et rar z Sarees , core : : x te A m ¥ bos reese a eaith S, paneer 3 ne t ree ie - “ 5 7 enor oie Gag ar c a ear aro one ey nearer be lepasar ser . Iskae aed eatin r ‘ ett retrts CS ; ayy hou ee Eee 4 WET aks sae ~ . x ey NTE hh anion teeter w uae ct eer eetree ener yr iat tlw ee rth at ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND HomME ECONOMICS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY JAMES E. RICE MEMORIAL POULTRY LIBRARY Cornell University Library SF 487.W44 TN 3 1924 003 184 110 mann “GUVANVIS FHL LAS LVHL LSAN dVal JHL ‘106 ‘YQYNVD NI “0062 "S “1 NI GALNALVd "+ * SUMO JWO2T[9M "IW }eYy} 6 SAayeU Jayjo Jo s}sou 9a]suIs uvy} ssa] 3S09 40] amjua ayy ‘sivad OM JO} asn }UuR}SUOD ul uaaq aavy Jey} ued sIq} Ul s}sau Ud} ale ayy ‘asm: yenqoe ul SLSHN dvVadl TVAAI jo udessojoyd WO1J SI dU0}-jyeY STY Che Crap West Cert Book By F. O. Wellcome Copyright 1902, by F. O. Wellcome All rigbts reserved. /w “Unreasoning acceptance is the most baleful hindrance to reform. He who believes all that his elders teach, without the consent of his more mod- ern mind, unconsciously admits that the world is at a standstill. Every step ahead in history has been made by those who would not agree with sanctioned dogma. Galileo would not believe the world stood still, Columbus did not believe that it was flat. In spite of sainted mothers and venerable sires, we do not now favor their pet theory.”’ From ‘‘SEARCHING FOR TRUTH.” oer 487 WF E &520 THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE THOUGHTFUL READER. “The advent of Trap Nests has been the means of more good in Poultry culture than any other invention of recent years. They are the only guides to success.” Boyer. NOTICE TO EDITORS, PUBLISHERS, AND WRITERS FOR THE POULTRY PRESS. It is the author’s desire that whatever there may be of value in this work should be as widely known to poultry Keepers as is possibly con- sistent with my business interests, | to be the sole judge of that. The original matter, other than that directly connected with the construction of the Ideal nests, is covered by copyright solely to guard against the detestable practice of plagiary that is so common in poultry and other literature and in some poultry supply catalogues. While I should prefer that those who desire to quote from this book ask my permission, I realize that when brief reference is desirable this is not always convenient. In such cases, whether the accompanying opinions are favorable or unfavorable, I respectfully request that credit. be given to The Trap Nest Text Book by F. O. Wellcome. Matter-in this book not original with me and not written expressly for the book is not covered by my copyright. Respectfully, F. O. WELLCOME. The Man Whose Watchword’s “Wait” ROY FARRELL GREENE. rn From SvuCCESS,'’ USED BY EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE SUCCESS COMPANY, OWNERS OF COPYRIGHT. “Great deeds’, said Uncle Hiram, ‘I’ve ob- served, ’tween me ’an you, For every man that does ’em there are ten agoin’ to do; There’s lots 0’ men can sit aroun’ an’ entertain a crowd With how they’re goin’ t’ plant a field they've likely never plowed: Bill Jones was such a feller, ’an I used t’ hear him tell Of ascheme he had fer killin’ weeds that sounded mighty well; Machinery could do the work,—a man need never sweat,— But I find that William has’nt set the world afire yet, “When Simpson’s boy from college came, the fam’ly prophesied, Within a year or two, the world would view him open-eyed. And marvel at the wonders of improvement he’d advance In scientific methods, if he had but half a chance. He stayed around the town awhile an’ worked quite hard, I jinks, At poundin’ little rubber balls o’er what he called ‘the links.’ We've scientific problems still that make pro- fessors fret, But I note young Simpson has’nt set the world afire yet! *« An’ so,” said Uncle Hirai, ‘‘future action does not count Toward betterin’ of our present state to any great amount; A million ‘goin’-t’-do-its’ wouldn't balance one ‘has-done,’ An’ a pound of ‘right-this-minute’ 's worth ‘to- morrow’s’ half a ton. I’ve noticed in my lifetime scores of fellers, sad to state, Who’d have prospered if they had’nt for their watchword taken ‘Wait;’ Fellers sure to do great wonders ere the next day’s sun had set,— But I’ve noticed none of them has set the world afire yet!’ PREFACE, N this book I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with the Thoughtful Reader. 1 have the advantage that I can talk all of the time and the reader cannot talk back. The reader has the advantage that he can “cut me out’’ at any time, if he become bored. I shall not try to exhaust my subject or vocabulary and do not wish to exhaust the reader. I am not talking to the novice all of the time, I am talking to the reader whoever he may be. There are some things in this book that I ani sure some people do not want the novice in poultry keeping to know. I do want him to know them. That is the difference. The reader is for the nonce my friend and I propose to let him in on the ground floor. [f he does not like it he can move out. We poultry raisers are a free-and-easy lot. We can talk glibly on any subject whether we know anything about it or not. (suexsing counts and those who guess the nearest alike guess the oftenest. A plausible guess is contagious and we are now apparently enjoying a sort of guessing epidemic. Down South we don’t guess so much but «I reckon” is the same disease modified by environment. It saves a great deal of trouble and worry to be able to guess freely and often. ‘Of the making of many books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh.” Guessing saves study. When it causes weariness it is when it makes someone else tired. Guessing promotes economy. Should we suspect that our hens are not as good ax any, we can guess that they are better and so save buying new blood. We never vuess that what costs nothing is well worth it for that would not be a practical guess. Guessing courage- ously and without too many unpractical, unbusiness-like scruples will increase our egg vield fifty per cent. This form of guessing antedates the flood. It will never be stamped out. It thrives best in warm weather but survives the most frigid cold. If we guess ourselves out of the hen business we can guess about for- mer egg records The longer we keep it up the bigger they grow. If we rupture a heart string, and spend money we can guess that we will be swindled and after the goods come we can guess that we have been; and so it goes, this merry guessing bee. We could not stop it if we would and some of us would not stop it if we could. The reader is beginning to guess now and when he has read this book he will guess again, We simply cannot help it. We have all got the complaint; some have it worse than others, that is all. 6 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK There are several theories touched upon, some of them briefly dis- cussed, in this modest little book. While I regard good theory to be better ‘than bad practice, for any student, still I appreciate that unproven theories should be approached cautiously. The test of time must be applied to every new theory as well as to every old theory that has been brushed up and offered once more. The old veteran will see them through. However firmly I may hold to certain views outlined herein, I do not expect others to wholly or even partially agree with me unless their own convictions will permit. My business interests have not, to my knowledge, had the most remote influence upon my opinions. I think some things that I have written may be opposed to my interests but I rather like to give my pen the right of way and let it go. I am not a mind reader so the man who ‘‘always knew that’? will not be given credit for such of his ‘original ideas” as I may have used. I give credit-wherever I know that credit is due and hold the rest in trust for the owner who succeeds in proving his claim. The first per- son singular will be used quite frequently without regard to precedent or contemporary opinion. ‘ There are but one of us and I am he, in this book. Should the reader meet with anything that he does not like, a little skipping will discover