i2 4 POULTRT-CRAFT. 



skilled poultrymen not the exception, as they are now. When all is said 

 and done, the condition of the egg crop in November and December is just as 

 dependent on the weather as the condition of the wheat crop just previous to 

 harvest. The weather can make or mar it. 



163. The Factors of a Good Egg Yield are: Good stock, comfortable 

 quarters, proper food, sufficient exercise, reasonable cleanliness, favorable 

 weather. 



164. Selecting Laying Stock. The descriptions of fowls in Chapter 

 V. indicated some varieties as good layers. It was also stated that hens 

 Of any variety might be made good layers. Selection of laying stock for 

 immediate egg production must take account of stock more strictly than to 

 accept general character or possible development. In selecting laying hens 

 of unknown individual merit as must nearly always be done the only 

 reliable guide is the laying capacity of the particular stock from which the 

 hens come. Usually this mode of selection gives good average results. To 

 select individual good layers by appearance by points is impossible. 

 Prolificacy is entirely independent of physical structure, (barring some 

 deformities) , and also independent of temperament. If, as is nearly always 

 the case, large eggs are desired, the hens selected should be : if of a small 

 breed, large of their kind ; if of a medium sized breed, medium to large ; for 

 it is a physical impossibility for a small hen to be a very prolific layer of 

 large eggs ; and, besides, the tendency to lay eggs large out of proportion to 

 her size is objectionable in a hen, because rendering her peculiarly subject to 

 trouble in extruding her eggs. Moreover, hens small of their kind are usually 

 runts, stunted, ill-developed. Medium to small hens of the large breeds lay 

 eggs as large as need be ; but hens that are much under size lack the staying 

 qualities of better developed birds. 



165. Exercise.* What Kind? Fowls at liberty take exercise princi- 

 pally by walking and by scratching. It may be observed that when they 

 have a suitable place in which to scratch they pass much of the time there. 

 This propensity to scratch, long reckoned the hen's peculiar vice, is turned 

 to advantage by those keeping hens in confinement. Without the littered 

 scratching-feeding floor, keeping hens healthy and productive in confinement 

 is difficult. With this provision for exercise, hens are kept in perfect health, 

 at the highest stage of productiveness, not for a few weeks or months, but 

 for two or three years, during which they may never once leave the house 

 and small yard attached. Further, better results, in eggs, are obtained from 

 hens in confinement than from hens at liberty. On most of the best poultry 

 plants the littered scratching floors are considered indispensable. t 



* NOTE. House and yard accommodations and foods were considered at length in 

 preceding chapters. 

 t NOTE. For fowls on free range, or in good large yards in addition to the regular 



