OO LL5SON5 IN POULTRY KLEPING 5E.COND 5LRILS. 



However, the producer's control of bis egirs after their delivery to the first buyer or trans- 

 portatiou company practically ceases as far as personal ability to protect their quality is con- 

 cerned. Every producer of eggs can be very sure that there is no possibility of his eggs ever 

 becoming better in quality than they were when produced. Age does not improve them to the 

 normal taste, nor will any process of "ripening" render them more palatable. No tricks of 

 manipulation will improve their appearance. The shipper of poultry may find the skill of the 

 -salesman who wipes, and shapes and makes more presentable the carcasses of the fowls, of 

 benefit to him, making the fowls show often to better advantage than originally. But dirty 

 eggs are graded as "dirties," and sold at an appropriate price. Small and misshapen eggs 

 reduce the grade of their entire lot. Weak and watery eggs are readily detected by dealers and 

 buyers. Bad flavored eggs in a line of good trade cannot come from the same place very many 

 times in succession without someone in the line being called to account, and ultimately it comes 

 back to the culprit among the producers. 



c* 



When one begins to give special attention to the production of eggs, be must work for quality 

 ^is well as for quantity, otherwise begets but a p;trt of the benefit of his effort*. Producing 

 *gg* in quantity and of good quality, he must market them to the best advantage. If lie does 

 aiot he may be no better off than he was in the first place. 



Now let us take that the other way around. Suppose a man desirous of getting a better price 

 ior his eggs begins to study the ways of the markets, and finds that his eggs compete not with 

 the best, but in the grade of cooking eggs. It is not impossible that there is discrimination or 

 misrepresentation on the part of those handling the eggs, but it is far more likely that the rggs 

 jiever were of the quality that they should be to command the best prices. This is especially 

 the case with eggs from fowls for which most of the food is purchased, eggs from yarded fowls 

 and eggs from fowls whose ration is too carefully balanced. It is a matter of common observa- 

 tion and frequent comment among eastern handlers of eggs that the western eggs as a class are 

 superior in original quality to the eastern or nearby eggs. They are richer in color of yolk and 

 In substance of white. At seasons when there is little deterioration in transit these western 

 eggs may come into our eastern cities actually better than the nearby product, but during the 

 greater part of the year time and exposure in transit operate to take away their freshness and 



wvor. 



Now, as we have seen, it is easier for the producer to control original quality than to provide 

 *<rainst a quick deterioration after the eggs leave his bands. Hence it should be apparent to 

 the eastern producer that it is much easier for him to get good quality in his eggs than it is for 

 the western producer to provide for the preservation of quality in his. There is really no 

 xcuse but that of mistaken economy for the producer near a good market not getting 

 very advantage of price which excellence of product and nearness of markets combined should 

 give him. Yet many producers do not get them. Why not? 

 Here are the principal reasons: 



Debilitated stock. 



Lack of variety in food and insufficient supplies of green foods and fats. 



Excessive feeding of swill and other wastes. 



Mistaken ideas of the food constituents required for egg production. 



c* 



It takes healthy hens to produce eggs of first rate quality and fine appearance. Compare the 

 g^8 of individual hens in a flock, or better select certain eggs and then find and compare the 

 lien-tthat lay them. Your flock and their eggs may be too uniform in condition and appear- 

 ance to make the comparison I suggest remarkable, but the average flock is not so. I succeed 

 an having mine that way only in proportion as I limit my breeding to individuals carefully 

 selected from stock bred in my own yards for generations. I find that when I go outside for 

 new blood to improve some point in which I wish to make improvement, my most careful mix- 

 ture of the new blood introduces a variety into the appearance and to some extent into the 

 quality of the eggs which was absent during the yeaf*s of close breeding. I find also that the 

 Sack of quality in eggs is coincident with a lack of vitality in the individuals producing them. 

 It has sometimes happened, too, that in fertility my best layers and most vigorous birds were 



