THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1075 
The Favorite Hen Contest 
The egg-laying contest among our 
“Favorite Hens” still goes merrily on. 
As we see from the figures below, some 
of the hens feel that they have done their 
duty, and that the time has come for 
taking a vacation. When hens decide to 
do that you might as well let them alone, 
for they are bound to have their own 
way, unless you can arouse them to a 
pretty lively sense of their duty, and you 
Mrs. Chas. L. Todd, Owner of Patsy. 
will have something of a job doing that 
with the average hen. The figures show 
that Tilly still leads the procession by a 
good margin, although there are several 
among the R. I. Reds in particular that 
have made very creditable records. Some 
of the Leghorns too are doing well, and 
before the contest is over they will take 
rank as good birds. These liens have all 
been scored by Judge Card, and we have 
his figures here. As we know, the R. I. 
Red Golden Lass scored higher than any 
other Red in the contest, although she 
has not done so well at laying. Several 
of the Leghorns have scored over 92, and 
take them as a whole these 300 hens have 
made a very presentable showing. Up 
to this month one of the hens had not 
laid an egg, but now, as we see, she has 
Rhode Island Reds to August 15. 
Mrs. Carrie M. Bliss. Virginia. Pocahontas. .128 
Mrs. E. 8 . Marlatt. New jersey. Polly.1*53 
Mrs. T. Sehwenk, Connecticut. Rosie-Lou.... 104 
Miss Ethel A. Pierce. New Hampshire, Lady 
Pierce . 05 
Mrs. Samuel O. Travis, New York. Rose.142 
Mrs. W. It. Merrick, Massachusetts. Betty M.144 
Miss Edna M. Porter, New York. Betty. 84 
Mrs. Andrew J. Wilson, Connecticut. Betty.. 150 
Mrs. E. P. Andrews, New York. Golden Lass. 70 
Mrs. Cecil Faruham, Maine.123 
Leghorns—Records to August 15. 
Mrs. N. D. Rand. New York, Lucy. 88 
Mrs. Lewis J. Happicli, New York, Lady 
Hopeful .132 
Mrs. V. D. Miller. Ohio, Ann.*.121 
Mrs. A. J. Skellie, New York. Ity.104 
Mrs. C. L. Todd, Virginia, Patsy ..... 84 
Mrs. Walter Fletcher, New York. Peggy. 79 
Miss Tillie B. Cloud. Pennsylvania, Peggy... 1 
Mrs. Josephine Hollenbach, Pennsylvania, 
Viola .122 
Mrs. W. E. Phelps, Pennsylvania, Beauty.... 169 
Mrs. L. E. Hilboru, New York, Madam Toot- 
sey .143 
Mixed Breeds—Records to August 15. 
Mrs. F. M. Earl, Connecticut, White Wyan¬ 
dotte, Gladness .107 
Mrs. A. N. Couell, New York, White Wyan¬ 
dotte, Dolly .41 
Mrs. R. AV. Stevens, New York, White AVy- 
andotte, Tilly ...198 
Mrs. AV. S. AA’alters, Michigan, Barred Rock 
Bridgman Girl .127 
Mrs. G. L. Itotbgeb, A'lrgiuia, Barred Rock, 
Roxie . 99 
Misses Osier and' Wilcox, New York, Barred 
Rock. Marguerita . 53 
Mrs. Robert II. AVood, New York, AVhite 
Rock, Faith . 90 
Mrs. Joseph di Falirizio, New Jersey, Black 
Minorca, Betina .130 
Mrs. Emma H. Wood, New York, Buff Or¬ 
pington, Louisine .158 
Mrs. Edwin Walker. Massachusetts, Buff 
Orpington, Lady Ashby . 5G 
begun, and will not at least be white¬ 
washed. We expected a closer race at 
one time between Tilly and Louisine, but 
the latter finally grew a little tired, and 
has not kept up in the contest. Tilly has 
certainly shown herself a remarkably 
good hen. At the end of the 41st week, 
she had laid 198 eggs, and is now certain 
to go considerably over 200. It would be 
interesting to have a set of guesses on 
the first of September as to just how 
many eggs all told this hen will really 
lay. As Ave stated last month, Mrs. Ste¬ 
vens, oAvner of Tilly, expects to have a 
full pen of pullets in the next contest. 
