272 ANNUAL IlErOUT OF TllH Ofif. Doc. 



for true green food). Any reasonable, thinking person will readily 

 believe that hens thus kept and fed will stay in good breeding condi- 

 tion and will lay sfrong, hatchable eggs or, in other words, good, 

 nieat.y table eggs of line Mavor. 



For next to the breeding stock, we must consider the egg itself 

 as a prime factor as to whether our hatches are to be good or poor. 

 An egg is simply a new chicken and in direct proportion as to how 

 the egg contents ap[)roach ideal proportions to build or nourish a 

 new chick do Ave get hatching results. For instance, both inner and 

 outer albumens may show too much water or, be in fact, watery. 

 You can't make (liatcli) a chick out of such, an egg. Or, managing 

 to mature a chick within the shell it may never emerge, or hatch- 

 ing, be a weak chick imi)ossible to raise. 



Ko thinking man can accept the theory that an egg is an egg, 

 even though same be new laid, when the difference on opening 

 two equally fresh eggs may be easily i>erceptible to the naked eye 

 or in use be differentiated by the quality and flavor. 



A poor table egg is a poor hatching egg, excepting of course the 

 more fertile egg. or an egg laid by hens that on the range may have 

 access to food not affecting their health or the vitality or quality 

 of the egg for hatching and yet aflecting its flavor as a table egg. 



The egg must furnish the elements of growth for the develop- 

 ing chick and if the}- are not there the germ dies no matter how 

 strong said germ may have been originally. 



It will be seen, therefore, that having good eggs it is highly im- 

 portant to preserve the contents of them as nearly as is possible 

 in the condition they were gathered. The easiest and safest way to 

 attain to this is to set them as fresh as possible. During cold 

 weather they simply must be gathered of fen and I consider a tem- 

 perature of GO much safer than one of 40 in which to hold eggs 

 awaiting to be set. To set such eggs on end, to bury them in bran 

 or do similar things to them is worse than foolish. A basket, per- 

 haps lined with paper, is one of the best recei)tacles and allow 

 eggs always to rest on their sides or in their natural position and 

 turn or roll over every day or two. 



On farms the ideal results before spoken of ^'of every egg hatch- 

 ing" might be more nearly attained if farmers generally would pay 

 only a little more attention to the selection of their breeding males. 

 The male is, weighed in the breeding sense balance, half the flock. 

 ITe should be the embodiment of vigor, vitality and full flowing 

 health. Without question, a pure-bred and if his owner knows his 

 dam to a certainty and has had him under observation Avhile grow- 

 ing up so much the better. He should be in his prime as to age 

 and in every way thought of, treated and handled as becomes the 

 valuable animal he is. Very old and broken down hens, hens show- 

 ing they are low in vitality in a farm flock mean, no matter what 

 the male is, or the feeding or the housing, some eggs in every clutch 

 that will fail to hatch. liroadly speaking ever}' farmer would be 

 better off if he would cull his hens one-third to one-half, breeding 

 season or no breeding season, and if he would spend a few dollars 

 in a pure-bred sire or sires. 



Next, the great question of incubation. All that has been said 

 up to this may be nullified by faulty incubation. The farmer, 

 carrving a flock of a hundred or less laving hens of the so called 



