1374 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Red Hens. —There have been a 
niimber of questions about the behavior 
of our Red hens at the Vineland contest. 
I am glad we made no brags about the 
performance of these birds, for truth puts 
boasting in the ice-box, and the truth 
about our hens is that half of them proved 
to be drones in their first year. Most of 
us have read the Irish story of the little 
Red hen. Hho flew up on the rafter to 
get away from the fox. That sly rascal 
got below her and just ran around in a 
circle—chasing his tail. The foolish hen 
kept her eyes on him inst(*ad of attending 
to the business of hanging to that rafter. 
The result was she got dizzy and let go 
—which was the end of her. Very likely 
my Red hens were somewhat like the 
original red lady. The limelight of pub¬ 
licity made them dizzy and they forgot to 
lay. Rut I refuse to join the ranks of 
those old characters who “with one accord 
began to make excuses !” ‘^TManufacturing 
excuse.g is not an infant industry. It 
needs no tariff or bounty to build it up. I 
would rather put an embai’go on it. So 
here is the plain, unvanished tale. 
The Record. —The 10 Reds laid, in 
their pullet year, 1,425 eggs. Some of 
these eggs (5G in all) were laid outside 
the trap-nest. Those actually credited 
to the bens were distributed as follows: 
No. 1—Polly.l.SS eggs. 
“ 2—Belle .1.58 “ 
“ 8—Queen .100 “ 
“ 4--Betty M'.196 “ 
“ 5—Faith .168 “ 
“ 6—Hope .1.30 “ 
“ 7—Charitv .146 “ 
“ 8—Success.104 “ 
“ 9—Rufa . 80 ‘ 
“ 10—Pollyanna ...149 " 
Now, if those bii'ds came back to us 
after the contest I should proceed about 
as'follows: It would be a case of “Polly 
put the kettle on,” with Polly inside of 
the kettle. Her place is in a pie or a 
stew. As for Queen, the mai’k of 100 
looks well on a civil service examination, 
but eight dozen eggs a year, distributed 
as Queen’s were, never could buy a hen 
a place in the sun. It would be queen of 
a nice chicken dinner for No. 3. As for 
Hope, the poet says it springs eternal in 
the human breast, but there is no hope in 
the breast meat of No. 6. Off with her 
head! I must say, however*, that the 
present Hope is a substitute. The orig¬ 
inal Hope was a sister of Betty M. and 
Faith. She laid her.self to death. Then 
the present Hope came in to take the 
vacant chair. She seems to have been a 
white-livered Hope, determined to take 
no risks of dying the death of her prede¬ 
cessor. As for Success! Well, at any 
rate here is additional proof that Shake¬ 
speare was right when he said—“what’s 
in a name?” Her success wmuld sputter 
in the frying pan. And thou, too, Rufa ! 
She started so late in the contest that I 
did not expect great things from her, but 
I did think she would keep at it like the 
turtle, and reach 100. However, she may 
be planning a tremendous spurt this year. 
Well, I have not been really surprised at 
anything for a good many years, but if 
Rufa comes to the front now I shall have 
a shock of wonder! 
The Good Ones. —If I had those hens 
back this Winter I would put Belle, Char¬ 
ity and Pollyanna in a pen by themselves 
with the best Rose Comb cockerel I have. 
These three birds have rose combs and 
are related. Then I would put Betty M. 
and Faith wth a Single Comb cockerel— 
getting all the chicks possible from Betty 
M. I think this bird comes of a sure lay¬ 
ing strain. The original Betty M. of two 
years ago laid 201 eggs in her pullet 
year, and the bird with the same name in 
the Favorite Hen contest also made a 
fine record. The two birds this year, of 
much the same breeding, have done well, 
and but for the outbreak of disease at 
Vineland would have done much better. 
Thus, while Faith is credited with 168 
eggs, I go by her family, and believe she 
will produce some great daughters. It is 
strange about the first three birds on this 
list. They are of much the same breeding 
as Polly, which made a record of 2.34 eggs 
two years ago. Previous to this present 
record every bird of tb's strain has been 
a great perfoi-mer. That is why I still 
have great faith in this family, and would 
breed the three birds, even though two 
of them fall below 150 eggs. 
PooRT.Y Started. —I can easily under¬ 
stand w'by the last four birds in this list 
made a poor showing. They were small 
and undeveloped when they were entered, 
and did not .start laying for several 
months. In fact, Pollyanna laid her 149 
eggs in 288 days. Rufa did not start 
until the nineteenth week. I knew these 
pullets were too small and immature, but 
I sent them because I knew their breed¬ 
ing was right, and I felt that while they 
might fall behind the first year they will 
come back in the second year and make 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 1, 1917 
a good total record. 8o I will stay by 
them yet, and back them for a good show¬ 
ing on their two-year-old form. In the 
case of Polly and Queen I do not know 
what to say. These pullets were large 
and well developed, i .d full of life. They 
are out of a family noted for heavy lay¬ 
ing—yet they prove themselves drones. 
