The Florida agriculturist., 1907-09-25
POULTRY DEPARTMENT

proper number of eggs, unless yo1
use trap nests. But with them, it is
an easy matter to select, for breeding
only those hens which lay at leas
$50 eggs in a year and to improve OF
that as rapidly as possible. The fol
lowing from Green's Fruit Grower
tells something Of what may be done
in that line:
Follow method of selecting from
year to year, using only as breeders
the pullets Matched from eggs from
the best layers of the previous years
Use only males from the highest egg
record hen Of the flock, remembering
that the male is one-ffth of your flock
so far as building up the utility quail
ties are concerned. If this system o1
breeding is carefully followed a very
profitable laying strain can be built
up in a very short time. The great
record strains of the country have
been built up just this way, and not
because they were naturally any bet
ter than what you have.
The Maine station reported expert
ments as follows: In 1893 they be-
gan with 40 pullets and 22 trap nests
They began November I. In one yea1
from date the record showed that the
40 birds had averaged I2o eggs
Twenty laid over 100 eggs, 2z
fewer than 100 eggs. In the following
year, for special breeding purposes
only females having a record from I6(
To no
IoI and number zoo we're mated with
finely-bred cockerel, from which
mating cockerels were selected fol
future breeding.
The result of the year 1890 mating
showed pullets making a record from
2o8 to 237 eggs. This method was
followed until in the year 1902 {
record was reached of 24o eggs, and If
1908 they made an average Of $50 eggs
each for the whole flock tested
Thus in five years an increase Of thir
ty eggs per hen was reached.
Incubator History.
The following account of the intro
duction of incubators is from Farm
Press. You will find some interesting
items of information in it:
The incubator is gradually crowdins
the American hen out of the business
of sitting on her own eggs. The hen il
being succeeded by the incubator, just al
the needle was followed by the sewing
machine, or the hand cradle by the reap
er Ninety per cent of the professional
poultrymen use the incubator exclusive
ly, for the reason that with it they
can hatch chickens out of season. This
means to them just what it does t(
the florist to be able to produce tht
tender flowers of summer in the dea(
of winter. The old hen goes hand an(
glove with nature, and as a consequence
her season as sitter is short. The
incubator goes it alone, and keeps III
the pace the year through.
Hatching chickens by artificial means
is almost as old as history. The ar
was known before the dawn of the
Christian era, and has been practice(
continuously in Egypt, China and othel
Oriental countries down to the present
day. For many years past chickens have
been Matched artifcially in European
countries, notably in France, England
Belgium and Denmark; but it has re
manned for Yankee genius to modernizt
and perfect the present popularsized in
cubator and brooder, and to devise ways
and means of Matching and raising
chicks in large numbers by it's use OF
the city lot, the village acre and tht
ordinary farm.
The first incubator made it's appear
ance in this country in l945. A Yankee
put one on exhibition on Broadway, New
York. He charged shilling to see th'