THE MARKET FOR POULTRY 9 



for new-laid eggs. As already noted, clean eggs, 

 guaranteed fresh, are always in great demand and 

 in private trade even higher than market prices can 

 usually be secured. By proper breeding and man- 

 agement it is very easy to increase the number of 

 eggs each hen will lay. If Maine can average loi, 

 why not Louisiana? Proof that this can be done 

 is frequent. Common sense, care in selection, feed- 

 ing and management have produced whole flocks 

 of hens which average more than 120 eggs a year. 

 Flocks which average 150 or more are occasional 

 and many individual hens, especially in Australia, 

 where great interest in egg production is taken, 

 have exceeded 200. Again, by judicious calcula- 

 -tion as to the time of hatching, hens may be brought 

 into laying when eggs command highest prices. 

 This will be explained in a later chapter. 



IMPORTANCE OF GOOD BREED 



Well-bred cattle, sheep and swine, are acknowl- 

 edged superior to scrub stock by all progressive, 

 thinking farmers and every argument that applies 

 to such stock applies with even greater stress to 

 pure-bred poultry, because the money invested 

 can be made to yield returns in so touch 

 shorter time. No stock pays better nor even so 

 well, dollar for dollar invested. Mongrel fowls, 

 if cared for as even they should be, require as much 

 time and labor as improved breeds, but almost in- 

 variably the returns from them, as generally man- 

 aged, are less ; and this quite apart from the sale of 

 eggs for hatching or of fowls for breeding. To be 

 sure, they are less costly to buy than pure-bred 

 fowls. So are scrub pigs, sheep and cattle, but what 

 thoughtful man deliberately buys them? 



