58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



«a half old, and there are cases on record, in my own yard, 

 where they have laid at three months and three weeks old. 

 I have also started with eggs and produced three generations 

 in three hundred and sixty-three days. This precocity enables 

 one to raise his stock-birds even after the season is too far 

 advanced to rear successfully the Plymouth Rock or Brahma. 

 Thus you see how peculiarly adapted one to the other the 

 three breeds are, and all of them are hardy, standing much 

 neglect. With them, the farmer easily caters to the wants of 

 the markets the year round. 



With the above breeds as stock, the yearly product will 

 average one hundred and fifty eggs and eight chickens to each 

 hen, which will sell (taking Natick market for 1875- as a 

 basis) as follows : — 



12^ dozen eggs, at 25 cts. per dozen, $3 12 



4 pairs of chickens, 28 lbs., at 25 cts. per lb., . . . . 7 00 

 American guano, 25 



Total, $10 37 



The cost of producing the same being, — 



Keeping of hen, $115 



15 eggs for incubation, 38 



Cost of growing 8 chicks to 35 lbs. live weight, at 9|- cts. per lb., 3 32 



Interest on investment and casualties, 60 



Total, $5 45 



To notice some of the other breeds, I will say, "the 

 Hamburg family " is one of merit as egg producers, yield- 

 ing about one hundred and sixty-five eggs per year, as a 

 rule ; and there is a case on record where a single hen of 

 the golden-spangled variety laid one hundred and fifty-one 

 eggs in six months. As poultry, the meat and bone are 

 dark, so much so as not to be desired by market-men. The 

 race is delicate and hard to rear, but when six to eight 

 months old, seems to have become quite hardy, except it be 

 a predisposition to the disease called " black comb," — but 

 why the disease should be so termed I cannot understand. 

 To be sure, the comb turns black, but the causes come from 

 derangement of the egg-producing organs. I have seen them 



