PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
second, and 138 in her third year.” “No. 4 
laid 201 eggs the first year, 140 the second and 
130 the third.” These two hens laid 486 and 
471 eggs respectively in three years. 
Speaking of the advantages of incubators 
and the beneficial effects from their use the U. S. 
Census Report says: “The continued use of 
the incubator tends to make the hen forget in a 
measure, her maternal instincts. It is said that 
in Egypt, where artificial incubation has been 
employed for centuries, the hens exhibit very 
little tendency to become ‘ broody/ and much of 
the time formerly spent in being ‘broody’ is 
available for egg laying. This fact assumes 
gigantic importance when it is remembered 
that it has been discovered that there are 600 
embryo eggs in the ovary of a hen. It has been 
further ascertained that two-thirds of this 
number can be secured in the first two years 
of a hen’s life, provided suitable measures are 
employed. If the tendency to become ‘ broody ’ 
can be suppressed, and more time can be given 
to egg laying, incubation being left to the artifi¬ 
cial incubator, and if, in addition, egg-pro¬ 
ducing food be fed, the problem of getting the 
greatest number of the eggs from the hen in the 
first two years of her life will be very near 
solution.” 
Assuming for the moment that the census 
writer is correct in his statement of there being 
600 embryo eggs in the ovary of a hen, the 
problem of getting the greatest proportion of 
that number the first two years of her life is 
easily solved if we but breed from birds that 
have the egg-laying habit fixed; the success of 
the Maine Experiment Station people is good 
proof of that. Does our census friend, however 
“ know ’’ that there are 600 eggs in the ovary of 
a hen? We believe that the number is not so fixed 
as he implies, and that an increase in the 
number can be developed by breeding from 
birds of a fixed egg-producing habit. Faculties 
are developed by long-continued and persistent 
use. With the wild Gallus bankiva there would 
hardly be occasion for a store of 600 embryo eggs 
when she produced but 8 to 13 in a season; 
there certainly was no probability of her living 
through fifty seasons, hence by no possibility 
could she ever use half, or a fourth, even, of 
600 embryo eggs; and nature is not so wasteful 
of her provision for the reproduction of species. 
Rather would we believe that in the wild state 
the female Gallus bankiva was provided with 
perhaps 100 embryo eggs, and that the increase 
in the domesticated hen to a possible 600 has 
come through long development of the egg-pro¬ 
ducing faculty; and in that belief (and it is 
plausible) we find encouragement to look for¬ 
ward to a still further enlargement of the supply 
of embryo eggs in future great laying stock. 
There are countless analogies in nature of such 
development through long continued and per¬ 
sistent use of a faculty or function, and with the 
prolific laying habit developed and transmitted 
through many generations we confidently pre¬ 
dict a still further increase of capacity for egg- 
production. 
Similarly with the market qualities of our 
stock; by selecting the breeding birds with a 
view to improving the quantity and quality of 
breast meat, by choosing birds with long, deep 
keels and short legs and thighs, that most im¬ 
portant quality will become gradually more 
highly developed; bringing about an increased 
quantity of the highest quality of meat, which 
will result in increased appreciation of and de¬ 
mand for that product. 
The Probabilities of the Future. 
Far too many poultry writers, as well as 
poultry raisers, take no thought of the probable 
future growth or development of the poultry 
business; we are all prone to live fully up to the 
motto, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil there¬ 
of.” Those of us who can look back fifty years, 
can see tremendous changes, and if we study 
the situation aright, those changes of the past 
are certainly suggestive of what future develop¬ 
ment may be. Up to this time the practical 
end of poultry raising has been very little studied; 
the bulk of poultry writing, the influence of the 
poultry shows, etc., have almost all been along 
what is called the “fancy” branch of the bus¬ 
iness. Some little thought for the practical 
there is, some little preaching of better quality, 
both of poultry meat and eggs, and there is some 
slight interest in the better conditions of collect¬ 
ing and shipping to favorable markets. Taking 
the country as a whole, however, there is very, 
very little thought of this, and very, very little 
attention paid to the bettering of quality, and 
the improving of market conditions. 
That improvement in quality is one phase of 
future development, seems highly probable, and 
it will tend to an increased appreciation of both 
poultry meat and eggs, if this improvement in 
quality and also in market conditions is brought 
about. One of the effects of improvement in 
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