1907.] DISCUSSION. 81 



speak of. In the case of this White Leghorn in the picture 

 her tail was a Httle askew, probably due to the closeness of the 

 quarters, but her comb is just the sort of a comb that she should 

 have, and her shape is right, and everything else is about right 

 concerning her. They put her in the pen on January 24th. 

 She laid the first day so they knew she was laying. The prob- 

 ability is she was laying before that. Up to October 12th of 

 that year she laid 216 eggs, and then began to moult. When 

 I saw her on the 4th of December she had not completed her 

 moulting but she had stopped laying. Now the remarkable 

 point about this case is that the hen had laid during the large 

 part of her moulting. It is an exceedingly difficult thing to 

 make a hen lay right through the moulting period. In this 

 connection I saw a funny thing in a Washington County paper. 

 It said that the farmers up there would be interested to know- 

 about the remarkable laying record of this hen, as she layed 

 something like 230 eggs before she stopped. The article said 

 that this was undoubtedly the result of a college education, 

 . but that very few farmers could alTord to send their hens to 

 college. Professor Rice stated that he had never known a hen 

 to lay right through ; that he had known them to lay until they 

 were well started, and he had known hens to begin to lay before 

 they had finished moulting, but he had never known of a case 

 where they had continued to lay right through the moulting 

 period. He said another thing that I wonder if you have 

 noticed. It was in regard to the use of maize. I do not hear 

 anything about the use of cracked maize in this section. It is 

 a very useful food. I do not see how you can do your work 

 without using it to some extent. Of course, at the college they 

 experiment with all kinds of food. 



I want to say just a word or two more in regard to hens 

 moulting. It may explain the reason why some of your hens 

 have not laid as you thought they should. Professor Rice told 

 me that many times farmers had arisen during institute work 

 and said they did not see why their hens did not lay ; that they 

 Agr. — 6 



