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 remember 

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

 by at a slashing gait, "Go it, two-forty !" I am not an old man 

 yet by any means my w r ife tells me that I 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 clo not 

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

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

 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 instructions 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. 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 disputan- 

 dum, which I will take the liberty to translate for the benefit of 

 those who have been out of school for some time. Its meaning 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 excellences 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 



