farmers' institutes. 225 



proper annual pruning, as described, the fruit will be much reduced in 

 quantity, but this will not be sufficient. It will still be necessary to 

 hand pick the peaches until those remaining are about six inches apart 

 on the twigs. This is not theory, as the best and most successful fruit 

 growers practice thinning in this manner, and they do so because they 

 have found that it pays. 



"i6 TO I," "6 TO I" AND THE EGG-PRODUCING HEN. 



"l6 TO l" — SHE EATS l6 TIMES HER OWN WEIGHT IN THE YEAR. 



"6 TO l" — HER EGGS IN THE YEAR ARE 6 TIMES HER OWN WEIGHT. 



"l6 TO l" — HER EGGS BRING l6 CENTS TER POUND) HER FOOD COSTS ONE 



CENT PER POUND. 



"6 TO l" — HER YEARLY EGG PRODUCT IS WORTH 6 TIMES THE COST OF HER 



FOOD. 



(T. E. Orr, Secretary of the American Poultry Association, Beaver, Penn.) 



With my topic thus outlined no one will accuse me of talking poli- 

 tics or of discussing the relation of gold to silver ; but the above is my 

 text and I'm going to preach the "Gospel of Hen" and discuss the rela- 

 tion of feed to eggs and how to turn our farm products into cash at 

 a good profit. 



In doing this T shall try to give you an outline of the food supply 

 necessary for carrying a flock of forty-five pullets one year and give 

 the average cost of these foods and tell something of the relation they 

 should bear to each other. 



WHERE AND HOW OBTAINED. 



A glance at the table found in this article shows that of the ten 

 foods outlined six are found on nearly every farm. On most farms the 

 other four must be purchased. But even if you are a villager and must 

 purchase them all, you are simply carrying your merchandizing a little 

 further than does the farmer, and the farmer and egg producer must 

 both remember that if they are to succeed in this twentieth centurv they 

 must be both merchants and manufacturers. As a merchant the farmer 

 must buy his necessities for business at the lowest possible cost and then 

 sell them in a somewhat different form at the highest obtainable price. 

 As a manufacturer he is constantly converting the raw material into 

 the finished product. 



A— 15 



