18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



little bit earlier, because they are a little slower to develop, 

 and the principle involved is this, apparently, that we need to 

 hatch the pullets at such a time in the spring that they can be 

 reared in cool weather; that we can get maximum fertility and 

 hatching power; that they can get their start and get well 

 feathered before the very hot weather comes on; and that they 

 can reach the laying age, which is about six to eight months, so 

 that the first pullets that lay shall be in their winter quarters 

 and comfortable, and flocked and at home and contented before 

 they lay and before cold weather hits them. If we get that 

 combination they begin to lay in the fall and go througl^with 

 scarcely an evidence of moult, and give us our largest maximum 

 yield the first year, and are likely to go along and do the same 

 thing for two or three years. 



If, however, we have hatched them too early in the spring, 

 then they lay too early in the summer, moult before the fall 

 weather comes on, and they do not give us good production 

 at that time. If we hatch too late, in June, for example, or 

 later, they do not get their full pullet plumages in time to get 

 well feathered and ready for laying in the winter, and they do 

 not lay until towards spring. But what we ought to do is to 

 be medium in this matter; get the bulk of our chickens at the 

 time they will do the best for us, and then hatch a few per- 

 haps a little earlier in order that they may give us eggs before 

 the other pullets have begun and after the hens have mostly 

 ceased; that will enable us to hold up our production, even 

 though we know that they are not going to lay well later in the 

 winter. There is another reason why it is important that we 

 know something about the ages of our birds, and I think we 

 ought to identify them, if possible, either by putting the pul- 

 lets that are hatched at one time off in certain houses, or 

 marking them so that we will know, in the fall of the year, at 

 what particular time they were hatched. 



It is well to hatch a good many at once, anyhow, not only 

 to make it easier work to take care of them, but to be able in 

 the fall to approximately identify them as to age, and you 

 will see the significance of that in what follows. A pen of 

 birds that were hatched on May 2 laid us 140 eggs the first 

 year; those that were hatched on May 20, 142; those that 



