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



He is well satisfied to keep what he has and take perfect care 

 of everything he has and make the maximum income per in- 

 dividual. Now, it would take several days to discuss the 

 factors that entered into that man's success, but one of the 

 things that I think has been paramount in his success was the 

 fact that he knew good stock when he saw it, and has bred 

 and handled his fowls with respect to the efficiency of the 

 individual; and that is my text to-day. 



Breeding. 



With all due respect to the importance of every other im- 

 portant thing in handling poultry, — the feeding, the housing, 

 the incubating, the brooding, the marketing, which are big, 

 strong, important connecting links, — I must say that I feel 

 positive that there is one link that must be stronger than all of 

 the others, and that is the breeding of our poultry. Why? 

 Because everything depends upon the efficiency of the birds 

 that we are handling. If the birds are not what they should be 

 as regards vigor and productivity and productive power, — 

 production of fertile and hatchable eggs and eggs of high 

 quality, — if they are not capable of making use of all of the 

 other factors that we may supply we never can get our reward. 

 Poor hens will not pay in any kind of a system of housing or 

 upon any rations or by any methods of incubation or brooding, 

 nor can we reap our reward by any system of marketing. On 

 the other hand, if we have good, eflScient machines to utilize 

 this food, to utilize these buildings and the other facilities that 

 we can provide, frequently a man will succeed if he has not done 

 some of the other things as well as he should, because the birds 

 have been able to manufacture products economically. So I 

 emphasize that we must begin with the foundation principle, 

 that, whatever else happens, we must have the very best stock 

 that it is possible for us to breed and handle. This is par- 

 ticularly true now, when the high cost of feed makes it ab- 

 solutely certain that a man cannot make money unless he has 

 got good birds, and makes it absolutely sure that he is going to 

 lose money if he has inefficient birds. There is only one 

 blessing coming out of a high food cost situation, as I see it, 

 except to the man who is selling the feed or growing the feed, 



