A IJUAL PURl'OSl- TYPE 33 



the farmci' can market his lahor and crop hi a condensed form; the 

 hen and the cow arc wise provisions of nature to utilize and trans- 

 form much of what would be unmarketable grain and pasture into a 

 high form of nourishment, eggs and milk, and then render up their 

 carcasses for food. 



In addition to that economy which makes dairy cattle and chickens 

 a part of permanent agriculture, the products of these animals are 

 particularly valuable because they are well balanced foods. The 

 price of meat cannot be compared to the price of eggs, because they 

 are dissimilar products, meat being defective in ash and low in 

 vitamines. Eggs have satisfactory proteins and, like milk, are satis- 

 factory in ash or minerals, also in vitamines, which are necessary to 

 growth and health. In cooking, there is no substitute for an egg any 

 more than there is a substitute for wheat. The chemical analysis of 

 another grain may show as many calories, but if the gluten is not 

 of the same kind, it makes a crumbly bread instead of a light bread. 

 The albumen of the egg serves about the same purpose in cooking. 

 Thus, taking it all in all, considering the place of the hen on the farm 

 and the value of her product, it is evident that chickens are in a class 

 b}' themselves, and no one can fairly doubt of the future. 



Demand for poultry products. It is not necessary to urge the 

 farmers of the country to take up poultrj'keeping. They already have 

 poultry, they know something of its possibilities, and they are becom- 

 ing more and more interested in better stock and better methods, for 

 they perceive the dawn of a new opportunity which is based on a 

 new price level for poultry and eggs, and a demand so wide that the 

 products are always staple. 



It is interesting to contemplate how enormously poultry produc- 

 tion can be expanded by these country producers, not as a result of 

 more labor and a materially increased cost of maintenance, but by 

 employing sound stock and giving the birds more thoughtful care. 

 Missouri furnishes an example of what grading the hens and intelli- 

 gently directed effort on the part of the caretaker will accomplish. 

 According to the census, the farm hens of Missouri lay an average of 

 sixty-four eggs a year. The State Agricultural College at Columbia 

 sent a man out into the state to arrange with some Missouri farmers 

 to put into practice such recommendations as the college could ofifer 

 on poultrykeeping, and the recommendations were put into practice 

 and the work carried through on twenty-four farms in thirteen coun- 

 ties. The average egg yield on those farms was a fraction over one 

 hundred eggs per hen for the year, or three dozen more than the 

 state-wide average. What does this mean? If the farm hens of 

 Missouri could be made to lay only one more egg per hen per year, 

 and that egg could be sold in December at five cents, there would 

 be an increased return of one million dollars to farmers of the state. 



Successful poultrykeeping is not limited to the more fertile and 

 rich sections. It is, in fact, of relatively more importance in the 



