DOMESTIC FOWL 75 



600 Leghorns made a record of 196 eggs apiece ! 

 In England a pen of eighteen birds once laid more 

 than 200 eggs to the hen, and at Cornell University 

 a single leading spirit has accounted for 258 in 

 one year ! 



Although the breeder relies upon selection to 

 produce his prolific strains, he gives a great deal 

 of thought to the proper feeding of his flock. The 

 number of eggs a hen is capable of laying de- 

 pends entirely upon her food. In order to do her 

 best, she must receive a well-balanced ration, one 

 which contains a suJB&ciency of protein, or muscle- 

 and energy-producing food, together with carbo- 

 hydrates whose function is to make fat and de- 

 velop body heat. These are administered in 

 large enough quantities to counterbalance the 

 elements consumed in restoring waste tissue, the 

 production of an egg, and the generation of heat. 

 To the ration are added plenty of water and green 

 food for maintaining the water-content of the 

 body and eggs, and for serving to keep the bird 

 in proper health and production. 



Attempts by other means than the selection of 

 good strains and scientific feeding have been made 

 to increase the laying capacity of a flock, but thus 

 far they have met with a small amount of real 

 success. Working under the fallacious idea that 

 the hen, upon missing her egg, will soon replace 

 it with another, people have constructed trap- 

 nests in which the egg rolls away from the hen 



