No. 4.] MODERN POULTRY CULTURE. 113 



was an old lady of whom we tell the story in Maine who 

 borrowed a setting hen and went to another neighbor and 

 borrowed a dozen of eggs. She put them together, and in 

 due time the chickens appeared. After a few weeks the hen 

 weaned the chickens and the old lady kept the hen until she 

 had laid a dozen eggs, then returned the borrowed eggs 

 and carried back the hen and had the chickens left. That 

 woman will make a success in the hen business. That i-s 

 what I mean by adaptation. It makes but little difference 

 what breed you take. Having in 3^our mind a distinct type, 

 make your selection of breeds and build for type, making 

 color and fancy markings secondary. I believe, and have 

 urged it many times, what Mr. Cushman has said about 

 selecting hens from your flacks and using a pure-bred male. 

 I believe this is the course to be pursued, unless you desire 

 to enter the field of the specialist, — take what you have 

 and build upon it. When you have made your first cross, 

 then year after year lift that cross by using a male of the 

 same breed until you have established your breed. 



Secretary Sessions. You would not object to the Rhode 

 Island Red for that ? 



Dr. TwiTCHELL. I would not object to any breed fixed 

 by this method in its characteristics. I would not object to 

 your going into your flock and selecting your best hens for 

 1898, and then buying a male of the same type, using ever 

 after a pure-bred male of the same breed. 



I have in mind a friend in the State of Maine who keeps 

 about eleven hundred hens. It is eighteen years since I 

 first started him in business. He raises three thousand 

 chickens yearly. They are hatched by hens and raised in 

 barrels. His farm and buildings would not sell for twenty- 

 five hundred dollars. He is twelve miles from a shipping 

 town on the extreme eastern coast of the State of Maine. 

 And yet that man has realized a net profit of one dollar and 

 twenty-five cents per head per hen yearly. He has Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks, and has bred them all these years, simply 

 introducing new blood. He has taken what he could get 

 for poultry, eggs being the central thought. 



I have another friend who carries about a thousand hens. 

 His buildings are about twelve by twenty feet, and set so 



