SPECIAL REPORT FOR YEAR igi2. Q 



is used for pedigree breeding work during the breeding season 

 in the spring. In this house it is possible to carry from 200 to 

 300 breeding hens in such condition that the exact pedigrees 

 of their offspring may be recorded. The entire portion of the 

 poultry plant devoted to laying hens is equipped with an im- 

 proved form of trap nest which makes it possible to obtain 

 exact records of the egg production of each individual bird. 

 Besides these two laying houses the poultry plant has a house 

 35 X 16 feet which is divided into three compartments used for 

 hospital purposes in connection with the experimental work of 

 the department and for special physiological investigations with 

 poultry. The incubator house and brooder houses include am- 

 ple facilities for the annual hatching and rearing of about 4000 

 pedigreed chickens during the breeding season from April i 

 to June I. There is also a well equipped laboratory on the 

 poultry range that is chiefly used and especially equipped for 

 physiological work. It includes three rooms arranged in a 

 linear series. The outer one of these rooms is devoted to gen- 

 eral laboratory purposes and the conducting of post-mortem 

 examinations on poultry. The two inner rooms are devoted to 

 experimental physiological work. The first of these rooms is 

 the sterilizing room and is equipped with the usual instruments 

 and facilities for the sterilization of instruments, etc., including 

 steam and hot air sterilizers. The last room in the series in 

 this laboratory is the experimenting room. The rooms are so 

 constructed as to be practically dust proof, and the walls and 

 ceilings are entirely covered with white enamel which makes it 

 possible to thoroughly sterilize the rooms. 



High MOOR Farm. 



The State Legislature of 1909 purchased a farm upon which 

 the Maine Experiment vStation "shall conduct scientific investiga- 

 tions in orcharding, corn and other farm crops." The farm is 

 situated in the counties of Kennebec and Androscoggin and 

 largely in the town of Monmouth. It is on the Farmington 

 Branch of the Maine Central Railroad two miles from Leeds 

 Junction. A flag station called Highmoor is on the farm. 



The farm consists of 225 acres, about 200 of which are in 

 orchards, fields and pastures. There are in the neighborhood of 



