HUBBARD'S POULTRY SECRETS. 43 



Of course, it is like any other machine ; you have to use good 

 judgment and set it according to whatever result you wish to 

 get. If your hens get overfat it is your fault, if they get too 

 thin it is your fault. With good common sense you can set 

 them to meet all the requirements of the different pens, from 

 young to old, whether on free range or yarded, and they pay 

 for themselves many times over in a year by the saving of feed. 

 You can use them indoors or outdoors, just as you see fit, and 

 they will last a lifetime. 



I do not want the readers of this book to look at this write- 

 up of the Norwich Automatic Exerciser and Feeder, as an ad- 

 vertisement for the Feeder. I only speak of it for the benefit of 

 the readers of this system. 



THE BEST BREEDING AGE OF A FEMALE. 



There is a wide difference in opinion among different breed- 

 ers, as to whether hens or pullets will breed the strongest chick- 

 ens. Some claim hens are better, while others claim that pul- 

 lets, mated to a cock, are just as good. I have experimented a 

 great deal and watched results from both hens and pullets, as 

 breeders. Any man in the fancy poultry business must study, 

 and make tests, to find out when a hen or a pullet will breed her 

 strongest and best chickens. 



Pullets that are only five or six months old make very poor 

 breeders, and I would not advise hatching chickens from them 

 at that age ; but a pullet ten or eleven months old can be de- 

 pended upon to throw strong stock, whether mated to a cock or 

 to a well matured cockerel who is ten or eleven months old. By 

 using the following method, I have bred some of the very best 

 show specimens from pullets. A pullet, hatched the first of 

 May, if she is properly grown and cared for will begin to lay 

 in November and should lay well all winter. If she becomes 