It will be interesting to see if these 
nieces of Tilly can keep up the good repu¬ 
tation of their aunt. That will be after 
all the best test of a farm flock. It is 
evident on studying the records made by 
these 30 hens that very much of the suc¬ 
cess at a contest of this kind depends 
upon the ability of the owner to make a 
proper selection, and also to have her 
hen in just exactly the right shape to 
start off promptly and keep going. Evi¬ 
dently the hens must make a quick start 
and keep it up in order to keep up 
among the elect. We judge from what 
these‘women tell us that each one had 
her own peculiar system of selecting a 
hen. It would be hard for them to put 
their method into words, or describe ex¬ 
actly hoAV they decided upon their “fav¬ 
orite.” It just came to them as they 
looked the flock over that a certain bird 
sized up to the requirements, and they 
picked out the birds more by instinct 
than anything else. Thus we see that 
out of these 30 hens there are eight or 
10 that will hardly pay their expenses, 
and certainly not much of a profit. Yet, 
in almost every one of the pens entered 
in this contest there will be from three 
to five out of the 10 that fall down on 
performance. 
Last year when the contest ended we 
Avrote most of those Avhose hens had made 
a high score and asked them how many 
of the 10 they would keep as breeders. 
We found that they Avere all ready to re¬ 
ject from two to six for one reason or an¬ 
other. Now the point is that if these 
experts, who have made a study of poul¬ 
try all their lives, cannot make any bet¬ 
ter selection than these men did, it is 
evident that our farm women, picking 
their birds by “instinct,” did about as 
well. When the contest is over we shall 
Long-tailed Japanese Fowl. 
figure the whole thing up carefully, giving 
the cost of eggs month by month, and the 
income at fair monthly prices. We have 
been rather surprised that these Favorite 
Red hens have averaged so much better 
than the other breeds. It became quick¬ 
ly evident when avc asked for “Favorite 
liens” that the majox-ity of our people 
who were interested Avere keeping the 
Red breed, but Ave did not expect that 
these Red pullets could prove such a uni¬ 
form lot and outlay the others as they 
have done. 
We shall show this week a picture of 
Mrs. Chas. L. Todd of Virginia, the own- 
er of the Leghorn Patsy. Some of the 
women are quite disappointed at the rec- 
ord made by their pullet, and in almost 
every case xve are told that the sisters of 
these birds Avhich remain at home are 
giving a far better average than the one 
that Avent to college. 
Most of these “Favorite Hens” would 
be classed under the head of utility. 
While some of them score well when es¬ 
timated by the scale of points, they are 
mostly of a class more useful for egg and 
meat production. Perhaps it will be in¬ 
teresting for us to see what would hap¬ 
pen where the fancy points are carried 
out to the limit. The picture shoAvs a 
specimen of the Yokohama or Japanese 
long-tailed foAvl. Some of these birds are 
exhibited in the poultry building at the 
Panama-Pacific Exposition. Here Ave 
have the fancy point idea carried out to 
where it stops, for Avhat can this poor 
bird do when obliged to carry around 
such an immense bunch of tail feathers? 
We have no desire to try to handle these 
birds, and this is a fair illustration of 
Avhat comes to anyone Avho lets a fad run 
away xvith him. 
The Poultry Meeting at Storrs. 
The meeting of the poultry investiga¬ 
tors and teachers and the Connecticut 
Poultry Association held at Storrs, Conn., 
during the first week in August, Avas 
probably the most important poultry 
meeting ever held. The papers read at 
both meetings Avere the result of care¬ 
ful investigation by men after facts, not 
theories, and covered the whole field of 
poultry raising. Dr. Raymond Pearl of 
the Maine Station showed that the power 
to transmit the egg-laying ability of dam 
and grandam through the male was estab¬ 
lished, and that the use of “progeny 
tested” males Avould bring up the egg 
yield of any purebred flock. In this con¬ 
nection he pointed out that in selecting 
females for breeders the trap-nest record 
should come last. First the physical con¬ 
dition of the bird, second her ancestry, 
and last her individual record. In an¬ 
swer to a query as to the use of preco¬ 
cious pullets as breeders, he stated that 
these rarely were used in the breeding 
pens because they did not pass the phy¬ 
sical test, as too early egg production 
checked physical development. Prof. 
