The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-08-16
THE sPECIAL-PURPosE HEN.

/ The age through which we ar
now passing is one of specialization
Young men and women are educat
ed and animals are selected for
special purpose.
a glance through the advertise
ments of our leading colleges illus
trate the many special courses feat
ured in this year of study.
therefore, it is very evident tha
| the " jack of all trades " has passe,
| into the minority, as well as tn
all-purpose horse and dual purpos
COW, are largely of the past. AM
have but little standing in the ex
| pert judgment of modern agricultur
lists.
A man can serve two masters a
the same time just as satisfactory,
as the hen can become a good vast
er and prolific layer. The analysis
OF foods required by poultry prov,
that the elements of meat produc
tion are opposing factors to those O
egg production. The hen will eithel
cleave to one or yield to other.
There are flocks which seemingly
appear to possess both traits. bu
upon close examination they rarely
have any pride of ancestry or hope
of posterity,-in fact they have no
inherited and are not capable ot
transmitting the traits which they
simply chance to possess.
Cases have appeared where a coll
of ordinary ancestry has developed
into very fast harness horse but
most buyers desire colt with good
blood lines on both Sides Why?
Because the sire and dam have beer
bred for a special purpose, that oil
speed, and have the power to trans.
NIT 1t to generations to follow.
The special purpose nen most de.
sired to-day is one that lays when
eggs are eggs. The regular laying
period, or when most eggs are pro-
duced, is from March till June. Dur
ing these months nearly all flocks
yield eggs, and the market, owing
to large production, drops in price.
With the advent of cold weather
in November the average flock be-
gins to decrease in egg production
and continue until February 1t is
now that the owner who has studied
his birds and trained them so as to
get the yield during these months
reaps his harvest.
The prevailing prices are high,
fifty and sixty cents a dozen were
not uncommon here last year. One
of these hens is worth a flock that
lay in May, as these birds are usual
ly descended from long line of an
cestors who had the same quality.
There is no large element of
chance in raising stock from their
eggs, as they will transmit to their
offspring the characters for which
they are celebrated. On the other
hand the progeny will be an un-
known quantity.
In life we see and feel two fac
tors, the weak and the strong. In
nature there are two elements, the
dominant and the recessive. The
hen who lays 100 to $50 eggs a year
has a fixed dominant feature and
will produce like. Birds that are
said to possess both traits will pro-
duce young which will revert back
to either the meat type or the layer.
Hens to be large producers of
eggs must not necessarily be of the
Leghorn family, although this breed,
as class have the reputation of be-
ing the largest egg producers living.
Without doubt this breed pro-
duces greater proportion of all the
eggs laid than any two breeds, yet
these are individual birds and fiocks
of other classes that have surpassed
the Leghorns. In these cases it
will be found they have been bred
Tor the special purpose of egg pro-
duction.
Persons have often been disap-
pointed in their stock after purchas-
ing it from the heaviest laying
strains. Do not imagine you have
200 egg per year hen simply be-
cause the strain has that reputation.
Dan Patch is the king of the har-
ness world, but not all of his de-
cendants have paced in 2.1O, al
though in years to come many fast
horses will trace back to him. This
applies to the production of eggs.
There are Leghorns which have
proven excellent egg machines while
others have been discarded as poor
layers. Again there are Leghorns
which lay small eggs as we'll as
those that are layers of large, while
many a Rhode Island Red or Ply
mouth Rock have abundantly filled
the egg-basket.
1t is fact that fowls which lay
large eggs transmit this feature to
their progeny also those laying
small eggs have produced birds that
have the same trait.
1t matters not with the breed but
with the strains either to size or
aid. If the idea of special
purpose or pedigree breeding is well
carried out for a few generations
your birds will eventually be layers
far ahead of the ordinary barn yard
fowls.
The value of special training is
very evident and Mark Twain has
very fittingly expressed it, Training
is everything, the peach was once a
bitter almond; the cauliflower
cabbage with a college education" d"
q. A. LINDSAY,
Secretary Wayne County Poultry