76 ROULTRY BREEDING 
BACTERIA IN EGGS.—It is necessary to keep de- 
cayed eggs from contact with good ones because the bac- 
teria that cause decay find their way through the shells 
and infect the good ones in the same box. All eggs con- 
tain bacteria but these do no harm as long as the tem- 
perature is kept below 38°. The bacteria begin to 
multiply rapidly above 38° and grow rapidly, decaying 
quickly. 
BEST AGE FOR LAYING.—\'ery careful tests have 
established the fact that hens rarely lay as many eggs in 
their second year of laving as in the first. The difference 
is great enough to make it an object for the poultryman 
to try to raise each year enough pullets to take the places 
of the hens which have finished a year of laying. Pullets 
hatched in the spring begin laving in the fall, if they have 
been properly cared for, and by a year from the time they 
begin laying they have made the best yearly record they 
ever will make. It may be given as a general rule that a 
pullet that makes a good record the first year will make 
a better record as a hen the second vear than will be 
made by a hen of the same age that did not make a good 
record in her first vear. This indicates that the record 
for the first vear of laying may be taken as an indication 
of the quality of the hen. The Maine Experiment Station 
tests the pullets the first vear and reserves the best of 
them for breeders the second year, thus always having 
tested hens in the breeding yards. 
BIRD.—The poultryman uses the word “bird” to des- 
ignate any individual member of his flock of poultry, no 
matter what the class may be. The plural is used to rep- 
resent the whole flock in the same manner. 
BLACKHEAD IN TURKEYS.—In 1895 Dr. Theo- 
bald Smith, then of the Bureau of Animal Industry, re- 
