82 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Now in this, as in any and all other branches of farm industry, you 

 should know but one way, and that the right and the best way, and 

 knowing it should practice it. And I can give you no better plan and advise 

 to no better method than to use the same care and diligence in the selec- 

 tion of your breeding pen of hens as you do in the selection of your dairy 

 cows and brood sows. You select these from the cream of your flock 

 and mate them with the best. And why do you do this? Because expe- 

 rience has taught you that this method pays the best. Do the same thing 

 with your hens, for that pays you best which 3 r ou make pay the best. 



The days of slipshod hap-hazard farming, like that of every other 

 industry, are past. The strife for supremacy, or even for existence is 

 loo intense to admit of such methods, and none know better than the 

 farmer and the farmer's wife that "The dust of labor wins the prize." 



Select. your breeding pen in February from your one and two year 

 old hens. Never use pullets: if it can be avoided, for your old hens lay 

 larger eggs and the chicks are stronger. 



Put six or eight of these hens in a pen and mate them with well ma- 

 tured, well developed cockerel. If a larger pen is needed put in twice that 

 number and have two cockerels, putting one in one day and the other the 

 next. These hens are to furnish^eggs for hatching. Use other hens to do 

 the hatching. 



Do not attempt to breed from a male bird that has been frosted, or 

 allowed to fight, or has run with a large flock of hens during the winter, 

 for if you do your early hatch will be a great disappointment. 



Get your male birds from someone who makes a business of raising 

 birds for breeding purposes. This gives you new blood in a fresh bird. 



Do not count too much on a "score card," for a good, strong, healthy 

 bird is worth more to breed from than a "score card." 



Gather the eggs every day and date them, and be sure they do not get 

 chilled before nor after gathering. By this method you will insure a good 

 hatch of strong, healthy chicks, and in general more pullets than roost- 



