No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 313 



branch of agriculture depends more upon the little things for suc- 

 cess than does poultry keeping. Three primary factors need to be 

 considered in the profitable production of eggs — breeding, housing, 

 feeding — any one of which, if neglected or slighted, will tend to 

 make the business unprofitable. 



The breeding of poultry to increase the egg yield has now reached 

 a point where there is little excuse for wasting time and energy 

 upon mongrels or unlikely breeds. By the expenditure of a few 

 dollars we are able to command stock that has been bred in line 

 for many years, with the principal object of increasing the laying 

 qualities. Then, by ccatinuiug to breed within the strain, even 

 the inexperienced amateur may hope for good results and the per- 

 plexing problems of breeding will, in a measure, be solved. 



Only the lively, hustling, get-up-early, stay-up-late-hen is the 

 really profitable hen. The profit from many a farmer's flock is con- 

 sumed by a lot of antiquated hens and surplus roosters. The hens 

 should be housed as cheaply as comfort and convenience will permit. 

 Houses built of rough lumber and covered all over with roofing felt 

 are serviceable, comfortable and economical. We are able to erect 

 very satisfactory houses at a cost of forty to fifty cents per hen 

 capacity. We can build them for less than half this sum, if we 

 take our own timber from the woods. We have successfully solved 

 the problem of eliminating the moisture from the buildings in 

 winter by proper construction. Our experience with cotton cloth 

 in place of glass is very favorable to the farmer. Simplicity is the 

 first law of poultry house construction. We have no use for elabo- 

 rately planned partitions, ventilations, alleyways, etc. We tried 

 these things in our early experience, and they and a lot more ortho- 

 dox poultry rot, which cost us dearly, were long ago consigned to 

 the junk and garbage heaps. 



The questions most often asked the successful poultryman, and 

 perhaps the one hardest to answer satisfactorily to the hearer, are 

 with regard to feeding. Successful feeding for eggs must, to a 

 great degree, be worked out by individual experiment. Local condi- 

 tions largely control the problem. To my knowledge, there is no 

 best feed or method of feeding definite enough to be adopted with- 

 out limitation; yet there are certain fairly well-defined principles 

 followed by successful poultrymen generally. Two important fac- 

 tors are digestibility and palatability. Only what a hen consumes, 

 in excess of what is needed to maintain her system, can be converted 

 into eggs. Skill in feeding consists chiefly in inducing the hens to 

 consume large quantities of proper food, without clogging the 

 appetite. Herein is greatest success, but this can be learned only 

 by actual experience. The narrow ration is most profitable. At 

 the West Virginia Experiment Station, in a seven mouths' feeding 



2; 



