HAMPSHIRE COUNTY FARMERS' MONTHLY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY CULLING AND SELECTION OF HENS 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. Payii*'. County Agreiit 

 Mary Cheney Carpenter, Home Deni. Asent 

 Bena G. Krlianl. County Club Asent 

 Pfary C. 0'I>eary. Clerk 



Office First National Bank Building 



Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter Nov. 9, 1915. at the 

 Post Office at Nortliampton, Massachusetts, under 

 the Act of March 8, 1879. 



"Notice of Kntry " 



"Acceptance for mailing at special rate of post- 

 age provided for in section 1103, Act of October y 

 1917. Authorized October 31. 1917." 



Price. .50 cents a year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Edwin B. Clapp, Pie.sident 

 Charles E, Clark, Vice-Pre.sident 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Eoland A, Payne, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 



Edwin B, Clapp, Easthampton 

 Charles E. Clark, Leeds 

 Clarence E, Hodgkins, Northampton 

 William N, Howard, Ware 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton .Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 John A. Sullivan, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 



Team Work 



How are you as a team mate? 

 The following verse is just as true of 

 our County army as any army on the 

 battlefield. 



"It ain't the individuals. 



Nor the army as a whole. 

 But the ever'.astin' team work 

 Of every bloomin' soul." 



— Kipling. 



DAIRY RECORDS 



The importance of keeping dairy 

 records was clearly brought out at E. 

 Thornton Clark's farm in Granby re- 

 cently. Here there is a herd of sixteen 

 Holsteins, two of which are registered. 

 The average production per cow was 

 12,000 pounds per cow the past 12 

 months. Every cow in the herd is of 

 dairy type but Mr. Clark was not satis- 

 fied to know they were good ones, as any- 

 one familiar with cows could see that. 

 The milk from each cow is weighed not 

 semi-occasionally but every day so accu- 

 rate figures are available. The outstand- 

 ing cow in the herd is registered. She 

 was sold for a fraction of hei- real worth 

 to a dealei' by a farmer who doesn't keep 



Should be Practiced by all Poultrymen 



The following article taken from Ex- 

 tension Leaflet 3.5 by Prof. W. C. Mona- 

 han of the Mass. Agricultural College, 

 gives in brief forrq the Hows and Whys 

 of culling. We should be glad to make 

 arrangements for culling demonstrations 

 in any town in the county when they are 

 desired. 



Systematic culling may profitably be 

 practiced throughout the year; sick birds 

 and those having physical defects ought 

 to be eliminated whenever found. At the 

 beginning of the laying year, only the 

 experienced and skilful poultryman is 

 capable of selecting, with any degree of 

 accuracy, birds giving promise of ex- 

 tremely high egg production. It is, 

 nevertheless, good practice when pullets 

 are being housed to reject those physi- 

 cally unfit, lacking in constitutional vigor, 

 of small abdominal capacity and. rela- 

 tively late matui'ity. 



If such birds are kept, profit is dubious, 

 housing capacity is not used to best ad- 

 vantage, and, furthermore, they are the 

 first to be culled at the clo.se of spring 

 production.\ 



Summer and fall, as the birds complete 

 the laying year, are the seasons when 

 culling- is done to best advantage. It is 

 a simple process, then, systematically to 

 pick out and dispose of the early quitters 

 — the poorer layers — as they stop laying. 

 Thus the better layers survive into late 

 fall, when the best of them may be select- 

 ed to hold over another year. 



Good health, constitutional vigor and 

 freedom from physical defects are fun- 

 damental. Approach to standard re- 

 quirements ought also to be considered, 

 especially in selection of breeders, for it 

 has a distinct commercial value as re- 

 flected in prices of hatching eggs, baby 

 chicks or adult stock, 



records. The dealer didn't keep milk 

 records so only knew he had a good cow. 

 This past year she produced 20,700 

 pounds of milk and was giving 40 

 pounds of milk per day when the year 

 was up. In six months this cow had paid 

 for herself, paid for her feed, had a heifer 

 calf and ^85 on the credit side of the 

 ledger. 



Many say there is no money in dairy- 

 ing, yet these ai-e the men who do not 

 weigh their milk and keep cost accounts. 

 Records and accounts are only a means to 

 an end, and it is their use not their mere 

 keeping that makes them valuable. If 

 every farmer in Granby, or in any other 

 town for that matter, would keep records, 

 use them as a basis for feeding, and dis- 

 pose of cows which did not pay their way, 

 the number of cows in Hampshire County 

 would decrease at least ,50 per cent and 

 the deficit due to daiiying would be turn- 

 ed to profit. 



The time of moulting usually marks 

 the cessation of laying in lighter birds, 

 and although many hens of the heavier 

 breeds lay well into the moult, production 

 is greatly slackened. They just dribble 

 along. The later a hen lays in the sum- 

 mer, or the longer the period through 

 which she lays, the greater her produc- 

 tion. Hence, the high producer is usually 

 the late layer, and therefore the late 

 moulter. 



The best layers have dry, brittle, rag- 

 ged and frayed plumage by fall, with 

 the tail feathers much worn. Poor 

 layers, if not culled out by this time, 

 often have a new coat partially grown, 

 and present a much better appearance. 



The length of time that a hen has been 

 moulting may be determined by inspec- 

 tion of her wing feathers. It requires 

 approximately six weeks completely to re- 

 place the pair of primaries next to the 

 axial feathers, and about two weeks ad- 

 ditional for each subsequent pair moulted. 



In yellow-skinned breeds of poultry the 

 same pigment that colors the egg yolks is 

 responsible for the color of skin-shanks 

 and 'beak. As the pullet lays, her body 

 loses this yellow coloring material, and 

 she gradually fades. The rate of fading 

 depends upon the initial amount of pig- 

 ment, the feed, the relative weight of the 

 body, and the length of the period of 

 production. 



The skill, around the vent is the first to 

 lose its yellotv color, then the eyelids and 

 beak fade, the shanks being the Icuft to 

 whiten. 



When a hen stops laying, this yellow 

 color comes back to her body, and does 

 so in the same order in which it goes 

 out, — vent first, then the eyelids, beak 

 and shanks. But it returns much more 

 quickly than it leaves, A very few days 

 after a hen stops laying the vent is yel- 

 low, and soon the restoration of pigment 

 may be discovered at the base of the beak 

 as it gradually works outward and then 

 begins to restore the shank color. 



The laying hen has a large, moist vent, 

 .showing a dilated condition as compared 

 with the round, dry, puckered vent of the 

 bird not laying. 



The pelvic bones, located on either side 

 of the vent, and between which the egg 

 must pass, are spread open and are 

 pliable in laying condition. In very good 

 layers these bones are straight and thin. 

 When a hen is not laying they come closer 

 together, and in poor layers they are 

 thick and blunt, often covered with hard 

 fat. 



The lateral or sternal processes — two 

 bones located on either side of the keel 

 (breastbone) — reflect quite accurately the 

 condition of a hen's ovaries. When these 

 bones are prominent, bulging out, the 

 ovaries are usually full of growing 

 odi-i/tes, 01- egg yolks, and the intestines 

 are expanded showing the hen to be in 

 Continued on page .'», colunm 'i 



