92 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



should not be fed in a frozen condition. All feed and litter used 

 should be strictly sweet, clean and free from mustiness, mold or 

 decay. Serious losses frequently occur from disease, due to the 

 fowls taking into their bodies, through their intestinal tract or lungs, 

 the sj^ores of the fungus causing molds. 



Results at Cornell, 1909-12, three-year record : 15 highest pro- 

 ducing iDullets averaged 236 eggs each; best single-flock pullets 

 averaged 182 eggs each. 



Egg Record of the Four Highest Producing Hens. 



Just a word in regard to the development of the egg. On 

 the spine of the fowl is a cluster of ova (Fig. 20). Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Pearl there are as many as 1,500 to 3,000 of these 

 within the normal hen. Some of these never develop, some 

 hens never lay, and yet they may have just as many un- 

 developed ova as good-laying hens ; others have the tendency 

 to develop eggs with great regularity when conditions are 

 right, so that when they are fully ripe the yolks break from 

 the follicle, fall into the ovisac and pass on into the oviduct, 

 where the process continues and the white is laid on, until 

 they get down, in about four to six hours, where the shell 

 membranes are put on, and then they move downward a 

 trifle more, where they stay about twelve hours and the shell 

 is laid on. Now, then, the point I want to make right here 

 is this, ^ — if you don't feed hens the right kind of food and 

 enough of it, they can't have that surplus fat in their bodies 

 which is necessary to make the first part of the es^g, because 

 the yolk of the egg is the first part made. The yolk contains 

 65 per cent of dry matter, M-hich is fat, and is about the 

 only fat in the egg. Don't you see that unless the hen has 

 that surplus energy stored up, that fat stored up, she can't 



