254 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



through our mutual friends, T. E. Orr and Alva Agee. Third, be- 

 cause I wish to reciprocate in some measure the good which Mr. 

 Orr has done for the State of New York through his many practical 

 lectures at our poultry and farmers' institutes. 



Poultry husbandry is just coming to its own. The people, now, as 

 never before, are beginning to realize the great extent and the im- 

 portance of poultry keeping. They realize that almost every farmer 

 and many village people are interested in i>oultry, and therefore 

 poultry bulletins and other literature issued from our agricultural 

 colleges and experiment stations is one of the easiest and most ef- 

 fective ways of reaching the people. Notwithstanding the import- 

 ance of poultry husbandry from an educational, as well as an economic 

 stand-point, only three or four states in the Union are giving it any 

 special recognition as a subject for instruction or investigation. 

 The few efforts which have been made to establish poultry depart- 

 ments in the experiment stations and agricultural colleges, are meet- 

 ing with such marked approval on the part of students and poultry- 

 men generally, that a large number of states are now considering 

 seriously the advisability of establishing poultry departments as 

 strong and effective as any of the other departments of the college 

 or the experiment station. They are wise in this decision. No 

 money that is appropriated by the State is expended more wisely 

 than that which is devoted to the education of the farmer in the 

 methods which will enable him to produce better products to feed 

 the world, and to do so most economically and effectively. One cent 

 saved on each dozen of eggs produced in the State of Pennsylvania, 

 one more chicken raised on each farm in the State, one dozen more 

 eggs produced each year by each hen in the State, would produce 

 a product so great that none of us would have guessed its value. 

 Nevertheless, such are the possibilities to be brought about in this 

 and in every state through investigations and by instruction at the 

 Agricultural College, the Farmers' Institutes, the Reading Courses, 

 etc. Indeed, such a result is taking place in several states. It is im- 

 perative that each state undertakes this work in order to keep up 

 with the race and sharp competition for the markets of the world. 

 The poultrymen in the State which does not encourage and help them 

 cannot win out in competition with the states where they have up- 

 to-date poultry schools and an experiment station where the inter- 

 ests of poultrymen are given a proper share of attention. 



My purpose, however, in speaking to you this evening, is to dis- 

 cuss some of the important problems confronting poultrymen and 

 to illustrate by lantern slides some of the things which it is diffi- 

 cult to express in words. The field is so large and the time so 

 limited that it is impossible, in the short space of an hour, to touch 

 upon many topics. 



One of the most important poultry problems is, how to maintain 

 and increase the vigor of the flock. Constitutional vigor plays an 

 important part in the production of large numbers of eggs, of fertile 

 eggs, of hatchable eggs, and of chickens which rather live than die. 

 How best to breed, feed, raise, and house poultry so that each year 

 the flock will be more hearty and vigorous than before, is the ques- 

 tion around which all of our investigations at Cornell University, 

 center. One of the principal factors which has contributed toward 

 lower vitality in the flocks of the country, is the improper construe- 



