58 



summer and winter, hot or cold, wet or dry lay so that I some- 

 times fear they will lay themselves to death. They are a money- 

 making proposition 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 vigorous, 

 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 important 

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

 graphs 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 improved 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. 



