1380 
THE RURA.L NEW-YORKER 
December 27, 
Hope Farm Notes 
On page 1375 you will find a picture 
of the pen of mongrel hens which we 
have entered in the new egg-laying con¬ 
test. The picture of a group of moving 
hens is never satisfactory, hut this shows 
something of the way these scrubs look. 
A good friend went to see the contest 
birds recently and wrote me: 
“You will never win any prize; your 
hens are not even good specimens of any 
breed—the Plymouth Rocks in particu¬ 
lar r 
I agree with this man with great cheer¬ 
fulness. I never expected to win any 
prize, and we purposely selected genuine 
scrubs. During the first five weeks of the 
contest my birds never laid an egg. They 
were not alone in this, since 12 other 
pens of blue bloods were also in the zero 
column. I did not expect that the ma¬ 
jority of our scrubs would lay an egg 
before Christmas. They are mostly young 
pullets—wdien they do begin I think sev¬ 
eral of them will be heard from. For 
the purpose I had in mind I did not want 
superior specimens, but the nearest ap¬ 
proach to a genuine scrub I could find— 
and I think we found them. 
But what is the sense of matching 
“scrubs” against Tom Barron’s Leghorns 
or these other breeds which carry beneath 
their feathers the brains and instinct of 
their owners and a long line of what they 
call “prepotency”? In answer I ask you 
if anyone can tell just how much Tom 
Barron and the others have really im¬ 
proved a hen over the genuine “dung¬ 
hill”? Thus far these contests have 
shown the superiority of one strain of 
improved hens over another. They have 
all been “improved” by breeding and se¬ 
lecting and good feeding. This is inter¬ 
esting and valuable, but it does not show 
how much man has accomplished over 
the true “scrub” by artificial control of 
breeding and selecting. I wanted to show 
that if I could, so I entered these mixed- 
up scrubs, not with any thought of win¬ 
ning, but to measure, if we could, the 
improvement which pure blood and brains 
have brought about. 
I have found that it would be possible 
to “put up a job” in such a contest. I 
was offered the chance to take specimens 
of improved breeds that are a little off 
in color and shape, but are known to be 
superior layers. In the barnyard flocks 
all over our country I can find some fine 
specimens of mixed breeds. Some of 
these would, without doubt, double the 
egg production of the birds we finally se¬ 
lected, but they could not be called 
“scrubs,” for considerable care had been 
taken in their breeding. I wanted birds 
of unknown parentage, raised under the 
hardest conditions, discarded as useless 
for layers, and as far removed from 
“pure bloods” as blood can run. 
The New York live poultry market 
seemed the best place to pick up such 
birds. We found a Jewish dealer who 
had an outfit of birds apparently from 
Kentucky and Tennessee. I judge that 
they were picked up by buyers and 
shipped here to be sold as meat. They 
seemed to be the discards from farms 
where new blood is rarely introduced, 
and where the poultry is rarely fed. I 
think these pullets from the time they 
graduated from the old hen have picked 
up nine-tenths of their own living in in¬ 
sects and gleanings. Here seemed to be 
the real, original thing for our purpose. 
It was Tennyson who told the English 
aristocracy that: 
“In .von blue heavens, above us bent, 
The grand old gardener and his wife 
Smile at the claims of long descent.” 
How much smiling would these un¬ 
licked and unloved bugeaters do when 
they got into the ring with Tom Barron’s 
laying machines? 
A first-class hen man went over coop 
after coop, and finally selected 14 birds. 
It was about as tough-looking a lot of 
stock as you could find. The majority 
showed the color of Barred Plymouth 
Bocks, but evidently carry a mixture of 
other breeds. They were all under-sized. 
One pullet seems to be a mixture of four- 
or five breeds. I will back her against 
some of the blue bloods when she gets 
going. One little pullet shows Brown 
Leghorn blood, and another shows Red 
markings. They were selected for their 
shape, broad back, deep body, wide pelvic 
bones and the other exterior marks which 
are said to indicate layers. Among other 
things we shall see if these poultry buy¬ 
ers who pick up “discards” are really 
shipping good pullets for meat. After 
paying for the crate the 14 birds cost us 
$9.25. We paid two cents a pound extra 
for the privilege of selecting the birds, 
and bought at the time of highest prices— 
during the Jewish holidays. Thus these 
pullets cost us 60 cents each. As nearly 
as I can figure it, the farmer in Ken¬ 
tucky who sold them to the dealer aver¬ 
aged about 29 cents each. We took seven 
of these pullets and added three White 
Leghorns, which I knew to be of good 
stock. The cost of the 10 birds in this 
contest was about $9.50. Thus seven of 
them are as near to true scrubs as you 
can get. As is usual with birds bought 
in the New York market, these pullets 
started in with colds, but permanganate 
of potash in the drinking water helped 
them. We had very little time to “tune 
them up” before the contest opened, and 
they took their chance with the rest. 
