly softened and disintegrated. The shell thus
becomes far softer and more brittle as hatch¬
ing approaches; and so great is the difference,
that if the edge of a fracture made across
a fresh egg-shell, and another of one hatched or
hatching, be examined under a microscope, it
will be instantly seen that the two are in a quite
different molecular condition. Were it not for
this beautiful provision of nature, the chick
could never break the shell.

The outer and inner shell membranes M and
M, separating at the air chamber A, need no
further explanation. Proceeding inwards, we
come next to the white or albumen W. This
is composed of a denser, and a more fluid kind,
arranged in layers, which can be peeled off in a
hard-boiled egg, like the layers of an onion. A

layer of the more fluid kind is always next the
shell, and another thin one, F, next the yolk,
but enveloped by another layer, D, of the dense
kind. If an egg be broken into a basin, there
will further be observed attached to two oppo¬
site sides of the yolk, two slightly opaque and
rather twisted thick cords C H, of still denser al¬
bumen, termed the chalazce. They are not at¬
tached to the shell, but to opposite sides of the
dense layer of albumen, D, which envelopes the
inner fluid layer and the yolk. They are at¬
tached at opposite sides, rather below the center,
thus they act as balancing weights, keeping the
side of the yolk which carries the germ always
uppermost, and very nearly in floating equilib¬
rium. If the egg be turned round, therefore, the
yolk itself does not turn with it, but retains its
position with the germ on the upper side.

It will be seen how elaborately and beautifully
the yolk, bearing upon its upper surface the
tender germ, is protected within the egg. Itself
rather lighter at the upper part, it is further
balanced by the chalazce, so as to float germ up¬
permost in the albumen. It is usually very
slightly lighter than the albumen, but scarcely
perceptibly so; thus it floats near the upper
side of the shell, but always separated from it by
a layer of albumen of more or less thickness,
and oscillating gently away .from the shell on the
least motion. In a few cases it probably floats
more strongly up against the shell, and these are
generally the cases in which adherence takes
place, or the yolk is ruptured during hatching;
but an exquisitely delicate floating balance is
the rule. Nevertheless, it will be readily under¬
stood why it is inadvisable to leave an egg lying
on the same side for any length of time. The
shell being porous, and permitting of evaporation,
such a course keeps the germ close to the portion
of albumen which is slowly drying up, and
may cause a tendency to adhesion.

Turning now to the yolk, this is contained in a
very delicate vitelline membrane, V. It is com¬
posed of both white and yellow cells, and if an
egg be boiled hard, and cut across, it can be seen
that there is a flask-shaped nucleus or center of
white yolk, W Y, round which are several con¬
centric layers of yellow yolk, Y A". Under the
microscope additional thin layers of white yolk
cells can be distinguished amongst the yellow
layers. On the top of the white yolk rests the
blastoderm (germ skin), a small disc about one-
eighth of an inch across, shown at B L. The dif¬
ference between a fertilized and an unfertilized
egg is solely to be found in this small disc.

10

Chapter L

THE NATURAL HABITS OF THE HEN AND WHAT DOMESTICATION HAS
DONE. THE EARLY HISTORY OF DOMESTIC FOWLS. THEIR ORIGIN
AND GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT. SOME OF THE RESULTS
ALREADY ATTAINED. THE PROBABILITIES
OF THE FUTURE.

T t is quite generally believed by natural-
| ^ ists that our common domestic hens
' are descended from the wild jungle-
. . fowls of Asia, which are scientifically
named Gallus Bankiva. There are four recog¬
nized species of Gallus found there, very
possibly of one common origin far back in
the unrecorded past, but now having little in
common except their wildness, and because of
their being sterile, or producing only barren hy¬
brids when mated, a common origin is doubtful;
if of common origin they have varied so widely
as to now be distinct species, and, tested by the
standard of fertility when mated, the other
species are unrelated to G. bankiva. This
wild jungle fowl of Northern India, bears a quite
close resemblance to the Black Breasted Red
Game fowl as we know it, the chief difference
being that the Games carry the tail more erect;
in the bankiva the tail is carried drooping. Of
the history of these birds the Encyclopedia
Britannica says:

k “It inhabits Northern India and greatly re¬
sembles in plumage, the Black Breasted Red
Game, and this is especially the case with ex¬
amples from the Malay countries, between
which and examples from India some differ¬
ences are noticeable, — the latter have a plumage
less red, and ear lappets almost invariably white,
while in the former the ear lappets are crimson,
like the comb and wattles, and the legs yellow¬
ish in color. If the Malay birds be considered
distinct, it is to them that the name G. bankiva
properly applies. This species is said to be
found in lofty forests and in dense thickets, as
well as in ordinary bamboo-jungles, and when
cultivated land is near its haunts it may be
seen in the fields after the crops are cut, in strag¬
gling parties of 10 to 20. The crow of the cock

is described as being just like that of the Ban¬
tam. but never prolonged, as in some domestic
birds. The hen breeds from January to July,
according to the locality, and lays from S to 13
creamy-white eggs, occasionally scraping to¬
gether a few leaves or a little dried grass by way
of a nest.

“Several circumstances seem to render it like¬
ly that fowls were first domesticated in Burmah
or the countries adjacent thereto, and it is the
tradition of the Chinese that they received their
poultry from the West, about 1,400 B. C. By
the Institutes of Manu, the date of which is
variously assigned from 1200 to S00 B. C., the
tame fowl is forbidden, though the wild is allowed
to be eaten, showing that its domestication was
already accomplished when they were written.
The bird is not mentioned in the Old Testament,
nor by Homer, nor is It figured on ancient
Egyptian monuments. Pindar mentions it,
and Aristophanes calls it the Persian Bird, thus
indicating it to have been introduced into Greece
through Persia, and it is figured on the Baby¬
lonian cylinders between the 6th and 7th centur¬
ies, B. C.

“Game fowls differ less from the wild bankiva
than any other variety; they are, however, con¬
siderably larger, and carry the tail more erect
than the wild birds. In some parts of India,
sportsmen find it not easy to distinguish
between the wild and domesticated birds.”

Discussing the origin and history of domestic
fowls, Darwin, in his “Animals and Plants un¬
der Domestication,” says :

“History of the Fowl. — Rutimever found no
remains of the fowl in the ancient Swiss lake-
dwellings; but, according to Jeitteles, such
have certainly since been found associated
with extinct animals and prehistoric remains.

11

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

It is, therefore, a strange fact that the fowl is
not mentioned in the Old Testament, nor
figured on the ancient Egyptian monuments.
It is not referred to by Homer or Hesiod, (about
900 B. C.); but is mentioned by Theognis
and Aristophanes, between 400 and 500 B. C.
It is figured on some of the Babylonian cylinders
between the sixth and seventh centuries B. C.,
of which Mr. Layard sent me an impression, and
on the Harpy Tomb in Lycia, about 600 B. C.,
so that the fowl apparently reached Europe in a
domesticated condition somewhere about the
sixth century B. C. It had travelled still far¬
ther westward by the time of the Christian era,
for it was found in Britain by Julius Caesar. In
India it must have been domesticated when the
Institutes of Manu were written, that is, accord¬
ing to Sir W. Jones, 1200 B. C., but,, according
to the later authority of Mr. H. Wilson, only
800 B. C., for the domestic fowl is forbidden,
whilst the wild is permitted to be eaten. If, as
before remarked, we may trust the old Chinese
Encyclopedia, the fowl must have been domes¬
ticated several centuries earlier, as it is said to
have been introduced from the West into China
1400 B. C.

“Sufficient materials do not exist for
tracing the history of the separate breeds. About
the commencement of the Christian era, Colum¬
ella mentions a five-toed fighting breed, and
some provincial breeds; but we know nothing
about them. He also alludes to dwarf fowls;
but these cannot have been the same with our
Bantams, which, as Mr. Crawfurd has shown,
were imported from Japan, into Bantam in
Java. A dwarf fowl, probably the true Bantam,
is referred to in an old Japanese Encyclopedia,
as I am informed by Mr. Birch. In the Chinese
Encyclopedia, published in 1596, but com¬
piled from various sources, some of high an¬
tiquity, seven breeds are mentioned, including
what we should now call Jumpers or Creepers,
and likewise fowls with black feathers, bones
and flesh. In 1600, Aldrovandi describes seven
or eight breeds of fowls, and this is the most
ancient record from which the age of European
breeds can be inferred. ’ ’

Mr. Darwin tells us that “ Sufficient materials
do not exist for tracing the history of the sepa¬
rate breeds” of fowls, and it is equally true
that sufficient materials do not exist for tracing
the growth (or evolution) of the domestic fowls
of today as a whole, but from what materials
we have and by what we can surmise from the

practically analogous history and traditions of
the human race, we can piece together a prob¬
able history. We in America have received
the so-called “Mediterranean,” (the non-sitting),
varieties from the countries bordering upon the
Mediterranean sea, the so-called “Asiatics”
from China and Bantams from Japan. It is
interesting to recall the numberless invasions of
the tribes and peoples of eastern (Asiatic) origin
into the countries bordering upon the Mediter¬
ranean sea, and to remember that while those
invading peoples frequently conquered the
countries they invaded, they were in turn ab¬
sorbed into the peoples of the countries which
they had conquered, the conquerors and the
conquered being ultimately merged into one
family; a most familiar example of such merg¬
ing of races, that of the English people, is re¬
cognized by the late Laureate in the well-known
lines of his welcome to the princess who has
now become the queen of England :

“Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,

All of us Danes in our welcome to thee,
Alexandra .”

It is easy to imagine the movements of in¬
numerable tribes and peoples who thus became
inhabitants of the countries bordering upon the
Mediterranean sea, and to picture them as taking
their flocks and herds with them on their mi¬
grations, and probably in this manner the
domesticated descendants of Callus bankiva
were introduced into Europe. That the process
of domestication and entire change of habit in
the species was a long one there can be no
question; it would certainly require many
thousands of generations to effect so complete
a revolution in habits and instincts as we see
in the non-incubating varieties. The old pro¬
verb tells us that “ Self preservation is the first
law of nature,” and we can easily believe that
next to self-preservation the perpetuation of the
species is the strongest instinct. It is true that
with domestic fowls the propagating of their
kind is a dual act, comprising, first, the laying
of the eggs, and, second, the incubating of them;
and in the Mediterranean varieties we have the
incubating instinct practically become dormant
through long-continued disuse. It must have
required a long, long period of time to have
effected so momentous a revolution in so potent
an instinct. We have, in Egypt, the familiar
instance of the incubating of eggs being done
artificially, but no other example has come to

12

NATURAL HABITS OF THE HEN.

us, nor does recorded history mention other
peoples practicing the art so far as we have
knowledge. It would be possible for the incu¬
bating instinct to become dormant in the fowls
of that country and through a correspondingly
greater development of the egg-producing in¬
stinct the fowls be more highly valued and con¬
sequently imported into adjoining countries.

It would be possible also, that “ natural
selection ” would have gradually effected the
permanent abandonment of the brooding in¬
stinct; the birds being preferred which were
most prolific layers and least persistently broody,
such preference (and consequent “selection”)

were found among the ruins of the buried city
of Pompeii and are now preserved in the Nation¬
al Museum at Naples; one of these represents
a cock, life size, which differs little if at all in
shape, color, etc., from the Brown Leghorn
cock of today, the other is likewise of a Brown
Leghorn cock but shows some sprinkling of
white among the saddle feathers. The corres¬
pondent to whom we are indebted for this in¬
formation, writing of the common Italian fowls,
says: “The Mediterranean races are of course
the universal ones, and here almost exclusively
are the Brown Leghorns, saucy, self-reliant,
quick to assert themselves and great foragers*

Cochins in 1843. Reproduced from Tegetmeier's Poultry Book.

would gradually, although very slowly, weaken
and finally destroy that instinct. In the coun¬
tries where artificial incubation was not practiced,
however, fowls of incubating disposition would
have to be kept to hatch the necessary chickens;
and we find that very condition in Italy today,
where can be seen, among the innumerable
flocks of the common Italian fowls (which we in
America know as Leghorns), here and there a
flock of more or less mongrel Asiatics and other
incubating varieties.

That the common Italian fowls have changed
little, if any, in the past two thousand years, we
have good evidence in two fine mosaics which

There is no attempt whatever made to maintain
any special variety of color or marking, although
one sees often enough typical cocks and hens
resembling very closely the Brown leghorn
as it exists in the United States today, yet
since they are not selected for breeding with
any definite object the evils of inbreeding mani¬
fest themselves in frequent white feathers.

“ Nevertheless the race of the Brown Leghorn
must be one of remarkable vigor and of great
age. Nowhere have I seen anything like the
modern pea-comb or rose-comb, always the
large, well developed single comb, — and only
rarely a white or black variety. The rose-

13

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

combs and Black and White Leghorns are of
course either the results of admixture with, or
sports of the ancient type of the race, — and that
type seems to be the brown Leghorn,”

It would be still more correct to say the type
is that of the progenitors of the race, for the
black-red colors of the Brown Leghorn male
very closely resemble the black-red colors of
the male Gallus bankiva, and the persistence of
these color-markings in the common fowls of
Italy is an illustration of the persistence of race
characteristics, as well as of reversion towards
the original ancestral type. This result is pre¬
cisely what would be expected from centuries

tioned and extremely broody “Asiatics.”

If we suppose that quantity and quality of
meat were preferred to a great egg product we
would expect just such a development of the
meat producing qualities as those Asiatic fowls
possess. Some of us can remember the great
yellow Shanghais and Grey Chittagongs of fifty
or sixty years ago; so tall that, while standing
on the floor beside it, they could eat corn off the
top of a barrel that was standing on end ; cock
birds of the descendants of those varieties have
reached seventeen or eighteen pounds weight.

It is quite unnecessary for us to enter into the
much discussed question of whether the Chitta_

Light Brahmas. Presented to Her Majesty, Oueen Victoria, by Mr. Geo. P. Burnham, in 1852.

Reproduced from Tegetmeier’s Poultry Book.

of promiscuous interbreeding, just the result
that we find in the common Italian fowls de¬
scribed above and from which our finely bred
Leghorns have been developed.

Mr. Darwin tells us the domesticated fowl is
said to have been introduced from the west into
China about 1400 B. C., and we see in the de¬
scendants of those fowls a development in a
decidedly different direction from that taken by
the domesticated fowls in Europe and North
Africa. Instead of the small, non-sitting, in¬
tensely nervous and active “Mediterraneans”
we find the large, clumsy, placid-disposi-

gongs were of Chinese or Indian origin, it is
sufficient for our purpose to know that both the
Chittagongs and Shanghais were of the same
great Asiatic race, and that our Cochins and
Brahmas have been developed from them. We
in America received the ancestors of our Cochins
and Brahmas from Asia, the ancestors of our
Leghorns from Italy, and from Spain and the
countries which were for centuries dominated
by Spain the other “Mediterranean” varieties;
and from the mixing of these races has been
evolved our popular American varieties, the
Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes.

14

NATURAL HABITS OF THE HEN.

What Domestication Has Done.

We have seen that our common domestic hen
probably originated in the wild jungle-fowl of
Asia, and that currents of conquest and com¬
mercial enterprise carried them east into China
and west into North Africa and Europe; in the
one case the influence of selection has developed
the meat producing qualities and in the other
the tendency to increase the production of eggs
has been carefully developed and the instinct
of incubation rendered dormant ; these remark¬
able results having been attained by the per¬
sistent and long continued selection of the
most prolific layers in the one case and those of
greatest size in the other. From the wild
jungle-fowl, producing a clutch of “8 to 13
creamy white eggs” in a season, to the highly
organized egg-machines that produce 150 to 200
eggs each in a year is a long journey, one that
has required several thousand years to accom¬
plish, — and the end is not yet. We have every
reason to believe that we are continuing to
progress, and that continued careful breeding to
a definite purpose will give us still more grati¬
fying results, with reasonable assurance of even
greater permanency of results.

We have quite analogous conditions in the
domestic cow, which, in the wild state, yielded
milk for three or four months for the sustenance
of its calf and ran dry the balance of the year,
but has by careful breeding to one purpose,
been developed to give an almost uninterrupted
milk flow, and in individual cases has reached
the phenomenal yield of upwards of 10,000
pounds of milk in a year, when the average for
the whole United States is but about 3,400
pounds. The “ Biggie Cow Book ” says :

“ Great is the dairy cow! Hail to her! But if she
gives less than 5.000 pounds of milk per year, or
200 pounds of butter, away with her! She is
not profitable.” A grade cow, “ Topsev,” (out
of a Shorthorn cow by a Holstein bull) made a
yearly average for five years of 10,037 pounds of
milk, which made 456 pounds of butter, the
average cost of the butter being 8.6 cents per
pound. As there are only about half a million
head of thoroughbred cattle and some ten to
twelve million “ grades ” (out of a total of nearly
seventy millions) in the United States, it can be
surmised that comparatively few came up to
even Judge Biggie’s modest standard of profit¬
able production.

It is exactly similar with our hens. The sta¬
tistics of the last census show an average egg

production for the whole United States of 5.5
dozens per fowl, the state of Maine being credit¬
ed with an average of 8.5 dozens and Louisiana
ranking lowest with but 3.3 dozens per fowl,
and yet we have individual hen records of 200
to 251 eggs within a year of reaching laying
maturity. In the tables of estimated average
egg production the Asiatic varieties are credited
with 120 to 150 eggs each; the American varie¬
ties with 175 to 200 eggs each and the Mediter¬
ranean varieties with ISO to 200 eggs each. It
is only within a few years that we have had
trap-nest records of individual birds, and the
best previous authentic records of birds in
flocks (the total egg product being divided
equally among all the birds), gave 194 eggs each
from 600 White Leghorns on Air. Wyckoff’s
farm, 178 eggs each from 280 White Wyan-
clottes and Barred P. Bocks on Mr. Norton’s
farm, 198 eggs each from 135 Barred P. Rocks
on Mr. Parks’ farm, 196 eggs each from ten
Buff Wyandottes on Dr. Sanborn’s farm and
210 eggs each from 11 White Wyandottes on Mr.
Woods’ farm. By the use of trap nests the
exact record of each bird in the flock is obtained,
and Mr. Silberstein developed egg production in
his Light Brahmas to an extent that one bird
laid 232 eggs within a year of laying maturity
and Mr. John W. Boswell. Jr., got 242 eggs in a
year from a White Wyandotte pullet.

The best work of which we have knowledge,
in this field, has been done at the Maine Agri¬
cultural Experiment Station, where they have
been breeding from known great layers for the
past five years. They have found in their
flocks thirty hens that laid between 200 and 251
eggs each in a year, twenty-six of these hens
being now in their breeding pens, and consti¬
tuting the foundation stock upon which their
breeding operations are based. “All the breed¬
ing stock we are now carrying are tested hens
that have laid over 180 eggs in a year; pullets
whose mothers laid over 200 eggs in one year
and whose fathers’ mothers laid over 200 eggs
in a year; and pullets sired by cockerels whose
mothers and grandmothers laid over 200 eggs
in one year.” For those who have thought a
hen that laid freely in her first year was of little
value as a layer thereafter it will be a comfort
to know that some of the great layers there at
the Maine Experiment Station are doing great
second and third year laying also. The report
says: “No 286, in her first year, commencing
Nov. 1, 1899, laid 191 eggs, with 157 during the

15

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

second, and 138 in her third year.” “No. 4
laid 201 eggs the first year, 140 the second and
130 the third.” These two hens laid 486 and
471 eggs respectively in three years.

Speaking of the advantages of incubators
and the beneficial effects from their use the U. S.
Census Report says: “The continued use of
the incubator tends to make the hen forget in a
measure, her maternal instincts. It is said that
in Egypt, where artificial incubation has been
employed for centuries, the hens exhibit very
little tendency to become ‘ broody/ and much of
the time formerly spent in being ‘broody’ is
available for egg laying. This fact assumes
gigantic importance when it is remembered
that it has been discovered that there are 600
embryo eggs in the ovary of a hen. It has been
further ascertained that two-thirds of this
number can be secured in the first two years
of a hen’s life, provided suitable measures are
employed. If the tendency to become ‘ broody ’
can be suppressed, and more time can be given
to egg laying, incubation being left to the artifi¬
cial incubator, and if, in addition, egg-pro¬
ducing food be fed, the problem of getting the
greatest number of the eggs from the hen in the
first two years of her life will be very near
solution.”

Assuming for the moment that the census
writer is correct in his statement of there being
600 embryo eggs in the ovary of a hen, the
problem of getting the greatest proportion of
that number the first two years of her life is
easily solved if we but breed from birds that
have the egg-laying habit fixed; the success of
the Maine Experiment Station people is good
proof of that. Does our census friend, however
“ know ’’ that there are 600 eggs in the ovary of
a hen? We believe that the number is not so fixed
as he implies, and that an increase in the
number can be developed by breeding from
birds of a fixed egg-producing habit. Faculties
are developed by long-continued and persistent
use. With the wild Gallus bankiva there would
hardly be occasion for a store of 600 embryo eggs
when she produced but 8 to 13 in a season;
there certainly was no probability of her living
through fifty seasons, hence by no possibility
could she ever use half, or a fourth, even, of
600 embryo eggs; and nature is not so wasteful
of her provision for the reproduction of species.
Rather would we believe that in the wild state
the female Gallus bankiva was provided with
perhaps 100 embryo eggs, and that the increase

in the domesticated hen to a possible 600 has
come through long development of the egg-pro¬
ducing faculty; and in that belief (and it is
plausible) we find encouragement to look for¬
ward to a still further enlargement of the supply
of embryo eggs in future great laying stock.
There are countless analogies in nature of such
development through long continued and per¬
sistent use of a faculty or function, and with the
prolific laying habit developed and transmitted
through many generations we confidently pre¬
dict a still further increase of capacity for egg-
production.

Similarly with the market qualities of our
stock; by selecting the breeding birds with a
view to improving the quantity and quality of
breast meat, by choosing birds with long, deep
keels and short legs and thighs, that most im¬
portant quality will become gradually more
highly developed; bringing about an increased
quantity of the highest quality of meat, which
will result in increased appreciation of and de¬
mand for that product.

The Probabilities of the Future.

Far too many poultry writers, as well as
poultry raisers, take no thought of the probable
future growth or development of the poultry
business ; we are all prone to live fully up to the
motto, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil there¬
of.” Those of us who can look back fifty years,
can see tremendous changes, and if we study
the situation aright, those changes of the past
are certainly suggestive of what future develop¬
ment may be. Up to this time the practical
end of poultry raising has been very little studied ;
the bulk of poultry writing, the influence of the
poultry shows, etc., have almost all been along
what is called the “fancy” branch of the bus¬
iness. Some little thought for the practical
there is, some little preaching of better quality,
both of poultry meat and eggs, and there is some
slight interest in the better conditions of collect¬
ing and shipping to favorable markets. Taking
the country as a whole, however, there is very,
very little thought of this, and very, very little
attention paid to the bettering of quality, and
the improving of market conditions.

That improvement in quality is one phase of
future development, seems highly probable, and
it will tend to an increased appreciation of both
poultry meat and eggs, if this improvement in
quality and also in market conditions is brought
about. One of the effects of improvement in

16

NATURAL HABITS OF THE HEN.

quality will be an increased public appreciation
of both poultry meat and eggs, and an increased
consumption by the public, and this wholly out¬
side of certain natural causes which are steadily
influencing an increased public consumption of
these products. These natural causes are a
rapid and steady increase in population, and a
steady decrease in supply of other meat pro¬
ducts, and there are excellent reasons for be¬
lieving these conditions will continue. With
the population of the United States doubling
every forty years, and the beef, pork and mutton
supplies steadily decreasing through natural
causes, it is reasonable to argue that there will
be a constantly increasing demand for eggs and
poultry meat as a substitute; and with the rapid
multiplication of population, and especially the
evident disposition of the people to center in
cities and towns, thus increasing the consuming
class far more rapidly than the increase of pro¬
ducers, that increase in demand should be like¬
wise rapid. One very decided influence in this
direction will be an improvement in quality, and
this is quite as applicable to eggs as to dressed
poultry. Thousands and thousands of cases
of eggs now reach the large consuming markets
in very poor shape for use, largely because of
the great lapse of time between the production
of the eggs by the hens and their reaching the
tables of the consumers. A bettering of con¬
ditions here "would be a comparatively simple
and easy matter; it requires more regular and
systematic collecting of the eggs on the farms,
and a regular collecting from the farms by the
dealers who ship them to market; and the time
is not far distant when we shall see regular egg¬
collecting routes, comparable to the cream-col¬
lecting routes now established in great dairy
sections of the country. Indeed, there is no
reason whatever why the two lines of work should
not be combined, and the cream collector like¬
wise collect the eggs from the farms daily, and
bring them to the cool-room of the creamery,
where they can be lighted, packed and shipped
promptly and regularly to the most desirable
market.

Our friends in Europe are already far in ad¬
vance of us in this particular, and in Denmark
alone, there are 24,000 farms enrolled in a “Dan¬
ish Egg Association,” the eggs of the members
being collected either daily or three times a week.
In this association the eggs of each farm are
marked with a letter and number, so that the

origin of every egg brought into the depots is
knowyn

These eggs are lighted to test their freshness,
and then packed and shipped to market; if a
bad egg is found in any farmer’s lot, he is fined
for the first offense, and if a second offense of
sending in bad eggs is discovered within a year,
he is expelled from the association, and has to
fall back on the ordinary market chances for
disposing of his product. As there is a sub¬
stantial increase in price received through being
a member of this “Danish Egg Association,”
obviously the members are jealous of their
reputations, and are careful not to send in any
questionable eggs.

An important movement in England has been
the forming of a National Poultry Organization
Society. The head offices are in Hanover
Square, London, and the society was founded
(we quote from the prospectus) “with the ob¬
ject of affording British Poultry keepers the same
advantages of information and organization as
are enjoyed in foreign countries, thus enabling
them to compete on equal terms with their
rivals abroad. Its chief aims are: (a) the or¬
ganization and development of the Poultry In¬
dustry as a most important branch of British
Agriculture: (b) the improvement in the
quality, and the increase in the quantity of eggs,
poultry, etc., produced in the United Kingdom:
(c) the maintenance of regularity and uniformity
of supply: (d) the provision of facilities for
rapid transit : and (e) the bringing of producers
and retailers in closer touch, in order that the
best available market may be obtained at a
minimum cost.

“The society is not a trading concern, but
seeks to further the above objects by promoting
the formation of (a) Branches and (b) collecting
Depots in the rural districts.

“Branches endeavor by the mutual co-oper¬
ation of all interested in the poultry industry,
in their districts, to improve the class and in¬
crease the number of fowls kept, to secure the
adoption of improved methods of management,
to disseminate among the members such in¬
formation and render such aid as they may
require, and to co-operate with the Technical
Education Committees of the County Councils
in ensuring the success of lectures and classes
in poultry keeping.”

Upwards of thirty branches or collecting de¬
pots have been established. These branches
and collecting depots, “undertake the rapid

17

PROFIT A BLE EGG FARMING.

collecting of eggs, and (in suitable districts) the
fattening of chickens, ducks, etc., finding the
best possible market- for the produce. In the
ease of eggs, these are carefully tested before
they an* sent out, and such as are absolutely
fresh, are stamped with the registered trade
mark of the society, which is a guarantee to re¬
tailer and consumer of their quality. On each
egg sold are marks denoting the depot, the pro¬
ducer, and the date, enabling the society to
guarantee the quality both to retailer and con¬
sumer. Fxeellent contracts have been secured
for eggs supplied through the depots of the
National 1 ’oultrv ( frganiznt ion Societ y. Since t he
opening of collect ion depots at several centers,
tluv eggs collected and forwarded have proved
most satisfactory, and the demand for these
stamped eggs is increasing more rapidly than
present supplies. Profits made at any depot
are divided among the members in accordance
with the amount of eggs and poultry supplied
by them.”

Such manifest improvements in methods,
and so simple withal, are certain to recommend
themselves to our intelligent American farmers,
and the step of establishing regular egg-collect¬
ing routes is one certain to be taken. Since a
radical improvement in market conditions would
follow the establishment of such collecting
routes, it will work the double advantage of put¬
ting the product upon the market in better con¬
dition. and likewise increase the farmer’s re¬
turns for his product.

An excellent authority informs us that at cer¬
tain seasons of the year from one-half to three-
fourths of the eggs sent to market by the farmers
of Kansas are absolutely bad ; what a tremendous
waste! The remedy for this state of affairs is
simply regular and systematic collecting of the
eggs and shipping to market, aided by a rigid
breaking up of broody hens and excluding them
from the pens of layers; where a broody hen is
allowed to remain on the nest day after day, and
other hens lay in the same nest it iseasv to under¬
stand that the eggs thus incubated for two or
three days become “struck,” and are thereafter
useless for human food. Another stop in the
right direction would be the killing off of all use¬
less (and worse than useless!) surplus male's. If
no male birds were allowed upon the farms ex¬
cepting the one needed for breeding, and he
rigidly confined to the breeding pen with the
females selected for breeding, there would be no
“germ of life” in the eggs laid by the other fe¬

males, and no danger of their eggs becoming
“struck” by the* germ’s starting to develop. We
firmly believe that this evil is much more far-
reaching than is above indicated. It is known
that the germ of life in an egg will begin to de¬
velop in a steady temperature of 80 to 90 de¬
gree's, and such a temperature is frequently en¬
countered by eggs brought to the country stores
to 1 >(' traded (and quite likely held a week or
two before being sent forward to market), and
also by eggs shipped to market in common (non¬
refrigerator) freight cars; and if such a load of
eggs was side tracked for a day or two in mid¬
summer, the hot sun blazing upon it all day
would heat it sufficiently to start every fertile
egg on the way to hatching.

In “Incubation and its Natural Laws,” Mr.
Cyphers says: — “During the descent of the egg
along the oviduct of the fowl, where it is ex¬
posed to a temperature of 110 degrees or more,
the blastoderm undergoes important changes.
When the egg is laid and becomes cold, the
changes all but entirely cease, and the blasto¬
derm remains inactive; under the influence of
the higher temperature of natural or artificial
incubation, the vital activities of the germ are
brought back into play, and the arrested changes
go on again. In warm weather changes of the
same kind as those caused by actual incubation
may take place, to a certain extent, in the
interval between laying and incubation.” There
is the idea clearly stated, and the obvious pre¬
vention of the commencing of life-development
in the eggs is the prevention of the germ of life
getting into the egg; the remedy is simple, kill
off the worthless (and more than worthless!)
male birds, and allow none on the farms except¬
ing those needed for breeding.

The consuming public is coming to appreciate
the fact that unfertilized eggs are better and
keep better, and are paying a premium of two
or three (and even five) cents a dozen for such
eggs; when the farmers themselves come to
understand that their hens will lay more eggs
when not afflicted with the attentions of a male
bird, there will be decidedly fewer of these per¬
nicious creatures left to tease and annoy them.

Further improvement will most certainly be
made along the line of the development of the
egg-producing instincts of the fowls, and what
an immense improvement can be . made here!
What a gain it would be if all the fowls of the
United States could be brought up to even the
modest eight and a half dozen eggs each, of the

18

NATURAL HABITS OF THE HEN.

fowls of the State of Maine! The average pro¬
duct of the hens of the whole United States was
(by the figures of the last census), 5.5 dozen eggs
each, the total egg product being 1.293,819,186
dozens; bringing the average product up to the
8.5 dozens of the hens of Maine would add 700,-
794, 255 dozens to that total, and add $77,437,-
765 to the income from eggs alone. How can
such an improvement be brought about? By
first, converting the farmers to keeping pure
bred stock, and, second, by breeding only from
known great layers. By intelligently following
this simple method the Maine Experiment
Station has developed the laying qualities of its
stock to a production of as high as 251 eggs in a
year from one bird, and all the breeding stock
in their yards are hens that have laid 180
eggs each in a year, pullets, whose mothers
have laid over 200 eggs in a year, and
pullets sired by cockerels, whose mothers and
grandmothers laid over 200 eggs each in a year.

The time is not far distant when large egg-
farms will be established, upon a commercial
basis, devoted to the production of unfertilized
eggs, (or “virgin eggs”), for supplying special
private trade in the great cities. On such farms
every bird consigned to the breeding pens will
be a known great layer, and of proved great¬
laying ancestry, along lines similar to those laid
down in that report of the Maine Experiment
Station. What a power for increasing the egg-
producing habit there is in such an ancestry!

“All the breeding stock are hens that have laid
180 eggs each a year, pullets whose mothers have
laid over 200 eggs each in one year; and pullets
sired by cockerels whose mothers and grand¬
mothers laid over 200 eggs each in one year.”
Certainly the accumulated momentum of such
egg-producing ancestry would be of tremendous
value as compared with the hap-hazard methods
of breeding, as conducted in the past. When
we have developed generation after generation
of great layers, and have the egg-proclucing
habit fixed by breeding from birds whose fathers,
grandfathers and great grandfathers, whose
mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers
were all of great laying stock, we shall have
taken a most substantial step toward more profit¬
able poultry. The better-shaped market bird,
the chicken with longer, deeper and fuller breast,
will be developed likewise, and a uniting of the
two strains in one is probable, with very great
advantage to the pockets of the poultry groAver
and the market poultry dealer.

This. then. isAA'hat AA'e belie\Te will be the de-
A’elopment of the future; a decidedly greater
egg-product, a much better quality of eggs reach¬
ing the tables of consumers in known good con¬
dition. a better quality of dressed poultry reach¬
ing the markets in prime condition, and an in¬
creasing appreciation of eggs and poultry as
articles of food. The great consuming public
will do its part if Ave will but do ours, and a
mighty uplifting of this great industry will result.

Colony Houses for the Growing Pullets, Fairview Farm.

19

Chapter II.

THOROUGHBRED, OR BRED TO A PURPOSE. THE LEADING PRACTICAL BREEDS.

What is a thoroughbred? Webster’s
International Dictionary gives this
definition: “Bred from the best
blood through a long line; pure
blooded,” and the Century Dictionary gives the
definition: “Of pure or unmixed blood, stock
or race; bred from a sire and dam of the purest
or best blood.” A well-known judge and author¬
ity on breeding thoroughbred fowls states that
they are thoroughbreds which have been bred
to type a sufficient length of time, so that a
majority of the progeny is true to type; or, in
other words, when mated they reproduce their
kind.

In the introduction to Darwin’s “Animals
and Plants Under Domestication,” we find:

“Although man does not cause variability,
and cannot even prevent it, he can select, pre¬
serve and accumulate the variations given to him
by the hand of nature almost in any way which
he chooses; and thus he can certainly produce
a great result. Selection may be followed either
methodically and intentionally, or unconsciously
and unintentionally. Man may select and pre¬
serve each successive variation, with the distinct
intention of improving and altering a breed, in
accordance with a preconceived idea; and by
thus adding up variations, often so slight as to
be imperceptible by an uneducated eye, he has
affected wonderful changes and improvements.
It can, also, be clearly shown that man, without
any intention or thought of improving the breed,
by preserving in each successive generation the
individuals which he prizes most, and by de-
: stroying the worthless individuals, slowly, though
surely, induces great changes. As the will of
man comes into play, we can understand how
it is that domesticated breeds show adaptation
to his wants and pleasures. We can further un¬
derstand how it is that domestic races of animals
and cultivated races of plants often exhibit an
abnormal character, as compared with natural
species; for they have been modified not for
their own benefit, but for that of man.” How

rich in suggestion is that sentence, — “By preserv¬
ing in each successive generation the individuals
which he prizes most, a breeder slowly but surely
effects great changes.” Preserving those in¬
dividuals which we prize most is one form of
“selection,” even if wholly unconscious selection.

From the article “Breeding,” in the Encyclo¬
pedia Britannica, we quote: — “Since a breed is.
a domestic variety, it implies the existence of a
group of individuals marked off from their con¬
geners by the possession of certain characters
which are transmitted to their offspring. It is
this transmission of peculiarities which is the
essential characteristic of a breed; for any col¬
lection of domesticated organisms could be
divided into groups of individuals, distinguished
by certain points, but such groups would not
necessarily form breeds. It is evident, then,
that the law of heredity which asserts that ‘like
begets like’ must hold good, or the existence of
breeds will be an impossibility.” * * * *

“Whatever views we may entertain, respecting
the origin of our domestic animals and plants,
there can be no doubt as to the matter of fact
that breeders have always proceeded on one
principle, — select the best individuals in each gen¬
eration and pair them.”

Speaking upon this point, Wright’s “New
Book of Poultry” says: — “Every desired quality
which has become characteristic of a race or
strain of animals, is the result of repeated and
continuous selection year after year of breed¬
ing stock which possesses that particular quality
in more or less perfection. This is equally true,
whether we consider some purely ‘fancy’ point,
such as the pencilling of a Hamburgh pullet, or
some useful quality such as the laying of over
160 eggs in a year; or the profuse milk yield of
a highly bred Jersey cow.”

From this it is perfectly evident that birds
which have been persistently bred for egg or
meat production, may as rightly be called “thor¬
oughbred,” (if they have been bred to the type
a sufficient length of time to have acquired the

20

THOROUGHBRED , OR BRED TO A PURPOSE.

power of transmitting those characteristics to
their offspring), as though they have been bred
solely for the points which win ribbons in the
show room. “It is the transmission of pecul¬
iarities which is the essential characteristic of a
breed,” and the peculiarities transmitted may
just as well be the great laying or great meat
producing qualities. The essential point is that
we “select” the birds possessing the desired
characteristics, and then we accomplish our pur¬
pose of developing and perfecting the power of
transmission of those peculiar characteristics.

To make the best success in his individual
work the poultryman must study the situation,
learn the requirements of his especial field or
market, and choose a breed or variety which will
best meet those requirements. He should con¬
sider whether he is to build up an egg-farm pure
and simple, or combine eggs and meat or eggs and
fruit production, and choose accordingly; after
he has made his choice he can, by “selecting”
the individuals best adapted to his purpose,
greatly improve and develop the preferred char¬
acteristics. The gratifying success in develop¬
ing the egg-producing faculties of the stock at
the Maine Experiment Station, is rich with
promise, and indicates what may be done by
continued work in that field, and work being
done at the Ontario Agricultural College Ex¬
perimental Station, in the direction of develop¬
ing an improved market poultry type of bird, is
equally promising in that field; certain it is that
persistent effort in these two fields will be rich¬
ly rewarded.

This is an age of specialists, and the man suc¬
ceeds best who chooses some one line of work
and devotes all the energy with which he is en¬
dowed to the development of that chosen line.
If egg-production is his specialty he should
choose a variety known to be prolific layers; if
market poultry is his specialty he will need to
choose a variety best adapted to the special line
of trade he caters to, and if he desires to combine
both egg and meat production, he can choose a
variety combining both the two qualities to a
very considerable degree. After he has chosen
he can better his profits by selecting the best
birds and breeding from them, as the Maine Ex¬
periment Station people are doing in breeding
from “hens that have laid 180 eggs each in a
year, pullets whose mothers have laid over 200
eggs in one year, and whose fathers mothers
laid over 200 eggs in a year; and pullets sired
by cockerels whose mothers and grand¬

mothers laid over 200 eggs each in a year” — or
in following the similar line of work with the
best type of market poultry bird, generation after
generation, as is being done at the Ontario Ex¬
periment Station. Persistent work along these
lines, carefully and intelligently followed for
generations, will intensify and develop the pe¬
culiar characteristics selected, and increase the
profits from the practical poultryman’s work.

A point in this connection that is worth noting
is that there is a rapidly growing demand for
breeding stock and eggs of birds of known ex¬
cellence in practical quality, and at prices which
compare favorably with the prices paid for stock
bred solely for show-points ; there is good proof
of this in the willingness of buyers to pay two and
three dollars per sitting for eggs from known
great layers. We recently received a letter from
a breeder who advertises stock and eggs for sale,
asking where a good male bird of assured great
laying ancestry could be bought, and stating that
he would gladly pay thirty dollars for such a bird.
When we recall that great prices are paid for
heifers from great milk-producing dams and
bulls of great milk-producing ancestry, we can
well believe that there will soon come a time
when cockerels and pullets of great laying an¬
cestry will be as eagerly sought for, and will fetch
as good prices as do the winners of the blue rib¬
bons at our poultry shows.

[ The Leading Practical Varieties.

No one variety of fowl is perfect; while all
varieties have practical qualities of more or less
merit, some have more than others, and the
wise choice is to select the one that possesses
most advantages, coupled with fewest disad¬
vantages. We say “select the one” advisedly,
because the commonest mistake made by the
beginner in poultry work is to take up two or
three (or half a dozen) varieties, with the mis¬
taken idea that he will learn by experience which
one is the best for him and then keep only that
one. The ordinary life of a man is none too long
a time in which to fully master and develop to
its best all that there is in one variety of fowls,
and the man who takes up several has not time
to carefully study their various good points ; he
gets at best but a superficial knowledge of them,
and will find himself at the end of a few years, in
the unfortunate position of the man who is “A
Jack of all trades but master of none!” Besides
all of that ground has been gone over again and
again, the qualities of all varieties have been fully

21

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

tested and discussed publicly for years, hence
all that is necessary is to intelligently survey
the field, decide what special merits one wants
in a variety, and concentrate all one’s energies
and ability upon the further development of
those merits; he will then find that one life¬
time is all too short for him to accomplish his
fullest ambition.

We give in this and the following pages, illus¬
trations and brief descriptions of the most pop¬
ular egg-farm breeds, and the best combined egg
and meat producers, the exigencies of space
limiting our selection to those that the ex¬
perience of practical poultrymen approves as
the best. We will consider the White Leghorns
and Black Minorcas as the great egg producers,

Single Comb White Leghorns.

and the Barred, White and Buff Plymouth Rocks
White and Buff Wyandottes, and Rhode Island
Reds as the best combined eggs and meat
varieties; with a brief mention of Orpingtons
and Light Brahmas.

Single Comb White Leghorns, the Most Popular
Egg-Farm Breed.

The White Leghorn is the popular egg-farm
breed, especially on the large and highly suc¬
cessful egg-farms of New York State and New
Jersey. They are prolific layers of good-sized,
white eggs, non-sitters, mature early, and are
especially hardy. They are of an active, ner¬
vous temperament and naturally great foragers,
but do well in semi-confinement, excepting that

it is somewhat difficult to confine them in yards;
some Leghorn breeders find it necessary to
cover over the tops of the yards with old fish¬
netting, to keep the male birds where they be¬
long.

When bred with a special view to good size
they are fair meat producers and in some parts
of the country, particularly in Southern New
Jersey, they are extensively bred for the produc¬
tion of squab-broilers^ broilers and small soft-
roasters. As, however, the cockerels begin to
grow “hard” very early, they must be fatted and
marketed by the time they dress five to six
pounds to the pair, and we need to keep in mind
that while they can be thus made into profitable
market poultry, they are first and always an
egg-breed, and their market
poultry value is of minor
consideration.

The White Leghorns are
particularly attractive fowls,
their clear white p 1 u m age,
bright red combs and wattles,
white earlobes, clear eyes,
smooth, yellow legs, long, full
tails, sprightly, active man¬
ner, and graceful carriage
make them favorites with
lovers of beautiful fowls.

The Leghorns are non-
sitters, hence do not trouble
or annoy their owners by
frequently becoming broody.
This is of very great advantage
to the egg-farmer, whose
object is to produce guaran¬
teed fresh eggs, as there is
no danger that a broody
hen will snuggle down upon the eggs and
start development of the germ of life before
the eggs are collected. The greatest ad¬
vantage, however, is that egg-production is not
interrupted by attacks of broodiness, and the
Leghorn hen attends strictly to business with¬
out the owner having to be continually fussing
with broody hens. Although naturally timid
and very active, Leghorns can, with good care and
judgment, be easily managed, and there is no
need of their becoming “wild” birds.

The egg-farmer keeping Leghorns, finds
incubators and brooders a necessity for hatching
and raising the stock, and this has a good effect
on the disposition of the birds, for their natur¬
ally timid, nervous temperament is softened and

22

THOROUGHBRED, OR BRED TO A PURPOSE.

Poultry

Journai

C»v'U«HT£j

Black Miuorcas.

subdued by the familiarity
w i t h the caretaker w h i c h
comes of the artificial raising.

The various families of Leg¬
horns are the common fowls of
Italy, and owe the name by
which they are popularly
known in America and Eng-
•land solely to the fact that
they were brought to this
country from the port of
Leghorn, in Italy. They were
bought up in the markets of
that city by the captains of
A merica n ships, homeward
bound, to furnish eggs and an
occasional roast or boiled fowl
for the cabin table on the
voyage; to the simple fact
that some of these common
fowls bought in Leghorn were not used on
the voyage and were sold when the ship reached
New \ ork, they are indebted for their introduc¬
tion into this country and the name given them.
Having won the reputation of being great layers,
it is small wonder that shipmasters were in¬
structed to bring over more “Leghorns” and
direct importations began, but that they were
very much mixed is proved by the fact that the
same matings threw both rose and single-combed
birds, and the fowls were of various colors, —
brown, white, black, buff and cuckoo. To
American breeders belongs the credit of separat¬
ing them into distinct families, and by selection
and careful breeding bringing forth the dis¬
tinct varieties now so well and favorably known.
In the little pamphlet “The Leghorn,” bv F. H.
Ayers, the Brown, (then called “Red”), Leg¬
horns are reported as being wonderful layers, and
Mr. L. K. Felch is quoted as saying of them:
“These fowls as egg-producers were truly mar¬
velous. I have known of a hen. of the original
importation, laying one hundred and fifty-nine
eggs in succession, and have the assertion of a
friend that one laid two hundred and seventy-five
eggs in a year; but the largest number of which
I know personally, and which I deem very ex¬
traordinary, was two hundred and fifty. An
average has been in my experience from one
hundred and seventy-five eggs to two hundred
in a year. With good care two hundred eggs
may not be despaired of.”

With such a reputation as great egg pro¬
ducers, it is not at all strange that the Leghorns

became the approved egg-farm breed, and as the
White Leghorns were the simplest and easiest
to breed, it became the most popular variety.

The Black Minorcas.

STANDARD WEIGHTS.

Cock . 8 lbs. Hen . lbs.

Cockerel . 6^ lbs. Pullet . 5} lbs.

The Black Minorcas are less well-known than
they should be, in fact, as an egg-farm breed
the writer does not recall ever having found
them used on a large scale. This is somewhat
surprising in view of the fact that they are cred¬
ited with being equally prolific layers with the
Leghorns, and that they lay a large white egg;
this would seem to especially qualify them for
use on egg farms which are catering to a partic¬
ularly select family-trade, a trade which is
willing to pay a considerable premium for an
especially nice article.

There is little doubt that the Black Minorca
of today is, practically, the “ Spanish ” * of
forty or fifty years ago, — the time before the
several sub-varieties of Spanish were developed.
In the White-Faced Black Spanish, which re¬
tains the family name, the special development
of the eccentric and abnormally large white face
has practically annihilated the useful qualities
of this famous variety, and it is not impossible
that this fact has in a way been a handicap to
the Black Minorcas. The latter, however,
seem to have preserved the natural practical
qualities of the race and retain the prolific laying
habit, along with the natural strength and vigor,

23

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

active, nervous temperament and good size for
which the family is well-known.

Speaking of their naturally good qualities,
Brown ’s “ Pleasureable Poultry Keeping ” says :
“The Minorca has, during the past fifteen
years, won a very prominent position, and tak¬
ing the number and weight of eggs, it is
probably the most prolific fowl we have. It
lays large, white-shelled eggs, and hens of this
variety in their first year often average 170
and 180 eggs.”

In addition to the number and size of Black
Minorca eggs they are to be credited with
beginning to lay at a very early age, and
continue to be profitable layers for a longer
period of time than almost any other bird of which
we have knowledge. They are excellent forag¬
ers, strong and active, always on the alert for
any natural advantages that come within their
reach, and having little tendency to lay on
fat, the food they consume gives profitable
returns in the form of eggs.

The white skin, somewhat marred by the
black pin feathers and black legs, is a handicap
from the market poultry standpoint, but the
flesh is of an excellent flavor, deliciously tender
in the younger birds, and with such a consider¬
ably larger amount of flesh than is found in the
Leghorn it is, as we stated, a matter of a surprise
that the Black Minorca is not more generally
utilized as an egg-farm breed.

The Plymouth Rocks.

(Barred, White and Buff.)

STANDARD WEIGHTS:

Cock . lbs. Hen . 7\ lbs.

Cockerel . 8 lbs. Pullet . 6^ lbs.

The Plymouth Rocks are pre-eminently an all¬
purpose breed. They are not only great layers
of good sized brown eggs, but they take high
rank as meat producers also. For egg-farm pur¬
poses it would be difficult to name a breed com¬
bining great laying ability with meat producing
qualities in so high a degree, and they are a
most satisfying bird in every sense of the
word. The Plymouth Rock is a “ made ” breed,
and originated in a cross of an American Domi¬
nique cock on black Java hens. The “ Cuckoo ”
marking of the original Plymouth Rock was
received from the Dominique male, and the
size, station, single comb, etc., from the dam.
It is practically certain that the blood of other
breeds has now and then been introduced into

the Plymouth Rocks, which has given them
size, type, greater uniformity of plumage and
the desirable yellow beak and legs. Their re¬
markable hardiness is one of their strongest
claims to popular favor; being an American
breed, accustomed for many generations to
the extremely changeable and trying New
England climate, and being thoroughly accli¬
mated, they would be placed among the very
first for hardiness and vitality. Writing of
them nearly twenty years ago, the American
Poultry Yard said : “ The perennial popularity
of the Plymouth Rock is something wonder¬
ful to those who do not know its real merits,
but to those Avho do, to those who know that
it is hardy, healthy, vigorous, prolific,
excellent for the table and thoroughly adapted
to the requirements of an American market
and an American climate, there is nothing
wonderful at all.”

The Barred Plymouth Rocks.

