FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 69 



The other poorer-class people for the most part sent 

 their children out into the open where they received a great 

 deal of direct sunlight, which is the reason they were com- 

 paratively free from rickets. 



So, in carrying on this experimental work, they wanted 

 to establish decisively the effect of sunlight. 



They again resorted to the baby chick, as rickets show 

 up very easy in the baby chick. They took a bunch of hens, 

 put six in a coop and three of these hens had red leg bands 

 and three white. They then duplicated the previous tests, 

 that is, these birds were all sheltered, fed and cared for in 

 identically the same way, with this exception : Each day 

 they took the three hens out of each coop that had the red 

 leg bands on and carried the coop outside for ten minutes. 



They had trap nests fixed right along beside these 

 coops and when the birds went in and deposited their eggs, 

 they were trapped so that when the attendant came he 

 marked each egg so as to identify the eggs. 



They haven't yet been able to grow a baby chick out of 

 a non-rayed hen. Those chicks produced by the birds given 

 ten minutes of sunlight a day could be put in a basement 

 room and kept absolutely out of the sunlight and no leg 

 weakness would be developed. 



Now, they carried this thing a little further. They are 

 now conducting experiments on this subject. They are 

 keeping the hens out of sunlight and producing eggs from 

 that condition; then putting the eggs in an incubator and, 

 while in the process of incubating, giving them a shot of 

 sunlight to see if they can produce a chick of the same 

 vitality as a rayed hen. 



Now, I am not giving a poultry lecture. This is just as 

 applicable to the dairy industry. 



I was talking to a gentleman yesterday. He is down in 

 this county where certainly they have this beautiful sun- 

 light. He. has his cows put in the first of October. He 

 keeps them in the barn until grass and he wonders why he 

 has low yield. It is simply because mineral digestion and 

 reproductions are very closely associated. It is necessary 



