PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 
Light Brahma Eggs Weighing 2 lbs. to the Dozen, Laid by Yeai-Old Pullets that Weighed 8 and 10 y 2 lbs. Each. In the 
Hand is Seen a Light Brahma Egg Contrasted with the Egg of a Buff Plymouth Rock Pullet; the Small 
Egg Just Below was Laid by a Japanese Bantam. 
early, and keep them growing from the day 
they break the shell to the day they go into 
their houses in the fall. 
From Free Range into Confinement. 
I have always advocated free range for grow¬ 
ing stock, but I question whether I shall do so 
any longer. The man I have been telling you 
about has a method of handling his birds that 
seemed to me very peculiar at first, but which 
the more I think of it the more it commends 
itself to my judgment. He gives his laying hens 
free range (except in winter), while he keeps his 
chicks shut up in their yards. 
Such a course is so antagonistic to the one 
commonly pursued that it does not seem to u^ 
at first glance as if it could possibly be right. 
And yet reflection shows us that it is based 
on a sound philosophy. After a hen begins to 
lay she acquires a certain momentum in egg 
production and is not easily checked. The 
change from confinement to free range, there¬ 
fore, does not interfere with the egg output; if 
anything, it increases it. 
Then, too, a year-old hen in confinement has 
a tendency to become fat, and the range is 
almost necessary to keep her in good condition. 
She needs to be encouraged to take exercise. 
But with a chick it is different. The little rest¬ 
less thing is on the move from morning until 
night. Much of the food that is eaten goes to 
repair the waste of tissue that comes from so 
much exertion. If a chicken is left to itself it 
will run about the fields until the snow flies, 
wasting the days in useless exercise; but if the 
chick is kept in a yard 'where it cannot run 
about so much a large proportion of the food 
consumed goes to growth, and the chicken 
reaches maturity much sooner than it 'would 
otherwise. 
The time is coming when it will not be thought 
necessary to allow' chickens to range all over 
creation, but they wall be brought up in small 
yards and kept coming from the start. I 
venture to say that a pullet brought up this way 
49 
