POULTRY FOR PROFIT 129 



four highest producing hens for three years showed 

 surprising results. They were as follows : 



1st year 2nd year 3rd year 



Lady Cornell 257 200 191 



Madam Cornell 245 131 163 



Cornell Surprise 180 186 196 



Cornell Supreme 242 198 220 



Three of these hens, it will be observed, actually 

 laid more eggs in the third year than in the second, 

 and one, Cornell Surprise, laid more in the third year 

 than in either the first or second. In the case of 

 Lady Cornell, the only one in which there is a 

 steady decrease from the first to the third year, the 

 decrease is so light that the hen may be assumed to 

 have been a profitable producer for two years more. 

 Undoubtedly the advisability of keeping any hen 

 after the second year must depend upon the hen her- 

 self, and the trap-nest is the only sure guide to a 

 knowledge of her real worth. 



THE FALL EGG PROBLEM 



The secret of success with poultry is very largely 

 the secret of getting eggs when eggs are dear, that 

 is, in the fall. Producing eggs in the spring when 

 every hen is laying requires neither skill nor knowl- 

 edge, nor does it go far toward paying the feed bills 

 for the rest of the year. The fall egg is the ultimate 

 end and aim of all poultry keeping, the center about 

 which all plans and schemes revolve. 



Every spring matings are planned with the design 

 of somehow catching that will o' the wisp. Every 

 fall hears the same complaint, "Hens won't lay. 

 What is the matter?" 



Instead of asking "Why won't they lay?" it might 

 be well to ask, "Why should they lay?" The jungle 

 fowl never thought of laying in the fall. It was 



