POULTRY-CRAFT. 151 
work, a season’s breeding, and a short period of the laying of pullets from 
them. For this reason, if for no other, hens are more desirable breeders than 
pullets. Shape and size of eggs laid by each hen must be considered, and 
sometimes color of eggs also. The laying-breeding hen should be well built, 
symmetrical. Defective shape may be tolerated in an individual, but ought 
not to be perpetuated. 
In breeding from extraordinary layers, particular attention should be given 
to condition. To the statement in 4196, that a breeder should select those 
specimens in which desired qualities were best developed, the proviso, 
‘¢ without detriment to other qualities,” was added because artificial standards 
sometimes require things which are incompatible; but more particularly 
because in breeding practical poultry the development of laying or table 
qualities is easily brought to the point where further development is at the 
expense of other qualities, and thus detrimental to the stock. Chicks from 
eggs laid in the first two months of a mature hen’s laying, are, on the whole, 
better than those from eggs produced when the hen has been laying continu- 
ously for three or four months. The best layers should be ¢rzed as breeders 
if they are in good condition at the season. There are some big layers that 
are uncommonly good breeders; but in general, a hen that lays a hundred 
and fifty eggs a year is worth more as a breeder than one which lays several 
dozen more. 
207. Selecting Breeders to Produce Market Poultry.— In selecting 
stock for this purpose shape is most important. Figs. 47-54 show good types 
for broilers and small roasters. Figs, 56-62, 73, 74, show good types for 
general market fowls. In selecting from common stock preference should be 
given to specimens approaching one of the good meat types. Stock for 
breeding broilers should be quick maturing, early laying, and generally good 
laying stock. Quick growth is an important point in broiler production. 
Only hens that lay early and well can be depended on to produce market 
poultry, roasters as well as broilers, for the earliest demand. The early 
roaster is, as a rule, just a broiler grown older. For large roasters, slow 
maturing stock is best, as the meat of the young males remains soft much 
longer. <A point of much importance is how the fowl fattens. owls which 
are prone to put on internal fat do not make good breeders. 
208. Age of Breeding Stock.—Fowls should be at their best their 
second season, at the beginning of which they are generally twenty to twenty- 
four months old. If they are not then in tip-top condition, more “fit” for 
breeding than in the previous year, the breeder should look for something 
wrong in his method of handling breeding stock. A hen coming two years 
old, if not forced as a pullet, and if properly handled between seasons, will 
lay as well the second year as the first, and lay larger eggs, which will hatch 
stronger and better chicks. A cock of the same age that has not been over- 
