124 POULTR?-CRAFT. 
skilled poultrymen — not the exception, as they are now. When all is said 
and done, the condition of the egg crop in November and December is just as 
dependent on the weather as the condition of the wheat crop just previous to 
harvest. The weather can make or mar it. 
163. The Factors of a Good Egg Yield are: Good stock, comfortable 
quarters, proper food, sufficient exercise, reasonable cleanliness, favorable 
weather. 
164. Selecting Laying Stock.— The descriptions of fowls in Chapter 
V. indicated some varieties as good layers. It was also stated that hens 
of any variety might be made good layers. Selection of laying stock for 
immediate egg production must take account of stock more strictly than to 
accept general character or possible development. In selecting laying hens 
of unknown individual merit —as must nearly always be done—the only 
reliable guide is the laying capacity of the particular stock from which the 
hens come. Usually this mode of selection gives good average results. To 
select individual good layers by appearance —by points—is impossible. 
Prolificacy is entirely independent of physical structure, (barring some 
deformities), and also independent of temperament. If, as is nearly always 
the case, large eggs are desired, the hens selected should be :— if of a small 
breed, large of their kind; if of a medium sized breed, medium to large; for 
it is a physical impossibility for a small hen to be a very prolific layer of 
large eggs; and, besides, the tendency to lay eggs large out of proportion to 
her size is objectionable in a hen, because rendering her peculiarly subject to 
trouble in extruding her eggs. Moreover, hens small of their kind are usually 
runts, stunted, ill-developed. Medium to small hens of the large breeds lay 
eggs as large as need be; but hens that are much under size lack the staying 
qualities of better developed birds. 
165. Exercise.*—What Kind ? — Fowls at liberty take exercise princi- 
pally by walking and by scratching. It may be observed that when they 
have a suitable place in which to scratch they pass much of the time there. 
This propensity to scratch, long reckoned the hen’s peculiar vice, is turned 
to advantage by those keeping hens in confinement. Without the littered 
scratching-feeding floor, keeping hens healthy and productive in confinement 
is difficult. With this provision for exercise, hens are kept in perfect health, 
at the highest stage of productiveness,— not for a few weeks or months, but 
for two or three years, during which they may never once leave the house 
and small yard attached. Further, better results, in eggs, are obtained from 
hens in confinement than from hens at liberty. On most of the best poultry 
plants the littered scratching floors are considered indispensable. + 
~ NotEe.— House and yard accommodations and foods were considered at length in 
preceding chapters. 
+ Note.— For fowls on free range, or in good large yards — in addition to the regular 