The Barred Plymouth Rocks, the original of
the several varieties of Rocks, are the most
popular and most widely bred variety of fowls
in the world today. They enjoy the distinction
of being the first breed of domestic fowls pro¬
duced in America, and their eminently practical
qualities have won for them and their sterling
merits have held a place in the very front rank
of popular favor; they are noted for being bred
by a greater number of persons and in greater
numbers than any other one variety of fowls.

“The Barred Plymouth Rocks commend
themselves to the lovers of useful breeds. Of
all our domestic fowls, this breed stands the
highest for general purposes. They almost vie
with the Asiatics in size, the Leghorns in egg
production, the Dorkings in quality of flesh, and
the Dominiques in hardiness and adaptation to
climatic changes. They combine more useful
qualities than any other breed known to us, and
fill the void between the size and weight of the
Asiatics and the European fowls.”

Mr. E. B. Thompson, of Amenia, N. Y., a well-
known Plymouth Rock expert, writes of the
Barred variety : “The Plymouth Rock is a pro¬
duct of American skill and breeding, and there
is no other variety we can put on the markets
of the world with so much pride, and none other
is received at our shows by foreign fanciers with
so much favor. They have taken their place at
the front without need of booming, and today
stand acknowledged without an equal, as the

24

THOROUGHBRED, OR BRED TO A PURPOSE.

best general-purpose fowl.

They are rapid growers and
make plump, juicy broilers at
from eight to twelve weeks old.

They have no successful rival
among the pure breeds as a
market fowl. They are great
favorites with farmers and
market men, who breed this
variety more extensively than
all other pure breeds combined.

The popularity of the Plymouth
Hock as a fanciers’ fowl has
never been reached by any
other breed. Its popularity is
based on its practical utility
worth, and as a practical-fancy
fowl, the Barred Plymouth
Rock has come to stay. They
are excellent all the year round
layers, and will lay as many
eggs as any breed that incu¬
bates and rears its young.

In some of the smaller breeds
we may get better layers but
less size. The larger breeds
give us no more eggs, if as
many, and are later maturing
and lack the sprightliness
and elasticity of movement
so much admired in the Ply¬
mouth Rock. The Barred Plymouth Rock class
at our American shows is nearly always the
largest, and the birds usually command a higher
price than any other American breed, which
proves their sterling merit.

“New breeds have come and gone, but the
Barred Plymouth Rock with its good qualities
remains invincible. They are practical fowls,
well suited to the wants and conditions of those
who desire eggs, meat and feathers combined in
one breed.”

The general verdict of Plymouth Rock breed¬
ers can be encompassed in the words of a noted
fancier and judge. ‘‘The Plymouth Rock is,
beyond all question, the best general-purpose
fowl of all the breeds before the public. They
have been before the public many years, have
borne the competition of other fowls, have been
subjected to every test that fowls could be sub¬
jected to, and have come out of all these trials still
as much praised and as much liked, both by the
fancier and general public, as when they were
first known. Two things are demanded of the

Barred Plymouth Rocks.

perfect fowl — a large amount of good meat when
on the table, and a large laying capacity. It is
safe to say that no other breed combines these
two qualities as well as the Plymouth Rock.
There may be hens that will lay more eggs,
though we doubt it. Taken weight for weight,
we have never seen the fowl that could equal the
Plymouth Rocks, and certainly no fowl sur¬
passes them for table use. They are a beautiful
breed, combining with their large size, beauty of
carriage to a degree not common with fowls'.
The only fault that can be found with them is
the tendency to breed back to show some of the
characteristics of the breeds from which they
are derived; but those showing only the best
points should be kept for breeding purposes.
For the farm no fowl is equal to the Plymouth
Rock.”

The White Plymouth Rocks.

The White Plymouth Rocks originated as sports
from the Barred. It is no uncommon thing for
parti -colored fowls to throw now and then a

•R!U*6ir

mss

i - •*<

:K,;.

25

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

♦ - ^ - •••• v

White Plymouth Rocks.

white chick, and to Mr. 0. F. Frost, of Maine,
is given the credit of first “mating” a male and
female of these white sports, and by careful se¬
lection of the whitest of their offspring for breed¬
ing the pure white color became fixed and they
now breed true. “Like their excellent progen¬
itors, the White Rocks are plump, compact, full
breasted and bodied fowls, hardy and vigorous,
great layers and excellent flesh formers, hand¬
some in looks and carriage, showing well on the
lawn or in the exhibition coop. The name itself
will be a passport to popular favor, for whoever
has heard of the noted Barred Plymouth Rocks
will take it for granted that their offspring must
be a ‘chip of the old block,’ and they will be
found worthy of a place in the front ranks, where
beauty and utility go hand in hand.”

It is the combining of beauty and utility that
most strongly recommends a breed or variety to
popular favor, and in the White Rocks the two
qualities are combined to a remarkable
degree. On the beauty side their fine, stately
carriage, clear white color, bright red combs and

wattles, with rich yellow beak
and legs, make them of most
attractive appearance; while on
the utility side their great lay¬
ing ability combined with good
size of body and fine quality of
flesh, make them equal to the
best. In view of this strong com¬
bination of undoubted merits, it
is not at all strange they are a
very popular variety.

The Buff Plymouth Rocks.

The Buff Plymouth Rocks,
like the senior variety, the
Barred, is a made variety, and it
is not improbable that there are
some strains of the variety that
are of entirely different origin
from others. The earlier strains
of Buff Rocks were undoubtedly
made by mating Single Comb
Rhode Island Reds with White
Rocks, and breeding back and
forth within those matings until
the desired size, color and shape
beca m e (comparatively) fixed.
In spite of the fact that the
origin of Buff Rocks is so well
known we have recently seen it
stated that there was no Rhode
Island Red blood in them, that they origi¬
nated in a cross of Buff Leghorn male on
Buff Cochin females, and the tendency to feath¬
ered legs bred out of them; it is probable that
some strains of Buff Rocks were thus originated,
but the Rhode Island Red paternity is well
known, and the great laying ability combined
with vigor inherited from the Reds, has made a
variety that makes a strong claim to popular
favor, based upon both the utility and beauty
qualities. Dr. 0. P. Bennett, in the Reliable
Poultry Journal, says: “As egg producers I
found them superior to the larger breeds, and
with proper care they will equal the smaller and
non-sitting breeds — they lay their eggs in the
winter when eggs are most valuable, and they
keep at it, too. Buff Plymouth Rocks are ex¬
tremely hardy, are good foragers, and in size
many of them equal Asiatics. They grow rapidly,
mature early and are ready for market at any
time, retaining their plumpness during their
growth. When dressed they present a very neat
appearance, having a nice yellow skin, legs and

26

THOROUGHBRED , OR BRED TO .4 PURPOSE.

Buff Plymouth Rocks.

meat, and there are no un¬
sightly dark pinfeathers to
mar the carcasss ; their meat is
rich, tender and toothsome.’'

The White and Buff
Wyandottes.

Standard Weights.

Cock, . lbs.

Cockerel, . 74 lbs.

Hen, . .

Pullet,

The Wyandottes are like
Plymouth Rocks in that they
are a made breed and are
American made, and they
compete with Plymouth Rocks
for first place in popularity,
as an all-purpose fowl. As
egg producers they are quite
the ecpial of the Plymouth
Rocks, and lay the brown egg much de¬
sired in most of the great markets. They
are a pound lighter in weights, which is a
handicap when size only is considered; but
when we remember that the difference in size is
largely in frame (which is waste), and that the
particularly plump, full-breasted carcass of
the Wyandotte is heavy in the quality of meat
most desired, it will be seen that the advantage
is with the Wyandottes. The fact, too, that
the plumpness of body is attained very early in
life is decidedly in their favor, particularly as a
broiler chick and soft roaster, since they avoid
the undesirable length of leg and thinness of flesh
which makes some of the larger varieties so un¬
desirable during chicken size.

The Silver Laced Wyandottes were the orig¬
inals of the several families of the. name, and the
Silver Wyandottes were the result of several
crosses; which accounts for the unusual excel¬
lences of the breed, since they combine the good
qualities of several different varieties. The
original stock was derived from a cross of Silver
Spangled Hamburg and Buff Cochin, and they
were at first called “Sebright Cochins. ’ ’ As
would naturally be expected, both single and
rose combs, and likewise feathered and clean
legged birds were the result of early matings.
Later, a cross of Silver Spangled Hamburg and
Brahma appeared, and a uniting of the two dif¬
ferent strains produced a superior type of fowl,

which was admitted to the Standard under the
name of Wyandotte in 1883.

The making of a Buff-Laced variety of Wyan¬
dotte, which was given the name of Golden Wy¬
andotte to distinguish it from the first variety,
which was called Silver Laced, was followed by
the breeding of white sports which appeared
from the Silvers; these produced the variety
called White Wyandottes. The difficulty of
breeding a laced feather, with a black edge and
clear white or clear buff center, was a handicap
to the Silver and Golden varieties, and as the
White variety possessed all the economic merits
of their predecessors, and added to their remark¬
able attractiveness the quality of breeding true
to type, they soon distanced their older sisters
in popular favor, and have become close rivals of
the Barred Rocks for first place in popularity
as an all-purpose breed.

Writing about them in his book on the Wyan¬
dottes, published in 1891, Mr. Joseph Wallace
says :

“As egg producers and table fowl, the Whites
are equal to the Laced. They have the same
plump bodies, constitutional vigor, physical
beauty, commanding carriage, standard points,
and the only difference is the color. They can
be used at an early age for broilers and roasters.
The adult males will weigh from seven to eight
pounds, and the females from six to seven
pounds. These weights, in a comparatively

27

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

White Wyandottes.

short and clean-limbed fowl, indicate a solid,
compact flesh-former, with little offal.

“Although utility is the leading merit and
strongest recommendation to all interested in
poultry keeping, the Whites are also a clean cut
and comely variety. This is associated with
their usefulness; and no breeder speaks of one
without coupling it with the other, as by com¬
mon consent they are pronounced a handsome
variety of fowl. In the showroom or on the
green lawn they are pretty and attractive.
White breeds having been comparatively rare
until the past decade, the color is always pleas¬
ing to the beholder, whether he breeds fowls or
not; and the only reason that can be given
now for the sudden change of mind in breeding
and booming the white varieties is that they
have become popular among the people by rea¬
son of fanciers’ catering to the tastes of the
masses. The rich, red comb, like a full blown rose
growing on the head, red face, ear-lobes and
pendant wattles, contrasting with a white
plumage and yellow legs, is both pleasing and
attractive.”

From Bulletin No. 31 of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture, written by T. F. McGrew, we
quote the following paragraph on their utility
qualities :

“The White Wyandotte is without question
the model for market poultry. The compact
form and full, plump breast give the desired
broiler as well as the most perfect roaster. The

color of the meat and skin is
of that attractive yellow so
much in demand in our mark¬
ets. It has the combination
of attractive shape and color,
and the white plumage re¬
moves all chance of prejudice
so often advanced against dark
pin feathers, thus giving it
three very important advan¬
tages for sale as market
poultry. ’ ’

Mr. Arthur G. Duston of
Marlboro, Mass., a man of
extensive personal experience
in the production of broilers,
says : “ The White Wyandottes
stand heavy feed and forcing
better than any other variety;
will produce a two-pound
broiler in eight weeks, and
they will stand on their
legs where Plymouth Rocks would be roll¬
ing on their sides with the same food. By
continuing the regular food we have made five
and five-eighths pound roasters at fifteen weeks.”
There could hardly be a stronger argument in
favor of the White Wyandottes for broilers and
roasters than this. Such results can only be
produced by knowing how, and by a common
sense application of the knowledge; but what
one man has done another may do.

We again quote Mr. Duston: “Their good
qualities are many. Deep, short bodies, stout
legs, a close comb that withstands the extreme
cold weather better than a single comb will; a
hardy bird that matures in five and six months;
yellow legs and skin; lavs a brown egg; a
splendid family fowl. On the lawn their white
plumage and red combs make a picture with
the green grass for a background, and a fancier
will find in them full use for all the experience
he possesses to breed them to standard require¬
ments. I have sold hundreds to dress eight
ounces and they were as ‘ round as a butter ball, ’
this being one of their most important merits,
that when properly fed they are always ready for
market. As pullets the White Wyandottes
mature a full month earlier than the Plymouth
Rocks, thus giving-eggs for early hatching. ”
The Wyandottes are easily confined by a four-
foot wire fence and do well in confinement. On
range they are particularly good foragers, and
on the farm if given their freedom will pick up

28

THOROUGHBRED, OR BRED TO A PURPOSE.

a large part of their living.

They make excellent sitters
and mothers. Being very
hardy and exceptional layers
of strongly fertilized eggs they
are readily adaptable to hatch¬
ing and raising by artificial
means. There is nothing
prettier or that will appeal
more promptly to the heart
of a poultry man than an in¬
cubator full of sturdy, downy
white chicks.

Mrs. J. 1). Barnes of Wen-
ham, Mass., says: “There is
no breed like the White Wyan¬
dotte for eggs, for broilers and
roasters, and for exhibition.

We raise nearly all of ours in
brooders, as they grow faster,
do better and look better
than when we use hens.”

The Buff Wyandotte.

Coming into the field at a later day, but pos¬
sessing remarkable elements of popularity, the
Buff Wyandottes are pushing to the front as an
all-purpose variety; they are proving them¬
selves great layers, are plump, full-breasted
broilers and soft roasters; they are equal to the
best, and their attractive golden-buff plumage,
with bright yellow skin and legs, marks them
as destined to reach the first rank in popular
favor.

The Buff Wyandottes, like their Silver an¬
cestors, had two or three different origins, and
it is certain that Rhode Island Red blood was
used in the making of them, just as in making
the Buff Plymouth Rocks. In the U. S. Bulle¬
tin on the Wyandottes, Mr. McGrew speaks of
the Buffs as being formed from a Wyandotte-
Buff Cochin cross, others being from a Rhode
Island Red- Wyandotte cross and others from
still different crosses, and says:

“The Buff Wyandotte is nearer related to
the Asiatic family than any of the older Wyan¬
dotte varieties, as the latter were crossed again
upon the Cochin to gain the desired color. The
original Fall River strain (so-called) came as
the result of an unguided cross of Silver-Laced
Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds. The
Rhode Island Red, a cross-bred farm fowl, in
union with the Wyandottes, which were placed
among the Reds to advance their value as market

Buff Wyandottes.

poultry, gave a product that was molded into
the proper form and color for the Buff Wyan¬
dottes. The Rhode Island Red was largely
descended from the early Asiatics, and thus
gave renewed strength to these later blood lines,
and adding to, rather than detracting from, the
tendency toward Asiatic form. This strain was
badly handicapped with black in tail and wings,
an inheritance from both ancestors. The
union of these two strains gave strength and
character and better color.

“As an all-purpose fowl, or the combination
egg and dressed-poultry producer, the White
and Buff Wyandottes would be very hard to
outclass.”

The Rhode Island Reds.

The Rhode Island Red, as its name indicates,
originated in Rhode Island and is red in color.
Unlike some of the other breeds we have been
considering, it was not so much “ made ” as the
result of rather promiscuous crossing, and it is
of decidedly mixed ancestry. The story is
interesting. Mr. Wm. Tripp of Little Compton,
R. I., and Mr. John Macomber of the adjoining
town of Westport, Mass., both drove teams to
New Bedford as marketmen, selling dressed
poultry and eggs. Desiring something better
than the common fowls of that region, they
began crossing different strains to get better
layers and also better looking poultry for the
market. Mr. Tripp is said to have bred his

29

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Rhode Island Red Cock,

Bred By P. R. Park, Reading, Mass.

birds from a Malar-Brahma cross, while Mr.
Macomber got his from putting a Chittagong
cock with pullets he had raised from what was
called the Cochin-China. The result of a uniting
of these two varieties proved so satisfactory
that they kept on improving them by selecting
the best laying pullets and cockerels, and in that
way improved their laying qualities and got
birds that would dress off with the best appear¬
ance for market fowls. As would naturally be
expected with so much Asiatic blood in them
most of the birds had feathered legs and feet,
but by continuous picking out both pullets and
cockerels that were clean legged, and also those
that had the brightest yellow legs, the objection¬
able characteristics were gradually eliminated.
A visit to the Tiverton, Little Compton and
Westport farms on which the Reds are so ex¬
tensively raised, shows them as breeding all
sorts and conditions of legs and combs, and Mr.
Isaac Wilbur of Little Compton, who usually
wintered four thousand of them, once told us
that he commonly got clean legged and feathered
legged, also single-comb and pea-comb birds,
from every hatch.

A Dr. Aldrich of Fall River became interested
in this popular farm-fowl, bought a few pullets
and cockerels and exhibited them at New York
in 1892, and won prizes on them there in the
miscellaneous class as “ Rhode Island Reds.”

With the reputation of being most prolific
layers of good brown eggs and of being plump
bodied and fine meated it is not strange that they
have proven very popular as all-purpose fowls.
Writing of them in the Reliable Poultry Journal
of November, 1901, Mr. Theo. Hewes says:

“ In our candid opinion there is a great future
for the Rhode Island Reds. The fowl itself is
attractive. It has a deep keel-bone, plenty
of meat in front, good hams and stands well up
on its legs. The females are remarkably good
layers and keep at it almost constantly both
winter and summer. They make good mothers
and. owing to the amount of crossing that has
been done to bring them as near perfection as
they are, they have all the vigor of several breeds
in one. in fact it is so great that a large per cent,
of the eggs hatch and ninety per cent, of the
chicks hatched should live. This is not exag¬
gerated in the least, especially when proper care
is given in the management after the chicks are
hatched. The vigor of the young chicks is
something remarkable and their growth to
maturity is rapid and they are laying eggs before
other breeds begin to think about it. Still,
they are heavy enough for table fowls and in
some cases are heavier even than the Wyan-
dottes or Plymouth Rocks.”

The Orpingtons, Black and Buff.

An English variety named Orpingtons, because
originated at Orpington House-Farm, is giving
evidence of great practical qualities and has de¬
cided merit as a combination eggs and meat
breed. There are several varieties of Orping¬
tons, the Blacks and Buffs being most popu¬
lar; and of the Blacks and Buffs there are both
rose and single-combed varieties.

The Black Orpingtons were the first origi¬
nated, and were made with the intention of
creating an all-purpose fowl, — that is, a fowl
that would combine the qualities of great laying
ability with superior meat production. In
making the Black Orpingtons, Black Minorca
cocks that had red ear-lobes were mated with
some black Plymouth Rock pullets, which were
sports from American Barred Rocks, and with
the choicest pullets of that cross was mated a
good Langshan male of the old, short-leggecl
type, — the tendency to feathered shanks coming
in with the Langshans was bred out by selection
and careful breeding. The result was birds that
were unusual late-autumn and winter layers

30

THOROUGHBRED , OR BRED TO A PURPOSE.

Buff Orpingtons.

qualities they are excellent layers, and as they
produce very large sized eggs, of superior dark
brown color, which command a substantial
premium where fancy eggs are appreciated, it
is obvious that they deserve attention simply
as egg producers. In some sections, notably
in southeastern Massachusetts there are con¬
siderable poultry farms stocked wholly with
Light Brahmas; probably not such Light
Brahmas as the enthusiastic show-point breed¬
ers would admire, but possessing practical
qualities of very great merit. We once had a
stock of “early laying ” Light Brahmas, some¬
what below the standard weights in size, rather
finer boned and chunkier bodied but pretty
good Light Brahmas for all that, that could be
grown to laying maturity before they were six
months old, and were most prolific layers of
eggs of the highest quality in size and color.
Mr. Silberstein, a well-known breeder of Light
Brahmas three or four years ago and the inven¬
tor of the Eureka Trap Nest, had great laying
Light Brahmas, individual pullets of which
made records of 191, 197, 210, and 233 eggs
each, within a year of laying maturity, and with
such great laying stock to breed from undoubt¬
edly those records could be improved upon, and
the prolific laying habit so fixed that 200 eggs
each within a year would not be difficult to
attain.

Considering, then, the very high quality eggs
of Light Brahmas and their superior merit as

of brown-shelled eggs, and
also fine bodied, long-deep
breasted, white-skinned birds.

The Buff Orpingtons were
similarly made by crossing
Golden Spangled H a m b u r g
cocks on Dorking hens, and
mating a Buff Cochin cock
with the pullets of the first
cross.

The Orpingtons have all the
strength and vigor of cross¬
breds, and as egg producers,
especially in autumn and
winter, when eggs bring the
highest prices, they are re¬
markable; they lay also the
brown, or brown-tinted eyes
which are much preferred and
command a premium in the
market. In size they rank
about with the Plymouth
Rocks,' but are naturally somewhat shorter-
legged, and of a more chunky-bodied build,
with the round, full breast which indicates
strength and vigor and gives an abundance of
breast meat. One disadvantage which they
have for Americans is the white skin and legs,
and so long as the consumers prefer yellow
skinned and yellow meated fowls, it is the part of
wisdom of the producers to cater to that pref¬
erence. There would be little difficulty in
overcoming this handicap with the Buff Orping¬
tons, since a pure buff variety naturally favors
the yellow skin, hence breeding and feeding for
yellow skin would soon give them that desired
quality. It might be objected that when the
breeder had accomplished this purpose his birds
would no longer be Orpingtons, since it is im¬
perative that they have white flesh and legs.

Light Brahmas.

STANDARD WEIGHTS.

Coc-k . 12 lbs. Hen . 9^ lbs.

Cockerel . 10 “ Pullet . 8 “

At first thought it seems strange to list the
Light Brahmas among the leading practical
breeds, since they are the largest fowls in the
world and usually classed first on the list
of market-poultry breeds. Notwithstanding
which fact there is good reason for considering
them among profitable egg and market poultry
producers combined. Bred for practical

31

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Light Brahmas.

meat producers, it will be conceded that they
have excellent qualities ' which fairly entitle
them to be considered as profitable all-purpose
fowls. A well-known poultry editor writing
of this breed, says :

“ The Light Brahma is one of the oldest and
best known breeds. They are the largest varie¬
ty of fowl, a very hardy meat producing breed,
and good layers, of large brown eggs. Their
beautiful plumage, a happy combination of
black and white, small pea combs, red faces and
earlobes, and heavily booted, yellow legs, to¬
gether with their proud, stately carriage make
them a very attractive fowl. Although con¬
sidered chiefly a meat breed they are, when
properly handled, excellent layers, and being
fine winter layers they produce the most of their
eggs in the season when eggs command the
highest prices.

“The Brahmas make good sitters and mothers
but are somewhat more clumsy then the lighter
wreight sitters. Their extreme hardiness makes
them particularly easy to raise by artificial
means. They are exceedingly tame and gentle
and are easily confined by a low fence. For a

large breed they mature early,
the pullets being ready to lay
wrhen from seven to nine

months old. This variety is
especially popular with grow¬
ers of winter roasters and is
also widely used for growing
broilers and frying chickens,
both straight bred and used
as the foundation or under¬
cross. As large roasters the
full grown fowls are unsurpass¬
ed by any pure breed. The
growers of winter roasters in
eastern Massachusetts use
Light Brahmas almost ex¬

clusively. Their gentle dis¬
position and the ease with

which they may be confined,
with their ability to do better
in limited quarters than al¬
most any other varietv, make
them especially valuable.

“This breed will prove ex¬
ceedingly valuable for those
whose space is limited and who
desire to try profitable poul¬
try keeping on a city lot or
village acre. As a city breed¬
er once said, ‘The Brahmas are an ideal

fowl where lack of ground-room would
forbid the keeping of other varieties. They
do well, with good care, in a space that

would seem scarcely ‘ turning about room ’
for other fowls, and they will lay quite as
many eggs as the other meat producing varie¬
ties. Then when one wants a fowl or roaster for
the family dinner, it is only necessary to kill
one bird to get eight or ten pounds of dressed
poultry, which is a decided advantage to the
man who keeps a small flock. ’ ”

The Light Brahma is deservedly popular,
the most popular variety of the Asiatic class,
and is a formidable rival of the leading American
general purpose varieties. The following state¬
ment by Mr. I. K. Felch will be endorsed by all
who know and love this grand fowl : “ The
breeder who took the Light Brahmas in his
keeping fifty years ago, acknowledging their
worth then, is today their staunch friend, and
he tells you with the same enthusiasm that they
are the best fowl on earth when they are allowed
to appear in the shape and color that is then*
birthright.”

32

Chapter III.

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. BUILDING UP AND MAINTAINING
AN EGG LAYING STRAIN. PROFITABLE USE OF TRAP NESTS.

TW yt uch attention is being given toimprov-
▼j ing the laying quality of our fowls,

"■M- and as the production of eggs in

, , ^ | liberal quantity, and especially at the
time of highest prices, greatly increases
the profits, it is obvious that the choice of a
suitable breed or variety for the special purpose
is most important; and not only that the right
choice be made, but that the stock be improved
in laying quality by breeding from the most
prolific layers of the chosen variety. A dairy
farmer selects from the most noted dairy breeds
for his herd, and similarly the egg farmer should
select from the best laying varieties of fowls for
his egg producers, — failure to do this handicaps
a man from the start.

There is a great variety of fowls now being
bred, and this variety offers a poultry farmer a
wide field for selection; he should remember,
however, that of these numerous varieties not
all are adapted to his purpose. One breed may
give excellent satisfaction with one poultry
keeper while another may find the same breed
quite unsatisfactory, possibly because he does
not keep them under the conditions which en¬
ables them to thrive best; under such condi¬
tions the very best of egg producers might not
prove to be satisfactory layers.

After he has made his selection the wideawake,
up-to-date poultryman will ever be on the look¬
out to improve his fowls for his purpose. He
should not be content with simply choosing
what he thinks is the best variety; selection of
the best specimens of the variety should be
continued year after year, and the fowls be
continually improved for the special purpose
for which they are kept.

As practiced by most farmers the selecting of
eggs for hatching is decidedly faulty, and often
leads to steady deterioration of the flock.
This is due to the fact that the eggs are selected
instead of the selection being of the fowls that
produce the eggs. If the object of keeping

fowls is egg production the choice should ob¬
viously be made according to the number of
eggs laid, just as the dairyman values his cows
for the number of pounds of butter fat they
produce. It is acknowledged that it is difficult,
and in many cases impossible, to ascertain the
number of eggs laid by individual fowls; and
this difficulty has been the chief cause of so
little attention being paid to selecting the best
layers to breed from. Because of this difficulty
it has been the common practice to select for
hatching the well formed and desirable colored
eggs gathered from the flock from day to day,
and very likely the eggs selected have been laid
by birds which have laid hardly any (and
possibly not at all) through the fall and winter,
in fact the birds which have been the most in¬
dolent layers in the fall and winter are likely
to be the most fruitful layers at hatching time,
hence their eggs are all the more likely to be
the ones selected for setting; consequently eggs
so collected at random are quite likely to con¬
sist largely of those laid by the poorest laying
hens of the flock. It is quite unnecessary to
discuss this subject at length to show that this
kind of selection of eggs for hatching tends
toward deterioration of laying quality, — un¬
doubtedly many persons follow this practice
without fully realizing its evil tendency.

A much better plan would be to select a few
of the best hens, and preferably year-old hens,
and place them in a pen by themselves, so that
their eggs only may be used for hatching. It is
possible for an expert poultryman to estimate
the laying ability of the birds he selects for
breeding by their early feathering and steady
growth as chicks, their early maturity and early
laying as pullets and their activity and evidence
of strength and vigor of constitution; it is well
known that the best layers are strong, active,
vigorous fowls, they are known to have strong
constitutions.

33

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

If breeders are to select for vigor they cannot
do better perhaps than to make the choice
during the pullet period and verify the choice at
the subsequent molting period. Strong, vigor¬
ous fowls pass through the molting period very
much more quickly than do those with weak
constitutions. The robust, vigorous hens that
lay a large number of eggs throughout the year,
will pass through the molting period very
quickly and will hardly stop laying, while those
having weak constitutions will be a long time
in producing the new coat of feathers and will
not lay for many weeks. The experienced
poultryman therefore finds this period in the life
of the fowl a most excellent one in which to
make his selection. The fact that the birds
with strong constitutions are the most profitable
for egg production, suggests the explanation of
why the fowls of poultrynlen who make a
specialty of egg production are of larger aver¬
age size and are more vigorous and active than
the fowls of those who breed chiefly for exhi¬
bition purposes; almost without exception the
average size of fowls of flocks especially noted
for egg laying, is considerably larger than the
average size of fowls of the show-bird stock of
that breed.

A good sized body and a deep, broad breast
are indicative of a strong constitution, hence
they are the requisites of a good laying hen.
If one is compelled to make his selection for egg
production solely from the general conformation
and appearance of the birds he should select
those that have deep-long bodies. Those having
a short underline and that are circular in out¬
line should be discarded. The feeding capacity
of the hen is important, for those that are able
to digest and assimilate large quantities of food
are strong, vigorous, and consequently can
produce eggs in great abundance.

Trap Nest Selection the Best.

The man who would do the very best in select¬
ing his breeding stock should have recourse to
the trap nest device to accurately determine
the number of eggs each individual pullet or
hen produces; then he can select with certainty
and use for breeding only the eggs of birds
known to be great layers. While observation
will aid in selecting the prolific layers, it is not
infallible because not infrequently a most active
and to all appearances an egg-type bird will be
proved to be a poor layer when put to the test
of the trap nest; with the help of this most

valuable device we know positively which birds
are the good layers and which are not, then we
can be certain that we breed from the best
layers. Not only does the trap nest tell us
which birds are the best layers, but it tells us
infallibly which birds lay the largest and best
eggs and which lay the small, inferior and
defective eggs. — There are very, very many
advantages in the trap nest.

An objection that has been made to it is that
it takes time, — and so does everything in the
world that is worth while! Those who recom¬
mend that we select out breeding birds by the
aid of observation of their habits, etc., forget
that observation also requires time; our ex¬
perience is that it takes quite as much extra
time as attending to the trap nests, — and there
is this further disadvantage, it is not accurate.
The trap nest requires decidedly less time than
inexperienced poultrymen think; we have to
go into (or through) the pens four or five times
a day, to do the regular feeding and watering
and collecting of the eggs ; it takes but a minute or
two at time of each visit to liberate any bird
that has laid and wants to get out of the nest,
the egg is marked with her legband number and
put in the collecting box. True, this takes one
or two minutes of time, but experience proves
that it takes no more time than should be given
to observing the birds; one point worth mention¬
ing is that “observation” can be (and prob¬
ably will be) slighted, with the result that we
fail to accomplish the much desired result of
breeding from the known great layers ; with the
trap-nest record of what each hen has accom¬
plished we know with absolute certainty what
we are doing, there is no “ guess work ” about it.

In this chapter we give some testimonials
from users of the trap nests, and have thought
it wise to incorporate an extract from a report
of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment
Station, which contains some criticisms of trap
nests. We should keep in mind, however, that
the Rhode Island Experiment Station people
had twenty different kinds of trap nests, and
they seem to have been rather more interested
in finding the objectionable points of those
different kinds of trap nests than in determining
the general merits of the trap nest idea.

The Maine Agricultural Experiment Station
has done the most satisfactory work with trap
nests, and the results attained prove conclu¬
sively the decided advantages of breeding from

34

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

Colony Houses in the Woods, Lakewood Farm.

known great layers. A recent bulletin of that
station says:—

“In 1898 trap nests were devised and placed
in all of the breeding pens. This was done so
that the producing capacities of hens could be
known, and selections for breeding could be
made upon merit alone.

“It is known that the laws of inheritance and
transmission are as true with birds as with
cattle, sheep and horses, and when we consider
the wonderful advance in egg production that
the hen has made during her domestication,
there is ample reason for assuming that a higher
average production than the present can be
secured by breeding only to those birds that
are themselves large producers. It has been
found in our practice with the trap nest, that
with the most careful selection we could make
when estimating the capacities for egg yielding,
by the types and forms of birds, that we were
still including in our breeding pens hens that
were small workers.”

Of the results of that trap nest work the
bulletin says : —

“Of the four that laid over 200 eggs during
the first 12 months after commencing, No. 4
laid 201 eggs the first year, 140 the second and
130 the third year, and she is now on her fourth
year’s work. No. 14 laid 208 eggs the first year,
141 the second year and 28 the third year. She
molted in July, 1900, and met with an accident
in August which came very near ending her exist¬
ence, but her great vitality enabled her to rally
and she shed her feathers again, completely,

and grew a second suit that season. She did not
begin laying again until the following March
when she laid 28 eggs by the close of May. At
molting time in June she died. She was an
upheaded, strong hen, and the first one to give
us over 200 eggs in one year. No. 101 laid 201
large brown eggs the first year; 30 the second
year and 63 the third year. She is now on her
fourth year’s work. No. 266 was a late hatched
pullet and did not commence laying until
February 12, 1899. In a year forward from
that date she laid 206 eggs. In the first year,
commencing November 1, 1899, she laid 191
eggs, with 157 during the second, and 138 in
her third year. When three and a half years
old she died suddenly, having laid 119 eggs
during the last 160 days she lived.

“ With many poultry keepers and farmers the
idea is prevalent that if a hen lay but few eggs
the first year she is likely to do better the second
year than though she laid well during the first
year. The data so far secured does not show
that hens that laid 120 eggs or less the first year
yield satisfactorily the second year. Those
that yielded in the vicinity of a hundred or less
the first year yielded very light the second
year. On the other hand many of those that
yielded from 130 to 200 or over during the first
year laid cpiite well the second year.” * * *

“During the three years in which we have
been selecting breeding stock by use of the trap
nests we have found 30 hens that laid between
200 and 251 eggs each in a year. Twenty-six
of them are now in our breeding pens and con-

35

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

stitute — until other additions are made — the
“foundation stock” upon which our breeding
operations are based. Males for our use have
been raised from them during the last two
years. The number of the foundation stock,
now secured, makes practicable the avoidance
of inbreeding, and this is to be strictly guarded
against, as it is doubtful if the inbred hen has
sufficient constitution to enable her to stand
the demands of heavy egg production.

“All of the other breeding stock we are now
carrying are tested hens that have laid over 180
eggs in a year; pullets whose mothers laid over
200 eggs in one year and whose fathers’ mothers
laid over 200 eggs in a year; and pullets sired
by cockerels whose mothers and grandmothers
laid over 200 eggs in one year.”

Such results, attained in the comparatively
brief time of five years, are eloquent of what
can be done by continued intelligent work along
this line. That breeding from hens that “ have
laid over 180 eggs in one year; pullets whose
mothers laid over 200 eggs in one year and whose
fathers’ mothers laid over 200 eggs in one year;
and pullets sired by cockerels whose mothers
and grandmothers laid over 200 eggs in one
year” — is tremendously suggestive! What an
accumulated momentum of prolific laying, as
well as absolute certainty as to the record of
mothers and grandmothers; that absolute cer¬
tainty as to laying record we can attain to only
byj:he intelligent use of trap nests.

WHAT MR. EDGAR WARREN SAYS.

A Nest Box for Individual Records.

Within the past few years the poultry business
has been almost revolutionized by the intro¬
duction of a nest box for individual records.
It is a fact wrell known to all breeders of ani¬
mals, that desirable traits may be transmitted,
and by careful matings a strain may be perma¬
nently established. Among cows some breeds
are noted for the production of butter, others
for milk and others for beef. Among hens
there are some breeds that excel as egg pro¬
ducers, and in all breeds there are strains that
lay better than others. It is obvious that if we
are to build up a great egg-producing strain we
must breed from great layers.

How may these great layers be picked out?
There are two ways. One is by the testing pen ;
the other, by a trap nest box. The former
makes the pen the unit, the latter the individual
bird. The former is the way I myself proceed.

My laying pens are made up of birds that have
been thoroughly tested in solitary confinement,
as described in a preceding section. If every
bird in the pen is a layer, and the average of the
pen in egg production is satisfactory, I do not
hesitate to breed from that pen. This is a
great labor saving method. The birds do not
require the constant attention that is demanded
where individual records are kept. Each bird
is tested at the beginning of the season, and
marked with a leg-band if she meets the test.
Otherwise she is put in the pen for culls or dis¬
patched.

“200 Eggs a Year per Hex.”

BETTER LAYERS AND MORE OF THEM.

Breeding Systematically for Increased Egg

Production is the Only Method of Develop¬
ing a Strain of Prolific Layers —

Trap Nests a Necessary Means
to This End.

BY C. BRICAULT, M. D. V., ANDOVER, MASS.

It is an acknowledged fact that the surest and
inost profitable source of income for the majority
of poultrvmen is the sale of eggs to the daily
market. How to obtain the largest possible
egg yield from our stock becomes, then, a most
important question to those of us who are inter¬
ested in this, the most profitable branch of the
business.

By properly feeding our hens, we can -obtain
results which a less careful poultryman will not,
but no matter how well we understand this
difficult part of the work, and no matter how
careful we are in making use of our knowledge
in this direction, it will be observed that in every
flock of pullets raised, fed and cared for in the
same manner and under the same conditions,
that several will lay almost double the number
of eggs that others will in the same pen. With
but few exceptions, these large egg producers
were born with this valuable trait, and it is by
breeding from these heavy layers that we can
increase the average egg yield of our flock.
Breeding systematically and persistently from
our heaviest layers will develop a strain of
layers which will pay us generously for our
work. No other method will give us as good
results.

Trap Nests Necessary.

In order to follow this system of breeding it
will be found of absolute necessity to ascertain

36

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

the number of eggs each hen lays. Fortunately
we have at our disposition the automatic nest
which will help us to accomplish this accurately.
This valuable addition to the practical poultry-
man’s needs has been severely criticised bv
some, but its advantages cannot be overlooked
and no real progress can be made without its
use. By placing these trap nests in the pens
it will be an easy matter to distinguish the best
layers from the poorest. The members of the
flock that do not lay enough eggs to pay a profit
should be disposed of to the butcher.

You can overcome the greatest drawback to
trap nests by putting in the pens half as many
nests as there are layers and placing them on a
platform twenty inches above the floor. By
this arrangement the work is reduced to a mini¬
mum and the hens have the advantage of using
the whole floor space. By this plan you can
gather the eggs with more ease and at a saving
of fifty per cent, in time, as compared with nests
that are under the drop boards. With this
number of nests in the pens there will be no
need of visiting them oftener than four times
a day.

If you use trap nests like the Ideal, which is
easy of operation and well ventilated, you need
not worry should your hens be confined in them
a short time. It will not harm them a particle;
neither will it induce them to become broody
any sooner. Certain ones who condemn the use
of trap nests because the}' would have us believe
it is cruelty to so confine a hen, do not hesitate
to keep fowls for days at a time in a show room,
which really is the kind of confinement that is
detrimental to their health.

Keeping the Records.

When your pens are equipped as advised
above, the next thing to do is to place a leg band
around one leg of each hen. These leg bands
can be stamped with a number, letter, or both,
then you are ready to begin record keeping. As
you go the rounds of the nests, you release the
hens confined in them, note their numbers on the
leg bands, and mark each egg, or enter it at
once on record sheets kept for the purpose.
You may find some customers who object to
having anything written on the eggs they buy;
many grocers and merchants object to this.
The only remedy is to enter the numbers on the
egg record sheet, or on a small slate carried
around by the attendant, and, later, enter them
on the egg record sheets. If the eggs are wanted

Cyphers Pedigree Trap Nest.

for hatching, it will then become necessary to
mark each egg.

There is no need of complicated record keeping.
The record sheets on which are written the
number of each hen, and the dates on which she
lavs, checked off. and a small book are all that
are required. Every page of this book is ruled
off in three sections, and in each of these is en¬
tered the number of one hen, her record, her
dam’s record, and her sire’s dam’s record;
also the number of each chick hatched from her
eggs. When a chick dies, the letter D is written
across its number. When we are ready to begin
hatching each hen’s eggs are incubated separate¬
ly under a hen or placed in a compartment of a
pedigree tray in the incubator. When the chicks
are hatched, each one is marked by placing
around one of its legs a small leg band. As they
grow older these bands are changed for larger
ones.

Mating for Egg Production.

One of the most important points in mating
your pen for egg production, is the selection
of the male birds, for we lean to the belief
that it is through her sons that a great layer
transmits her qualities. Use none but well
developed, vigorous sons of your very best
layer. Another equally important thing in
selecting your breeders, is vigor. Choose only
the most vigorous hens and cockerels. Vigor
is the outward sign of a strong constitution,
and a good layer must be strong and vigorous
to enable her to digest and assimilate the food
necessary to lay a large number of eggs. By

37

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

The Maine Experiment Station Nest Boxes in Position.

thus selecting each year the most vigorous
descendants of your best layers, you will in¬
tensify both these qualities in your strain and
produce layers that will lay more eggs than
their ancestors did.

When you have arrived at this period of your
breeding operations, that* is, when, by a few
years of this systematic breeding you have
fixed vigor and a good egg record in your
strain, you can profitably practice some in-
breeding. By inbreeding you can improve your
egg yield quicker than by selection. But be
very careful to select only the most vigorous
and healthiest individuals from your few best
layers.

We will suppose you have just such a hen with
a large egg record. You can mate her to her
most vigorous and best developed son, and in
this same pen you may also put the hens which
have given you the largest number of eggs.
The following year you can mate one of these
inbred cockerels to the pullets bred by the first
cockerel, but out of the other hens — they will
be half sisters. Of course, you will always pick
out your highest record hens to mate to these
choice breeders.

You will be pleased with egg records of the
pullets bred from this last mating. The major¬

ity will be excellent layers, and will be the very
best of breeders. If you have been careful to
select only vigorous birds and the best layers in
your matings, you will notice very soon a great
improvement in the average egg yield. You
can then use these inbred cockerels on unre¬
lated hens, but only on the good layers, and
then follow up as before.

Great productiveness in our hens is a trait
which can be easily fixed by breeding. The
principles governing our breeding are the same
as those which apply to all other classes of
animal breeding; it is only the application that
differs. With the fancier it is feathers, with
us it is eggs; both can be developed to perfection
by the same principles of breeding. There is
nothing to prevent you, if you so desire, from
improving both the egg yield and exhibition
points of your strain, but the progress will be
much slower. The results, however, will be
more pleasing in the end. To us this question
of breeding layers is a most fascinating one, and
it is one which offers more real advantages to
the interested poultryman than would be be¬
lieved at first. Breeding from our best layers
systematically is, to our way of thinking, the
only sure way of increasing the profits. — Reli¬
able Poultry Journal.

A Nest Box for Keeping Individual Egg Records*

[Reprintecrfrom the 13th Annual Report of the Maine Agricul-
tural Experiment Station.]

Desiring to conduct experiments in breeding
hens we found it necessary, first, to be able to
determine the-eggs produced by each individual.
Several appliances and patented devices were
examined, but all seemed open to the objection
that while they might indicate to an extent the
producer of the egg, the lack of certainty would
be so great as to render them of little value for
our purpose. We constructed a nest that proved
so satisfactory that we placed fifty-two of them
in the breeding-house, where they have been
in use several months. They enable us to
know the eggs produced by each bird with
certainty. The boxes are placed four in a bank,
and slide in and out like drawers, and can be
carried away for cleaning if necessary. If
desired they could be put on the floor or shelf
by simply having a cover to each box.

Our breeding pens are ten by sixteen feet in
size, and there are twenty hens and a cockerel
in each one. Four nests in each pen have ac¬
commodated the birds by the attendant going
through the pens once an hour during that part

38

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

of the day when the birds were busiest. Earlier
and later in the day his visits have not been so
frequent. More nests in the pen would reduce
the frequency of his visits. To remove a hen
the nest is pulled part way out, and as it has no
cover she is readily lifted up and the number
on her leg band noted on the record sheet that
hangs at hand. After having been taken off
a few times they do not object to being handled,
the most of them remaining quiet, apparently
expecting to be picked up.

The nest box is very simple, inexpensive,
easy to attend and certain in its action. It is
a box-like structure, without front end or
cover. It is 28 inches long, 13 inches wide and
13 inches deep — inside measurements. A divi¬
sion board with a circular opening lb inches in
diameter is placed across the box 12 inches
from the back end and 15 inches from
the front end. The back section is the nest
proper. Instead of a close door at the entrance,
a light frame of inch by inch and a half stuff is
covered with wire netting of one inch mesh.
The door is ten and one-half inches wide and
ten inches high, and does not fill the entire
entrance, a space of two and a half inches being
left at the bottom and one and a half inches at
the top, with a good margin at each side to
avoid friction. If it filled the entire space it
would be clumsy in its action. It is hinged at
the top and opens up into the box. The hinges
are placed on the front of the door rather than
at the center or back, the better to secure com¬
plete closing action.

The trip consists of one piece of stiff wire
about three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter
and eighteen and one-half inches long, bent as
shown in the drawing. A piece of board six
inches wide and just long enough to reach
across the box inside, is nailed flatwise in front
of the partition and one inch below the top of
the box, a space of one-fourth of an inch being
left between the edge of the board and the
partition. The purpose of this board is only
to support the trip wire in
place. The six-inch sec¬
tion of the trip wire is
placed across the board,
the long part of the wire
is slipped through the quar¬
ter inch slot, and passed
down close to and in front
of the center of the seven
and a half inch circular

A -IT

St

Single Nest Removed.

opening. Small wire staples are driven nearly
down over the six-inch section of the trip
wire into the board, so as to hold it in place
and yet let it roll sidewise easily.

4When the door is set, the half-inch section
of the wire marked A comes under a hard wood
peg, or a tack with a large round head, which
is driven into the lower edge of the door frame.
The hen passes in through the circular opening
and in doing so presses the wire to one side,
and the trip slips from its connection with the
door. The door promptly swings down and
fastens itself in place by its lower edge striking
the light end of a wooden latch or lever, pres¬
sing it down and slipping over it, the lever
immediately coming back into place and lock¬
ing the door. The latch is five inches long, one
inch wide and a half inch thick, and is fastened
loosely one inch from its center to the side of
the box, so that the outer end is just inside of
the door when it is closed. The latch acts
quickly enough to catch the door before it
rebounds. It was feared that the noise arising
from the closing of the door might startle the
hens, so instead of wooden stops, pieces of old
rubber belting were nailed at the outside en¬
trances for the door to strike against.

The double box with nest in the rear end
is necessary, as when a bird has laid and desires
to leave the nest, she steps to the front and
remains there until released. With one section
only she would be very likely to crush her
egg by standing upon it.

One experiment which has been undertaken,
and which requires a long period of time in

39

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

preparation, is the attempt to establish families
of hens that shall excel as egg producers. To
do this reliance upon the laws of inheritance
and transmission must be coupled with selec¬
tion. Selection will depend upon the actual
production of the birds taken for foundation
stock. From offspring of the foundation stock
will be selected — by use of the nest boxes —
the greatest yielders of desirable eggs.

The male birds will be bred from dams of
known capacity and quality. Only by use of
nest boxes and leg bands can we expect to
control the work. Two hundred and sixty
females, from three distinct breeds, are under¬
going test for the foundation stock. One
year’s time will be required in the selection.
From among them it is hoped may be found a
few birds that are suited for the founding of
the families. The breeds employed are Barred
Plymouth Rock, White Wyandotte and Light-
Weight Light Brahma.

TRAP NESTS.

An Experiment to Test the Practicability and

Comparative Efficiency of Various Con¬
trivances for Ascertaining the Egg-
Laying Records of Fowls.

The trap nest has been used to a limited
extent for at least thirty years, but it is only
within the last three years that it has come into
general notice through the claims of several
inventors of devices to determine the number
of eggs laid by individual hens.

Some of the objects^ have been to save the
eggs o{ individuals from special mating pens,
to select the best layers, to detect the non¬
laying fowls and those that lay but few eggs,
and to ascertain the characteristics of the
eggs from certain fowls.

The trap nest is certainly valuable, especially
in line breeding, to the fancier having a limited
number of choice fowls from which he wishes
to establish a pedigree strain. It is also of use
to the experimenter in breeding when he wants
to determine the results of certain crosses or
matings.

It is a favorite device with a man who has
a desire to build up a strain of phenomenal
layers, even if by so doing he weakens the
stock. Others are using the nests to substan¬
tiate their claims for the wonderful egg-pro¬
ducing qualities of their hens by advertising
their actual laying records.

Trap nests may be divided into two classes,
single and double compartment nests. The
latter named may work well, but their use is
rarely advisable. They are hard to clean, and,
being bulky, take up valuable space. The
claim for the double compartment nest is that
it allows the hen to leave the nesting space after
laying, thus preventing her breaking or soiling
the egg by trying to get out. The hen should
not, however, be confined in so small a space
for so long a time that she worries, or her laying
may be impaired. She should be released as
soon after laying as possible, which is as easily
done from a single as from a double compart¬
ment nest. The single compartment nests are
generally preferable. They are simpler, more
easily cleaned, and require no more room than
an ordinary nest.

A trap nest should ordinarily be no larger
than a common nest, and easily cleaned. It
should be simple in construction, and so well
made that it will not get out of order. It
should hold but one hen at a time, and after
she is in should prevent her exit or the entrance
of others until the first hen is released and the
trap set again. It should also be attractive to
the hens, or they will lay outside rather than
enter the nest. It should be adaptable to all
classes and sizes of fowls. Not a single nest
met all of the requirements as above stated,
though a few have proved to be far superior
to others. The openings in some have been so
large that two hens have been known to enter
at one time. Others failed to hold the hen or
admitted other hens because not provided with
a latch to the door, or when so provided it
failed to work. Defective operation of others
was due to their flimsy construction, and to the
fact that the nesting material often interfered
with their mechanism. This interference from
the nesting material was so great in some in¬
stances that it was necessary to readjust the
nest nearly every day.

With a few exceptions the devices were more
adaptable to the American and Asiatic than
to the Mediterranean breeds, as the former are
more quiet and easier to handle than the latter.
A few interesting facts were brought out by
the use of the trap nests regarding the pecul¬
iarities of certain hens, among them that a
number laid two eggs a day at times. The
average, however, was never more than one
egg a day, as, after laying twice in one day, the
hen would very likely miss the next day or the

40

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

The Incubator Cellar, Lakewood Farm.

day following. Sometimes the male bird de¬
veloped the trick of catching himself in the nest,
for no apparent reason but his own enjoyment.

