292 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



you some of the slides to-night you will readily agree that the State 

 cannot make a better investment than in giving money for educational 

 or experimental purposes for agriculture, and to no other branch of 

 agriculture more wisely than to i)oullry husbandry, because in all 

 these 3'ears since the Land Grant Ccdleges have been in operation noth- 

 ing has been done for poultry husbandry until very recently. In all 

 this time the dairyman, the fruit grower, the vegetable grower and, 

 in fact, the man on every other important branch of farming has had 

 his problems investigated and they have been getting the benefit of the 

 help. The farmer's boys and girls have been taught these better 

 methods of farming, whereas very little, if anything, of this kind has 

 been done in regard to poultry. So we are just now coming into our 

 own, and poultry husbandry is becoming a business iu which you and 

 1 can engage with perfect certainty of succeeding and of making as 

 much money for our efforts and for our capital as we could with any 

 other branch of agriculture. 



With this brief introduction we will have the slides thrown on the 

 screen. 



The first set of slides will deal with the problem of the breeding and 

 selecting of hens for constitutional vigor. In othe words, we are 

 coming to recognize the fact that there are strong fowls and weak 

 fowls, just as there are strong human beings and weak human beings ; 

 either born so or having ac(iuired their strength or weakness through 

 their environmental conditions. The pictures that I shall show here 

 will indicate types which I think will be perfectly clear to you, repre- 

 senting the contrast of high and low vitality. For example here (Fig, 

 1), we have two barred rocks, one a male full sized, vigorous and active 

 one of the finest specimens of the breed. And here you have one o^ the 

 same breed that has been unsexed. lie shows weakness. He is a life- 

 less sort of a type. You will notice the contrast. The strong male 

 has a large round head, with the heavy curved beak, with large bright, 

 full eye, red comb and bright jilumage, in contrast to this capon with 

 small darkened comb, long thin feet, shrunken eye and rather dull 

 plumage. The capon runs because it lacks courage. The other one 

 follows him very quickly if he gets a chance and is afraid of nothing. 



In the second slide, (Fig. 2), we have breeds of four dilferent 

 varieties, all pure bred varieties ; one strong and one weak 

 in each of these four sets. This shows a strong buff plymouth 

 Eock; here is a weak brother. You will notice that the very action 

 indicates weakness; notice the drooping tail. Here in the strong one 

 we have a deep body, heavy shank, and short thick neck. In the case 

 of the Barred Eock you will find the same traits, deep heavy body with 

 the rest of the body in proper proportions. Here you have an in- 

 dividual that is built on stilts, as it were; a long, lean, lank, narrow 

 spindling type. This chicken weighs at least two pounds more than 

 this one and this is a brother. One is constitutionally strong; the 

 other is constitutionally weak. Here you find the same traits in the 

 Ehode Island Eed and in the Leghorn. Y'ou Avill notice in this in- 

 stance the male with the big flowing tail, with fine large comb, heavy 

 wattles, with splendid plumage, heavy shanks, in violent contrast to 

 his brother here with dropping tail and with the other characteristics 

 as I have indicated. The same contrast will be true of females as 

 males; but this will suffice. 