something different. Our human nature is such that we applaud what others applaud, or what agrees with our present convictions, and condemn the rest. If we are all right, then poultry knowledge is the most paradoxically mixed up mess of modern times. : My instructions for preparing and using the Ideal Trap Nests and the drawings that illustrate them are as simple and as easily to be understood as [know how to make them. Brevity is said to be the soul of wit but contemporary poultry literature shows that accuracy of statement can be very easily sacrificed to brevity. Iam not one of those who believe that ‘‘all there is to know” about poultry raising, for profit or anything else, can be couched in language so simple that a child can understand. I have tried to avoid unnecessary conplication in my choice of a not very large number of words in expressing a few of my ideas in regard to a part of what there is to know. A quart of milk cannot be deliv- ered without a suitable vessel to put itin. Tam dependent upon the Thoughtful Reader for an understanding, on his part, of what I have to say. This book is not designed to be an encyclopedia of poultry wisdom. There are books that claim to be. There are many things connected with poultry keeping of which I shall say nothing. It is of no conse- quence to the reader how much or little regarding those things Timay or THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK 7 may not know. Suttice it to say that il is considerable, both ways. The Poultry Press, long may it live and prosper, make a business of giving both general and specific instruction in poultry culture. Some of this instruction is from competent sources and is reliable, some of it we will not discuss here. There are a number of good poultry papers and I have no doubt that there would be more if Mr. Edward C. Madden of Washington, D.C. kept hens and realized the importance of promoting the poultry business in all of its legitimate branches. May he never get a stale egg in his Tom-and-Jerry. / This is a special book issued for a specific purpose. Primarily to show how to make and use the Ideal Trap Nest under a license con- trolled by my patents. I have thought best to include a discussion of several subjects, some of them intimately and others remotely connected with the use of trap nests. These articles have been written at different times and we feel differ- ently at different times. I am sorry that photographs of my feel- ings at different times were not ready in time to have cuts made. What may seem to be a strange intermingling of seriousness and foolishness in some places, is easily accounted for. When a man begins to read up ‘‘the reason why chicks die in the shell’ and gets to the point where he is asked to consider if the hen does not feed the chick through the shell, hence it starves to death in the incubator, he must move slowly. When his manly brow begins to throb and what appears to be the unquestionable fact that freshly- fertilized eggs are more likely to hatch well in a well-operated incuba- tor than under the average sitting hen comes in to perplex, itis well to unbend and indulge in a little harmless frivolity. This takes off the strain and he can more safely take up the latest ‘‘Law of Sex.” If the house cat happens to be a female she will be a good subject for ex- periment. Any rule that will work with her will also work in the poultry yard. When a youth I spent a short time each year, for sev- eral years, on the peaceful shores of Lake Winnepesaukee but I failed to note that a quiet and contented mode of life and absence of friction with the outer world and its strenuous (immortal word) struggle for existence and supreinacy had produced so many females among the population that soprano and contralto were the only parts taught in the winter singing schools, Probably this was because I was not there in the winter. The reader who fails to catch my point is referred to current gossip in poultrydom. A talented writer who has published a very good book that claims to contain ‘all that there is to know’’ about poultry keeping has not yet answered the following perfectly reasonable question addressed to him last spring by the author of this book: ‘‘Can you furnish me with 8 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK a— cockerel, hatched from a brown egg that was laid by a hen that you know to have been a persistent layer?” “If so, at what price?” The courteous inquiry and a stamp failed to bring a reply to that question. A second letter also failed. I received samples of shell that indicated that the hen that laid the egg had neither laid freely or long. I do not know if the Sage of Woltboro knew that or not although he claims that we can learn all that we wish to know by observation without the aid of tvap nests. In my serious writing J clesire that my words be taken at their face value. The personal equation as a factor in discussion is often given undue’ weight. An error is none the less an error because promulgated by those who command a high place in society, litepa- ture, politics, religion or business. A fact is a fact however humble its source. Behind this little book is the authority of a fairly good number of hens. To me they represent competent au- thority when we question them one at a time and do not endeavor to form our opinions when they are all talking at once. There is nothing in this book that can harm anyone, nothing that need require much expenditure of time or money. Any time that an Ideal user becomes tired of using the nests as traps he can use them open and he will have as good open nests as [ have ever seen. I have been told that I take this business too seriously. That de- pends, of course, upon our point of view. A business that produces so many ‘‘wrecks along the shore’ cannot be taken too seriously. These wrecks are not always due to the spending of too much money in preparing for the voyage. Many of them are due to a lack of knowledge of the laws of poultry navigation and the neglect to study the charts that show the rocks and the shoals that inenace, and_ the beacon lights that guide or warn the poultry keeper. There is nothing more important in the conduct of any pursuit, for business or pleasure, than intelligent thought. Nothing more harmful than hysterical assumption. A man can keep hens, at a profit, for forty years and yet know very little about hens in general, or even his own hens. Current discussion proves that men may read and criticize and vet know very little of what they read or criticize. This can be applied to poultry keeping, the coal strike, or anything else that ¢ets into print and attracts attention. Scientific advertising, when if degenerates to scientific lying. may arouse sincere condemnation, but many judge too hastily and allow their own ignorance to mnislead them woefully. What tay appear in- credible to us is offen a connnon-place truth to those who know. T have read exposes, written by apparently competent authority, that bore the undeniable hallmark of prestaunptuous ignorance. Beenuse THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK 9 one editor is bribable we are not warranted in assuming that all editors are. Because one hundred advertisers are known to be obtaining money under false pretences, we are not justified in assuming that even a single one of thousands of others are. Popular thoughtlessness is responsible for much that is obnoxious to the intelligent observer in modern advertising. If the showman did not add a few hundred pounds to the bill-board weight of the fat lady, or the strong man’s burden, he would get less patronage. The subscriber’s unwillingness to read, think, reason and learn is in great measure responsible for the unquestioned and bare-faced lies that adorn the advertising columns of our poultry papers and are thought by many business men to be necessary to success. The plain unvarnished tale lacks interest with by far the great maj- ority of people. The author who attempts to disprove this is running much risk unless he be well fortified by both money and acumen. The great trouble with those people who are sincere in the belief that the trap-nest idea is not capable of general application