Although it is possible by the use of trap
nests to determine the number of eggs laid by
the individual hens, the impracticability of
their use on a large scale is evident since the
expense of attending them overbalances, in a
business sense, the results obtained. In all the
tests here reported it was found necessary to
look at the nests during the busy laying season
at least five times per day, and if a hen had
laid each time it took considerable more than
“ one minute a day ” claimed by more than one
of the inventors, to release the hen and credit
the egg to her account.

In looking after twenty pens of about five
hens each it took on the average of fifteen
minutes each time, or one and one-fourth
hours per day. A person keeping about five
hundred fowls would therefore use about six
hours a day determining how many eggs each
hen was laying. This time could often be used
to better advantage in giving the hens better
care and in looking after other details.

We fail to see how any of the devices could
prevent egg-eating, as was claimed for some of
them. In all the nests the hen had access to
the egg after it was laid, and in one or two in¬
stances a hen was known to eat the egg.

To sum up, let us say, except in the cases
mentioned in the beginning of this report, we
fail to see that trap nests are of the practical
value that the several inventors claim for them,
to say nothing of the prices asked for their

ideas or the finished article. What will please
one is likely to prove unsatisfactory to another.
The poultryman wishing to use trap nests will
do well to consult with persons already using
them, and .construct his own to suit his purpose;
for any one with ingenuity can construct a
trap nest as good and better than many we
have seen. — Annual Report , Rhode Island Ag-
ricultural Experiment Station , 1901.

Lay Two Hundred Eggs.

Can we produce hens that will lay two hun¬
dred eggs per annum? Without a doubt. How?
By scientific breeding, as for a good butter
cow or a great milker; as for a good trotting or
high jumping horse. Experiments have been
made to increase the number of rows of corn
on the cob with success. The same method is
applicable to poultry breeding. We will start
with a hen that lays one hundred and twenty
eggs. Some of her chicks will lay one hundred
and fifty per year. From these we will pick
out layers, and so on until two hundred or
better are the result. At the same time it is
just as essential to breed our males from pro¬
lific layers as it is the females. In fact it is
more so. If we look after the breeding of the
females only, we will introduce on the male
side blood which is lacking in proficiency, and
thus check every attempt in progress. It is
just as essential that the male should be from
a hen which laid one hundred and seventy-five
eggs and from a male that was bred from a hen
that laid one hundred and fifty eggs as it is
that the hen was from one that laid one hun-

41

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

dred and seventy-five eggs and whose mother
laid one hundred and fifty eggs.

— Poultry Herald.

Larger Production.

The man who most steadily increases the pro¬
ducing power of his flocks is he who selects his
eggs from a very few of his best layers. The
sharper the selection, the more rapid and certain
the increase. It is an approach to systematic,
consecutive breeding, and no other policy is to
be endorsed. Even now is not too late to gather
up a few sittings and grow some fine layers.
Larger production is what every egg man is cry¬
ing for, and it is possible by simply selecting the
breeders and using eggs from only the best. If
you are satisfied with one hundred eggs per
head, there is nothing more to be said; but if
you want one hundred and fifty, then select
with sole reference to egg producing power and
breed for a larger business.

— M aine Farmer.

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRO¬
DUCTION.

The Greatest Egg Producer is the Fowl that has
been Bred for the Sole Purpose of
Producing Eggs.

From a lecture read at the annual meeting of the Ontario Poul¬
try Association, at London, Ontario, January, 1898.

The greatest egg producer is the bird that has
been bred for the sole purpose of producing eggs.
This bird will not necessarily be a Leghorn or a
Minorca, although these breeds deservedly have
the reputation ,of being the greatest egg pro¬
ducers living — -that is, as a class. Without doubt
there is a greater proportion of eggs laid by these
two breeds than by any other two breeds that can
be named; yet there are many individual birds
of other breeds that may equal or even surpass
them. If such should be the case, it will be
found that these individual birds have been bred
with one object in view, namely; egg produc¬
tion. Just as the fancier raises birds for ex¬
hibition, so may the farmer breed birds for lay¬
ing purposes. Undoubtedly the proper course
to pursue would be to choose your prospective
layers from a class already noted for their laying
proclivities, but do not imagine you have the
best layers on earth simply because the breed
selected has that reputation. Every descendent
of Hambletonian does not trot within 2.30, but
nobody denies that many a trotter with no breed¬
ing has come well within that mark, and has, in

addition, been the foundation of a line of fast
ones. Similarly with regard to hens. Many
Minorcas and many Leghorns have proved un¬
satisfactory layers, while many a Brahma and
many a Plymouth Rock has abundantly helped
to fill the egg basket.

As I have said, if you are commencing, select
your birds from the classes bearing reputations
as layers, but do not be discouraged because it
is not, convenient to do this. Commence right
now with the stock in hand and note the best
layers among your birds. Commence line-breed¬
ing with as great regard to mating as you would
if breeding for show purposes. Mark the pullet
that is the first to lay, mark the most persistent
layer; mark the hen that molts quickly and
gets down to business before the hard winter
sets in, and when you have done marking, the
spring will be here and you may commence
mating. Better to breed from two or three
well-known layers than to take chances and
make up a pen containing a dozen indifferent
ones. As the cock does not lay you can not
judge whether he is likely to produce good
layers ; but you can choose the largest and most
vigorous bird of the flock to mate with your
selected females. After that it is easy. Never
allow anybody to induce you to change the
blood of your flock by the introduction of a
male bird of another strain, unless you are satis¬
fied he comes from a strain which equals your
own as layers. Remember the sire controls
one-half the blood of the produce, and if you de¬
sire to introduce new blood or new stamina into
your flock, do so by means of the best laying
female you can procure. Even then I would
not use her sons as sires, but would dispose of
them and mate her daughters back to the old
male bird ; the produce from this mating would
have in their veins three-quarters of the blood
of your own strain, with sufficient new blood
to maintain the vigor of the flock. Do not
over-look the necessity for observation each
year, so as to intelligently mate your birds the
next season, continually choosing the best
layers and limiting your breeding pen to these.
The result will be that no matter what breed you
start with, you will eventually own layers far
ahead of any that have been indiscriminately
bred. The same advice applies to production
of large eggs. I have had Minorcas which have
laid large eggs, and Minorcas which have laid
small eggs; Brahmas, layers of large eggs, and
Brahmas, layers of small. During recent years

42

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

in breeding Buff Plymouth Rocks I have found
that some hens lay small eggs, others large ; and
as I have carried out the system of pedigree
breeding, I have noticed the fact that layers of
large eggs transmit this attribute to their pro¬
geny, and layers of small eggs have produced
birds which have also laid small eggs. It rests
altogether with the particular strain of birds,
ana not with the breed, as to which will give
the best return, either in size or number of
eggs laid.

Thoroughbreds have time and again demon¬
strated their ability to hold the lead in egg pro¬
duction, and all that is necessary for the be¬
ginner in egg farming is to inquire of a reliable
breeder whether or not his strain of birds possess
that qualification. Then go ahead and do your
own breeding.

There is a material difference between 150
eggs a year, which is a fair average, and 289,
which is I believe the record of a pen of fowls
which have been entered for competition in an
egg-producing contest. It shows what can be
done by pedigree breeding and judicious feed¬
ing, and constitutes the difference between profit
and loss.

If you keep many varieties you cannot give
the necessary time to each one. Since I limited
myself to breeding Buff Plymouth Rocks, I have
won more prizes and obtained more satisfaction
than I did on all the others combined. In ad¬
dition to which there is the pleasure of noting
results of experiments in mating from year to
year.

There has been so much information given as
to raising, housing and feeding, that anybody
who reads should have no difficulty in these re¬
spects, if the directions are faithfully followed.
Each breeder may have different methods, but
analyzed they will be found to agree in the
main. One feeds cut green bone every day,
another every second day, but the amounts fed
also differ, and the result is much the same. One
feeds soft food for breakfast, another for dinner ;
even this is regulated by the habits of the poul-
tryman. The man who feeds early in the morn¬
ing may, with good results, feed grain as a break¬
fast, while the one who feeds late will do better
by giving the soft food first. The hens become
habituated to certain methods, and will do fairly
well under any, so long as they are not radical.
Still, the man who gets up early and feeds his
fowls regularly, will get the best returns, and he
deserves them.

Give little soft food, a small but regular sup¬
ply of meat, or ground green bone, and a variety
of grain, not forgetting the green food in winter,
and the principal requirements for egg produc¬
tion have been performed. The next important
requisite is work. Feed the grain in litter, cover
it well and make the hens work to find it. Do
not be governed by false kindness, and throw
down the food in heaps, but cover every grain.

Be careful as to scaring the birds. Strange
dogs, cats or even your next door neighbor
going among the hens when in confinement, will
effect the layers detrimentally. A change of
pens, removing a hen from one pen to another,
will cause a cessation of laying for a time. Change
the position of your nests, and it has the same
effect. Introduce a strange male bird, and you
will notice the reduced number of eggs. Any
change, every change, should be guarded against.

Give plenty of room and plenty of sunshine
to the workers, and never reduce the scratching
space to less than six or eight square feet per
hen. Even this amount is small, and when con¬
fined to such a space it is necessary to limit the
number of fowls in a pen to ten or a dozen. The
most important requirement has not been men¬
tioned, that is the water. Watch the hen come
off the nest after laying and see her make for
the water, and you will understand the necessity
for pure water and lots of it.

In the winter, if your house is dry, the fowls
will keep themselves warm during the day if
you feed little and often, and make them work.
At night care must be exercised to see that they
have a warm corner for a roosting place.

Hatch your chicks as early as possible, but cer¬
tainly not later than May, and if properly cared
for you will have winter layers, and receive all
the way from 25 to 40 cents a dozen for your
eggs. If you allow the hen to have her own
sweet will ,she will probably incubate in June, J uly
and August and you will have lots of worry, lots
of squabs, and any amount of expense feeding,
during winter, chicks that bring you no return.

— R. H. Essex.

Breeding for Eggs.

I receive many letters asking advice as to
feeding in order to increase egg production. It
is impossible for one even to give suggestions, in
my opinion, without a detailed knowledge as to
breed and surrounding conditions; but after all
through food we can induce the fowl to lay
only the limit of her capacity.

43

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

A fowl does not manufacture eggs; if she did
not have them supplied to her by nature she
could not produce them herself. Nature is more
generous with some fowls than with others, and
if we would increase egg production we must
find such fowls and breed from those to which
nature has been the kindest; so we can but do
our best with the fowls in hand, to feed them for
health, and our success or want of success will
be demonstrated by their laying and holding
their weight.

Who would expect to breed large sized fowls
from small-sized parent stock? Just so in in¬
creasing egg production. If we would attain
and hold increased egg production, it is as im¬
portant to breed it in the blood, and fix it there,
as it is to attain any of the other numerous aims
of modern breeders.

It is almost needless to say that healthy , vigor¬
ous parent stock must be our foundation; and
our aim must be to keep the parent stock healthy
and vigorous through proper feeding and care;
and the best food with the best care will be in
vain if that ever present enemy of poultry breed¬
ers is not constantly kept at bay — lice.

The warning to fight lice has been repeated
again and again by our poultry writers, and yet
I venture to say most breeders smile compla¬
cently to themselves and think “No lice here. ”

Only recently one of the editors of Farm-Poul¬
try paid me a visit at Hartnest, and asked “ How
are you fixed with lice? ” My laconic reply,
born of self assurance, was, “ Ain’t fixed at all.
We breed Brahmas, not lice. ” “ Well, let’s

see, ” said the editor, and I asked him to select
a specimen that looked the lousiest if one such
could be found. He made a selection, scru¬
tinized the head, throat, back, breast and fluff —
no lice; then he looked under the vent and found
two or three ; then “ I thought it about time my
hens needed dusting again. ”

“ Let’s try some more, ” said the editor, with
about the same result. “ Now, let’s see your old
hens. ’ ’ We looked at them, but this time, under
the vent first, and there I found them swarming
— actually swarming. I was amazed, and when
I looked at the leg bands of such as were the
worst, I fancied I had an explanation of their
recent small egg record.

Now, I had been told and had read time and
again, to quarantine all new birds. The head of
that pen was a bird I purchased a month or two
ago, and after giving him a good dusting was
satisfied that all was well; but doubtless in dust¬

ing we did not get through the thick, fluffy
feathers under the vent, consequently the lice
which were close to or under his skin escaped us,
and so they spread from him to all the hens in
that pen. In another pen where we found lice
were one or two hens that I purchased about the
same time. My hens were practically clear of
lice all over the body, except under the vent,
and there they more than made up for their
absence elsewhere. Had I taken the ordinary
precautions so often repeated. I probably would
have been a hundred eggs better off now.

To the breeder whose sole aim is increased egg
production, the path is comparatively easy. It
is important that he know exactly what each of
his breeders do. In order to avoid loss of time
he should begin by breeding from all of his birds,
making such provision for identifying the prog¬
eny of each breeder as his convenience may dic¬
tate. That some mode of identification be care¬
fully and regularly followed is of vital import¬
ance.

At the end of the season he should select from
his birds such as have excelled in the work in the
nest, and to begin “ fixing the laying habit ” by
selecting the best son of such breeders and mat¬
ing him back to his dam. Mate the pullets to a
son of his heaviest layer, being careful to avoid
the mating of brother and sister.

It must be remembered that the daughters of
these heavy layers will not all inherit their dam’s
prolificacy, unless one is fortunate enough at the
start to have at the head of his pen the son of a
heavy layer ; and the drone blood will have to be
bred out before uniformity can be depended
upon.

Again, the varying individuality of fowls —
(until a strain is established) — necessarily pro¬
duces in each flock some which are prone to
take on fat, and others which are prone to “ go
light, ” neither of which should be bred from, or
neither of which should have their progeny per¬
petuated.

It is not always possible to recognize either of
these peculiarities before the hatching season is
well under way, consequently I have advised as
above, that the eggs from all breeders be set, and
only those chicks retained for the next season
whose dams have shown the desirable traits.

As stated, a single object is easier to attain
than several aims. For instance, if early ma¬
turity and prolific laying is required, we must
very naturally have an eye to both; if the
breeder (in the system of identifying chicks

44

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

which he adopts), includes also a mode of identi¬
fication whereby he can not only tell the parent
stock, but also the elate of hatch of each chick,
early maturity can be had as easily as prolific
laying; combining the two makes it of course a
little slower of accomplishment.

It does not always follow that because a pul¬
let matures slowly, she will not make a prolific
layer; but most of us have no use for a slow rna-
turing bird.

If in addition to early maturity and prolific
laying, a breeder also desires large size in eggs,
two methods present themselves, either of which
may be adopted. One may either abstain from
setting eggs that are under a certain size which he
may fix in his mind, or he may take the progeny
of a hen laying the largest number of heavy
eggs, and mate them to the progeny of the
heaviest layer. Discarding the eggs that come
under the limit is of course the quickest way of
obtaining all large eggs, but one is apt to lose in
this way the use of some of his heaviest layers.

I don’t mean by this that the heaviest layers
lay the smallest eggs. My experience has shown
that size of eggs has no bearing whatever upon
prolific laying. Xo. 61 for instance lays an egg
that averages very close to two and a quarter
ounces.

If one desires in addition to heavy laying,
early maturity and large size of eggs, to breed
to a certain color of egg, he again adds to the
time it will require to accomplish his four-fold
aim.

We occasionally read that prolific laying and
the breeding of show specimens cannot be com¬
bined. I am quite confident that those who
make this assertion have not made the proper
effort.

In preparing birds for the show room, one of
the requirements would be that they be checked
from laying eggs, so that they may appear in
their best dress. The only harm here done is
that the individual record of that bird is slightly
reduced. If she is a prolific layer and mated to
the son of a prolific layer, her daughters will not
suffer from this reduction.

My experience has been that just as soon as
the birds are permitted to lav, in fact the second
or third day of the show, they start in and keep
everlastingly at it; even the journey home does
not stop them.

True, I have not yet evolved a flock of world
beaters, either in the show room or in the nest;
I did manage to get third at the late New York

show, with June hatched pullets, two of them
daughters of my second heaviest layer. Per¬
haps, this is but a straw but it shows the “ way
the wind blows.” It shows that utility and
beauty can be combined if we go about it right.

Mliere one’s aim in breeding is a single pur¬
pose, I repeat it is comparatively easy of attain¬
ment; far easier than where the object includes
a multiple of aims.

A. J. Silberstein in Farm Poultry.

A Study of Profits.

We present herewith some tables of egg yield
and profits of different flocks under different
conditions, the purpose being to get a basis for
comparison of profits. We have long preached
that the creamy profits are from the eggs layed
in November, December and January, and that
the sure method of getting those November,
December and January eggs was to keep early
hatched pullets, kept steadily growing until they
reached laying maturity, and then kept laying
by good care’’ and good food We believe that
such early hatched pullets, got to laying by
October and kept laying, will produce from one
hundred and seventy-five to two hundred eggs
apiece within a year of reaching laying maturity,
and that the best profit is got by selling them off
to market after about one year of laying, — that
is, just before the next generation of early lay¬
ing pullets are brought into the houses to succeed
to the work. We have also preached and fully
believe that, generally speaking, the keeping of
the old hens is far less profitable. We believe in
the great majority of cases it gives almost no
profit at all, and the record of the old hens in the
table illustrates this point. For convenience,
and to facilitate comparison, we have figured
the cost of food and the selling price of the eggs
the same in all the tables — the cost of food at
$1.25 per head per year, that being about what
it costs us to feed a fowl a year, and feed her well.

Table No. 1 is a report of the laying achieve¬
ment of thirteen White Plymouth Rock hens.
Table No. 2, that of eleven White Wyandotte
pullets, and these two columns show an average
of 215 and 210 plus eggs per fowl within a year,
and prove conclusively that fowls bred for eggs
can be made to produce 200 eggs per year or
better. Whether fowls kept in larger numbers
would do that however, is uncertain. Table
No. 3, of 280 White Wyandotte and Barred
Plymouth Rock pullets and hens, shows an
average of 178 eggs within a. year; and table

45

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Mr. Norton’s 280 Mr. Cox’s 100

Rev. Mr. Buckingham’s Mr. Wood’s 1 1 White White Wy.ndottes Barred

13 White P. Rock Hens. Wyandotte Pullets. and B. P. Rocks. Plymouth Rocks.

No. ol Eggs Av. Price

Val. of Eggs

No. of Eggs

October

183

31

$4.72

104

November

151

36

4.53

207

December

169

38

5.35

253

January

263

34

7.45

181

February

264

27

5.94

197

March

288

19

4.87

253

April

258

15

3.22

215

May

269

17

3.82

145

June

240

21

4.20

199

July

263

24

5.26

206

August

223

25

6.63

189

September

224

28

5.22

167

Totals

2,795

$61.21

2,316

Cost of

food . .

16.25

Profit . .

$44.96

Profit

per fowl . .

$3.45

Utah Ex. Station
Utah Ex. Station 8 Late 8 Old Leghorn

Hatched Leghorn Pullets Hens

No. of Eggs Val. Eggs No. of Eggs Val. Eggs

November

0

$0.00

0

$0.00

December

3

.10

0

.06

Januarv

56

1.58

11

.31

February

63

1.42

25

.56

March

130

2.06

59

.94

April

151

1.88

128

1.60

May

153

2.16

132

1.87

June

138

2.41

94

1.64

July

135

2.70

65

1.30

August

144

3.00

60

1.25

September

112

2.61

68

1.58

October

68

1.75

4

.10

Totals

1,153

$21.67

648

$11.21

Cost of food

10.00

10.00

Profit

$11.67

1.21

Profit per

fowl

$1.45

$0.15

No. 4, of 100 Barred Plymouth Rock hens,
shows an average of 179 (almost 180) eggs
in a year. The best record for large num¬
bers of hens of which we know, is that in
which Mr. Wyckoff shows an average of 196
eggs apiece from 600 head of White Leghorns.

Anyone who carefully considers the question
of profit will concede that fowls that lay 175 to
200 eggs apiece in a year, pay a good profit to

Val. Eggs

No. of Eggs

Val. Eggs

No. of Eggs

Val. Eggs

$ 2.68

1,576

$ 40.71

793

$20.49

6.21

3,179

95.37

1,140

34.20

8.01

4,745

150.29

1,102

34.91

5.13

5,437

154.05

1,951

55.28

4.44

6,244

140.49

2,300

51.75

4.00

5,650

89.47

1,592

25.20

2.68

5,289

66.12

1,770

22.12

2.05

4,620

65.45

1,911

27.07

3.48

3,813

66.73

1,832

32.06

4.12

3,848

76.96

1,406

28.12

3.93

3,048

63.50

1,279

26.64

3.90

2,542

59.33

90 1

21.05

50.63

49,991

1,068.47

17,978

$378.80

13.75

350.00

125.00

36.88

718.47

253.89

3.35

2.56

2.53

their owners, as a study of these tables will
easily show, and if he compares the first four
tables with the last two, he will easily
understand why it is that the November,
December and January eggs pay the richest
profit. It is, of course, because of the highest
prices of those months; and it is equally mani¬
fest, if one studies the matter closely, that those
high prices are due to the scarcity of fresh eggs in
those months; and that scarcity is due to the
faet that the great bulk of the poultry kept on
our farms is either old hens or late hatched pul¬
lets. The point of December and January-
profits will be better understood if we compare
the egg yield and profits of those months with
those of April and May, of course with the same
flock of 125 fowls, 12 of them one-year-old hens,
and 113 pullets.

No. of eggs

Sold for

Profit

December,

1,626

$51.49

$37.43

January,

2,068

51.70

37.64

April,

2,232

27.50

13.84

May,

2,332

30.12

16.06

Here we see that either the December or Jan¬
uary egg yield paid more profit than April and
May together. Everybody’s hens are laying in
April and May, and prices are the lowest of the
year; only the “bred for eggs and fed for eggs”
birds are laying in November, December and
January, and the prices of those months pay
the “creamy” profits.

46

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

Table No. 5, showing the performance of old
Leghorn hens, gives us clear proof of the un¬
profitableness of keeping old hens. They lay
fairly well when they get down to work, but there
is so much “dead horse” to pay for in the idle
months of November, December and January,
that it is practically all they can do to pay off
their old debt and come out even. With the
late hatched pullets it is somewhat different, be¬
cause they are such persistent layers after they
get to laying, and as the summer prices pay a very
fair profit, they come out at the end of the year
with a fair balance in their favor. The late
hatched pullets, however, are at a great disad¬
vantage in more ways than one. Not only
have they got to be fed well into the winter, be¬
fore they begin to lay, and their best egg yield
comes at the time of lowest prices, but their eggs
are generally small in size, hence of little use for
hatching; or, if they are used for hatching, they
transmit the late maturing and late laying habit
to their offspring, begetting another generation
of late laying pullets, and “the sins of the parents
are visited upon the children even unto the third
and fourth generation.'”

The study of the' history of the birds which
have made these several records, is extremely
interesting. The Rev. Mr. Buckingham says
he selected his thirteen W. P. Rock year-old hens
from a flock of about two hundred, and paid a
premium for the privilege of going into the flock
and selecting. That he had the ability to pick
out good layers that spendid egg record attests,
and we can but regret that the enforced removal
of that gentleman, due to the system of clerical
rotation obtaining in his church, obliged him to
give up the flock which he had so excellently
begun; it would have been very interesting to
have had a continuance of that experiment.

Mr. Woods’ pullets were raised from eggs
bought of Dr. Sanborn, and were fed for growth
as chickens, and fed for laying after they were
mature. It is worthy of note that a friend of
Mr. Woods shared with him in the purchase of
several sittings of eggs, and that the pullets
raised by the friend from precisely simile eggs
to Mr. Woods’, were fully two months later in
maturing, and then laid much less well. This
certainly gives us a valuable object lesson of the
decided advantage of good care and good food.

Mr. Norton’s story is equally interesting. He
keeps from 275 to 300 head of fowls; got, in
1895, 29,726 eggs; 39,551 in 1896, and 49,991

in the twelve months October, ’96, to Sept., ’97,
inclusive. There was an increase of substan¬
tially 10,000 eggs each year, entirely due to
more house room, better care and careful selec¬
tion of breeding stock — in other words, by
following commonsense methods. With prac¬
tically the same number of birds, he increased
in three years from 29,000 to 49,000 egg , which
is eloquent of what good care and good feeding,
(or, if one prefers the term, common sense
methods intelligently applied), will accomplish.
Mr. Cox’s story is almost similar. He tells us
how he increased his egg yield from about ninety
a year to an average of 179 a year, breeding from
known layers and taking good care of them.
He says in a letter, that “ ’Tis a long story, not
straight up either, but down and back a couple
of times,” and in the tabulated statement
which he gave us (from which this table is made)
he says, “We got above results by giving our
hens the same thoughtful care and attention -we
give our cows, pigs, horses, farm and garden
crops. The very same principles applied to
our wheat fields, gave us a yield of 23 bushels
per acre (township yield, 12£); potatoes 372
bu. per acre, (township yield, less than 100)
and so on. Any thoughtful, intelligent farmer,
with the aid of a good poultry paper and a few
good poultry books, can do as well or better
with his hens, for, I am ashamed to say, in the
hurry and rush of the busy season on our farm,
our hens are the first thing neglected.”

There is a splendid object lesson in that story
and a like splendid one in the tables which we
present herewith for our readers to study. The
keeping of old hens and late hatched pullets,
while it pays a profit, pays not at all like the
keeping of early hatched pullets, kept growing,
or of carefully selected year-old hens got through
the molt early, and got back to laying before
cold weather, then kept laying. We want the
very best profit on our farm, and get very little
consolation in the half-loaf when the whole
loaf is just as easily obtainable. It only re¬
quires that the plan shall be carefully thought
out and then systematically followed; or, as
Mr. Cox graphically puts it, that the same
intelligent care be given to the hens that is given
to the other farm industries or business interests.
Poultry will pay and pay well if the owner wills
it; and that our readers may make it pay and
pay well, is our purpose.

47

Farm Poultry.

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Mr. Wood's 210 Eggs Per Hen.

We have had a number of inquiries in regard
to the details of that egg yield of two hundred
and ten eggs per hen within one year, which Mr.
F. E. Woods got last year — and we drove up
there the other day to see his stock, and asked
permission to look over his egg record. From
twenty-six White Wyandotte eggs which Mr.
Woods bought there were eleven pullets raised,
and it was those eleven pullets which made this
excellent record. The chickens were hatched
the 23d of April, and the first egg was laid Sept.
22nd, — one day before the pullets were five
months old. During the remaining days of

September they laid eight eggs.

In the twelve

months beginning October 1st,

their egg yield

was as follows:

October .

. 105

November .

. 207

December .

. 253

January .

. 181

February .

. 197

March .

. 253

April .

. 215

May .

. 145

June .

. 199

July .

. 206

August .

. 189

September .

. 167

making a total of two thousand three hundred
and seventeen, which is two hundred and ten
and seven-elevenths eggs for each of the eleven
birds.

The daily record is exceedingly interesting to
look over. There are quite a number of tens
in it; eights and nines are very numerous
through November, December, February, March
and April, and on Christmas day, they laid
eleven eggs, scoring one apiece, on account of
the day, no doubt. There is one day’s record
of twelve eggs, but Mr. Woods says that he is
practically certain that one or two of these eggs
were laid before that day, as eight eggs were
found in the regular nests, and four more in one
corner, where one or two of them had probably
been overlooked, so he does not claim that
any one of his birds laid two eggs in one day.
Three or four of the pullets were allowed to sit
the last of April or first of May, which would
account for the smaller number of eggs in May
and Mr. Woods is confident the small egg yield
in January is due to his having fed whole corn
once a day for a couple of weeks or so.

Farm Poultry.

Eggs in Fall and Winter.

By Edgar Warren.

Some weeks ago I visited a man who is one of
the most successful egg farmers that I know
anything about. He is employed ten hours or
more each day in a store, and yet he manages to
clear up several hundred dollars a year from
his hens. He does not get fancy prices for eggs
or stock, but ships to Boston and gets the prices
current there.

This man is very systematic and methodical
and can tell just how many eggs he gets in any
given year and, to a fraction of a cent, what it
costs to produce them. His financial year runs
from November 1 to November 1. Last year
(1902) he kept four hundred and seventy-five
hens, and they laid 70,399 eggs, which he sold
for SI, 429. The year before (1901) he kept
four hundred and seventy-five hens and they
laid 69,506 eggs, which he sold for $1,104.

You will observe that he got but 893 more
eggs last year than he did the year before, and
yet his eggs brought him $325 more. How do
I account for that? It is very simple. His hens
laid more eggs in the fall and early winter last
year than they did the year before.

Late Fall and Early Winter Profits.

I mention this case because it is so suggestive.
Unless a man can get high prices for eggs for
setting in the spring, the time for him to make
his profits is in early winter and late fall. A
dozen of eggs at Thanksgiving are worth two
dozen St. Patrick’s Day or the Fourth of July.
There never has been a year within my recol¬
lection when eggs have not been high in fall and
early winter, and I do not believe there will be
till the end of time. And yet there is no diffi¬
culty in getting eggs at this season if one goes
about it in the right way.

The “ First Rule."

Eggs in fall and early winter must come prin¬
cipally from pullets. A hen that has laid faith¬
fully for nine or ten months is now in the midst
of her molt or just recovering from it. Conse¬
quently we must not expect her to do much in
the way of producing eggs. If she is of the
American breed she will lay now and then,
enough to pay for her keep, but nothing great.
So, as I have said, we must depend upon pullets.
But a pullet must be thoroughly mature before
she settles down to lay an egg a day.

The first rule for fall and winter egg produc¬
tion, therefore*, is this: Get out your pullets

48

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

Light Brahma Eggs Weighing 2 lbs. to the Dozen, Laid by Yeai-Old Pullets that Weighed 8 and 10 y2 lbs. Each. In the
Hand is Seen a Light Brahma Egg Contrasted with the Egg of a Buff Plymouth Rock Pullet; the Small

Egg Just Below was Laid by a Japanese Bantam.

early, and keep them growing from the day
they break the shell to the day they go into
their houses in the fall.

From Free Range into Confinement.

I have always advocated free range for grow¬
ing stock, but I question whether I shall do so
any longer. The man I have been telling you
about has a method of handling his birds that
seemed to me very peculiar at first, but which
the more I think of it the more it commends
itself to my judgment. He gives his laying hens
free range (except in winter), while he keeps his
chicks shut up in their yards.

Such a course is so antagonistic to the one
commonly pursued that it does not seem to u^
at first glance as if it could possibly be right.
And yet reflection shows us that it is based
on a sound philosophy. After a hen begins to
lay she acquires a certain momentum in egg
production and is not easily checked. The
change from confinement to free range, there¬

fore, does not interfere with the egg output; if
anything, it increases it.

Then, too, a year-old hen in confinement has
a tendency to become fat, and the range is
almost necessary to keep her in good condition.
She needs to be encouraged to take exercise.
But with a chick it is different. The little rest¬
less thing is on the move from morning until
night. Much of the food that is eaten goes to
repair the waste of tissue that comes from so
much exertion. If a chicken is left to itself it
will run about the fields until the snow flies,
wasting the days in useless exercise ; but if the
chick is kept in a yard 'where it cannot run
about so much a large proportion of the food
consumed goes to growth, and the chicken
reaches maturity much sooner than it 'would
otherwise.

The time is coming when it will not be thought
necessary to allow' chickens to range all over
creation, but they wall be brought up in small
yards and kept coming from the start. I
venture to say that a pullet brought up this way

49

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

will lay at least a month earlier than one that is
allowed free range.

House Influences Egg Production.

The house where the laying stock is kept has
a great influence upon winter egg production.
There is a man here in New Hampshire who keeps
seven thousand laying hens, in houses that are
open to the weather on one side — the south —
all the year round. While he is entitled to the
credit of demonstrating the fact that fresh air is
good for hens, yet it is safe to say that it is not
a very heavy job on his farm to gather the eggs
during the winter months.

The house must be dry, warm, sunny and
comfortable. Before the young birds are
placed in it in the fall, it should be thoroughly
renovated and whitewashed. If there is no
scratching shed, litter must be placed in the
house and the birds made to work for at least a
part of what they eat. Birds in confinement
need a moderate amount of exercise, although
they need not be kept on the jump from morn¬
ing until night. There should be a box in the
house with compartments for grit, charcoal and
oyster shells, and these compartments should
never be allowed to become empty. Eggs are
37.7 per cent, water, and so the water supply
should be carefully looked after.

, Generous Feeding Absolutely Necessary.

Generous feeding is absolutely necessary for
eggs in the fall and winter, and the food must
not only be generous in amount, but must also
contain all the ingredients that are necessary to
repair the waste in the bird’s system and pro¬
duce the egg. A balanced ration is best. By a
balanced ration I do not mean a ration mathe¬
matically and scientifically compounded, but I
mean a ration from which no important element
is absent.

A Four Days’ Bill of Fare.

Instead of entering into the philosophy of
feeding, which I have not time to do here, I can
do no better than give a bill of fare for four days
which has been thoroughly tested and will do
the business:

First Day: Potatoes boiled in the afternoon
or evening and allowed to stand in the water in
which they were boiled over night, eight quarts.
In the morning pour off the surplus water from
the potatoes, add the gluten, also add mixed
green feed, two quarts, corn and oats ground
and mixed (provender), two quarts. At noon

throw whole wheat in litter, two ounces to each
fowl.

Second Day: Waste bread, soaked over night,
eight quarts; beef scraps, two quarts; corn and
oats mixed (provender), two quarts. At noon
two ounces wheat or cracked corn to each fowl.

Third Day: Clover, chopped fine and soaked
over night, eight quarts. In the morning pour
off the surplus water and add two quarts flour
middlings, two quarts boiled beef and bone, two
quarts corn meal and oats. Cracked corn for
dinner, two ounces to each fowl.

Fourth Day: Whole oats, soaked over night,
eight quarts; gluten, soaked over night, four
quarts. Add in the morning two quarts shorts,
one quart beef and bone, two quarts corn and
oats, ground and mixed. Noon, cracked corn
or backweat.

The Mash and the Litter.

All are not situated so that they can feed as I
have described, but all can give their fowls a
warm mash in the morning in which there are
corn meal, oat meal, shorts or middlings, and a
little meat in some form. Feed them all they
will eat up clean in fifteen minutes, and at noon
give them enough grain in their litter to keep
them scratching until dark. Don’t feed corn
alon£. but vary by throwing in wheat, oats and
occasionally some other grain.

Green Food Every Day.

Green food should be given to the birds every
day, either in the mash or separately. Hang
up a cabbage in the pen for them to pick at.
Turnips, split in two and placed where they can
get at them, will be eaten with a relish.

Poultry Keeper.

When the Pullets Take to Laying.

At this time of the year we anxiously look day
by day for our first pullets’ eggs. Some early
hatched stock has been laying a week or two,
but November is the month for pullets’ eggs.

It is very important to place your pullets in
coops as they are intended to remain during the
fall and winter. It takes them a while to get
accustomed to their surroundings, or, in other
words, to feel at home. Fowls are great creat¬
ures of habit, and once they establish certain
habits they do not like to be disturbed. Mov¬
ing layers, therefore, from coop to coop simply
upsets their habits, and they begin all over again
to study the new situation, and during this time
they usually stop laying.

60

PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.

When pullets begin to lay they seem quite
uncertain. Some will lay regularly every other
day, and some only twice a week. Of coures
the first eggs are generally too small for use, or
at least for market use, but they increase grad¬
ually in size. It becomes quite a study to
keep pullets laying regularly. A regular system
of feeding has much to do with it. By regular
feeding is meant, not so much a regular hour as
a regular quantity at each meal. One day a
feast and the next a famine, will upset any flock
of layers, and especially pullets. Fowls, as a
rule, eat about so much at each meal, and it is
a very easy matter to determine just the quan¬
tity required. Feeding a little short during the
day induces exercise; and feeding all they will
eat at night brings contentment and quiet
roosting until morning. It is my opinion that
the majority of breeders, even our best, feed too
much, or feed injudiciously. Feeding layers to
produce eggs is a very delicate matter — I do not
mean to produce an ordinary number of eggs,
but to produce the greatest possible number.

Birds bred exclusively for show purposes, and
to produce prize winners, are usually poor
layers. This is not to be wondered at, if one
knows how such stock is bred and raised.
Early laying in such stock is discouraged. If
the breeder is saving a string of pullets for his
own show purposes, he prefers that they do
not lay before going in to a show, and to prevent
this he continually moves them from coop to
coop each time the laying tendency becomes
manifest. A pullet being at her best as to shape
and plumage before she lays her first eggs, it is
the object of such breeders to keep her so.

I consider that green food of some sort fed
every day in the year is really more important
in a continuous egg yield than a choice of grains.
Of course, in spring and summer, nature in the
fields produces green food enough and in suffi¬
cient variety, but in the fall and during the
winter, this green food ration should be kept up.
Cabbages, mangel wurzels and steamed clover,
together with boiled beets, carrots and turnips,
fill the bill almost as well.

The hardest task in maintaining a constant
and continuous egg yield is to keep the laying
stock in prime condition. This means such a
condition of perfect health that the eggs will not
only be laid regularly, but that they will be of
uniform size, according to the breed laying
them. Under such conditions, we should have
large eggs from Minorcas, Leghorns, Plymouth

Rocks and Brahmas. When such breeds lay
small eggs, abnormally large eggs with perhaps
double yolks or soft-shelled eggs, the stock is
out of condition and usually over-fat. The
eggs will thus be laid irregularly, and many
times laying will stop entirely. Layers should
be kept active, and activity is induced by short
feeding. A hungry hen is usually a good layer.

Some breeds, such as Leghorns, Minorcas, An¬
dalusians, etc., are by nature active, but still they
can be overfed. Other breeds, such as Brah¬
mas, Cochins and Leghorns, being naturally
slow in their movements, are less active, and
can be easily overfed. As a rule, lazy hens are
poor layers, and must be induced to exercise.
Hunger will compel activity more or less.
Some breeds are called good foragers. If hens
are inclined to forage, and they can do this in a
coop as well as in the fields, they must find some¬
thing after a diligent search. Scattering grain,
therefore, in very deep litter, will compel a great
deal of exercise to find it. A hen that seeks
and finds will be induced to seek again; but, if
after great efforts in scratching, she finds
nothing, she will become discouraged and wait
for feed time, and then eat too much, and thus
contract lazy habits.

A very successful egg farmer once told me
that in winter he always had something in his
coops for his hens to pick at — scattered grain,
a cabbage hanging up, and even bones with a
little meat on them, always something to find in
order that his flock should not contract lazy
habits. In this he was humoring the natural
instinct of the animal. A hen let run at large
is almost always hunting, picking and scratching
— first at a blade of grass, then a bug, then a
worm, and next a seed. I think yarded hens
lay more eggs than fowls let run. They cost
more to keep, but the returns in eggs are usually
larger. The fact is that yarded hens fed on
food which is chosen because it will make eggs,
convert this food into eggs, as it is intended they
should, whereas if let run and fed the same way,
they are apt to convert the food into flesh and
muscle rather than eggs.

Feeding for a continuous egg yield requires
good judgment, and a great deal of careful
watching in order to keep the flock in prime
condition. A good laying strain of any breed,
when in prime condition, will lay eggs regularly
like clock work, but it requires care and con¬
stant watching to keep the machinery in order.

E. 0. Roessle, in “Country Gentleman. ”

51

Chapter IV.

PULLETS FOR LAYERS. YEAR-OLD HENS FOR BREEDERS. THE WINTER

EGGS PAY THE BEST PROFIT.

~HE one object of all poultry keeping is
^ profit, and as in practical egg farming
it is the fall and winter eggs that pay
e) the best profit, it is necessary that we
study the conditions favorable to get¬
ting eggs in fall and winter if we would have
that best profit. It is very generally conceded
by observing poultrymen that the pullets are
the early winter layers, hence it is obvious that
we must look to the pullets for the eggs that
pay that best profit. It is equally well under¬
stood, by experienced egg farmers, that to be
good fall and winter layers, these pullets must
have been early hatched, and have been kept
growing so that they come to fidl size and laying
maturity before the cold weather of winter
overtakes them ; indeed, the writer has frequent¬
ly expressed the opinion that the key note to the
best profit from poultry can be laid down in
these three short rules :

First: Hatch the chicks early.

Second: Keep them growing so that the
pullets shall come to laying maturity before
cold weather.

Third : Keep them laying by good care and
good food.

The full story of profitable egg farming is
condensed into those three short rules.

It is equally well understood that the chicks
hatched from the eggs of pullets are generally
slightly smaller, and are likely to be less hardy
and vigorous than the chicks from the eggs of
year-old hens, and the wisest poultry man
hatches the chicks which are to be the future
laving-breeding stock from the eggs of year-old
hens. This principle of pullets for layers and
year-old hens for breeders makes it easy to plan
our method of procedure. To get the best all¬
round results, three-fourths of our stock should
be early hatched and well matured pullets,
we will get the bulk of the early fall and winter
eggs from them, — the eggs which pay the
creamy profit; and by selecting for the future

breeders the best layers among those pullets
and breeding from them when they are year-old
hens, we will strengthen the laying habit and
thus increase and develop' it. It is well known
that not every pullet hatched from eggs pro¬
duced by a great layer will be a great layer,
just as it is known that not every colt from
record trotting ancestry will prove a great
trotter; still we will get the best results if we
breed from stock of known great-laying an¬
cestry, because by breeding from that stock we
will strengthen and develop the egg-producing
quality.

In this chapter we give numerous articles
which show, also a report of a poultry experi¬
ment conducted at the Utah Agricultural Ex¬
periment Station, the illustrations accom¬
panying which clearly show, that it is to the
pullets that we must look for profitable egg
production. With a certainty better average
size of the egg, and consequently better size of
the chick hatched from the egg (even with a
lesser egg yield), the year-old hens will be profit¬
able to us if we consider them chiefly as breeding
stock; they will not lay so many eggs at the
time of the highest prices, but during the breed¬
ing season, when we want their eggs the most,
they will be practically as good egg producers
as the pullets; the profit of keeping year-old
hens is in the greater strength and vigor of the
young chicks hatched from their eggs, and that
greater strength and vigor is of itself a good
profit for keeping them. We must have great
strength and vigor in our laying stock if they are
to be realty great layers. This point is well
brought out in Bulletin No. 79 of the Maine
Agricultural Experiment Station which reports
poultry experiments in the years J900 and 1901.
In that report is given the egg records for two
years of the many tested birds, and this state¬
ment is made:

“Every hen that has laid large numbers of
eggs through the first two years, has shown

52

PULLETS FOR LAYERS.

much vigor and constitution.” This strong
statement will be no surprise to an experienced
poultryman, and is worth quoting here because
we want to emphasize the fact of the necessity
of the greater strength and vigor, which we get
in chicks hatched from the eggs of year-old
breeding stock. This same bulletin of the
Maine Experiment Station reports the results of
breeding from known great layers, and by thus
breeding it has developed the egg laying tend¬
ency of the stock. In their breeding pens are
hens that have laid over 200 eggs each within
the year, and the best layer of all laid 251 eggs
within a year of reaching laying maturity. One
is reported which laid 201 eggs the first year,
140 the second and 130 the third year; making
a total of 471 eggs within the three years;
another hen laid 191 eggs the first year, 157
the second year and 138 the third year, making
486 eggs in the three years. The bulletin goes
on to say, “ During the three years in which we
have been selecting breeding stock bv use of
trap nests we have found 30 hens that laid be¬
tween 200 and 251 eggs in a year. All of the
other breeding stock we are now carrying are
tested hens that have laid over 180 eggs in a year,
pullets whose mothers laid over 200 eggs in one
year and whose fathers’ mothers laid over
200 eggs in one year; and pullets sired by
cockerels whose mothers and grandmothers laid
over 200 eggs in one year.” It is a pleasure to
quote these statements, they so capitally illus¬
trate the importance of breeding up the egg-
producing habit; by following in the foot steps
of the Maine Experiment Station people we will
substantially improve the laying qualities of
our stock.

A point frequently overlooked in connection
with pullets for layers is, that if the hens are all
kept over a second, third and fourth year they
occupy the house room and are eating food of
pullets which would pay double the profit. We
do not claim that a pullet would lay twice as
many eggs as a hen, the point we want to bring
out is, that a greater proportion of the pullets’
eggs are produced at the time when prices are
highest and pay the best profit. Eggs are high
in price at that time because the hens have not
recovered from the molt and are taking a rest,
and also because many of the pullets are late
hatched and have not begun to lay. If we are
so fortunate as to have early hatched and well
matured pullets laying at that time we are

getting the “ cream ” of the profit from egg pro¬
duction.

Another point which we need to keep in mind
is,, that if the hens are kept over we lose the
amount which they would sell for, anti if we
have got good stock the amount the hens sell for
materially increases the profit account.

A few weeks ago the writer was visiting Chi¬
cago and was told of an Illinois farmer who
shipped some coops of Plymouth Rock hens to a
South Water Street commission dealer the week
before, the hens met a 15 cent market and
returned the farmer Si. 07 each after freight
and commission were paid. Obviously if this
Illinois farmer had kept over those hens he would
not have received that Si. 07 each.

Some writers claim that the cost of raising
pullets to take the place of the year-old or two-
year-old hens must be considerable, but we
have proved, year after year, that the cockerels
hatched with the pullets can be sold at from
four to five months old for enough to pay for all
the food eaten by both themselves and the
pullets, hence, considering the cockerels as
simply a by-product, the pullets cost nothing
for the food they have eaten up to laying
maturity. Some will be inclined to doubt this
statement, but, as we stated before, we demon¬
strated it again and again, and can prove that
the pullets at laying maturity cost absolutely
nothing but the labor of caring for them; obvi¬
ously then, all of the money received for the
sale of the year or two-year-old hens is clear
gain.

It is the old familiar story of the slow shilling
and the nimble sixpence; the latter pays its
owner many times more interest than the slow
shilling. The pullets not only pay us the better
profit in the increased number of eggs produced,
but the failure to sell the old hens entails the
expense of house room and food which could
have been used by more profitable pullets,
which would be so much better layers; and it
also cuts us off from the income of the sale of the
hens themselves.

With these several points of advantage clearly
in mind we think our readers will understand
the importance of the motto, — “ Pullets for
layers, and year-old hens for breeders.”

53

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Four Thousand Eggs in December,

We didn’t quite do it — the exact figures being
8,957— but we expected to pass the 4,000 mark,
and up to Christmas day there was every indi¬
cation that we would do so; but our young
man went home for a week’s vacation, and the
eggs dropped off a little — one here, another
there, possibly owing to slight difference in
quantity of food, and we were 43 eggs short of
our ambition.

The record is perfectly satisfactory as it is;
we have no hard feelings toward the birds that
gave us Si 30 worth of eggs in thirty-one days,
and we feel that not many of our readers can
beat that record.

We have 90 year-old fowls, and 290 pullets,
and their total egg-yield for each day was :

Dec. 1 .

. Ill

Dec. 17. . . .

. 116

9

. 105

18. . . .

. 142

3 .

. 112

19. . . .

. 142

4 .

. 127

20. . . .

. 120

5 .

. 117

21. . . .

. 147

6 .

. 124

22

. 120

7 .

. 123

23. . . .

. 152

8 .

. 115

24. . . .

. 140

9 .

. 120

25. . . .

. 132

10 .

. 143

26 ... .

. 136

11 .

. 109

27. . . .

. 150

12 .

. 125

28. . . .

. 136

13 .

. 132

29 ... .

. 118

14 .

. 127

30 ... .

. 125

15 .

. 129

31. . . .

. 136

16 .

. 126

Total .

. . . .3,957

This is an average of almost ten and one-half
eggs per hen for the month, and quite as much
as can reasonably be expected. If one is getting
•j (33^%) egg yield in December, he is doing all
that he has a right to expect. Many of the old
hens haven’t fully recovered from the drain of
the molt; and pullets do not (as a rule) pro¬
duce an egg every other day in early winter.
We have one pen of pullets that did. One pen
of Leghorn — Lt. Brahma cross, laid an average
of 154 eggs apiece — exactly 50% egg-yield;
and a pen of White Wyandotte pullets laid an
average of 14^ eggs apiece, a very close second.

It is easily apparent that it is the pullets that
produced this highly satisfactory egg-yield.
The 290 pullets laid 3,373 eggs, an average of
(practically) Ilf eggs apiece; while the 90 year-
old hens laid but 584 eggs, (practically)

White Wyandotte Eggs Weighing Two Pounds to the Dozen.

This is the kind of eggs that the housekeepers crave
and will pay a Handsome Premium for.

From the Poultry Farm of
Barnes & Woodbury,

VVenham, Mass.

eggs apiece, a difference of about 90% in favor
of the pullets.

The price of eggs has been 40 cents a dozen
for most of the month, and the market value
of these eggs is $130. It costs us about $1.35 to
feed a fowl a year, which is Ilf cents a month,
making a cost of feeding these 380 fowls for that
month, $42.75, leaving us a profit of $87.25 —
a pretty fair return for one month’s work, and
that the dull month of December. The profit,
however, is really greater than that. Those
fowls have got to lie fed whether or not they are
laying. A certain amount of food has got to
be fed them to repair waste and furnish fuel for
necessary warmth; those animal economies
must be met first, and it is only when there is a
surplus over and above these calls, that there
are eggs produced. It is usually estimated that
it costs $1 a year to feed a fowl, which is 8f
cents a month, making $31.67 for a month’s
food for 380 fowls, and that allows $11.08 for
the surplus — the meat meal, green food, etc.,
which induced the egg-yield.

There was no “ happen so ” about those eggs.
They were planned for long ago. The pullets
that laid them were hatched early, were fed for
growth, so that a good many were laying in
October, and since November they were fed for
eggs, and they have been kept at work.

