THE HEREDITY OF THE TWO HUNDRED EGG HEN. 



When I was a boy a mile in 2 :40 was regarded as a great 

 performance for a trotting horse. There were horses that had 

 trotted under 2 :40, much under, but they were few. I remem- 

 ber it was the custom for us urchins to cry out whenever a 

 man drove by at a slashing gait, "Got it, two-forty !" I am not 

 an old man yet by any means my wife tells me that 1 am 

 young but I have lived to see the trotting record come down 

 and down until it has dropped below the two minute mark. A 

 horse that cannot trot in less than 2 :40 is regarded as a good 

 horse for a woman to drive, but out of place on the track. 



What has brought the record down and down until men 

 are looking for the two minute horse ? Heredity and handling ! 

 A trotting horse now has a pedigree as long as a European 

 monarch. The blood of generations of trotters flows in his 

 veins. It may be the ancestral lines converge in the great 

 Messenger himself. 



Heredity and handling! These two things are as necessary 

 for the 200 egg hen as for the two minute horse. Men do not 

 gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. The 200 egg 

 hen must be bred to lay. She must come from an egg-produc- 

 ing strain. No matter how scientifically a man may feed or 

 how hygienically he may house, he cannot take a flock of hens 

 of any old breed or no breed and get 200 eggs a year apiece 

 from them. It is impossible. By carefully following the in- 

 structions of this book he can largely increase the egg yield 

 of such a flock, but he must not expect to get 200 eggs a year 

 apiece from them. I cannot impress it too strongly upon the 

 reader's mind that if he expects to get 200 eggs a year apiece 

 from his hens he must start in with a great laying strain. 



WHAT BREED IS BEST? 



There is an old Latin proverb, De gustibus non est disput- 

 andum, which I will take the liberty to translate for the benefit 

 of those who have been out of school for some time. Its mean- 

 ing is this : In matters of taste there is no argument. This 

 is as true in the poultry business as it is elsewhere. Other 

 things being equal that breed is the best for a man which he 

 likes best. There is no breed that combines all the excel- 

 lences and has none of the defects. There is no breed that does 

 not have its admirers. In general it may be said that the most 

 profitable breeds are to be found in the Asiatic, American and 

 Mediterranean classes, as follows : In the Asiatic class the 



