NATURAL HABITS OF THE HEN. 
fowls of the State of Maine! The average pro¬ 
duct of the hens of the whole United States was 
(by the figures of the last census), 5.5 dozen eggs 
each, the total egg product being 1.293,819,186 
dozens; bringing the average product up to the 
8.5 dozens of the hens of Maine would add 700,- 
794, 255 dozens to that total, and add $77,437,- 
765 to the income from eggs alone. How can 
such an improvement be brought about? By 
first, converting the farmers to keeping pure 
bred stock, and, second, by breeding only from 
known great layers. By intelligently following 
this simple method the Maine Experiment 
Station has developed the laying qualities of its 
stock to a production of as high as 251 eggs in a 
year from one bird, and all the breeding stock 
in their yards are hens that have laid 180 
eggs each in a year, pullets, whose mothers 
have laid over 200 eggs in a year, and 
pullets sired by cockerels, whose mothers and 
grandmothers laid over 200 eggs each in a year. 
The time is not far distant when large egg- 
farms will be established, upon a commercial 
basis, devoted to the production of unfertilized 
eggs, (or “virgin eggs”), for supplying special 
private trade in the great cities. On such farms 
every bird consigned to the breeding pens will 
be a known great layer, and of proved great¬ 
laying ancestry, along lines similar to those laid 
down in that report of the Maine Experiment 
Station. What a power for increasing the egg- 
producing habit there is in such an ancestry! 
“All the breeding stock are hens that have laid 
180 eggs each a year, pullets whose mothers have 
laid over 200 eggs each in one year; and pullets 
sired by cockerels whose mothers and grand¬ 
mothers laid over 200 eggs each in one year.” 
Certainly the accumulated momentum of such 
egg-producing ancestry would be of tremendous 
value as compared with the hap-hazard methods 
of breeding, as conducted in the past. When 
we have developed generation after generation 
of great layers, and have the egg-proclucing 
habit fixed by breeding from birds whose fathers, 
grandfathers and great grandfathers, whose 
mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers 
were all of great laying stock, we shall have 
taken a most substantial step toward more profit¬ 
able poultry. The better-shaped market bird, 
the chicken with longer, deeper and fuller breast, 
will be developed likewise, and a uniting of the 
two strains in one is probable, with very great 
advantage to the pockets of the poultry groAver 
and the market poultry dealer. 
This. then. isAA'hat AA'e belie\ T e will be the de- 
A’elopment of the future; a decidedly greater 
egg-product, a much better quality of eggs reach¬ 
ing the tables of consumers in known good con¬ 
dition. a better quality of dressed poultry reach¬ 
ing the markets in prime condition, and an in¬ 
creasing appreciation of eggs and poultry as 
articles of food. The great consuming public 
will do its part if Ave will but do ours, and a 
mighty uplifting of this great industry will result. 
Colony Houses for the Growing Pullets, Fairview Farm. 
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