Farm Poultry.

54

PULLETS FOR LAYERS.

PULLETS VS. HENS r AS PROFITABLE
LAYERS.

The Pullets Excel Yearling Hens and Greatly
Excel Three and Four-Year-Old
Hens — Reliable Data from a
Reliable Source.

Age may bring reason to the hen, as it some¬
times does in the case of a man; it may bring
her experience and with experience wisdom, as
occasionally happens to her owner. But does
age with its reason and experience with its
wisdom, assist the hen in the production of eggs?
That is the question that appeals to the practical
poultry man.

Having in view the interests of this class of
poultry keepers, experiments were inaugurated
at the Utah Experiment Station to test the
relative egg-producing capacity of hens at
different ages. Two pens of three and four year
olds were placed in “ competition” with two pens
of pullets. The breed was Rose Comb Brown
Leghorn in each case, and the strain was the
same. There were four fowls in each pen. The
pens were 5 feet by 7 feet, and attached to each
was an outside yard 5 x 40 feet.

The following table gives the average results
of the experiment for the first year, 1896-7 :

Weight of Food Consumed Per Fowl, in
Pounds and Cost of Same.

Number of
Eggs Produced
and Value.

Mash.

Wheat.

Bones.

Corn.

| Oats.

Barley.

Lucerne.

| Cabbage.

Cost. J

No. of
Eggs.

Value.

1

Food Cost
Per Doz.

Per Cent
Profit.

Cts.

Cts.

Cts.

Old Hens (1).. 10

2 2%

10

6

11

1

5 3

53% ! 64

56

9.9

5

Old Hens (2).. 10

27

10 %

6%

14

1

4% 4

62 107

100

6.9

61

57% 85

61% 158

78

8.4

33

Pullets (t) . 10

25

10%

6

14

1

4% 7

168

4 6

174

Pullets (2) . 10

27

ioy2

6%

14

1

4% 4

62 182

188

4 1

203

b2 170

178

4.4

188

-

- -

It will be seen from the above that the two
pens of old hens laid an average of 85 eggs per
fowl during the year, while the two pens of pul¬
lets laid 170, or exactly double the number laid
by the former. The value of the eggs laid by the
old hens was 78 cents per fowl, and by the latter
$1.78 per fowl. The cost of the food required
to produce a dozen eggs was 8.4 cents for the old
hens and 4.4 cents for the pullets.

The pullets of 1896-7 were continued as one-
year-old hens the second year, 1897-8, with
addition of another fowl of like age, breed, and
former treatment, to each pen, making five
fowls in each during the second year. The

results of their second year’s work are given in
the following table.

It is seen that pen 1 laid during the second
year an average of 150.8 eggs per fowl, against
158 the first year. Pen 2 laid 114.2 the second
year against 182 the first. They averaged^the
first year 170 per fowl and 132.5 the second
year. As pullets their eggs were worth an
average of $1.78 per fowl, and as one-j’ear-old
hens they averaged $1.40, a difference of 38
cents in favor of the first year’s laying. But
the profit from the two is another question.
Deducting the cost of food in each case we find
that the profit was $1.16 per fowl the first year
and 76 cents the second year. That makes
the per cent, profit on food the first year 188
and 118 the second.

These figures will afford some basis for discus¬
sion of the question, does it pay to keep hens
two years? Figuring on food cost alone there
is a very satisfactory profit the second year as
well as the first; so that it does pay when food
cost alone is considered. But then there are
other items of cost — labor, a yet unknown
quantity, and interest on investment. The
expense of keeping a pullet is no greater than
that of a hen, and these figures show that the
profit was some 50 per cent, greater for the pullet
than the year-old hen. For ease of calculation
suppose a man can care for a thousand hens.
If they are pullets, according to these results,
they will yield a profit on food of $1,160 per
year. If they are one-year-old hens the profit
will be $760. In the one case the man will have
$1,160 for his labor, interest on investment, etc.,
and $760 in the other case; a difference of $400
in favor of killing off the hens at the end of the
first year. As he can care for only a limited
number of hens it certainly would pay him to
renew his flock every year, assuming that the
cost of replacing the hen with a pullet can be
paid with the money received from the sale of
the hen. But the life of the great majority of
the hens of the country is doubtless longer than.

55

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING,

Baskets of eggs representing the number produced per
year by pullets, hens one year old and old hens. Fig. 1.
Pullets: Fig; 2, Hens one year old: Fig. 3, Hens three and
four years old.

56

PULLETS FOR LAYERS.

two years. If we refer again to table 1, we see
that the average value of the eggs produced per
fowl of old hens was 78 cents. Their food cost
57^ cents, leaving only 20 cents profit on food.
With a thousand such hens there would be left
only $200 to pay for labor and interest on in¬
vestment, as against $1,160 in the case of pullets
and $760 for one-year-old hens.

In the above I have given the data obtained
in a two years’ experiment. The results may
be modified in further experiments. They are
being continued at the Station and the third
year will be completed in November.

All pens were fed alike, except as to quantity.
A mash composed of two parts bran and shorts
and one part each of chopped corn and oats, was
fed in the morning. About 10 o’clock a little
grain was fed. Three times a week cut bones
were fed. Cabbages were fed until about the
first of March, after which, and until green grass
could be secured, lucerne leaves were fed dry.
This was scattered in the pens. During the
summer green grass was thrown into the pens.
No stimulating food was fed, except a little
cayenne pepper in the morning mash. Salt was
also used in the mash. During the winter coal
ashes were kept before the fowls, also a little
gravel. No oyster shells were fed until the
middle of the summer.

Though it is not a part of my subject, it may
be mentioned incidentally that this experiment
involved a test of the value of exercise. The
pens marked (1) received their grain food in a
box; the others (2) were fed in a litter of straw
on the floor, inducing exercise.

Eggs in Winter.

The poultryman, or the housewife, who fails
to get eggs during the cold months of the year is
not getting the best returns possible, and runs
very close to making a bad showing of the year’s
work. It seems strange to meet the apparently
indifferent feeling of many as regards winter pro¬
duction. Some will tell you that you cannot
get many eggs in winter. Others say it does not
pay for the extra work to produce the eggs dur¬
ing cold weather. You may be sure that these
doubtful poultry keepers do not get many winter
eggs, and probably have to buy of some neighbor
who has good “ luck. ”

In my experience with poultrymen I have
known only one who failed to get winter eggs,
who ever had the courage to expand his poultry
plant, and he succeeded only because he was

catering to a fancy egg demand at three dollars
per sitting. I have noticed that quite a num¬
ber who do not advocate winter egg-production
have only an ordinary egg yield in other months
of the year, while those who do succeed in get¬
ting winter eggs have just as large a supply in
spring and summer. Another side to winter egg
yield is the pleasant results when eggs from these
layers are set in spring, as they are most sure to
be fertile.

Eggs can be had in winter. In Canada, in the
Northwest, in New England, and in the South,
wherever we turn our eyes, we see those who are
getting good results in winter. If others are
succeeding you can. You may be discouraged
because no one in your town is getting winter
eggs, and you fear you cannot. I think if you
inquire at the store, you will find that there is
someone near you who is quietly bringing to
market eggs every month of the year. Look up
such a one, call and ask questions, and you will
get plain answers. Do not be satisfied until you
get out of your poultry all it is possible, both of
profit and pleasure.

In order to begin to get eggs by November, it
is necessary to have well matured birds. Brah¬
mas and Cochins should be hatched in March,
Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks in April, Leg¬
horns and Minorcas in May or June. Under the
best conditions, birds may be hatched later than
the months stated, but for all-round success,
the time given will be found about right.

The early hatched birds should not have to
fight for existence. Keep lice under control
from the egg to the laying age. Feed for growth,
many poultrymen fail just here. The feeding
ration must contain all elements needed for
building a living creature. It does not pay to
take the chance of a bird finding for itself any
special line of food. Buy only sound food. Do
not use any grain that is musty or sour, because
it is cheap. Less in quantity of better grain
will give as good results, and you will not run
the risk of sick birds from bad food. Feed
wheat and barley rather than all corn. Do not
depend on bugs to supply animal food, but feed
every day something in the way of ground meat
or green bone. Fresh water is necessary to get
the best results from good and proper care.

As chicks and young pullets, the birds must
have air and sunlight. Do not at any time
allow the chicks to be crowded. Have wire
front to coops, giving safety from enemies, while
air is admitted freely. Give the growing birds

6T

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

all the run possible, cooping out on grass
fields after haying. If this is not possible, do
the best you can, supplying green food and not
raising too many birds. When the cockerels are
half grown, remove them to some other yard,
giving their room to the pullets.

The most important prerequisite to success is
birds with the winter laying habit. By giving
the right care, you can do much with any birds
to increase the winter egg yield, but good solid
success only comes when you have good working
birds to use. Bv selecting the best layers to
breed from each year, you can build up a pro¬
lific strain. Buying a male bird of known pedi¬
gree for winter laying, and mating him with the
best hens you will hasten the time when you
will be getting good results.

In the long run, it pays to start as soon as
you can, with birds that have fixed in them the
laying habit. If you have no such birds, be on
the lookout for eggs or stock from prolific layers.
No matter what birds you prefer or need for
your special purpose, you will find that there is a
wide difference in the laying on various poultry
plants. It is not always the ordinary bird that
does the extraordinary laying. On the con¬
trary, we find today many prolific layers that
are high scorers. Fancy breeders are giving
more attention than ever before to attaining
utility as well as show points. Blood does tell
in a hen, as well as in a horse or cow. Build up
an egg strain, and in time you will get j*our re¬
ward.

Whatever the condition of the birds you may
have to depend upon for your winter layers,
much can be done to get the best results. Get
the pullets into their winter quarters early.
This enables them to settle down and become at
home. Have the house well whitewashed, and
free from red mites. Clean up all floors and
windows. Dust every bird with some good in¬
sect powder, and repeat in two weeks. In car¬
ing for the birds, be quiet as possible, making no
motion that they consider to mean danger to
them. By all means keep the dog out of the
house and yard.

The house should be water tight, with no
cracks to let a current of cold air onto the birds.
The open front scratching shed house has helped
solve to a large extent the keeping of healthy
stock, and the getting of eggs in the off season
of the year. The hens are so warmly clad that
they will stand a low temperture, provided they
receive proper food and are obliged to scratch

for their grain. The trouble from the old time
house was danger from extremes of temperature.
The tight house would warm at midday to SO or
90 degrees and cool down to 10 or 20 degrees at
night. Hens well fed and kept busy will pay
little attention to freezing weather.

Scratching material must be furnished with
free hand. This may be cheap hay, straw,
leaves, or corn fodder. It will need little cutting
as the birds will soon work it up fine enough if
fed their grain in it. Clean water and sharp
grit must always be within reach. To depend,
even partially, on snow and gravel, is to take
serious chances of failure.

Feeding the mash in the morning give only
what the birds will eat at once, keeping them in
a condition to be willing to hunt in the litter for
stray grain. At noon a light feed of grain or
barley is scattered in the straw, and the hens
scratch, sing and lay. The busy hen is the busi¬
ness hen.

The supper should be a full feed of wheat or
corn. Too many farmers depend upon corn and
corn meal for poultry food. Corn is the most
unbalanced grain we have in use. If not sure
how to feed it, err by using little of it.

When using the mash suggested above don’t
give green bone. If you wish to use cut bone,
feed it twice a week, at noon, giving what the
birds will eat quickly, having omitted from that
morning’s mash all animal food. Cut clover
may be fed in the mash or by itself.

Be quick to notice anything wrong about the
birds. Know your best layers and hatch from
them each spring. Of their chicks mark those
that mature early and prove prolific layers. In
buying fresh blood see that you get birds or eggs
from good layers. It is not necessary to use
crosses to get good layers. In fact, the thorough¬
breds have got ahead of the old barnyard fowl or
cross. In the cold North, I should prefer to
take my chances of success with the medium¬
sized birds, such as Wyandottes or Plymouth
Rocks. Whatever breed you keep, do not be
satisfied until you have as good a winter egg
record as has been recorded for the variety.

There is a pleasure in getting eggs when they
are high in price, not only for the cash they
bring, but also for the satisfaction that comes
from succeeding in what we try to accomplish.
The foundation upon which to build the success¬
ful poultry plant is winter eggs.

Dr. N. W. Sanborn*,

In “ Farm Poultry. ”

58

Chapter V.

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS. HOUSES AND YARDS; CONTINUOUS HOUSES WITH
YARDS; COLONY POULTRY HOUSES. MANY SUCCESSFUL POULTRY
PLANTS ILLUSTRATED AND DESCRIBED.

T"* HERE are many practical egg farms
4. in the Eastern States, and in this
chapter we give several accounts of
2) visits made to, and observations
upon, several of those practical egg
farms, with the purpose of contrasting methods
and suggesting instructive comparisons.

A study of these various articles will reveal
that the great majority of these poultry farmers
house and yard their stock upon what we may
define as the continuous-house plan. The con¬
sensus of opinion among observant poultry-
men is to the effect that yarded fowls are greater
egg producers than fowls given free range, — the
theory being that fowls kept on the semi-con¬
finement plan, (that is, kept confined to houses
and yards), do not waste food-energy in ranging
widely. Experienced dairy farmers have
learned that cows yielded a substantially more
liberal milk-flow if fed at the stable by the soil¬
ing system, and given perhaps two or three hours
of outdoor exercise daily to keep them in good
health, than if permitted to range widely; and
as the conditions of milch cows and of fowls
kept for egg production are decidedly anal¬
ogous, it seems reasonable to think that fowls
which are somewhat restricted as to exercise,
will have more energy for egg production.

Where fowls are kept confined to houses and
yards, scrupulous attention must be paid to
cleanliness of floors, nests, roost-platforms, etc.,
exercise must be promoted in winter when the
birds are shut in by inclement weather or snow
on the ground, and plentiful supplies of animal
and vegetable food must be provided; growing
careless as to some of these essentials has fre-
quently been the first step on the road to failure !

It is the opinion of many poultrymen that the
disadvantages of the colony-house plan de¬
cidedly outweigh the theoretical advantages,
and Ave know of poultry farms where the semi¬

confinement plan has been adopted after giving
the colony-house plan a full trial, it having been
found that there was a decidedly greater cost in
caring for the foAvls and smaller proportionate
returns, also that in inclement Aveather, (the
very time when most needed), regularity of feed¬
ing and watering was extremely difficult. In
mild climates these objections would haA'e less
Aveight, and there are situations Avhere the
colony-plan would be most desirable, such as on
a fruit farm where the services of the birds as
insect exterminators and sca\rengers avouIc! be
decided helpful. The unprotected condition of
the birds at all times would need to be con¬
sidered, as both tAvo and four legged enemies
have to be guarded against; in the one locality
AA'here colony egg farms haA'e been most success¬
ful, in the toAvns of Tiverton and Little Comp¬
ton, R. I., and the adjoining town of Westport,
Mass., the conditions are exceptionally favor-
able ; it being practically a peninsula extend¬
ing out into the sea and with no railroad or other
disturbing factor. Other things being favor¬
able, protection could be provided by a strong
woven- wire fence enclosing the tract and a brace
of stout dogs turned loose in the enclosure at
night.

If foAA’ls are to be confined in houses and yards,
it is economical of both labor and fencing ma¬
terial to build the houses upon the continuous-
pen plan, or on what might be called the semi¬
detached house plan. In the one case the at¬
tendant is wholly under cover in going from pen
to pen, and in the other there is some exposure
in the short distance between the houses ; in the
colony-house plan there is considerable ex¬
posure in traveling over the farm, visiting the
different houses to do the essential work of feed¬
ing and watering and collecting the eggs.

Where foAvls are kept confined in houses and
yards their bodily wants must be carefully at-

59

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Colony Houses for Laying Stock, Lakewood Farm.

tended to, — and regular supplies of green food,
animal food, etc., must be given. Where fowls
are kept on the colony plan and allowed free
range, they will supply themselves with green
food; and, in summer time, when worms, in¬
sects, etc., are abundant, they will supply them¬
selves with considerable animal food. Most of
the colony-house egg farms which we had the
pleasure to visit, were established before the
method of “dry-feeding” had received much
consideration, and the decided success of the
dry-feeding method may cause us to revise our
estimates somewhat. With fowls cared for by
the dry-feeding method, with food and beef
scraps constantly accessible, they do not roam
far and give better all-round results than when
they are fed twice daily by the attendant, and
are given a mash food in the morning and hard
grain at night. This thought is suggested by
some correspondence which the writer has re¬
cently had with some gentlemen of a Missouri
corporation, relative to the establishing of an
egg farm in connection with a 3.000 acre fruit
ranch in that State. Obviously the colony-
house plan would be the only plan for such a
combination business, and equally obviously
the dry-feeding method would decidedly facil¬
itate economy of operation, as well as give
better returns.

Some of the advantages of continuous-house
egg farms are the housing and yarding of large
numbers of birds in a comparatively small
space — say 400 or 500 birds to the acre — and
grouping the houses and yards about the farm-
buildings, there is coupled with this method the
disadvantages of decided increase in cost of con¬
struction, — the expense of building and main¬

taining fences, practically doubles the cost of
construction. Opinions differ as to the economy
of operating. The more constant attention re¬
quired by fowls confined in houses and yards,
with an average round of six visits per day to
each pen, (three for the morning, noon and night
feeding, two for watering and one for collecting
the eggs), is full)'- balanced if not outweighed, by
the greater time consumed in going around to
fifty or one hundred houses set 150 to 200 feet
apart, two or three times a day by man and
horse.

It is important that a plan of operating be
carefully considered, and the poultry plant con¬
structed to facilitate the operating. Many poul¬
try plants are just a “happen-so,” having been
built from time to time as the circumstances and
inclinations of the owner favored, and not in¬
frequently one is found that has become un¬
wieldy, has become so top-heavy it is impossible
to carry it on advantageously. One does not
need to have elaborate and expensive buildings,
but the houses for the stock must be dry, free
from draughts, and so situated that they can
have the maximum of sunshine in the winter ;
and they should be so planned that the essential
labor of caring for the flocks is favored as much
as possible. The conditions that promote the
best health of the birds must not be sacrificed
to the “convenience” of the caretaker, how¬
ever. and those conditions are absolute dryness
of the pens, sunshine and fresh air, fresh, clean
water and an adequate supply of proper food.
House plans and yard plans are fully treated of
in Book No. 3 of this series of Practical Poultry
Books, hence we do not need to consider house
plans in this book; our interest is the basic
principles of profitable egg farming.

60

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Breeding House and Yards, Lakewood Farm.

A GREAT EGG FARM.

How Two Young Men are Building up a Profit¬
able Business. Strictly Fresh Eggs in
Demand.

It is very interesting to visit a large poultry
plant soon after it has got under way, and, in¬
deed, while it is still in process of construction,
and such was my pleasure a few weeks ago when
I visited Lakewood Poultry Farm, Burrsville,
N. J. Lakewood is widely celebrated for its
mild winter climate, and its attractiveness as a
winter resort is well known. Situated on the
eastern-central shore of New Jersey, but a few
miles back from the coast, Lakewood air is dry
and warm for such a northern latitude, and that
section of the State is much resorted to by peo¬
ple with delicate throats and a tendency to
lung troubles. It was an affliction of this kind
that brought Mr. A. S. Brown to Lakewood, and
the region so strongly attracted him that he
bought a farm of about 90 acres at Burrsville,
situated on the State road, four or five miles
from Lakewood and about half way between
that town and the ocean. Here the Lakewood
Poultry Farm was established and a young
friend, Mr. Ammidown, was taken into partner¬
ship.

The proprietors of Lakewood Poultry Farm
are working partners, as is evidenced by the fact
that Mr. Brown was pointed out to me at work
down in the field, where I found him putting in
the foundation of a new colony poultry house,
and shortly afterwards we found Mr. Ammidown

feeding the chickens in the long brooder house.

The introductions and greetings over, Mr.
Brown began right where we were standing by
telling us something of the methods of erecting
poultry houses there on the south Jersey sandy
land. The method is simply to set posts in the
ground below the possible frost line, the tops
being cut off a foot above the ground level,
hemlock boards are nailed to the foundation
posts and the ground filled in to the level of the
sills by simply shoveling the sandy soil into the
inclosed space; with land consisting almost
wholly of sand, there is no trouble about the
drainage, water sinks into it immediately, and
it carries with it the wash from the droppings,
so that with reasonable care the soil does not
become poisoned by the accumulated droppings.

The farm consists of about ninety acres of
land, one-half of which is still in the native
woods; and most of the cleared land is set in
fruit trees. At the time of our visit they were
keeping about 2,500 head of laying fowls, White
Wyandottes and Single Comb White Leghorns,
and buildings being erected were planned to
increase the capacity to about double the
number, — it is the intention to carry about
5,000 head of laying stock each winter. The
business began with supplying strictly fresh
eggs to a select city trade, and has grown to in¬
clude the furnishing of strictly fresh, unfertil¬
ized eggs to hospitals and other public institu¬
tions. The trade, originally in New York City,
has been extended to the city of Newark, and

61

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Brooder House and Yards, Lakewood Farm.

calls from the numerous hotels in Lakewood
and other cities receive attention as the supply
of eggs permits. As Mr. Brown expresses it,
there is no trouble whatever in finding a market,
the only difficulty is to get eggs enough to supply
the demand already in sight!

This farm embodies both the colony-house
plan and the continuous-house plan. Across
the road from the dwelling is a group of twelve
colony houses, set about 150 feet apart, in which

were some 600 head of White Leghorns ranging
at will over the adjoining territory; a 6-foot
woven wire fence encloses the whole tract and
serves to confine the roaming birds, and also
protects them against the depredations of four-
footed enemies. Those colony houses are differ¬
ent from most, in that they are set up from the
ground about three feet, the space beneath
being an open-front scratching shed. The
roosting apartment above is 8 x 12 feet in size,
has two half-sash windows in the
front, and furnishes a comfortable
home for fifty birds, with the scratch-
ing-shed basement and the liberty to
range outside. An objection to the
low, basement-scratching-shed would
be that the birds would lay some eggs
in there, and it would be vexatious to
creep into such # low space to secure
the eggs; Mr. Brown said that they
had not found this a serious objection,
but as they had banks of nests in the
open basement as well as in the roost¬
ing room above, almost all of the eggs
were gathered from the nests. Other
colony houses are scattered through
the woods east of the farm buildings,
and these were used for carrying the
surplus males and surplus stock general¬
ly through the winter, and in sum¬
mer the birds selected for future breed¬
ers will be colonized in them while
the yards of the regular breeding houses
are being seeded down. Four long
houses, each 128 x 16 feet, were occu¬
pied by laying-breeding stock, and
others were being built at the time
of oui visit. These long houses are

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Interior of Brooder House, Lakewood Farm.

divided into pens 16 x 16 ft., each pen having
a door opening into it at the back, the
front being made up of three windows which
slide. — the right and left hand sash sliding the
one in front of and the other behind the center
one, making the pen two-thircls open-front.
An enclosed roosting apartment is made after
the plan of the Maine Agricultural Experiment
Station curtained-front house. This roosting
apartment is two and a half feet above the floor,
and has a solid matched board floor 3 feet wide
by 13 feet long, and a solid matched partition
at the end next the door in rear of pen, — the
solid matched board partition between the pens
makes the other end. A curtain attached to a
swinging frame is hinged to the roof, swinging
out and up, and is hooked up out of the way
when not in use. It is only necessary to close
this curtain in front of the roosting pen on the
very coldest nights of winter, — for ordinary
weather the closing of the sliding-sash-front is
sufficient.

The yards in front of these pens are 90 feet
long by 16 feet wide and have a scratching pen
8 feet in depth by 16 feet of width of the yard,
at the far end, and into the litter in these scratch¬
ing pens, all the grain food is thrown when the
birds can be fed out of doors. In addition to
these long laying-houses there are three breed¬

ing houses 128 feet long, built upon the well-
known Cyphers plan, of scratching pen in front
of the laying-roosting pen, and the yards of
these houses also have the scratching pen at the
south end.

A commodious grain-cook house furnishes
store room for foods and work room as well, and
the basement is a light and well ventilated in¬
cubator cellar, occupied by nine 360-egg Cyphers
incubators, which were running at their full
capacity. On the other side of the farm build¬
ings is a 110 feet long hot water pipe brooder
house built on the Cyphers plan, with electric
regulator, and the thousand or so baby chicks
were enjoying a ration of Cyphers Chick Food
as we looked them over. The houses all have
sand floors, and when we asked Mr. Brown if
they were bothered by rats, he laughingly said,
“ No, we drove them all away to the neighbors !”
AVe were surprised to learn that ’possums had
bothered them some, but vigorous hunting
cured that affliction. It is interesting to know
that not one bird had died from disease there
in the past year. This speaks volumes for the
healthfulness of the stock, or the healthfulness
of the sandy soil there, or the correct methods
employed; more probably, however, of a com¬
bination of the three. To lose not one bird
by disease in a total of 2,500 carried through

63

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Feed and Cook House, Lakewood Farm.

the winter is certainly remarkable. The eggs
are shipped every day excepting Sunday, and
the eggs of yesterday are being used by their
customers today; from three to five cases being
the daily shipment.

In addition to their fancy “strictly fresh”
egg trade they are raising summer broilers for
the near-by sea-shore trade, and this line of
work promises to be decidedly profitable. Here
is a most promising poultry business already
developed, and with the addition of the selling
of eggs for hatching and breeding stock of their
two popular varieties there is a brilliant future
in store for Lakewood Poultry Farm.

A NEW ENGLAND EGG FARM.

Specializing Poultry Work; 1,500 Rhode Island

Reds Bred for Business and Thoroughbred
Excellence.

This is an age of specializing and we are
rapidly becoming a nation of specialists.
Whether a man is in a profession, trade, or other
field of endeavor he must choose some specialty
and work that for all there is in it, if he would

reap a harvest of golden shekels. This is par¬
ticularly true of poultry work, and we find our
most successful poultrymen of today are
specialists. True we may, and often do, find
them combining two or more branches of the
work, but they are none the less specialists for
all that. Life is too short for any one man to
learn all there is to know about all branches of
poultry keeping, and if he desires to make a
success he must apply all his energies to master¬
ing the particular branch or branches, which
most appeal to him. If he does this success is
assured, and in no other field of labor are more
satisfactory profits obtainable for intelligent
work.

In looking over the field of opportunities in
the various branches of poultry culture, one
cannot help noting the importance of the pro¬
duction and marketing of strictly fresh, new-
laid eggs and it seems strange that this particu¬
lar field is comparatively unworked in propor¬
tion to its importance. Egg farming is today
perhaps one of the best specialties in practical
poultry keeping, in which large profits and quick

64

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS

Breeding-Laying Houses, Harris Egg Farm, Mansfield, Mass.

returns are readily obtainable by those who are
quick-witted enough to grasp the opportunity
offered.

Strictly fresh eggs are always in demand and
always salable at a fair price. So soon as the
market discovers the reputable egg farm special¬
ist, and he establishes his reputation for supply¬
ing goods that are strictly first quality, his
chief concern thereafter will be to produce eggs
in sufficient quantity to meet the demand and
to avoid disappointing his customers. The
first quality product, that is dependable and
always as represented, will never go begging
for a customer, — it practically sells itself.

If one wishes to make a study of poultry
specialties let him make a trip within a radius
of thirty miles of Boston, Mass., and visit the
many poultry experts in that section of the
country. Boston market is well known, the
nation over, as the most fastidious market in
the world, for poultry and eggs, and while all
sorts and conditions of poultry products may
be found on sale, its special family trade is
almost super-critical and demands the ultra
fancy product in both eggs and poultry meat.
So great is the demand for fancy quality
poultry products, that in spite of the large
number of specialists catering to this market, one
seldom, if ever, is able to find the very best
poultry produce displayed in the market stalls ;
it is practically sold, (engaged by the consumer)
before it reaches the hands of the dealer.

On a recent visit to New England the writer
had a pleasant visit at the egg farm of W. S.
Harris at Mansfield, Mass. Here we found
Rhode Island Reds in exclusive possession of
the farm, with the exception of a few buildings
and flies devoted to Homer pigeons, of which
some fine specimens were seen. After an all¬
round experience in poultry work, Air. Harris
is now devoting himself to egg farming and
Rhode Island Reds as a specialty. At the time
of our visit, there were about 1,500 layers and
some 1,500 or more small chicks, all Reds, on the
farm. The buildings on the plant cover about
20,000 square feet of ground. In the illustra¬
tions we show some of the poultry buildings,
the laying and breeding stock, and some of the
promising youngsters. Most of Mr. Harris'
hatching is done in incubators and the chicks
are raised in brooders. The chicks are fed
exclusively on a dry-grain chick food.

We leave it to Mr. Harris to tell in his own
words his incubator experiences, quoting from
a letter received from him in May, 1903:

“ Plenty of straw for litter in winter and liberal
grass range in summer, with a variety of whole¬
some food for hens, means a high percent fertil¬
ity. Proper exercise and food are essential.

“To get the best results, eggs must be from
properly kept breeders; the incubator will do
the rest, provided it is built on the correct prin¬
ciple. So far, I much prefer the Cyphers Incu¬
bators, having hatched as high as 95 percent.

3

65

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Breeding-Laying Houses, Harris Egg Farm, Mansfield, Mass,

The inside porous top which admits warmed air
into the egg chamber at all times, requiring no
moisture, is no doubt the correct principle.
The system of turning the eggs is the simplest
and best. The regulator is perfection.

“ I have tried, side by side, the Cyphers with
several different makes of incubators, with eggs
from the same flock and other conditions being
the same. The Cyphers always hatches the
greater percentage with less variation in tem¬
perature, while other makes of incubators would
addle a good many eggs.

“A metal inside top is, according to my ex¬
perience, a bad defect. The side by side test
with other machines has cost me about $400.00.
I have disposed of all other makes and will
replace with Cyphers’ incubators. I like the
Cyphers brooders too.

“ I have always been highly successful in the
show room. Mv Boston record for 1903 is the
best of any one breeder of Rhode Island Reds.
I cannot see any difference between a hen-
hatched and a Cyphers hatched chicken in the
show room, or out. As to feeding chickens,
there seems to be no rule. The idea is to feed
a balanced ration. I, having so much faith in
the Cyphers people, thought I would give their
Chick Food and Beef Scrap a test, and ordered
several hundred bags. The Chick Food is an
honest food and their scraps the best I ever
saw. I find this method the easiest and quick¬
est way of feeding, with the best of results.

“ I have always been suspicious of these so-
called balanced-ration foods, as you cannot tell
what the mixture is, while in the Cyphers Chick
Food you can see the different grains, they being
sweet and wholesome.

66

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

“ I advise following the directions just as they
are given by the Cyphers Incubator Company.
Chickens that are confined in small quarters
must have plenty of cut straw to scratch in for
exercise, or off their feet they will go. Green
stuff in some form must be given every day,
keep cracked charcoal before them as well as
cracked oyster shells and plenty of water.
Shade is very necessary.”

Mr. Harris began raising chickens for market,
producing fall and winter chickens. He has
marketed as high as 5,000 fall chickens in a sea¬
son, and always had the reputation of producing
a thoroughly good article, which commanded
top prices. As an instance of what he has done,
we cite the case of ninety-six chickens returning
to him the sum of $200.32 net, above the ex¬
pense of picking, expressage and commissions.
This was received in the latter part of the month
of May, and was not extraordinarily high priced,
and is simply one instance of many which could
be quoted.

He now makes a specialty of furnishing eggs
for hatching as well as breeding stock, and
shipping fresh eggs to special trade in Boston
market. When asked how many eggs hens
would average to lay in a year, he thought that
150 eggs per hen would be a fair average. Some
hens would lay 200. They are kept in flocks of
from twenty-five to thirty-five each, according
to the size of the pens. While Mr. Harris be¬
lieves that ten scpiare feet of floor space is the
proper amount for each hen, yet he seldom
practices what he preaches in this respect, for
almost always his fowls have less room.

His buildings nearly all have closed fronts,
and are a variety of shapes, showing the growth
of the owner’s convictions with regard to utility.
Several of the buildings have slanting fronts, but
Mr. Harris very positively affirms that no more
buildings with slanting sides will be* built on his
place. The latest type has a nearly flat roof,
there being no more than two or three inches
drop from the front to the rear. The roofs are
covered with two-ply tar-paper and the sides
with one or two-ply. These are washed with
hot coal-tar and given a generous sprinkling of
fine sand or gravel.

The hens are given rye straw as a scratching
material, and are fed soft food of one-half bran
and one-half meal, with about ten per cent, in
bulk of the best beef scrap added. This is
mixed with hot water in cold weather and with
cold water in warm weather. They have as a

hard food, two-thirds cracked corn and one-
third wheat, with an occasional feed of Kaffir
corn and buckwheat. Some ground oats are
used, but very few whole oats are fed.

The example which Mr. Harris presents is
that of a man who begins with a few birds and
with little or no experience, and who, by close
application to the business, and by the use of
brains and energy, has built up one of the
biggest egg farms of New England, with a prod¬
uct which meets with the highest cash prices.

ANOTHER NEW ENGLAND EGG FARM.

That Illustrates What can be Done in This
Practical Branch of Poultry Keeping.

Strictly Fresh Eggs Always and Everywhere in

Demand.

One very strange fact discovered upon looking
over the field of opportunity in the various
branches of poultry culture, is the neglect which
has covered up the importance of the production
and marketing of strictly fresh, new-laid eggs.
This today is perhaps the best and most profit¬
able end of practical poultry keeping. This
field as yet is comparatively unworked and the
demand far exceeds the supply, and the few who
have been far seeing and quick-witted enough
to grapple the opportunity thus offered them
are reaping large profits.

There is today, in New England especially,
and in all large settlements throughout the
whole country, a cash demand for newly laid
eggs which it is impossible to supply with the
stock at hand. In support of these statements
we offer the experience of Mr. Wm. P. Eddy, of
Dighton, Mass., who speaks by the book and
who has ample knowledge of this subject, both
practical and theoretic.

From Strawberries to Poultry.

Mr. Eddy is a thorough business man who
has traveled extensively for various fertilizer
concerns, and who has had the opportunity to
discover the best paying part of the poultry
business in this section of the country. Mr.
Eddy was formerly the largest producer of
strawberries in the town of Dighton, but various
changes in the methods of growing and shipping
berries having caused some uncertainty about
this crop, Mr. Eddy decided to try poultry
keeping and egg marketing on a larger scale
than he had heretofore.

67

/

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

He expects to winter a stock of twelve hun¬
dred hens. He sells the eggs to private families,
club houses and high class hotels in Boston.
Many private families take cases of from fifteen
to twenty dozen each, dividing them with their
friends and paying Mr. Eddy his own price,
which, he says, is never questioned, and which
is in excess of the regular retail price. Today,
October 13, he received 38 cents per dozen in
these wholesale quantities. He has found it
impossible to supply the trade which awaits
him, and another season will add largely to his
plant.

Mr. Eddy keeps the Rhode Island Reds, which
he has found quite satisfactory in egg produc¬
tion with this exception, the pullets lay a rather
undersized egg. The hens do better in this
respect and the eggs are reasonably large. He
has this season a flock of White Wyandotte
birds which he will give a fair trial, and should
they prove to be better layers and a more prac¬
tical fowl than the Rhode Island Reds he will
stock his entire plant with Wyandottes. He
thinks them unquestionably the best all-round
fowl, but is not quite sure if in egg production
they will prove to be the best. The Rhode
Island Reds. mature quickly, and he prefers the
rose to the single comb.

He is very particular about the laying equali¬
ties of the hens from whose eggs the cockerels
are hatched, taking special pains to select the
eggs from the best laying hens. In breeding
to renew the laying stock, yearling hens are
mated with cockerels, and well-matured pullets
with cock birds. While he has no objection to
breeding from well-matured young stock of both
sexes he thinks the average results are better
when the previous matings are used. In
making these matings only the vigorous and
prolific birds are used,

TwojThousand Birds and Rations.

The chickens are fed a soft food, one-half of
the best bran and one-half Indian meal, with
beef scrap worked gradually up to the propor¬
tion of 10 per cent, when the chicks are a few
weeks old. They have also oatmeal, boiled
rice, cracked corn and a variety of hard grain
foods, and are allowed a grass range. While
confined in large yards this range is practically
free, as few enough are kept in a pen to allow a
constant supply of grass to grow. The young
cockerels are killed at the proper broiler and
roaster age and are served to the guests of the

Eddy House, a summer hotel which is kept by
Mr. Eddy. The laying stock is fed a soft food
with beef scrap, together with a considerable
proportion of wheat and an abundance of clover,
cabbage and other green foods. While some
vegetables like potatoes, turnips, etc., are
boiled and fed with the mash, Mr. Eddy has
never been able to get satisfactory results on
other than the stoutest kinel of feeding. He
therefore disapproves of too many vegetables
in the mash, reserving this sort of food for a
side dish.

Mr. Eddy raises about two thousand chickens
each year and renews his laying stock from the
pullets thus obtained. He is very particular in
introducing new blood that the birds shall come
from the most prolific and best laying flocks
which he can find, and no chances of a back¬
ward step are taken. He is very decidedly of
the opinion that there is nothing that can be
raised on a farm which will compare in value
with eggs as an all-year-round crop. To use
his own words, “ Eggs are as good as gold dollars,
and it is one of the most surprising things in the
world to me that so little attention is paid to
their production by farmers.”

— Reliable Poultry Journal.

TWO NEW ENGLAND EGG FARMS.

An Egg-Farm Poultry House. — Seventeen Hun¬
dred Laying Hens Under One Roof.

One of the largest poultry houses of
which we have knowledge is the long
house (or series of connected houses)
on the poultry farm of G. F. Hosmer,
Montvale, Woburn, Mass. ; this house being 408
feet long and accommodating seventeen hun¬
dred head of laying stock. It is as simple as
possible in construction, consisting of roof and
walls only, and having only wire netting par¬
titions between the pens. The house is 18
feet wide and divided into 34 pens 12 x 18 feet
each, and fifty head of Barred Plymouth Rock
pullets or hens are housed in each pen. There
is no alleyway (or walk), the attendant passing
through the gates in the front end of the parti¬
tions between the pens from one end of the
house to the other. At half a dozen convenient
points are doors in the back side of the house,
giving admission to the house from the drive¬
way along the rear; for convenience in moving
stock in or out, cleaning the droppings from the
roost platform, carrying in scratching litter,

68

'r^~

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

The Long Poultry House on the Farm of G. F. Hosmer, Woburn, Mass.

etc. This long house crowns a low ridge, and
the ground sloping gently away from it on both
sides there is perfect drainage; as there is also
a gentle slope to the west the house drops down
in successive steps so that the west end is some
five or six feet lower than the east end. There
being but two solid partitions with doors in this
great length of house, there is liability to draughts,
and in Avinter there would be several degrees
difference in temperature between the lower
and higher pens ; such a house should be divided
into sections of two (or at most three) pens to
a\-oid draughts and unequal temperature.
There are long yards for each pair of pens, ex¬
tending across the tiny valley into the trees
and shrubbery on the adjoining ridge, and a
sliding window in front of each pen gives light
and air. The second story over the first three
pens is finished off into sleeping rooms for the
farm workmen.

Mr. Hosmer began keeping poultry some
years ago, while engaged in business in Boston.
Finding the poultry department of his farm
quite profitable he increased his buildings and
laying stock, until a year or more ago he found
it necessary to give up his Boston connection
and gme his entire time to superintending the
poultry work.

He is Avintering this year about thirty-six
hundred head of laying stock; the buildings in
Avhich the large flocks are housed being located
in three different fields, the original plant being
close by the home buildings; two more recent
buildings being perhaps a quarter of a mile
distant, and about the same distance from each
other. The buildings are all upon the closed

pen plan, the pens being 18 x 12 feet each, and
from forty to fifty birds are housed in each pen.
In ansAver to our inquiry he told us the birds
were laying less Avell this year than formerly ; but
he did not feel that he had any right to com¬
plain. He could make his hens pay him a
profit of $1.00 per head and better, after paying
the labor and feed bills, the interest and taxes.
In going through the pens Ave noticed quite a
good many birds that evidently Avere not laying,
and such would undoubtedly pull down the
average yearly profit.

Mr. Hosmer hatches almost wholly by hens;
has gotten out six thousand to seAren thousand
chickens a year by that method. Last year
he hatched eighty-seven hundred, and this year
intends to get out in the vicinity of ten thousand ;
some two-thirds of these will go to market.
Mr. Hosmer has no yards to his pens excepting
that an acre or two of land is fenced in for eight
or ten pens, all of the birds being allowed access
to the enclosure, sorting themselves out as they
come back into the house. Much of the laying
stock is a cross of Light Brahma male on Brown
Leghorn females, the pullets being fine bodied
birds and great layers.

Noticing a nearly new and quite large manure
shed, fitted with platforms on which to spreael
the manure for drying, Ave inquired the condi¬
tion of the manure market, and were informed
that it Avas declining. A feAV years ago he
could sell all the manure he could make to
tanners, at good prices; but recently tanners
were substituting other material, and tanning
by other processes, so that the demand for
poultry manure for that purpose is growing

69

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

beautifully less. We doubt whether this is to
be regretted. The tanners demand that poultry
manure shall be wholly free from foreign matter,
such as land plaster, fine-sifted coal ashes or
loam, and that means that the roost platforms
have no absorbent spread on them. As a con¬
sequence they become sodden with the urine,
and give off a poisonous odor which is certainly
injurious. Another point is that poultry man¬
ure is such an excellent fertilizer it seems a pity
to have it wasted in tanning.

Another Profitable Egg Farm.

A drive of a few minutes brought us to Mr.
Prescott’s well-known egg farm. Mr. Prescott
keeps about two thousand head of Barred Ply¬
mouth Rocks, his houses each have ten pens,
10 x 28 feet each on the main floor, and below
that they have access to two large basements,
28 x 100 feet, opening out into an enclosure of
an acre or thereabouts.

Mr. Prescott’s house is a capital example of
adapting means to ends, as the land is a steep-
sloping, very rocky hillside, and the house is
built around the south and southeast side of
the hill, in somewhat the shape of a man’s arm
with the elbow bent at an angle of about twenty
degrees. The house is two stories and an attic
on the clown-hill side, one story and an attic on
the back. The main floor of each wing is
divided into ten pens 10 x 28 feet each, and yet is
not divided, because the pens all open into each
other, and all the birds in each wing run together.
When they come up from the basement or in
from the yards to the roost pens, they fill up the
roosting space in one pen, then go on to find
quarters in the next, and so on until all are full.
Mr. Prescott took a small bucket of grain and
led the way to the basement under the west
wing, which in a few minutes was fairly swarm¬
ing with a thousand head of Plymouth Rocks,
in one room 28 x 100 feet in size. We think
that is the largest single flock of fowls we ever
saw, and fine Plymouth Rock pullets they are
too. A few of them, it is true, had not reached
laying maturity, and they, too, would pull
down the general average profit of a flock.

Mr. Prescott hatches his chickens wholly bv
hens, having five hundred sitting nests, in banks
of nests arranged in tiers, four hundred of these
nests being in the attic space under the double
pitch roof, the other one hundred being above
the brooder pipes at the back of the brooder
house.

The central building of the plant is the cook¬
ing and grain house, with the owner’s dwelling
above. The cooking is by steam in oblong
jacket kettles, designed by Mr. Prescott for his
special purpose. He is experimenting this
year with feeding the cooked ration at night,
with good results, quite a part of that cooked
ration being whole grain.

For meat food he buys sheep’s plucks, and
cooks them into a soup which is mixed into the
cooked food ration. We cannot do better than
quote the description of the steam kettles and
cooking from our May 1st, ’96, article:

In the cooking room was a Mann bone cutter
being run by windmill power, Mr. Prescott
telling us he cut up about one hundred and
fifty pounds of fresh bone a week. This is not
all of the animal food his fowls get, however, as
he buys “plucks” and at times, fish, which he
cooks in his steam jacket kettles, adding cracked
corn and wheat to absorb the moisture and
cook in the surplus heat after the “ plucks, ” etc.,
are cooked and the steam turned off.

Those steam jacket kettles merit a special
mention, as they are of Mr. Prescott’s own
designing, and are really “ troughs ” about five
feet long, eighteen inches wide, and a foot deep.
He had them made in this shape the better to
cook the contents all through equally. One of
those kettles will cook enough for a mash feed
for two thousand hens, but Mr. Prescott does
not believe in feeding much mash. He said
he had found it very easy to overfeed it — “ and
then look out for roup and other diseases.
You get the fowls congested, engorged, and
then they are a prey to disease.” Mr. Prescott
gets one hundred and forty to one hundred
and fifty eggs a year from his birds, and hatches
about ten thousand chickens; a part of these,
however, he sells, when just hatched, there be¬
ing quite a call for young chicks.

The breeding stock, mostly Barred P. Rocks,
we found in the original houses, where the first
start was made. He keeps about twenty birds
in a pen, and lets three pens, each having a
rooster, run together, the gates between being
all open, and one large yard in common. We
asked him if one male didn’t sometimes inter¬
fere with another, and he said, “No, not to
do any harm; his eggs were then running over
ninety per cent, fertile.” Mr. Prescott renews
about half of his laying stock each year, winter¬
ing about half pullets and half year-old hens,
and that he can get so goodly an egg yield from

70

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Laying House 250 Feet Long, White Leghorn Poultry Yards.

birds running together in that fashion, was
certainly a surprise. “It isn’t according to
your teaching,” said Mr. Prescott, “and your
teaching is right. It takes eternal vigilance to
crowd birds as we do and keep them' laying, and
if you should advise people to let five hundred
or six hundred birds all run together, they’d
very soon come to grief. Your teaching of
small flocks kept separate is right." We had
to laugh at his not practicing what he preached.
“That’s all right, too,” said he. “We have to
adapt ourselves to circumstances, and this
plant and our methods are the result of our
circumstances.”

Certainly the success which Mr. Prescott has
wrought out there is worthy of emulation; he
has proved that there is money for him in the
poultry business.

Farm Poultry.

THE WHITE LEGHORN POULTRY YARDS

One of the Largest and Best Equipped Poultry

Farms in the World. The Fancy Side of
the Business Given Due Prominence. —

A Poultry Plant of 5,000 Head
Capacity.

The great majority of the successful poultry
plants today began small and simply grew as
circumstances and the experience of the owner
warranted, until they attained a capacity of
1 ,000 or more head of layers annually. Within
the last few years, however, poultry farms have
been established with the intention of making
them great practical-fancy poultry plants. A
large farm is bought and buildings planned for
with the one purpose of building up a great
poultry plant.

One such, the Lakewood Poultry Farm, is
described in this chapter, and another which
has already attained a notable success and is
ranked among the foremost poidtry farms in
America, is the White Leghorn Poultry Plant,
situated at Waterville, N. Y. Here is what
may be claimed to be one of the most completely
equipped, practical and up-to-date poultry
plants; a poultry plant that in many respects
might be considered a model.

The proprietor of the White Leghorn Poultry
Plant, Mr. C. J. Brainard, found it desirable,
after completing his college course, to take up
an occupation which would keep him out of
doors a good part of the time, to re-establish
his somewhat broken health. Being inter¬
ested in poultry, he investigated that subject
quite thoroughly with a view to satisfying
himself whether poultry raising on a large scale
could be made a profitable business venture.
There have been many failures in the poultry
business, perhaps it would be more correct to
say, that many have failed of the highest success
in the poultry business than to say there have
been absolute failures; at any rate, when Mr.
Brainard had investigated many causes of
failure of success, he decided that they were
due to lack of experience and lack of capital;
as well as lack of proper business methods, — it
could very well be expressed in the homely
phrase, “They bit off more than they could
chew ! ”

As Mr. Brainard did not want to personally
attend to the details of the business, he em¬
ployed a practical poultryman, Mr. H. S.
Roach, who wras formerly engaged in poultry
work at the Cornell University Experiment

71

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING

eggs

Station, and Mr. Koach was instructed
to plan for and build a plant for about
2,000 head of layers, with incubator
and brooder equipment for chicks to
keep up the stock to the required num¬
ber. This was about four years ago,
and instead of stopping at the 2,000
goal the plant has grown until it has
reached a capacity of about 5,000 head
of layers, and the incubator and
brooder department is adequate to the
supplying of that number of layers and
additional breeding stock.

The commercial side of the busi¬
ness was looked upon as the founda¬
tion upon which to build, and the
furnishing of fancy, “ strictly-fresh ”
for a select trade in New York City was
developed. The eggs are packed in paste¬
board boxes holding one dozen each, and these
boxes of eggs are packed in regular shipping
cases, the size of the cases, being adapted -to
the quantity shipped to each customer; these
wooden cases are of course returned. A regu¬
lar trade was established and satisfactory prices
agreed upon; the price from Sept. 1 to March
31 (inclusive) being 30 cents per dozen, and
from April 1 to August 31 (inclusive) 20 cents
per dozen, this price being net at the station at
Waterville, the customer paying charges. The
great demand for a choice article of “ new laid ”
eggs was a potent factor in continuing the
development of the White Leghorn Poultry
Farm. With a practically unlimited demand
for these fancy, fresh eggs it was good business
policy to increase the supply to meet the
demand.

Interior View of Long Poultry House, Looiiirg Towards the Hall,
Showing Roosts and Nests.

The development, of what is called the fancy
side of the business has kept equal pace with the
growth of the utility side. Starting with the
very best stock that could be found, and mating
with a view to producing choice exhibition
stock, a great success was attained almost im¬
mediately.

The goodly percentage of premiums won at
shows and fairs, backed up by judicious adver¬
tising and a perfectly equipped correspondence
department, developed a very great trade in
breeding stock and eggs for hatching. This
business department of the farm was put in
charge of an experienced business man, who is
at. the same time a well equipped poultryman,
hence fully competent for the work; and this
department employs an office force of clerks
and stenographers, varying of course as the
increase or decrease of the trade demands. Air.
Brainard firmly believes that the business end
of such a plant should be conducted just as any
other commercial business is. Every
letter is attended to on the day it is
received and instructions are that every
letter must have a courteous reply, no
matter what the nature of the com¬
munication may be. Every correspond¬
ent is given a card-catalogue record, and
there is a complete “ follow up ” system,
assuring that, every attention is given
to everv would-be customer.

