FARM POULTRY 

 Dr. Ellis M. Santee 



Director of Agriculture, Good Will High School, Hinckley, Me. 



Great changes liave taken place during the hist few years on 

 the ISTew York State farms with reference to ponltrj. Tliis 

 improvement has been hronglit about principally by good prices 

 and a knowledge of better methods. The nearness to the large 

 cities and lower express rates make it possible for the Xew York 

 State farmer to profitably compete with the poultrymen of the 

 Middle West who have the cheaper food but the longer haul and 

 greater cost of transportation. The state experiment stations, led 

 by Professor Rice at Cornell, have done much to cheapen the 

 cost of production and increase returns on j^oultry products. 



BREEDING 



Too much attention has been paid to fancy points and too little 

 to the utility side of the j)i'oblem. For many years it has been 



commonly accepted as true that a 

 hen could not profitably be kept 

 longer than the end of her second 

 laving period. Professor Pice 

 has demonstrated that a properly 

 developed hen may be kept four 

 and possibly five and six years. 

 Two factors have entered into a 

 lowered constitutional vigor in 

 many of our flocks which mani- 

 fests itself first in the large num- 

 l)or of dead germs found in the 

 shell when attempting to incu- 

 bate the eggs. The hatching of pullet eggs and the indis- 

 criminate selection from the eiXi^ l)asket for incubation at 

 a time when a hen is laying, if ever, during the year, 

 are the causes which prol)ably furnish most of the trouble. 

 The proper handling of pullets requires that they be forced to 



[1828] 



Fig. 194. Light Brahma Hen 



