24S ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



WHY WE GET TOOR HATCHES, WEAK STOCK AND DIS- 

 APPOINTMENT MOSTLY OUT OF OUR POULTRY. 



Bt W. Theo. Wittman, Allentown, Pa. 



Being the last on the program for the afternoon and suspecting 

 that some of you are beginning to think of leaving, I am going to 

 cut my address very short, and to this end I am going to drop the 

 first two-thirds of my subject, and devote myself to the latter third 

 on "Why we get disappointment mostly out of our poultry." And 

 there is so much to this, I could if I would, make of it a very lengthy 

 topic. 



Off hand, the reason people get mostly disappointment out of their 

 poultry, is because of the spirit in which they think on the subject. 

 A good many people seem to think that there cannot be much to 

 learn concerning the poultry business; are unwilling to learn, or, 

 it seems to me, they are most unwilling of all to use common sense 

 as applied to this business. 



On our farms today, we are weeding out unprofitable stock in 

 practically every line except in our poultry. A^ to our poultry, 

 we usually know nothing about it and seem to care less. This State 

 produces yearly several million dollars worth of poultry and eggs, 

 and if it would produce several added millions yearly, by correct 

 methods of poultry keeping, said millions might pra,cticaHy be all 

 profit and mostlv go to our farmers. I am in dead earnest about 

 this. 



And first, I want you to get better ]>oultry. Get rid of your mixed 

 dung hills of all colors, ages and sixes and get pure-breds. Get one 

 variety of one color and have nothing else. You will think more of 

 your farm, more of your poultry and have at least an equal chance 

 of coming out oven. I say an equal chance, for most pure-breds the 

 farmers are buying are little better than dunghills. 



You say how is that? Well first and foremost, you are not paying 

 enough, and sooondlv you are not as a rule buyiufr from the right 

 people. I can best illustrate Avhat I mean by this, by telling what 

 I find in the advertising columns of one of your leading farm papers, 

 this months issue. There were some twenty advertisers of poultry, 

 one asking over i^l.-^O ppr sitting for eggs. The bulk asked 75 cents 

 to $1.00 ftor sitting and most of them advertise as having from ten 

 to fifty varieties. 



Now^ it happens that I know the yards and the noultry stocks of 

 quite a number of these advertisers, enough of them at least to 

 gauge all of them of their class. And let me tell you in all sincerity 

 that T would not use the eggs from these parties as a gift. No, T 

 would not want to set them, and T would not want to eat them even. 



Why? Well, these fifty varieties and none right, the fellows I 

 am speaking of. started with dead cheap stock. They have them 

 crowded in small bare yards and illy ventilated houses, until they 

 have sapped all the vigor, vitality and strength out of them. And 

 today you can find among them birds sick with tubercular troubles, 

 liver sick, roupy, one eyed oolds and the whole catalogue of ills 



