86 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



which corn meal and corn were prominent with one in which 

 these feeds were replaced wholly or in large part with more 

 nitrogenous foods, such as wheat middlings, gluten feed, 

 wheat and oats. 



4. The influence of the presence of a cock with the hens 

 upon egg-production. 



General Conditions. 



In all these experiments pullets purchased in Plymouth 

 County and reaching us about the middle of October were 

 used. These pullets were well-bred Barred Plymouth Rocks, 

 not fancy stock (i. e., as to feather), but bright, healthy 

 stock, hatched in April. These pullets were evenly divided 

 into lots of twenty each, being matched in sets of two lots 

 as closely as possible. Each lot occupied a detached house, 

 including laying and roosting room ten by twelve feet and 

 scratching shed eight by twelve feet, with the run of large 

 yards of equal size whenever weather permitted. The win- 

 ter tests began December 12 and ended April 30. The latter 

 part of March a few hens were removed from each house for 

 sitters, the same number from each. Egg records of the 

 separate lots were kept from the time laying began to the 

 time of beginning experiments, for the purpose of affording 

 an index as to the equality or otherwise of the matched pairs 

 of lots. The hens were all marked with leg bands, as a pre- 

 cautionary measure for the purpose of identification in the 

 case of accidental mixture of fowls. 



All the meals and the cut clover were given in the form of 

 a mash, fed early in the morning. This was mixed the night 

 before with boiling water until January 8, and fed at the 

 temperature of about 70° F. After January 8, the mashes 

 were mixed with boiling water in the morning, and fed hot. 

 At noon a few oats were scattered in the straw with which the 

 scratching sheds were littered. At night the balance of the 

 whole grain was fed (also by scattering in the straw) one 

 hour before dark. The fowls were given what whole grain 

 they would eat up clean. Water, shells and artificial grit 

 were kept before the fowls at all times. About twice a 

 week a small cabbage was given to each lot of fowls, this, 

 like all other food, being weighed. The eggs from each 



