294 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the eggs that were selected for high vitality at seven days' incubation, 

 70 per cent, hatched; whereas of those that were selected for low vi- 

 tality only 32 per cent, hatched; and here (Fig. 7 A) are the strong 

 chickens from the strong vitality eggs and here (Fig. 7 B) the weak 

 chickens from the weak vitality eggs, and above here are the eggs that 

 remain unhatched from those of low vitality and the few of the high 

 vitality'; showing again that it pays to make a good selection of eggs 

 having strong germs. 



The question getting profit out of hens rests ])rimarily on two fac- 

 tors, the inherited tendency to lay and to live and their power to di- 

 gest food; and with all due resjtect to pure breds I want to say right 

 here I would rather have the commonest mongrel fowls if they had 

 constitutional vitality and ability to digest food than the best pure 

 breds in existence that did not have good health or good cimstitution. 



We should make the tirst selection with the eggs; the second when 

 the chickens hatch. Here (Fig. Sj are a bunch of chickens just dried 

 off, about 30 hours old, and there is one (»f high vitality; here (A) is 

 another; here (A) is another. You can see by the plumpness of their 

 bodies, the round full eye and the well shajjed head and the heavy fat 

 legs that they are well born. You ctm tell at a glance that these 

 chickens are of high vitality; while this little chicken (B) and this 

 here one (B) are manifestly of low vitality. There is no use keeping 

 that sort of individuals. They will never amount to anything. 



Notice (Fig. 9) the same types of chickens that we have here two 

 weeks old. Here (A) you have a large chicken, with strong body, 

 bright eye, the body thick and shanks full ; whereas here (B) you get 

 the littbi puny spindly type of individual that never will amount to 

 anything. Here (Fig. 10) you get a contrast of chickens of the same 

 age, hatched alike, all hatched from the same hen. There is one (A) 

 born constitutionally strong; a violent contrast with this chicken (B) 

 of the same age and reared in the same brooder at the same time. 

 Here is one onlj^ partly strong (A). Here is one a little better (A). 

 That over there is an individual growng very much faster than any 

 other chicken in the pen. Whenever a chicken shows low vitality 

 either kill it or, if it ai)pears to be worth anything at all to grow for 

 market, mark it with paint so that by no chance will it get mixed with 

 the others; feed it on sour milk and a tinely ground fattening feed 

 until it weighs three-quarters of a pound and sell it alive. Do not 

 let that kind of a chicken live on the farm. 



In Fig. 11 you see the most violent contrast imaginable of low vi- 

 tality. There is a long thin "crow head," shrunken eyes, long thin 

 shanks, long thin nose; a good for nothing individual, born so and 

 cannot help it. You naturally ask why that chicken lacked constitu- 

 tional vigor. H" we stop to ask what the little hen is doing each year 

 I think we will find an answer. The Avild jungle fowl la^^s about nine 

 eggs at a litter and only one or two litters a year. The modern hen is 

 expected to lay 130 to 150 eggs and frequently lays 175 to 200 or more 

 eggs a year. A ben laying about 200 eggs lays five times her own 

 weight in a year; and the laying of the egg is ditfereut from the or- 

 dinary secretion, such as the secretion of milk. It is reproduction 

 which is vastly more exhaustive process. Dr. Jordan, of the Geneva, 

 N. Y. Experiment Station, has calculated that the hen weighing three 

 and one-half pounds that lays 200 eggs a year, compared with a Jersey 