Interior View of Long House, White Leghorn Poultry Yards.

Artificial Hatching and Brooding.

All the stock is hached in incuba¬
tors and brooded by an up-to-date
brooder system. The incubator cellar
is 12 x 30 feet in size, 7 ft. high to the
ceiling, two-thirds of the wall being

72

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

of brick and the other third wood; the wooden
wall and ceiling are covered with asbestos paper.
The floor is of cement ; twelve 360-egg Cyphers
Incubators are operated.

There are three hot-water-pipe brooder
houses, two 125 ft. long each and the other 110
ft. long, — these brooder houses are 16 ft. wide
with a four foot walk at the back, hover pens
are 3 x 12 ft. nearest the heater and increase to
four feet in width for larger chicks, giving in all
93 brooding pens. With colony and other
houses for weaned chicks the plant has a capac¬
ity for about 10,000 head of young, but it is
not wise to crowd to the limit, and 7,000 or
S.000 head are as many as it is intended to hatch
and raise there. Last year about 6,000 chicks
were raised to market size or maturity,
and it is interesting to note that a careful record
of the hatches and the number of chicks raised
has determined that it is safe to estimate to
raise 40 chicks for every 100 eggs set. This is
better than a good man}7 poultrymen average,
but Ave should keep in mind that the stock here
is White Leghorn, eggs of which almost always
hatch well, and that the hatching is in the
normal breeding season when losses are feAv.

There are eight laying houses with a total
length of about 1,000 ft., and one laying house
250 feet in length. The first houses built Avere
12 x 50 feet, divided into tAA'o pens of 12 x 25
ft., and in each pen Avas put a flock of 50 layers.
The houses built later were divided into small
pens for 25 birds each, — the plan folloAA’ed being
Avhat is called a house Avithin a house. The
outer Avails are sheathed, papered and covered
Avith clap-boards. A feed room 10 x 12 ft. is
constructed in one end of each house, and a Avalk
3 ft. Avide continues the entire length of the
building. A tight-board partition separates
the pens from the Avalk, the pens are ceiled OA-er
head and the front AArall is ceiled up inside;
thus there is an air space entirely surrounding
the pens. A A'entilating trap opens into the
loft from the center of each pen, and in the loft
is stored scratching material, etc., for use as
needed. Each pen has a door opening into the
walk and there is also a door in each partition
between the pens. These enclosed pens for
housing the laying-breeding stock haA7e been
found eminently satisfactory; they are suffi¬
ciently warm to protect White Leghorn combs
from freezing. The plan is an excellent one and
the health of the birds perfect.

A slightly different plan is adopted for the
250 ft. long house; in this there is a feed room
in the middle as Avell as at each end. To provide
for getting in scratching litter, etc., in the loft
aboA7e the pens, doors like dormer windoAvs are
built at intervals in the roof.

It is gratifying to know that in breeding, the
utility quality of the stock has been kept Avell
to the front, the first object being good size,
great laying quality, and great strength and
Arigor; coupled with these points every atten¬
tion has been paid to standard requirements as
to shape, carriage, etc. Taa'o lines of breeding
stock is kept, one of exhibition matings in
which 10 to 12 females are made into a breed¬
ing pen with a choice, selected male at the head ;
and these pens not only contain the cream of
their OAvn flock, but choice birds are purchased
AA'herever they can be found AA'hen it is thought
that such will gme strength to the matings.
In the ordinary matings about 25 hens or fully
matured pullets are put in a pen and tA\_o strong,
vigorous males provided. One male is given
the run of the pen Avhile the other is resting in
a roomy coop provided for the purpose, and the
males are alternated, each gh7en a day of duty
followed by a day of rest.

It is very gratifying to visit such a great
poultry establishment and see a business con¬
ducted in such a thorough, business-like way.
It is such thoroughly up-to-date poultry plants
as this that demonstrate what a solid, enduring
foundation underlies the poultry business, and
ranks it a truly great industry.

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

A Great Poultry Farm and a Remarkable Suc¬
cessful Poultry Business — Story of the Van
Dreser Egg Farm, Cobleskill,

New York.

“The Twelve Hundred Hen House" — Interior
Construction — Use of the Individual
Brooder Houses — Caring for
and Feeding the Chicks.

The story of the growth of a highly successful
poultry business, or indeed any great business,
almost always reads like a romance, and has
fascinating elements that most powerfully
attract the reader. The latest aspirant for
popular faAror is no exception to this rule, even
though poultry was not in this case, as in many
others, the lever by which “the mortgage”
Avas lifted. That dread incubus had been suc-

73

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

cessfully disposed of by years of profitable
thoroughbred-stock raising, and when the
attention of the farmer was drawn to poultry
he had already achieved a national reputation
as a breeder and judge of Holstein cattle, and
was in demand as a speaker at Farmers’ Insti¬
tutes in many states. The man is Henry Van
Dreser and his farm is in Cobleskill, N. Y.,
where he was born and grew to manhood, his
Dutch ancestors being well and favorably known
throughout that region. It is a most beautiful
country about there. All of that part of New
York state lying north of the Catskills and
west of the Hudson is an ideal country for a
home.

We recognized Mr. Van Dreser on the station
platform before the train had come to a stop,
and a hearty hand-grasp welcomed us. Driving
through the thriving town and out upon the
country road, we noted that everyone knew and
exchanged salutations with him, and everyone
who addressed him called him “ Henry.” It’s
a good indication of a man’s character to be
well known and on intimate terms with a whole
townspeople ! We drove through some two miles
of rural loveliness, up two or three modest hills,
then up quite a steep rise (badly washed by
recent rains), and there was the farm spread out
before us.

“That is our home!” said Mr. Van Dreser,
and his voice lingered lovingly upon the word,
as we sat in the carriage and looked across the
modest valley to the farm buildings and fields
spread over the sloping hillside. The buildings
were all in sight from that view point, and it
was, indeed, fair to look upon that pleasant
August morning.

“ It isn’t possible that you raise hops too? ”
we said, as we drove past a considerable hop
field.

“Yes, those are our hops,” Mr. Van D. re¬
plied, “ and that is our corn just above the hops,
and the sunflowers just beyond. This part of
our farm lies on the high road on two sides.”
“Isn’t that a fine piece of corn, though!” he
exclaimed, “ how well that is eared out.”

Then the sunflowers came in for comment,
and in a few minutes the orchard, across the
road from the dwelling house, and fairly over¬
flowing with White Leghorn youngsters, came
into view, and we stepped down at the door of
the house, to be welcomed by Mr. Green, Mr.
Van Dreser’s able second, to whose patient,
watchful care for the past six years, much of the

constant growth and success of the business
is due.

Mr. Van Dreser’s “Twelve Hundred Hen
House.”

The chickens in the orchard first attracted
our attention, then the packing house and in¬
cubator cellar, and then we crossed the road to
the long house, the “ twelve hundred hen house ”
as they call it, which is in the center, indeed
the chief object in the plant, and its most dis¬
tinctive feature. This long house, running east
from the farm buildings, is situated just upon
the edge of the hill slope, and looks off over the
valley in which the bulk of the 200-acre farm
lies; it is 367 feet long, nine and a half feet high
in front, five and a half feet high at the back, and
is fifteen feet wide. The single roof slopes
north, an excellent thing, relieving the south
front, where the fowls congregate, of all drip.
The foundation of the house is stone laid up in
mortar, and it is filled in to bottom of sills with
stones and rubble, then floored with Portland
cement; it took nine and a half tons of cement
to floor this house. The frame and rafters are
of four inch studding and both walls and roof
are double boarded, boarded both outside and
inside the studs and rafters. The walls are
boarded up outside with “siding,” and inside
with sheathing paper and inch boards, and all the
spaces between studs are packed with swale hay
and straw. The roof is covered with steel
roofing, painted red, is ceiled on the under-side
with boards and this four-inch space is likewise
packed with swale hay and straw. These
(practically) six-inch walls and roof make the
house very cool in summer and exclude frost
in winter.

Description of Interior of Long House.

The interior arrangements of the house are
very simple. Midway of it is one section carried
up two stories, the first floor of which is a tasty
and convenient farm office and the second floor
is finished off for a sleeping room for a poultry-
man.

The poultry house itself is divided into
twenty-two compartments, fifteen feet square,
each three compartments being separated from
the next ones by a matched boards partition and
wooden door, all the other partitions being of
wire netting and gates. Each fifteen-foot com¬
partment has two windows of twelve lights,
9x12 glass in the front; a droppings platform

74

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

about three feet wide, with
roosts above and a bank of
nests below it at the back.

A feed trough, water pan,
grit and shells box, and (in
one corner) a dusting pen
comprise t h e furnishings.

The water pan is set on a
shelf some eighteen inches
from the floor, which puts
it up out of the way of the
flying litter when the hens
are scratching. The shelf
is sufficiently broad so that the fowls may
stand around the pan to drink, only about
two inches of the margin of which is exposed
to them. The water dish is a pan, literally;
just a common milk pan, set on a broad shelf,
with a board fixed just above to cover it all
but the edge.

All ventilation is by the windows, one of
which in each pen is hinged at the side (just like
a door), the windows are covered with wire
netting to protect them against any wild plunges
the fowls might make if frightened. All doors
and gates between pens are in the centers of
partitions, and are hung by strong spring-hinges,
and they may swing either way ; so that the at¬
tendant, going from pen to pen to feed or water,
can push through from one pen to another with¬
out stopping to unlatch and latch doors and
gates.

There is straw or some scratching litter (which
is frequently renewed) on the floor of these pens
at all times. At the time of our visit there were
but two or three inches of this, but in winter it is
fully a foot in depth, and all the hard grain fed
is thrown into the scratching litter and the birds
have to scratch it out. Scratching is the fowl’s
normal exercise, and is the best (most natural)
exercise for them; fowls that have to scratch and
search for their food will be in good health if
other conditions are right.

The droppings platform is about eighteen
inches above the floor, and the roosts some ten
inches above the platform. These are hinged
to the back wall and can be hooked up to the
roof to be out of the way when cleaning the
platform; a two-inch wide strip is nailed to edge
of platform to secure the droppings, and a ten-
inch wide board is hinged below to darken the
space occupied by the nest boxes. This effectu¬
ally prevents egg eating, as the nests are all dark
and retired; there is a space at each end of the

board which permits entrance to the nests. Of
course it adds to the labor of collecting the eggs
to have to swing up this board in each pen, but
that is a small matter compared to the gain of
preventing egg-eating, which is the bane of
many a poultry house and effectually dissipates
the profits.

The droppings platform is cleaned off but once
a week, and then well covered with land plaster
(gypsum). That is, this has been the practice,
but at the time of my visit, they were about to
change to pulverized South Carolina rock,
which is rich in phosporic acid, and, combined
with the nitrogenous poultry manure, would
make a very well balanced fertilizer for Mr. Van
Dreser’s land, which is already well supplied
with potash. When they clean off the droppings
platforms a wagon is driven along the front of
the house, stopping at the open window of each
pen in turn, and the droppings are loaded di¬
rectly into the wagon. There being no pens (or
yards) in front of the house, makes this possible.
It was a surprise to us that there were no yards,
and Mr. Van Dreser told us he put up fences and
made yards when he built the house, but he did
not like the looks of them and did not like to see
the birds confined, so he took the fences down,
and the (1,200) birds now have absolutely free
range to the south, away off into the valley; we
could see some of them so far away they looked
like mere white specks in the distance. Another
surprise to us was that the male birds running
free did not fight. We were told they did not
and those we saw about had no appearance of
having “scrapped”; there was nothing that
looked like torn combs or wattles, or their ever
having been torn or marred. The explanation
of this was that the birds were all brought up
together as cockerels, and about three put in
each pen together, and so they never fought. If
a bird from another farm, a stranger, was in-

75

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

troduced into that peaceable community we
opine there would be a different story to tell !

It will be a surprise to many readers that these
twelve hundred birds find their way back into the
twenty- two compartments at night, after run¬
ning together outside all day. It is not to be
supposed that they all get back to the compart¬
ment which they left in the morning. All the
compartments are alike, and when the birds are
coming in to go to roost the attendant goes
through and closes the slide doors (leading out¬
doors) of such compartments as are full, and the
birds then go on to others that are not full. It
occurred to us that the swinging doors and gates
between the compartments could be left open at
roosting time, and the birds finding the roosts of
one pen full, would go on to another; this is prac¬
tically the plan adopted on one large poultry
farm of which we have knowledge.

Another point which should not be over¬
looked. The birds are put into these pens in
the autumn, upon the approach of cold weather,
and are not allowed out again until spring ; they
thus have four to five months of confinement in
the house, they know no other home and know
nothing of the delights of ranging. Under
these conditions, being naturally home-loving,
they return to their quarters without trouble or
bother.

Entrance doors to house are at either end and
through the office in the center, which means a
considerable walk to reach intermediate pens
half way between the office and either end. With
no yards in front of the house, it would have
been an easy matter to put a “ Dutch door ” in
the front of each pen (the upper part of it being
the hinged window), and that would give direct
access to every pen. A small building at the
west end of this long house (but separated from
it by a few feet space) is the cook house, and
here all the “ mash ” and cooked food is pre¬
pared.

A high road runs through the farm east and
west along the hillside; all the farm buildings,
including the dwelling house and the long poul¬
try house, are south of this road, and the greater
part of the farm also. Across this road and
rising up the hillside to the north, is an apple
orchard of about twelve acres, in which the
brooder houses are placed, and here, 2,500 head
of half grown youngsters were ranging at will. A
better place for chickens could not be found in
ten counties. The strong clay land is well
stocked with clover and other grasses, the apple

trees furnish abundance of shade and the open
spaces between them give access to sunshine if
it is desired, while the southern slope of the
ground gives sunshine and perfect drainage,
making it ideally healthful.

Individual Brooder Houses Described.

Here were set three rows of “ individual ”
brooder houses, the rows being sixty feet apart
and the houses being fifty apart in the rows.
The houses are six feet square, five feet high
in front and three feet high in the back— have a
small window and door (also a small trap door)
in front, and covered, roof and walls, with Nepon-
set Red Rope Roofing, and painted. The
brooder is a common pattern of indoor brooder,
the lamp slides into the center of lamp chamber
on a cleated board. The little chicks are put
into these brooder houses directly from the in¬
cubators. They are given the run of inside of
house for a day or two, and then let out, on pleas¬
ant days, into small, temporary yards which
are erected in front of each house. After a week
or so, when the chicks have got well onto their
feet, the }rard fences are taken down and put
over to other houses, and these lots given full
range. When the chicks have got large enough
so that they no longer need the warmth of the
brooder, it is removed to storage room in the
packing house loft, and the youngsters con¬
tinue their life in the brooder house without a
brooder, that being their home until they go
into permanent quarters.

There are several things about these orchard
brooder houses that could be bettered. As it is
now with three rows of houses only sixty feet
apart, only one-third or less of the orchard is
utilized. It is well known that chicks range
more widely as they get older; we would pro¬
mote that ranging by distributing the houses all
over the orchard, setting the rows (say) 150 feet
apart and the houses (say) 100 feet apart in the
rows. This would make more steps for the at¬
tendant, it is true, and seemingly unnecessary
steps while the chicks are small ; but — we are not
thinking of the attendant, we are thinking of
greater benefit to the growing chicks from that
wider and fresher range. It is not wise to econo¬
mize on the attendant’s steps if the ultimate re¬
sult is (even a slight) falling short of the very
best development of the chicks ! Another thing
we would do differently would be to have a good
outdoor brooder that could be used for another
family of youngsters after being taken out of the

76

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Individual Brooder Houses in the Orchard, Van Breser Poultry Farm.

house; and still another would be to set the
houses on runners so a horse could be hitched to
them and hauled to another location; this last
we understood Mr. Van Dreser to say he in¬
tended to do.

Some families of chicks hatched earlier than
it is well to have them run out of doors, are
brooded in the storage room of the building
called the packing house; the same “indoor”
brooders being used that are later put out in the
detached houses in the orchard. With Leg¬
horns, hatched for laying-breeding stock, how¬
ever, there is really no need of early hatches.
May is the best month for hatching Leghorns,
and in May, chicks can be put out doors
at once in most years in Central New York. If I
were conducting such a poultry farm as Mr.
YanDreser’s, I would have incubators enough
to get out all the chicks desired in two hatches
and have both of these hatches come in May, or
possibly one of them in the last week in April,
and the other in the middle of May, then have
brooders enough to handle “ the crop ” and have
the chicks just about all of an age and size; then
I would get eggs galore in November, December
and January, when eggs pay the big profits.

Caring for and Feeding the Chicks.

The chicks get nothing to eat the first day, in
fact are best left in the incubator till they are
at least twenty-four hours old. On the first
day they get bread crumbs soaked in sweet milk
and then “Johnny Cake” made of mixed meals
and thoroughly baked; this is their food until
they are about three weeks old. They are then
gradually changed to a mash made of mixed
meals, composed of ground oats, wheat and
corn meal, with about ten per cent of beef scrap
and with a little wheat bran added. This is fed
in the morning, and cracked corn, wheat and

oat flakes are the other
daily feeds. Fresh water,
grit and charcoal are kept
constantly by them.

After the pullets are
moved into their winter
quarters, they have a mash
feed once a da}', about ten
or eleven o’clock in the
winter and about four o’clock
in the afternoon in sum¬
mer. This mash is made of
equal parts of pea meal
(made of Canada fresh peas)
wheat bran, wheat middlings, and beef scrap,
and into this mash is put twenty-five pounds of
cut fresh bone for each 1,000 fowls. In winter,
as soon as it is light, a grain feed of oats and
wheat is thrown into the scratching litter, to set
them to work scratching; then the mash, and in
the afternoon a feed of corn, either whole or
cracked. In the summer a grain feed of wheat
and oats at noon and the mash toward night
It is the intention to keep the birds just a lit¬
tle hungry, with the purpose of having them
willing to scratch for their grain, and thus get
needed exercise. Exercise and an abundance
of fresh air from having the house well ventilated
(well aired out) are relied upon to keep the fowls
in good health. And the results justify the re¬
liance ! There has never been any sickness and
it is almost never that a fowl dies of disease;
a year ago last winter, with 2,200 birds put into
the quarters, there was a loss of but one from
that number in four months; and that is a won¬
derful record ! A factor in this high health is the
varying of food ration and the supplying of
green food in winter. Mangel beets and cut
clover are relied upon chiefly for the latter, and
millet, sunflower seed, etc., for the former.
Cabbage has been used some in the past, but a
few years ago a dealer in New York City wanted
to contract for a certain number of cases of eggs
a week, at a good premium for eggs from hens
that were not fed cabbage, and Mr. Van Dreser
changed to mangels and cut clover. Said he:
“ I am perfectly willing to give a man what he
wants, provided he will pay for it. ”

The Business Highly Profitable.

That this business, as conducted, is highly
profitable is easily seen. Every egg is "clean ”
when it goes to market, and only the good sized
and well-shelled and shaped eggs go into the cases

77

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

for the premium-paying trade ; the smaller eggs
and those not quite up to “No. 1 ” in quality are
graded as “seconds” and are sold in market for
what they will fetch.

Mr. Terry, in the Practical Farmer, said the
3,000 hens were last winter turning in an in¬
come of $98.70 per day for eggs alone, and that
stock for breeding carried the income to above
$100.00 a day. This would be for a limited time
only, of course, as the steady lowering of the
number of stock layers (by sales) would shrink
the egg product. The gross income would not
be all profit, there are the food, labor and in¬
cidental expenses to come out of it. It makes
no difference that about all the food there is
raised on the farm; if sold to the hens the hen
account should be charged market prices for it.
We don’t know whether the hens are paid (in
the account) for their manure, but it is a very
valuable fertilizer and worth many dollars;
about three thousand bushels of this rich fer¬
tilizer is made there on the farm, and goes back
onto the farm every year. And how it makes
the crops grow! One year, Mr. Van Dreser put
550 pounds of hen manure on a measured acre of
wheat and sowed another acre right alongside
of it without any fertilizer; the acre with hen
manure produced 59^ bushels of wheat and the
other acre but 31. The hen gives back to the
land in the shape of manure, a larger proportion
of the fertilizing elements in the food than any
other animal. A writer in the Rural New
Yorker says that forty to fifty bushels of sun¬
flower seed per acre is an average crop. Mr.
Van Dreser raised a measured nine-tenths of an
acre of sunflowers last year and the bagged pro¬
duct was 140 bushels of seed. A letter from the
thresherman (now before me) says : “ My sieves
were not designed to clean sunflower seed so that
not all was saved, some seed went to waste in
the chaff. ” As the chaff went into the scratch¬
ing litter in the hen pens, these did not go to
Waste— the hens got them!

There are ample evidences, there on the Van
Dreser Farm, of his being a thorough, up-to-
date farmer. The best of farm machinery and
tools were in use and the best of crops growing
or being harvested. A field of twenty- five
acres of mixed oats and peas (Canada field peas)
was being harvested on the day I was there;
there were eighty-four bushels of seed sown on
this piece of land, at the rate of two bushels of
oats to one of peas. There were raised this sea¬
son 11^ acres of buckwheat and ten acres of

wheat; two years ago nine hundred bushels of
wheat were harvested — and all of this farm
work revolves around the poultry ; the hens run
the farm !

Poultry Plant Holds First Place.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this
story is that a highly successful stock farm has
been turned into a poultry farm, and everything
is now subordinated to the poultry. We hear of
many farms which, being unsuccessful in general
farming, etc., have been turned into poultry
farms and thus made successful, but we do not
recall another case just like this. Mr. Van
Dreser and his brother bought the farm, about
forty years ago, and tried hard to make a living
and pay the interest on the mortgage by gen¬
eral farming. After several years of this work
they were compelled to face the fact that they
were not gaining an inch, and then they turned
their attention to thoroughbred stock raising,
going into Holsteins just on the flood tide. Suc¬
cess crowned their work, reputation and good
sales came to them and Mr. Henry Van Dreser
was in demand as a judge at shows and fairs, and
became a popular speaker at Farmers’ Insti¬
tutes in several states. The house being rather
crowded by two growing families, the older
brother grasped the opportunity to buy a fine
farm near by and sold out his half of the farm to
his brother Henry. No particular attention had
been given to poultry until Mr. Van Dreser’s
adopted son, who was educated at Cornell Uni¬
versity, came home very enthusiastic about it.
Not having much encouragement, he deter¬
mined to go ahead on his own account and began
excavating a basement under the carriage house,
working at the job during the noon hour and at
odd moments, lest his father should think he
was neglecting the regular farm work. Noting
the youth’s devotion to his idea, Mr. Van Dreser
decided that he should start right, and bought
him thirty White Leghorns of Mr. Wyckoff,
whose stock, bred for laying, had attained an
average egg yield of 196 eggs in a year; by buy¬
ing a stock of pedigreed egg layers, the young
man secured the advantage of the accumulated
momentum of many years’ selection and breed¬
ing, and success crowned their efforts from the
first. The poultry business grew and grew; its
greater profitableness being manifest, every¬
thing was subordinated to that, and the end is
not yet. Mr. Van Dreser intends that the busi¬
ness shall continue to grow.

— Reliable Poultry Journal.

78

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

THE YARD PROBLEM.

The Poisoning of the Ground. Crops for Fresh¬
ening the Ground. The North and South
Yard Combination.

In keeping fowls on the semi-confinement
plan the yard problem presents not a few diffi¬
culties. Where fowls are given the run of even
a considerable plot of ground, they annihilate
the grass within a year or two (and frequently
the first season), then the surface of the ground
becomes sodden with the accumulated drop¬
pings, and is “ sick, ” or, as some express it, be¬
come s poisoned. It certainly becomes ob¬
noxious and offensive to the fowls and causes
lack of energy and loss of stamina and vigor.
The fowls become more or less listless, and seem
to have no interest in anything, — in fact, life
seems to them not worth living. This condition
presents a serious difficulty and one which has
caused disaster to many a confiding poultry-
man. The difficulty of foul yards has caused
many poultry writers to antagonize permanent
poultry houses and yards; they argue that mov¬
able poultry houses, either with or without yards
(the yards being movable if supplied), were
much more successful. And some have argued
in favor of the colony-house plan with the poul¬
try houses themselves being movable and brought
together for winter; an example of which we
give in one of the illustrations of this chapter.

There is no doubt but that a grass run is of
greatest advantage in poultry keeping; if the
runs can be kept clean and sweet. Discussing
this question Mr. Louis Wright, in the New
Book of Poultry says :

“These are the best of all for poultry, giving
natural green food at nearly all seasons in Eng¬
land (not in America), and also exercise and
more or less insect food. Where space can be
given for grass, no single condition will do so
much for fowls and owner; but it is no use in
attempting grass unless there is adequate space,
and a great deal is required. Experience taught
us very clearly that in England, one hundred
and twenty fowls required an acre of run if
kept on it permanently; and the larger breeds
should not exceed one hundred per acre. But
this is not the very best way of using the land,
which will be kept healthier in the long run by
over stocking it to the extent of even double,
provided each run can be vacated for three
months every year. This also brings runs into
more compact compass, and so we arrive at a

grass run of about twenty-five feet by fifty feet
for a pen of six large Asiatic fowls.

“A run of this reduced size, thus tenanted,
will last for several years, even when occupied
without cessation, with no apparent detriment,
if constantly attended to; but it does gradually
become 'sickened, ’ unless it can be vacated for
freshening and purification. Amongst a num¬
ber of runs this can be managed, either by three
months annually, or six months bi-annually.
This time need not be wasted wherever grass or
hay can be used, as a crop may be taken a week
or two before the tenants are returned to it.
The runs will also need moving tolerably often,
even while occupied; since, although too over¬
crowded for permanent occupation, this does
not mean that the grass is kept down. Near
the house it may be, but less so the farther away ;
and it must be mown whenever it is long, else
the fowls may get balls of long, tangled grass in
their crops, and may eat blades of it, parts of
which are contaminated. Such fouled grass is
simply poison. All this is avoided, worms and
insects made more accessible, and the droppings
more quickly washed into the actual soil, to be
absorbed, instead of adhering to the grass, by
proper mowing as recjuired. Keeping the
grass constantly mown short is the one matter
of greatest importance in the management of
limited grass runs. Grass cut during full occu¬
pation should be burnt, and the ashes mixed
with the other manure.

“ Regular cutting is of equal importance to
runs meant to be constantly occupied, and
which are therefore of larger size. Much grass
will then go to waste, yet the conclusion must
not be drawn that so much space is not needed ;
long experience has shown that it is, if the ten¬
ancy is to continue longer than five to six years,
up to which time a crowding of considerably
more than the hundred per acre may be gener¬
ally carried on without apparent harm. But
somewhere about that time Nemesis comes, and
often with no apparent warning. ”

Mr. Wright says: “Keeping the grass con¬
stantly mown short is the one matter of greatest
importance in the management of limited grass
runs, ” but how many poultrymen understand
the necessity of that, or live up to it if they do
understand it? Going over the runs with a
lawn mower, say once a week in the growing
season, entails a labor charge that would be a
serious problem to many poultrymen, and
would suggest the question of employing some

79

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Scratching Shed Houses with North and South Yards.

other method, say, for example, that they va¬
cate the yards for two or three months in late
summer and freshen with some growing crop,
and this may be done in one of several ways.
Some broiler raisers freshen their brooder runs
in this manner, by spading up the runs and plant¬
ing some quick growing crop in them, as soon as
the chicks are shipped off to market. Duck
raisers follow the same plan of plowing the yards
and seeding with winter rye or some such crop
as early in the fall as it is possible to get to it. The
duck growers have the great advantage of only
temporary yards, which can be removed at any
time, and thus the entire space used for runs is
open for plowing. Some system of temporary
fencing of permanent poultry runs would not be
an insuperable difficulty ; it would be possible to
attach the fencing to the posts in some manner
that it could be easily removed and rolled up
out of the way for such time as is needed for
plowing and seeding the yards. Some poultry-
men have panel-gates next the poultry house,
which can be lifted off from the posts, permit¬
ting the driving of a team through the yards
from end to end of the house for cleaning and re¬
newing the earth floors of the house, and such

panel-gates admit a team for plowing when the
yards can be plowed and seeded for the desired
freshening. In the illustration of the scratch-
ing-shed houses with double runs, these panel-
gates are shown and a short substitute run in
rear of each pen, into which the fowls can be
turned for such time as the main yards are being
plowed up and seeded ; this plan of housing and
yarding presents many advantages that are well
worthy of adoption. It does not require any
greater amount of land for houses and runs ; in¬
stead of giving all of the space between the row
of houses to a long run, a fourth of the space is
given to the short runs in the rear of the nearer
house and the other three-fourths to the per¬
manent runs of house number two, — the sub¬
tracted space would be made good by similar
runs in rear of pens of house number two.

The soil upon which the poultry plant is lo¬
cated will in a measure determine the method
employed. For example, at Lakewood Poultry
Farm, and in other such sandy-soil locations, it
is claimed that the droppings are washed into
the sand by every rain, and that, consequently,
the surface is always kept fresh and sweet, — is
free from poison. Whether this is wholly true

80

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

may well be doubted, certainly the experience
of the Hammonton broiler raisers induces them
to give the annual freshening to their brooder
house runs, and their soil is quite the same sandy
loam as that at Lakewood Poultry Farm. Where
the soil is a clay-loam there would be greater
danger of soil-poisoning from the accumulated
droppings, than a lighter soil into which the
water quickly washes the droppings, and one
would need to study the conditions of his
ground and govern himself accordingly.

It is very desirable that there shall be shade
in the poultry yards, and as a combination of
fruit growing and poultry raising is most advan¬
tageous, it is advised that fruit trees, such as
plum, cherry, peach, apple, etc., be set in the
yards; and where permanent fences are desired
these may be trellises for grape vines and the
grape vines furnish the much desired shade.
When we speak of shade in the poultry yard, we
do not mean complete shade, but that there
should be partial shade, so that the fowls can
choose a shady spot or a sunny spot at will.

It should be borne in mind that the highly
nitrogenous character of the poultry droppings
induces growth of the trees, hence frequent prun¬
ing is necessary to induce fruiting, and many
fruit trees need to have the fruit thinned to
avoid the danger of over-bearing. With fruit-
trees growing in the yards and grape vines on
the permanent fences, the roots absorb a por¬
tion of the fertilizing element contributed by the
fowls, which will, in a measure, assist in keeping
the soil sweet. We use the term, “ in a measure”
because nothing short of an annual over-turning
of the surface and seeding to some quick grow¬
ing crop will produce complete soil cleansing;
and where it is the intention to keep fowls con¬
tinuously year after year an annual seeding
will be found quite essential.

A TYPICAL POULTRYMAN.

Pluck, Perseverance and Intelligence Win
Success. — How a Machinist Became a
Successful Poultry Farmer.

Mr. C. H. Wyckoff, formerly of Groton, N. Y.,
is a typical poultry man, an excellent example of
what a poultry man should be, and can be. Grow¬
ing up on a farm, he had a practical knowledge
of the advantages and disadvantages of farm
life. Being desirous of becoming a machinist
he served an apprenticeship at that trade, and
worked at it for several years, gradually coming

to realize the limitations of a mechanic’s life.
The freedom and “out-of-doors” of farm life
strongly attracted him, but alas, he had no cap¬
ital, — every dollar of his weekly wages being
consumeel in the family expenses; a condition
exactly similar to that of thousanels upon thou¬
sands of mechanics, clerks, etc., who long to get
back to the freedom of farm life, but find them¬
selves confronted with the fact of weekly wages
barely meeting the weekly expenses, and no
surplus at the end of the year.

About fifteen years ago Mr. Wyckoff founel an
olel man living on an olel hill-top farm a mile and
a half out of Groton, who was willing to sell his
farm for nothing down, accepting as security for
the first payment, a note for a thousand dollars
with the endorsement of Mr. Wyckoff’s father.
His father was able to loan him a few dollars,
with which to partially stock the farm, buy a few
tools, and get one step ahead. Mr. Wyckoff in¬
tended to develop that old run-down farm into a'
poultry farm, having kept “ a few hens ” at his
former home, and being a firm believer in the
profitableness of producing eggs for market. He
bought about twenty-five scrub hens, and housed
them in one of the old buildings on the place,
gradually added to his stock as the eggs pro¬
duced by the mixed hens warranted it, and had
the second year respectable flocks of Plymouth
Rocks and Brown Leghorns. From eggs pro¬
duced by these flocks he saved up $75, and the
next spring invested it in White Leghorn eggs,
and a year later had grown to a stock of one
hundred and eighty good White Leghorns.

We want the reader to observe that all of this
growth had been paid for by the hens themselves.
Mr. Wyckoff got his “ living ” out of the old run¬
down farm and garden, and set aside every dol¬
lar of the egg-money to pay for more hens, or
for the eggs from which to hatch them. There¬
in is the secret of his rapid climb to success. If
he had insisted upon using small slices of this
egg-money in buying family supplies, or better
clothing, or farm tools, or other things which
were sorely needed in those first years, he
wouldn’t have “got there” so quickly.

There were many times when a dollar or two
“ borrowed ” from that egg-money would have
eased the pinch of hard times in that house¬
hold, but Mr. Wyckoff believed that easy times
were just ahead, that the harder road was the
shorter, and had the courage to wait and grow.
That third year, when he had one hundred and
eighty White Leghorns, eggs were extremely

81

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Semi-Detached Houses and Yards, Wyckoff Poultry Farm.

scarce and high, and in January alone of that
year his flocks gave him $90 worth of eggs.
More chickens were hatched, more buildings and
yards built, all paid for out of the egg-money,
and for the last ten years he has been selling
$3,000 to $4,000 worth of products a year from
that old farm.

The hens have paid for it all. The total in¬
vestment was the few dollars paid for the first
mixed hens; all the rest is accrued earnings of
the hens themselves. Isn’t that a cheering ex¬
ample? Are we not right in considering Mr.
Wyckoff a typical poultry man? The farm is all
paid for — was paid for by the hens. The build¬
ings to house them, the fences built to enclose
the yards, the hundreds of young fruit trees set
in the yards, together with all the cows, farm
tools and machinery for carrying on a sixty-acre
farm — have been paid for by those hens ; and we
know (we didn’t ask him — but we know ) there’s
a dollar or two in the bank. Compare that con¬
dition with the one of fifteen years ago, when the
weekly wages barely paid the family expenses!

Mr. Wyckoff loves the farm, and takes honest
pride in his prosperous looking, claen-cultivated
fields; but he says his “farm”don’t pay any profit.

He keeps six or eight cows and makes butter
for market — but says there’s no money in it.
Indirectly perhaps it pays, because the manure
from the cows helps to enrich the fields for the
noble crops of corn and wheat he raises for
poultry food; then there is the pleasure one gets
from well tilled fields ; it warms the heart to see
the crops grow. We walked back over the farm,
and Mr. Wyckoff told us of the hard days’ works
he had put in there, ditching and draining, and
showed us one splendid field of eight or ten acres
which he has “ made ” himself, reclaiming it from
wet, rough, stumpy pasture. We suggested that
he would be just as well off, perhaps better, if he
sold off a part of his farm, and he said that he
knew that, and had offered to sell thirty or forty
acres off the rear end. As a street runs along
the west side of his land, it would be well
located for an independent farm, and a better
location for a home, and a finer outlook, one
wouldn’t find in a day’s journey. We give him
this free ad. for the benefit of anyone wanting to
buy land and build his own buildings.

To return to the poultry. Mr. Wyckoff
winters about six hundred head of laying stock.
As he has built up a large business in cockerels

82

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

and breeding stock, he usually has a thousand
head, or even more, at the beginning of winter;
but six hundred is his capacity. These he
houses in families of about fifty, the pens being
12x20 feet in size, each having a yard two rods
wide by eight rods long. The houses are built
forty feet long by twelve feet wide, and divided
into two pens by a solid board partition, having
a door to pass through. The houses have double
pitch roofs; roofs are shingled, and walls double
boarded, with building paper between the board¬
ings. The windows are noticeably small, two to
a pen, of six lights of ten by fourteen glass. These
are ample for light, and not large enough to
lower the temperature so much as the big win¬
dows do, and Mr. Wyckoff, unlike many New
York poultrymen, does not have stoves in his
houses. He has sometimes had a male bird’s
oomb nipped by frost, but never one of his hens.

The houses have board floors, which he litters
with straw, and there is an open space of ten or
twelve feet between the ends of the houses. With
a door in each end and one in the center partition
he passes through each house, and from one
house to the other, in feeding, collecting eggs,
etc. It was a great pleasure to go through the
pens at feeding time and look over the flocks of
large sized fine White Leghorns. Mr. Wyckoff
breeds for business, and calls his stock, “ busi¬
ness White Leghorns. ” He has made a record
of one hundred and ninety-four eggs apiece a
year from six hundred birds, and has built up
his stock by carefully selecting his breeders for
large size and great laying qualities; a more
vigorous and thrifty looking lot of fowls one
couldn’t find in a day’s journey.

Mr. Wyckoff is a firm believer in green food,
and feeds it regularly winter and summer,
whether or not the fowls have grass runs. He
says he has found, by actual test, that the egg
yield increased substantially when he fed green
food, and decreased when it was omitted. The
chief reliance in summer is kale, but he begins
with clover, feeding that until the kale gets a
good start, then the latter is gathered and fed
daily. Kale (or borecole) is one of the family
of plants similar to cabbage, (but which do not
boll), which are used for the boiled vegetable
called “ greens, ” the leaves and stalks having a
slightly aromatic taste. When the plants have
got a good start the lower (oldest) leaves on the
stalks are plucked and fed, the plant continuing
to grow and produce more leaves, so that with
a bed a rod wide by four or five rods long, a con¬

tinuous crop of green food may be hai vested till
the ground is frozen. In Mr. Wyckoff’s garden
the kale was planted in rows about two feet
apart, and the plants stood about a foot apart
in the rows.

The eggs are shipped to a retail dealer in New
York city, and bring a premium of from six to
fourteen cents a dozen above the highest market
quotation of the day of their arrival in New
York. The highest price they have ever netted
is fifty-one cents a dozen. He guarantees that
the eggs are “ strictly fresh ” and, shipping them
twice a week, (Mondays and Thursdays), the
oldest eggs in the cases are but three or four days
old when shipped. He has no difficulty in sell¬
ing all he can ship, and during the hatching
months (practically April and May) he sells
great numbers of eggs for hatching from selected
breeders.

This last branch of the business he has re¬
cently taken up, but its growth has been quite
rapid. As he never sends birds to shows he has
no show record to boast of — only the egg record
and the high quality of his stock as “ business
fowls. ” This is all that is necessary, as nine out
of ten buyers want business fowls rather than
prize winners; and Mr. Wyckoff can dispose of
all he can spare — indeed, could dispose of a great
many more, if he had them.

It is curious to note how the growth of stock
selling has interfered with his keeping accurate
accounts of egg yield, etc. When he had little
call for stock, he filled his pens with layers and
recorded their egg yield. Now he puts many
more birds in the pens, and is selling them off
through the late fall and early winter. This not
only interferes somewhat with the egg yield, but
the numbers in the pens are frequently changing,
and a reliable account of egg production per bird
is impossible. In the spring, too, he wants one
house for room for brooders and chickens, so the
birds in that house are put into the others, crowd¬
ing them somewhat. Not only does this crowd¬
ing lower the egg yield, but moving the birds
checks the laying. At the time of our visit, a
brooder house 60x16 feet was being built in the
pear orchard, east of the poultry buildings, and
that brooder house will not only take the brood¬
ers and chicks in the spring, but will house in the
fall two or three hundred head of sale stock also;
such a house will repay for itself in one year. Mr.
Wyckoff told us his sales of eggs for hatching and
breeding stock together aggregated Si, 800 last
year. That is a “ business ” of itself.

83

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

m

A soft food is fed in the morning, but it is
noticeable that it contains no cooked vegetables.
He takes one bushel of corn and two of oats, has
them ground up together quite fine, and to each
two hundred pounds of this meal he adds one
hundred pounds of bran. This mixture is
moistened with skimmed milk or sour milk, or
buttermilk (with either one or all of them), and
five or six pounds of beef scraps added. If he
did not have the milk, more beef scraps would be
needed. This morning feed is fed in V-shaped
troughs which are about ten feet long. After
ten or fifteen minutes he passes through the
houses and gathers up any food that may be left
in the troughs, but if any of the fowls seem to be
hungry he feeds a little more in that pen; he
wants them to have all they will eat up readily.

The noon feed consists of the green food of the
day, which is mangel beets or cabbage in winter,
clover or kale in summer. On the day of our
visit he also fed a very light feed of mixed grain
thrown in the litter to make them scratch. This
mixed grain, which is the same for the night feed
also, consists of two bushels each of wheat, oats
and buckwheat, and one bushel of corn ; in winter
two bushels of corn, which makes the mixture
then ecpial parts of the whole grains. Some¬
times he adds barley, if it is reasonably low in
price ; and the night feed is a full one, all that the
fowls will eat up clean.

This story is too long already, but is so inter¬
esting we hardly know where to stop, and
haven’t more than half exhausted our notes. One
or two criticisms we wish to make. We think
Mr. Wyckoff makes a mistake in raising his
young stock right there in the old buildings and
yards — a mistake which many (almost all) of the
New York poultrymen we visited, also make.
The reason is simply that the old yards and
buildings are more or less fouled or obnoxious,
and the chicks will do better on fresh ground.
On our farm we “ colonize ” the chicks in families
of twenty-five or thirty, out in the grass fields,
directly the grass is cut, and find the plan most
excellent for chicks, and fields both. No small
advantage of this colonizing plan is that the
houses and yards are free for the continued use
of the laying-breeding stock, and their laying
isn't interrupted (as Mr. Wyckoff told us his
was), by crowding the hens up to empty one or
two houses for the chicks. The great advantage,
however, is the free range for the growing chicks.
They eat better, because the fresh air and free
range enables them to digest and assimilate

more food, consequently they grow faster and
better. We believe young stock so colonized
grows up under the most favorable conditions
and comes to the laying pens in October in the
best possible condition for winter laying and
spring breeding.

We have written to little purpose, if we
haven’t shown the reader that Mr. Wyckoff is a
most inspiring example of the successful poultry-
man, an example which any man may follow. It
is a trite saying that “ What one man has done
another can do, ” but — how true it is ! Mr.
Wyckoff has put pluck and perseverance, and in¬
telligence into his opportunity; that is all. It will
be conceded that he had no “ soft snap. ” The
way was not made easy for him by plenty of capi¬
tal; he made his own capital as he went along.
With his own bare hand, plus pluck and per¬
severance and intelligence, he has wrought
success. — Farm Poidtry.

WHITE LEGHORNS FOR UTILITY AND

FANCY.

Methods Employed at Fairview Farm; Season¬
able, Sound and Practical Advice.

BY H. J. BLANCHARD, CiROTON, N. Y.

We usually begin selecting our breeding stock
in December or early January, so as to have
plenty of time to look the birds over very care¬
fully for a few weeks, remove all specimens that
may show undesirable traits and replace with
finer ones. Vigor is the first essential in any
fowl, and especially breeders, as it is the founda¬
tion on which to build the best layer or finest
show bird.

Select your breeding hens from the pens hav¬
ing the best egg record, and if selling breeding
and exhibition stock and eggs for hatching, look
well to standard requirements also. In mating
hens, use vigorous, active cockerels, well
marked, for standard matings; and for pullets
use vigorous cocks. Look well to the vigor of
the cocks and see that they are not sluggish or
inactive.

Don’t push your breeding birds for eggs, but
feed a good, balanced ration and let them come
to laying naturally. Right here let me say that
while I favor feeding liberally a good, balanced
ration, yet I firmly believe it is not so much
what we feed as the way we feed and manage
that makes hens lay best.

Don’t try any “forced molting” process —
your birds will molt when it is best for them.

84

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Houses and Yards for Breeding Stock, Fairview Poultry Farm.

However you can assist Xature in the molting
process by feeding the birds old-process oil meal,
sunflower seed or other foods which will assist in
growing feathers as well as nourish the bird. We
always feed meat during molting, even though
we get few eggs to pay for it, as it helps the
birds to recover and get into condition more
quickly.

We read a great deal about feeding for fertil¬
ity of eggs, as if it were a special process, but it
is only good, sensible feeding for general health
and eggs, which includes shell, grit, plenty of
succulent green food, and a liberal amount of
exercise, scratching for grain in litter in a proper¬
ly ventilated, dry, clean house.

If White Leghorns are the only variety you
keep, and you wish to hatch and raise your
chickens by the natural method, you had best
get some Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes or Brah¬
mas, as the White Leghorn is a treacherous
sitter even when she is inclined to make a busi¬
ness of it, and only a small percentage of them
will sit. Then you have lice to contend with as
well as the vagaries of the hen, and if chickens
are wanted in any considerable numbers, I would
certainly advise the use of good incubators and
brooders.

Our White Leghorns have been hatched and
reared in large numbers continuously for many
years by the artificial method, and we are satis¬
fied it is by far the best and most profitable
way. Some few breeders still maintain that
artificially hatched and reared chicks do not

make as large, vigorous birds, nor as good layers,
but our experience is quite the reverse. Buy
the best incubators and brooders you can get,
even though the first cost is more — the cheap
machines are usually “ made to sell ” and would
be dear as a gift. Run your machines a few
days before using, so as to become familiar
with them and able to keep them well under
control.

At the end of the 21st day, after the hatch is
done, open the incubator and remove the trays
with the shells, unhatched eggs and dead chicks,
if any, open wide all ventilators and run the
heat down to 98 or 100 degrees, leaving the
chicks in without food or water until the next
day. The brooders, well littered with dry sand
or finely cut straw in run and hover, should
now show 95 to 100 degrees of heat under the
hover. The chicks will now be strong, lively
and in good condition to transfer to the brooder
hover, which should be done without chilling
them.

Feed very little the first day and give water
with the chill off, using a good chick-fountain.
Be sure the chicks have some fine, hard, sharp
grit with the first feed and always thereafter.
What to feed is largely a matter of circumstances.
We use Cyphers Chick Food exclusively for
first three or four weeks, and like it very much.
After this we work in a little whole wheat and
cracked corn, gradually leaving out the Cyphers
Chick Food.

85

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

We use indoor brooders early in the season
while yet cold, but later, when mild, use out¬
door brooders. As soon as the chicks are strong
enough and weather suitable, they should be
got out doors on the grass, in a little yard at
first, but when old enough, they should have
free range all summer and until snow comes in
fall. When chicks are about eight weeks old,
we begin feeding once a day a mash of ground
grain in which we mix a very little high-grade
beef scrap, gradually increasing the quantity
of meat.

Always keep fresh water in shade where the
chicks can help themselves to it all day.

We believe in the colony house plan for both
chicks and old fowls, and free range for breeding
stock so far as possible. We have colony
houses for chicks near our corn fields and one
near a half-acre blackberry patch, and find the
shade and protection afforded by these crops
very valuable to our growing chicks, and the
crops and soil are also benefited by the foraging
birds.

One line of our breeding birds have houses in
a small wooded valley through which flows a
brook, making a typical place for the birds to
roam at will. From stock kept in such a
manner, you will not fail to get strongly fertile
eggs and chickens of sturdy frame and robust
constitution.

The cull pullets and hens can be confined in
large yards planted with fruit trees of any kind,
or blackberry bushes, of which we find “Sny¬
der” the best all-round variety. We annu¬
ally gather good crops of blackberries and tree
fruits from our poultry yards, while the trees
and bushes make the yards seem more like
free range and the confined fowls do much better
than in the ordinary small, bare yard.

Most of our colony houses for layers as well
as the breeding houses are 16 ft. wide by 40 ft.
long and 7\ ft. from bottom of sill (6 x 6) to
top of plate (4 x 4). We set the sills about 30
inches above the ground on a stone wall, cedar
posts, or gas pipe; if on the latter we nail boards
inside the sill extending to the ground, with
windows in south side. Wall double with
dead air space. Lower floor of single matched
lumber or laid double with plain lumber and
Neponset black sheathing paper between.
Overhead on the plates are laid 2x6 joists
notched two inches on lower side and spiked to
side of each 2x4 rafter. On these joists is laid
a floor of cheap lumber with wide cracks between

each board. Over this the third-pitch shingle
roof without paper under shingles. In each
gable cut a door as large as will swing under
roof.

On this loft floor put about twelve inches
loose straw. In very cold weather, when house
is tightly closed, the vapor thrown off by the
fowls will ascend through the cracks in loft
floor and be absorbed in the straw above instead
of being condensed on walls and roof in the
form of frost, thus keeping the house warm and
dry. On mild days we open the door in each
gable over the straw and let the air draw
through and dry out the loft and straw without
any draught on the birds below. The straw loft
also keeps the natural heat of the birds confined
below, which makes the house warm and com¬
fortable. In hot weather these gable doors
are left open day and night, and the draught
through the loft,- together with ventilation from
open doors and windows below, keeps the house
cool. The basement, being light, is not infested
by rats or other vermin, and is greatly enjoyed
by the birds during summer as a resting and
wallowing place in stormy weather, also when
very warm.

Our winter food for layers and breeders is
about as follows: First comes water, slightly
warmed in coldest weather, next a very light
ration of whole mixed grains, wheat, corn, oats
and buckwheat about equal parts, scattered in
a heavy litter of straw on the floor. After this
the birds are given mangel wurzel beets cut in
halves and placed on the floor. They are thus
kept busy all the morning scratching for grain,
running to the water pan, picking at the man¬
gels and are getting very hungry, as the food has
been scant and slow to get. About eleven
o’clock we feed a warm mash in the troughs —
all they will clean up in a very short time.

