EARLY MATl'KITY 07 



no doubt running riot in (lie fancy the same is true in utility circles. 

 The expert fancier possesses the best knowledge of the laws of breeding. 



The show room has attracted all sorts of superficial breeders, but util- 

 ity would many times do well to fret hold of some of the rules of good 

 practice observed by fanciers. 



Unfortunately a blue ribbon does not carry with it a guarantee of pro- 

 lificacy. At the present stage of the art it seems hardly reasonable to 

 suppose that any considerable number of fanciers would discard birds 

 possessing superior Standard qualities merely because they exhibited 

 tendencies opposed to great <>gg production. , It is far easier to scoff at 

 the ''theory," deny the tendency, claim prolificacy, and make a run for 

 the ribbons with their financial attractions. Vet. for all this, stock from 

 the yards and eggs of fanciers who win in ■'hot company'' have proved 

 to be grand layers. So have some mongrels. 



Tt is a condition all around that causes both deep reflection and much 

 loose talk, but it is unavoidable. 



Self-interest prostitutes truth and retards progress: yet truth cannot 

 be found, and progress is impossible without self-interest. 



This matter of early laying often appears in a wrong light to the or- 

 dinary poultry raiser. He may have 100 pullets. Tlu-ij begin to lay- 

 in September. They lay an average of three c^^s each in October. The 

 average gradually increases through November. December and Jan- 

 uary. In February they lay quite well, in March ami April still better. 

 The point of error is in (he word t/i/i/. The size of the flock and egg yield 

 are -always associated in the owner's mind. Very likely all of 

 the eggs laid in September were laid by three or four pullets, perhaps 

 by one. Eight or ten, or perhaps less, may be laying in October, but 

 it is possible that none of them are the same that laid in September. In 

 November a new lot may come along and the previous layers stop. New 

 ones may begin faster than the earlier layers stop thus increasing the 

 general egg supply until February or March, when those that had begun 

 early and stopped, have begun again. Their eggs added to those of the 

 pullets that did not begin laying until January. February or March 

 make up a fair total. The poultry keeper imagines that the earliest lay- 

 ers have kept laying all the time, excepting those that may have become 

 broody, and that the average each month represented fairly well the 

 work of each bird. Such is probably never the case in an ordinary 

 flock. Pullets often lay regularly aud freely from the very first egg. 

 If a pen of 12 pullets gave 2<i eggs in September it is perfectly possible 

 that one pullet laid them all. I got ■>« eggs one September from a lot 

 of pullets and 20 came from one pullet and six from another. 



In late summer and fall when the hens are in molt the situation is 

 reversed. One by one the hens stop laying entirely, but certain ones 

 keep right on; they are persistent. A few eggs per week from the 



