100 COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



Of what practical benefit is it to know these things? Simply 

 this, the question constantly arises, which is the most profitable 

 breed of chickens? Or, beginners will ask, which is the more 

 profitable specialty — meat or eggs? 



It is impossible to furnish a reliable answer to these queries 

 with a general statement. The fact of the matter is, there is no 

 one best breed, and no one branch of poultry culture can be said 

 to be the most profitable. There is no greater proof of this than 

 the reports from the Egg Laying Contests for the past six years. 

 Some breeds are more desirable for certain purposes. Even so, 

 there .is as much difference between different strains — different 

 blood lines, of the same variety, as there is between totally different 

 breeds. 



The only way to be sure of the best breed for a certain purpose, 



or the best strain of a certain breed, is 

 to experiment with it and keep an ac- 

 curate record of its behavior. Never 

 take too much for granted in any line 



Icourtesy Kansas Experiment Station) of WOrk, especially in the poultry in- 



Fig. 66. — Aluminum leg dustry. Not that there is any at- 



bands. Small one is for chicks ^gj^pt at willful misrepresentation, 

 and for mserting in the web of ^. -i r n 



the wing. but it does not necessarily follow 



that every one will succeed with cer- 

 tain conditions because some have done so. Do your own think- 

 ing; conduct your own investigations; establish your own rates 

 and records. In no other way will it be possible to really know 

 your business. 



Breeding Records. — To return to our subject, if one wishes to 

 breed from none but the heaviest producers, or from specimens 

 of a particular type, records must be kept of the hatching and 

 brooding. A single great performance really conveys nothing to 

 the poultryman so far as breeding progress is concerned, unless 

 it can be definitely located in the preceding generation and later, 

 in the succeeding generation. It is the heavy layer with the 

 faculty for producing heavy layers, or the fowl of superior type 

 with the capacity to beget offspring of the same superior type, 