Our mash is ground oats and wheat bran,
about equal parts bv measure, to which is added
corn meal, hominy feed or both, and sometimes
wheat or buckwheat middlings. To this we
add about half an ounce per hen of good meat
meal or beef scraps, and one fourth as much
old-process oil meal, and mix all thoroughly
while dry. To this we sometimes add boiled
and mashed potatoes, turnips or other vege¬
tables. Clover cut into f in. lengths, about
two quarts to each 100 hens, is put in pails and
boiling water turned on, then pails covered
and the clover allowed to steam a half hour.
The steamed clover or boiled vegetables are

86

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

then thrown in the mash-box and hot water, in
which has been dissolved a little salt, poured on.
The whole mass is then thoroughly mixed until
all this is moistened but not sloppy. Along in
the afternoon we feed more mixed whole grain,
scattered in the litter, all we think they can eat,
and if any is left over they look for it in the
morning. We ventilate the houses more or
less every day by the windows, except on coldest
days.

The best mangel wurzels are the Golden Giant
Intermediate, sold by W. Atlee Burpee and Co.,
Philadelphia, Pa., and we grow them as follows:
Select a clean piece of ground and plow under
a heavy dressing of stable or hen manure,
harrow very thoroughly and remove all rubbish,
broadcast on a good dressing of commercial
fertilizer and harrow in. Mark out rows three
feet apart, sow seed in drills, about twelve
pounds to the acre, and cover about one inch.
Soon as the plants are large enough (about one
inch high) thin out to a foot apart in the row,
then cultivate, hoe and keep clean. The roots
should be gathered before any hard freezing and
stored in bins or piles in a cool cellar.

W e never store the hen manure as it is a costly
job to “fix” the nitrogen and pulverize the
manure. It is drawn directly from the poultry
houses to the fields and spread, winter and
summer, and gives grand results with all crops
except potatoes, which it is liable to scab.

When snow comes our chickens are taken
from the colony houses in the fields and put in
warmer winter quarters. During fall and early
winter we dispose of a large share of our hens
for breeding, laying or exhibition, thus making-
room for the pullets.

The cockerels are separated from the pullets,
about August, and given free range on another
part of the farm. They are kept in warm
houses in winter that no combs may be frozen.
Our best cockerels go in our own breeding pens
or are sold for breeding or exhibition, and a
great many of our pullets are sold and shipped
all over the country. Sales of eggs for hatch¬
ing also help swell the income. Market eggs
was our first object, and our plant was built up
largely from the profits of their sale. When
producing in large quantities we went to New
York City and after some difficulty succeeded
in placing our output at a good margin above
regular market prices. Every egg must be
new-laid, clean, good size, neatly and securely

packed, to hold such trade, and you must have
eggs in fall and winter.

Nothing desirable comes without earnest
endeavor, and the poultryman must expect to
work hard and have for his motto, “ Eternal
vigilance is the price of success.”

— H. J. Blanchard.

TWO COLONY-PLAN EGG FARMS.

Some of the Advantages and Disadvantages of
the Colony Plan.

It was a lovely spring-like day early in No¬
vember, that we stepped off the train at Matta-
poisett, far down the west side of Buzzard’s
Bay, on a journey in search of poultry farms
run upon the colony plan. A drive of a mile or
thereabouts brought us to the farm of Mr.
James B. Hamblin, which we found being turned
into a poultry plant of about two thousand head
of laying stock. The buildings are scattered
over two large, sandy fields, and are from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet apart;
in one field, being set in rows, so as to drive up
and down the roads to the houses to feed, etc.,
and in the other arranged conveniently for
reaching with the horse and wagon. It is the
intention to house forty birds in each house,
8 x 12 feet in size, and give them free range.
The food is loaded upon a wagon, which is
driven about from one house to another, the
driver jumping down at each house with a scoop
(or measure) of food, which is fed in a few
seconds, and the driver jumps up behind and
drives on to the next. There is a broad step
hung on behind the platform of the wagon,
similar to that on baker’s and milkwagons, for
the driver to ride on, and the wagon being on
two wheels, (a “gig” practically) it operates
easily. The horse soon becomes trained to its
route, with the regular stops and starts, and once
the horse is well trained the operation of feeding
and watering is comparatively simple. Forty-
three houses (of the fifty planned for) are com¬
pleted, the roofs being shingled, walls of rough
boards, with the cracks battened, and a small
ventilator hole being cut in each gable; but the
houses are not all stocked as yet, some of them
being still occupied by surplus cockerels which
are being fattened for market.

The stock which Mr. Hamblin now has is
Light Brahmas and Rhode Island Reds, and
crosses of Indian Game males on females of
those two varieties; and it is the intention to

87

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

run the plant chiefly as an egg-farm, although
the incubators and brooders will be occupied in
winter with chicks for broilers and roasters.

We spent a few minutes inspecting the old,
old dwelling house, built in 1703, still in good,
habitable condition, and the old hand-hewn
beams of oak look as though they were good for
another two hundred years. The rooms are
furnished with the old time furniture, and any¬
one enjoying the antique would have much
pleasure in a ramble through that old house.

Eating our lunch as we drove along the
charming, woodsy roads, we came in due time
to the poultry farm of Mr. Geo. E. Howland, of
Fairhaven, who keeps about fourteen hundred
head of fowls, for eggs only. Here can be seen
in perfection the growth of a poultry farm.
Mr. Howland bought the farm about ten years
ago, and started in business with a few pens of
fowls, housed in buildings of various sizes and
shapes. The plant has gradually grown, ab¬
sorbing an adjoining farm on the north; and
the buildings, which are scattered all over the
two farms, are mostly of the lean-to-shed pat¬
tern. Some of these houses are of stone ends
and back, the front and roof of wood; but the
majority of them are wood, the walls shingled,
the roofs of all being covered with tarred felting.
Three or four houses, including two that they
are just building, are sixty feet long, divided into
five pens 11 x 12, with yards 12 x 100 in front;
but all the others are scattered about the rocky
fields, being about one hundred and fifty feet
apart, but set in such a position as favored easy
access by the horse and feed wagon.

The stock here was mostly “ common hens,”
although some first crosses were in evidence,
and Leghorn and Minorca blood was easily pre¬
dominant. The object being eggs, and only
eggs, the stock is bred for layers, and only enough
chickens raised to reproduce about two-thirds
of the laying stock, the best third of the old
stock being carried over. Mr. Howland puts
never more than twenty birds in a pen or house.
As the latter average to be about 11x14 feet in
size it is easy to see that they have (with abso¬
lutely free range) plenty of elbow room. We
told him of Mr. Hamblin’s houses, which we had
seen but an hour before, and that Mr. Hamblin
planned to house forty birds in a house 8 x 12.
“He’ll miss it if he does,” said Mr. Howland, “I
have proved that I can get more eggs from
twenty birds together than from forty in the
same house; not only more eggs per hen, but,

actually, more eggs per house. I have tried it
and proved it.” As we fully agreed with him
there was no chance for an argument.

Mr. Howland sprays the insides of his houses
twice a year with petroleum, and the effect is to
darken them very much. We cannot but think
whitewash would be superior, because it would
be equally cleansing, and would make the houses
lighter, more cheerful.

Mr. Howland “ pickles ” his eggs in spring,
when eggs are selling at a low price, and sells
them when eggs are scarce. He put down
seventy-five hundred dozen last spring, fifty
barrels of one hundred and fifty dozen each,
and two-thirds of them are already gone to
market. He preserves them by the lime-water
process, having an improvement upon that
process by which he can keep the eggs about as
fresh as when laid, and he warrants them to
“ beat up into frosting,” or stand any other test
of freshness. As the dealers are at this season
glad to get them, and “running after him for
more, ” Mr. Howland thinks there is a good
profit in pickling eggs, in spite of the fact that
there is quite a bill of labor attached.

Mr. Howland hatches and raises his chickens
by the old hen method, there being neither
incubator nor brooder on the place; and he
also doesn’t believe in cut fresh bone, having
fed it for three years and discarded it. He
says he can get more eggs from his fowls by
using “beef scraps” for animal food than he
can when feeding cut bone, hence he feeds beef
scraps. His ration is a mash consisting of
cooked vegetables mixed up with a meal which
is five parts shorts and one part beef scraps,
and a little condition powder in the morning,
and in the afternoon a feed of corn, oats and
wheat, equal parts. He buys three hundred to
four hundred bushels of small potatoes each fall
for winter feeding; as he docs no farming
whatever he has to buy his vegetables. An¬
other thing that he does is to buy grain in large
quantities when it is low in price. He has just
got in about seventeen hundred bushels, as
grain is now very low.

We sometimes hear it said that large poultry-
farms never have succeeded; but here is one
that most certainly has. It has grown from
small beginnings, an additional farm has been
bought, a fine new dwelling house has been
built, (the old cottage being moved back about
fifty yards and used now as grain-store house),
and there are very many evidences of a pros-

88

— . . . . ""-q

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Colony Houses at Little Compton, R. I., Showing the Cart for Food and Water.

perous condition of things. Mr. Howland
doesn’t advertise because he has nothing to
sell. He manufactures eggs and the market
takes all he can produce, and pays him cash for
them, and his farm is an egg-farm and nothing
else — no side issues, nothing to interfere with
the production of eggs.

MR. WILBUR’S GREAT POULTRY FARM.

The Colony Plan and Rhode Island Reds.

A poultry farm which carries four thousand
head of laying stock may fairly be considered
“great.” In fact, we believe it is the greatest
we have ever visited or heard of, and as we
think we should have heard of it if there had
been one larger, we will assume that this is the
largest poultry farm in the United States; and
is, consequently, the largest in the world. It
goes without saying that the United States is a
long way ahead of every other country in poul¬
try culture, hence what is greatest in poultry
here is the greatest in the world. Isaac Wilbur,
Esq., of Little Compton, R. I., is the poultry
farmer we have in mind, and his poultry farm
and poultry business, the result of thirty or
more years of growth, is the subject of our
sketch.

Mr. Wilbur did not begin life as the tradition¬
al poor boy, nor did he buy his farm with a
small payment down and a big mortgage. His
farm of two hundred acres has been the home
of the Wilburs for many generations, and the
men of the family have been prominent citizens —
his grandfather, whose name he bears, having

been governor of the state and a leader in public
affairs in his day. A man of culture and refine¬
ment himself, Mr. Wilbur is a type of the best
class of farmer-citizen of America, the “solid
men” of our country.

Forty years ago Mr. Wilbur farmed by the
old methods, beef for market being his main
stay, for which business his excellent natural-
grass land is well adapted. Every farmer kept
a flock of hens in those days, chiefly for eggs
and poultry meat for the table, and some eggs
and dressed poultry were each year sold to
market. As Mr. Wilbur is a dozen miles from
a railroad and four miles from a steamboat
wharf, he saw the advantage of a concentrated
market product, decided to keep two flocks of
fowls instead of one, and built a second house
for the other flock. There were “croakers”
even in those days, and one conservative neigh¬
bor remonstrated with him for his foolishness in
building a second poultry house. “Why,”
said he, “you’ll glut the market with eggs,
you’ll knock the bottom all out of the business
with over production!” As Mr. Wilbur’s two
houses have increased to a hundred, and as,
influenced by his example and encouraging
words, many of his townsmen are doing like¬
wise, and selling their eggs to him, until Mr. W.
handles and ships one hundred and thirty
thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand
dozen eggs in a year, the croaker would seem
to have been shortsighted.

Mr. Wilbur keeps the fowls on the colony plan,
housing about forty head in a house 8 x 10 or
8 x 12 feet in size, these houses being about one

89

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

hundred and fifty feet apart, set out in long rows
over gently sloping fields. He has one hundred
of these houses, scattered over three or four
fields. The food is loaded on to a low wagon,
which is driven about to each house in turn,
the attendant feeding as he goes; at the after¬
noon feeding the eggs are collected. The fowls
are fed twice a day. The morning feed is a
mash of cooked vegetables and mixed meals;
this “mash” is made up in the afternoon of the
day before; the afternoon feed is whole corn
the year round. It is none of our business,
but it seemed a little droll to find western (dent)
corn brought to this out-of-the-way corner of
the land, teamed four miles from the steam¬
boat landing, and fed to fowls! That may be
economy of labor, but we doubt it — which is
wholly outside of the question of the unwisdom
of feeding so much corn. We could not but
think that a more varied food-ration would
induce a greater egg-yield per fowl; but as we
were unable to get a statement of what the egg
yield per fowl is we can only guess at this.

The houses are of the simplest and cheapest,
could be built for twenty dollars apiece, prob¬
ably. Some of them are of the double-pitch
roof pattern, others of the sloping (shed) roof
pattern; but all are alike in being built of the
cheapest unmatched lumber, and all are inno¬
cent of shingles or roofing paper on roof and
walls. Of course they are thoroughly ventilated,
the numerous cracks between the boards ad¬
mitting fresh air in abundance, and sunshine
and rain with absolute impartiality. In that
location, close upon the seashore, snow is
practically unknown, and the fowls can run at
large every day in the year; and that free range,
with unlimited fresh air through the houses,
keeps the fowls in perfect health. Whether
fowls so housed and cared for will produce as
many eggs in a year as fowls better housed, and
fed a more varied food-ration, may well be
doubted. We would like much to see a test
made there, of shingling (or roof papering)
the roofs and walls of one row of houses, putting
half the number of birds in each of those
houses, and feeding them a balanced ration.
We believe the birds in those houses would lay
nearly twice the number of eggs in a year, and
that three-fourths of that greater egg yield
would come in the fall and winter, when eggs
pay the creamy profit. This could only be de¬
termined by a careful experiment carried

through a whole year, the record being kept of
the egg yield of each houseful.

Another experiment we hope Mr. Wilbur will
try is adding a small (say 6 x 8 or 8 x 8)
scratching shed on the west end of some of those
houses. The advantages of such a shed would
be very great in stormy weather, of which they
have quite a little there on the coast. That Mr.
Wilbur is not himself wholly satisfied with his
houses and the colony plan, we judge from the
fact that he is planning to build a long, scratch-
ing-shed house on land east of his present plant,
and below his son’s residence.

While considering the colony house plan we
will digress to remark that we have found two
or three other cases of a desire to try the long-
house method. Mr. Mapes, for example, of
Middletown, N. Y., has (or his son has) just
built a house 320 x 16 feet, divided into twenty
pens 12 x 16, and an alleyway four feet wide
extending the entire length of the building;
and Mr. Howland of Fairhaven is building his
later buildings each sixty feet long, divided into
five pens 12 x 12, and with 12 x 100 feet yards
adjoining. From these recent examples we
may infer that the colony plan of housing poul-
tr}^ is not the greatest success; if it were these
men would not be trying something else.

To our mind the strongest argument against
the colony plan is that too much of the fowls’
physical energy is wasted in “ranging,” energy
which if properly conserved will turn to egg
production. We try to plan for house room
and yard room enough for good health, and to
keep green grass accessible all the growing
season — and we believe we get the best egg
product by that plan; which, for want of a better
name, we call the semi-confinement plan.

The bulk of Mr. Wilbur’s stock is the Rhode
Island Reds, a variety well known in southern
Massachu, setts and Rhode Island, and famous
for both egg production and dressed poultry.
They probably originated in crosses of the old
Shanghai fowls with native stock. Of this,
however, there is no proof; and the fact that in
one section of that country they were known as
“Malays,” is suggestive of their being an im¬
portation originally from an eastern country.
That they are a very much mixed stock is shown
by their breeding both rose and single combs,
and both clean and feathered legs — and it will
take time to “ establish ” them, fix a type. The
single combed and clean legged bird seems best
suited to meet the popular taste, and that is the

90

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

Oolony-Farm Houses Brought Together

type of bird Mr. Wilbur is selecting for his
breeding stock. The R. I. Reds lay a beautiful
brown egg, good proof of their Asiatic ancestry;
and their skin is a rich yellow, making them ex¬
tremely attractive as dressed poultry. They
are smaller than both P. Rocks and Wyandottes,
hence exactly hit the popular taste in size, the
great demand being for chickens and fowls
dressing eight to ten pounds the pair.

The typical males are of a deep, rich buff
color, with greenish-black tail and greenish-
black stripe in hackle. The females are a lighter
buff, many of them (especially after the adult
molt) quite light and showing some stripe in
hackle and color in tail. Being wonderfully
hardy, both as chickens and fowls, and quiet and
docile, no wonder the farmers of that region like
them as “business fowls.”

We greatly enjoyed talking “hens” with Mr.
Wilbur, as we walked over the farm, notwith¬
standing the various matters we have described ;
but we would fail of our object if we gave our
readers the idea that all of his business is poultry
and eggs. In addition to his own four thousand
hens he buys up the poultry and eggs from a
considerable region about there, and ships some
one hundred and thirty thousand to one hun¬
dred and fifty thousand dozen eggs to market
yearly. How many tons of dressed poultry he
ships we do not know; but four men were busy
dressing fowls, chickens and ducks the day we
were there, and one was dressing lambs as Air.
Wilbur keeps about one hundred sheep, and
sends considerable mutton and lambs to market.
He also raises veal, keeping about forty cows
for that purpose, buying the calves for fattening
from farmers about; on the whole his farming
is considerably varied — and he makes it pay.

for Winter, de Wolf Farm, Bristol, R. I.

He told us it was his intention to make a profit
out of each line of farm work, so that no part of
the farm should be a tax upon another part.

Such an example of profitable farming is the
best answer to those that croak — “ Farming
don’t pay nohow!” and what a record such a
man as Mr. Wilbur makes in a community.
What stability, for instance, is suggested in the
fact that one of his men has been in his employ
continuously for forty-two years. Indeed, the
cook in the kitchen claims to have been in his
employ still longer, but Mr. W. smilingly says
her record was broken by a not altogether suc¬
cessful matrimonial venture, so that she cannot
claim continuous service. Such facts point a
moral in these days of rapid transformation in
farm help. Isn’t it splendid that the stability
of character which unites master and servants
in a long life-work together is one of the aids to
making farming pay? — Form Poultry.

91

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

Some Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Colony Plan.

It could be stated roughly that the advantages
are economy of house construction, complete
isolation of each family, and free range, but we
feel bound to sajr we believe the lessened cost of
construction is more than counterbalanced by
the enhanced cost of operation. The greater
cost of construction of long houses and yards
demands an immediate investment of money,
requires more ready capital at the start, while
the increased cost of operation is an annual tax,
a year in and year out expenditure of time and
muscle. True it is usually the muscle of a hired
man and horse, but hired men’s wages eat into
the income rapidly, and horses have to be fed;
hence we feel bound to say frankly that the
largest advantages are on the side of the long-
house plan.

We have visited several colony-plan farms,
Mr. Hayward’s, Hancock, N. H., Mr. Wilbur’s,
Little Compton, R, I., “Tanglewood,” East
Greenwich, R. I. (now defunct), and others
besides Mr. Hamblin’s and Mr. Howland’s.

Mr. Hayward’s is farthest north, and being
far back from the seashore, is much more effect¬
ed by snow and cold than the others mentioned,
which are close upon tide water and practically
free from the invasion of snow, which must
mean considerable in the expense of operating.
Mr. Hayward’s buildings are scattered over
half a mile or more of rocky hillside, and the
labor of “breaking roads” to them in such a
snowy, blowy winter as we had last winter must
be a heavy handicap. The houses are “ A ”
shaped, eight feet square on the ground, and
house a family of twelve birds each. As he has
about three hundred of these houses set about
one hundred feet apart, and told us they cost
about $8.00 apiece, that means an investment
of but $2,400 of cash to house three thousand
six hundred head of fowls. It would be well
to note here that Mr. Hayward claimed to clear
only about one dollar apiece on each fowl.

Mr. Hamblin’s houses are 8 x 12, and intended
to house forty birds in each; while Mr. How¬
land’s houses are 11x14 (average, they vary a
trifle), and he houses twenty birds in each. Mr.
Wilbur’s houses average about 8 x 10, and he
houses twenty-five to thirty head in each. We
feel bound to say (as did Mr. Howland when we
were discussing Mr. Hamblin’s plans), that we
believe the better all-round results and better
profit per hen can be obtained from twenty birds

in a family than thirty or forty in the same house-
room. Mr. Howland, a veteran of many year’s
experience, was emphatic in saying that he could
get fully as many eggs in a year from twenty
birds in a house as he could from forty in the
same house. In the one case he had bought
the food for twenty birds, and in the other for
forty; the egg yield being practically the same
the net profit is the greater with twenty birds.

This is a digression, perhaps a justifiable one,
and we are prompted to make another to speak
of open-front scratching sheds, which could be so
easily and cheaply added to the Hamblin,
Howland and Wilbur type of house. A simple
lean-to roof, with a west wall (say) three feet
high, and a north end would cost but very little,
and would be of immense advantage for giving
the birds fresh air and exercise in the open air.
With such an open-front shed 8 x 8 or 8 x 10,
these houses would easily carry twenty-five or
thirty fowls; and we feel certain they would lay
enough more eggs every year to pay for the
shed.

We stated at the outset that the apparent
advantages of the colony plan were : 1st. — Econ¬
omy of housing; 2nd. — Complete isolation of
each family; 3d. — Free range. The cheaper
construction will be conceded without discus¬
sion ; the cheaply built (not permanent) houses,
without yards, cost very much less per head of
fowls housed than the substantially built long-
houses and yards. But, as we said above, this
apparent advantage is fully counterbalanced
by the greater labor of feeding and caring for the
fowls; the long-house plan requires more capital
put into buildings at the outset, but minimizes
the expenditure of labor; the colony-plan
requires less capital at the outset, but exacts the
maximum of labor.

The complete isolation of each family is not
so certain as some would think unless the houses
are two hundred or more feet apart. A fowl
will take a notion to “go visiting,” and enters
another flock; or she may wander so far in
search of insects, etc., that she doesn’t know
which of the three or four houses nearest her
(all alike) is hers, and goes to the wrong one.
This is of little consequence if all are in good
health; if biddy lays in house number one, or
number two, or three, or four, ’tis all the same
to the owner.

In case of an outbreak of disease, however, if
it can be confined to one house much is gained.
Can this be done? Take roup, one of our worst

92

PRACTICAL EGG FARMS.

scourges, for example. We have been told of a
case in Hammonton, N. J., where a broiler-man
lost three thousand chickens in one season from
roup, which he claimed was brought from a
neighbor’s brooder house, either in the clothing
or in the dirt adhering to the shoes of a visitor.
With our present hazy knowledge of roup we
will not say such a case is not possible ; we would
rather say that it is barely possible, but highly
improbable. If, however, the contagion was so
carried to the Hammonton man’s brooder
house, it could be similarly carried from one
house to all the others of a colony farm, provid¬
ed, as is usually the case, the one attendant
went to all in turn. In “ Hens by the Acre,” in
the Rural New Yorker, Mr. Collingwood tells us
about a colony-plan farm in Orange county,
New York, where one thousand hens are kept,
and says: — “The reason why we have not
heard from the place is that a scourge of roup
swept through the flocks last year, and Mr.
Mapes has been so busy clearing it out that he
has had no time to talk. Now that the disease
has been about wiped out, he is going to tell us
how he did it.” As these fowls were kept in
flocks of forty, in colony-plan houses scattered
over a rocky pasture, and the “ scourge of roup
swept through them.” it would look as though
the complete isolation was more apparent than
real.

The other advantage we have to consider is
free range, — and we have strong doubts about
this being an advantage. Mr. Josiah Quincy tells
us in his excellent little book on “Soiling,” that
the most profitable method of conducting a
milk-farm is to keep the cows confined in the
stable constantly, excepting (say) a couple of
hours in mid forenoon and a couple of hours in
mid afternoon for healthful exercise; just

sufficient exercise to promote digestion and
keep the cows in good health. He tells us that
the largest possible milk flow will be promoted
by this method, and no food energy wasted in
“ranging.” Just so with fowls, if kept for
profit. Just enough exercise in the open air to
promote digestion and the turning of the food
energy into eggs, is the best method; and we
firmly believe the semi-confinement plan is that
method. By semi-confinement we mean hav¬
ing a roosting-laying room, adjoining it an open-
front scratching shed, and, extending south
(preferably) from this pen and shed a yard
sufficiently large to give each fowl from seventy-
five to one hundred square feet of yard room.
By this plan the energies of the fowl are conserv¬
ed and turned into egg production — i. e. into
profit, instead of being dissipated in wide rang¬
ing. If the object is “ long life,” we say unhesi¬
tatingly that the free range plan is the better —
but we don’t keep fowls to see how long we can
make them live. On our farm we intend to get
the best possible egg yield for ten or eleven
months after the fowls reach laying maturity , and
then turn them off to market, to make room for
another generation of eager layers. It is well
known that pullets are far the best egg pro¬
ducers. It is true year-old hens lay well, but
no one denies that pullets lay better; hence, we
argue, it is better to get the hens out of the way,
even if they are still laying, and give their places
to well matured pullets. Then keep these
pullets on the semi-confinement plan, get the
best possible egg yield from them till the rccrn
is again wanted for the incoming layers, and so
on year after year. We believe there is a much
better profit in fowls kept in this manner than
in fowls kept by the colony plan. j>-

— Farm Poultry.

93

Chapter VI.

FOODS AND FEEDING. BEST RATION FOR EGG PRODUCTION. SOME

TESTED EGG RATIONS.

rOOD is required to repair bodily waste
and maintain the bodily strength.
The materials of which the body
consists are continually breaking
down, being consumed and passed
off as waste, and are being replaced by new
materials supplied through the blood from the
food eaten; to keep the body in a healthy and
vigorous condition there must be a constant
supply of new material to take the place of the
old. If this supply of new material is insuffi¬
cient hunger manifests itself, and if the supply
is cut off for a considerable time death may
result. To keep up this supply of new material
is the chief function of food, but in addition the
food maintains the heat of the body, furnishes
the force or energy which enables muscular
movement, and also enables the performing of
the necessary functions of the body. In young
animals growth has to be made, and while that
growth is made by supplying new material to
take the place of the old, there is also an excess
of new material necessary to make the growth,
or development. In many matured animals
milk or eggs are secreted, and for this purpose
a supply of food is required in excess of the
normal bodily wants, and to supply food of the
right proportion to meet the bodily require¬
ments of the animal without a w'aste of the food
material, constitutes the science of feeding.

There are many different methods of feeding
fowls, and not a few habits of feeding which
can be characterized as wholly lacking in
method ; this is unfortunate because method and
regularity in feeding are most important for
best results. It is hardly the province of this
book to enter into the question of the chemical
constituents of foods; we shall better serve the
interests of our readers by describing several
methods of feeding which have been successful
in many hands, and the rations here given are
those of successful poultrymen.

In the articles selected for this chapter the
feeding of a “ mash ” for breakfast is very

generally recommended, hence we desire to call
especial attention to the dry-feeding method
described by Mr. Park. It is perhaps too early
yet to decide that all-dry-food will give as good
(or substantially as good) results as the mash-
for-breakfast method of feeding; if it should be
demonstrated that it induces (substantially) as
good an egg yield with the acknowledged better
average health of the flocks, then the dry-feed¬
ing method is the better. It certainly effects
a considerable saving in labor and as there has
been, on the part of not a few poultry keepers,
an abuse of mash-feeding which has induced
liver-disease and other disasters, the dry-feed¬
ing method deserves careful study.

The right feeding of fowls is not at all a diffi¬
cult matter; the prime essentials are a proper
proportion and a sufficient quantity; with a
variety of food elements provided in sufficient
quantity, the fowls will properly “balance”
the ration. Feed a variety; feed in sufficient
quantity, but don’t overfeed; feed systemati¬
cally and regularly — these are the rules for
successful poultry feeding.

FEEDING FOWLS FOR EGGS.

Feed a Variety ; Do Not Overfeed. An Excel¬
lent Food Ration and Feeding Method.

Constant discussion of the question of “ feed¬
ing fowls for eggs ” has caused many to think it
a very difficult matter, which it is not, if one
uses plain, common sense, and feeds only what
the fowls will clean up quickly. The two great¬
est stumbling blocks for the beginner are a lack
of a variety of food -elements, and overfeeding.
A small flock of fowls, ranging at will through
and around the farm buildings, will pick up half
their living, and greatly vary the food-elements
consumed by eating quantities of insects and
worms, grass seeds from the hay mow, etc., and
in winter will eat the leaves, etc., off the hay
(especially clover); and by these pickings they

FOODS AND FEEDING.

Eggs of “Quality,” the Kind for which a Good Premium is Paid. Black Minorca
Eggs, Raised by C. C. Pape, Fort Wayne, Ind.

“balance” the over-supply of
starch in the grain that is
thrown to them. Fowls rang¬
ing at will, however, lay de¬
cidedly fewer eggs than those
kept in semi-confinement and
given only so much range as
promotes reasonably good
health. For fowls kept in
houses and yards it is neces¬
sary that we consider variety
in the food given them, and if
we want them to lay eggs we
must give them in the food the
materials of which to make
eggs. It is not at all neces¬
sary for the beginner to bother
about the chemical elements
of food, or worry over the
exact proportions of carbohy¬
drates or nitrogenous matter,
if he will see that the fowls
get enough to eat without
their getting too much, and
that they get a variety of
food-elements in different
grains, with green food (“ rough-
age”) and animal food in
place of the insects, worms, etc., they get
when ranging at will.

We give below a feeding method which was
worked out by the writer on a farm on which
300 or 400 fowls were kept for eggs, and the
materials used were ordinary farm-grains, etc.,
supplemented by what could easily be obtained
at a feed mill in town. This ration was not
weighed in ounces and decimals of ounces; the
proportions were to be from the grain bins or
barrels in scoopfuls, as stated, and this food
ration gave excellent results both in egg yield
and the healthfulness of the flocks. This feed¬
ing method was quoted by Mr. John H. Robin¬
son in his book “ Winter Eggs, How to Get
Them,” and is there recommended to be “one
of the best ever devised ; aud has probably been
adopted with gratifying results by more poultry
keepers than any other ever published. * * *

The method as a whole is a good one, adapted
to a wide range of circumstances, and anyone
who follows it closely may know that if he does
not get eggs it is not the fault of the ration.
Another endorsement of this feeding ration
came from the Rhode Island Agricultural College.
Prof. A. A. Brigham had it compounded and

analyzed by the Poultry Class there, and said it
was “a very well balanced ration, probably as
near perfect as could be made with the materials
available on the average farm.” This ration,
we ought to add, has been given to the public
many times from Farmers’ Institute platforms,
and in various papers and books.

“ Five mornings in the week we feed a mash
made up of about a third cooked vegetables
mashed fine, or cut clover cooked by being
brought to a boiling heat in water, an equal
amount of boiling water added, a heaping tea¬
spoonful of salt to a bucketful; a heaping tea-
spoonful of ginger two days, then cayenne one
day, ginger two days, then powdered charcoal
one; and into this is stirred mixed meal until
the mash is as stiff as a strong arm can make it.

“ This mixed meal consists of one part each of
corn meal, fine middlings, bran, ground oats
and meat meal, a scoop or dipper of each being
dipped in turn into a bag, and poured from the
bag into the meal barrel, from which it is dipped
into a mash. We consider the thorough
mixing of these meals a considerable factor in
making a good mash.

95

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING

“ When we have cut fresh bone in abundance
we omit the meat meal from the mixture; ordi¬
narily we have only about half rations of cut
bone to go around, so use, regularly, half the
amount of meat meal to make up the deficiency.

“The foundation of the mash is the cooked
vegetables, which may be refuse potatoes, beets,
carrots, turnips, onions (anything in the vege¬
table line), and into the pot goes the table waste,
potato parings, etc., and the potato, squash
and apple parings from the kitchen. The
potatoes or beets, etc., are washed before putting
on to cook, and the mess when boiled is sweet
and savory. If one has a set kettle in which to
stir up the mash and there leave it to cook in
its own heat and the heat of the brick work,
they are fortunate — we haven’t, and have to
make ours up in common water pails.

“The vegetable or clover kettle is put on
before sitting down to dinner, usually, and an¬
other kettle of water to be boiling hot when
wanted. When the vegetables are cooked,
we set out four buckets in a row, dip out the
vegetables into the buckets about equally, mash
them thoroughly, add the salt — always — and
the condiment of the day, add boiling water till
the bucket is two-thirds full, then stir in the
mixed meal till it is stiff and firm; then cover
and set away to cook in its own heat.

“Clover rowen (second-crop-clover) cut fine
makes an excellent foundation for the mash, and
two or three days of the week in winter we use
that instead of vegetables. We fill two kettles
with the cut clover and as much cold water as
they will conveniently hold, and heat to a boil.
The clover is ladled out into the buckets about
equally, the clover-tea added and boiling hot
water as before, then salt and the stimulating
condiment and the meal stirred in.

“ The morning mash is fed in troughs large
enough so that all of the fifteen fowls in a pen
can get about it at one time — another import¬
ant factor, because if the trough is small some
of the birds have to stand back and wait for the
second table, and when their chance does come
there is nothing left for them. With a trough
four feet long by six inches wide there is plenty
of room, and if a biddy is driven away from one
place she runs around and goes to eating at
another, and thus all get a share.

“ Our fowls have exercise ground in summer in
yards 125 x 12 feet, which gives them a grass
run (with growing grass always in the growing
season), and they will take ample exercise in

plea-sant’weather. To keep them out of doors
the noon feed of whole barley (or buckwheat),
and night feed (before sunset) of wheat or corn
are scattered upon a graveled space immediately
in front of the houses. Each family of fifteen
has a pen within the house twelve feet square,
or one hundred and forty-four square feet of
floor space, which gives about ten square feet
per fowl. The floor is the earth, covered about
six inches deep with screened gravel. On this
gravel the grain is scattered in stormy weather
in spring, summer and early fall, when we want
the birds to stay indoors. When cold weather
approaches exercise must be stimulated, and we
cover the pen floors three or four inches deep
with coarse meadow hay or common straw,
into which the grain is scattered and the biddies
have to dig it out. Some poultrymen use dry
leaves for pen litter; chaff from a threshing
mill would be most excellent (nothing could be
better), and we have found one or two cases
where common cornstalks were used. With us,
straw or meadow hay is most easily obtained,
and we use that. What the scratching
material is, is of far less importance than that
the scratching material be there.

“ Whole wheat is the best grain food for fowls,
whole barley is the next best and buckwheat
next. We make barley or buckwheat the noon
feed five days in the week, and wheat the night
feed five or six days in the week. We do not
make the mash on Sunday because we want to
reduce the work to its lowest terms on that day,
doing no more than the regular feedings and
waterings, and collecting the eggs.

“Monday, we feed oats (or barley), wheat,
whole corn.

Tuesday, mash, barley (or buckwheat),
wheat.

Wednesday, mash, cut bone, wheat:.

Thursday, oats, barley, wheat (or corn).

Friday, mash, barley, wheat.

Saturday, mash, cut bone, wheat.

Sunday, mash, barley (or buckwheat), wheat.

“Two feeds of cut bone each week, one or
two of whole oats, and one or two of whole corn
(according to the season), give variety to our
ration, and to that are added whole cabbages
hung in the pens in cold weather to tempt pick¬
ing them to get green food; or turnips, or
beets, or carrots are split in halves and placed
in the pens, to be picked to pieces and eaten.

“Ground oyster shells are always accessible,
and fresh water, replenished three times a day

96

FOODS AND FEEDING.

(warm in winter), and the water pans are care¬
fully rinsed every day.”

Feeding for Eggs: How Much.

The problem, as every poultryman knows, is
not what to feed, but how much. If you do
not believe this write the editor of your favorite
poultry paper and ask him how much food you
.should give a flock of 15 hens, and see what he
will say. It takes a great deal of care to steer
between over-feeding on the one hand and under¬
feeding on the other. I believe, however, that
there is a scientific principle underlying the
matter, and think that after a great deal of
study and experimentation I have discovered
the principle.

In order to determine how much to feed we
must again interrogate Nature. Before we had
begun to dissect the crop of the hen we had
killed, suppose we had put it on the scales to
ascertain its weight. If the hen from which
the crop was taken was of an American breed, if
she had been running in the fields all day and
just before she had been killed had been given
all the corn that she would eat, her crop with
its contents would weigh not far from six ounces.
Allowing that two ounces of food have
passed from the crop into the gizzard during
the day, and from the gizzard into the intestines,
it will be seen that when a hen is on the range,
supplied with abundance of food, she will con¬
sume about eight ounces of food in the course
of 24 hours. It would seem therefore that this
is the amount of food a hen needs to supply all
the demands of her system and leave a margin
for egg production. But before we settle down
to this conclusion there are some things to be
taken into consideration. On the range the
hen has had plenty of exercise, and needs more
food to supply the tissue lost than when in con¬
finement. On the range food is more bulky and
less nutritious than the food the hen receives in
her pen. It contains a larger proportion of
grass and vegetables. It is probable that in
the pen, where the hen does not exercise so
freely as she does on the range and where her
food is more concentrated, she docs not need
so much food by one-fourth as she does when at
liberty. Six ounces of food a day ought there¬
fore to be ample to supply all the needs of a hen
in confinement.

Suppose we try a little experiment to verify
this conclusion. Let us take a laying hen a
year old and shut her up in a pen by herself,

feeding her but once a day, but giving her all
she will eat at this meal. The food we set
before her is a mash containing all the elements
for nutrition and egg production. We will find
that the hen will continue to thrive and lay eggs
on six ounces of food a day. There will be a
falling off of egg production, owing to the close
confinement and change in methods of feeding,
but the hen will live and lay on six ounces of
food a day. We are now confirmed in our
conviction, that in the American breeds six
ounces of food a day is about the normal amount
for a hen in confinement. Whether she needs
a little more or a little less must be determined
by individual experimentation.

Six ounces of food a day for a hen weighing
six pounds seems at first sight an enormous
quantity. In the same ratio a man weighing
160 pounds would consume 10 pounds of food
every 24 hours. But before we dismiss the
matter as absurd, let us consider a moment.
The hen’s food is not so concentrated as the
man’s. It contains far less nutriment in pro¬
portion to bulk. A considerable proportion of
it will be voided in the form of excrement. Then
the hen has a task to perform such as is imposeel
upon few other creatures. She is expected to
lay an egg weighing not less than two ounces;
anel an egg, as everyone knows, is one of the
richest of food-products. Deduct from the six
ounces of food two ounces for waste anel two
ounces for egg production, and it will be seen
that only two ounces are left to repair the tis¬
sues anel maintain the temperature of the body.
The laying hen needs a generous diet, anel these
doctrinaires who advocate keeping her in a
state of semi-starvation have no support in rea¬
son for their theory.

— From “200 Eggs a Year ptr Hen: How to G(t

Them.”

97

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

PRODUCING EGGS AT MINIMUM COST.

Digestible Nutrients Which Should Be Fed to

Laying Stock to Furnish the Chemical
Constituents of the Egg and Main¬
tain the Hen in Health and
Activity — Properties of
Protein and Nitrog¬
enous Materials.

BY JAMES It. COVERT,

Of the United States Experiment Stations, Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

As cold weather approaches and the market¬
ability of eggs increases, the problem of how to
increase the yield of that toothsome article be¬
comes interesting. The veteran, the amateur,
and the good housewife vie with each other in
an endeavor to compound a ration which shall
produce the maximum yield of eggs at minimum
food-cost. The public is awakening to a realiz¬
ation of_the food value of the egg. More atten¬
tion is given the subject of feeding, and the
agricultural press is devoting more space to
articles on poultry. Some of the Experiment
Stations are investigating and throwing light
in many hitherto dark corners. Their conclu¬
sions in many cases closely coincide with the
teachings of experience and show conclusively
that correct feeding is both a science and an art.

If to the sum total of the chemical constitu¬
ents in the eggs produced during a given season,
we add the materials required to maintain the

hen in health and activity, we have approxi¬
mately the amount of digestible nutrients which
should be present in her food. As we all know,
the digestible nutrients in food-articles vary in
amount and quality, and some breeds of chick¬
ens return a greater profit in eggs for the food
consumed than others. This article, however,
is confined to the subject of rations which must
be prepared with due regard to the purposes
for which the chickens are kept. Thus, if we
desire to produce flesh we must feed a ration
richer in flesh forming ingredients than, if we
were feeding for eggs which recpiire nitrogenous
materials. Reports of digestion experiments
with fowls are seldom met with, presumably be¬
cause they are not often undertaken. The
public should take an interest in the matter and
demand of those expert in the determination of
feeding problems the solution of this question.

It is assumed that the nutritive ratio for the
laying hen and the milch cow should be approxi¬
mately the same. Their products closely re¬
semble each other, but their relative actual cost
makes milk the much cheaper food-article for
man, especially in the larger cities. The
German feeding standard for feeding milch cows
calls for 15.4 lbs. total nutritive substance in the
digestible portion of her food, these nutritive
substances to be proportioned as follows: Pro¬
tein, 2.5 lbs.; carbohydrates 12.5 lbs.; and
ether extract, or fat, 0.4 lbs. This gives a

nutritive ratio of
1:5.4. In other
words, to every
pound of protein
there are 5.4
pounds of nit r o-
genous materials.

The nutritive
ratio may be de¬
termined by multi¬
plying the ether
extract by 22, add¬
ing to this product
the carbohydrates,
a n d dividing b y
the protein. Each
pound of f a t or
ether extract is
assumed to have a
feeding equivalent
of 2.2 pounds car¬
bohydrates. The
author has been

98

FOODS AND FEEDING.

unable to find the reports of any experiments
determining the amounts of these materials
necessary for fowls. For want of definite in¬
formation on several points he is unable to do
the subject justice, but with many apologies and
a few misgivings he will attempt to formulate a
ration which shall be practicable for the farmer.

It is usual to feed a ration of soft foods in the
morning, with a whole grain ration at night.
We will suppose we have our choice of the
following feeding stuffs : Bran, corn meal, ground
oats, oil cake, cotton-seed meal, beef and blood
meal, red clover hay, skim milk, with oats, rye,
wheat, and corn for a whole grain ration. The
following table gives the digestible nutrients
found in 100 pounds of each of these and a few
other articles :

Percentage Digestible Matter in American
Feeding Stuffs.

Feeding Stuff.

Crude

Protein.

Carbohy¬

drates.

Ether

Extract.

Red Clover Hay ....

Per cent.

6.5

Per cent.

34.9

Per cent.

1.6

Alfalfa Hav .

7 . 6

37.8

1.3

Cowpea Hav .

8.1

37.3

1.7

Potatoes .

1 .4

16.1

0.0

Corn, average for all
varieties .

7.1

62.7

4.2

Wheat, average for all
varieties .

9.3

55 . 8

1.8

Rve .

8.3

65.5

1.2

Oats .

9.1

44.7

4.1

Bran .

12.6

44.1

2.9

Middlings .

12.2

47.2

2.9

Cottonseed Meal .

36.9

18.1

12.3

Linseed Meal .

27.2

31.8

2.7

Dried Blood .

59.1

0.0

2.3

Meat Scraps .

68.4

0.3

13.5

Skim Milk .

3.1

4.7

0.8

For convenience we will

mix 250

pounds

of soft food at a time, selecting as an experi¬
mental ration 100 pounds bran, 50 pounds corn
meal, 50 pounds ground oats. 25 pounds cotton¬
seed meal, 25 pounds beef and blood meal
(assuming the latter to be composed of equal
parts of blood and meat scraps). These quan¬
tities by reference to the foregoing table are
seen to contain the following amounts of digest¬
ible nutrients: Protein 45.34 pounds; carbo-
hydrates, 101.90; ether extract or fat, 11.51
pounds. The nutritive ration we find is 1 :2.8,
while the German standard for milch cows is
1 :5.4. Therefore to balance the ratio wemust-
seiect some material rich in carbohydrates and
fat. In selecting clover hay, we secure a high

percentage of carbohydrates and at the same
time by properly preparing and mixing the
clover with the morning mash we are able to
furnish what closely approximates green food.
Fifty pounds of red clover hay added to our
ration, raises the nutritive ratio to about 1 : 3.00.

When skim milk is at hand a very profitable
use can be made of it by mixing the soft food
with it. A quart of skim milk weighs about
two and a half pounds. By adding in the feeding
period an aggregate of one hundred pounds
of milk we make it very palatable but lower the
nutritive ratio to 1:2.76. This we will accept
for our morning mash, feeding what each fowl
will clean up quickly. For our whole grain
ration, we may select corn, wheat or rye, as they
are all relatively rich in nitrogenous materials
and will help balance the ration. We will select
corn to scatter in the litter in the evening. If
we use two hundred pounds in connection with
the two hundred and fifty pounds soft food, our
nutritive ratio will stand 1 : 4.3, somewhat narrow¬
er than the standard but very practicable.

The relative amount of grain and soft food
used varies with different individuals, some
using more and others less. The nutritive ratio,
however, should conform more closely to the
standard than the average ration does if best
results are desired. The experimental ration
outlined above is not intended as a criterion,
but simply to show how the different factors
are obtained. Theoretically it would be better
for the growing chick than the laying hen.

— Reliable Poultry Journal.

VALUE OF ROOTS FOR HENS.

Substitute for Fresh Grass and Vegetables to
Be Found in Various Root Crops — An
Article of Highly Practical Value.

Some June day watch a hen in a small flock
left to roam and pick at liberty and see what she
eats. Just as soon as it is light she is up and
hustling around to catch the earth worm. You
will find her always busy searching for food; a
tip of grass here, then a clover leaf, next a
grass-hopper, a strawberry, another grass leaf,
or a sharp pebble attracts her attention. A
little rest in the shade, with perhaps a dust bath,
is her only recreation. She u active all day
long trying to satisfy her appetite, and at night
she comes back to roost with a full crop. These
are happy days for biddy and she lays an egg

i_. cf C.

99

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

nearly every clay, besides storing up fat to
assist in nourishing her while she is hatching
her brood.

To imitate these conditions during the cold,
dreary winter months, and induce biddy to lay
the daily egg, keeps the poultryman busy from
November to March preparing roots and mashe-s.
The scientist has shown the farmer how to make
June butter in December. He has told him
just how much muscle and fat forming food the
cow wants every day. The pig, the sheep and
the big steer have each had their needs studied,
but up to this time very little scientific work
has been done on the hen. Our hen is not so
easily studied as the large animals. We con¬
fine a pig, a sheep or a steer, feed it certain food,
and determine by analyzing the solid dung
(which is undigested food) just what propor¬
tion of the constituents in the given food the
animal has made use of. The hen voids urine
in solid form mixed with the dung. This has
proved a stumbling block so high that the
scientist has not surmounted it and accurately
determined the digestive powers of fowls. In
the feeding experiments which have been made
it has been assumed that fowls use food the
same as higher animals, but some think that
fowls use it more economically.

However, poultrymen have found by many
different trials rations that produce good results,
and these are being fed in ignorance of why.
The hen at liberty eats a great deal of fresh
grass in its season. This serves a two-fold
purpose. It not only furnishes food, for tender
growing grass is very nutritious, but it also
dilutes other foods, furnishing necessary bulk.
But when biddy is confined and fed wholly on
grains, which are concentrated foods, in order to
extend the crop sufficiently to overcome the
hungry feeling, she eats more than she requires.
This forms fat and the active fowl is changed to
a sluggish hen. When fresh grass and vege¬
tables cannot be had, roots furnish a very
acceptable succulent food.

The various root crops resemble each other
in composition. They all contain a very large
percentage of water. On the average.

Potatoes contain . 75 per cent water.

Sugar beets contain . .81.5 per cent, water.

Carrots contain . 85.9 per cent, water.

Rutabagas contain. ..87 per cent, water.

Mangolds contain. ... 88 per cent, water.

Parsnips contain . 88.3 per cent, water.

Turnips contain . 91.5 per cent, water.

They all contain very little nitrogenous or
muscle-making material; they are, however,
quite rich in carbonaceous or fat forming nutri¬
ents. In the potatoes these are chiefly in the
form of starch, and in the others chiefly in the
form of sugar and gums. Roots are considered
to be wholly digestible by the higher animals.
They do, however, decrease the digestibility of
other substances fed with them. As stated
before we do not know much about the hen’s
digestion. I consider that the chief value of
roots for hens lies in their succulence, palatabil-
itv and addition of bulk, rather than in their
nutriment. A fresh beet or turnip hung in the
sunshine is much relished by fowls. By boiling
them to a soft consistency and thickening them'
with soft grains and adding a little salt, a very
acceptable mash is made. The cooked vege¬
tables give bulk and add to the flavor and
variety of the mash. For this use I think no
root superior to the small potato.

There is no vegetable that will completely fill
the place of cabbage as a winter food for hens.
The crisp, tender leaves more closely resemble
fresh grass both in composition and mechanical
condition. Fowls seem to relish it and will eat
a surprising amount if it is kept before them.
Just now clover rowen cut into short lengths is
largely used by poultrymen. This is an ex¬
cellent food, very nutritious, cheap and easily
preserved and prepared. Unlike roots, clover
is rich in muscle forming materials. If steamed
soft and mixed in the mash in the proportion of
one part to five or six of the ground grains a
very gratifying mash is produced.

To see if clover could be used to replace cab¬
bage entirely the Hatch Experiment Station
conducted the following experiment. Forty
Plymouth Rock pullets were divided into two
equal flocks. The divisions were housed and
fed in every way alike, except that to one a
cooked mash containing cut clover was given
daily, while the other received a mash prepared
of the same grains in the same way without the
clover. In this house a small cabbage was
hung once a week.

The clover in the mash of the first division in¬
creased the bulk of the breakfast to such an
extent that the fowls were satisfied with less
ground grain than were the others. The actual
cost of the entire food consumed during the
experiment by each lot of the fowls varied but
five cents. At the first of January, the begin¬
ning of the test, neither division had laid an egg.

100

FOODS AND FEEDING.

At the first of May the clover fed fowls had laid
468 eggs and the cabbage fed fowls had laid 588.
Analysis of the eggs showed that the cabbage
fed fowls laid a richer egg. The eggs were given
to different cooks who knew nothing of their
source to try. The verdict was that the eggs
from cabbage fed fowls were strong. The
superior richness of the egg apparently made
them strong in flavor. One woman said the
clover eggs were the finest she ever ate.

