Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1906-03-22
Important Facts About Poultry.

Professor Charles ID. Woods, direo
tor of the Maine Experiment Station,
gave a very interesting discourse at
the Illinois State Institute meeting
held at Olney. He illustrated his talk
by means of stereopticon slides, show.
ling numerous scenes in the poultry
department of the Maine station.
Those that heard him were very much
impressed by some Of the points he
made. Among them were the follow.
ing:
One Of the birds shown was a White
Wyandotte hen that, SO far as looks
were concerned. was very attractive.
Professor Woods said that some peo-
pie claimed to be able to pick out
good hen by the looks but he was sure
that he could not do it and he did not
believe that anyone else could. This
men had been kept for four years and
had never laid an egg. After her de-
mise she was opened and It was dis
covered that her ovaries were merely
rudimentary. One naturally asks him.
self how many birds there are In our
fiocks that have not the ability to pro-
duce eggs though they have every ap.
pearance of being egg producers. An.
| other hen shown on the screen laid
but eight eggs in her first laying year,
and she did not differ in general out.
| line from another hen shown that laid
251 eggs In her first laying year.
A number of pictures of large pro-
ducers Of eggs were shown and the
audience was asked IL they could see
any reason for believing these birds to
| be big producers Of eggs. II was evi.
dent from the appearance Of the birds
that they would not be able to score
even fairly well at a poultry show as
they were out of shape on account OF
heavy work at egg producing. This
illustrates the fact that the present
\ way of judging fowls in our poultry
shows does not help us to distinguish
the good layer from the poor one
Another idol that the Professor at.
tempted to demolish was that of con.
fining birds to fatten them, as is now
done in some parts of Canada and in
the Old World. At the Maine station
careful tests had been made to deter.
mine whether being allowed to re.
main in an ordinary pen and yard
while being fattened was as good as
combining the birds In coops. The ex.
periments carried on showed that In
their case at least very much less feed
was required to produce a pound Of
gain when the fowls were left in their
natural state than when they were con-
fined. II this is followed up and backed
up by experiments at other stations II
will serve as a decided check on the
growing popular idea. that it pays to
corfine birds that are being fattened
for market.
A tremendous blow was dealt at the
old practice of heating poultry houses.
The Maine station is at Orono, which
Is in cold part Of cold state, where
even this winter, which is unusually
mild in Maine, the snow is piled high,
as was shown by the photographs. Yet
all this winter and for several win.
tiers past the birds have been pro-
tected from the cold only by a cloth
front to their roosting place, being al
lowed to jump down and work In the
straw of the scratching shed every
day. This shed was and is open to the
air on ordinary days and curtained by
cloth on clustering days. The hens
In such pens were unusually healthy,
happy and produced eggs in abun-
dance. though they ate more food than
did the fowls in the pens that were
warmed. But when the cost of heating
the other pens was considered the bal
ance was in favor of the hens tha,
were kept in the cold pens. In the
building Of these pens great care was
observed to have everything tight that
drafts might not be possible. In the
sleeping cabinet OF the fowls, over
which curtain was drawn each night,
the droppings did not freeze on the
cold nights, while in the morning no
odors were noticed. All the gases
from the bodies Of the fowls had
i passed out through the pores OF the
cloth and had given place to pure air.
Professor Woods warned his hear.
ers against putting faith in conclu
sions drawn from experiments with n
small number Of fowls, as fowls diff
fer so greatly in laying capacity. A
few hens OF breed pitted against a
few hens OF another breed will give
results one way or another, but they
are OF almost no value. The aggre-
gate laying capacity OF one pen is Ger.
tain almost not to be the same as that
in the other. Only when many hun.
dreds of birds are averaged can any
definite results be obtained. The
Maine station is now conducting tests
with 1000 birds belonging to a poul.
try producing company at Orono. The
whole is as much under the direction
of the station as II it belonged TO the
station. From 1t great things are
hoped for.