Rufa and Success may be like the boy or 
girl sent to college •without proper train¬ 
ing in foundation principles. Of course 
they cannot keep up -wfitti the rush. Polly 
and Queen have had breeding, health, 
size and training to start with., yet they 
fell down on their pedigree and fooled 
their bringing up. It shows that pedi¬ 
gree alone will never win a race; a “pedi¬ 
gree without a horse” never goes to the 
front. Thus the man or woman who 
knows how to select a layer is about as 
useful as the parents of the bird'. It is 
evident that no man can safely agree to 
peddle out big record hens on pedigree 
alone. The hens must be built for laying 
as well as bred for it. 
Next Year. —As most of our people 
know, these hens are to remain at Vine- 
land another year to see -w’hat they will 
do in their second season. Along iii Feb¬ 
ruary I am to send a cockerel to mate 
with these 10 birds. Then the plan is 
to raise one pullet from each hen. Next 
year those 10 daughters will enter a new 
contest, while the 10 hens now being test¬ 
ed will come home. The object of this 
i.s to see if any difference will be found 
between, say, daughter of Betty M. and 
Rufa! I have a fine cockerel ready for 
this mating and the result will be interest¬ 
ing. I believe that Rufa and Success will 
come back during this second year and 
make a good record. I rather expect them 
to beat Betty M. This confidence is based 
on their pedigree, as I know their mother 
was a good hen, and that their grand¬ 
mother on the father’s side was superior. 
Now we shall see. 
What Is a Good Hen. —To hear some 
people talk a hen is hardly worth keeping 
unless she lays 17 dozen or more eggs per 
year. My own opinion is that the usual 
farm hen on the dairy or general farm 
does not exceed eight dozen eggs per year. 
People may hoot at this statement, but I 
believe it is true. You notice that half 
of my pen averaged only about nine dozen 
eggs during the year, and I am sure that 
if these selected birds do that a much 
larger proportion of the average barnyai-d 
flock ■would fall below eight dozen. ' We 
had some very superior Leghorns at 
Storrs and yet one of them laid only six 
dozen, w'hile three of them averaged less 
than nine dozen. I think Queen and Suc¬ 
cess are fully equal in performance to 80 
per cent of the hens that run about the 
farm. The shame of these two drones is 
that with every chance in care and feed¬ 
ing they failed. The farm hen that en¬ 
dures heat and cold, vermin and semi- 
staiwation and still equals my miscalled 
“Queen” is a better bird, but she does not 
have a chance. I would kill these five 
birds because the actual figures show that 
they are drones. They no doubt put up 
a great bluff at cackling and singing, and 
without these cold and cheerless figures 
they would go on stealing gi-ain away 
from us as thousands of other hens are 
doing. I think a hen that lays 12 dozen 
eggs in her working season is a good one, 
but I should get rid of her as quickly as 
possible when she stopped laying. The 
deadbeats in the poultry yard are live 
wires to burn up profits, and these dead¬ 
beats seem to be kept alive by two prin¬ 
cipal things. Wo use too many fine song¬ 
sters like Rufa and Queen for breeders. 
We select the male bird more by his 
feathers than by the patient performance 
of his mother and grandmother. Then 
w'hen we get the pullets goiag we do not 
cull out those not built for laying. So I 
think the chicken man stands today at a 
foi’k of the_ road, where two guides await 
him. One is a drone—either the daughter 
of another drone or the daughter of a 
well-bred hen, but with the Avrong build. 
In these days of high prices she Avill lead 
you to destruction. The other is a busi¬ 
ness hen of any breed. She is well bred 
and well built—a selected sample. This 
hen will not pay you an immediate for¬ 
tune, but she will keep you going safely 
until the tide turns, feed goes down and 
the crowd comes running to buy good 
stock once more. My advice would be to 
stick to the hen. Get the best blood you 
can, learn to cull out the drones, and do 
it early. 
