70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



are excluded. The chicks hatched from the eggs supplied 

 my friends were from the time they hatched allowed to range 

 at will, never being confined except at night, to protect them 

 from marauding cats and skunks. Both lots hatched two 

 weeks later than my own, grew more rapidly throughout the 

 season, and at all times were more robust and thrifty. The 

 eggs for the three lots of chicks were from the same pen of 

 fowls. Admitting that other things, care, etc., were equal, 

 except that one lot was raised on restricted range, the other 

 two on free range, it is interesting to note that the first egg 

 from my own lot came on November 27, whereas some of 

 the pullets in the other two lots had been laying for three 

 or four weeks. Free range also gives the chicks an oppor- 

 tunity to secure a considerable portion of their food, and 

 thus reduces the cost of production. 



Great as have been the accomplishments of this lowly den- 

 izen of the farm in the past, we can well afford to encourage 

 and promote its interests in the future by the adoption and 

 practice of improved methods of care and treatment. 



Question. Can you raise as many chicks with a brooder 

 as under hens ? 



Professor Paige. Ordinarily not, — not with a common, 

 out-of-door brooder, at any rate. With the modern brooder- 

 house, that is heated artificially, I think quite likely as many 

 can be raised under artificial conditions as under natural con- 

 ditions. My practice has been for some years to hatch the 

 chicks in an incubator, and give them to brooding hens if I 

 happen to have them, rather than to go to the trouble and 

 expense of running the brooder. My experience with out- 

 of-door brooders has not been very successful. 



Question. Is there any way of controlling the molting 

 of hens, — year-old hens, we will say ? 



Professor Paige. It has been advocated that during the 

 summer, when the price of eggs is low, one should restrict 

 the food given his fowls, and then, at a little later date, feed 

 them liberally, with the idea of forcing them to molt early 

 in the fall, so as to get them to laying at that time, rather 

 than to allow them to molt naturally later, and not start to 



