WINTER EGG PRODUCTION 



115 



ration; that is, their principal grain was corn; the 

 other pens had more wheat than corn. The corn was 

 a mixture of white and yellow, the white kernels 

 predominating, it being impossible to get any other 

 kind in this locality. This corn did not seem to 

 afifect the color of the yolk, as eggs from pen No. 5 

 were of the same color as the other pens on the wheat 

 ration. Pen No. 14 was fed skimmed milk in place 

 of meat scraps and cut bones which the other pens 

 received. The eggs from this pen were of the pre- 

 vailing pale color. 



"On March ist the feeding of lucern leaves to the 

 following pens began: — Nos. 2, 5, 7, 8, 25, and 28. 

 On March 9th pens 9 and 11 were added to the 

 lucern pens, and on March 14th pens Nos. 14, 15, 

 18, 20, and 22 were added. On March 18th, eighteen 

 days after the feeding of lucem began, pen 5 on the 

 corn ration, and pens 7, 8, 25, and 28 on the wheat 

 ration, were producing eggs with yolks of normal 

 color. Pens 3, 10, and 27 without lucern leaves con- 

 tinued to lay eggs of the original pale color. 



"On April 5th the eggs from pens 3, 10 and 27 

 were still pale in color. On this date the hens were 

 turned out into the yards which had a growth of 

 green grass, lucern and clover, and on April i6th 

 they were laying eggs with yolks of good color." 



It will be noted by the foregoing that alfalfa (lu- 

 cern leaves) fed in winter has the same effect on 

 eggs as grass has during the spring and summer 



