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



for; that we shall have clearly fixed in our minds the difference 

 between good birds and poor birds when we see them, and a 

 person can never expect to make progress in the breeding of 

 poultry if he just has blindly the number of eggs that a hen 

 has laid as his guide. He must have pictured in his mind the 

 kind of bird that will make the profit, and when he has got that 

 ideal he will compare every other chicken with that as his 

 standard, and this standard must be high. 



Then he must have a definite procedure in breeding, and the 

 next step in that procedure is that he ought to start where the 

 other fellows left off, rather than to begin at the bottom and 

 have to work up. That means that he should start with some 

 good, pure breed, and he ought to start in a small way rather 

 than in a large way, because if he starts in a small way it does 

 not cost him very much to get a few good individuals, and by 

 waiting a year or two to get his full capacity he will grow and 

 produce from these few and sell them to himself at high prices 

 instead of undertaking to buy himself into the chicken business. 

 Now you will notice that the people who usually fail are the 

 people who have a lot of money and little experience to begin 

 with, and they nearly always undertake to buy themselves into 

 the chicken business from somebody else instead of growing into 

 the chicken business by their own efforts in hatching and rear- 

 ing and breeding. 



Having decided upon our breed, be it Plymouth Rock, Leg- 

 horn, Rhode Island Red, or whatever it may be, how shall we 

 know a good bird from a poor one, male or female, when we 

 see them? Now the last word has not yet been said on this 

 subject, but enough has been known and discovered in the past 

 few years so that we are able to tell, with most sensational 

 accuracy, good birds from poor birds when we see them as re- 

 gards their productive power; and to do this so early in their 

 lives that we can eliminate the poor ones and keep the good 

 ones for the next several years of their profitable lives I want 

 to try to point out to you the differences in at least four or 

 five characteristics between good and poor birds. Fortunately 

 for us there are certain physiological changes, certain external 

 characteristics in our birds, because of their nature, that vary 

 from time to time during the year, and if we understand why 



