74 Veterinary Elements. 



tube; during its downward course being coated with a 

 dense layer of albumen, lower down the oviduct 

 more albumen is added, the last albumen added being 

 more watery than the first, then a thin film-like mem- 

 brane formed of albumen is added; still further down, 

 the small end outwards, it reaches the uterine widening 

 where it is coated with a thick white fluid which hard- 

 ens and becomes the shell. The color of the egg shell is 

 got from the color secreting villi of the uterine cavity, 

 the pores in the egg shell being the result of contact with 

 those villi. The shell substance contains carbonate of 

 lime with a little carbonate of magnesia, phosphate 

 of lime and magnesia; food containing these materials 

 or the materials themselves must therefore be supplied 

 to the feathered farm stock. The egg takes from four to 

 six hours to travel from the ovary to the uterus, where it 

 may stay twelve to twenty hours before being extruded 

 as the egg of commerce. 



Mating of Poultry. The same principles of mating 

 apply to poultry as to the four-footed stock; there- 

 fore for breeding purposes a cock may be allowed 

 ten to twenty hens, more than that number is un- 

 profitable, the large percentage of infertile eggs com- 

 plained of by many farmers is due to the overtaxing 

 of the procreative powers of the cock. Pullets and 

 year old hens are the most profitable layers, the 

 breeding hens should be one year old or upwards, it is 

 not advisable to hatch from pullet eggs. Ducks are 

 usually paired or two ducks to one drake, the female 

 may lay as many as 40 to 50 eggs in a season. The gan- 

 der is usually given three geese, who lay two settings of 



