RECORDS FOR FUTURE STUDY 207 



the layers pass after laying are probably the best. If 

 this pen be common to several traps, one identifies his 

 layers fairly well, but in case a hen leaves the trap with- 

 out having laid, he cannot identify her surely. A sec- 

 ondary pen for each nest is the most thorough, accurate, 

 and comfortable combination. But, in using this form, 

 one doesn't want to trap nest large numbers. 



An actual report of results, offered the public, reads 

 something like this : " Hen No. 5 laid 250 eggs from 

 September, 1 909, to September, 1910. Three of her eggs 

 weighed half a pound. Hen No. 6 laid 258 eggs from 

 October, 1909, to October, 1910. Twenty hens laid an 

 average of 209 eggs in 1909." 



Dates, months, number of eggs of individuals, and 

 averages ! These data cannot be given accurately unless 

 there is an honest trap-nest system, with an honest, 

 faithful, and accurate handler ; no guesses, no mistakes. 

 No such high records can by any possibility be gained 

 without a painstaking, quiet handler who is also a good 

 feeder, and hens selected for constitutional vigor and for 

 eating capacity. 



We have with us always the Beginner who wants 

 to raise poultry for fun or for family needs, and who 

 has bowed to the dictum of the experienced to begin 

 carefully, even though he wish to become the wonder 

 of the countryside eventually. Unfortunately, we have, 

 also, the man with the very large ideas which refuse 

 to be cabined and confined, who fully expects to show 

 all those heretofore in the industry what very poor 

 business men and poultry raisers they are. He scorns 

 to figure in anything less than thousands. His only 

 road to success lies in the fortunate securing of a first- 