is that a full understanding of the question is wanting. They fail, first of all, to comprehend that means for obtaining such understanding has been generally lacking. The author of this book has been largely instru- imental in making such ineans available, not only directly in connection with the Ideal nest, but indirectly in other ways. If it is not meet that he should say this for whom should he wait? Many very incorrectly assume that a popular recommendation of the trap-nest system in the abstract cinbodies a failure to understand the conditions under which poultry keeping, ax a general proposition, is (or must be?) conducted. To dismiss this as briefly as possible, I will say that no one who cannot get his money’s worth from a pratical trap- nest outfit can breed and maintain hens, either in large or small num- bers, year in and year out, at a legitimate profit. Occasional ill-advised endorsements of nests that are impracticable should not effect the honest claims of other and practical nests, one of which is described in this book. Within my reach at this moment are the descriptions and- specifications of a large number of trap-nests the like of which the poultry world has not yet heard of and some of them are good. The poultry keeper who is obliged to be away from his birds nearly or quite all of the day is in constant evidence. He is not a fair repre- sentative of the poultry business, as a business, and were we to cease promoting appliances and supplies as of general utility that are of little use to him, most of us, editors and all, would shut up shop. The most serious fault possessed by an accurate trap-nest is that it.is willing to work first, last and all of the time for the user’s interests. The writer is not a scientist and there has been no effort to adopt a 10 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK scientific tone in any of my writing, past or present. I have > ught for the most simple language that would correctly define my meaning. There is a tendency in poultry literature to simplify at the expense of accuracy. We are told, for instance, that too much corn will make a hen become broody. Such is not, necessarily, the case. A tendency toward broodiness carries with it a tendency to fatten, hence the whole process will be encouraged by the presence of food elements that can be readily converted into fat. We are told that clover, vegetables and meat will wake a hen lay a large nuinber of eggs. Those foods will not, necessarily, bring about any such result. The elements contained in them will enable the hen with normal digestive and assimilative powers to feed such eggs as her inherent tendencies cause to be passed down. That number may be greater or less according to the capacity of the individual and the in- fluences of surrounding conditions. The scientific writer who makes a special study of foods and food values in their application to mankind or animals ix prone to attribute tar greater powers to his favorite foods than actual and general practice shows them to possess. The recent boom in the by-products of certain concerns illustrate this point without lessening or increasing the actual value of those by-products in the least, as they are converted in’ the internal economy of those who eat them. One of the greatest points in fav- or of certain much-extolled foods for men or fowls is that they can be made to take the place, to a considerable extent, of heavier foods that are usually used in excess of the actual needs of the body. Over- feeding of ourselves, and those dependent upon us, ix a national fault. A man can over-feed himself every day in the vear without increasing his weight or the size of his aldermanic trade-mark. Natural individual tendencies regulate, in a marked degree, the appropriation of food elements in the body. These tendencies vary with different individuals and are largely controlled by heredity, One more reference to inaccurate writing and [ will close this long preamble. One writer of current poultry fact and fiction asserts with great assurance that add of the big cgg records are made by pullets. Some of us who live where we can communicate freely with the outer world know that this is not so. L hada flock of twenty-three not very renurkable hens last year( 1901) that were hatched in ‘98 and 799 that averaged L2+ 2-3 cees each for the year, Two of them laid 177 cach, one 162, one 15] and soon down to 71, the lowest record. Some of these birds are yet with me and are laying well. These are exceptional hens, perhaps, but they have not. received exceptional care, THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK 11 While economic conditions make it necessary for us to maintain our fowls in flocks, often large flocks, the individual bird and its individual traits and tendencies inust be the foundation upon which to base all accurate information regarding their proper maintenance and _ possible profitableness. The small pen of the breeder is but the result of the working of this law and is of no advantage whatever, in regard to fer- tility or anything else, except as it brings us closer to the individual bird. The trap nest enubles us to get still closer to the individual, whether the separate flocks be large or small, and thereby enables us to judge of effect by the cause rather than of cause by the effect as is generally done. With no furthur apology, I submit the following pages to the Thoughtful Reader. THE AUTHOR, Yarmouth, Maine, October 1, 1902. wal Noa “Our doubts are traitors And make us lose The good we oft might win By fearing to attempt.” “Who dares not follow Truth where’er Her footsteps lead, But says, ‘Oh, guide not there, nor there! I have not strength to follow where My feet would bleed; But show me worn ways, trodden fair By feet more brave; Who fears to stand in Truth’s broad glare, What others dared not will not dare, Is but a slave.”’ CHAPTER I. INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING AND USING THE IDEAL TRAP NEST. PATENTED IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. THE IDEAL NEST BOX. HE IDEAL NEST BOX may be prepared from any box that is a large enough to give comfortable room fora hen. It may be as large as desired, but should not be less than twelve inches wide, and should be at least 10 inches deep for Mediterraneuns, 12 to 14 for Am- ericans, and 14 to 16 for Asiaties, and high enough for the len to stand erect (making due allowance for nest material) without touching her head to the top. Common soap boxes, canned-goods boxes and the like, stood on end, are often of suitable dimensions and are adimirable for the purpose. With such boxes as these, the front and back referred to in these directions are what were, in the original box, the top and bottom. And the top and bottom of our nest box are the original ends. Having selected a suitable box the cover should he carefully removed and the pieces cleated together to form the front for our nest box (sce fig 1). These cleats should be nailed on 8 in. apart (C to D and S to T), Care must be taken that the nails do not project on the inside. Saw an opening in this front of the following dimensious: (see fig. 1), mark out with pencil first. (For sake of clearness we will suppose that the box is 19 inches high when stood on end). Beginning at C. 6 inches from the bottom A, mark from Cito K., 8 inches; K to G, 8 inches; G to D, 8 inches. Mark the angles J to L and-l to H (from G to H should be 2 inches; G to 1, 2 inches; J to K,3 inches: and IK to L, 3 inches). Now saw from D to H, M tol, N to J, C to Ly split out the pieces and finish off to angles L, J and WH, Land round edges with a knife: this leaves in our front an opening & inches high and & inches wide, with angles in the corners as shown in the figure. Zn no case should these angles be omitted. The top cleat Q should be at least 3 inches wide, and the lower cleat R not less than 2 inches wide. The lower edge of the opening O (Kk, C) should be at least 4 inches above the bottom of the box. inside, so. that THE (DEAL TRAP NEST 13 the nest material shall not interfere with the + Attachment’. It may be lower, however, if a strip of 1-2 inch stuff, 4 inches wide, be nailed on edge across