No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 619 



change, but should the theory work out as planned, the much dis- 

 puted question of ventilation will have been quickly settled. 



The rapid increase in the use of artificial methods has produced a 

 large amount of fresh stock during the off-season, but the rapid in- 

 crease in the population of the country, and especially the rapid 

 growth of our large cities, has so increased the consumption and the 

 demand that the increased production, together with the large ton- 

 nage put in the freezers every fall and marketed during the winter, 

 has not decreased the price. The only effect has been to make the 

 season of high prices somewhat shorter. The increased consump- 

 tion has kept pace with the production, and with the settling up of 

 the prairie lands and the cutting up of the large ranches, the possi- 

 bility of low-priced beef and mutton has decreased, and there is lit- 

 tle likelihood that we shall ever again see low-priced eggs and table 

 poultry, or much change in the average run of prices for the differ- 

 ent seasons of the year. We can, therefore, lay our plans for poul- 

 try raising on the basis of current conditions, with a reasonable as- 

 surance that these conditions will be maintained for an almost in- 

 definite period. 



Professor Watson has said: ''It is a matter of common observation 

 among stock breeders of the country that many farmers have been 

 sorely disappointed when they have attempted to breed one or more 

 of the improved breeds of live stock. While they perhaps purchased 

 good animals as foundation stock, and undoubtedly would have suc- 

 ceeded had they bestowed the proper care, yet the fact was well 

 fixed in their minds, that, if the improved breeds were better than 

 the animals that they had formerly kept, they would prove better 

 under the same conditions that their animals had been kept under 

 for many years. The results showed that the improved animals 

 did better for a time. There seemed to be a reserved power or ten- 

 dency towards an increased yield of desirable products over that 

 which the farmer had received in previous years. The next genera- 

 tion was less satisfactory, and each succeeding generation ap- 

 proached more nearly in production that of unimproved animals, 

 until finally' a stage of production was reached which would be main- 

 tained by the care and food that was bestowed. As the spring can- 

 not rise higher than its source, neither can the productiveness of 

 our fowls maintain a higher standard than the care and food be- 

 stowed upon them will maintain. The less energy the fowl bestows 

 on self-preservation the more may it bestow on those products which 

 men most desire. 



Improved domestic stock, among which fowls may properly be 

 classed, have aptly been compared to argicultural machinery or im- 

 plements. In pioneer times the farmer used rough, rudely-fashioned 

 implements that in the light of modern times would not 'be called 

 efficient. They were heavy and clumsy and accomplished compara- 

 tively little good for the power expended to propel them. But, be- 

 cause they were strong and the soil was mellow, they answered his 

 purpose. To-day the farmer must have, if he be a successful compe- 

 titor in the markets of the world, machinery that is more compli- 

 cated, more delicate of construction, but that will accomplish more 

 for the power that is expended to propel it. There is not 'a harrow 

 on the market to-day that is as strong and will withstand as much 

 as the old-fashioned drag made from the crotch of a tree. Neither 



