Mexico weekly ledger., 1903-10-15
THE HEN is JOINING TO THE
FRONT WITH A GREAT
REPUTATION.
SOME FIGURES FROM 1902 OUTPUT
The State Is Now Third in Poultry
Culture, and May Soon Reach a
higher Place-53 Hil.x
lion Dozen Eggs
Are Shipped
Annually.

lion Dozen Eggs
Are Shipped
Annually.
COLUMBIA, Mo-, Oct 1.-THE Mis-.
souri, hen promises TO become as famous
as the Missouri mule. Already the
value Of the surplus products Of the
Missouri hen amount annually to
more than 2 million dollars more than
the value OF the mules sold out OF the
State. In 1892 oyer IS million dozen
eggs were shipped out Of the State,
while thousands of dozen found their
way to the breakfast tables of Mis-
sourians.
No other farm product gives so
much cash to the Missouri farmer as
the hen. Missouri is third in poultry
raising, Illinois first and Iowa second.
This rating "a given by the last
United States census, but by a persis-
tent effort Missouri is expected before
many months TO climb to second or
perhaps first place.
The poultry counties OF Missouri are
contiguous TO Kansas City, which is
one Of the largest, If not the largest
poultry market in the United States.
The annual production Of eggs of some
Missouri counties is as follows:
WHAT SOME HENS HAVE DONE.
Greene, isis, $50 dozen.
Boone, 2,505, $50 dozen.
Pettis, 2,54l, $50 dozen.
Gaseonade, L724,370 dozen.
Franklin, 1,llS623 dozen.
Dayiess, l,sI0, 500 dozen.
Dade, I,O49,3 $40 dozen.
Crawford, l,6O3, $40 dozen.
Marion, 1,2O2, 900 dozen.
Macon, 1,790, 430 dozen.
Sullivan, 1,209, e46 dozen.
In n year a hen eats food equal to
sixteen times her weight and lays eggs
equal to six times her weight. Her
food costs about n cent a pound
while her eggs will bring sixteen cents
per pound. The yearly egg product
will sell for six times the cost Of food.
These statistics are given by L. E.
Orr, OF Beaver, Pa, Secretary Of the
American Poultry Association, who
holds the chair Of poultry in Missouri
University.
San average hen,i said Mr.. Orr,
Should produce 240 eggs a year. Her
food for the year will cost eighty
cents. The eggs will sell for two cents
each, bringing $3.50"
THE COST OF FEEDING A HEN.
1t costs from forty-seven to eighty
three cents a year 10 feed a farm hen,
where they are allowed to run at
large. Many farmers who raise poul-
try pay nothing whatever for food,
but give chickens the waste from
their granary and table. A very i'm
porJant part OF the laying hens diet
is water. Two-thirds Of the egg is
water, the other one-third consisting
Of solid foods. Here many small poul-
try raisers make a mistake by not pro-
viding a suitable supply of clear
| water.
Prof. Orr has prepared what he calls
the yearly bill OF fare for hens. The
amounts named are for forty-five hens
and are supposed to keep them for one
year:
Three hundred pounds corn.. ...s 1.s7
Six hundred pounds of OATS. 600
Four hundred pounds Of wheat. 400
Three hundredpounds kafir corn
or sorghum L.s7l
-Four hundred pounds Of bran. 3.Ool
-Four hundred pounds Of clover. 300
Three hundred pounds Of beef
scrap, meat meal, dried blood. s.OOI
-Four hundred pounds grit and
fine gravel. 2.00l
Three hundred pounds OF oyster
smell ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 225
Two hundred pounds of cut
DOne 4 OOI
The total is 5000 pounds, at a total
cost Of $50, an a erage Of eighty
pounds Of feed per hen, at a cost Of
eighty cents.
FIRST YEAR THE MOST PROFITABLE.
The first year is the most profitable
age OF hens. Two pens of Leghorns
averaged IT'S eggs per fowl during 1.-THE
tirst year; the second year the same
fowls averaged 1924, and during the
third 116i. The per cent. OF profit
was 1888 the first year, us the second
and 97i the third.
The result OF the experiments is }
the popular belief that hens
should be fed grain in gravel and !
made to scratch for it. One pen with
Ill grain fed in a box averaged l47sI
Eggs per fowl per year for three years. :
Another pen having grain fed In straw :
Iveraged 132 eggs. II was found that !
without exercise consumed as :
f4uOk ia - 49,. -4sI a. q