The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-01-07
POULTRY VALUABLE !.
TO EVERY FARMER
Start With Standard Bred Stock and Maintain Vitality by
Careful Selection Says Former Government Expert.

I than eggs for table use: ca. uniform
! ty in color, size and shape OF eggs.
and (4). better appearance OF the
! flock generally.
! The most important advantage OF n
standard breed is the opportunity for
| Improvement. The farmer not only
has a good flock of fowls from which
to make a selection, but he can always
find some other farmer or poultry
| keeper with the same breed of fowls.
with whom he can exchange males or
females for breeding purposes. One
of the first objects in successful breed
| ing of poultry is to maintain the vi
| talty of the flock. This is done by in
fusing new blood into the flocks.
| In 1905 | had few pnllets which
began to lay earlier than others. he-
! gan putting these early layers by
| themselves. By keeping a record Of
| the eggs laid by these pullcts during
the winter, found that some of the
pullets were better layers than the
older fowls.
This was not the only feature.
| Breeding from early layers mated with
| the best males was found to produce
pulcts which laid more eggs than the
! parent fowl. This led me to take more
/ interest in the poultry side of farm
work. The result was a large increase
| in egg production in winter With
higher prices for eggs at that season
| at ink
of AT a loss as had frequently been the
case for several months of the year.
Records of egg production from my
flocks have been kept since 1907. Be-
| sides the pleasure of keeping accounts
there is considerable satisfaction in
| knowing that the flock has been profit
able and that there has been n steady
! increase in profits as a result of i'm
proving the flock by careful breediAg
Results in Egg Production.
For the sake of comparison. let us
take the egg production of a flock of
80 fowls in 1907 The. number of eggs
laid that year was 1895. From then
on there was a steady increase up tc
1914 in which year the esq production
was SOFA. For the ten months ending
october 81 1916, the number of eggs
laid by the same sized flock was 1877.
BY systematic breeding there was a
. steady increase in the egg yield. For
the first four years after 1907, the
average number of eggs laid was 5,4o9,
or an avera sc annual increase of nearly
81 per cent. During the years 1914
TO 1916, inclusive, the increase in eggs
over 1907 was more than 100 per cert,
| With practically the same number Of
fowls. Care in breeding. therefore, has
its effects in more prolific laying.
Breeding Larger Fowls.
The weight Of the fowls can also be
increased. Census reports show that
| the size of the average farm fowl Is
small. To increase the weight of fowls
by careful breeding is to lay the foun-
dation for more profitable poultry
keeping. 4 few simple principles of
selection in breeding are as follows:
Nigor and health in both males and
females are necessary in successful
| breeding. Next, the form of the breed
ers should be considered. For increas-
ing the size of the chick. birds with
long bodies. good width between the
thighs, and long breast bones should
be chosen. These traits are transmit