The Marshall republican., 1906-08-03
TIME TO USE THE RATCHET
Necessity Of culling Out the Old and
Improbable TENDERS Of /
Flock.

1t is about the time Of the year
when the Ratchet should be doing
business in the poultry yard a great
many hens should o be going to
market. Sooner or later they must
go TO market or be buried under the
sod, and better soono before their
owner has lost on their keep all the
profit they made him In the first two
years OF their age. The young stock
is coming on nov and they viii need
the room and the care that the old
hens are taking.
There can be no question now that
the value OF the hen decreases with
age. That has been pretty thoroughly
settled by experiments made at the
Utah station by James Dryden. One
paragraph Of his reports reads as fol-
lows:
''Our experiments In previous years
on the most profitable age OF the hen,
showed average pen results aS fol-
lows for Legtprn hens: First year.
average per hen. iGi eggs; second
year 12G eggs" TiSse were pen NV
erages. II was found ~ keeping trap
nest records Of individual hens. that
in n few cases individual hens laid
mor eggs the second year than the
frst. This vas no doubt due 10 the
conditions for good egg-yield being
better the second than the nrst year.
TO quote again from the report:
Averaging the results OF all 'indi-
vidual hens for which We have two
years records. We have the following;
Thirteen Brown Leghons laid an ay-
erage a 1873 eggs the fret year per
hen and l57 the second; four White
| Leghorns averaged 1873 the first year
and IS the second; five Barred
Plymouth Rocks averaged lb4 eggs
the FIRST year and 10 the second; six
teen White Wyandottos averaged 40
! the first year and III the second:
| three White Plymouth Rocks averaged
| 1872 the first year and 1923 the second.
There were Al hens Of the dlfer'
| ent breeds for which records are com
| plete for two years. and we find that
| they averaged IL eggs per fowl tho
FIRST yeaA aud l25 the second, or 40
Ler cent. more the first year than
the second"
Il Is explained that this Is not a
| breed test and no conclusion should
| be drawn from these records az re-
| CARDS laying merits OF the different
| breeds. These records covered the
| laying year. The following paragraph
| OF the report IL OF interest as show
| Ing whether the hens or the pullets
| are the better winter layers, IL Is
| possible that the poorer layer by lay
| ing more eggs In winter Is the more
! profitable, but the experiments did
not bear out this contention;
The Al individual hens whose rec
| ords are given laid 9lG eggs as pull
let's before February /, and as year
/ old hens they laid only 437 10 the
| same date. This would show that the
| pullets not only lay more eggs during
tne last year than the hens. but they
I Jay a larger proportion OF them In
winter than the hens"
These records, comments the Ohio
| Farmer. show a remarkable falling
| on in the second years laying. Other
| testA made showed that the falling
| OF in the third and fourth years was
| even areater than In the second year.
| The results on the whole showed that
| there mAY be a profit in keeping hens
| two yearA, but after that there was
| almost a certain loss in keeping them.
II is no use In farmers saying there
is no money in hens" so long as they
| do not know how TO use the Ratchet
| properly In the poultry yard.