the bottom of (he box, inside and 4 inches or more from the front to contine the nest material. If this is done a deeper box will be required. By adopting this method, a very low box may be used, even for large breeds, us an opening 1 1-2 inches wide may be cut in the front edge of the top of the box to permit the trap plate being raised to the full size of the opening (see U in figs. 5 and 6). Thus it will be seen that a box 15 or 14 inches high might be used, but xo low a box would seldom be required and is not high enough for a hen to stand with comfort. Tearnestly recommend that when xclecting or making next boxes this matter of height be considered. It is a rare thing to find a covered nest that is high enough. Many broken eges, mutilated combs and bruised backs result from using nests that are too low. For the purpose of removing the hen and eve, the box may be fitted with a cover in the top, (fig. 2,) « door in the back, (figs. 3 and 6) or the front may be hinged to serve as a door, (fig. 5). When trap nests are to be used in considerable numbers, they should be so made that the attendant can see if they are occupied without opening them. To attain .this end the Ideal may be made with the hinged front. (fig. 5) and used back to the wall, or if, used front to the wall, the door in the back may be made of narrow strips or laths cleated together so as to leave openings got more than 3-4 inches wide between them, (fig 6.) When the box is used front to the wall the attendant can sce into the nest through these narrow openings in the back. If the box is used dai: to the wall he can see at a glance if the trap is locked or the nest occupied; an important distinction with some trap nests. T prefer this latter style, (fig. 5,) im every case except when the nests are to be used on a littered floor or opening on a walk. When it is desired to hinge the front in order to use the box back to the wall. 3 inch strap hinges may be used and applied as shown in fig. 5. They may be easily bent so as to form a right angle. The door may be secured by any pre- ferred form of hook or button, A simple catch, made by bending an ordinary serew hook at right angles, may be screwed into the edge of the box at any desired point and makes a strong and handy . fastening, (see fig. 4.) This catch J designed especially for the Ideal and it is the only thoroughly satisfactory fastening that I have ever used. It is strong and «stays put.” I find it a very handy form of catch for various purposes such as fastening coop doors, holding up the bail of the water pail, ett. Screw hooks of any size can be placed in a bench vise and hammered into the right shape. In use, if they turn too 14 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK hard, they should be screwed farther into the wood and then withdrawn the right distance. This will make them work casier. When making the hinged front it should be made 1-4 inch narrower than the box inside and the cleats Q and R inade as long as the box is wide ovtside, as shown by the dotted lines E E, figs. 1 and 8. The imovable portion of this front should not extend below the bottom edge of the cleat R, the remaining space is filled by nailing a strip to the box, (see W, fig. 5.) A space of 1-2 inch should be left between this strip and the bottom of the door to prevent the latter from binding. VENTILATION. The Ideal inay be ventilated as much or little as is thought desirable. The comfort of the hen should certainly have consideration. Mr. Michael K. Boyer made ventilation one of the cardinal points in his trap nest ‘contest.’ The box may be ventilated by boring holes in the sides, using a large bit or auger, or a box may be constructed of slats or laths 3-4 of an inch apart, or the sides alone may be made in this way and the hack solid. Openings should not be made in the top of the box unless it is to be used where the hens cannot perch on it, as their droppings will go through and soil the nest. Ifthe box is high no openings should be made that will be above the fowl’s head when she stands erect. [Lens will jump toward the light that enters above their heads and may break their eggs. Boxes having openings in the lower part of the sides or back, should be used where they will not be exposed to direct draughts of air. The form of.the trap-plate and the hen-opening are such as to provide air, probably suflicient in many cases. TO MAKE THE ATTACHMENT. The Ideal Attachment, a sample of which accompanies the plan sheet, consists of a trap-plate, (A fig. 8) and a paw! or trigger (P fig. 8). For the trap-plate take a piece of 1-2 inch dressed board not Jess than 9 inches wide and 11 inches long (old boxes will often provide suitable pieces.) Place the model on this and mark around it with a pencil; bore 1-4 inch hole in exactly same place as in sample; draw straight. lines as shown in tiv 7, then saw from to B, C to D, E to F,G to D, H tol, JtoK, Lto M; cut notehes and finish to curved lines with knife. The pawl (P tig. 8) is made from 3-4 inch stuff. [tis very import- ant that this pawl be at least 1-4 inch thicker than the trap-plate which should be at least 1-2 inch thick. Mark out fron. sample; the grain of the wood should ran lengthwise of the pawl; bore 1-4 inch hole in exactly the same place as model, then saw out and finish with knife. TILE IDEAL TRAP NEST 14 TO PUT ON THE ATTACHMENT. The trap-plate should be secured to the inside of the front by a ten- wire screw, 1 1-2 inches long. This screw should cnter the front at a point just 3-4 of an inch above the top of opening O, or 8 3-4 in. above the bottom edge, and 1 inch from the side of the box, see fig. 8. When the box has the door in the back or a cover in the top, the front is nailed on and the trap-plate, when closed, rests against the side of the box. When the front is hinged to open as a door a small piece ot wood, 1 inch thick, 1 inch wide and 1 1-2 inch long, is nailed on to the inside of the front to serve asa stop for the trap-plate, see W, fig. 8. Two pieces of 1-2 inch stuff, one piece on top of the other, will answer. The trap-plate should be attached to the front so loosely that it will fall back quickly when raised to its full height, and vet not so loosely that the pawl will fall behind it when it is pushed inward by the hen. The paw) is also secured to the front so that it will move freely and at such a point that the end of the pawl slull fit easily into the lower notch in the trap-plate,-(N fig. 8), and at such a height that the top of the pawl, (Z tig. $8), will be 3 1-4 inches above a point directly in line with the lower edge of the hen opening O. If the trap-plate and pawl have been properly hung the opening fron: X to Y (fig. 2) will be about 2 1-2 inches wide when the trap-plate is down and the pawl will tall from its raised position when this opening has been increased to 4 1-2 inches by raising the trap-plate (fig. 9). Should the breed be of very small size, so that they can enter the box without opening the trap-plate 4 1-2 inches, a strip of 1-2 inch stuff 6 inches long, should be tacked on to the inside of the box at Z, fig. 2; the pawl will then fall when the opening is + inches wide: or, if preferred, the curved recess in the edge of the trap-plate need not be so large as that in the pattern when the Ideal is to be used with Mediterraneans; for Asiatics of very large size this recess may be made 1 inch deeper if desired. Both the trap-plate and pawl should fall easily from any position when allowed to drop, either quickly or slowly, as upon the correct working of this trap-plate and pawl the accuracy of the trap depends. In this connection TF will say that, should the poultry house be ex- cessively damp, the seasoned wood of the trap-plate, pawl, or front of box will swell and the attachment may stick, especially if the screws have been put in too far—a common mnistake. Should this happen the offending screw must be loosened, When hanging the attachment a little vaseline or oil on the screws will prevent rust and lessen the lia- bility of trouble in very damp houses. It will also be well to try and remedy the faults in the house that cause dampness, as damp poultry houses are exceedingly bad abiding places for poultry. Of course the nests are not designed to be run under water but they can be if the above obvious expedients are adopted. 