REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 35 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Tlii--^ makes an ideal spot, especially for the water fowl, as considerable water is 

 included inside the fence. Small yards reaching to an artificial pond have been con- 

 structed for the use of the breeding stock early in the spring before the water comes 

 into the canal. 



This addition to the Central plant provides a much-needed range and makes it 

 possible to carry on work that has been in contemplation for some time. It also 

 adds to its general appearance by turning wild land into a water-fowl park. 



THE EQUIPMENT AT THE BRANCH FARMS. 



The poultry plant at each of the branch Farms and Stations is more for the 

 purpose of demonstration than experiment, and therefore comprises what might 

 be considered ideal conditions for a farm poultry plant that is run on a commercial 

 basis. Some of these Farms have their complete equipment, which includes houses 

 of various types and sizes, sufficient in all to accommodate between three and four 

 hundred laying hens; incubator and brooder equipment to reproduce from on-^-half 

 to two-thirds of the flock each year; an administration building, the basemcut of 

 which is used for an incubator cellar, the first floor for office, bed-room and feed-room, 

 the attic for store-room. 



NUMBER AND VARIETIES OP STOCK. 



The stock includes ordinary fowl (bens), turkeys, geese, and ducks. The varieties 

 as a rule are those which are considered to be more or less of a general-puri^ose char- 

 acter, and especially suitable for farm conditions. Hens, water fowl, turkeys, and 

 guineas are bred at the Central plant, while all the branch Farms that have poultry 

 plants keep hens, though only those specially situated have turkeys or water fov:l. 



The old hens, that is, those birds that have passed through their second laying 

 season, are sold immediately after the breeding season, usually in June. The selling 

 of these at this time gives more room on the plant for the growing chicks; it also puts 

 on to the market poultry flesh when it is comparatively scarce and consequently high 

 in-price, and indirectly it assists the market later on in the summer and fall when, 

 as a rule, poultry meat of all kinds is marketed. 



At the Central Plant. — During the past year the stock at the Central Experimental 

 Farm has been materially increased. On January 1, 3915, there were 849 birds, 146 of 

 which were water fowl, turkeys, and guineas. Of the fowl, the Barred Rocks predom- 

 inated, with White Leghorns second. These are followed by several pens of White 

 Rocks and White Wyandottes and smaller lots of White, Buff, and Black Orpingtons, 

 Black and Brown Leghorns, and Black Minorcas, besides single matings of several 

 other varieties. In ducks there are several matings of Indian Runners, Pekins, and 

 Cayugas, and a pen each of Aylesburys and Rouens. In geese, Toulouse. Embden, 

 African, and Wild were represented, and the variety of turkeys was Bronze. 



At the Branch Farms. — Seventy-five per cent of the hens on the branch Farms 

 belong to the general-puriJose breeds, such as Rocks, Wyandottes, etc. The remaining 

 25 per cent are White Leghorns, the most of which are at Agassi z, B.C., and Leth- 

 bridge, Alta.. where the climate is better adapted to tender varieties, but even there it 

 is found that the general-pui-pose breeds are giving better satisfaction, and as a con- 

 sequence the proportion of lighter breeds will be diminished. 



About 300 laying hens are kept at each of the branch Farms. As a rule, 200 of 

 these are pullets and 100 year-old hens. The pullets are tested the first year by the 

 trap-nest and are fed for egg production, and 100 of the best of these are kept until the 

 following year, when from them eggs are taken in the breeding season for hatching 

 })urposes. 



With this arrangement it is necessary to mature 200 selected pullets each year; this 

 means that at least five or six hundred chicks are raised to maturity. About 50 per 



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