16 COMMERCIAL EGG FARMING 



very large eggs are not desirable. They 

 should be of good shape, not long and thin 

 or otherwise unusual. 



Eggs coming from a distance by rail as a 

 rule will not hatch as well as those produced 

 at home and placed in the incubator without 

 jarring. But as I find it necessary to buy 

 eggs for the purpose of obtaining cockerels 

 to mate with the following year's breeding 

 hens, the loss entailed by broken eggs and 

 broken yolks must be borne with. I have 

 made it a practice, during all the years in 

 which I have been poultry farming, to intro- 

 duce new blood from the very best flocks in 

 existence, and the wisdom of this practice is 

 proved year by year by the continuously in- 

 creased egg average of the flock, the greater 

 stamina, and the better health of the birds. 



There are many who believe that the in- 

 troduction of new blood into a flock from 

 even the best outside sources will only do 

 damage as far as egg production is concerned, 

 and consequently these breeders practice 

 "line breeding." Line breeding is only pos- 

 sible for the expert breeder, for if mistakes 

 are made, all the mischief of inbreeding must 