There Are Others.—T his, of course, 
is a scattering talk about hens, but much 
the same thing will apply to everything 
which carries life, and thus we must 
choo.se between dimne or do-it. This 
world can never be the same again. The 
Avar is Changing it beyond recall. In all 
lines of farming Ave must get r*id of the 
drones or they Avill eat us up. When this 
war is over all the inventive poAver Avhich 
has been driven to find ueAv Avays of kill¬ 
ing men and desti-oyinv property will be 
put at Avork to give new life to man and 
to build up and build over. Men Avill 
come home from the AAmr with broader 
vieAvs and larger ideas, and they will not 
settle quietly into the old AAmys. It Avill 
be hard lines for the “Queens” and the 
“Rufas” Avho fail at the test, and I do not 
think the Avorld will regard them as char¬ 
itably as I do the.se ridiculous Reds. The 
future has a poor place for the poorly- 
bred hen and the untrained boy or girl. 
They will surely take a back seat. 
H. w. c. 
An Optimistic Hen Man 
I notice that you Avant to hear from 
poultrymen Avho feel optimistic about the 
future. I, for one, do, because feed is 
coming down. First, the government 
wishes to increase the meat supply quick¬ 
ly. by encouraging poultry raising. In 
order to do so, it Avill and mast do all in 
its power to make feed prices come doAvn. 
Mr. Hoover himself has said recently to a 
committee of the American Poultry A.sso- 
eiation: “Ho not be surprised if /eed 
juices come doAvn 50 per cent.” Second, 
the record corn and grain crops of this 
year are soon coming in. Avith a smaller 
number of jmultry and stock on hand to 
utilize them. There will be less poultry 
this late Fall than any year previous, due 
to large amounts marketed and small num¬ 
ber raised. In other Avords. there is rela¬ 
tively more feed and relatively less stock. 
Third, flour is being shii)ped to EurojjC 
instead of Avhole grains, because it is de¬ 
sired to economize on shipi)ing space. 
This means that Avheat, bran, middlings 
and re<l-dog flour must he left on this side 
of the Atlantic, so they Avill become cheap 
and abundant. On the other hand, egg 
prices next Spring Avill be higher than 
ever bcfoi-o. because of the laaluced sup¬ 
ply of laying hens and pullets noAv on 
hand. Tlien, with feed prices down and 
eggs uj'). maybe the poulti'ymen Avill feel 
re])aid for the lean year of 1917. 
^Moreover, the poultryman Avho has good 
breeding hens in stock will get A’ery high 
prices for day-old chicks and for hatching 
eggs. This, I believe Avill result from 
three things. The average consumer who 
has to pay for eggs at sky-rocket prices is 
liable to find a backyard where he can 
raise his own eggs. The general public 
will replenish their sold-out flocks if feed 
goes doAvii (as Mr. Hoover predicted). 
And third, the Avidesjiread campaign of 
iTncle .Sam to induce everybody to raise 
chickens and increase the meat supjdy 
next Spring Is also liable to incraese 
price and demand on hatching eggs and 
breeding stock. The two big “ifs” to the 
above prediction are: 
1. Will Hoover succeed iu smashing 
prices? 
2. Will the government’s latest substi¬ 
tution campaign keep feed prices up in¬ 
stead of down? 
The people are being induced to con¬ 
sume more corn, oats and barley to sub¬ 
stitute AA’heat (for the Allies). A feAV 
months ago a similar camj^aign caused a 
noted rLse in corn. Will the heaA*y corn | 
and grain crops be able to withstand this ; 
noAV drain on them? Time Avill tt 1. 
What do others think about this? 
New Y'ork. s. ii. k. 
The Hen Business. —The Connecticut 
Agricultural College has conducted a sur¬ 
vey of 42 representath’e poultry farms 
in that State. They found that the aver¬ 
age labor income Avas ,$752. That means 
the amount credited to the operator’s 
labor after paying all expenses, including 
taxes and 5 per cent, interest. This 
labor income ran all the Avay from $2,000 
doAvn to a loss of $600. On 11 farms the 
hens averaged over 1.30 eggs a year. On 
14 farms the average Avas 100-130; on 
15 from 70-100, and on tAvo farms less 
than 70 eggs per year. The actual weight 
of production for a hen ran from 54 up 
to 160 eggs. Very feAv of these poultry 
men Avould believe that the hens Avere 
laying less than 100 eggs a year, yet the 
average of 592 hens Avas 97 eggs. This 
we believe is aboA*e the egg production on 
the great majority of our farms. Many 
farmers will not believe it, but a careful 
test Avill shoAV that a large proportion of 
the hens lay le.ss than 75 eggs during the 
year, arid this Avill explain to a large de¬ 
gree Avhy it is that the extra high price of 
grain has hit the poultry business so 
hard. It Avas not until the expenses 
mounted so rapidly that the farmers had 
the truth of egg production forced upon 
them. It would be i)ossible on most of 
these farms to increase the egg produc¬ 
tion from 2() to 30 per cent., by making 
better selection of laying stock, and ob¬ 
taining cockerels from families noted for 
high egg records. 
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