No, 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 426 



Never were the prospects brighter for a record-breaking year than 

 at this time. 



The show of poultry at the St. Louis Exposition was the largest 

 ever gathered iu the United States, and as one writer has very 

 aptly said: "It was a collection of the wisdom and achievements of 

 the world brought together for the inspection of the world for ex- 

 ample and study by its experts. It constitutes a compact, classi- 

 fied, indexed compendium, available for ready reference of ideas 

 and achievements of society in all phases of its activities, extending 

 to the most material as well as to the most refined." Of this vast 

 array of prize birds, you will hear more fully from Mr. Cornman. 



It is only within the last few years that the poultry industry has 

 received any attention from the agricultural colleges and experi- 

 ment stations of the United States. At the present time, however, 

 these institutions are realizing the vastness and importance of the 

 poultry interests, and a few of them are endeavoring to offer sub- 

 stantial aid to those who desire to make this important topic a 

 study. 



At the present time over twenty-five hundred (2,500) students are 

 doing good work in the correspondence courses offered free to all 

 along the lines of agriculture; and I am informed the most popular 

 course is that devoted to poultry-keeping. The educational work 

 that is being done at State College along the lines indicated, with 

 the poor accommodations offered, is truly marvelous. The poultry 

 homes are few; yards small and no adequate quarters for hatching 

 and rearing young stock either by incubator and brooder or the old 

 method. We hope to see this condition very much improved ere 

 another report is made. The experiment station and the general 

 public have a higher appreciation of the industry at the present 

 time than ever before. 



There is room the whole country over for lectures on pure-bred 

 poultry at the grange meetings and farmer's institutes, and we must 

 have them. There is no place where progressive farmers can be 

 reached more readily than by these winter meetings. Local poultry 

 associations are always in close connection with farmer's institutes, 

 and the leading lights of them should do all they can to help pro- 

 cure talkers on poultry topics. The one need to-day is more learn- 

 ing about poultry. Twice the hen's annual production can be made 

 if a better grade of fowls is bred on the farms. Would it not be 

 a good idea for the associations that hold shows during the winter 

 to arrange programs which could be attended free and devote one 

 evening of the show to a real "chicken talk," which would be of 

 value to all farmers and their wives who attend? Poultrj^men do 

 not play enough to farmers. They being the ones who breed the 

 major portion of the country's product, why not appeal to them more 

 effectively? 



A poultryman should look over his stock carefully and decide 

 what things are worth and if he can afford to keep them at any 

 price. There is more money lost in the fatal indecision of not rid- 

 ding the poultry-yard of the old non-producers than in any other 

 way. We can make but a few dollars profit on the best of each 

 class of stock and a few poor ones consumes that. Not more than 

 one-half the stock kept pay for their food at market prices, and so 

 many of us are undecided what the profit is, or which one does pay, 

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