The result of the test indicates that we cannot
with profit substitute clover entirely for cabbage
or other succulent food. Some have obtained
good results by using bright corn silage as a
vegetable food for hens. If the poultry-keeper
has other stock and feeds silage, this would
undoubtedly be the cheapest and most conven¬
ient green food. It is so difficult to keep silage
satisfactorily except where large quantities are
used, that a silo for poultry alone is not practi¬
cal.

— H. M. Thomson, in Reliable Poultry Journal.

THE DRY FEEDING METHOD.

Practical Pointers by an Expert — Facts from

Four Years of Dry Feeding — Results with
Chickens and Adult Fowls.

BY P. R. PARK, READING, MASS.

Since his boyhood days the writer has been
deeply interested in the subject of feeding stock,
and has marked the similarity of animals and
plants in their manner of assimilating nutriment
offered them. Whatever the subject under
treatment, it should be fed with some object in
view. If plant life, either for foliage, fruit or
seeds; if animal life, for whatever feature the
grower is aiming to excel in.

The plant has no power to create, it can only
assimilate such component parts as come within
its reach. Some gather them from the roots
largely, others gather quite a litt le from the air.
The combined product makes the result sought.
In feeding poultry the same general law exists.
Birds have no power to create and can only
gather such food as comes within their reach,
which we regret to say in many cases is a very
pitiful supply. In the state of nature with an
unlimited range and inexhaustible variety, they
seldom, if ever, have a new disease. In the
state of domestication, having an appetite which
eats almost anything, it is usually given the
opportunity , and the feeds distributed to poultry
would wreck nearly any other organization in

the animal kingdom. We think hogs would
have to take liver pills as a steady regulator if
they were asked to eat the composite mess dis¬
tributed «n many poultry plants.

The skillful feeder should aim first, at what
his market pays best for, and if he has had ex¬
perience, can then study the field of foods, buy¬
ing those which are offered at the lowest rates,
if the quality is what it should be. There is
money enough in the business to buy the best of
everything and still show a splendid margin on the
the right side of the ledger, with almost any
market in the world, if we can get over the mor¬
tality of young chicks which is discouraging so
many beginners and not a few of the so-called
“ professionals.”

A growing chick has without doubt, as eco¬
nomical digestion as the steer, sheep or hog,
and a pound of chicken meat can be produced
for as small a number of cents as any of these.
With poultry still regarded as a luxury in
ninety per cent, of the homes of America, it
seems that the market is yet very poorly supplied
and the field for the producer practically un¬
limited. We think the poultry (tapers would
serve the public demand even better than they
do, if they taught us how to make money with
flocks of birds averaging from 120 to 150 eggs
per year, rather than trying to teach that we
should aim to produce 200 eggs in the same
length of time. A 200-egg hen may be nearly

Mr. Park’s Dry Food Hopper.

101

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

in sight, but we fear when she arrives, she will
be like the two-minute horse — useless for any
other purpose. Of what avail is it, if we get
her henship to the point of laying 200 eggs per
year and we cannot reproduce her kind in paying
numbers or rear those chickens which we do
succeed in inducing to come from the shell?

There are many sides to the poultry business
and twelve months in every year, all of which
should be figured in looking forward and weighed
in looking backward. A hen laying an average of
ten to twelve dozen eggs per year usually throws
strong chicks easily reared and consequently
showing a splendid profit in the surplus as
market poultry, and in the second season with
the strong, sturdy pullets ready to do business
from the date of their first egg until the hatchet
intervenes later in their lives. We think the
striving for the 200-eggs-per-year hen respons¬
ible in part for the large mortality in chicks
between the egg and maturity, but much of it is
due to ignorance, or her sister, carelessness.

That the business, taken the country over,
pays a good margin of profit on the capital in¬
vested in spite of a heavy mortality in small
chicks, would seem to argue that this is one of
the most fruitful fields for scientific thought and
research. If we can eliminate fifty per cent, of
this mortality, do not we show nearly a corres¬
ponding increase in the profits? Certainly it
would show twenty-five per cent.

The skillful feeder will be found to possess a
keen eye for- the appearance of perfect health
and will be ever on the lookout for the departure
from the sign posted upon every living, healthy
beast or bird in the universe. The difference
between a bird out of condition and the one in
perfect health to the old breeder, is as marked as
between brightly burnished metal and the same
when suffering from tarnishing and neglect.

Well Bred Chicks Are Naturally Hardy.

Feeding with some end in view, breeding
along the same lines, there should be steady
headway made from year to year, and while
there may be an occasional set-back, for we are
all human, the average progress should be sure.
Well-born chicks — perhaps we had better say
chicks born of strong, hardy parents, — come
into this world about as well developed and
fitted for the stern battle of life as anything we
know of. Given half an opportunity, fed
within the bounds of common sense, and properly
brooded, it seems practically impossible to kill

them. They have an ample coat of down
which protects them from almost any kind of
weather for short periods. Given a well regu¬
lated brooder they will cheerfully march out into
zero temperature and apparently be as happy
as though the sun stood high in the heavens
and the temperature registered 90 degrees in the
shade, and they certainly grow much better than
when placed under the latter conditions. Fed
improperly or kept at suicidal temperature or
being unfortunate enough to have weak parents
on one or both sides, and the reverse condition
seems to be the result ; they are about as deli¬
cate, puny and unsatisfactory atoms of mortali¬
ty as the universe produces.

By closely studying nature’s methods, we
would find that the mother hen, leaving the
nest when the chicks are one or two days
of age, does not have a chance to lead the way
to a dough dish and fill them with an indigest¬
ible mash. On the contrary, she starts out on
the hunt. Perhaps she lands in the garden
the first shot, and to the owner’s consternation,
proceeds to tear up the newly made land in her
endeavors to seek tid-bits for her charges. If
she is undisturbed, she makes a good display by
nightfall and unearths quite a little food.sueceed-
ing by this time in filling the crops of her numer¬
ous family. If we could dissect them, we would
not find any carefully prepared mixture of one
to four or one to five, or “ sixteen to one,” or any
other startling array of chemical combines, but
we would find a bug, a worm, an occasional seed
that the owner so carefully planted a few days
previously, together with a few of the weed
seeds which he did not plant, and plenty of grit.
This composite mass has been gathered together
in ten or twelve hours’ time, with a liberal
sprinkling of exercise thrown in, and if the
weather conditions are favorable and our mother
hen does not pull the youngsters around through
the wet grass too much in the morning, she
usually comes out at the end of the season with
about as many full-sized chickens as she started
from the nest with.

The usual methods when the old lady brings
off her family, are to shut her off in a coop and
bring on all the wet mash she and the chicks
ought to eat for a full day’s time, and dump it
down on a board in front of the coop. Some of
this is eaten, most of it forms a door viat for the
youngsters, and in one-half hour’s time looks
much like the dirt surrounding the coop. Ly¬
ing in the hot sun does not take long to start

102

FOODS AND FEEDING.

rapid fermentation, and we soon have germs of
bowel trouble growing at the rate of forty miles
an hour. Books say chicks should be fed five
times a day, and the nervous owner thinks that
if five is good six is better, and soon comes
around with another dose of the same food and
puts on the top of the first “ charge, ” and we
have a sandwich of wet dough and dirt. In a
few days’ time the chicks begin to start for the
world where mashes are unknown and the owner
says “Darn the chicken business,” or else he
blames the man from whom he purchased the
eggs for having “inbred stock,” and we have
another case of “ the business don’t pay.” Per¬
haps his painstaking neighbor improves on this
method and bakes the mash, which is quite an
improvement as it removes a large part of the
water, but at the same time is quite a little labor.
His chicks do better, making phenomenal
growth for a few weeks, and he thinks that the
solution of the poultryman’s trials lies in cook¬
ing the food. He invests in an amateur bakery
and bakes everything. His chicks continue to
thrive, apparently, but as the hot weather comes
on, he notices some bowel trouble among the
half grown birds. These die and he shouts that
cholera has struck him, writes to the editor of a
poultry paper who tells him that the symptoms
look like cholera. After changing the food and
losing half his flock, he gets around to hard
grain and pulls them through, or what is left of
them, although they are not now as large as the
chicks raised under the natural method without
the assistance of the bake shop.

Feeding the Chicks.

Our method, which we have practiced now for
four years with uniformly good success, has been
to give the chicks a mixture of assorted grains
and grit ground to about the size of a pin head
for their first feed. With a dish of beef scraps
standing constantly before them, and the fine
ground food fed in litter with plenty of green
food (cabbage or green grass), they have an in¬
ducement to scratch from sunrise to sunset, and
take the food slowly and naturally. With the
beef scrap always within reach, they at no time
crave more animal food, and their systems
rapidly adapt themselves to the season of
plenty and nature constructs a body planned
for a continuation of this same diet, namely:
good, thick, strong leg and frame and a chicken
that looks ready to eat at any stage of the game,
-long-bodied, short-legged, hardy, “ born to

Mr. Park’s R. I. Reds at the Food Hopper.

live” looking fellows, free from all the ills and
pains of chickendom and fit to wrestle for a
living through thick and thin, good weather and
bad, as long as the food holds out.

When they reach a more mature age, say
from six to eight weeks, we gradually wean
them from the small grains and substitute
cracked corn and wheat, place them in colony
coops on grass range and soon discontinue the
wheat, feeding cracked corn and beef scraps in
hoppers, feeding once a week or oftener as the
size of the hopper and number of the chicks de¬
mand. These hoppers should be made quite
high in front,- — three inches or more at least,
as the birds are always looking for the largest
pieces of beef scraps, and with low-front hopper
waste quite a little by throwing it out with
their bills. Figs. 1 and 2 show the style of hop¬
per we use, made of second hand boxes or other
available material. They should be covered
with waterproof paper to prevent the food’s
becoming wet if kept outside the roosting coops.
This system continues until the sexes are sepa¬
rated, and then we place the males in yards
sufficiently large so that the birds never eat
them bare of grass. Placing the cull cockerels
intended for market by themselves, we com¬
pound a mixture of equal weights — corn, wheat,

103

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

oats and barley, ground fine as flour if we can
induce the miller to reduce it to that fineness,
feed it dry and continue the beef scraps. This
mixture has given us fatter chickens than we
have ever been able to produce by any other
system.

A mixed lot of cockerels is about as uncom¬
fortable a set of individuals as is ever gotten
together, and this is the only system by which
each bird can be fed singly. Here each one
goes to the hopper and eats as long as he has
plenty of saliva, then lpoves aw^y allowing the
weaker brother to come up and fi&ke his turn.
They must necessarily eat slowly because they
can swallow only a small amount of this dry
mixture at one time, .anti thus all have an equal
opportunity. ' .

Food Is Digested Naturally.

Here the digestion of the fobd begins in the
mouth. If the crop of one of^fiese birds is cut
open, in place of file sburppartlv fermented
food that is found in a mash-fecbchicken, we
find the grain as sweet as ever, but smelling as
though partly cooked, no fermentation of any
kind, and we think the crop now does the work
nature intended for it. Your mash-fed chicken
gets up in the morning, waits around an hour
or two until the pleasure of the feeder brings
around a pail of hot or cold mash, which is
placed on boards, troughs or other devices, and
a wild scramble begins. Each one gulps what
he can reach ; the weaker get a little, and the
stronger the bulk of the food. If the mash is hot
it raises the temperature of the bird above nor¬
mal and sweat is started, which is anything but
what it should be, laying the foundation for colds
and roup. The food goes through the crop
with very little change, except fermentation,
direct to the gizzard, and the entire work of the
digestive system is thrown upon the gizzard
and the intestines; whereas the crop should
have done quite a little towards softening and
partly digesting it.

With the chickens on range, this hopper of
food awaits them immediately they are off the
perch in the morning and they then start upon
the day’s hunt over the fields for the bugs,
worms, grasshoppers and grass, which go to
make life one sweet dream for poultry. At any
time during the day that their appetites dictate,
they can call at the coop and get a supply of
such grain and meat food as they desire, and eat
it unmolested in a very gentlemanly and lady¬

like manner. Much more uniform gains result;
the younger and weaker chick thrives as well as
the larger and stronger, summer chickens grow
practically as well as the spring hatched, and
bowel trouble is a thing unheard of from the
shell to maturity; if the proper heat is main¬
tained in the brooders and the grain and beef
scraps used are of the first quality.

The cooking of food, some say, makes it more
digestible, which we have no doubt is true, but
the question arises as to what particular portion
of the food it makes more digestible. Of course
the starch is more easily assimilated, but the
protein is not, and we think here is where the
mischief arises from cooked food. The simple
scalding of a mash makes no chemical change.
You might as well mix it with cold water as hot,
chemists tell us. The books say, mix the mash
as dry as you can mix it. If it is to be mixed as
dry as you can mix it, why not leave the water
out entirely, surely it is much easier to mix dry
than wet. “But,” you say, “fowls won’t eat
it.” This is true, they will not eat it for one or
two feeds, if brought up on the wet ration, but-
brought up properly they eat it freely and it
never stands before them sour; the last spoonful
in the hopper is as sweet as the first and each
bird gets its proper share.

Getting Strong, Fertile Eggs.

When the pullets go to the laying houses, they
are fed cracked corn, wheat, oats and barley;
fifty per cent, however is corn. A hopper of
beef scraps is still kept before them but we now
add a hopper of dry bran. The whole grain is
fed in litter three times per day. Birds are
kept scratching for all their grain, but they have
cabbages to eat constantly before them. If
cabbages are not plenty we use cut clover,
scalded to soften it, fed in deep troughs. We
have used with good success a dry mash con¬
sisting of twenty-five per cent, corn meal,
twenty-five per cent, beef scraps and fifty per
cent, bran, fed dry in boxes during the morning,
giving what they will eat up by noon, when we
give a light feed of whole grain, with another full
feeding at night. Hard grain is fed in litter as
previously noted, and while this ration is a little
cheaper than the other, the dealers usually put
the poorest grade of corn which they purchase
into their meal, and results are not always as
satisfactory as we could wish for this reason.
A good egg yield will result from this ration if the
ground grain and beef scraps are of good quality.

104

FOODS AND FEEDING.

We have no difficulty in getting birds to one,
two or three pounds above standard weight upon
this system. We believe that ninety per
cent, of the chickens raised in the country do
not have sufficient food to develop as they
should. Overfeeding, we think, would be
much better expressed as improper feeding.

There are very few breeds that would get too
fat to lay if properly exercised, and we have yet
to find one of our birds in that condition. It is
not a fact that the bird which is ignorantly con¬
demned as being over fat and out of laying con¬
dition will usually, when killed, show that it was
really one of the workers of the flock? The egg
is a surplus product and unless the bird is well
nourished, it cannot produce them. As to
fertility, we think no system of feeding can equal
this method. The eggs uniformly test well and
the germs live right through and hatch good
strong, bound-to-live chicks that are ready to
take up with the dry-food method where their
ancestors began. No weaklings result, provided
the other conditions surrounding the birds are
properly met, one of the most important of
which is an abundance of fresh air; and the fowl
will stand an almost unlimited amount of this if
free from draughts and not subject to the daily
sweating over a hot mash. Each generation of
chicks seems hardier than their ancestors, are
more cheaply raised, for any increase in the
general health of a flock must be reflected in the
decrease of the mortality of the youngsters.

Labor and Expense Saved.

The labor saved is no small item, for the
difference between feeding the chicks three
times per day dry, hard grain right from the
bag, and cooking johnny-cake, et cetera fed five
times per day, the heating of water and the stirr¬
ing of the mash for a large flock of hens, all of
which we have demonstrated, to our satisfaction
at least, is useless labor. This labor directed
toward other details, and the poultry business
is full of them, will grow the chicks and c^re for
the flock much better, or will allow double the
numbers to be kept with the same number of
steps taken daily. Perhaps not quite so many
eggs would result asbythe mashsystem of feeding
laying hens the first season, but if any old stock
is kept over it will be found to lay nearly as
well the second as the first year; the birds lay
better through the molt; there is less mor¬
tality among the adult birds, and the profits

will be found on the right side of the ledger of
the dry system.

In order to give the thing a proper trial make
up your mind to try half the flock, if not the
whole, for one year with this scheme, starting
with the chicks from the eggs, or at any other
time that seems best, and continuing the ex¬
periment until the year is through, carefully
noting results. Remember that January to
January is the test through which poultry must
be fed and from which profits should be ex¬
pected, and it is the books at the end of the year
which tell the tale. The general health of the
flock is no small item in reckoning up your assets
for the coming season, be sure and take
account of it.

We think the science of feeding farm animals
very little understood in this country, or in any
country in fact, and the feeding of poultry is
less comprehended than anv other branch of it.
Doubtless as the importance of the industry is
impressed upon managers of the different ex¬
periment stations throughout the country,
tests will be made, but many of these are mis¬
leading as the results themselves are very un¬
satisfactory, and the careful noting of details is
usually left to assistants who have no interest in
the matter and who may report correctly or
otherwise. The poultry business is hardly in
its infancy yet, and we look for ranches that
will carry birds in the thousands to be successful
in the near future. At present very few of these
exist and we think the cause is largely through
improper feeding or the ignorance surrounding
the whole subject. From our observation we
are very sure that for best results we should
feed animal protein and vegetable fat in some
form. Gluten meal has nearly as good a
protein analysis as the best beef scraps, but
when fed, birds do not like it and fail to thrive or
produce the results desired. Animal fat tends
to disturb the digestive system and we do not
get the results hoped for, but a feeding com¬
posed of fifty per cent, corn in some form with
beef scraps constantly before the bird, from the
hatch to the hatchet, seems to promote the
general health and thrift from start to finish.

Corn has been sadly abused by the poultry
press in the past, but we find it one of the safest
foods in the list. The birds always like it, and
our experience has shown that what they like
usually agrees with them. We do not think it
possible to over-feed upon any good meat.
Given plenty of it, they eat only such as they

105

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

can properly assimilate and pass by the balance.
Of course tainted and partly decayed meat
foods should be rejected without question.
Boiling and cooking helps them, but does not
restore the good that they originally contained.

So much of the poultry-man’s prosperity de¬
pends upon the health of his flock that any step
which may bring up the general tone should be
eagerly sought and rigidly adhered to, once
found. We do not think there is a case of
failure in the poultry kingdom where the birds
were kept healthy that was not due to causes
entirely outside of the business; either the
owners were radically unfitted for the business
end of it, and would have failed at any under¬
taking which they might have ventured into, or
they were hampered by improper help.

Other animals seem to recover from a severe
fit of sickness and apparently are as vigorous as
ever, but we have yet to see a bird of any kind
which was thoroughly sick for twenty-four hours
or more that fully recovered. The}r may look
all right, eat well, and be apparently healthy,
but sometimes they are found dead under the
roost and we wonder why. A hen in health
is about one of the hardiest of farm animals. In
the other condition she is anything but that.

In closing we would say that milk, if avail¬
able, makes one of the best foods, used as a
drink, that can be found for growing stock, fed
either sour or sweet. We prefer it sour for the
reason that you can always get it sour or make
it so, and cannot always have it sweet, and the
change from sweet to sour or vice versa is rather
injurious to young chicks. They seem to adapt
themselves to a constant diet of sour milk or do
equally well if it is always sweet, but a mixture
seems to produce ill results.

Try a pen each way, if you have milk at a
reasonable price, one pen with water to drink
and the others give nothing but milk in connec¬
tion with our methods, and carefully note
results. Some object to it, saying that the
birds get all “stuck up.” If the dishes are
never empty, the birds then do not get over
thirsty and crowd around when a new supply is
brought on, and if each one has a chance to drink
by himself, they do not then become fouled.

Reliable Poultry Journal.

Feeding Clover for Eggs.

Of all the vegetables and grasses, clover and
cabbages seem to be the ones that poultry de¬
light most to indulge in; and yet, notwith¬
standing so much has been written upon the

value of clover as a green food, and finely cut
clover hay as a winter green food, few poultry-
men realize its value.

It has great value as a “ food ” pure and
simple, it being rich in both nitrogen and lime,
two most important food elements. Its nutri¬
tive ratio is 1 :6. 1 ; while that of wheat is but
1:6.5; corn 1:8.9; barley, 1:6.1; potatoes
1:17.3. It is easy to see, then, that clover has
as high a nutritive value as barley, and almost as
high as wheat, our two most valuable grain
foods. Of lime clover contains 1.3 per cent.,
ranking next below green bone in the food
value tables, and contrasting with the common¬
ly used grains as follows: wheat, .2; barley, .1 ;
corn only a trace; in other words, clover has six
and one-half as much lime as does wheat, and
thirteen times as much as barley.

Clover has even greater value as a bulky food,
as extending, diluting the food ration, reducing
the too concentrated grain food, and preventing
the accumulation of internal fat. Grass or
some green food should be fed to extend (dilute)
the grain food, increasing its digestibility; and
for that purpose there is no better article than
clover. When it is understood that clover is
the best of all grasses for extending the food
ration, and is, itself, a most excellent food,
rich in nitrogen and lime, its surpassing merit
will be conceded.

One of the great advantages of clover is that
it is so easily and conveniently cured and
stored in summer for winter use; in fact, once
well cured and housed, it will keep indefinitely.
We esteem second crop clover (or “ rowen,” as
many call it), to be the best, and it should be
cut when well in blossom ; we let it mature until
the first blossoms are just beginning to turn
slightly brown. At that time the nutriment
intended for perfecting and ripening the seeds
is all in the stalks and leaves, and the plant is at
its best. The goodness in the clover is best pre¬
served if it is mired in the shale; but as that is
inconvenient, the usual method is to let it stand
in the swath for three or four hours, until the
top is considerably wilted; then turn and leave
for three or four hours more, then cock it and
let it stand for two or three days, until it
“ sweats,” then open the cocks and dry lightly,
put in the barn, and stow away. Cured in this
manner, the “ life ” of the plant is not all burned
out of it, and it comes out in the winter as sweet
as new-mown hay.

106

Farm Poultry.

FOODS AND FEEDING.

PRODUCING AN EARLY MOLT.

The Van Dreser Method and Some Comments

Upon it.

A couple of years ago the story of Mr. Henry
Van Dreser’s poultry farm was published in an
agricultural weekly paper, and in it an account
of how he induced his hens to lay at the time
when most hens had retired from business and
were busy with the molt; the method was
described as follows:

t

“ During July and August the wealthy people
of the city who eat these fine eggs, are cff at
watering places and pleasure resorts and the
eggs are not wanted; Van Dreser makes his
hens molt and get ready for fall business. For
two weeks they are kept in a pen and get only
one-fourth of their ration; this reduces their
flesh. They are then let out into the sunshine,
and fed with a rush, with the best possible food ;
all they can eat, — peas and oats, wheat and
corn and particularly sun-flower seed. This
soon loosens up their old feathers so as to leave
the hens almost bare. Under the heavy feed
they soon take on new plumage; the combs
get red, and just about the time the aristocracy
get home and other hens are on strike, Van
Dreser’s are in full lay.”

There was much discussion of this story in the
poultry papers, but there was nothing par¬
ticularly new in the idea. We were told of
similar work done by a farmer in Vermont a
dozen years ago. This farmer’s method was to
select out perhaps 30 or 40 of his (about 150)
hens, put them in a pen in a hen house in the
rear of the farm buildings, and after keeping them
shut in for a few days to wean them from any
desire to return to their old quarters, he gave
them the run of a pasture-lot, watered by a
brook and dotted with trees. This he called
“turning them out to grass,” and during the
month in which they were thus treated they
were fed once a day a light feed of some grain,
as oats and wheat, and at the end of the period
they were substantially reduced in flesh, and
had' got into good, “hard” condition. They
were then fed a good grain-ration, with the
usual proportion of corn, etc., and beef scraps.
The result of this was the hens molted immedi¬
ately and in three or four weeks were well
clothed with a new suit of feathers, and laid
abundantly. Mr. Foster did this in order to
be supplied with eggs in fall and early winter,
that he might keep up with his orders for select-

§ ' "p

n

j ^ _

outdoor Brooders Under Natural Shelter.

ed eggs for New York City clients; and he spoke
of the method as working exellently well

There is no doubt but an early molt can be
produced in this manner. ’Whether it is profit¬
able to thus force the molt is an altogether
different question, and much would depend
upon the object in view. If the object is to
have hen’s eggs in fall and early winter, forcing
the molt will accomplish it; if, however, the
object of keeping over a proportion of the year-
old hens to have especially good hatching eggs
in the spring, it may well be doubted if an early
molt is of any value. It is the opinion of
many observant poultrymen that we get
stronger and better chicks from eggs of year-
old hens that have laid very little during the
winter, hence come to the breeding season not
at all exhausted in strength, and, indeed, in
the best possible condition to produce eggs
which will turn out the strongest and most
vigorous chicks. Until we have further light
upon this subject, and perhaps have tested the
ability of hens to lay for an entire twelve
months following the forced molt, it may be
well to suspend judgment.

The following is the report from Bulletin No.
83, September, 1902, of the West Virginia
Agricultural Experiment Station:

A Trial of the VanDreser Method of Producing
an Early and Uniform Molt.

When a specialty is made of producing winter
eggs it is of much importance to have the hens
shed their feathers early in the fall so that the
new plumage may be grown before cold weather

107

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

begins. In case molting is much delayed the
production of the new coat of feathers in cold
weather is such a drain on the vitality of the
fowls that few if any eggs are produced until
spring, while if the molt takes place early in
the season the fowls begin winter in good condi¬
tion and with proper housing and feeding
may be made tb lay during the entire winter.

A few years ago Mr. Henry VanDreser pro¬
posed a way whereby fowls may be caused to
molt as early in the fall as is desirable. Briefly,
this method consists in withholding food
either wholly or in part for a few days, which
stops egg production and reduces the weight
of the fowls, and then feeding heavily on a
ration suitable for the formation of the feathers
and the general building up of the system.

The experiment designed to study this
method was begun August 5. 1902, with two
pens of Rhode Island Reds, and two pens of
White Leghorns, about two years old. One
pen each of Rhode Island Reds and White
Leghorns received no food for thirteen days
except what they could pick up in their runs,
which had been sown to oats in the spring.
These runs were fifteen feet wide and one
hundred feet long and nearly all of the oats had
been picked from the heads before the begin¬
ning of the experiment. The other two lots
of fowls were fed as usual on mash, beef scraps,
corn, wheat, and oats. After the expiration of
the thirteen days all four lots of fowls were fed
liberally. Each lot of fowls contained twenty
hens and two cocks.

The following table shows the number of eggs
produced during the first thirty days after the
beginning of the test:

The Droppings Platform, Fowls Fed as Usual.

The DroppiDgs Platform, Fowls Fed to Induce an Early Molt.

1 .. .|Rhode Island Reds |Fed continuously | 75

2 . . . |Rhode Island Reds |No food | 17

3 . . . |White Leghorns |Fed continuously 1 172

4 . . . | White Leghorns |No food | 25

Lots two and four ceased laying entirely
on the seventh day of the test.

Thirty days after the test began the “no
food ” pen of Rhode Island Reds had practically
a complete coat of new feathers, had begun
to lay, and within a week from that time one-
half of the hens were laying regularly, while
the other lot of Rhode Island Reds were just
beginning to molt, and the egg production
had dropped down to two or three eggs per day.

Both lots of White Leghorns were a trifle slower
in molting than the Rhode Island Reds,
but otherwise the treatment effected them
in a similar way.

For ten days beginning August 19, the
droppings boards in the two White Leghorn
houses were not cleaned. At the expiration of
this time photographs were taken and the
plates show the great accumulation of feathers
from the “no food” lot of fowls, and the rela¬
tively small amount of feathers which had been
shed by the other lot.

Summary.

Mature hens, which are fed very sparingly for .
about two weeks and then receive a rich nitrog¬
enous ration, molt more rapidly and with
more uniformity, and enter the cold weather
of winter in better condition than similar fowls
fed continually during the molting period
on an egg producing ration.

108

FOODS AND FEEDING.

What to Feed.

Green bones are not as extensively fed as they
should be, because grain can be obtained with
less difficulty and at a low cost; but as egg
producing material, the bone is far superior
to grain — nor does the bone cost more than
grain in some sections. The cutting of the bone
into available sizes is now rendered an easy
matter, as the bone cutter is within the reach
of all. Bones fresh from the butcher have
more or less meat adhering, and the more of
such meat, the better, as it will cost no more
per pound than the bone, while the combina¬
tion of both meat and bone is almost a perfect
food from which to produce eggs.

If the famer can get two extra eggs per week
from each hen in winter, he will make a large
profit. We may add that if the product of
each can be increased one egg per week only
in winter, that egg will pay for all the food
that she can possibly consume, and it therefore
pays to feed the substances that will induce
the hen to lay. If the hens are consuming
food, and are producing no eggs, they will cause
a loss to their owner; and this happens every
winter on a large number of farms. The hens
receive plenty of food, but not the right kind.

A pound of cut green bone is sufficient for
sixteen hens one day, which means that one
cent will pay for that number of fowls. If
one quart of grain be fed at night to sixteen
hens, and one pound of bone in the morning
it should be ample for each day (and the major¬
ity of fanciers do) we find in winter. In sum¬
mer only the bone need be given. Such a diet
provides fat, starch, nitrogen, phosphates,
lime and all the substances required to
enable the hens to lay. As an egg is worth
about three cents in winter, it is plain that it
is cheaper to feed bone than grain; as the
greater number of eggs not only reduces the
total cost, but increases the profit as well.

The bone cutter is as necessary to the poul-
tryman as his feed mill. It enables him to
use an excellent and cheap food, and gives him
a profit where he might otherwise be compelled
to suffer a loss. It is claimed that the bone
cutter pays for itself in eggs, and really costs
nothing. Bones are now one of the staple
articles of food for poultry, and no rations should
have them omitted. They are food, grit, and
lime, all combined in one, and the hens will
leave all the other foods to receive the cut bone.
If cut fine, even chicks and ducklings will

relish such excellent food, while turkeys grow
rapidly on it. To meet with success requires
the use of the best materials, and green bone
beats all other substances as food for poultry.
There is quite a difference between the green
fresh bone, rich in its juices, as it comes from
the butcher’s and the hard, dry bone which
has lost its succulence. The value of all foods
depends largely upon their digestibility, and
the more this is provided for the greater the
saving of food, and the more economical the
production of eggs. — Poultry Keeper.

The Importance of Green Food.

There is another most important article of
diet, without which it is absolutely impossible
to keep fowls in health. We refer to an ample
and daily supply of green or fresh vegetable
food. It is not perhaps too much to say that
the omission of this is the proximate cause of
nearly half the deaths where fowls are kept in
confinement; whilst with it, our other direc¬
tions being observed, they may be kept in
health for a long time in a pen only a few feet
square. It was to provide this that, wherever
they are large enough, we recommended the open
yards, when possible, to be laid down in grass—
the very best green food for poultry, and a run
of even an hour daily on such a grass plot, sup¬
posing the shed to be dry and clean, will keep
them in health ; but if a shed only be available,
fresh vegetables of some kind must be given
daily. Cabbage leaves may suffice, though
they are about the worst of green vegetables
as regards a tendency to diarrhoea. They or
other refuse vegetables may be minced up and
mixed pretty freely with soft food ; or the whole
leaves may be thrown down for the fowls to
devour; or a few turnips may be minced up
daily, and scattered like grain, or simply cut in
two and thrown into the run.

Lettuce leaves and most garden refuse are very
wholesome, also dandelion leaves and other
field salads. For fowls in a shed one of the
best things is to cut a whole cabbage head in
half and hang it up by a string, which will give
the fowls both green food and occupation.
Something they must have every day, other¬
wise their bowels sooner or later become dis¬
ordered and their combs lose that bright red
color which will always accompany good health
and condition, and testifies pleasantly to abund¬
ance of eggs.

Wright’s “ Practical Poultry Keeper

109

Chapter VIL

COLLECTION AND CARE OF EGGS. CATERING TO THE MARKET. GUARANTEED

STRICTLY FRESH EGGS.

great many poultrymen fail of getting
the best price for their' eggs, and a
still greater proportion of the farm¬
ers fall short of marketing the best
and getting the best prices. A study of
the market quotations shows a remarkably
wide range of prices, and one very soon
learns that this range of price is deter¬
mined by the quality of the eggs marketed.
This is almost a truism; it applies to every line
of business and every kind of goods bought and
sold. If one has a second, or third, or fourth,
or fifth rate article to sell, he has no right to
expect the price of a first rate article, and if
he fails of getting the price of a first rate article
he is a foolish man who does not ask himself,
“Why?” — and then set about to reform his
methods so that he shall have goods which
merit the best price.

Freshness is the quality of the greatest im¬
portance, and where there is any question of
the quality the eggs are tested for freshness at
the outset. If one is located near a city or
large town he can get a private family trade,
which will pay a fancy price for strictly-fresh
new laid eggs; even if at a considerable distance
from a city or town one can have such a trade,
by an alliance with a dealer in the city or town.
The description of the marketing methods em¬
ployed at the White Leghorn Poultry Plant in
Chapter V, explains this. The eggs are put
up in pasteboard boxes holding one dozen
each and shipped daily to a dealer (or dealers),
the latter distributes the eggs to the preferred
customers. Whether it will pay one to estab¬
lish an egg route and deliver guaranteed fresh
eggs to selected customers, after the manner
of the familiar milk-route of our cities and
towns, each poultry man or farmer must deter¬
mine for himself. Such an egg route takes
time; for example, he will start with his eggs in
the morning, going over his route making de¬
liveries, and it will be noon probably before he

gets back to his home; this means two half-days
a week for a man and horse, and as the time of
both man and horse are worth a certain amount,
it is simply a question of mathematics whether
the increased price received for the eggs pays a
profit over the market price of the eggs plus
the cost of delivery.

After all the egg routes, etc., are taken into
account it would have to be acknowledged
that 99-100 of the eggs produced are marketed
through the regular channels, and it is the
general market conditions that we should con¬
sider. There is very great room for improving
the quality, and thus improve the price. After
the question of freshness has been considered,
next in importance is the size of the egg and
color of the shell. An illustration of improve¬
ment in quality came to our knowledge on a
visit to the Industrial Fair at Toronto last
September. Talking with Professor Graham,
of the Ontario Agricultural College, he told us
that in one township a dozen or fifteen miles
from Guelph, a grain dealer has been interested
to induce his patrons to improve the quality
of their poultry ; the result being that nearly all
the poultry raised in that town is Barred Ply¬
mouth Rocks or Plymouth Rock grades ; so that
the eggs shipped to the Toronto market from
that town are larger in size and are of a more
uniform brown (or brownish) color than from
any other, and retail dealers gladly pay the
commission man a cent a dozen premium
above the price of other eggs shipped into To¬
ronto. At first thought this does not seem
to be of tremendous importance, but if we con¬
sider the yearly total of eggs produced in the
United States, we see that it would make a
very great difference in dollars. Even if a
hen lays but ten dozen eggs in a year it mears
10c increased profit to her owner— if she lays
15 dozen it means 15c increased profit; it is
commonly estimated that a hen will pay her
owner one dollar profit in a year, and the in-

110

CATERING TO THE MARKET.

crease of this amount by 10 or 15c each hen
means an immense gain to the farmers of
America.

Some markets prefer white eggs, notably
New York City and cities and towns medi¬
ately adjacent. Boston notably prefers brown
eggs and pays a substantial premium for them,
and, taking the country over, the preference is
for brown eggs by a large majority, where any
preference is expressed. The proprietors of
Lakewood farm in New Jersey, told us a few
weeks ago that even in New Y'ork City and the
city of Newark, there were many families who
preferred brown eggs, and Lakewood Farm
keeps a large number of White Wyandottes to
furnish those preferred brown eggs. Where
there is a preference, and whichever the prefer¬
ence is, one should keep a variety which lays
the eggs of the preferred color. On egg farms
where white eggs are the specialty, the Single
Comb White Leghorn is the variety most in
evidence. If, however, one has customers
which will pay a special premium for size of
the egg (as well as the white color), Black Minor-
cas would be the variety preferred; Minorca
eggs are of extra large size and of the much
desired clean-white color.

For brown eggs the Asiatic varieties rank
first, but the American varieties are a remark¬
ably close second; and some strains of Ply¬
mouth Hocks and Wyandottes lay good-sized,
dark brown eggs, which are quite as good in
both size and color as the average of Asiatics.
In this particular selection and careful breeding
is of great assistance. If one selects dark
brown eggs and eggs of marked good size to
hatch his chickens from year after year, he will
soon establish both size and color in his strain,
and thereafter the pre-eminence is easily main¬
tained.

Eggs must be clean to command the best
price, or to sell to a select family trade; to have
the eggs clean it is necessary the nest be clean,
and that the eggs be regularly and promptly
collected and systematically cared for. So
little heed is paid to this point, that we see
“dirties” regularly quoted in the market re¬
ports. This means that hens have been allowed
to lay in nests of their own making, perhaps at
the base of the manure pile, perhaps under a
bush or under the eaves of some out-house or
building where the dripping rain water soils
and stains them. Whatever the cause, it is
evident that a greater number of these soiled

and stained (“dirty”) eggs come upon the
market, and they have to be sold for what they
will fetch. This is unfortunate, for very many
reasons which it is unnecessary to give space to
here; it is sufficient for our purpose that the}'
appreciably lower the average quality, which
effects a lowering of the average price. We can¬
not too strongly urge upon our readers the im¬
portance of maintaining the qualities of cleanli¬
ness, good size and good color if they would
produce the article which pays the best profit,
and it is our duty to produce the best and
market the best — then shall we get the good
prices that pay the best.

Building Up a Family Trade.

A reader in eastern Massachusetts asks us for
advice about catering to a family trade; says
he is now getting about thirty dozen eggs a week,
and wants to get better prices for them than he
can get at the store.

We think he is quite right in turning his
attention to this, and think he will find it a
profitable business if he will give it proper
attention. There are several points in that
connection, however, which he should carefully
consider. It costs something to get family
trade, and it costs to keep it — that is, it has got
to be taken care of. It pays a considerably
better price than the selling of eggs to the store,
and that considerably better price is in itself a
good profit, but a careful personal attention is
the price paid for that better profit; or, to put
it differently, the better price is the reward for
the careful personal attention. Generally
speaking, a family trade in strictly fresh eggs,
delivered say twice a week, pays about ten
cents per dozen above the price the store-keeper
pays for eggs, and if a hen lays twelve dozen
eggs in a year, (and she is not worth keeping
if she does not) ten cents per dozen increase in
price means $1.20 a year increase for each bird.
With our friend’s one hundred birds that means
$120 a year; and that $120 is his pay for attend¬
ing to the family trade. There is one point in
this connection which he should not overlook.
He cannot estimate the yearly capacity of his
flock by the thirty dozen eggs a week which
he is getting now. To take good care of family
trade he must have eggs all the year round,
and he must gauge his capacity by the egg
yield in October, November and December,
rather than by the egg yield in April and May.
There is another point to be considered here,

111

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

and that is that the lower price of March, April
and May, will in many cases, increase the con¬
sumption of eggs, and a family which takes
but two dozen eggs a week in November and
December is likely to take three or four dozen
a week at the lower price of April and May.

Another point we would suggest to our
correspondent is, that he add poultry to his egg
business — that is, that he raise spring, summer
and fall chickens, taking orders in advance for
a pair or two to be delivered on the next trip,
and adding that department to his egg business.
We think he will find it decidedly profitable,
especially when he gets his business well
established, if he produces a superior article
of chickens and fowls, an article which would
command a fancy price.

The poultry and egg business is almost
exactly like the milk business, and every one
is familiar with the value of fresh sweet milk,
new milk — cow’s milk — as compared with
milkman’s milk. And it requires but a little
education for the public to appreciate the fine
flavor of freshly laid eggs and nicely fatted
chickens, just as they now do of choice milk.

One question which our friend asks is how to
build up such a trade. We would ask him in
reply how he would build up a milk trade,
supposing he had half a dozen cows, and wanted
to deliver milk to private customers. Of
course he would go to the families he wanted
to serve, and introduce himself and his business
to those families. In most instances this can
best be done by a personal canvass and here
the personality of the individual is an import¬
ant factor. We knew two men who started in
the business as partners — one of them being a
hearty, good-natured, genial man, and would
make friends anywhere and everywhere. The
other was the very antipodes of him — cross,
grumpy, suspicious, and would have the greatest
difficulty in making friends. Naturally the
bluff, hearty one took the business end of the
work, and his success was phenomenal.

A man to secure private customers for eggs,
poultry, or for milk, must have faith in himself
and faith in his goods, and having that commod¬
ity he can induce housewives to give him a
trial. We would caution the novice in this
business not to make too strong a setting forth
of his claims to public patronage, nor show
samples of eggs better than the average which
he can deliver. That is, he should not pick
out all big eggs for the sample basket he will

take with him when he solicits orders. They
should be a fair average lot, just such as he
expects to deliver week after week. Further¬
more, they should be clean and attractive. If
they are put up in neat pasteboard boxes of
one dozen each, with partitions between the
eggs, so much the better. The housewife does
not like to bother to go and get a dish to put
her dozen or two dozen eggs in, and if the
dealer can take his one or two boxes into the
house and set them upon the table without
bothering the perhaps busy housewife any
more than to bid her a cheery “ Good morning,”
that of itself favors trade. Of course the
simple request to return the empty boxes
will be readily acceded to, and while now and
then one will get lost or smashed, their cost
is so insignificant, about one dollar per hundred.

It would be a good plan to have some postal
cards printed with your name and address on
the address side, and on the other : — “ Dear
Sir: — Please bring me. . . .dozen of eggs each
Tuesday and Friday,” leaving room below
for the name and address of the party writing
them. One or two such cards left with the
housewife will frequently bring an order where
the first or second visit has failed to accomplish
that purpose. The housewife has found one
or two bad (or undeniably stale) eggs in that
last dozen she had from the store, and as she
realizes that that means monejr out of pocket
in addition to the annoyance possibly of having
spoiled a batch of cake, she declares, “ There, I
will have Farmer Jones bring me two dozen
eggs a week, and see if I can get fresh eggs ” :
and having the postal card at hand, she fills
out the request for Farmer Jones to call, and
another customer is gained.

A business card is another very good thing.
The writer has samples of two of these cards:

F rom

THE JONES POULTRY YARDS,
Greenfields, Mass.

George E. Jones . Proprietor.

EVERY EGG WARRANTED FRESH.

The Supplying of Families with Eggs and
Poultry a Specialty.

That is a neat and attractive business card,
and sets forth the case in a straightforward,
business-like manner. Certainly the leaving
of such a card with a housewife who is likely to

112

CATERING TO THE MARKET.

■want fresh eggs and good poultry would be
likely to invite custom.

Here is another, considerably more costly,
evidently an engraved card, though at the
present time “process” work is so inexpens¬
ive that the making of a card of special
design is easy.

This card is ornamented with the cut of an
attractive Brown Leghorn hen, and below, in
the left hand side, a nest full of attractive,
clean-looking eggs. The card reads :

EGGS LAID WHILE YOU WAIT!

Family Trade Solicited.

THE JONES FARM . Greenfields, Mass.

We cannot but think the first one simpler
and more attractive, although the humorous
element in the last one would be very attractive
to some people.

i* Having gotten your customers, a punctual
delivering on your part is absolutely essential.
The eggs must be delivered on regular days,
just as you promised — and they should always
be clean and attractive, and as a rule, of good,
large size. Generally speaking, it is unwise to
have one or two extremely large ones or
extremely small ones in the dozen — that is,
extremely large or extremely small ones, which
not infrequently turn up in the egg basket,
should be kept for home use, or sold outside
of the regular customers.

It won’t be all smooth sailing even with the
best of management; there will be times of the
vear when eggs are abundant, and some of
your customers will incline to going back to
store-eggs, because they can get them cheaper,
or something of that kind. Do not expect to
always keep a customer, because you can not
do it. Upon this subject what Mr. Robinson
told us of his personal experience, in his
comments upon the Utah Experiment Station’s
poultry bulletin, is interesting. While con¬
sidering the selling of eggs by weight he says:

“Apropos of the above, my own experience
in selling large and small eggs will not be
untimely. Even selling eggs by the dozen, I
found it most profitable to produce large eggs,
because people were willing to pay a better
price for them. I don’t think any poultryman
can hold a special trade if he furnishes his
customers small eggs. Again and again I had
customers quit me because some one else
would furnish eggs just as good for less money,

only to come back to me inside of a month,
with the complaint that the other eggs were
too small. As to the relative cost of producing
large and small eggs. I can only say that the
hens I had which laid small eggs seemed to
eat just as much as any of the others.

“Possibly had all foods been weighed, as in
the Utah Experiment, the records would show
not so much profit in the large eggs as would
appear from the salesbook, though quicker
sales mean quite a saving in the labor of selling
the eggs.”

We think that what Mr. Robinson means
here bv large eggs was eggs which average a
good size, and not abnormally large, and that
was what we had in mind in recommending
“good sized eggs,” and leaving out the very
large and very small. Color, too, is an impor¬
tant matter, and a nice brown (or yellowish
brown) egg, generally speaking, is the most
attractive to the eye. Whether or not it is
richer in color and attractiveness is a most
important factor when considering a family
trade. In those parts of the country where
white eggs are given the preference, of course
large, white eggs will command the fancy
price, but, as a rule, large brown (or yellowish
brown) eggs are coming to be considered the
best, and are the ones to rely upon for winning
and holding the family trade.

Farm Poultry.

Quality.

We shall never be insured a first-class article
until the consumer demands it, and refuses to
accept anything else. So long as there is no
radical kick against limed or cold storage eggs
being delivered as the fresh article, so long
will dealers palm off the poorer anti cheaper
and charge for the richer and dearer. A
knowledge of the source and nature of distinct
flavors in eggs, as well as butter will be of
material service in protecting from fraud and
insuring a choice, fresh product. To neglect
this is unjust to one’s self; to protect is one’s
highest duty. Demand fresh eggs, pay for the
same, and then charge back for every one
proving faulty. This in itself will bring
dealers to terms, and make them more critical,
and insure better egg fruit for the table, no
matter what the form in which it comes. A
stale or impure egg is a positive injury to the
person consuming it. Nothing will accomplish
more for the man producing and delivering

113

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

straight goods than an active demand and
appreciation of such by the public, and refusal
to accept anything else. Without this the
business is demoralized, and the straightout
henman at a disadvantage. His goods go in
competition with an inferior article, and always
to his loss. Buyers and consumers have a
responsibility as well as producers, and until
this is recognized the distinctions between
grades of quality will not be observed by
dealers. Maine Farmer.

Keeping and Marketing Eggs.

The eggs, whether intended for market or
for hatching, should be kept in clean cases,
either the wire spring pattern or pasteboard
fillers, and should be kept in a moderately cool
room that is clean and well ventilated, and
where the temperature does not go below 50
or above 60 degrees. This room should not
cantain any vegetables, oil or other matter
having strong odor, as such will taint the eggs.
The eggs should be packed in the cases small
end downward. Where they are intended for
hatching, it will be a wise plan to turn them
every day or two. For this purpose a revolving
egg cabinet will prove a labor-saving essential.
These cabinets are a practical invention,
devised for the purpose of caring for eggs for
hatching, providing means for turning the
eggs with little expenditure of time and no
loss through breakage or careless handling.
These cabinets can be purchased in several
sizes, from 150 to 700 eggs.

In earlier times eggs, if sold at all, were mar¬

keted near the place where they were pro¬
duced and many are still sold in local markets,
but with improved methods of transporation
the market has been extended and large
quantities are now shipped to distant points.
Special egg cases are required for carrying eggs
long distances.

Eggs which are to be shipped, should be per¬
fectly fresh and should never be packed in any
material which has a disagreeable or strong
odor. All new laid eggs should be graded ac¬
cording to size and color. Musty straw, card¬
board, bran, or other packing material having
a disagreeable odor will injure the flavor and
keeping qualities of the eggs packed in it.
Keeping eggs near a lot of apples, or other
goods having a pronounced odor, during trans¬
portation, has been known to injure the flavor
of the eggs and reduce their market value.
Micro-organisms may enter the minute pores
of the eggs and start fermentation which ruins
the eggs for market purposes. Eggs which
have been kept in a warm place, or where the
germ has been started under abroody hen, will also
become rotten, and the presence of a few such
eggs in a case will result in a loss of price on the
whole shipment. The normal mucilaginous
coating of the surface of the egg protects it, and
somewhat hinders the entrance of the organisms
which start fermentation. This coating is re¬
moved or injured by washing the eggs and the
keeping qualities of the eggs thereby diminished.
For this reason it is not a good plan to wash
eggs which are to be shipped some distance to
market or which are not intended for immediate
use.

Fruit Trees for Shade, in Poultry Yards of W. J. Starke, Groton, N. Y.

114

Chapter VIII.

COMBINATION EGG-FARMING. COMBINING EGGS AND POULTRY. EGGS AND
FRUIT GROWING. EGGS AND BEEKEEPING. PROFITABLE

COMBINATION CROPS.

t o I A\ 1NG the incubator and brooder
-G, I equipment for hatching the chickens
^ I to reproduce his laying stock, what
1 more natural than that the poultry-
man should start the incubators in season to
get off a couple of hatches before he intends
to hatch the chicks for layers. With the
American varieties April is the best month
for hatching for the pullets, hence the first
hatch of the future layers will be set about
March 10th, to be off by April 1st, thus bringing
the second hatch within the desirable month.
This would mean the setting of the incubators
for the two hatches of broiler chicks about
January loth and February 12th, which will
get them well out of the way of the April chicks
hatched for layers. Broilers bring the highest
prices in April, and the chicks hatched from
the first setting of the incubators will be ten
weeks old April 17th or 18th, in season for the
high April prices, and the broilers of the second
hatch will be marketed before the middle of
May; the income from the broiler chicks will
come just in time to meet the expense of
feeding and raising the breeding stock.

