Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1914-01-22
S. G. Brown Leghorn.

cipally for laying, and i'll the las
few years have been exhibiting at the
shows, and have them bred upon thai
line until now / am winning many
first prizes. / am following the double
line breeding. Keeping in my owl
stock most all the time, always mark
and select my earliest matured pullets
for my breeding pens for the next
year, and keep a few special good
hens to put with them Selling mos
all of the yearling hens off.
By this way of breeding and will
this class of chickens, if have my
chicks hatched off by the first Of
April, they will begin laying by the
time the yearling hens begin then
moult In this way | never ALLOW
them to moult and rest on me-. BY
this method / can keep up contin-
nous flow of eggs the year round
In October and November, which are
considered two of the poorest months
for egg laying i'm the year, from l55
hens in the month of November, got
$6025, the price of eggs were from
40 to As cents per dozen, which were
sold all for cash. The cost of feed
for that month was $13.35.
My experience of feeding for ego
production, bran, shorts, gray, oats
meatscraps, grit and green feed con
tinually before them, wheat and corn
toward evening. My hen house i,
eighteen by ffty-two feet east, front
enclosed with wire netting with can
vas curtains to let down during cold
weather, this side is walled up three
fet from the floor.
The roosting room, laying room
feed. scratching and busting room
are all on the same floor and level
The roosts are two fet from the floor
and the floor is three feet from the
ground, this gives them the same space
on the ground under cover, they ear
pass from the floor underneath. There
lis plenty of light all over the house
there is ditch one foot deep all
around the house underneath, The
main object in having it so high from
the ground is to keep the rats from
harboring there.
This plan and size of house will
easily accommodate $50 hens during
the winter months. They have two
and one half acres of orchard to run
in when turned out. | find hat the
largest profits in egg production come
from pullets. l find on this well bal
anced ration when they get matured
and get about so fat they commence
laying and keep it up until they be-
gin to moult. For two years | have
kept an exact account of the feed up
to the time the pullets are matured
and begin to lay. | find by selling the
young cockerels when they weigh from
a pound and a half to two pounds,
at this weight, they bring 16 to ls
cents a pound and as a rule they arc
half cockerels and the other half pul,
let's.
| find they pay for the raising OF
themselves and the pullets up to ma
turity. We always start our young
chicks off ON chick food and very sell
dom lose any. If chickens are kept
free from lice and never over heated
they will seldom have any disease
among them. Most every chicken
fancier has certain breed Of chick
ems that suits him best, and he viii
probably have the best success with
that breed. | have tried several dlf-
ferent breeds of chickens and have
found that S. C. Brown Leghorns suit
me best. | find that it is just as es-
sential to breed for good laying hens
as it is to breed for good milk COWS,
In thirteen years have improved my
stock wonderfully. They mature ear
lier and lay more steady. | raise all
kinds of stock and farm produce and
find there is nothing so profitable FOR
the amount invested as raising chick
ems. Therefor | am willing to de
vote a part of my spare time freely
to the development of the chicken in
dustry. | know of no better way to
do this than to boost the shows. We
invite everyone to attend our show
in Dallas. No addmittance will be
charged for visitors. We want all
poultry breeders to begin raising poul-
try with the itention of exhibiting at
our show next fall. We will meet
there with the intention of learning
all we can of the industry.
J. NJ. Card, president of the Polk
County Poultry Association, Dallas.
Oregon.