50 HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



General Conditions. 



The pullets were first evenly divided into lots of twenty 

 each, being matched in sets of two 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 winter tests began Oc- 

 tober 15 and ended April 22. The hens were all marked 

 with leg bands, as a precautionary 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. At noon a little millet 

 was 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 lot were weighed weekly. 

 The fowls were all weighed at intervals of about two months. 

 Sitters were confined in a coop until broken up, being mean- 

 while fed like their mates. 



The prices per hundred weight for foods, upon which 

 financial calculations are based, are shown below : — 



Wheat, $1 60 



Oats, 1 00 



Millet, 1 00 



Wheat bran, 85 



Wheat middlings, ........ 85 



Gluten feed, 90 



Animal meal, . 1 75 



Cut clover rowen, .... ... 1 50 



Cabbage, 25 



Corn meal, 90 



Corn, 90 



Harrow v. Wide Ration for Egg-production.^ 

 The experiments were in one sense continuous, as the same 

 fowls were used throughout ; but it is deemed best to report 

 the results obtained during the cooler months and those of 



