82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



same age on the right. The latter is one of the finest speci- 

 mens of sex vigor we have ever bred, a magnificent bird 

 weighing less, however, than the capon, — the one, husky, 

 vigorous and active, the other, sluggish and slow. The capon 

 doesn't make the best use of his food. He grows bigger and 

 softer and sells for more money per pound, but so far as 

 using up a pound of food economically is concerned, he 

 doesn't digest it as thoroughly as does the sexed male. 

 Kotice this one of high vitality, with its heavy, thick comb 

 and the heavy, curved beak and the round, full eye, com- 

 pared with the long, flat, peaked beak and the shriveled comb 

 and sunken eye of the capon, indicative of less vigor. The 

 capon, however, probably would weigh 2 or 3 pounds more 

 than the cockerel of the same breed. 



This slide (Fig. 7) illustrates the explosion of a fallacy. 

 You will notice a good deal in the poultry press in re- 

 gard to chickens' wings growing so fast that it stops the 

 vitality, and the people have resorted to cutting off the 

 feathers of the wing so that they would not exhaust the 

 chickens' strength. You might just as well cut off a cow's 

 horn or the end of her tail to affect her strength. These 

 chickens (a) and (h) are of the same age and the same 

 variety, fed in the same brooder; these (&) were born strong, 

 vigorous and husky; and these (a) were born weak or ac- 

 quired weakness. N^ow, if you could see that chicken (a) 

 alone, its wings would look vastly out of proportion to its 

 body, while this one here (h) is properly proportioned as to 

 body and wing. These (&) are growing normally and natu- 

 rally, Avhereas on this one (a) the wings are out of propor- 

 tion, and what you are seeing is by contrast. What hap- 

 pened over here (a) is that the wings did not grow too fast, 

 but the body did not grow fast enough. You can pick out 

 the high and low vitality in chickens from the day they are 

 hatched by the way they eat, and by the eye and the comb 

 and by the head points, as indicative of those characteristics. 

 The way a chicken feathers is one of the best evidences of 

 its vigor. 



Here (Fig. 8) is a flock of White Leghorn hens picked 

 for high vitality. You can see the full, well-developed, 



