The Washington times., 1919-12-21


feed than to raise .
small one. Where,
then, is the greater
profit?
The answer II that such fowls are much
more economical - producers Of meat,
They have much more flesh in proportion
to their weight. Fowls Of this character
do not ordinarily appear on the poulterers
stalls; the housewife has no chance to buy
them They are bought up by the packers
largely in Illinois and Iowa. where their
production has been specialized-and put
mp In boxes. each holding twelve. Res,
taursnts and hotels take practically the
entire supply, paying several cents more
per pound than everyday chickens fetch.
A chicken of this kind is not over.fat, but
has O massive muscular structure, with
much development Of bfeast. 1t cuts up
like small turkey. The new type Of giant
fowl will be greatly Larger and built on the
same lines.
In the ordinary market dig egg sells
for no more than . small egg. But there
exists what 10 called fancy demand"
for extra-large eggs, and some chicken
farms make q business Of supplying them,
because they command Q special price.
There Is call for them by fashionable
hotels and by luxurious private establish
ments that viii pay anything for whatever
is better than the common people can
afford to enjoy.
OF vastly greater importance, however,
is the production Of q maximum number
of eggs per hen. There lies real wealth.
The average hen lays 40 eggs in q year.
If she could be made to lroduce 200 eggs
in a twelvemonth, the resulting money
gain for the farmers and other poultry
owners Of the United States would repre-
sent four times the value Of all the gold
and silver dug out Of our mines in 1919.
The output of the American hen for 1919
ia estimated at $4,000, ,o00, 900 eggs, repre-
senting value of about $500, 900. 900 to the
poultry owners. This number Of eggs
would weigh 2,sl3,00O tons and would load
10325 freight cars.
Nearly all Of these eggs are obtained
from small focks Of dozen to fifty hens.
The farmers wife takes care OF the birds,
feeds them, and usually has the "egg
money" for her own spending. What
difference II will make to her II she can
get hold Of a breed that will yield nearly
twice as many eggs per hen!
For egg production, the best hens are of
the smaller breeds, such as Leghorns.
They are most economical, delivering the
greatest number Of eggs for q given quan-
tity of food. Hence the aim Of the experts
in trying to develop a "super-hen" for
egglaying purposes has been to obtain
smallsized bird that would produce only
fair sized, two ounce eggs. but many Of
them
The "200-egg hem has been the stand
ard kept hopefully in view. Was 1t too
high? Surely not. The late lamented Lady
Byzantine, white Leghorn. laid 314 eggs
in 365 days. That showed what a hen
could do.
1t may be that some day a breed oapa-
BILE Of producing 800 eggs per annum-
average output per hen. that is to say
will be developed. Such a hen might lay
two eggs on some days. But for the pres
ent a production of 200 eggs is good
enough. II is understood that the new
"super-hen" may be counted on to do as
we'll as that.
The long-sought "200-egg hen" has
hitherto offered one Of the most pulling
problems that the scientific breeder has
ever tackled. The experts started out
with the idea that the daughter of a first.
class layer ought to be herself a good
layer. There was nothing in II. thou.
sand experiments proved that a pullet of
most desirable maternal extraction In this