The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-07-05
!: POULTRY DEPARTMENT Fl
UTILITY POULTRY
(Charles E. Cram in American Poul-
tryman.)

tryman.)
It has been said that the last few
years breeders were going wild over
fancy poultry, and that the business
would be overdone. If there was no
utility side of poultry culture, we
believe it would be possible to overdo
the fancy branch of the business, but
as it is, we believe there is no posi-
bility of overriding either branch of
the business, surely not in the case of
utility poultry, anyway.
The demand for poultry and eggs
for market purposes is practically un-
limited II the supply, enormous as it
is, could be doubled in a single sea-
son, the consumption would cores
pondingly increase, and the price not
materially decrease. Interest in util-
ity poultry has greatly increased in
the last few years and especially the
last year or two. Experiments sta
tons are carrying on systematic and
scientific investigations and expert
ments. Just what can be accomp-
lished in breeding and feeding is re-
ceiving unbiased attention. Expert
ments to prove anything definitely
must be thorough and extend over a
considerable length of time, and be
the result of a series of experiments
rather than single experiment.
When individuals independently carry
on experiments, they are liable to an
nounce results of single experiment |
as conclusive, whereas conditions in
that experiment may have been such |
that the results secured might be an |
exception to a rule that would have |
been proven by an extended series of
experiments. individuals may form a
theory and then carry on their expert
ments in a way to prove their the
DRY. For instance, man may reason
that chickens do as well confined as
on free range, and he may shut a
dozen hens in a house ten feet square
and care for them in way that they
will be very productive, and he may
think he has proven his theory,
whereas he has given them in extra
feed and labor what they would have
secured on free range. Three years
ago we found a man successfully CD i
'aising 500 chickens on town lot. {
He used lots of straw for litter and +,
changed it frequently, but it took lots /
If work and though it was published II
Is a success, he did not repeat it the S
lext year. Then we remember three g
tory poultry house that was conduct y
ID on much the same plan, but year u
# two later was abandoned. b
1t is the business of the experiment "
tations to give results from an UNI h
iased standpoint They are to take r.
lto consideration the disadvantages A
s well as the advantages of plan, is
r system, or method, and the con q
lusions given to the people who pay W
,r it. There is a tendency to form W
leory and then. conduct an expert d.
lent In way to prove it, but 1t is in
Spected that the experiment stations of
i'll not do this, but prove or disprove Sc
leir theories in an impartial man o,
Or. re
In this connection we might refer
case of which we have read If
here an experiment is being conduct be
to prove that 200 chickens can be Pl
ccessfully raised In a single brood gr
Though this man may succeed in lis
ing this, we would not think the re- fei
Its would have much weight when TO
is known that thousands have tried II
and failed. However, the results no
hleved and the method Of manage. no
INT lmpartially given would be of TIN
crest. Br
The fact that the American Poultry
sociation is taking up the matter is
market poultry is an important step cal
the development Of utility poultry a
rhe outlook was never better TO car