A succession crop and a decidedly profitable
one is two or three hatches after the incubators
have hatched the chickens for the laying¬
breeding stock, the cockerels of these last of
May and June hatches being caponized and
grown to capons for the next February and
March markets. A poultry dealer in South
Jersey told us in February, 1902, that he had
just bought 200 capons of a farmer-neighbor,
which averaged to weigh ten pounds apiece and
fetched twenty-three cents a pound; these were
June hatched chickens, caponized, and had
grown by the following February to be worth
$2.30 each, the farmer receiving $460.00 for
the two hundred of them.

Fruit growing makes an excellent combina¬
tion with poultry raising, and the fruit branch

of the work may be either tree or brush fruits,
or both. Poultry in the apple or pear orchard
is of the greatest advantage to the trees, the
birds keeping worms and insects in subjection
and rollicking in the freshly ploughed or culti¬
vated earth. It will be found, too, that the
soil in the orchard will need less frequent
ploughing (or cultivating), as the birds keep
the grass and weeds in subjection and will like¬
wise scratch up and stir the soil. The great
benefit of the poultry droppings to the trees
is not so well known as it ought to be. Poultry
growers who have apple trees in their hen
yards have told us that the fruit was doubled
in quantity, improved in quality, and that trees
which formerly bore but every other year now
produce full crops annually ; the abundant
fruiting being due to the increased fertility of
the soil by the poultry droppings. The shade
of the trees is of decided benefit to the fowls,
and they can, in an orchard, find either shade
or sunshine at will. When possible it is well
to locate the poultry house or houses in the
orchard, and if it seems best to have yards for a
part or all of the flocks a part or all of the time,
temporary or permanent fences can be erected.
Where permanent houses and yards are con¬
structed one can get quick returns from Japan
plum or peach trees set in the yards, but in the
case of plums it is necessary to look out to thin
the fruit, sometimes as much as half, to prevent
the trees overbearing themselves and becoming
too exhausted to recover.

Bee keeping makes another most excellent
combination with poultry growing, the com¬
paratively little time required for the care of
the bees not only not conflicting with the poul¬
try work but being a change of thought and
work, hence a recreation. The poultrvman’s
busiest season is the spring of the year, when
the incubating of the eggs and care of the
growing chicks takes all of his time, and rot

115

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

infrequently dt mands more — and at that season
bees need little or no attention and the less
they are meddled with the better, excepting
to give them a look-over in the middle of the
day to see that all is going well; in the honey
storing and swarming season of May, June and
July there is call for more attention to the
apiary, and the time then can easily be spared
to it. There is both pleasure and profit in this
combination of bee and poultry interests.

Here is an item, clipped from the Reliable
Poultry Journal, which emphasizes the great
benefit poultry may be to an old orchard :
“ One part of the land bought and added to
Mr. Duston’s poultry plant was an old orchard.
Writing of this purchase, Mr. Duston says:
‘The past fall we must have gathered better
than 100 bushels of apples from these old
and practically abandoned trees. This produc¬
tiveness I attribute entirely to the ranging of the
hens under the trees. The old apple orchard
had not been trimmed or had anything done to
it for at least 15 years; the few apples the trees
did be,ar were measly little things, but after the
birds had run on the land only one season, we
got a fair crop, and the next year still more. A
year ago these trees were trimmed up, and this
year we had Hubbardstons that would make
your mouth water, and many of them would
weigh a pound apiece, I should think. ’ ” The
shade of the trees is of most decided benefit to
the fowls, protection from the hot sun being
essential to their comfort in summer; in furnish¬
ing this much desired shade the trees reciprocate
the benefits received from the fowls, which can,
in an orchard, find both shade and sunshine at
will.

An excellent example of the benefits of thin¬
ning plums was reported bv Mr. C. H. Wyckoff,
of Groton, JST. Y. His plum trees (which were
in the poultry yards) promised a heavy crop,
and odd half hours were spent in thinning out
fully half of it, the result being that the fruit
grew to double the size of that on a neighbor’s
unthinned trees, and ripened to a plumpness and
fine flavor that are impossible where the trees
overbear so that they haven’t the strength to
properly mature it. At harvest time the choice
fruit from the trees that had been thinned sold
quickly (and “more” was "wanted) at Si. 50 per
bushel, while the neighbor’s poorly-matured
plums could hardly be sold at 50 cents a bushel.
3 he thinned fruit was fully equal in quantity
(in number of pounds or bushels), and was of

the juicy plumpness which captures the palate
at the first taste; it was of the much desired
“superior” quality of which the market never
gets enough and will gladly pay a big price for,
while poor-quality fruit goes begging.

A most desirable place for grape vines is along
wire fences of permanent poultry yards; the
foliage of the grape vines giving additional
shade and shelter for the hens and the wire
netting making satisfactory trellises for the
vines. It is best to train grape vines well up
towards the top of the netting; then they furnish
desirable shade and the fruit is up above the
reach of the birds. If there is danger of the
fowls scratching or digging too deeply just
about the trunks of grape vines or fruit trees,
some small stones the size of one’s fist, or a few
half bricks scattered about, will sufficiently
protect them.

In setting out an apple orchard, one should
consider the future growth of the trees and
good authorities advise setting standard apple
trees 35 to 40 feet apart each way, and even
with that distance apart in 20 years the trees
will probably begin to crowd. It is not at all
necessary that the apple trees be given the
whole of this land at first, and an excellent plan
is to set peach or plum trees between the apple
trees each way. The quicker-growing peach
and plum trees will develop, bear fruit several
years and die of old age before the apple trees
need all of the ground; as they decline in fruit¬
fulness or the apple trees encroach upon them
they should be cut out, so that the roots of the
apple trees may have all the room they need.

Plantations of bush fruits, such as black¬
berries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries,
and vineyards also, make superior chicken
runs, especially for small and half-grown chicks;
and it is an excellent plan to put brooders of
chicks out in the small-fruit plantations, as
early in the spring as brooders can be set out¬
doors to advantage. Small pens of temporary
fencing will be needed to inclose the chicks the
first few days, until they get used to running in
and out of the brooders, then the fences may be
taken away and the chicks be given free range
among the rows of bushes. The chicks will not
injure the growing fruit, and, indeed, when the
fruit is ripe, will only very, very rarely touch
it; and then it will be only a berry or two from
the lowest stems e>r branches, and this lowest
fruit is of indifferent quality.

116

COM BIN A TION EGG-FARMING.

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Hfljujn'iV&L''

'A \ ki

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BSaL

feggw&T T§§ uaK'r:

)

Fruit Trees for Shade in the Poultry Yards and to Prevent Ground Poisoning.

It is impossible to overestimate the advan¬
tage gained from having young chicks running
and working among the rows of canes or bushes.
The innumerable insects and worms they
destroy are only a part of the benefit, though
no small part by any means. The droppings
are stirred into the ground by the scratching
and thus incorporated with the soil so that the
feeding roots can reach it, and the frequent
stirring of the soil gives the roots an oppor¬
tunity to get the plant food necessary for best
growth and to make fruit. It is not intended
that the brooders shall remain in the fruit
plantations through the entire time of the
growth of the chicks; as soon as they have
passed the brooder period, the brooders can be
removed elsewhere to be refilled, and small
colony houses put in their places. The chicks

will adapt themselves quickly to the change of
home.

No two branches of farm work combine
together to better advantage and profit than
fruit growing and poultry raising, and we cannot
too often nor in too strong terms urge the
uniting of the two interests. They can be
worked together most admirably, each decidedly
benefiting the other, and enabling the growing
of two profitable crops on the same ground at
the same time. Everyone can well afford to
invest some money in fruit trees for the home
place, and few investments pay better. They
make the place more attractive and valuable,
and the products are a welcome addition to
the table delicacies, greatly relished by all the
members of the family, and the surplus can be
old readily at good prices.

117

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

PLUM TREES AND POULTRY.

They Furnish Necessary Shade and Double
Profit on the Same Ground.

BY W. J. STORKE, GROTON, N. Y.

I find that growing plum trees as an adjunct
to the poultry business is very profitable. In
each of my hen yards, which are about 150 feet
long, I have a row of plum trees running through
the center. The hens do not bother the fruit,
and on the other hand are a great help. They
keep away all the bugs and worms, also the hen
manure is the best fertilizer that can be had.
The trees in turn furnish the shade which is
so necessary, if hens are to do well.

I have trees of the following varieties: The
Green Gauge, Reine Claude, Lombard, Brad¬
shaw, Washington, Quackenbosh, Coes’ Golden
Drop, Genii. Of these I much prefer the
Reine Claude and Bradshaw, as they will bring
a good deal more on the market than any of
the others. They also bear well and the trees
are as hardy as any of them. We get whips or
young trees direct from the nurseries in Roch¬
ester when they are two or three years old.
They will begin to bear so that they will pay a
profit in three years after they are set out.
We set the trees in rows 15 feet apart.

In the spring after the plums have grown
about as large as marbles, we go through the
yards and pick half of them, that is, where
they hang in clusters. By thus thinning
them out, the ones that are left do much better,
grow to a much larger size, and so command a
much better price in the fall.

We send all our fruit to New York, and it
nets us an average of about $1.75 a bushel.
After once setting out the trees there is practi¬
cally no expense with it with the exception of
thinning in the spring and picking in the fall.
The receipts from the sale of the fruit are almost
clear gain.

In shipping to the New York market or any
other market, the plums ought to be picked
before they are dead ripe. In fact, they
should be picked rather green, when the plum
is hard or just before it begins to get soft.
They will ripen faster after they are picked. By
picking this way and putting them up in eight
pound baskets, we get a much better price than
by sending the same fruit loose in large baskets.

I would strongly ad vise'^any Wine in the
poultry business, if they are in a climate where

plums can be grown at all, to set out trees. 1 1
will surely prove a very good investment.

Reliable Poultry Journal.

BEGINNING WITH POULTRY AND FRUIT.

A Profitable Combination of Fruit Orchard and
Poultry Yards.

BY WM. L. HOWELL, GENESEO, N. Y.

Four years ago I discovered that our poultry
plant was too small, and I decided to buy more
land and start anew. I added seven acres, on
which I erected a new dwelling, a barn, a shop
and four poultry houses. Knowing by past
experience that in fancy poultry of any breed,
and especially the Buff breed, the prerequisite
to success is good shade; therefore the first
thing after my buildings were finished I turned
my attention to shade — and the question arose
what shade trees can I have, that will at once
grow the quickest and produce the best results.
My former experience had taught me what to
avoid and again what to cultivate. Owing to
the rapid growth of the peach tree, I planted
plenty of them near the buildings. Desiring
a variety of fruit and knowing the profit in it, I
literally filled my acreage with apple, pear,
plum, cherry and quince trees. Under the
peach trees near the house I kept the water
fountains, and during the hot summer days
changed the water three times a day, each
time emptying the warm water around the
trees, thus keeping the soil loose and the
droppings soaked well into the ground. I have
thereby produced the phenomenal growth of
from one-half inch in diameter when planted
to four inches in diameter in four years. These
peach trees stand 10 feet high and measure 10
feet across the boughs.

In setting out the trees in poultry yards I
dig holes for them deep enough so that they
will set in the ground as deep or just a little
deeper than they did in the nursery row;
which is usually where the bulb or little bunch
shows where the tree was budded. The hole
must be broad enough so that every root will
lay straight. When the tree is in position I
put some of the finest, best soil I have around
the roots, working it tightly until the roots are
all well covered (two inches) with soil, this I firm
down well; then I put two inches thick of
well rotted manure on top of this soil, using
care that no manure comes in contact with the
stem or trunk of the tree, or any of the roots.

118

COM BIN A TION EGG-FARMING.

Then I fill the hole nearly full of dirt and pack
it as hard as possible with the foot; then put
loose soil on top and leave perfectly loose.
Peach, pear, apple, plum, cherry and quince
trees have done splendidly for me with this
treatment, but best of all the peach, and the
plum next.

In rich land that is light, sandy and well-
drained, there is no other fruit tree that I have
tried to cultivate that will make so strong a
growth, with the same treatment, as the peach
tree. The profit in fruit growing in this way
is always greater because of the superior
quality, especially of the variety known as the
Crawford, which is always large and fine.

Of course it might not seem practicable to
treat all fruit trees with such care. At the
same time, a fruit tree is like a child, the more
carefully it is cared for and nourished the
richer and finer is the fruit, (character). All
the fruit trees I have named will be greatly
benefited by being treated in the foregoing
manner. They will do much better in chicken
yards, as the poultry helps to keep the soil
loose around the roots, which is very essential
to the life of the tree. The chickens take all the
insects away too. I have never heard of a
tree being damaged by borers where chickens
were allowed to run. It seems needless to add
that in a very short space of time the grounds
in chicken yards will do double duty and bring
double profit in extremely fine products.

Reliable Poultry Journal.

Pruning to Improve the Trees.

Do not be afraid to cut back your trees and
vines, for herein lies the secret of success in the
fruit business. Plant well and prune well.
Cut your trees and vines back hard and let the
strength go to the roots, and the third and
fourth years they will grow right along and
surprise you. When spring comes, what a
beautiful sight are your yards full of peach,
plum and quince trees in full bloom, with
their pink, white, and pink and white blossoms
and the air full of their fragrance; the chickens
under them full of life, enjoying the first spring
weather, the flies, bugs and insects buzzing
around. Did you ever notice a place void of
vegetation? How still at night, with not a
sound. Then go among the trees, the grass
and the shrubs, especially on a summer evening.
What a constant buzzing ! Why the difference?
Insects want vegetation — so do chickens.

Poultry must have shade, why not fruit trees?

The cuts need no explanation. The idea is
to show the fruit trees and vines among the
poultry yards. Contrast the trees with the
buildings and fences so as to judge their growth
in the few years they have been planted. Let
me say right here the Japan plum trees are
wonderful growers, especially the Abundance.
Why not help pay your feed bills and have
plenty of fruit to eat? Why not enjoy the
beautiful sight of the trees in blossom? Think
of the returns from the fruit, especially in those
years when chicks do not do well. Think of
the comfort of your fowls. Compare a flock
of Pekin ducks or White Wyandottespn a yard
planted with plum trees, the fences covered
with grape vine's, with another flock in a yard
where there is only artificial shade.

Allow me to leave my subject here and give
the beginners in the poultry business a little
advice. Plant fruit trees, vines and bushes.
Even if you are on a rented place and have a
fair number of years (five to ten) it will pay
you to plant grape vines, or even peach trees.

Reliable Poultry Journal.

Poultry and Bees, an Ideal Combination,

It is quite safe to say that nearly every person
has some ideal which he is trying to attain.
The question Avas asked a man in the city of
New York the other day if he intended to
folloAV up the busy, hustling, traveling city
AAork all his life. “No,” said he, “after the
children ha\re grown up, or after the mortgage
has been paid, I intend to settle cIoaatl in the
country, and keep poultry and bees.” Hence
this article. Now I Avish to suggest right here
that you do not wait until the mortgage is paid
before you make a start, but begin at once,
this very spring, and then from the earnings
of your little side issue Avipe out the debt which
enslaves you. That is just what I did. We
should try to enjoy life as we go along, and try
to keep young in spirit if not in years.

It seems to me that poultry and bees make
an ideal combination. The readers of Farm-
Poultry are no doubt more or less familiar
with the life and habits of the hen, so I will
devote a little attention to bees, which work
for nothing and board themselves, and at the
close of the season divide with you their earnings
Nearly every one who has a small open space
has felt at one time or other a longing for the
pleasant occupation of tending bees; but

119

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

most people are frightened away from the
undertaking by the difficulties which seem to
present themselves. In the first place they
are puzzled to know how to make a proper
beginning, and what the requirements really
are; for it goes without saying that no person
wishes to invest very much capital in an uncer¬
tainty. A little looking into the question will
usually disclose the fact that someone within
a radius of five or six miles of you is a bee
keeper of some degree. If this is the case
it is well to buy your bees close at home, even
if they are common bees, and in a box hive.
Of course it is best to begin with only one
colony, which, in the spring of the year, consists
of one queen, a few hundred drones, and from
twenty to fifty thousand workers. This will
keep you fully occupied at first, and furnish
you with experience which would be costly if
obtained on a larger scale.

Your colony of common bees in a box hive
should not cost you more than from three to
five dollars. Afterwards you can transfer
them into a movable-frame hive and introduce
an Italian queen. As the queen is the mother
of all the bees, in the hive, you will soon have
a race of thoroughbreds.

It has been my experience and that of bee
keepers generally, that there are fewer risks
and larger profits in comparison to the amount
of capital invested in bee keeping than any
other business. Of course, emergencies do
arise, but if they are met by ordinary foresight
and common sense, they are not likely to result
disastrously. For detailed instructions, such
as it is beyond the scope of this article to give,
there are numerous bee books to help the
novice over the rough places in this delightful
branch of agriculture. Kev. L. L. Langstroth,

to whom great, honor
is due, is the father
of American beekeep¬
ing; indeed, it was
through him that the
pursuit has been de¬
veloped from a game
of chance to the great
industry that it is
today; for it was his
invention of the
movable-frame hive
that has changed the
occupation oftheapiar-
ist from one of pleasure
but uncertain profits into a well-paying business.

The illustration herewith shows a growth of
six years ’ duration, or in other words, an old
box hive transformed into a cosy little apiary
of sixty colonies. The crop of honey has
multiplied from two pounds to two thousand.
Who can fort.ell the possibilities of the busy
little bee?

And now as to profits. As I am but an
amateur, and bee culture is still only a side
issue with me, possibly you may not consider
my own testimony valuable; though my bees
bring in a tidy, easily earned, and ever increas¬
ing addition to my regular income. It is a
conservative estimate of the bee keepers
generally, however, that each hive should
bring in about five dollars a year; in favorable
seasons, considerable more. And as each hive
also throws off a swarm annually, it is easy to
see how a little capital invested in bees will
grow and multiply, besides yielding a very
fair percent of profit.

In locating an apiary and arranging the
hives much taste can be displayed, but a few
general principles should always be observed.
It is an advantage to have the hives facing
eastward or southward in order to have the
morning sunshine in the entrances of the hives,
which induces the bees to fly forth early in
cpiest of the nectar which collects in the flowers
during the night. When the hives are in this
position they will also be protected from the
north and west winds. A hedge of evergreen
or honeysuckle will be a further protection and
make a splendid enclosure. A few shade trees
in the apiary are an advantage, and invariably
attract the swarms which may issue from the
hives at swarming time.

F. G. Herman, in Farm Poultry.

120

Chapter IX

SELLING STOCK FOR BREEDING PURPOSES AND SELLING EGGS FOR HATCHING.
WHEN AND HOW TO ADVERTISE. POULTRY FARM BOOKKEEPING.

study of the growth of a poultry busi¬
ness is extremely interesting, and is
certainly most instructive to the
beginner in poultry work. The
accounts which we read of highly successful
poultrymen contain a valuable lesson for the
beginners, because even7 one of the prominent
poultrymen of today were the beginners of
five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, and the
success to which they have attained has been
the result of a simple, natural growth. The
selling of stock for breeding purposes and the
selling of eggs for hatching is a natural develop¬
ment of the starting in the poultry business
and having thoroughbred stock themselves.
All of the great poultrymen of today began
with raising poultry and eggs for market;
they realized that thoroughbred stock laid the
most eggs and produced the best market
poultry, so equipped themselves with thorough¬
bred stock. What more natural, then, than
that they should offer to sell of their thorough¬
bred stock, and eggs for hatching, once they had
secured it for themselves? Going into the sale
of stock for breeding purposes and eggs for
hatching is but a natural development, and is
practically the old, old story of “first the blade,
then the ear, then the full corn in the car.”

The giants of the poultry world, Hawkins,
Duston, Bright, E. B. Thompson, Wyckoff,
Knapp Bros., Fishel, McClave — all began by
raising poultry and eggs for market. All the
difference between these great poultrymen and
those who started similarly is, that these great
poultrymen of today did not stop with raising
poultry and eggs for market; they continued
to grow', and by the aid of printer’s ink have
developed businesses of $5,000, $10,000,

$15,000 or $20,000 a year, with their conse¬
quently splendid profits; and others can do
exactly the same if they will but follow7 in the
path where these men have led. There are
just as great (yes, greater !) opportunities today

than in the years ago wrhen these men started.
The poultry business is growing steadily, and
the demand for stock for breeding purposes and
eggs for hatching is ten times greater today
than it was ten years ago, and in all probability
will be ten times greater ten years hence than
it is today; those of us who can look back
20 or 30 years fully believe that. The essential
thing is that we outfit ourselves with the best
of stock of the best variety, and then tell the
buying public that we have got that stock for
breeding or eggs for hatching; the public,
ever anxious to buy the best, will do the rest.

In making a start in the thoroughbred
poultry business a most essential thing is that
we start writh good stock, by getting the very
best that our money can buy. Most beginners
have little idea how much time is saved (and
time is money !) by buying good stock. A
most interesting example of this is seen in the
egg-farm of Mr. Henry Van Dreser, the story
of which farm is told in Chapter V. Mhen
his step-son convinced him that poultry keeping
w'as a profitable branch of farm w'ork, he went
to Mr. Wyckoff and bought 30 birds of his great
laying stock, and thereby outfitted himself
with stock which had in it the accelerated
momentum of many years of breeding, — first
for a great egg production, and second for
standard quality; by making this start Mr. Van
Dreser bridged many years of preliminary
work at one step, and other beginners would
be wise to follow his example.

Another point, breed but one variety. A
most common mistake of the beginner is to
think he will start with several varieties and
thus be better prepared to meet the wants of
the public. The whole of a lifetime is not too
long to get the best out of one variety, and the
man who devotes himself to one, makes that one
his specialty, and gets out of that one the best
that there is in it, — will have achieved a great
success. The great successes among poultrymen

121

PRO! [TABLE EGG FARMING.

today as a rule, are those jvho have made their
reputations with one variety ; the men who get
the largest prices, who do the largest and best
business, are those who are devoting themselves
to the breeding of one variety and making that
a specialty; who are putting into the develop¬
ment of their chosen variety all the energy and
ability with which they are endowed.

How and When to Advertise.

Having made a start with good, thoroughbred
stock, the next thing is to let the public know it
and solicit orders by advertising. The mer¬
chant or storekeeper tells the public who he is
and what he offers for sale by signs over his
door and on his windows, and by displaying
samples of his wares in his windows or beside
his door; that is one way of advertising, and
such advertisements are likely to be seen by
' those passing the store. Another method of
telling people who one is and what one has for
sale is by publishing an announcement in the
advertising columns of the local paper; the
card in the local paper is another form of the
“sign” or the “window display.” For the
poultryman who has breeding stock or eggs for
hatching for sale the poultry and farm papers
are “local.” Through them he will reach the
public that is interested in the goods he offers
for sale, and it is in them he will make his
announcements.

Advertising is simply telling the public
something; if you advertise breeding stock
and eggs for hatching you are telling the public
that you have such for sale. Without such
telling the public, no one outside your own
immediate neighborhood will know of you and
know- what you have for sale; advertising is the
first step towards making sales to the general
public ; it is the one road to a successful business
with thoroughbred stock and eggs for hatching.

Make your advertising truthful; tell the
public exactly what you have to sell, do not
overstate the case nor misrepresent in any way,
shape or manner. Make a study of advertising ;
much depends upon how you tell your story.
Some advertisers rely upon an attractive
design or telling illustration to catch the eye
and hold the attention of the possible customer.
At any rate, make your ads. attractive and
convincing so that they will both catch the
attention and then hold it; that is the way to
solicit trade.

When to advertise is, of course, when you
have something to sell. The great bulk of the
sales of breeding stock are in the fall and the
early winter; the sales of eggs for hatching are
almost wholly in the spring. Two-thirds of the
poultry advertising is in the fall and spring,
but the most successful advertisers are those
who keep their ads. running all the year round.
The beginner is not likely to do that, and as he
probably is not equipped with stock with
which to fill a large number of orders he will
almost certainly begin small, and increase his
ads. as his ability to handle business increases.
That is the way great poultrymen all began,
they advertised in a small way at first, and as
trade increased they raised more stock and
increased the size of their ads. and the number
of papers they advertised in.

If one advertises in several papers he needs
to keep a record of the calls he gets from each
one. A simple memorandum book will serve
the purpose. Ascertain by the record of sales .
which papers pay, and increase the space used
in those papers; cutting off those which have
not brought paying sales. Put system into the
business; don’t trust to guess-work. Many
customers will tell you in their letters where
they saw your ad., and it is an easy matter to
write a note to such as omit to mention it and
ask them; enclose an addressed return postal
card and they "will almost certainly tell you.
Business is business, and the poultry business
is exactly like every other. Make a study of
it; make a study of your advertising; make the
ads. read right, make them attractive and to
the point; then they will draw custom.

Farmers Who Advertise.

The marketing of the farm produce is a
business by itself and demands the most careful
consideration.

There is no question but that the aggregate
loss to farmers from selling their goods in
a poor market is very greot. In a
certain New England watering place, for
instance, I have known eggs, before the advent
of the summer visitors, to be almost a drug on
the market; while at another city, only thirty
miles distant, they were in brisk demand at
ten cents more on the dozen. This is a great
difference in price and was far more than the
extra cost of transportation, which could
hardly have exceeded one cent on the dozen.
And yet very few farmers took advantage of

122

WHEN AND HOW TO ADVERTISE.

the situation, the inertia of long-settled habit
keeping most of them in their accustomed
channel of trade.

I also recall an instance in my own farming,
when 1 had a lot of turkeys to dispose of, as I
hoped, at a fancy price. I sent one wagon
load to a wealthy residence town and another
to a manufacturing city, the two men in
charge being about equally expert as salesmen.
The lot sold in the manufacturing city brought
twenty cents a pound (two cents above the
price current of best turkeys), while the lot
sold in the residence town brought twenty-five
cents and sold quicker. The manufacturing
city was the larger place of the two, but it had
not the class of people who were willing to pay
outside prices.

Another instance that comes to my mind of
advantageously seeking a good market, regard¬
less of a considerable distance, is that of a
New England farmer whom I know well. He
lives in a very fertile reach of country, but his
farm is fifteen miles from the nearest railroad
station, and from there fifteen more to the
city. Most of his neighbors “trade” at the
country store, but this farmer goes twice a
week to the city, taking with him large quanti¬
ties of butter, eggs, poultry, fruit and farm
produce. In the city he hires two wagons,
one to deliver the wholesale orders, and the
other for the family trade.

It is needless to say that he pays more for
these teams than he would for the same accom¬
modation in his native town, and one of his
neighbors reflecting on this “blame inordinate
expense,” observed that “payin’ out what that
crazy cuss does in car fares and for teams in the
city, he didn’t see how he made his dum’d
business pay — and he didn't more’n half b’leeve
it did pay, either.” And yet the “crazy
cuss” is today rated as one of the wealthiest
men of his town, while his critic, though
owning by inheritance a larger and better
farm, is comparatively poor. It is right for
me to add, however, that the latter is an
acknowledged oracle in the country store, an
accepted authority on all things, from points
of theology to the digging of wells — to say
nothing of his neighbors’ affairs. It is not
given to one man to compass all the heights of
greatness, and personally I never knew a
thrifty, prosperous farmer who was a country-
store oracle.

How is a good market poorly utilized? By
dumping into it cartloads of stuff to be sold by
commission houses, thus losing not only the
middleman’s profit but sharing with the
commission man a large part of the profit that
properly belongs to the farmer himself by
letting gilt-edged fancy goods go along with the
indifferent or poor to fetch what they may
chance to bring; and last but not least by
sending inferior goods which bring so low a
price as hardly to offset the cost of transpor¬
tation. The competition in farm products of
ordinary quality is tremendous, often running
the price down to a very low figure. It is the
superior goods that pay and that place the
farmer on such a footing in the market that he
can boldly state what he asks for them, instead
of humbly inquiring from some third-class
dealer what he will give. Be assured that in
every large city there is a class of 'people who are
willing to pay the very best of prices for farm
products if they can have the very best of goods.

This brings me to the proper means of
reaching this class of customers and introduces
another important factor in the marketing of
goods, advertising, a thing as essential to the
farmer as to any other business man. It is
true that, having once got a foothold and
established a reputation for his goods, he may
need much less advertising than at the start;
but it is doubtful if he can wholly dispense
with it at any time. Advertising in various
ways, has long been practiced by one class of
farmers— the stock-breeders; indeed we should
hardly know how to get along without it. To
my mind it is clear that it would very often
be of just as much value in other branches;
but custom — a strange thing, I have sometimes
thought, in the powerful grip that it has on
farmers — has long restricted advertising to
stock-breeders alone.

“Advertisin’ never created a customer!”
said a country sage to me once. Perhaps it
does not create customers — though I have
known cases where this might be questioned —
but it brings together the man who wants to sell
and the man who wants to buy.

The whole matter of marketing farm products
resolves itself into what is necessary in any
well-conducted enterprise: a careful study of
the situation and the exercise of common sense*
1 would say, in conclusion, what I have often
said before when speaking of the possibilities
of agriculture, that, as the demand for the

123

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

best farm products is always in excess of the
supply, he who has them has a great advantage
in the market if only he knows how to profit by
the situation. And if he has practiced a
proper economy in their production and follows
up with sagacity and perseverance the advan¬
tages that the market conditions afford, he
need have no fear of the result; his reward
will be ample.

Saturday Eveniruj Post.

Common Sense in Poultry Advertising.

Plain common sense is today the greatest
factor of success in any business. It is a rare
article — this co-called common sense. As a
matter of fact, it is decidedly uncommon.
Another name for it is genius. The man who
believes in “ luck ” does not possess it. The
man who conducts his business on the let-’er-
go-Gallagher plan does not possess it. Natural
ability counts for much; education is a great
help; “a liking for the business” is a happy
factor; but plain, hard headed, keep-in-the-
middle-of-the-road, won’t say-die common
sense is the real stuff!

Take the matter of poultry advertising. I,
a poultryman, have, we will say, some utility
fowls to sell. Out there in the world some¬
where is a man who wants to buy them. I
can reach that man through the poultry or
farm paper he reads. That is simple enough ;
but what shall I tell him?

The plain facts, the exact truth. It should
be as though I met him face to face, and said :
“Sir, come and see for yourself. I have for
sale ten hens of Barred Plymouth Rocks, nine
yearling hens, and a two-year-old cock — fowls
of a strain that has been bred systematically
for large size, great vigor, rich, yellow skin and
increased egg production. If you want fowls
for eggs and meat, mine will suit you. The
hens will average seven and one-half pounds
each. Two of them weigh nine pounds apiece.
The cock is a ten pounder. Not one of them
has ever been sick, to my knowledge. They
are in perfect health today. Six of the hens
are now laying. Their eggs are considerably
larger than the average store egg, and brown in
color. My price for the pen is $15.”

That’s easy, isn’t it? It’ll do the business.
No use to tell your man that the name of your
outfit is the Purling Brook Poultry Farm,
comprising eleven acres of land. He does not
want to buy the name, nor your farm. Tell

him about what he does want to buy! Tell him
this, and only this, in the advertising space you
buy, and in the letters you write. Burn in on
his mind precisely those facts, those points
that he is most interested in. Do not waste a
line, not one word.

Know, as a man who is well posted in his
business does know, why a prospective cus¬
tomer wants what he wants; then tell him the
facts in a plain, straightforward, common-sense
way. He will discover quickly enough that
you know what is what — and every sensible
man much prefers to deal with men who know
their business.

So much by the way of selling utility fowls.
Now about selling fancy stock. If you have
fancy stock for sale, put fancy points into your
ad., into your talk as a salesman. Show by
the wording of your ad. that you know per¬
fectly veil what is desirable in exhibition poul¬
try, in stock with which to win prizes or breed
exhibition specimens. I)o not waste a single
sentence. Make every word count in the art
of winning the confidence of the would-be pur¬
chaser by convincing him that you know, as
well as he, just what he wants. If you haven’t
what he wants, it should end there; but if you
have, do your plain, common sense, level best
to make him realize that fact.

Business is business. The poultry business
is business. Do not overlook this fact for one
minute. People wrho are in the market to buy
poultry do not want to “ play horse.” Nine
out of ten of them want to make money. They
need to make money! Parting with a portion
of their capital in hand is, with most of them, a
serious matter. It is business. Leave out,
therefore, the fancy rhetoric and big words —
leave out of your ad. everything but the solid
facts. Provided what you have for sale is in
demand, nothing will have greater wreight than
facts; nothing will do your business interests
more good than the simple truth. This is
common sense. Have what the trade demands,
tell the truth about it in a convincing way, and
the buyers will find you out.

A fewr thoughts now on the subject of season¬
able advertising. Use common sense in that
too. How often do we see in the July, August
and September issues of poultry papers ads.
offering “eggs for hatching.” Men who adver¬
tise like this do worse than throw their good money
away. They pav the publishers of papers to tell
the poultry world what? That here are men

124

WHEN AND HOW TO ADVERTISE.

who neglect their business, who neglect their
own interests, who are not really in the poultry
business. They may imagine they are, but
they are not. They really give precious little
attention to the essentials of the business.

Is it not logical and reasonable for a would-
be customer to ask himself this question : “ If
these men thus neglect as important a business
matter as their advertising, what about the
other part of their business? ” Does not such
a “sign.” hung up on the printed page for
thousands to read say to the interested public,
“ Here is a man who is not in real earnest. Here
is a man who is either careless, neglectful or
incompetent?” Is it not natural for the think¬
ing man also to conclude, “ Such a man is unsafe
to do business with. We would be foolish to
entrust our orders with him. Men who neglect
their own important interests cannot safely be
trusted with ours.”

Is not this conclusion natural and reasonable?
It is, in the main. There are three months’
poultrvmen and there are twelve months’
poultrymen. The latter are “in the business”
all the time. It is business with them. They
are the men who “make things go.” They are
the safe men with whom to deal. An “eggs
for hatching” ad., if run out of season because
of neglect on the part of the man who pays for
the space, is due warning to buyers at this end
of the line that the man at the other end of
the line is not attending to his business — and
the trade goes elsewhere, into safer hands.

Attend to business, those of you who crave
success. Put into your work all the brains you
have yourself and all that you can hire. Even
then some other fellow, a competitor, will crowd
you.

G. M. Curtis in Agricultural Advertising.

About Advertising.

There are a great many people advertising
who don’t get the returns they should because
they don’t advertise what the people want —
even when they have it. They advertise the
qualities they prize mostly in their stock,
without apparently considering that more
people would value the stock for qualities to
which they attach less importance.

We know of more than one such man who
has stock that is both useful and beautiful, but
will not in his ads. call attention to the utility
value of his strain, because he fears to do so
will injure his reputation as a breeder of exhi¬

bition fowls. We think they are mistaken in
this. As long as their fowls can win as they
have won now and won in the past, they need
have no fears of hurting their reputation as
prize winners by advertising their useful quali¬
ties. On the other hand, they can by adver¬
tising those qualities attract the attention of
that class of buyers who want fowls principally
for eggs and meat, but don’t want scrub or
mongrel stock.

We don’t think breeders generally realize
how large this class is or how well it would pay
them to cater to its wants. These are not
the people who want something for nothing.
They are willing to pav a fair price for what
they want — and what they want is stock not
quite good enough for No. 1 breeding, yet fairly
good. Every large breeder has lots of that
stock to sell, and we think most of them find it
the hardest stock to handle, because the people
who buy such birds so often buy them with
the expectation of getting a winner or a bird
that will breed winners for $2.00. Of course
they are disappointed; but if the same bird
were from stock bred also for practical qualities,
the man who purchased with useful points
first in his thought will not be found among
the “ kickers.”

We wish all breeders who have this class of
stock could see the letter's that come to this
office asking where just such stock, of one
breed or another can be obtained. We print
some of them occasionally; but probably not
one in a hundred received is printed. We
answer them all. The stereotyped replies are
“We don’t know.” or “We cannot say,” aid
“ Consult our advertising columns.” The latter
we use as often as possible; but too often we
know it is useless to refer inquiries to the adver¬
tisements.

There is one encouraging feature, though,
and that is, the number of men who advertise
the practical qualities of their stock is con¬
stantly increasing, (it is more than five times as
large today as it was five years ago), and in
that number are included a few of the best
known breeders in the country. We not, too,
that these men are among our best advertisers,
and we cannot see that they are using any less
space in other poultry papers than they used to.

Now there is a better — larger and on the
whole more profitable — demand for hardy,
quick growing, early maturing, prolific laying
stock of average or medium standard excellence

125

PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.

than for anything else. And breeders who have
such stock to sell will find that they can sell it
to the best advantage by advertising its practi¬
cal qualities most, just because an advertise¬
ment that does not attract attention to those
qualities of the class it should reach. If a man
advertises, “ Stock mated for best results,” or
“Winners wherever shown,” and trusts to his
circulars or to correspondence to make known
the excellencies of his fowls, he makes a mistake.
His circular and letters go to people incited by
his ad. to make further inquiries, and people
who don’t find what they want mentioned in the
ad. don’t generally make further inquiry in
that direction. And a man must have what he
advertises. He must deal honestly with every
one. An advertiser’s sins are not long in
finding him out. A breeder might advertise
his stock as good utility stock when it was not,
and for a little while catch trade that way.
He would soon be found out, and would find it
difficult to sell stock on any representation; if,
indeed, he could still find poultry papers willing
to take his- advertisements.

For the class of stock we have described there
is a good demand. We believe that the demand
is largely in excess of the supply, even while
we are sure that the actual supply is much
greater than the visible supply, i. e. the amount
of stock for sale by those advertising it. If you
have what the people want, tell them so. You
cannot do business with them unless they know
where to find you. — Farm Poultry.

Rewards of Success.

The rewards of success in poultry work are
most satisfactory and come in the shape of a
liberal profit for eggs and poultry sold, and
a comfortable living. It is “the living” that
we are all after, and it is safe to say that there
is not one branch of farm work which gives a
comfortable living more easily than poultry
raising. The market is sure; the great con¬
suming public is calling for more and more
choice meat and selected fresh eggs, and is able
and willing to pay. The public will do its part
if we will but do ours and produce the goods
most wanted. The successes chronicled in
this volume are only a few of those that could
be described ; they have been selected as typical
of what can be done by intelligent, persevering
effort, with the thought that the story of the
success of others will encourage those just
starting in poultry work to push on to the goal.

Conditions of Success.

The reasons why poultry is still thought
nothing of upon many farms are not far to seek;
but the curious thing is that they pay the wosrt
just on that system of “ a few round the home¬
stead ” so recommended by certain writers.
In days when other branches of farming paid
well, a few fowls were kept just to supply the
house, and left to the women; thus the farmer
never knew anything about them, and never
thought of them as having money in them.
Any outlay was never thought of, or return
for it believed in; the fowls were kept on till
very old, left to breed together indiscriminately.
The stock was mostly of bad layers, and half
the eggs were stolen by the farm hands. All
this must, of course, be changed if profit is to
be realized. A paying stock must be selected
and thereafter bred for laying or for table;
necessary food and expenses must not be
grudged; and eggs especially must be syste¬
matically collected and marketed promptly.

As to the stock, it is doubtful if a hen or
pullet that lays less than 100 eggs in a year
pays at all, while it has been proved .over and
over again that beyond 150 is perfectly attain¬
able; while many farm-hens lay under 60, and
do not account for all of these. All old stock
must first be got rid of, and then selection must
follow. There are strains now bred and
advertised for laying properties, as distinct
from mere “fancy” points, from which a good
start can be made in breeding stock; but if
any farmer has a prejudice against “pure
breeds, ” there is another course. Let him
watch any neighboring market, and get birds
or eggs from any neighbor who brings in a good
lot of eggs in winter. After that he must select
for himself, hatching chickens only from his
best layers, and crossing his pullets or hens
with cockerels also from the best layers, and so
on. It is simple as ABC, and in this way the
average — that is, “ the thing his hens lay on ” —
will be infallibly raised. If he or his people
cannot watch the birds sufficiently to know
the best layers, he can still do much by the
three simple tests of which lay early in winter
or spring; which are down earliest from the
perch; and which lay earliest in the day.
Broadly, these tests will at least pick out the
better layers, and enable him to discard the
really bad ones.

From Wright’s New Book of Poultry.

126

WHEN AND HOW TO ADVERTISE.

Poultry-Farm Bookkeeping.

No one thing is more important than keeping
an account of the expenses and receipts of
poultry work, and a carefully kept account
would most decidedly increase the appreciation
of that br'anch of farm work. One chief cause
of the indifferent attention given to poultry
on the farm is that the income from it almost
always comes in dribblets, and the farmer, hav¬
ing his mind on greater things, — as for example
marketing a lot of grain, or a bunch of fat
steers, or a drove of hogs, — finds it not easy to
realize that “ many mickles make a muckle.”
If one keeps an account of the eggs received
and poultry eaten or sold and puts against it
the comparatively small amount expended for
food, etc., his appreciation of the profitableness
of the poultry would be decidedly increased.

Keeping accounts is not at all the complicated
and difficult matter that many farmers imagine.
The writer’s method was simple and served the
purpose admirably. A small and inexpensive
blank book was purchased and two pages
given to each month’s accounts. On the left
hand page was entered the debits, that is, the
sums paid out, and on the right hand page was
entered the credits, or sums received. The
number of eggs laid by the hens each day was
jotted down on a calendar against each day’s
date; at the end of the week the total
of the eggs laid during the week was added
up and entered in the book to the credit of the
fowls, at the average market price of the week.
Fowls or chicks sold were entered to the credit
of the poultry account, and fowls or chicks
eaten were credited at. a fair, average value.

Each month’s totals were footed up, at the
end of the year two pages following the Sep¬
tember account were used for entering the
total amounts received and expended each
month, which was then footed up and a balance
struck.

We found it a decided advantage to begin
the poultry year October 1st, because that was
the most convenient time for ending the account
of the old birds and beginning the account of
the new; obviously, however, the poultry
account may begin with the first of any month
of the year; it is much more important that a
systematic account be kept than that it begin
at one particular time or another.

In the systematic manner outlined above the
poultry accounts can be kept, and at the end of
the year the farmer knows exactly what the
poultry expenditures and receipts have been
and how much profit the poultry has paid.
Not the least merit of the account keep¬
ing is that it induces a very decided in¬
crease in appreciation of poultry profits. We
know of many instances where the keeping of
so simple an account as we have outlined has
proved to the farmer that poultry was tde best
paying branch of farm work; with such con¬
vincing proof before him the farmer would
seem to be foolish if he did not increase that
branch of his farm work. This is as it should
be. We ought to work along the line of least
resistance, — we should push the line of work
that pays us best. The opportunities of profit
from poultry are beyond belief, — we should only
need to have it proved to us by clean figures to
determine us to multiply our poultry work,
and reap the reward in multiplied profits.

A SAMPLE POULTRY ACCOUNT.

DR.

1902

Oct. 1 To

1902

Grain on hand . $18.50 Oct. 3 By

“ 5 bushels wheat, .83 .

. 4.15

6

“ 2 Bags cracked corn .

. >. . 2.40 “

7

“ 1 “ corn meal .

. 1.25

12

“ 2 “ beef scrap .

. 4.50

13

18

“ 5 “ barley .

. 7.25

14

20

“ 1 Roll wire netting .

. 2.65

20

“ 1 pound Staples .

. 15

21

24

“ 5 bushels Wheat, .84 .

. 4.20

28

“ 3 bags cracked corn .

. 3.60

31

“ Advertising . . .

. 8.50

22

23

27

28

$ 57.15

CR.

1 Chicken . $ .50

3 Wyandotte hens . 4.50

283 eggs at 32c . 7.56

1 Cockerel . . . 3.00

2 Chickens . 1.25

301 eggs at 33c . S.28

2 Wyandotte Cockerells . 10.00

1 Plymouth Rock Cockerel . 4.00

293 eggs, 34c . 8.32

3 Wandotte Cockerels . . 9.00

35 chickens, 12c . 24.00

6 Hens and Cockerel . 18.00

2 Chickens . ." . 1.25

46 “ . 12c . 26.80

223 eggs, 38c . 7.07

1 Plymouth Rock Cockerel . 4.00

$137.53

[Xote— The item, "grain on hand ” on October 1 is due to the fact that the financial year began October
1. Also there is three days’ egg account carried over to first entry in November, which would come Novcn. er
4; the eggs are entered on even weeks. Editor.]

127

JUL 25 1903

INDEX.

Advertise, Farmers who . 122

Advertise, How and When to . 121-122

Advertising, About . 125

A Study of Profits . 45

Barred Plymouth Rooks . 24

Bees and Poultry . 119

Better Layers and More of Them . 36

Bookkeeping, Poultry Farm . 127

Brahmas, Light . 31

Breeding for Eggs . 43

Buff Orpingtons . 30

Buff Plymouth Rocks . 26

Buff Wynandottes . 29

Chapter I. Natural Habits of the Hen . 11

Chapter II. Thoroughbred, or Bred to a Pur¬
pose . 20

Chapter III. Pedigree Breeding for Egg Pro¬
duction . 33

Chapter IV. Pullets for Layers . 52

Chapter V. Practical Egg Farms . 59

Chapter VI. P'oods and Feeding . 94

Chapter VII. Catering to the Market . 110

Chapter VIII. Combination Egg Farming. ... 115

Chapter IX. When and How to Advertise . . . . 121

Chicks, Feeding The . 103

Colony Plan, Advantages and Disadvantages of. 92

Colony Plan, Egg Farms, Two . 87

Commonsense in Poultry Advertising . 124

Composition of Eggs . 7

December, 4,000 Eggs in . 54

Diet, Place of Eggs in the . 6

Dry Feeding Method, The . 101

Egg Farm, A Great . . . 61

Egg Farm, A New England . . 64

Egg Farm, Another New England . 67

Egg Farm, Another Profitable. . 70

Egg Farm, Mr. Wilbur’s Great . 89

Egg Farm, Mr. VanDreser’s . 73

Egg Farms, Practical . 59

Egg Farms, Two Colony-Plan . 87

Egg Farms, Two New England . 68

Egg Production, Mating For . 37

Egg Production, Pedigree Breeding For . 33-42

Egg, The . 8

Eggs, Breeding For . 43

Eggs, Description and Composition of . 7

Eggs, Feeding Clover For . 106

Eggs, Feeding For, How Much . 97

Eggs, Feeding Fowls For . 94

Eggs, 4,000 in December . 54

Eggs, Getting Strong, Fertile . 104

Eggs, Increase of ... . . 7

Eggs In Fall and Winter. . . 48

Eggs in Winter . 57

Eggs, Keeping and Marketing . 114

Eggs, Lay 200 . 41

Eggs, Place of in the Diet . 6

Eggs, Producing at Minimum Cost . 98

Eggs, Storage and LTses of . 8

Eggs, 210 per Hen, Mr. Wood’s . 48

Eggs, Uses of . . ... 5

Fair View Poultry Farm . 84

Fall and Winter, Eggs in . . . 48

Family Trade, Building up A . Ill

Farmers who Advertise . 122

Feed, What to . 109

Feeding Clover For Eggs . , . . 106

Feeding Fowls for Eggs . 94

Feeding the Chicks . 103

Future, Probabilities of The . 16

Green Food Every Day . 50

Green Food, Importance of . 109

Hen, Natural Habits of The . 11

Increase of Eggs . 7

Introductory . 5

Keeping the Records . 37

Lakewood Poultry Farm . 61

Large Production . 42

Layers, Better, and More of Them . 36

Laying, When the Pullets Take to . 50

Leading Practical Varieties, The . 21

Leghorns, Single Comb White . 22

Light Brahmas . 31

Maine Experiment Station Nest Boxes . 38

Minorcas, Black . 23

Molt, Producing an Early . 107

Nest Boxes for Individual Records . 38

Nest Boxes, Maine Experiment Station . 38

Nests, Trap . 40

Orpingtons . 30

Pedigree Breeding for Egg Production . 42

Place of Eggs in the Diet, The . 6

Plum trees and Poultry . 118

Plymouth Rock, The . 24

Plymouth Rocks, Barred . 24

Plymouth Rocks, Buff . 26

Plymouth Rocks, White . 25

Poultry Advertising, Commonsense In . 124

Poultry and Bees, an Ideal Combination . 119

Poultry and Fruit, Beginning With . 118

Poultry and Plum Trees. . . . 118

Poultry Farm Bookkeeping . 127

Poultryman, A Typical . 81

Practical Varieties, The Leading . 21

Probabilities of the Future, The . 16

Producing an Early Molt . 107

Profitable Egg Farming . 73

Profits, a Study of . 45

Pinning to Improve the Trees . 119

Pullets vs. Hens as Profitable Layers . : . . . 55

Quality . 113

Records, Keeping The . 37

Rewards of Success, The . 126

Rhode Island Reds, The . 29

Roots for Hens, Value of . 99

Storage and Uses of Eggs . 8

Success, Conditions of . 126

Success, Rewards of . 126

Trap Nest Selection The Best . 34

Trap Nests . . . . . . 40

Trap Nests Necessary . 36

Trees, Pruning to Improve The . 119

Typical Poultryman, A . 81

Uses of Eggs . 5-8

Van Dreser’s Egg Farm . , . 73

What Domestication Has Done . 15

What to Feed . 109

White Leghorn Poultry Yards . 71

White Leghorns for Utility and Fancy . 84

White Plymouth Rocks . 25

White Wyandottes . 29

Wilbur’s, Mr., Great Poultry Farm . 89

Winter, Eggs in . 57

Wyandottes, Buff . 29

Wyandottes, White . 27

Wyckoff Poultry Farm, The . 81

Yard Problem, The . 79

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Cyphers series on
practical Poultry Keeping

BOOK J— Profitable Poultry Keeping in All Branches
book 2— Profitable Care and Management of Poultry
BOOK 3— Profitable Poultry Houses and Appliances
book 4— Profitable Egg Farming
book 5— Profitable Market Poultry
book 6-Capons for Profit

Other Volumes of this Series to be announced later