SK THE TRAP MOST TKXT HOOK 



I think it is the duty of breeders of poultry to place themselves face to 

 face with the buyer, so to speak, and looking at it from this point of 

 view think what that bird is worth. Remember, he has no other birds 

 bred in the same lines as this one, he does not know how this bird is bred 

 or how many prizes its ancestors have won, but he is buying this bird to 

 get new blood, to improve his stock, and he looks at the individual merits 

 of the bird and has a perfect right to expect his money's worth, not in 

 breeding alone, but in that individual bird. 



With good individuality the chances are that the bird was well bred and 

 will breed well. Good specimens are not in many cases a case of chance, 

 but are the result of careful and systematic breeding. 



Poor birds will come from any mating, I care not how good, but good 

 birds from a poor mating are seldom met with. We should not close our 

 eyes to the defects in our birds simply because they have good breeding 

 back of them. But rather should we keep our eyes open for defects in 

 our birds and by good breeding and by usiug birds with individuality as 

 well, remedy those defects and thus make like produce like, but we want 

 that like to be a bird with individuality. It has been said, "A man's as 

 good as he makes himself, but no man's any good because his grandfather 

 was." The above is as true in poultr}" as in men. 



A PROPHECY. 



To my mind the time will conic when the effort of breeders who are 

 trying- to raise the standard of egg production, will be to produce, bv 

 breeding and general maintenance, a lien that will lay. as nearly as 

 may be, an egg a day every day in the year. 



I regard the figures :Sfi.>, as a standard of egg production, as being- 

 analogous to the fancier's standard of 10(1. Impossible to attain, but. as 

 a standard of a perfect egg yield, one to be aimed at. 



F believe that, when the laws of breeding as they will be found to ap- 

 ply to improvement in egg production are as clearly understood, and as 

 intelligently acted upon as those which apply to standard points are 

 now understood and worked out by the most successful fanciers, the 

 production of a 347-egg hen will represent no greater progress than is 

 now shown by a !>."> point specimen in the show room. 



:U7 eggs per year bears practically the same relation to our standard 

 of :Wn that !).") bears to 100. 



[ think thai any expert poultry feeder who can obtain an average of 

 over l.">(i eggs per hen with a flock of 100 or -_'oo hens will be surprised 

 at the work of some of the individuals if he keeps track of them. It 

 may very reasonably be claimed that there may be a great deal of dif- 

 ference between the skill and care required to so maintain a lien that 

 she will lay close enough to an egg a day to score .!47 e^-points and 

 that required lo raise anil prepare for the show room a !),"> point speci- 

 men. We cannot, any of us. do more than guess at that. 



