206 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I908. 



METHOD OF REARING CHICKENS. 



Finally one other line of work in poultry management which 

 has been developed at the Station and which has attracted wide 

 and favorable attention among practical poultrymen is the 

 study of the best methods of rearing chickens. While it is by 

 no means to be supposed that the last word has been said on 

 this subject it is a fact that the methods of rearing chickens 

 which have been tried at this Station and have been published 

 in its bulletins have been adopted by many poultrymen. This 

 can only be considered as an indication that these methods, if 

 not the best possible, are, at least, regarded by practical poultry- 

 men as better than what they had been using in the past. 



FARMERS^ BULLETIN ON POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 



Before leaving the subject of the poultry management work 

 it may be stated that at the request of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry a Farmers' Bulletin of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture on methods of management of poultry practiced at the 

 Maine Experiment Station is now in course of preparation. 

 The demand for this information the Station has never been 

 able to meet with the editions which it was possible to print of 

 its own bulletins. 



BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 



Turning now to the work of the Experiment Station in breed- 

 ing for egg production it should be said that at the time when 

 this work was undertaken it was truly pioneer work. The 

 larger domestic animals like beef and dairy cattle, sheep, horses, 

 etc., had been bred from earliest times for utility purposes and 

 had been greatly improved by such breeding. No serious 

 attempt had ever been made, however, to apply any consistent 

 plan of breeding poultry for such a pure utility point as egg pro- 

 duction. The breeding of poultry for fancy or show points 

 (feather, form and the like) had long been practiced and had 

 reached a high state of perfection. It was felt on the inaugura- 

 tion of the work that in consideration of the fact that the vast 

 majority of all domestic fowls were kept for their value as 

 producers of either eggs or meat or both that it was highly 

 desirable to learn whether better qualities in regard to these 