16 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK At this writing I have never received a voluntary complaint from a customer, As neither my customers or myself are infallible and my description may not be wholly clear to every reader, T earnestly request that, should any trouble whatever arise, | be notified and given a chance to prescribe the remedy. Public cviticisins of the Ideal by people who have failed in’ their at- tempts to devise as good a nest and have at best a somewhat vague and superficial knowledge of our patent Jaws and system — at worst a most profound ignorance of them—will never occur if fair trial is allowed to anticipate judgement and I, as the inventor and promoter of the device, wn treated with ordinary business courtesy and candor. To give any trap nest a fair trial, at least one pen shoud be entirely equipped with them. This will require at least one third ax many nests as there are laying hens. Having prepared a sufficient number of Ideal nest boxes, put in a good supply of nest material, and place them in the pen just where they are to remain, first removing all other nests. In order that the hens may become accustomed to the new nests as quickly as possible the trap-plates nay be raised and secured by tightening the screws. The nests may be used in this way for about one week, or until the laving hens have all used them, when the serews may be loosened and the nests used as traps. If the boxes are high enough to permit of it, or if open- ings have been nade in the front edge of the top, as shown in fig. 5, the trap-plates may be raised so as to rest on the end of the pawl when for any reason it is desired to.use the Ideal as open nests. This is a suggestion merely. T always use the nests as traps from the start. [do not remain inthe pen watching the hens asx that would prevent then from following their own inclinations. I leave the nests and the birds alone and they get together all right as arule. There are sometimes exceptions. Those are referred to under the heading, eggs laid outside the nests and elsewhere. Nest eggs should never be placed in trap-nests; they are an unnecessary nuisance with any nests, 4 except when used with sitting hens, and should positively never be used in traps. This positive siuement will very naturally arouse opposition with some readers. EP should not feel justified in making so broad an asser- tion had I not thoroughly canvassed the matter. Do not nest eyes in- duce pullets to Jay in certain places? They certainly do. TL doubt. if the pullet that has not laid is influenced any by a nest cee, but after she begins the presence of anything that resembles an eee, in a nest 07 esearhere, prompts her to lay her offering along side of it. That is one of ny several objections (o nest eyes. Birds form habits very easily and it is not always easy to change them. ; TO OPERATE 17 Nest eges are cold in winter, chilling the birds, often with serious results, and are a prolitie cause of broken eggs. They have a great ten- dency to produce and foster broodiness and their constant uxe will lessen cee production, The healthy and ambitious laver, pullet or hen, will, as arule, use the Ideal trap-nests. if they are properly constructed and installed, without the use of nest eggs or other bait. T have had pullets on free range fly over the yard fences, enter the poultry house, and lay their first ees in Ideal nests. These were exceptional cases of course. In flocks of any size eves are likely to be laid outside the nests oc- casionally, especially before the drones haye been weeded out. The various causes tor this, although usually preventable, are not always prevented. One cge laid outside nay attract several others, especially if the birds have been accustomed to the use of nest eggs. TO OPERATE. Place the finger under the pawl when it isin the locked position shown in fig. 8; raise the pawl] and the trap-plate will rixe and fall back, leaving the pawl in the position shown in fig. 10 The hen, when en- tering the box, raises the trap-plate by the pressure of her body and the pawl drops into the opening in the back edge of the trap-plate. When the hen is inside the trap-plate resumes its original posiiton, but the pawl has fallen tuto the notch N and the trap-plate is securely locked. If the box has the opening in the front of the top (U fig. 4) one of the catches (fig. +) can be screwed into the top edye of the front 2 1-2 inches from the side containing the hen opening and will serve as a stop, pre- venting the trap-plate from being thrown too high when the hen enters. A half turn to the right will permit the trap-plate being raiscd on top of the pawl when an open nest is desired. Turning the catch back will lock the trap-plate. CHAPTER IL. First experiences, Controlling broodiness with the Ideal. Number of nests required: Location of the nests in the poultry house. The best location. Eggs laid outside the nests; causes and how to prevent. FIRST EXPERIENCES. When beginning the use of the Tdeal they may sometimes be found locked and no hen within. This feature ix not due to any imperfection in the trap device, but is the result of the investigation of the new nests by the hens. Tf the trap did not spring until after the hen had entered the box it would only result in more hens being found in the nests, not necessarily more eves. The trap, springing ax it does, simply pre- vents the curious hens from entering the box. In a short time the flock will become familiar with the nests and the laying hens will en- ter them without hesitation. There is another point to be noted in this connection. It should be well known that a hen cannot see in the dark. [f the nest box is built so closely that all of the light enters from the hen-opening the nest may become invisible when the entrance is filled by the bird’s body as she attempts to enter the box. This may result in her backing ‘out and the trap locking. In other words the bird is afraid of her own shadow. Especially is this likely to cause trouble when the nests are plaved front to the wall, or in a semi-dark or secluded loeation. By this we see that the boxes should not be too dark. All theories that are opposed to this are untenable. However much exposed the location of our Ideal nest boxes may be, the nest itself will afford sufficient seclusion. Non-laying hens and male birds will sometimes spring the traps but it would be more trouble to release them had they entered than it is to reset the traps. If desired, the trap-plate may be set so as to present a larger opening by raising it just enough for the arm to vest in the notch in the pawl. When the hinged front is crnployed the trap may be set with- out opening the door by making the opening marked S in fig. 6. This opening should not be over 5 1-2 inches long and one inch wide; this will involve a little extra labor when preparing the box and is by no means necessary. When the Tdealis to be used ona shelf or under the dreppings plat- form, it should have either the hinged trout or he door in the baek for removing (he hen and ege. When used freing the wall a passagee-way should ‘he Jeft in front of the nests to give the hens access to fieivi: NUMBER OF NESTS REQUIRED 19 Sand or dirt may be used in this passage but not nest material as that would tempt some of the hens to lay outside of the nests. A space wide enough to adinit the hens to the passage, should be left at the center or any preferred place in the row. Tf the nests are used back to the wall they should be so placed that the hens cannot get behind them. When one nest is to be placed on top of another, a board should be fastened to the top of the under box, projecting about 6 inches in front to permit the hen to reach the upper nest; cleats may be nailed to the board to prevent the nest from being pushed off by the hens. If such a board be fastened to the bottom of the box, the nest may be hung on the wall at any convenient height, provided it has the hinged front, or a door in the side. The Ideal nests may be made in banks or groups, ‘‘one box for each pen,” if you wish, but most poultry keepers, I think, prefer to have their nests single and separate. I also prefer to make them with a bottom but it is not necessary. , A hen will often select one nest in which she will lav day after day, sometimes waiting a considerable length of time for it to be vacated. Taking advantage of this habit, I frequently «break them up’? when broody simply by locking them out of their favorite nest and they will often begin laying again in a short time. While this will not be suc- cesstul In every case it is well worth trying, for the brooding habit can be controlled to a considerable extent by the judicious uxe of the Ideal. The constant handling of the laying hens and the frequent collections of their eggs has a tendency to keep thein laying and overcome the in- clination to sit. The trap nest has exploded the theory that a hen will only lay a certain number of eggs and then ‘‘go broody.’’