112 THK TKAP NKST TEXT HOOK 



There is nothing known about poultry or the poultry business that 

 should not be available for every one who wants it and is willing to pay 

 tor it; he to be the sole judge. It he is not willing to pay for it he is 

 not entitled to it. These opinions are not from the advertiser's stand- 

 point, for, as an advertiser the writer has in most rases been treated 

 courteously and generously. 



[ am writing from the standpoint of a reader who wants to know and 

 is obliged to grope in the dark for many things. Not only beginners, 

 but experienced poultry keepers all over our land are maintaining liens 

 that are not, and never will be profitable -in their hands. 



Many of them waste money and time in the effort to push the average 

 production of the flock np to a profitable point, overworking the good 

 layers and uselessly urging the poor layers to do what they are incapa- 

 ble of doing. 



Again and again we are told ■■cull out the poor layers:"' '-Keep only 

 the profitable hens."' 



The query, -'Mow can I distinguish the profitable hens?" is met with 

 equivocal and vague references to "active hens;" "those with red 

 combs;'' ■■those that sing and hustle and cackle;" "those with long, 

 deep bodies;'' and a lot more qualities that are possessed by the major- 

 ity of hens any way, whatever their laying ability may be. They al- 

 ways avoid the direct claim that all healthy, active hens are profitable 

 layers, for we can prove otherwise; yet that is all that is left when 

 their generalities are boiled down. 



Where in any history of human or animal improvement can we find 

 any proven precedents upon which to base the almost universal theory 

 that great egg production in fowls is mainly a matter of feeding and 

 care? 



We find the flock of heavy layers fed by a man who claims that his 

 system is the main cause of the results. What are we to do with the 

 other man who follows a system that is radically different, yet gets as 

 good or better results than the former? With all this we are more or 

 less at sea. The man who never got half eggs enough, if sold at mar- 

 ket prices, to pay for his feed may stoutly maintain that his hens are 

 prolific layers. 



There is a tremendous lack of figures, of carefully kept accounts 

 showing results in this business. One man's guess is about as good as 

 another's, take all guesses as they run. 



If we breed or buy hens that lay well under our system of feeding, it 

 is because they have the inherent ability to lay well: bred into them 

 somewhere, sometime, by someone. 



If this is not so, if it is all a matter of feed, then the poultryman with 

 his 1()0<). 200(1 or more mongrels is the shrewd poultryman: for in 

 many localities his mixed lots of eggs, all sizes, shapes and colors, han- 

 dled as he handles them, pay him as well as would a more even lot ob- 

 tained by other methods that would not lit him or his conditions. 



Some men claim to make money by buying cheap pullets in January 

 or February, feeding them for eggs until they begin to "shed" in 

 August or September and then selling them for as much or more than 

 they cost. These men never hatch a chick and keep no stock during 

 fall and early winter. 



Another way is to buy cheap stuck, leave food before them all ot the 

 lime, market those who gel fa! or sick and sell the eggs that are sure to 

 be laid by the others, if the food supply contains anything to make 



