THE FIELD OF RESEARCH IN POULTRY HUSBANDRY 



BY HORACE ATWOOD 



Research in poultry husbandry is concerned with an industry whose 

 importance and extent most of us fail to appreciate. This lack of apprecia- 

 tion is due principally to the fact that the individual units of production 

 are generally small and widely scattered. But when the aggregate is 

 considered and it is found that, in 1907 for example, the value of the poultry 

 products of the United States exceeded the value of the wheat crop by 

 $100,000,000 then we can properly value the importance and magnitude 

 of the industry that we are seeking to promote. 



Not only is the industry whose problems we are studying a large and 

 important one, but poultry husbandry as carried on at the present time, 

 with its artificial methods and appliances, is a development of recent years 

 and there is behind this business no such accumulation of facts and 

 experiences as is the case in the other branches of live stock industry that 

 have been carried on for a much longer time. Consequently there are 

 numerous new problems awaiting solution, and new difficulties arising 

 which demand the attention of investigators in this line of work. In fact, 

 the problems which we may select for study are so numerous that there is 

 some danger that we may spread our energies over too wide a range, 

 thus interfering with the quality of our work. The ideal is to concentrate 

 effort on a few specific problems until final results are achieved and 

 presented to the public. 



In this field of research we may rear many stately edifices, but if the 

 foundations of these structures are not well built they will tumble down 

 and we shall not only have lost the result of our labors, but we shall be 

 obliged to clear away the wreckage and clean up the ruins before we can 

 begin once more our efforts for progress. 



It is annoying both to ourselves and to our constituents to be obliged to 

 clear away a wreck due to building a house upon the sand. Therefore, let us 

 be doubly careful in this matter and resist with all our power any pressure 

 which may be brought to bear on us for quick results, and when we do 

 publish the results of an investigation let us be sure, not only of the facts 

 involved, but also that our interpretation of the facts is the most logical and 

 consistent that can be given. For sometimes a set of facts resulting from 

 an investigation can be explained in two or more ways. 



In poultry experiments we are dealing with life and its development, 

 an extremely difficult and intricate subject, and one easily affected by what 



