58 



ter, hot or cold, wet or dry- lay so that I sometimes fear they 

 will lay themselves to death. They are a money-making prop- 

 osition for me and for my customers, even if they cannot win 

 at the big shows. 



BREED FROM MATURE BIRDS. 



The only bird fit to breed from is one that is in good health 

 and thoroughly mature. Probably the best mating is a vigor- 

 ous, well-grown cockerel with year-old hens; next to that a 

 cock with mature pullets. A pullet should have laid out at 

 least one litter before she is put into a breeding pen. Even 

 then it is better not to use her, if you can help it. There is no 

 surer way of running out a flock than to breed from immature 

 birds. 



THE MALE. 



You often hear it said that "the rooster is half the pen." It 

 is meant by this that one-half the blood of the offspring will 

 come from the male side. Such being the case it is highly im- 

 portant that the cock or cockerel should be a good bird. A few 

 paragraphs back I spoke of the fact that the hen in her wild 

 state laid from six to ten eggs a year. The average farmer's 

 hen lays from 75 to 100 eggs in the same time. What has 

 made the increase? It has come, as I have said, from im- 

 proved nutrition and from selection. But the selection has all 

 been on the male side! It is the practice on the farm, and I 

 doubt not has been for generations, to keep the best male to 

 breed from, but to breed indiscriminately from the females. 

 The fact that under such haphazard methods of keeping fowls 

 as have prevailed in the past, egg production has increased 

 tenfold, is a remarkable tribute to the value of the male as an 

 agent in building up the egg yield. 



CONCERNING CROSSES. 



You will find a strong tendency on the part of the average 

 poultry keeper to mix up his birds. If he gets a flock of fowls 

 that begin to look alike, ten to one he will buy a rooster of a 

 neighbor for a dollar of some entirely different breed, and the 

 result will be that the next fall he will have a whole poultry 

 show on his hands. There is a popular belief that crosses lay 

 better than thoroughbreds, and the method of procedure is to 

 mix up the birds as much as possible. 



This whole subject of crossing needs to be better under- 

 stood. Some good must come from crossing, or it would not 