Now let us consider a few things about 
these birds. They are probably inbred 
and nature selected—going back from im¬ 
proved blood to the condition of wild 
birds. Except that they were domesti¬ 
cated and thus able to range close to the 
farm buildings, it is doubtful if these pul¬ 
lets received much more attention than 
robins, crows or other wild birds. One 
would think that this would naturally 
tend to reduce their egg-laying capacity. 
At the same time it ought to give them 
a tough, vital constitution. Now when 
you take such birds and feed them scien¬ 
tifically with all they need of proper food 
constantly before them, what will they do 
with the food? There are undeveloped 
eggs within them. When relieved of the 
hustle and fight for existence will they 
grow fat and lazy or get to work? We 
know what happens to a boy or young 
man when suddenly relieved of the need 
of working hard and put within easy 
reach of money; but that is a mental or 
moral consideration. It is a physical 
matter with the hen; yet I think her 
brain and contentment enter into it. Does 
skillful breeding give us a class of hens 
which carry in their bodies more of those 
undeveloped eggs, or does it mean that 
the blue-blood hens have greater inclina¬ 
tion or power to develop their eggs? You 
can take a scrub cow and feed and care 
for her as you please, but if she has gone 
far along back to nature so as to produce 
only a little more milk than her calf 
requires you cannot bring her very far 
back. I do not think this is so with a 
hen. but I want to find out. I am satis-' 
fied that, so far as one can tell from ex¬ 
terior points, several of our scrubs carry 
a full supply of undeveloped eggs. Will 
proper feeding induce them to shell these 
eggs out, or has nature pulled them so far 
back from man’s dominion that they have 
lost the power? 
These are a few of the things I want to 
find out, and my scrubs can answer far 
better than the pure bloods. I am will¬ 
ing to enter some of these birds year after 
year continuously so as to see just how 
many eggs a hen will lay during her life¬ 
time. If we find one or two fair layers 
I would like to mate them first with a 
suitable cockerel from one of the record¬ 
making hens until we get a fair supply 
of eggs for hatching. Then I would like 
to mate these same hens with a very ordi¬ 
nary dunghill rooster, hatch out chicks 
from this breeding and enter pullets from 
each mating for comparison. Can this 
tough, hardy old scrub blood add any¬ 
thing of value to the cross-bred laying 
hen? I think we have a chance to find 
out. I wish I could have bought up a 
pen of hens which won high scores at 
poultry shows. I tried to get hold of 
some of these prize winners on “points” 
rather than eggs, to enter against my 
scrubs, but my experience is that you 
cannot pull these blue-ribbon birds into 
an egg contest. My scrubs have gone 
back to Nature, but the blue ribboners 
have gone far away from Nature. My 
scrubs will, I hope, answer a few leading 
questions, but I shall not be satisfied until 
I got a pen of high scorers at the poultry 
shows into the ring. The scrub is de¬ 
nied character and glory or price. The 
blue-ribbon bird has all three. How 
would they compare in the egg pen? As 
I understand it, the leading hens in this 
egg contest would be discarded by poul¬ 
try judges at the shows. 
So do not grieve for the Hope Farm 
man if you hear that his scrubs are not 
laying. They will come along all in good 
time, and that spotted bird may prove the 
ancestor of a wonderful “laying strain.” 
Ten years from now Redhead may be 
selling her descendants as guaranteed 
250-egg hens. As Tennyson tells us, he 
who starts a line may be as worthy as he 
who heirs or ends it. Call these scrubs 
any name you like—they may surprise 
you yet; if not with their eggs with their 
contribution to poultry knowledge. 
H. W. C. 
Florist : “This is a century plant. It 
blooms once in a hundred years.” Lady: 
“Haven’t you got a century plant that 
will bloom oftener?”—Chicago Daily 
News. 
“Will you Lave the kindness to take 
my overcoat to town in your motor car?” 
inquired Mr. Dalton of his more pros¬ 
perous suburban neighbor one cool morn¬ 
ing. “Certainly,” was the response, “but 
how will you get it again?” “Very eas¬ 
ily ; I shall remain in it.”—Winnipeg 
Telegram. 
400 , 000 , 
Settlers 
cl Year 
ImmlBratton figures show that the population 
of Canada Increased during 1913, by the addition 
of 400.000 new settlers from the United Statos 
and Europe. Most of theseliave gone on farms 
In Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. 
Lord William Percy, an English Nobleman 
Bays; 
"The possibilities and opportunities offered by 
the Canadian West aro so lntlnitoly greater 
than those which exist In England, that It 
seems absurd to think that people should be 
Impeded from coming to the country where 
they can most easily and certainly improve 
their position.” 
New districts are being opened up, 
which will make accessible a great ' 
number of homesteads in districts 
especially adapted to mixed fann¬ 
ing and grain raising. 
For Illustrated literature and 
reduced railway rates, apply to 
Superintendent of Immigration, 
Ottawa, Canada, or to the 
Canadian Government Agent, 
J. S. Crawford, 
301 E. Genesee Street, 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
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