1906-] DEVELOPMENT OF POULTRY. 



149 



hen. I think it was on the i6th day of last November that the 

 hen commenced to lay again this fall, and up to the time I heard 

 last, she had laid seventeen eggs in three weeks. Utility is the 

 condition of the fowl for that purpose. Exhibition in the hall 

 is another matter which simply means excellence, elegant con- 

 dition and the pink of perfection so as to place them in the ex- 

 hibition hall. 



I have been asked to recite the history of the origin of 

 poultry. Before going into that dry subject I wish to state 

 this fact — perhaps I will cite a few more before I start upon 

 that — when people, not familiar with figures, delve into them, 

 they are very apt to go a little astray. When I asked the ques- 

 tion this morning of the per cent, of egg yield of Mr. Tilling- 

 hast's hens, I did so in good faith. You will hear people 

 thoughtlessly say we get ninety-four per cent, fertility from 

 our eggs. \\''e hear people say we get eighty and ninety per 

 cent, egg yield from our hens. What does that mean ? That 

 does not mean that eighty of our hens lay in one day. Thirty- 

 three and one-third per cent, egg yield in round numbers everv 

 year is one hundred and twenty eggs. Taking it by the month, 

 and it is ten eggs per month. Sixty-six and two-thirds per cent, 

 is two hundred and forty-five eggs per year from a hen, and 

 with all due respect to all the records of the world, I think 

 that all the hens that ever laid two hundred and fortv-five 

 eggs in one year could be placed in one small wagon and hauled 

 by a pony ten miles away to market. Let us deal in facts. 

 There is nothing in facts to be afraid of, but do not let us be 

 misled by them. We are very apt to gain a wrong impression. 

 People do not mean to lead you astray, but the man who says 

 " I had ninety-four per cent, fertility " is apt to unconsciously 

 create an erroneous idea. Now that means to him that after 

 he had made his last test ten days before the eggs hatched, 

 that the eggs he left in the incubator produced ninety-four per 

 cent, of living chicks. If he only had ten eggs left in the in- 

 cubator, he does not count the other ninety which have been 

 taken out. So that when you figure it dowa, the extreme 

 probability is that he does not produce to exceed twenty-five 

 living chicks from every hundred eggs that he places in the in- 

 cubator. And when I say living chicks, I mean chicks past 

 one week old. Every single chicken that goes into the market 

 in the United States has cost from some source or other four 



