ANIMAL PRODUCTION. 1105 



It i8 stated that the warmed poultry houses used at the station liave given very 

 satisfactory results, as have the poultry houses with a roosting closet closed in front 

 at night with a curtain of oiled cotton and having a scrat(;liing room exposed to the 

 sun and air, the floor being covered with clean straw. 



On the basis of 21 years' work with the same family of Barred Plymouth Rocks 

 the station has decided upon a method of feeding which is considered satisfactory. 

 Each pen of 22 birds is given a pint of wheat scattered in the litter in the morning 

 and at 9.30 a. m. one-half pint of oats. At 1 p. m. one- half pint of cracked corn is 

 fed in the same way. At 3 p. m. in winter and 4 p. m. in summer they are fed all 

 they v.'ill eat in a half hour of a mash made of 2 parts of wheat bran and 1 each of 

 corn meal, wheat middlings, linseed meal, gluten meal, and beef scrap. With this 

 is mixed clover heads and leaves equivalent in bulk to one-fourth of the mash. 



"The clover is covered with hot water and allowed to stand for three or four 

 hours. The mash is made quite dry, and rubbed down with the shovel in mixing, 

 so that the pieces of clover are separated and covered with the meal. Cracked 

 bone, oyster shell, clean grit, and water are before them all of the time. Two large 

 mangolds are fed to the birds in each pen daily in winter. They are stuck onto 

 large nails which are partly driven into the wall, a foot and a half above the floor. 

 Very few soft-shelled eggs are laid and, so far as known, not an egg has been eaten 

 by the hens during the last five years." 



Report of manager of the poultry department, W. R. Graham ( Ontario Agr. 

 Col. and Expt. Farm lipi. 190S, ^>p. 15J-158) . — The general condition of the poultry 

 department and the success which has attended hatching eggs in different ways are 

 l)riefly spoken of, and a number of experiments are reported. The fact that Anda- 

 lusian fowls do not hatch true to color is noted and briefly discussed. 



As regards the influence of the position of eggs in incubator trays a trial indicated 

 "that eggs for incubation should lie in the natural way, that is, on their sides. 

 Some incubator operators are not particular about this in the management of their 

 machines, and the result is a consideral)le number of chickens dead in the shell, 

 which is especially noticeable in eggs placed with the small end up." 



The effect of introducing oxygen into the hatching chamber was also studied. In 

 the first test it was observed that on the eighth daj^ of incubation some of the eggs 

 showed what is known as the "blood ring," that is, a ring of blood encircling the 

 eml)ryo. "The oxygen appeared to be too much of a stimulant, causing abnormal 

 growth of the germ, which often resulted in the rupturing of the blood vessels of the 

 germ." From 89 fertile eggs only 27 chicks were hatched, while in an incubator 

 managed in the ordinary way 44 chickens were hatched from 94 fertile eggs. Prac- 

 tically all of these chickens were raised, killed, and sold in the ordinary way, while 

 those hatched in an incubator supplied with oxygen, with one or two exceptions, 

 died, many of them during the first 10 days after hatching, though placed in the 

 same brooder and fed in the same way as the others. Two later trials with smaller 

 amounts of oxygen though not as unsatisfactory as the first trial were " characterized 

 l)y smaller hatches and poorer chicks than were obtained from machines run in the 

 ordinary way." 



The egg production of fowls kept in a cool airy house was tested throughout a 

 period extending from December to October. The house was not warmly built and 

 one of the small windows in the front of it was left partly open and covered with a 

 piece of cotton tacked over it during the winter. The lowast recorded temperature 

 was 9° above zero, which it is stated was exceptional, but 15 to 24° above was very 

 common. In addition to a number of cockerels the flock comprised 18 hens at the 

 beginning and 6 at the end of the test, one having died and a number having been 

 sold. The total number of eggs produced was 1,763. The value of the eggs sold at 

 current prices was $23.33. This sum does not include $3 worth of eggs which were 

 incubated. An account was kept of the feed consumed, and the author calculates 



