236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Shipping Cases for Baby Chicks. 



No one can tell of the far-reaching results when suitable 

 shipping cases for baby chicks are invented to keep pace with 

 incubator development. These, together with the incubator, 

 enable thousands of back-yard poultry keepers and others, who 

 are not able to keep breeding flocks, to get baby chicks in good 

 condition at a low cost. 



With our present knowledge of the care and management of 

 poultry we are able to do many things that were not thought 

 possible a few years ago. For example, as a boy, I learned that 

 Brahmas were not of any practical or utility value; that they 

 were just a fancier's bird that required a year for development; 

 that they were poor egg producers, poor mothers, but great 

 sitters. They were poor mothers because the immense amount 

 of toe and shank feathering kept them from seeing their chicks, 

 and as a result their babies were trampled to death. 



All these notions came about through ignorance of the best 

 methods in the care and management of this variety. To show 

 the falsity of these I have only to cite that there is one man in 

 Massachusetts who does not pose as a fancy breeder at all, but 

 simply as a utility man. He keeps a very large flock of 

 Brahmas, and they have paid for his farm, given him a good 

 bank account, kept his family in good circumstances and edu- 

 cated his children. He considers his Brahma stock even better 

 than bank stock. What is the secret? There is none. This 

 man has learned to how handle Brahmas. He knows when to 

 hatch them and how to care and manage them throughout the 

 various seasons of the year. "Knowledge is power." 



Probably one of the most notable achievements in poultry 

 culture is placing the duck business on just as sound, safe and 

 profitable a basis as any line of manufacturing or practically 

 any business. Some of these duck men through long years of 

 study have at last reached the point of efficiency where they are 

 able to hatch ducklings practically the year round. One of the 

 greatest troubles was to get their breeders to produce eggs 

 during the fall and early winter months. Recently, however, 

 some of them have learned that by hatching ducks at a certain 

 time, with good management they are able to bring them to 



