241 



Considered a Sort of Necessary Nuisance. 



(Prof. W. F. Kirkpatrick, Agricultural College, Mississippi.) 



Here in Mississippi our farmer poultrymen are unappreciative of 

 1he hen's importance and uninformed as to- her needs and require- 

 ments. To become more successful, our poultrymen must devote more 

 attention to the care, feeding, and housing of their fowls; they must 

 be educated to the fact thai the hen should be made a source of reve- 

 nue instead of being considered a sort of necessary nuisance; they 

 must avail themselves of the great work that is being done in their 

 liehair at so many of our experiment stations. 



Conservation of the Vigor of the Flock. 



(Prof. W. A. Brown. Orono, Maine.) 



I believe the greatest difficulty encountered by the average far- 

 mer and poultryman is that they do not know how to conserve the 

 vigor of the stock. In a recent memorandum I stated that this is the 

 most important problem in the poultry business today. It affects all 

 phases of the industry and cannot be disregarded. 



The conservation of vigor is one of the great fundamental prob- 

 lems tbnfronting all agriculturists interested in the development of 

 plant and animal life. It is of particular interest to poultrymen, be- 

 cause more is being required of the modern hen, in proportion to her 

 live weight, than from any other class of farm animals. There is good 

 reason to believe that much of the infertility and low hatching powers 

 of eggs, and weakness and high mortality among the chickens is due 

 to the lack of vigor on the part of the breeding stock. 



SOME CONTRIBUTORY CAUSES TO LACK OP VIGOR. 



These are similar, if not the same, as the causes that have brought 

 about the failure of many poultry enterprises. As a matter of fact, 

 the average life of many large poultry plants has been very short 

 indeed. The same has been true of the history of many smaller flocks. 

 Many people are continually changing from one breed to another, or 

 doing something, such as the introduction of a male of another breed 

 or variety, in order to bring the stock up to the standard of produc- 

 tion they think it ought to have. It does not seem to occur to them 

 that the trouble is with themselves, in that they have allowed the 

 vigor and stamina of the birds to become gradually depleted. Under 

 ordinary care, it takes from three to five years, on the average, for 

 this condition of affairs to become apparent. 



The following are some of the causes Ihal have tended to reduce 

 the vigor of the stock: 



1. The great prevalence of the intensive system of keeping poul- 

 try. This may work satisfactorily for laying stock, but breeding 

 stock will not give the best results in small and closely yarded runs, 

 bare of green food, and where the soil has become contaminated with 

 the accumulated droppings. 



