OCTOBER 15, 1912 



nothing- else, and yet in a former letter 

 he speaks of having partial paralysis from 

 turning his honey-extractor so much. If he 

 is so much of a "beekeeper as that, he cer- 

 tainly ought to be interested in that part 

 of the journal devoted to bee culture. His 

 statement that he sang in the choir for 

 manv years indicates what we already 

 know, that those who sing in our churches 

 do not ahvays belong to the Lord Jesus 



675 



Christ; and it is also true that we have 

 some most earnest and faithful temperance 

 workers who devoutly hate the liquor- 

 traffic but do not stand up before the world 

 as followers of the Lamb of God that 

 taketh away the sin of the world. 



If any of our readers should feel like 

 lending a helping hand to our poor per- 

 secuted brother, his full address will be 

 furnished on application. 



Poultry Department 



FORECASTING THE LzVYING HENS, ETC. 



I have searched in forty or fifty poultry 

 journals to see how much attention has 

 been paid to friend Leonard's discovery 

 that most laying hens lay their eggs a Tit- 

 tle later, more or less, every day. But 

 little or no attention so far has been paid 

 to the matter. That handsome journal 

 called Poultry mentions a great layer that 

 was in the habit of doing this when she 

 was ready to take a little rest, in her won- 

 derful stunts of an egg every day. See 

 the following: 



The best individual record is that made by 

 Lady Showj-ou, White Plymouth Rock hen, No. 

 717 This record for each month is as follows: 



November, 17 eggs; December, 22; January, 5; 

 February, 17; March, 20; April, 29; May, 31; 

 June, 29; July, 29; total, z08. 



She has 92 days yet left in which to complete 

 her year's record. The only month this hen has 

 failed to lay an unusually large number of eggs 

 was in Januarv. We had a snow about January 

 5 which was nearly two feet deep, and the tem- 

 perature went to about 24 below zero. Lady Show- 

 you laid an egg the day following, and then quit 

 business until about the 5th of February, taking 

 just a month's lay-off. She then began a rather 

 remarkable period of production in the days fol- 

 lowing this, laying 146 eggs in 151 consecutive 

 davs. She is the most industrious hen among the 

 655 in the contest. She goes immediately from 

 the roost about daylight each day into her trap 

 nest. She lays the egg, and is released from the 

 nest about eight o'clock in the morning. She 

 then spends the remainder of the day in eating 

 a large amount of food and di-inking lots of water, 

 out of which to manufacture eggs for future days. 

 We can usually tell about when she is going to 

 miss a day. As this time approaches, she lays a 

 little later each day; that is, if she is to miss 

 soon, we do not find her in the nest as early as 

 usual. She will go on at 10 o'clock; the next day 

 at 1 o'clock; and the day before she misses, we do 

 not find her on the nest until about four o'clock 

 in the afternoon. When we find her on as late 

 as this she then misses the following day ; but the 

 next day she has laid by 8 o'clock, and keeps it up 

 at that hour until time to miss again. She has 

 missed laying only five days in the past five months, 

 and this has been true of her in each case when 

 she missed a day. 



Surely those who are trapnesting poultry 

 at our experiment stations have had ample 

 opportunity to learn Jiow many hens lay 

 eggs after this fashion. So far the an- 

 swer seems to be that a few good layers 

 lay in that way. Perhaps a greater num- 

 ber occasionally lay a little later each 

 day until they finally skip a day.. When 



a hen is insufficiently nourished to produce 

 an egg once in 24 hours we might naturally 

 expe'ct she would take a little longer period, 

 and, as a result, finally drop an egg from 

 the roost in the night, or wait until next 

 morning, thus skipping a day entirely. 



SURPLUS roosters; THEY ARE COSTING OUR 

 COUNTRY 50 MILLIONS OF DOLLARS 

 ANNUALLY. 



The above is rather astonishing, is it 

 nof? But the statement comes from the 

 State Board of Agriculture of Pennsyl- 

 vania. Read the following, which I clip 

 from one of our poultry journals: 



W Theodore Whitman, of Allentown, poultry 

 lecturer for the State Board of Agriculture, and 

 superfntendent of the Allentown fair poultry show, 

 in^a recent, issue of the Philadelphia ^'•^^'f. f ^te^ 

 that he has started an earnest crusade foi" t^^e Pro; 

 duction of infertile eggs for table use as a souice 

 of economy and greater healthfulness So ardent 

 does Mr. Whitman feel on this subject that he ae- 

 Clares that eventually the legislature of the various 

 States as well as Congress will enact laws on this 

 question Mr. Whitman declares that the fenUizmg 

 of e"-gs is the chief source of rots and spots, and 

 thatTt is a fallacy that hens. will lay bfter eggs if 

 roosters are allowed to run with the flock. Roosters 

 he says, should be killed off, with the exception of 

 the few best specimens that are needed for breed- 

 ing, and even they should be kept penned up out- 

 side of the mating season. He said: 



"It has been proved by investigations and tests 

 at agricultural colleges that the hen does not need 

 the rooster. She is better off without him at a time 

 when she should be doing the work of making profit 

 for the farmers by laying eggs which he can sell. 



"If the farmers of this country would keep the 

 hens awav from the roosters at all times except 

 during the mating season this country would be 

 saved fully $50,000,000 a year. By this I mean 

 that eggs valued at this amount are spoiled every 

 year. Thev could have been saved if they had been 

 infertile." 



From what experience I have had, I am 

 satisfied that the above is correct in the 

 main, although I should have never placed 

 the figures so high. All that it is neces- 

 sary to do to avoid this great waste is for 

 the farmer or any other keeper to pick out 

 his best hens and place them with his best 

 roosters only when he wants eggs for 

 hatching, meanwhile either disposing of the 

 roosters he does not wish to breed from or 

 pen them up by themselves. I believe it 

 has been settled by numerous experiments 



