76 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



glass, rocks, bone-meal and charcoal by the sack, and the 

 droppings are yellow, mushy and foamy. We quickly find 

 out that instead of forcing them to lay eggs, we force them 

 to lay very quietly, forever. The "high pressure" we have 

 on them consists of the amount of dirt we have on top of 

 them; the higher the dirt, the higher the pressure. 



As our hens are in bad condition, we try this cure and 

 that, different feeds, etc., but the more variations we try 

 the worse off our hens become. Now we read that it is all 

 in the stock, and we come to the conclusion that our hens 

 are poor stock or that they must be of the "beef type," since 

 we never get any eggs from them. 



We start out to find some good stock of the "egg type." 

 We buy 1,000 hens, and there is no question about these 

 being of good, healthy stock and excellent layers, because 

 when we received them each hen was the picture of health 

 and laying regularly. We are willing to pay a high price 

 for these hens, as it is in the late fall — and eggs are high 

 and the hens are through moulting. We start in to feed 

 Ration No. 9 because some one told us that it was a good 

 ration for laying hens. We are going to be on the safe 

 side, and feed them about eight parts of mash to one of 

 meat, but the hens drop off in their laying. Now we try 

 to force them to lay. We add beef-scrap, using six parts of 

 mash to one of meat. We get a few more eggs at first, but 

 if there were a few weak hens among them these weak hens 

 gradually become weaker and die. We now see we are 

 using too much meat, and we cut it down, using ten parts of 

 mash to one of meat. In about a week or so the hens begin 

 to stop laying, and we notice feathers on the dropping- 

 boards. A few days later the feathers of the neck begin to 

 thin out and we notice new feathers growing in. Now we 

 know that our hens are moulting, and we think the man 



