1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



505 



American Breeders' Magazine, we are told 

 that poultry-breeding in South Australia 

 dates back 60 or 70 years. About 25 years 

 ago several importations were made. These 

 birds hailed from America. I presume our 

 readers are more or less familiar with the 

 manner in which the tests were made. Six 

 hens were confined in a pen; and, as I un- 

 derstand it, about 25 pens of 6 pullets each 

 headed the contest. The highest score that 

 has ever been made, if I am correct, was 

 1447 eggs from one pen of 6 hens in one 

 year. This would give a little over 241 eggs 

 for each hen. Of course, some one or more 

 must have laid more than 241 eggs, and 

 some less. It would have been interesting 

 to take these six pullets and afterward test 

 them singly. Now, then, how did they 

 manage over in Australia during the past 

 25 years to produce pullets with such a 

 score? The following clipping tells us 

 something about it: 



Testi7ig. — While a few still adhere to the old 

 method of trap-nesting, the advanced breeders pen 

 the pullets singly in small but convenient pens. 

 Here they undergo the ordeal, the result of which 

 decides whether or not they are to be retained as 

 breeders. As a rule these pullets are not unduly 

 forced; they are supplied with suitable foods in va- 

 riety, but are not pampered. Few breeders would 

 attach much value to a puUet with a 2(X)-egg score 

 for the year; she must lay 220 to 2(0 to cause any 

 enthusiasm, and above that yield she becomes pre- 

 cious. Those whose test is satisfactory are specially 

 distinguished by leg-bands and numbers, and par- 

 ticulars are carefully recorded. 



The Male Bird.— Out breeders attarh as much 

 importance to the ancestry of the cockerel as to 

 that of the pullet. The selected stud bird has been, 

 up to the present time, exemplifying the doctrine of 

 the survival of the fittest. He has. with his mates, 

 first of all to pass muster as to type, carriage, gen- 

 eral style, and vigor. After that he holds his own 

 in the daily battles; who crows loudest and most 

 frequently, and shows his strength and vigor In 

 every detail, becomes the apple of the breeder's 

 eye. His pedigree is accurately known, and much 

 thought is given to the selection of his mates from 

 among the best second-season tested females. 



I prefer single testing to the use of trap nesting: 

 i. e.. each pullet or hen in a .separate compartment 

 for the whole term of testing, with no possibility of 

 errors or mistakes. I am absolutely certain that 

 the only way to get a flock with a high average egg 

 production is by testing all pullets during the first 

 year before they are bred from. 



To me the most interesting part of the 

 above is the last paragraph. The reason I 

 say this is because I have been deciding for 

 some time that the only way to test our 

 flock is to have a series of pens, one or more, 

 according to the size of your flock, where 

 you can put one hen at a time; and when I 

 get down to Florida again I am planning to 

 have a dozen or more such pens. It is 

 some work, and it will cost something — 

 that is, if each pen has facilities for giving 

 a confined pullet every thing she needs. I 

 have alluded to one of the poultry secrets 

 along this line — see page 385, .lune 15, 1909. 

 Briefly, I would have these pens side by 

 side, each about 3X6 feet, and 2 feet high. 

 The top should be a movable lid or door 

 that can be raised up so you can reach 

 inside, or, if necessary, step inside. In hot 

 weather there should be shade as well as 

 water, and feed and a convenient nest-box. 

 You can have two hens in one compart- 

 ment, or possibly three, if they lay eggs so 



dirferent you can distinguish them by 

 sight. Then you would have to have some 

 sort of leg-band or mark on the hens. Of 

 course, you would not need to keep the pul- 

 let in these single pens a whole year unless 

 you choose. In ten days, or say a month, 

 you can determine pretty well if a pullet is 

 worth keeping. If your whole Hock was 

 given a test of, say, ten days or two weeks, 

 I think it would pay all cost. For instance, 

 I always find more or less hens that lay 

 eggs with thin shells or no shells at all, and 

 it is always the same hen that does it. 

 Some of the other hens lay crooked eggs. 

 These had better be gotten rid of. Others 

 lay double-yolk eggs and keep doing it. 

 There are still others that lay under-sized 

 eggs ; and we have been told, most impor- 

 tant of all, that there are more or less hens 

 in every flock that never lay an egg of any 

 kind. I do not know how true this is. I 

 have visited a number of poultry establish- 

 ments where they had from three to six 

 hens in a small pen. If you get three eggs 

 every tlay from a pen of three hens, you 

 will know the whole three are good layers; 

 but I am inclined to think the safest and 

 surest way is the one our Australian friends 

 declare for — each pullet to have a separate 

 compartment until she has been tested at 

 least once. 



Temperance 



While at Frankfort, Mich., I i)icked up a 

 paper on the reading-table at the hotel, 

 called the Michigan Christian Advocate. 

 From this paper I make the following clip- 

 ping : 



In delivering his address at unveiling of the me- 

 morial tablet at Jackson, two weeks ago, President 

 Taft indicated his belief that the next great party 

 issue is to be socialism, thus ignoring the promi- 

 nence of the prohibition question and the vital 

 issue whether this country is to remain half sober 

 and half drunken as it writhes in the grip of the 

 saloon. 



The truth is, no American president has ever yet 

 officially taken up the saloon question, calling 

 upon the sober elements of the nation to rise to its 

 mastery and solution; and now our great diplo- 

 matic leader in the executive chair suggests the 

 pending property issiie as the one worthy of imme- 

 diate party adoption. 



THE NEWARK TRAGEDY. 



As we go to press we find the papers full 

 of this sad alTair between righteousness and 

 iniquity. Below is a clipping, but I neg- 

 lected to take the name of the periodical 

 that published it, but it seems to hit the 

 jioint : 



Newark did not only lynch a man, but lynched 

 the law last Friday night. When the mob held 

 sway and carried out its purpose the interest of 

 every citizen suffered. The city was dealt a blow 

 from which it will take years to recover. 



Here is another from our own Medina 

 Gazette. I particularly enjoy reading it 

 because its editor was, years ago, a pupil in 

 my Sunday-school class. In commenting 

 on the Newark affair he says: 



