PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 
Table No. 5, showing the performance of old 
Leghorn hens, gives us clear proof of the un¬ 
profitableness of keeping old hens. They lay 
fairly well when they get down to work, but there 
is so much “dead horse” to pay for in the idle 
months of November, December and January, 
that it is practically all they can do to pay off 
their old debt and come out even. With the 
late hatched pullets it is somewhat different, be¬ 
cause they are such persistent layers after they 
get to laying, and as the summer prices pay a very 
fair profit, they come out at the end of the year 
with a fair balance in their favor. The late 
hatched pullets, however, are at a great disad¬ 
vantage in more ways than one. Not only 
have they got to be fed well into the winter, be¬ 
fore they begin to lay, and their best egg yield 
comes at the time of lowest prices, but their eggs 
are generally small in size, hence of little use for 
hatching; or, if they are used for hatching, they 
transmit the late maturing and late laying habit 
to their offspring, begetting another generation 
of late laying pullets, and “the sins of the parents 
are visited upon the children even unto the third 
and fourth generation.'” 
The study of the'history of the birds which 
have made these several records, is extremely 
interesting. The Rev. Mr. Buckingham says 
he selected his thirteen W. P. Rock year-old hens 
from a flock of about two hundred, and paid a 
premium for the privilege of going into the flock 
and selecting. That he had the ability to pick 
out good layers that spendid egg record attests, 
and we can but regret that the enforced removal 
of that gentleman, due to the system of clerical 
rotation obtaining in his church, obliged him to 
give up the flock which he had so excellently 
begun; it would have been very interesting to 
have had a continuance of that experiment. 
Mr. Woods’ pullets were raised from eggs 
bought of Dr. Sanborn, and were fed for growth 
as chickens, and fed for laying after they were 
mature. It is worthy of note that a friend of 
Mr. Woods shared with him in the purchase of 
several sittings of eggs, and that the pullets 
raised by the friend from precisely simile eggs 
to Mr. Woods’, were fully two months later in 
maturing, and then laid much less well. This 
certainly gives us a valuable object lesson of the 
decided advantage of good care and good food. 
Mr. Norton’s story is equally interesting. He 
keeps from 275 to 300 head of fowls; got, in 
1895, 29,726 eggs; 39,551 in 1896, and 49,991 
in the twelve months October, ’96, to Sept., ’97, 
inclusive. There was an increase of substan¬ 
tially 10,000 eggs each year, entirely due to 
more house room, better care and careful selec¬ 
tion of breeding stock—in other words, by 
following commonsense methods. With prac¬ 
tically the same number of birds, he increased 
in three years from 29,000 to 49,000 egg , which 
is eloquent of what good care and good feeding, 
(or, if one prefers the term, common sense 
methods intelligently applied), will accomplish. 
Mr. Cox’s story is almost similar. He tells us 
how he increased his egg yield from about ninety 
a year to an average of 179 a year, breeding from 
known layers and taking good care of them. 
He says in a letter, that “ ’Tis a long story, not 
straight up either, but down and back a couple 
of times,” and in the tabulated statement 
which he gave us (from which this table is made) 
he says, “We got above results by giving our 
hens the same thoughtful care and attention -we 
give our cows, pigs, horses, farm and garden 
crops. The very same principles applied to 
our wheat fields, gave us a yield of 23 bushels 
per acre (township yield, 12£); potatoes 372 
bu. per acre, (township yield, less than 100) 
and so on. Any thoughtful, intelligent farmer, 
with the aid of a good poultry paper and a few 
good poultry books, can do as well or better 
with his hens, for, I am ashamed to say, in the 
hurry and rush of the busy season on our farm, 
our hens are the first thing neglected.” 
There is a splendid object lesson in that story 
and a like splendid one in the tables which we 
present herewith for our readers to study. The 
keeping of old hens and late hatched pullets, 
while it pays a profit, pays not at all like the 
keeping of early hatched pullets, kept growing, 
or of carefully selected year-old hens got through 
the molt early, and got back to laying before 
cold weather, then kept laying. We want the 
very best profit on our farm, and get very little 
consolation in the half-loaf when the whole 
loaf is just as easily obtainable. It only re¬ 
quires that the plan shall be carefully thought 
out and then systematically followed; or, as 
Mr. Cox graphically puts it, that the same 
intelligent care be given to the hens that is given 
to the other farm industries or business interests. 
Poultry will pay and pay well if the owner wills 
it; and that our readers may make it pay and 
pay well, is our purpose. 
47 
Farm Poultry. 
