228 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



A UNIFORM EGG PRICE. 



In the experiment above referred to the number and ^veight of the 

 eggs were reported to us and \ve fixed the price by the average retail 

 prices of eggs in Pittsburg for that month. The average price that year 

 was I 8-10 cents per egg, but prices were lower then than they have ever 

 been since, so in our calculation in this article we are fixing the price at 

 2 cents per egg, or i6 cents per pound for two-ounce eggs, and as prices 

 are sure to average considerably higher this year, we feel that we have 

 taken a conservative position, both on the price of feed and on the price 

 of eggs. A product of 240 eggs at 2 cents each gives an annual income 

 of $4.80 per hen. In the above named experiment one pen reached an 

 income of $5.02 per head at i 8-10 cents per egg. So we are quite be- 

 low the leading pen in our estimate for you, even at the advanced price. 



LOW COST OF PRODUCTION. 



We are now down to the question : Can we feed the hen on 80 

 cents per year, so as to come wuthin the requirements of the fourth item 

 of our text, namely : that her yearly cost for food is only one-sixth of 

 the value of her yearly egg product? Again referring to that large ex- 

 periment we must admit that the reports of those who kept account of 

 food-cost ranged from 83 cents to $1.60 per hen per year, the average 

 being about $1.20; but it must also be remembered that those people 

 were competing for prizes for highest production, and but little atten- 

 tion was given to cheapness. Under those circumstances one would not 

 hesitate to feed food costing 5 cents per pound, or even more, in order 

 to make his favorites win. ' ^ 



SOME OTHER EXPERIMENTS. 



Some two or three years ago one of our leading agricultural papers 

 secured statistics showing that the farm hen costs for feed from 47 to 

 83 cents per year, an average of about 65 cents. But two objections 

 arise here : First, these hens ran at large quite a portion of the time and 

 picked up much of their food ; second, these hens were not kept up to 

 the high-pressure standard necessary to secure "two eggs every three 

 days," so did not consume nearly so much feed as must your forty-five 

 pullets in this experiment. Two ounces of grain per day is the highest 

 estimate w^e have seen given, but we are sure from our own experience 

 and that of others that this alone is not enough. We have, therefore, al- 

 lotted to each of your forty-five pullets each weighing five pounds at the 

 start, sixteen times her own weight of food, or a daily ration of three and 

 five-ninths ounces. 