? The tiny eggs that have been commonly supposed to indicate the ‘end of the litter’? may be laid at any time by liens that are out of condition. When sitting hens are wanted they should be left on the nests as long as they will stay voluntarily, when they want to get out they should be released; do not try to force them to sit. Their eggs should be marked and dated and returned to them. Whenahen begins to cluck, or has remained on the nest quietly for a day and a night, she may be removed to the hatching room, even if she has not stopped laying. Here seclusion and quiet, plenty of whole corn, grit and water and a few nest eggs will generally bring about the desired result. NUMBER OF NESTS REQUIRED. It is impossible to state the exact number of nests required, in every case, as that depends upon the number of cygs laid daily and the fre- quency of collections. There should be enough nests so that they will not all be occupied at one time. Whenahen wants to lay she should , 2) THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK not ouly be able to find a nest to lay in but she should have a choice of nests, as if only one happens fo be vacant if may not be in just the’ location to suit that particular hen, T have found that when the eggs are collected but three or four tines daily, it is advisable to have at least two-thirds as many nests as there are eves laid daily. Henee it follows that the number of nests required depends nore upon the number of eges laid than on the number of hens in the flock. By fitting up my pens with a number of nests based on the egy yield, adding more nests ax more ege’s were laid, I have been able to keep the eggs laid outside the nests down to a very small number, even with flocks of pullets. A proper arrangement of a sufficient number of traps in the pen will permit of a record being kept of practically all of the eves laid by a flock that is in good condition. It is customary to reckon one-third ax many nests us hens but that rule will not always work. IT have seen the claim that one nest for five hens was sufficient. That estimate was applied in connection with a somewhat expensive nest that was sold ready-inade. One nest with five hens appears to have been one of the rules that helped to make a certain Experiment Station test one of the most amusing pieces of folly on record. The injustice, bigotry and inaccuracy that characterized the test was clisclosed in a Report that also revealed the almost incoinpre- hensible stupidity of the management. Four nests might be sufficient for twelve hens but if does not follow that one nest will suffice for three hens. Three hens are likely to want to lav at practically the sume time, occasionally, but they cannot all get into the nest at once—that is if it is the Ideal. [would use at least two nests with three hens, Perhaps five hens would need no more if looked after frequently. Ideal nests are cheaper than time however. There is but one correct rule to follow and that is: use nests enough so that all of the nests will not be occupied long at one time. That might be two nests with one flock of twelve hens and eight nests with another. Tt all depends upon the kind of layers one has and the sys- tem of attention adopted. T cannot impress too strongly upon the reader the importance of in- stalling nests cnough. It is immaterial, in this connection, whether the fault has been in the design of the traps, their expense, or lack of forethought on the part of the user the fact remains that probably ninety per cent of the troubles that people have had with installations of trap nests and the resulting i considered and inaccurate opinions that have been advaneed regarding this system have been caused, cli rectly ov indirectly, by an insufficient number of nests, I do not think it necessary to explain in detail all of the reasons for this. Suflice it to say that experience will prove to any reasonable man, 5 THE LOCATION 21 woman, or child, that much time and trouble will be saved Jy install- ing nests enough to properly care for the cye yield. I have no doubt that I lose sales by emphasizing this point. I know that some go to greater expense for a less number of some other make of nests that oc- cupy more room and then spend more time attending to them than my customers will find necessary. I think it better to be right, however, sales or no sales. THE LOCATION OF THE TRAP NESTS IN THE POULTRY HOUSE. That the somewhat limited space under the roosting platforms is a convenient and desirable place for a portion of the trap nests, or even for all of them in some houses, I will alow, but to my mind there are several very important reasons why this location should not be selected as the best, or to the exclusion of all others, in the great majority of poultry houses. First it is perhaps unnecessary to say that many poultry houses are not provided with droppings-boards, and that in many more that are, there is not sufficient room beneath them for the necessary number of trap nests; hence some other location must be considered for at least a part of them. Individuality is a strong characteristic of some fowls, as well as some men, and while it is possible to train them to do as we wish in many things, it is equally impossible to teach all of them to do our bidding, ‘To succeed in coaxing every laying meinber of a flock of hens to deposit her eggs in just such a nest, placed in just such a spot as we have decided to be the correct one, will be no light task unless the flock be very small, and not always then, I once had a hen that re- fused to lay in any of the open nests placed on the floor of the pen. Her egg was always found on the floor, (we were able to distinguish it from the others, for the hens were mongrels and her egg was unlike the rest), but a nest box having been placed on top of a barrel she at once adopted it as hers and laid in it right along. When the box was again placed on the floor this hen laid on top of the barrel. It is this trait in some members of the flock that will account, in some cases, for the eggs that are laid outside of the trap nests. While it may be possible to teach ‘the hens to use the nests by being constantly on hand, and when one is found sitting on the floor placing her in a nest, I have found it to be much easier to so place the nests in the house that the cranky members of the flock should find one suited to their peculiar notions. The fact that out of 1,368 eggs laid by one pen of mixed hens and pullets, none were found outside the trap nests, may perhaps give some color to what many might calla theory. In this pen 22 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK Thad at one time seven nests placed back to the light under the drop- pings-boards, five on a shelf and six placed around in different parts of the room near the wall; at this time there were forty laying hens in the pen. Most of the hens would Jay in any nest that happened to be va- cant but some of them showed a decided preference to a certain location, and a number to a certain nest. The fact that some of the nests that stood alone were always occupied by the same lens, and that they would never lay in the others, proves to me that those hens had notions of their own in regard to the location of the trap nests inthe pen. The removal