WHAT BACKYARDERS CAN DO 33 
weighing three and a half pounds will lay as big an egg—perhaps 
bigger—as one weighing four and a half pounds. But the lighter 
bird, during the laying season, will eat as much food as the heavier 
bird. It needs it. Eggs are composed of the matter the hen eats 
and drinks. They are not spun out of the “‘ inner consciousness ”’ 
of the fowl like the theories of the German professor. Nothing 
comes out of a hen but what enters into it. The matter changes 
its form, that is all. The concentrated food after it has undergone 
a chemical change in the bird’s body, necessary to make it into the 
organic product, we call an egg. The materials necessary to make 
eggs we Shall deal with later on. 
Tue INTENSIVIST 
The poultry beginner is now on the point of selecting his stock. As 
an intensivist he is recommended to select his birds from a light 
breed or alternatively from the Rhode Island Red and Wyandotte. 
To the inexperienced I would say—without beating about the bush 
—choose a Leghorn. I do so, because on the whole they are easier 
to get, they are very hardy and they are more universally proved 
egg-layers. Far more attention has been given to the Leghorn 
to produce eggs than has been given to the other light breeds. 
No doubt there are certain strains of the Ancona and Campine 
that are about equal to the Leghorn as prolific egg-layers, but 
these are by no means easy to procure, whereas anyone with the 
means can purchase a good laying strain of the Leghorn. The 
Leghorn is of various colours—White, Black, Blue, Brown being 
the best known. The White is perhaps the best egg-producer but 
the Black is little, if any, behind. For the town dweller, then, 
one would commend the Black in preference to the White, but 
it is a matter of esthetics rather than one of profit. A white 
bird in the midst of the soot and dirt inseparable from large cities 
will obviously not be able to maintain its pristine colour and will 
approach nearer the Blue or the Black in hue, without being either 
the one or the other. If one does not mind a dirty white, then a 
White Leghorn will do, but if a Black Leghorn is selected, then 
c 
