THE GALLINACEOUS TRIBES 



':> 



to take account of these elements in feeding Exportation from Russia is becoming very 



hens. If occasionally eggs are found without active of late, and this country is coming to 

 shells, it is a proof that the food was unsuit- be a formidable rival of Denmark in the Eng- 

 able or insufficient. The skin, which lies lish market. The R-ussian exportation of eggs 

 beneath and against the shell, is 

 composed of two extremely thin 

 membranes, which are slightly seim- 

 rated from each other at the to]) of 

 the egg. In the space between is air 

 with much acid in it, for the use of 

 the chick, as it forms. It sometimes 

 happens that there are two yolks. 

 The white of the egg is connected 

 with the yolk by two threads, or con- 

 duits, which conduct nourishment 

 to the chick during the incubation 

 period . 



A young hen will begin to lay 

 when a year old. It is by that time 

 provided by Nature with an o\-ary 

 which contains the germs of no less 

 than six hundred eggs. The laying 

 diminishes after the fourth year, and 

 is almost entirely finished by the 

 sixth year ; the hen has then fulfilled her duty 

 to Nature. But this is not quick enough for 

 breeders of the present day. Haste and hurry 

 prevail even here, and artificial culture has 



A Rr.\hm,\ Hex 



in 1 90 1 amounted in value to 353,920,000 

 rubles — in round numbers $223,000,000, and 

 it increases e\"ery i,'ear. Russia is already so 



strong in this particular that it is on the point 

 enormously increased the number of chickens of supplanting ftaly and Austria in supplying 



hatched daily and thus the 

 production of eggs, the 

 trade in which appears to 

 be illimitable. In reading 

 the statistics of different 

 countries we are astounded 

 at the enormous demand 

 for this product, and the 

 supply does not keep pace 

 with the demand. In the 

 Netherlands, for instance, 

 that small country which 

 is by no means unsuited 

 for the production of eggs, 

 the deficit last year was 



"Rit.a,",Jl Bk.aekel Pullet Pkize 

 Winn EH 



Other countries. 



fV. I^.WING AND 



BRoonixG 



ft goes without saying 

 that many of those who 

 keep fowls have no inten- 

 tion of \-enturing upon the 

 great markets of the world. 

 So long as they raise eggs 

 and chickens for their own 

 c o n s u m p t i o n t h e \' are 

 satisfied. Yet these small 

 breeders and owners of 

 poultry ought to be well 



seventy million. Denmark may serve as a model informed as to the best methods of managing 



to the lesser countries in the raising of chickens, the inhabitants of their poultry yards. In the 



It exports yearly about four million dollars' first place, they ought to know that hens when 



worth ; and the husbandmen profit by it. laying and brooding should, as far as possible. 



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