of a few of the nest boxes later, resulted in nearly seven per cent. of the eyys being laid outside of the traps in one month. This experience and these suggestions will apply more to flocks of hens that have not been bred to such a degree of uniformity as should characterize a flock of pure-bred birds of one strain. With a good flock of pure-bloods there will be more similarity of temperament and we need not be so particular regarding the distribution of the nests. THE BEST LOCATION. The best location in many poultry houses for the majority of the trap nests, if not all of them, is on a platform or shelf suspended from the rafters or supported from the floor at such a height that it will be easily accessible to the hens and the attendant. Such a platform may be built in the scratching room or roosting room as preferred, should they be separate. The height from the ground may be from 12 to 40 inches, according to breed. This location is more convenient and more agreeable for the attendant, who is not obliged to stoop when removing hen and egg. The nests are out of the way of the scratching material if the scratching room and laying room are one as is often the case. They will be wanner in winter than on the floor under the droppings boards besides allowing more floor space for the flock. Poultry keep- ers of the gentler sex will especially appreciate the advantages of a shelf for the trap nests. While the space under the roosting platforms is probably the least airy part of the poultry house in summer, it pos- sesses the udvantage that the tops of the nest boxes are protected from hens perching on and soiling them; but the boxes used elsewhere may be protected by slanting boards, hen wire, ov in any preferred manner, if desired. I will say, however, that uf the birds are ted properly they will not perch on the nest boxes to any serious extent during the day. At night they will occupy their accustomed roosts wiless mites or other distressing conditions are present. This matter of the location of the nests is worthy of careful consideration, Even then we could not all agree, Our hens are not all alike. If they were. these instructions would be more brict. THE BEST LOCATION 23 To my mind the most objectionable place that would be likely to be devised for any nests, trap or open, is beneath the droppings-plat- forms, and I have tested it thoroughly, yet some prefer them there. Our own convenience, comfort and scruples should, in great measure, govern the matter. Were I to fit up # poultry house with what I consider to be an ideal equipment of Ideal nests I would group all of the nests together if the plan of the house permitted such an arrangement. If it did not I would have two or nore main groups and single nests where there was a chance for them, if they were needed. I do not mean that I would build the nests together but that I would arrange the separate nests in one, two or more groups. I would have all that I could of these nests up off of the ground, either on a platform or hung on the wall. These nests would all be made after the style shown in fig. 5 with the hinged front. If any nests were to be permanently used on the ground, I would make them after the style shown in fig. 6 and use them facing the wall and about one foot from it. With such groups of Ideal nests they all look alike and the birds are not so likely to become attached to certain nests as they are when the nests are of different styles and separately distributed. For this reason also I would have no other make or type of nests in the pen. Given such a group of uniform nests the bird that desires to lay will go from one nest to another in the row and select one that is un- occupied. The saine hen may use each nest in the group in as many days. A single glance at this group of nests shows the attendant in- stantly which nests, if any, require his attention. This is a matter of no small importance if many nests are used. There is a farmer near here who uses a system of open nests that he thinks is about right and he would laugh at the idea of fooling away his valuable time with traps. Yet I will guarantee that he spends one-third more time in feeding and watering and caring for his hens and picking up 100 eggs a day than I do, and he does not spend half as much time at it as he ought either. He could not distinguish a hen that had not laid 10 eggs in six months from one that had laid 150 in the same time, to save his life. Not only does the arrangement of traps that I am describing save time but, if the nests are raised above the ground sufficiently, we have the hen where she can be handled with the greatest of dispatch and ease. I like a distance of 30 to 40 inches from the ground to the bot- tom of nest. My Rocks and ’Dottes have no trouble in reaching a bench of that height and the dry sand and litteron the floor does not injure them when they jump down. Of course this height is not arbitrary. My bench or shelf would be 2 or 2 1-2 feet wide and the nests set 24 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK back far enough to leave sufficient margin for the hens to move freely in front of the nests. Such an arrangement, in its general conception, economizes space in the greatest degree. No floor space, or indeed any space that would be needed for anything else, need be used. It is more agreeable as well as more convenient for the attendant to attend to the nests than would be the case if they were situated under the roost-platform where he or she must stoop when removing the hen and egg often approximating certain disagreeable and unsavory accessories. The hens like such an arrangement, apparently, as well as the attendant. If there is a single objection to this nest-plan a three years test has not revealed its importance to me. There are some theories opposed to it and they are in a measure correct theories. I carefully nursed them for awhile, but when you find a theory, however good it may be, that can, with propriety, be improved in the interest of convenience it is well to change it even if you have to make a change of front at the same time. My general description will admit of various modifications to suit different houses and flocks. Platforms for the trap nests may be hung from the rafters with fur- ring or supported from below. They may be of any height preferred, from one to four feet above the ground; or two platforms may be used one above another. If one platform is 20 inches above the ground and another 20 inches above that, three rows of nests may be used, one row on the ground and two more above. Thus two platforms, each & feet long, would accomodate fourteen nests and seven more on the ground would give twenty-one nests, enough for from forty to sixty hens, without sacrificing but little floor space. The space beneath this lower platform, if open at the ends, will be cooler in summer than that beneath roosting platforms as usually situated, A very good point to remember when arranging nests on a scratching floor, or water pails, grit boxes etc. that are near the floor, is that hens scratch away from the light. The litter will be thrown toward the back of the pen. If Ideal nests, nade after the styles shown in figures 2,3 or 6 are used on the scratching floor, back to the light and near the wall, the litter will not be likely to interfere with the trap, EGGS LAID OUTSIDE THE NESTS. When eves are laid outside the nests there must be a reason for it. There mmay be an insufficient number of nests, ov some of them may be too light, or too dark, or improperly located in the pen; they may be infested with vermin, or some of the hens are too fat. Whatever the cause may be it should be searched out and remedied as far as possible, If boxes are so situated or constructed that they are so dark that tiie EGGS LAID OUTSIDE THE NESTS 25 hens cannot see the nest, they will not be used. [f the ‘boxes are yen- tilated in such a manner and placed in such a location as to admit too much light, some of the laying heus will avoid them, while the non- layers may patronize them for scratching purposes only, especially if a good supply of scratching material hax not been provided elsewhere. Eggs that are found on the droppings-boards or