372 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
An Egg Farm. 
by li. h. stoddard.— Sixth Article. 
The layers must be of a breed that affords 
chickens easily reared, for success in the nursery 
department is all-important; they must be at 
the head of the 
list of prolific lay¬ 
ers of fair - sized 
eggs. None but a 
non - sitting race 
will answer, for 
sitters make fully 
double the labor 
during half of the 
year; and the 
feathers must be 
light, because dark 
ones show badly 
when chickens are 
dressed. There is 
at present no breed 
that fulfills all these 
conditions as well 
as the White Leg¬ 
horn. It may de¬ 
generate in time, as 
other races of fowls 
have done, by be¬ 
ing bred for fancy 
instead of utility, 
but it possesses 
now more vigor 
than any other 
non-sitting breed. Excessive wattles, comb, 
and tail, prized by the fanciers, are for our pur¬ 
pose avoided, and by selecting the most 
moderate combs and other appendages for a 
number of generations, our stock appears as in 
fig. 1, which, like all of our illustrations, 
was drawn from life. In breeding poultry, show 
and utility do not get on well together in the 
long run. To fanciers unquestionably belongs 
the credit of originating improved breeds, but 
afterwards, in fixing conventional points for the 
show-room, the 4 • 
stock is often ruin¬ 
ed in their hands. 
To prevent freez¬ 
ing of the combs 
and wattles dur¬ 
ing severe winters, 
they should be 
dubbed when the 
birds are two 
thirds grown (see 
fig. 3 on preceding 
page). The opera¬ 
tion is not so pain¬ 
ful as might ap¬ 
pear, and if shears 
are used, the blood¬ 
vessels are pinch¬ 
ed, and but little 
blood will flow. 
The layers are 
relied upon to pro¬ 
duce the principal 
part of the income, 
and as they are 
chief in point of 
numbers, the de¬ 
tached stations 
where they are kept form the main part of the 
establishment, to which the breeding and sit¬ 
ting departments are merely tributary. Most 
of the layers must be kept only until the 
age of from fifteen to twenty months, and then 
killed for sale, and their places supplied with 
young pullets. This course is necessary, be¬ 
cause the yield of eggs is greatest during the 
first laying season if the hens are of an early- 
maturing breed and are fed high, and stimu¬ 
lated to the utmost, as they must be, to secure 
the highest profit. For though hens are still 
Fig. 1.— WHITE LEGHORNS. 
Vigorous at two years, yet it will be found that 
after a course of forcing to their greatest capa¬ 
city through the first season, they can not gener¬ 
ally be made to lay profusely during the second. 
If we chose not to put on the full pressure of 
diet the first year, but to feed moderately high 
for two or three years, a fair yield of eggs would 
be afforded during each. But such a course 
would not pay as well as to keep pullets only, 
and maintain a forcing system constantly from 
the time they commence to lay until they stop, 
Fig. 3. —LIGHT BRAHMAS. 
and then market them before they eat up the 
profits in the idleness of fall and winter. Pul¬ 
lets grow fast during the early part of their 
lives and give a return in flesh for what they 
eat then. After they commence laying, their 
eggs are prompt dividends, and, besides, their 
bodies increase in weight until the age of a year 
or more. Young hens may be killed a fort¬ 
night after ceasing to lay, and if they have been 
skillfully fed, their flesh will prove excellent 
for the table as compared with fowls that are 
two or three years old. It is no wonder that 
there is little liking 
for the adult fowls 
the markets ordi¬ 
narily afford, for 
they comprise 
many that are very 
old and unfit for 
food. But regular- 
customers will soon 
approve fowls a 
year old, which 
have been supplied 
with the cleanest 
food, and brought 
to just the proper- 
fatness, and deliv¬ 
ered freshly killed 
and neatly dress¬ 
ed, and our experi¬ 
ence proves that 
the families upon 
the egg route will 
order all that the 
establishment has 
to dispose of. The 
high-pressure mode 
of feeding and 
turning off while 
yet young, is then the true policy. The point 
is, there is a certain consumption of food to 
enable any animal to keep alive. The ordinary 
vital operations, aside from laying or increase 
of size, demand force, obtained through food— 
which is money—and we should aim to support 
only such fowls as are all the while giving re¬ 
turns in either growth or eggs. The long period 
of moulting and recovering from its consequent 
exhaustion, costs, as does the maintenance of the 
vital fires during the cold of winter. It is a 
,„v matter of quick 
balancing of prof¬ 
its and expenses 
with animals, 
which, like fowls, 
consume the value 
of their bodies in 
about six months. 
If it is urged that 
the stimulating diet 
and unnatural pro¬ 
lificness will sub¬ 
ject the stock to 
disease, the reply 
is that the regimen 
is not continued 
more than six or 
eight months, and 
in that time evil 
effects will not 
ordinarily follow, 
for the birds are 
allowed freedom, 
sun, and air, and 
special provision is 
made for daily 
exercise. As none 
of the fowls to 
■which this forcing system is applied, leave 
descendants, no evil effects are accumulated 
and entailed upon the stock. The layers are 
from the eggs of fowls that have not been 
subjected to any such pressure, and during 
the period of their principal growth they 
