No. 6. DEPAKTMKNT UF AGUICULTUIIE. 281 



tJiiiik that poultry is moulded in tbe l>ands of man as freely as auy 

 otiier kiud of auiiual aud peiliaps more so tliau most of them, but 

 it is because of the lacL tluit the Hock of poultry lias so mauy iu uum- 

 l>ei's and the iudiNidiials are so small, so short lived ^iid so com- 

 paratively iuexpensi\e that a persou linds it exceedingly expensive 

 aud very diHiculi to carry out auy systematic program of breeding, 

 coNering a period of years. 



Let me illustrate with a flock of fowls: In order to know indivi- 

 dual merit, it is necessary to record the bird's pedigree, leg band 

 them, trap-nest them and gather the eggs live or more times a day, 

 hatch the chicks, leg band and replace the leg bands, and make the 

 records of the changes in leg bands as the chickens outgrow them 

 aud keep the records of all tliat is done. With a dairy of cows hav- 

 iug instead of several hundred individuals to go through the labor- 

 ious process that 1 have outlined with chickens, we have one tenth 

 as many or less individuals and have only to use a milk scale twice a 

 day, or weigh less frequently and to use the Babcock Tester occa- 

 sionally aud we can tell our best individuals. When we finally have 

 the record of the hens, they are with us only two or three years at most. 

 AVheu we have the record of the cow aud establish the fact that she 

 is a good one, we have her for eight or ten or twelve years. You see, 

 therefore, the great expense and the intricate amount of careful record 

 keeping involved if we are going to be as careful and as systematic 

 in the breeding of our poultry as we are in breeding some of our 

 other domestic animals. 



Notwithstanding all these difficulties, it pays to keep some kind of 

 account of the differeuce in quality of our birds and to breed ac- 

 cordingly. However, we may not use trap nests the year round. 

 We may not possibly use trap nests at all, but we had better use 

 them for at least a few mouths iu the fall as a check on the accuracy 

 of our observations of external characteristics. We are seeking a 

 way to find out how to pick out the more productive hens from the 

 less productive hens and the more valuable males from the less val- 

 uable males, in order that we may mate more intelligently. Even if 

 we cannot know absolutely what the records of the birds are to an 

 egg or to know whether these birds actuallj'^ have prepotent powers 

 of transmitting these qualities to the next generation, we can get a 

 good general idea of their value. In order to bring out some of 

 these facts, I want to take a little of your time to-day. 



There are at least ten points that we ought to try to accomplish 

 in the breeding of our poultry for better egg production. These 

 will be brought out and illustrated as I talk; but I want to em- 

 phasize two or three of the more important ones right now. First 

 of all, we must see to it that our birds have strong vitality and great 

 native inborn constitutional vigor. That is the foundation and 

 the cornerstone of success. Whatever other factor is involved, 

 whatever other character may be considered, that one, above all 

 others, should be the one on which we base our procedure because 

 without the native vigor to stand up under heavy feeding, we never 

 can expect to get a big response in growth or egg yield. AVe need 

 also to have pure bred birds of some well known breed as our founda- 

 tion. The poultry man who to-day is satisfied with anything short 

 of a good, pure breed of some one of half a dozen or more of our well 

 known varieties, such as Rocks or Wyandottes or Rhode Island Reds 



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