l66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



nothing but an old shed which has been built lOO years; 

 cracks in it i^ inches wide all around the sides, the roof isn't 

 tight and the snow drifted in there during this last storm. Out 

 in the yard he has corn lying there before them all the time, 

 which is all the food they get, and those hens have been laying 

 all winter, and they are still laying ; he gets 20 eggs from 30 

 hens. 



Mr. Delano. I think that is the exception that proves the 

 rule. 



Question. He does it every winter ; always has done it. 



Mr. Delano. The fact of having i^ inch cracks all 

 around the house probably explains it. 



Question. I would like to say in regard to large Plymouth 

 Rocks that I have a flock of 18 large Plymouth Rocks and a 

 dozen Black Minorca pullets, and they are all fed on wheat 

 screenings and beef scraps in hoppers. The Black Minorca 

 pullets are laying, almost 100 per cent., but from the Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks the most I get is two out of the 18. That is 

 different perhaps from most theories, but I notice that poultry 

 fanciers are taking up the hopper dry-feeding plan and find 

 that it works very well indeed. 



The President. I see Mr. Stoneburn of the Connecticut 

 Agricultural College, here, and I hope he will favor us with 

 some remarks on this subject. 



Mr. Stoneburn. I always have a plenty of poultry talk 

 on tap, but I don't know what line you want me to take up. 

 The subject has been admirably covered, but there are one or 

 two things which came to me during this talk, and possibly a 

 word or two along that line might be acceptable. 



In the first place the speaker asked the question, " How 

 good are they ? " in reference to the stock a man should have. 

 There are several standpoints by which we shall answer that 

 question. In the first place, how good are they from show 

 points, or as performers in the next box? I am inclined to 

 believe that the average fancier — I am open to conviction here 



