PUBLISHED 
IN CONNECTION WITH POULTRY FEED 
PRICE LIST 
Vol. 17 
JANUARY 20, 1940 
No. 1 
A POULTRY PROGRAM TO HELP YOU TO 
GREATER SUCCESS IN 1910 
By Don Purcell, 
Div. Mgr. Poultry Dept., Purina Mills 
Last year, the editor of Gould’s Caekler, asked me 
to write an article on what I believed to be of most 
service to chick buyers at this season of the year. 
In looking over the article that I wrote a year ago, 
there is little that I can add to it except one vital 
factor. 
The program I would like to suggest for every 
chick buyer is as follows: 
First, that they start with the right chick. 
The right chick is one that has behind it, first— 
breeding. Breeding determines the number of eggs 
a bird is capable of laying. Recently, Dr. R. E. 
Lubbehusen, Purina’s animal pathologist, autopsied 
a day-old chick, and found that the ovaries of this 
chick contained over 100,000 microscopic egg yolks. 
These yolks are in the chick’s body because of breed¬ 
ing. 
When buying chicks, be sure that they are from a 
hatchery or breeder who has a definite program of 
flock improvement for breeding. Investigate the 
breeding program back of the chicks you buy. 
The second measure of a good chick is the disease 
control program back of it. This disease control 
program should include blood-testing of the parent 
stock to eliminate Pullorum disease. This disease, 
sometimes called bacillary white diai’rhea, is trans¬ 
mitted to the chick from the parent stock through 
the egg. By blood-testing, infected birds are de¬ 
tected, and eliminated from the flock. 
A further phase of the disease control program 
should be careful sanitation in the hatchery. This 
perfects the health of the chick while it is being in¬ 
cubated, and after the chick is hatched. Investigate 
the disease control program back of the chicks you 
buy. 
The third measure of a good chick is the incubation 
back of it. You need worry very little about that 
phase of the production program because today, in¬ 
cubators are extremely accurate in controlling, 
temperature, humidity and air movement. If the 
hatchery from which you buy your chick has the 
right breeding, disease control, and flock breeding 
program, you can almost be certain that its incuba¬ 
tion is modern and efficient. 
The fourth measure of the right chick is one that 
has behind it Purina embryo feeding. That means 
breeding flock has had a ration especially stepped 
up in the factors which make for high production, 
hatchability and chick livability. 
Careful research and experience shows that a lay¬ 
ing mash may do a very good job of egg production 
and still do a very poor job of hatchability and 
chick livability. It is vital that the breeder ration 
be high in vitamin and mineral content so that it 
can properly feed the developing chick the first 21 
days in the shell. 
Chick customers do not buy day-old chicks. They 
just think they do. They buy 21 day old chicks. 
It is vitally important that these chicks be fed 
properly the first 21 days in the shell if those chicks 
are to have a running start in life with the necessary 
nutrients for high mortality and livability. 
Recently, we had chicks in Purina’s Research 
Laboratory from eggs that had bright red yolks and 
eggs that had bright green yolks. Fully twelve 
weeks after these chicks were hatched, the tissue, 
the actual body of these chicks, was still colored 
red or green, depending on the color of the yolk of 
the egg from which the chick had been hatched. It 
was still possible twelve weeks after these chicks 
had been hatched, to actually see in the body of the 
chicks the influence on those bodies of the ration 
the hen had eaten. 
This year take into consideration the fact that 
good chicks can only be made from good eggs, quite 
the same as good cake can only be made from good 
eggs. Investigate the feeding program back of the 
chicks you buy. Demand chicks from Purina embryo 
fed flocks. 
Experience shows that it pays to get the right 
chick at the right time. The right time is as early 
as possible. Decide now that you will have pullets 
ready with a full sized egg when you can get a 
full-sized price for them. For years, the best egg 
market has been during the months of September, 
October, November and December. Prepare now for 
those months of 1940 by getting the right chick at 
the right time. 
You can have big, well developed pullets if you 
will follow a management, sanitation and. feeding 
program that is built to get that specific job done 
for you. 
Ask R. L. Gould & Company for the Purina Chick 
Booklet. Follow the program, starting, growing and 
laying outlined in that booklet. Feed 2 lbs. of 
Starter.a per chick; put your pullets on Growena 
Mash and Checkers or Growing Chow and grains, 
and you will have solved the feeding part of your 
program. 
Decide now what your 1940 poultry objective is. 
Plan to get the right chick at the right time and 
put it on the program that is built to help you 
achieve the objective which you set now. Now is 
the time to make the right decision and then to 
follow those decisions without deviation. That is 
the method successful poultry raisers are cashing 
in on, year in and year out. 
