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



aristocrats. Tests in the development of the oviduct and 

 ovaries of chickens show that at three months old the oviduct 

 is not more than 4 or 5 inches long, but the development is so 

 rapid that at six months of age, when the pullet is not quite 

 ready to lay but approaching it, there is an oviduct that is a 

 foot and a half long and an ovary that shows s^olks of the eggs 

 that are the size of pennies, nearly the size ready to lay. At 

 seven months the hen has taken on the appearance of full 

 maturity in depth of body, size of tail and wings. 



When a pullet is eighteen months old, just prior to the close 

 of the laying period, she will begin to go back; her comb be- 

 comes smaller and paler; the wattles have shrunk up, her 

 abdomen is contracted; she has not as full a crop and she 

 does not have the activity. She is not as friendly. The pullet 

 that is laying heavily is friendly; the pullet that is dormant 

 is likely to be wild; and you will notice that as you study your 

 birds about you in the pen as well as the change in their 

 shape. 



At the close of the first laying season the oviduct is not over 

 8 or 10 inches long, possibly a foot, whereas only a month or 

 so before, when she was in full laying, that oviduct, without 

 the egg being in it at all, would be 2 or 2^ feet long and greatly 

 congested. In other words, the reproductive system of the 

 hen changes inside of the hen each month of the year as she 

 is productive or dormant, just the same as the udder of a cow 

 is congested and full and large and active when functioning, 

 or shrunken and inactive when she is not productive. Now 

 this change of the reproductive system inside of a hen changes 

 her shape. Wlien this is large and full her abdomen is deep, 

 and when she is laying she is eating a good deal of food and 

 her crop is nearly always full, so that when she is active and 

 laying she is in her best physical condition, and usually carries 

 a good deal of surplus fat in her body; whereas the pullet or 

 hen that is dormant usually has little fat, and the reproductive 

 system is shrunken to its smallest size. We find, also, that 

 whenever the reproductive system is active the external char- 

 acteristics, the secondary sexual characteristics, the comb and 

 the wattles and the ear lobes all change in accordance wdth the 

 change that takes place inside; so much so that we can tell 



