506 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



"16 TO 1," "6 TO 1" AND THE EGG PRODUCING HEN. 



' 16 to 1 "-She eats 16 Times her Weight in the Year. " 6 to 1"-Her Eggs 

 in the Year are 6 Times her own "Weight. " 16 to 1 "—Her Eggs bring 16 

 Cents per Pound ; her Food Costs 1 Cent per Pound. " 6 to 1 "—Her Yearly 

 Egg Product is Worth 6 Times the Cost of her Food. 



Bulletin Missouri State Board of Agriculture. 



T. E. ORR, 

 Secretary of the American Poaltry Association, Beaver, Pennsylvania. 



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

 tics or of discussing the relation of gold to silver; hut 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 I 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 A]N'D 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 century 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. 



THREE COMMEXTS OX OUR FOOD TABLE. 



First. The foods are very largely cereal. I am a firm believer in 

 the theory that the hen can subsist and yield a fine profit in eggs on a 

 ration of grains alone. I have no objection to soft feed, cooked feed, 

 steamed feed, etc., but it has been shown that these are not necessary 

 to profitable egg production. You can probably increase the egg out- 

 put for a short time by these expedients, but your yearly product will, 

 we believe, not greatly exceed that from a grain and meat ration. By 



