Y02 BOARD OF AGRtCtTLTtJRE. 



One of the peculiar features of the average farmer's flock is the great- 

 ness of variety. If you travel far enough you will find every breed in 

 the standard from the Asiatics to the Bantams. But this flock, glad to 

 say, is decreasing in number and giving Avay to a more valuable one. 



The theory that you must have a variety of crosses for good egg 

 production is a theory of the past, for the two-hundred egg hen and the 

 hens that have made the best egs records are line bred and pure bred 

 hens. From a full blood fowl you are able to command a better price 

 for eggs for hatching. There is a demand for your young cockerels at 

 a better price than can be obtained of the poultry buyers; you have two 

 markets for your eggs; you lose nothing in weight, but gain in color 

 and flavor of flesh; you lose nothing in the feed bill, as the barnyard 

 fowl will eat as much as the pure bred fowl. 



In the selection of a breed, one should be govei'ned by the demands 

 of local or near by markets and breed the most suitable to your fancy. 

 If it is eggs you want, then there is none equal to the leghorn breed. If 

 for the table, then some of the larger breeds would be preferred. 



Let us take, for example, the single comb white leghorns, one of our 

 best egg producing birds, the standard description, bright red comb and 

 eyes, and yellow legs, in contrast with their pure white plumage, surely 

 no one could contend that there is so much pleasure in a flock of barn- 

 yard fowls. 



The fact of the matter is that the standard bred fowl will lay more 

 and larger eggs, develops faster, and is more valuable for the table than 

 is the mongrel. 



The most of you here are not interested in fancy poultry, but prac- 

 tical poultry— poultry from which the greatest amount of profit can be 

 derived. I have no hesitancy in saying the standard bred poultry is more 

 profitable than the mixed breed. Yet some think that the more attractive 

 a fowl is in color, appearance and form the less valuable it is for egg 

 production or table use, and that the hen with no shape or color is the 

 practical fowl. 



The average domestic hen during the past census year produced less 

 than three dozen eggs per hen. As it is only a matter of proper housing 

 and feeding to make an ordinary hen produce ten dozen eggs in a year, 

 and there are records of large flocks that average more than fifteen dozen 

 eggs for each hen, it will be seen at once that care makes a great differ- 

 ence in the returns that may be desired from keeping poultry. Poultry 

 raising as a business may be conducted profitably. That there is money 

 in it can not be doubted, but knowledge is necessary to succeed. Ninety 

 per cent, who enter it fail, most always on account of lack of knowledge 

 of the small details of the business. 



To the average one who is tied to his office, store or place of business, 

 looks upon poultry raising as being a big paying, get rich, easy job. If 

 such Is your thoughts, you had better by far stay out of it. While it is 