Warner’s experiments showed that the 
color of the shanks, beak, earlobes and 
skin greAV paler with the heavy egg pro¬ 
duction. giving an easy test to pick out 
the heaA’y layers Avhere trap-nesting is 
not used. All authorities laid great 
stress upon using for breeders the hens 
that laid late in the Fall, and molted 
quickly, as these are the persistent layers. 
When culling cull out the early molters. 
Prof. R. II. Graham of Ontario in ad¬ 
dition to his interesting paper on the es¬ 
tablishment by the government of central 
breeding stations Avhere progeny-tested 
males could be bought by farmers, gave 
an illustrated lecture on the advantages 
of pure breeds, showing by lantern slides 
the results of crossing and recrossing two 
pure breeds. The results looked like the 
average farmer’s flock. Several papers 
were read on the sales of eggs by qual¬ 
ity with increased prices and the results 
of the Nova Scotia “egg circles” were 
given. 
Possibly the most important papers 
were those of Prof. Jones and Prof. 
Roetzers on the bacillus pullorum or 
germ of white diarrhoea. The Connecti¬ 
cut Station has been examining flocks 
of hens in Connecticut for this germ 
in the ovaries of the hen bv the blood 
agglutination test and has found flocks 
infected anywhere from 50 per cent to 
5 per cent. In every case the autopsy 
has proved the correctness of the test, 
and the results of breeding the year after 
the infected birds were removed have 
shown great imnrovement. Certain ex¬ 
periments show that this germ is fatal 
to human life and the question of infant 
mortality in cities where raw eggs are 
fed to sick infants looms up. The ab¬ 
sence of Prof. Harry R. Lewis from 
Illinois was much regretted, as he is a 
coming poAver in the work. 
In looking back this meeting proves 
the wisdom of Dean Bailey of Cornell 
in backing Prof. Rice and the authori¬ 
ties of Ontario in supporting Prof. R. 
H. Graham, and the results achieved 
today are largely due to the untiring 
work of these two »nen, uoav so ably 
supported by the younger and more 
scientific men. 
Of course, the egg laying contest Avas 
visited and the Rural Rhode Island Red 
and Wyandotte hens were centers of in¬ 
terest. It was also noted that while 
the meeting was a “utility” meeting, the 
majority were seeking standard-bred 
birds that would produce eggs and not 
“scrubs.” In other words, while high 
egg production was sought it was be¬ 
lieved that this could be best achieved 
by developing laying scrains of standard 
birds and keeping them standard, rather 
than by letting the trap-nest run away 
Avith you. It is a curious fact that Ed 
Cam’s Wyandottes that have led this 
competition are fair American standard 
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TOM BARRON’S 
WINNERS 
HIGHEST BREEDERS IN AMERICA 
CONTEST WYANDOTTES—283, 282, 274, 266 
WORLD RECORD BIRO—. Leghorn—288 
BUFF ROCKS—280, 272, 265, 263 
S. C. REDS—243 
Catalog 
MORRIS FARM, R. 4, Bridgeport, Conn. 
All breeders tested ; free off white diarrhea 
PULLETS 
Tom Barron White Wyandotte 
chicks 5 days’ old. 12c. each. Eggs, $1 per 15. Cock¬ 
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Tom Barron, England. E. E. LEWIS, Apalachin, N. Y. 
Regal W. Wyandottes ASS'" ^ 
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100 hens, 10cockerels,$110. Willis Stewart, Franklin, N.Y. 
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Rarrnn ^Leghorns and AVyan- 
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“ CHASE POULTRY FARM,” F. M. 0a»is, CINCINNATUS, N. Y. 
S. C. Leghorn Cockerels 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
333 WEST 30th ST., NEW YORK. 
