288 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
fowls need at least two more months to mature and you have to 
foot the food bill. The Leghorn is self-supporting at five months 
and she will remain profitable for at least two years. She will 
lay from 150 to 250 eggs during her pullet year, and taking her 
weight at four pounds, she will lay her own weight in eggs from 
six to eight times in one season. 
As a winter layer she is unexcelled during her first year. One 
is told that the best winter layers are certain specified heavy breeds. 
I have tried them all but have not found any of them to equal, 
far less to beat, the Leghorn during the winter months of her first 
season. If she is hatched in early April she will, as a rule, begin 
to lay in October and will keep on all the winter and spring months, 
when eggs reach their highest price, with an unbroken consistency 
that few, if any, other birds can equal. One may get a few more 
eggs during one or two of the winter months from some of the 
specialised heavy breeds, but if we take the six months from 
October to March inclusive—the real winter months—the Leghorn 
brooks no rival. 
As a winter layer, as a spring, winter and autumn layer, commend 
me to the tiny Leghorn, one of the smallest and most prolific of 
birds. She is the money-earner, the food-finder, the true farmers’ 
friend. 
Others can swear by Russian Orloffs, Sicilian Buttercups, 
Rhode Island Reds, White Wyandottes if they like. These are 
all fine birds, capable of great things, but great as they are, permit 
me to commend the Leghorn to the commercial egg-farmer who 
values a bank balance on the credit side. I have tried and tested 
them, and they have never been found wanting. 
