£/V7-RY HPJ4 
PH 010X^6X0 
NEW YORK, MAY 15, 1909 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
VALUE OF HEN-RAISED CHICKS* 
Keep Away From Fads. 
Some time ago I noticed in The R. N.-Y. where 
a prominent incubator manufacturer was reported as 
saying chickens hatched artificially would lose in 
Vitality, and should not be used as breeding stock. 
This statement, coming from this source, must have 
some foundation. We like to hear a man speak out 
plain truths like this, even if it is not in a line to 
boost his business. Heretofore we had heard only 
the bright side of artificial incubation, while the man 
who has stuck to the natural method of hatching was 
looked on as a back number. Where Leghorn and 
other non-sitting breeds are kept exclusively, incu¬ 
bators and brooders will have to be used, but the 
incubator manufacturer points a way out of the ten¬ 
dency to deteriorate, by using hen-hatched males at 
the head of the breed¬ 
ing pen. This, no doubt, 
would have a good effect 
on the chicks, but I 
would go to a little 
more trouble and pro¬ 
cure females of the 
same origin. It has been 
my experience that some 
strains of the older 
breeds have run out and 
become weakened, from 
too much artificial hatch¬ 
ing and rearing, making 
the raising of young 
chickens almost impos¬ 
sible. If such is the 
case, it is well to have 
the fact pointed out in 
order that we may rem¬ 
edy the matter by using 
hen-hatched and reared 
stock entirely for breed¬ 
ing purposes, until we 
have the original vigor 
restored. No doubt the 
incubator is not as much 
to blame as the brood¬ 
ing system for so much 
weakness, due to over¬ 
crowding and lack of 
ventilation. At any rate, 
the inquiries as to 
“What ails my incuba¬ 
tor-hatched chicks?” 
seem to be steadily in¬ 
creasing each year. And NO 
in order to save hen- 
dom from a race of 
weaklings, would we not better go a little less stren¬ 
uously on artificial and latest fad methods? 
However, I don’t believe the incubator and brooder 
man is doing any more to promote these undesirable 
conditions than the man who is everlastingly “hol¬ 
lerin’ ” “trap nest” and “dry mash” system of feeding. 
The tendency of both is away from nature, and con¬ 
sequently has its bad effect. Every time a hen is 
“trapped” and kept on her nest one second longer 
than she wants to be, worries her; whatever is worry¬ 
ing, will weaken that germ and will crop out in a 
large proportion of succeeding generations. The 
present fad of paying fancy prices for trap-nested 
stock, which is reported as showing 225 eggs and 
upward per hen, I fear, is going to be of little ben¬ 
efit to the poultry business. While it makes a fine 
industry for quite a number of fanciers, with elastic 
consciences, there are of course many honest pro¬ 
ducers who are straining every nerve to get the last 
available egg from their hens. It is from this push¬ 
ing, forcing treatment they are giving their stock, 
that succeeding generations suffer weakness, as every 
experienced poultryman knows. Strong chickens can¬ 
not be hatched from eggs produced in this way. 
Though we do succeed in getting a few hens bred 
to lay an average of more than 225 eggs per year, 
what does it amount to if they have not the consti¬ 
tution to transmit the tendency? A number of 
authentic experiments have been tried along this line, 
among which the Maine Experiment Station, I be¬ 
lieve, gave rather discouraging results, namely, heavy 
producers of eggs did not have the power to trans¬ 
mit their laying ability. A few years ago I owned 
a hen which had as many eggs to her credit as would 
sound plausible put in black and white, and I thought 
I was on the track to possess a flock like her. After 
mating' her suitably, I was unable after several at¬ 
either can rank with the dry mash system of feeding 
which is at present having its run. I don’t know 
who claims to be the originator of this last fad, but 
I will wager it was prompted by natural laziness, and 
its followers will not be likely to enter into serious 
competition with the man who keeps his hens dig¬ 
ging for all they get. Hens, like men, do their best 
when kept busy and interested in their work, and only- 
want the chance to scratch from morning till night, 
not having a hopper of feed* always staring them in 
the face. -I admit it’s easy—too easy to be profitable— 
to fill up a box once per week, but a few generations 
of universal dry mash feeding before the hens at 
all times and under all conditions, and only million¬ 
aires will be found in the egg and poultry consum¬ 
ing class. The poultry industry is not the only one 
which has suffered from too much artificiality; his¬ 
tory is full of such conditions prevailing in the past, 
wherein it became nec¬ 
essary to fell some of 
the edifices constructed 
on sand and get back to 
rock-bottom foundation. 
And I believe the man 
who pays more attention 
to the health and vigor 
of his fowls for the 
next generation, and less 
to fine feathers and 
forced conditions, will 
be on h a n d with the 
goods which will be 
sought after in the near 
future. T here can be 
neither pleasure nor 
profit in a business con¬ 
ducted along th«w lines 
of a degenerating ten¬ 
dency, and while we are 
not all ’ in the poultry 
business for our health, 
we might at least give 
our hens time to reclothe 
themselves in the Fall 
without the assistance of 
a “ forced molt crank,” 
or to lay an egg with¬ 
out being clapped in jail, 
or a trap-nest, so-called. 
L. r. p. 
Kennett Square, Pa. 
BROODER MATCHES THE OLD HEN. Fig. 214. 
tempts to get one chick raised to maturity from this 
hen. My experience has not been confined to this 
one example in getting hens to reproduce. While I 
aim to use a certain type to breed from, a strong, 
vigorous constitution would come before any 250- 
egg hen right off the trap nest. Many poultrymen 
are arriving at the same conclusions to-day, from 
these unnatural conditions, as the dairy industry has 
passed through here in Chester county in the past 
25 years. Some time back there were on a large 
number of farms highly-bred, nervous and pampered 
Jersey cows, treated largely as the over-enthusiastic 
poultryman is treating his flock to-day. These heavy- 
producing and nervous-bred cows were not able to 
stand the the practical test, and to-day have been 
largely discarded for the more healthy and vigorous 
constitution of the native stock. 
As far as the deleterious effects of artificial rear¬ 
ing and trap nests are concerned, I doubt whether 
R. N.-Y. — If anyone 
thinks these remarks 
about trap-nest hens are 
too severe we offer him 
the space in which to 
disprove them. We all 
want superior laying stock—but not at the expense 
of vigor. The trap-nest theory has now been tested 
for some years. What is the practical outcome of it? 
THE FARMER’S CAMPAIGN. 
It sometimes looks to the city man as if the 
farmer sort of camped out in the country and let 
Mother Nature make a living for him. The fact is, 
his work is more like that of a general engaged in 
a campaign; and the war against weed, insect, dis¬ 
ease, blight, drought and wet weather, only ends 
when the results of the season are in the bank. The 
farmer is arrayed against the forces of Nature and 
must overcome by sagacity and grit. That is why 
some successful city men fail on the farm. A fac¬ 
tory superintendent may read the riot act to his 
employees and they are “bluffed” into better work, 
but you can’t “bluff” Canada thistles, nor fetch a 
team of nervous horses to time by getting mad. 
