Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1915-11-24

breeder Is the flock that breaks all
egg records. Some focks are good
egg layers during the first season and
after that season seem to deeriorate
into a bunch of settlers, taking on fat
and producing about enough eggs
during the succeeding seasons TO
bring out a dozen or two of chix.
That is where the game becomes a
losing one, and to avoid this condition
is what we should like to have the
egg laying contests show. We want
to avoid this condition. Anyone can
pick up seven or eight hens from a
flock to beat some other fellow in an
egg laying contest but then it re-
solves itself into an advertising
scheme to advertise the man who
knows a laying hen when he sees one.
What we want is a series of egg
laying contests that are run on prac-
teal lines with hen houses such as
we can afford to experiment with. We
want such contests run with super
vision that is no more costly than we
could use for like number of hens
and then we would demand that the
flock so managed would more than
pay the overhead expense. This then
becomes a real business proposition.
We are tired of the gibes that point
out the futility of poultry breeders
efforts that cost more than the fowls
produce. We want the poultry in
dustry to pay first, last and all the
time and we want the experiment, if
tried, to pay also. Contests that carry
a good number, say 100 hens, would
give us an idea of what that sized
flock would give US in return for our
investment from a business stand
point. 1t is the same old argument
used to induce people to go into the
poultry business. We always hear
that the table scraps will keep nice
little bunch of hens in your back
yard Yes, they will and after all is
said and done, you can find no flock of
hens that will do better than the
flock of hens fed on table scraps SIM
ply because table scraps are the very
best that can be given to make hens
produce great quantities of eggs. The
problem we face is to make large
flock of a hundred or several hundred
produce in a like proportion. This we
can do only by giving the large hock
as nearly as possible the same 1000
and care given the smaller flock fed
on table scraps. This is harder to do
than is imagined and to get this food
ration down to perfection, to get these
results is what our egg laying con-
tests should do for US. We want egg
laying contests, but we want them not
to test men in their ability to pick out
LAYING hens but TO help us to feed and
care for larger flocks and make them
produce enough TO insure the success
of the poultry plant and put 1t on
paying basis.
We lose much time hunting for the
breeds that will produce eggs In
abundance and at the same time give
bird that sells for meat. Every
where you go you hear of the great
egg producing qualities of the Leg
horn. do not deny the good quail
ties of the Leghorn as | have seen
them tested, but | do want to say that
other breeds with the same care and
food supply will do as well;
Zone man in the state of Washing
ton has proven that the Leghorn is
wonder in this line, but we do not find
many exploiting other heavier breeds.
II seems that when one wants TO go
into the poultry business for egg pro-
duction he finds that it is the Leghorn
that wins first place.
1--WE are the defenders of the larger
breeds and we want some egg con
tests given that will prove to the
world that the heavier breeds are
steady and consistent layers and that
with the right sort of care and iced
they will equal anything the smaller
varieties have done. We are in great
need of knowing what rations are nee
essary to carry flocks of poultry
the seasons of the. year, get
ting from them their best in the way
of egg production. .,o
"The most beautiful egg on the
market is from the Minorca. They
are so large and white and regular
in size that everyone who sees them
want them in preference to all others.
They weigh from two to four ounces
per hound more than the eggs OF other
breeds and the fowl when dressed IS
large enough to furnish meat for a
small family. This is the sort OF
breed we want to see raised in large
numbers The bird that can combine
the broadest usefulness is the BIRD
that should be pushed to fulfill every
requirement from the show room to
the egg basket and the market.
Sand Farmer.