Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-03-03
EARL n MATURITY.
The Fancier who Forces HIS Pullets
to Lay IL Making Mistake.

10 A<i<g - NstAAhu& ~ tAAA4k&AACe
For a number Of years early matu-
rity" has been n pet theme with large
number OF writer's, and many fancters
have been striving to secure fully de-
veloped fowls at an age when, accord
ing to natural laws, the stock should
still be ia the growing state.
The market poultryman who is rails
ing chicks to sell for the block can,
/ with profit to himself, follow plan of
feeding that will force an unnatural
and premature development of flesh,
but the man who is conducting an egg
farm and the fancier whose business it
is to supply fowls for breeding pur-
poses certainly cannot afford to follow
such system.
Let MS see about it. early maturity
in the pullet and the cockerel counts
against size. There can be no question
of doubt as TO this. If we SO feed the
pullets that they begin to lay at an ex-
tremely early age, we then and there
determine the size of the pullet 1t is
certain that such q pullet will never at
tain to the size of hen which is repre-
sentative in size of a hen of the speci-
fed breed or variety. This is because
this pullet has been SO fed as to induce
early laying at the expense of bone and
muscle development That's the condi-
ton, and under the so called .early ma
turity" system of feeding the condition
cannot be otherwise.
No condition could be more undesira-
bic in the yards of the fancier The
chick forced to early maturity cannot
in the very nature of things ever be a
desirable breeding bird. The very mo-
ment pullet begins to lay eggs then
and there growth. development of bone,
muscle. feathers, all that goes to make
up the frame of the bird ceases. You
may by certain methods of feeding in
crease the weight of a specimen thus
forced to early egg production, but no
system Of feeding will yield an increase
in the size of such specimen. Natu-
rally egg production is the legitimate
result of maturity, of the complete
growth of the pullet when she has de-
veloped all her parts along natural
lines.
1t is thus forcing this early egg pro-
duction, "early maturity" as it is
wrongly termed nowadays, and breed
ing from such stock that cause many
fanciers to fail. Such pullets will lay
many eggs in the fall and early winter.
The fancier is delighted with them. He
mates up his breeding pens, say, Jan. /.
About that time the egg. yield begins to
decrease. The eggs he puts in his incu-
bator or under hens fail to hatch well.
The chicks which do come out are
weak. All season he faithfully and
well cares for them. but they do not
come on we'll The loss rate is heavy.
In the fall he rounds up with a number
of chicks which are far below the size
they ought to be. They are not strong
and robust, full of yigor and good size.
Why? Because their parents had none
Of this to transmit to them. 1t is a nat
ural condition
BY the so called early maturity sys-
TEN of feeding any fancier can very
soon ruin the best strain of fowls in ex-
istence today. What we should do is
not to unnaturally force the pullet into
early egg production, but to SO feed
thar she will make the very best
growth of all her parts; that her deyel-
opment will be along natural lines.
Man can materially aid nature in this
work, but when all is said and done his
contribution is only an aid. Man can
largely control the growth and direct it
along one line if he desires, such as
early egg production, but whenever he
does this he sacrifices for that specified
growth the development of the speci-
men as whole. And no specimen can
attain perfection in development as a
whole that is deficient in one or more
parts. Thomas F. Rigg in American
Poultry Journal