1907.] DISCUSSION. Ill 



would not be egg producers any longer, and that they could 

 be detected as hens that would not produce eggs, and I think 

 he said it was on account of over- feeding, or something to 

 that effect. I wish that we could have something more on 

 that line. 



Dr. Wood. Mr. Graham did not get the whole of what I 

 said. I meant that under my system of feeding I keep food 

 before them all the time. I keep everything they want before 

 them all the time. I go out there every night and their crops 

 are jammed full. I never saw a hen eat much from the feed 

 hopper unless she wanted to. Once in a while you will get 

 one that will make a fool of herself by over-eating. You 

 take some people and let them have some'thing that they like 

 and they will make hogs of themselves. It is just the same 

 way with a hen. Some of them make hogs of themselves. 

 Some of them eat too much. That food hardens, the digestive 

 organs are unable to take care of it, and then they get into 

 trouble. 



As to how I tell those hens. It is not difficult to tell the 

 appearance of a good healthy bird. Every bird in good health 

 ought to have a comb that looks well, and a good active ap- 

 pearance, but if a hen is a little bit off you can tell by the 

 color around the eye. You will find that it will be just a little 

 bit dark. If you pick that hen up you will find some deformity 

 of the pupil of the eyes. It has gone wrong. It is staring off 

 at an angle, and instead of being a nice round pupil you have 

 a peculiar shaped pupil. It is all in the shape. It is 

 turned out or up in the corner like that. Sometimes in the 

 course of a week or ten days that hen will tumble off the 

 roost with apoplexy. If you know that, you can turn her into 

 market before she is ready to go off the roost. I could, of 

 course, give you a nice lot of long names for it, but to put it 

 in plain language, a good deal of that sort of trouble starts 

 in by the hen making a fool of herself at the food hopper. 

 That is what I meant. 



