<90 PROFITABLE POULTRY PRODUCTION 



'market channels. The production of a larger pro- 

 portion of eggs of strong, healthy chicks, and conse- 

 quently a greater net profit, depends very largely 

 upon the selection. This question of selection is 

 one of the most important the poultryman has to 

 answer. The reason is that more is being required 

 of the flock today than formerly. We are demand- 

 ing more of the hen in proportion to her live weight 

 than from any other domestic animal. Because of 

 this, fowls frequently break down or show lack of 

 vigor in their offspring. Much of the infertility, 

 the low-hatching power of eggs, weakness of chicks 

 and mortality in full-grown stock is traceable to the 

 impaired constitution of the parent fowls, due in a 

 large measure to the strain of producing abundant 

 eggs under intensive methods. Hens in commer- 

 cial poultry yards are expected to lay about five 

 times their weight of eggs annually. This means 

 an egg at least every third day, or perhaps even 

 every second day. 



According to Dr. W. H. Jordan, of the New York 

 state experiment station, a Leghorn fowl weighing 

 3^ pounds and laying 200 eggs which weigh 25 

 pounds may be compared with a Jersey cow weigh- 

 ing 1,000 pounds and giving 7,000 pounds of milk 

 containing 14% of solids during the year. If the 

 dry matter of the hen be compared with that of the 

 eggs there will be ^yi times as much in the eggs 

 as in her whole body. In the cow's body the weight 

 of the dry matter to that in the milk is i to 2.0. 

 Hence the hen does twice as well as the cow upon 

 'the dry-matter basis. She is therefore "the most 

 efficient transformer of raw material into a finished 

 product that there is on the farm." In her phvsio- 

 logical activity she stands in a class b)- herself. 



