16 



THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL VIGOR IN THE 

 BREEDING AND CARE OF POULTRY. 



(James E. Rice, Poultry Department New York State College of Agriculture.) 



The problem that we as poultrymen confront is how to make the 

 most money with the least expense and risk. Our problem is not 

 simply to see how many eggs we can get a hen to lay, or how large 

 the hen will grow, or how quickly she will grow, or how much it will 

 cost to feed her, or to produce a dozen eggs, or to make a pound of 

 meat. All these are exceedingly important factors in our problems, 

 but the one great question confronting us is how much profit can one 

 man as a unit make by his own labor and that of others whom he 

 may employ in a year. It is not simply a question of how much we 

 can make per hen, but how much can we make per flock and how 

 many flocks can one man handle with best net results. A hen may 

 have laid well, but died at the end of the year. She may have laid 

 well but failed to produce eggs that would hatch chickens as strong 

 and as good as herself. She may have been an excellent producer, 

 but failed when we came to sell her for meat purposes. We must 

 ask of the hen whether or not she measures up to all these different 

 responsibilities and pay a maximum profit, and if so, whether our 

 methods of feeding, housing, etc., will direct the labor of others and 

 enable us to handle a large volume of business successfully. Poultry 



keeping should be more than a one man 

 business. 



I am going to discuss one of the 

 most important factors in answering 

 this problem of whether the hen is or 

 is not a profit maker. The subject will 

 be treated from the standpoint of the 

 hen's health, that is to say, the con- 

 stitutional vigor or "stamina," the 

 "ginger," "snap," or any other term 

 that you wish to apply to that quality 

 of a hen's healthfulness and her vigor 

 that will enable her to stand up under 



S. C. White Orpington. heavy feeding and high pro duction 



and rapid growth and to yield a profitable return, and give us in the 

 next generation individuals that are as strong as the generations with 

 which we are dealing. To my mind this question of constitutional 

 vigor, native strength of the stock is the most important factor in the 

 poultry business. It applies to every breed and every condition of 

 poultry, and to every age, from the baby chick, all through life to 

 maturity. One individual is born strong, vigorous, husky; another 

 may be born weak, tired, listless. One is a profitable individual by 

 virtue of its native vigor, the other an unprofitable individual because 

 of its lack of stamina. Another chicken may be born strong, and then, 

 because of improper feeding or improper housing or breeding or by 

 some other neglect or fault in that line, may have lost what it had 

 originally, that is, good health. It becomes necessary then to ask two 



