THE 200-EGG HEN 



105 



when they are comfortable out of doors and can find sufficient 

 food, for their purpose. 



The use of trap nests and careful record keeping has dis- 

 closed the truth concerning the laying qualities of our pure- 

 bred fowls. A flock which can produce an average of 150 

 •eggs per year for each hen (and that is a mighty good lay- 



Comfortable Quarters for the Housewife's Fowls, Banked with Corn 

 Stalks and Equipped with an Improvised Open Shed. 



ing flock) is almost sure to have some hens in it that are lay- 

 ing 200 or more eggs in the year; but, if the breeder has no 

 way of knowing which hen it is that is his or her best layer, 

 there is very little chance of improving the laying qualities 

 of the flock. The only practical way in which improvement 

 in the laying can be accomplished is by careful selection and 

 mating. Of course care is necessarily limited in its effect. 

 One can give a scrub cow the very best of food and care, 

 but she will not begin to give product in the milk and butter 

 which the same care would bring from a well-bred Jersey 

 of a heavy milking strain. Just so with the laying hen — 

 a flock of hens which for generations have been selected and 

 mated to produce superior layers will respond much more 



