1830 



Keport of Farmers' Institutes 



meat and eggs. Where the fowl for meat is desired, some one 

 of the American breeds will be found more profitable than any 

 of the Mediterraneans of which the leghorns is the chief type. 

 However, if it is a question of broilers, a leghorn will produce 

 any weight up to about a pound and a half for less than any of 

 the so-called meat breeds. It is customary when seeing a large 



producing flock on a neighbor's 

 farm, to feel that a mistake 

 has been made in the selection 

 of our own and a change made 

 to a flock of the same breed 

 and variety as the neighbor 

 has ; many times going to some 

 t)ther place for the foundation 

 stock. The matter of prime 

 importance is, first to select 

 the variety which we like best, 

 that we will take best care of, 

 that we will show to our 

 friends with the greatest amount of pride, and then develop a 

 heavy laying strain, making production the first recpiisite instead 

 of feathers and shape. 



Probably the best method is to select a hen of known large pro- 

 duction and a male bird of the same variety, having a mother of 

 equally large production, and from this one pair, by careful line 

 breeding, mating the cock to his own daughters the second year, 

 and the hen to one of the cockerels the same year. In this way 

 two lines of breeding may be established and one need never go 

 outside for a single drop of new blood. 



Fig. 196. Light Bkahma Cock 



INCUBATIOI^ 



In selecting eggs for incubation, not only the parent stock 

 should be right, but the egg itself should be right and properly 

 cared for after the selection is made. The lar2:e effg not onlv 

 produces the large chick but the weight of the chicks at six weeks 

 of age will vary in proportion to the weight of the eggs from 

 which they were hatched. Th(> ill-shaped egg; is apt to show itself 



