10 THE TEAP NEST TKXT HOOK 



scientific tone in any of my writing, past or present. I have « tight 

 for the most simple language that would correctly define my meaning. 

 There is a tendency in poultry literature to simplify at the expense 

 of accuracy. We are told, for instance, that too much corn will make 

 a hen become broody. Such is not, necessarily, the case. A tendency 

 toward broodiness carries with it u tendency to fatten, hence the whole 

 process will be encouraged by the presence of food elements that can 

 be readily converted into fat. 



We are told that clover, vegetables and meat will nmke a hen lay a 

 large number of eggs. Those foods will not, necessarily, bring about 

 any such result. The elements contained in them will enable the hen 

 with normal digestive and assimilative powers to feed such eggs as her 

 inherent tendencies cause to be passed clown. That number may be 

 greater or less according to the capacity of the individual and the in- 

 fluences of surrounding conditions. 



The scientific writer who makes a special study of foods and food 

 values in their application to mankind or animals is prone to attribute 

 far greater powers to his favorite foods than actual and general 

 practice shows them to possess. 



The recent boom in the by-products of certain concerns illustrate 

 this point without lessening or increasing the actual value of those 

 by-products in the least, as they are converted in the internal 

 economy of those who eat them. One of the greatest points in fav- 

 or of certain much-extolled foods for men or fowls is that they can 

 be made to take the place, to a considerable extent, of heavier foods 

 that are usually used in excess of the actual needs of the body. Over- 

 feeding of ourselves, and those dependent upon us, is a national fault. 

 A man can over-feed himself every day in the year without increasing 

 his weight or the size of his aldermanic trade-mark. 



Natural individual tendencies regulate, in a marked degree, the 

 appropriation of food elements in the body. These tendencies vary 

 with different individuals and are largely controlled by heredity. 



One more reference to inaccurate writing and I will close this long 

 preamble. One writer of current poultry fact and fiction asserts with 

 great assurance that all of the big v>i}>; records arc made by pullets. 

 .Some of u.s who live where we can communicate freely with the outer 

 world know that this is not so. 



L had a Hock of twenty-three not very remarkable liens last year( 1901) 

 that were hatched in '!)8 and '99 that averaged 124 l'-.'i eggs each for 

 the year. Two of them laid 177 each, one HJ2, one 1;">1 and soon down 

 to 71, the lowest record. Some of these birds are yel with me and arc 

 hiving well. These are exceptional hens, perhaps, but (hey have not 

 received exceptional care. 



