58 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The first of these factors, it seems to me, is of the greatest 

 importance. The success or failure of any enterprise must 

 to a great extent depend upon the character of the person 

 engaging in it. The abandoned and dilapidated poultry 

 houses too commonly seen in many sections of our State 

 testify to the fact that far too often there are those who 

 take up poultry keeping as an occupation without the quali- 

 ties which are necessary to success in it. They are evi- 

 dently in many respects better fitted to follow the directions 

 their houses advertise — to use only the genuine, that bears 

 the name of " Fletcher " — than to engage in the occupation 

 for which the houses were built. A poultryman who com- 

 pels his birds to take in a blazing sign of " Wilson's, that's 

 all ! " for three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, ought 

 not to complain if they occasionally take a " day off." 



To succeed in poultry keeping, a person must be adapted 

 to the business, first of all, by having a natural liking for 

 the fowls themselves. The farmer who cannot tolerate the 

 sight of a hen, and improves every opportunity to shy a 

 stone at her or to dog her from the barn or garden, can 

 hardly expect to receive a bountiful supply of eggs for his 

 favors. 



Fowls, to do their best, must be well cared for and kindly 

 treated, the same as other domestic animals. The careful 

 poultryman should no more think of frightening his fowls 

 than the successful dairyman would of exercising his milch 

 cows with the milking stool. Egg production is a function 

 of the hen that is as much under the control of the nervous 

 system as is milk secretion in the cow or speed in the horse. 

 To get the best results in either case the controlling mechan- 

 ism must be kept in a perfect state of equilibrium. We ob- 

 serve the efi^ects of disturbing influences in upsetting egg 

 production in show birds. The pullet, in the pink of con- 

 dition, that has just commenced laying, placed on exhibition 

 in the show room for a few days, stops laying for a month 

 or more, and frequently, when shown in the fall shows, 

 molts. The same effects frequently follow changing a bird 

 from one pen to another. Birds accustomed to a certain 

 individual are often frightened by the presence of a stranger 



