No. 4.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. xxxix 



the products of the farm shall form a feature of the fair. 

 The standardization of the premium lists and exhibits of 

 our fairs is desirable, and to this end there should be a list 

 of judges acceptable to the Board, who alone should be 

 allowed to judge, and it should be their particular duty to 

 see that no unworthy article is awarded a prize. 



A certain percentage of the money paid to the agricultural 

 societies should be awarded as State prizes for the best fruit, 

 vegetables, poultry, animals, etc., in each class, and ribbons 

 suitably inscribed be given in connection with the money. 

 These ribbons should be awarded only in limited numbers 

 and to only the very best objects. 



The Poultry Outlook. 



The same plan should be applied to poultry exhibits, mak- 

 ing the State prizes a distinct feature* and paying prizes only 

 for best birds in a few good classes. 



The demand for an increased production of poultry and 

 eggs has been so great that the methods of care and manage- 

 ment have not kept pace with it. Especially is this true of 

 intensive poultry keeping. The poultry business not being 

 yet reduced to an exact science, many suppose that it is pos- 

 sible to get a particular breed of fowl that will give a high 

 egg production irrespective of other conditions ; yet in poul- 

 try contests no one breed takes the lead, and in the investi- 

 gational work carried on at the various stations and colleges, 

 breed or variety do not appear to be specially important. 

 The poultry house is no doubt a very important factor, but 

 there are many who seem to suppose that more depends upon 

 the house than anything else. Many poultrymen think the 

 modern type of house is not automatic enough, and are look- 

 ing also for one that will house from 500 to 2,000 in one 

 flock as efficiently as we can house 25 to 100, imagining that 

 in such a house hens will lay in spite of the conditions that 

 naturally result from overcrowding. 



There are other people who pin their faith on some par- 

 ticular kind of feed, patented or otherwise, that will make 

 hens lay regardless of their breeding, housing, general care 



