48 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



I now changed the feed to one recommended by an experi- 

 ment station, and my hens began to lay well. In a short time, 

 however, they would "turn over" — that is to say, they would 

 come up to their greatest laying point and then gradually fall 

 off. I would then start another pen on the same ration and 

 with the same results. I believe that I tried every receipt known 

 to the poultry business. I knew there was something wrong, 

 but did not know what it was. 



Some of the hens were not looking very good, so I thought I 

 would make them brighten up. I started them on the feed I 

 had fed to Pen No. 2, which I had tried out by twenty separate 

 experiments, but instead of picking up as the others had only 

 three of the hens did so. These began to lay nearly every day. 

 On exactly the same food the other hens had laid only about 

 two eggs a day for five hens. The other two hens in the pen 

 continued going down hill very rapidly. 



Here I was getting a different result from what I got in 

 every other experiment. Wasn't there any chance of my ever 

 learning anything? Was it my fault? Did I know anything at 

 all? What was the matter, anyway? 



I now put ten pens on this feed and from these experiments 

 I got exactly the same results as I got in my last experiment, 

 differing wholly from the results I had from the twenty 

 original experiments. In these last experiments the hens that 

 were in the best condition would increase in their egg produc- 

 tion very rapidly, while the other hens got sick. 



The hens that laid would shortly want to set; I tried this 

 food on a large flock of layers, and I was kept on the jump 

 picking out setting hens. Every coop on the place was full of 

 setting hens. I tried this food several times again, and each 

 time it would make my hens set. I have since proved by re- 

 peated experiments that food is the cause of making hens set, 

 in the face of the fact that only a short time ago a poultry expert, 



