The Republican journal., 1913-02-06
Facts from Farm and Fireside.
THE RESULTS OF TWO GREAT EGG-LAYING
CONTESTS.


CONTESTS.
The current issue of Farm and Fire
side contains the results of Two great
egg laying contests. One was held at
Storrs, Conn, at the Connecticut tx
pertinent Station. and 400 hens contest
ed. The othe. was held at the Missouri
State Poultry Experiment Station, Noun
tain Grove, Mo-, where 655 hens contest
ed. Following is an extract:
1.-The champion laying hen in the Mis-
souri, contest was Lady Showyou, a
White Plymouth Rock hailing from Hi
nois This hen laid PSI eggs during the
year. She lacked but one egg of equal
ing the best official record made in this
country. which was 2S2 eggs laid by a
Barred Rock at Guelph, Canada. Lady
Showyou's eggs averaged little over
two ounces each, total weight of IS
pounds for her years production.
''The heaviest layer i'll the Connecti-
cut contest was S. c. Rhode Island
Red She produced 254 eggs which
weighed 81 pounds.
There were al hens in the Connect
cut contest that laid over 200 eggs each
during the year, the average OF these
high producers being 223 eggs per hen.
One hen out of twelve entered in both
contests laid over POO eggs. In the Mis-
souri, contest the average fer the SO hens
laying over 200 eggs was 2l5 eggs per
hen.
THE 655 hens IN the Missouri contest
laid an average OF 1874 eggs per hen.
The 1870 in the Connecticut contest LAID an
average of 153 eggs per hen. The con-
testing hens came from nearly every
section of the country from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, from the Great Lakes to
the Gulf of Mexico, also several pens
from CANADA and one from England IN
the Connecticut contest.
1.-The Australians are in advance sof
the breeders of this country in breeding
for egg production. The leading pen In
the Connecticut contest averaged 2l4
eggs per hen, and in the Missouri contest
POS eggs per hen, but the leading pen III
the Australian contest which recently
closed, averaged $50 eggs per hen. Also,
IN the same Australian contest, 800 hers
gathered from so different breeders made
an average of nearly 200 eggs per hen
for the entire 800 But they have been
conducting these contests in that coun-
try for ten years or longer, and the peo-
production. The average farm hen does
not lay more than 50 eggs per year at
present Ii We can raise the average to
even $50 or 100 eggs per hen, We can
double or treble the profit in poultry to
those engaged in the business
ONE MILLION GOATS IN AMERICA.
In the current issue of Farm and Fire
side appears d most interesting article
about goats-ar article full of facts
about the commercial possibilities of
raising these animals. There are a mil
lion Angora goats in America and yet we
import annually over thirty per cent. of
the mohair used IN our domestic manu-
features. There is no reason why our
farmers cannot maintain enough goats
to supply our domestic trade with supe-
rior mohair Following is an extract
from the article
The banner goat farm of America is
located in Texas, and numbers ten thou
sand head of grade and purebre Ango-
raS. Last year the owner of this ranch
realized a net croft of one dollar per
animal from his flock There are sever
al other pretentious goat farms through
out New Mexico, California and Oregon.
The largest goat-ranch in the MISSISSIPPI
pi Valley has two thousand head, but the
average flock in this country is from one
hundred to five hundred animals.
The custom is to shear the goats
early in April. Ordinary hair sells for
thIrty-tiVe to ffty-fve cents a pound.
This common grade of mohair, which
commands no especially high price, is
that whose length is less than twelve
inches; the ordinary fleece Of one years
growth measures about ten inches in
length. The average mature doe VIII
shear from SIX to nine pounds Of mohair
each year, while the full-grovn buck
will yield from ten to fifteen pounds.
Previous TO shearing, the flock is graded
into classes of does, bucks, kids and
wethers. The f1eeces are marketed ac-
cording to this classification. The Amer
lean Angora Goat Association maintains
special mohair warehouse in Boston,
whore the tleeces OF practically all the
Angoras IN this country are marketed,
At this depot the fesces are carefully
cleaned, regarded if nece ssary, and baled
ready for consignment to the nanufac-
turing plants, where the raw monair is
converted into clothing, rugs, book bind
ings, shoes and gloves
'One very beautiful fleece, which was
twenty-five inches in length, sold for
$50 pound, the record price fcr raw
mohair in this country. Four dollars a
pound is about The ordinary top figure
Land can be cleared by Angora
goats of the worst brush known to this
country for little less than nothing.
How? Simply this: Angora goats will
live on leaves and weeds, leaving the
land cleaner and nicer than can be done
in any other way"
A BOOK FARMER" WHO is MAKING 500
AN ACRE OUT OF HIS LAND.
In an article entitled 1.-The Story of a
Book Farmer, - in the current issue of
Farm and Fireside appears the following
There is not as much ridicule fer the
book farmer now as formerly. The
tables have been turned on the other
fellow who is accepting the book farm
err as his guide.
"A good illustration of this so-called
book farmer is G. W. Jackman, who
lives near Atlanta, New York. When
he purchased his farm, he had to face a
circumstance that was seemingly dis
couraging The former owner had been
a 'slipshod' farmer. The low produc-
tivity of the soil and the dilapidated con-
dition of the buildings evidenced this
fact. But what was then one of the
poorest producing farms is now the best
in that part of the county.
THE farm itself is located about one
nila northeast of A tlapto -, +bo ho,,+;