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KOW TO FRED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



on a range that affords exercise, and the sun and shade 

 as desirable, though it affords little feed. Even with the 

 lack of feed from the land, freedom to move about, the 

 absence of restrictions, the opportunity to seek out the 

 most comfortable places at different times, and the better 

 sanitary condition of the land make for the growth of 

 much better stock on poor range than in small yards. 



In growing chickens for breeding purposes the aim 

 should always be to get approximately standard size and 

 weight at the age at which the breed should mature. In 

 growing chickens for market or for egg production only, 

 it does not, as a rule, make so much difference about 

 getting full development, and it may be fore profitable, 

 through the economy in labor and equipment, to use 

 methods by which a greater number of birds are grown 

 to the development that suits their 

 use as layers or for the table at less 

 cost than when they are handled to 

 secure the best individual develop- 

 ment. In general, to secure the highest 

 individual development it is necessary 

 to keep chickens in quite small flocks. 

 One of the principal reasons why so 

 few who try them are able to grow 

 Asiatic fowls to full standard size is 

 that to do this at all uniformly they 

 must be kept in small flocks, not more 

 than twenty-five or thirty together. 

 When they are grown on a large scale 

 for market and kept in flocks of from 

 fifty to a hundred or more under the 

 conditions, as to range, which usually 

 exist on somewhat intensive commer- 

 cial poultry plants, they do not make 

 full development, but they make as 

 large chickens as the market requires, 

 and they are grown more economically, 

 that is, more pounds of meat are 

 produced at less cost, than when 

 grown to get the best individual de- 

 velopment possible. 



Similarly, in growing pullets for egg 

 production only, pullets that are from 

 standard-weight stock and are them- NEAR VIEW OP 

 selves a pound or so under weight, 

 may lay as many eggs and as large eggs as their sisters of 

 full weight or over. And a hundred of the pullets slightly 

 undersize might be grown in the same quarters and with 

 no more attention than would be required to bring froin 

 half to two-thirds of that number to full development. 

 That means that 1000 pullets for laying only can be grown 

 from weaning age at the same cost for everything but 

 feed, as about 600 pullets for breeding purposes. 



So when the chickens are weaned it is policy, espe- 

 cially for those who are limited as to land, room, and 

 equipment, to separate them according to the purpose 

 for which they are to be used. Those that are to produce 

 future generations should be given the care that will make 

 for the best individual development, and the others, ac- 

 cording to the use to which they are to be put should 

 have conditions, care, and feed that will make them most 

 profitable. This assortment of chicks ought to be made 

 wherever the number grown is large enough to use more 

 than one roosting coop for chicks weaned at about the 

 same time. Many poultry keepers with comparatively 

 small flocks neglect to do it, thinking that it is just as 

 well -to let all grow together and separate at maturity 



those that are desirable as breeders. The objection to 

 this practice, where chicks are at all crowded or restricted 

 tor range, is that the most promising chicks for breeders 

 are not given the best chance to develop, but are only 

 allowed to show the best they can do under conditions 

 less favorable than could have been provided for them 

 with a little effort on the part of the keeper. 



While, as has been said, good work with chicks often 

 gives good chickens under rather unfavorable conditions, 

 the poultry keeper ought not to take the chances of that 

 any farther than is necessary or plainly profitable as 

 when birds that are not the best in actual quality are 

 yet good enough for a particular purpose. And above all 

 he should make every effort to give birds he wishes to 

 breed from, the best conditions that his circumstances 



ONE OF THE COOPS IN SCENE ON THE OPPOSITE PAGE 



permit. Failure to do this hastens the deterioration of 

 stock which commonly takes place whenever the meth- 

 ods or the conditions are against full development of in- 

 dividual specimens. At best it is hard to grow breeding 

 stock year after year without good range, and continue 

 to keep up the size and stamina. The first generation of 

 chicks grown in confinement from stock that was pre- 

 viously range grown, is often as good or better than the 

 parent stock. With good feeding in confinement, and 

 plenty of room in the house, the birds so raised may be 

 larger than their parents, and the hens probably will be 

 as good or better layers. 



But when this stock is bred from, it will nearly al- 

 ways appear that it lacks something of the vitality of its 

 ancestors, and if it is bred year after year without bring- 

 ing in the blood of stock grown under more natural and 

 favorable conditions it soon becomes greatly deteriorated. 

 Because this deterioration is not much in evidence until 

 the second generation grown under conditions not favor- 

 able to full individual development, many novices grow- 

 ing stock under such conditions are misled. They sup- 

 pose that the fact that they grew the stock apparently as 