in the open floor or yard, are laid by hens that are out of condition. Their egg organs are weakened by accumulations of fat so that the egg is voided premature- ly, incontinence may be caused by too frequent or too ardent attentions of the male, or a low tone of the nervous systein, resulting in a lack of mnibition may be at the bottoin of the trouble, or it can be caused by over-stimulation. It is somewhat anusing to real after the Author-of-all-poultry- knowledge, who claims that we can keep track of our layers well enough by observation without the aid of trap nests and in the next word says that we are not warranted in using them for the reason that eves will be laid outside and no one can tell which hens laid them. If this Sage cannot find the pullet that drops her occasional egg in some corner his superior intelligence would hardly enable him to keep track of those that Jay in the nests. If eves are laid around anywhere it will require considerable close observation and study to search out those few individuals that are re- sponsible and get at the root of the difficulty. This goes to show how hopeless would be the task of atiempting to keep track of the whole flock by the sume methods. Our first concern should be to supply an adequate equipment of suit- able nests. This book shows one way to do that. Next we should so feed and care for our flocks that they shall be in good working condi- tion, not indolent and filled with fai. The hens that lay in the nests at all and thus gain a place in our egg record will, as a rule, use them all of the time if they are not barred out. Those birds that prefer to lay outside ure always the same birds. They do not lay in the nests part of the time and outside part of the time. The record sheet will show which birds are using the nests. Those remaining will include the outside layers if there are any. It may be more trouble to watch for these drones than” it is worth unless, us should be the case with Experiment Station workers we are seeking knowledge for the benefit of others. Those who are already so supreme- ly wise that they do not care to look into the details of poultry keeping ‘arefully will be perfectly justified in holding their peace regarding things that they can know nothing about. Ready guessers are mighty poor instructors. Profitable layers will use suitable nests if such are available when they want to lay. I have taken the trouble to search out and keep track of 26 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK such of my birds as declined to use the nests. There was something the inatter with every one of them and they were fickle layers. When the drones are culled out the trouble will cease as far as anything that can be charged to the hens is concerned. If the nests are teeming with lice or mites we cannot blame a hen for declining to use them, but even when such deplorable conditions exist the most persistent layers will use the nests and suffer the consequences. Delaying a neal much beyond the regular time (there should be a regular time) will sometimes cause hens to hold their eggs and ne- glect to enter the nests in time. In such cases eggs inay be drop- ped at the attendant’s feet when he cuters the pen and the birds flock around him eager for their tardy meal. Regularity in feeding will prevent this. Constant espionage by an inexperienced and over-anxious caretaker will be very likely to produce such conditions in a flock that an ab- normal unrest and eagerness for food between meals will result both in the laying of eggs outside of the nests and in an appearance of uneasiness under restraint, with the birds in the nests. The wholly mistaken notion that a hen should be, or always desires to be re- leased from the nest as soon as the egg is laid hax often been fostered because apparently sustained as a result of such unpractical methods. The novice in poultry keeping is by no means the only offender in this respect. The trap nest novice is. If reasonable confinement in trap nests is likely to injure our birds in any way then let us cease {0 impose the much ereater restraint made necessary by our iethods of caring for brood hens, breeding males, exhibition and imarket birds, and expensive specimens shipped to fastidious customers. Preconceived notions are not always con- sistent or sane. When an adequate equipment of Ideal nests is provided and the flock properly fed and cared for and eges are found outside of the nests, the presence of drones that should be weeded out may be suspected. Tt may be regarded as reasonably sure that such birds as have a place in the ege record are not guilty. That will confine the sus- pects to those birds that do not appear in the daily records. This fact being recognized it will simplify the matter of detecting the offenders. A little watching will generally result in’ catching the bird or birds in the act and a note can be made of then. When eves are found in some corner or secluded spot where the hen has made a nest for herself, an Tdeal nest box should be put in that place or as near it as possible. Lhave found that by this means the hen or pullet was invariably caught, aud afler using the nest once or twice would continue to lay either in the same nest or in the others. EGGS LAID OUTSIDE THE NESTS 27 To illustrate: on the 9th inst., an egg was found in the dust box, on the 10th another, in the same place. An Ideal was placed in the dust box; on the 11th, no ege was found; on the 12th, a pullet with no leg band (L do not give them bands until they begin to lay) was found with her egg in the Ideal. She was given a band, and on the 13th and 14th laid in this same nest box; since that time she has laid regularly in the same nest, although it has been moved to another place, and no more eggs have been found in the dust box. | could cite many of these cases if necessary. Those who do not favor the general use of trap nests, may believe that it is impossible to prevent a large percentage of eggs from being laid outside the nests, and I have no doubt that this is true with many of the traps in use, which are of such construction that they only present the nests to view a part of the time. As imitation is a strong factor in hens learning to use any nests, they do not so readily * learn to distinguish between the unoccupied nest which they can see and the closed nest which they cannot see. The Ideal presents the nest to the vicw of the hens all of the time; when it is occupied the other hens recognize the fact that it is a case of one at a time, and wait for it to be vacated, or look for another nest which has the saine appearance, only it is unoccupied. Still another cause of this trouble is the presence in the pen of different types of nests. Some of the hens may become attached to a certain style of nest and refuse to enter another kind. If locked out of their favorite nest for a long time they may lay in front of it or elsewhere outside. These facts are given to serve as suggestions merely. Any construction or arrangement of the nest boxes that proves satisfactory in results will be correct; while if many eggs are found outside the nests, it will show that something is wrong and needs to be changed. All of the foregoing may seein to be very trivial to those who regard it as a foregone conclusion that some hens will deposit their eggs any- where, anyway, whether or no, and we should let it go at that and pick up the eggs. J assure the reader that when eggs are laid around anywhere, or under the roosts at night, in considerable numbers, some- thing is radically wrong Either a lot of unprofitable drones are being maintained at the expense of the birds that regularly use the nests or conditions of feeding or care exist that are not conducive to the best results in egg production, CHAPTER III. ‘The best style of nest to use. One or two compartraents; which? The two-compartment Ideal. The care of the nests, Collecting eggs. Record Keeping. Using the nests open. Separating the layers from the non-layers, Brief Pointers. THE BEST STYLE OF NEST TO USE. N THE majority of cases the style shown in figure 5 of the plan- ] sheet—the one with the hinged front— will be the most. satisfac- tory. This style is to be used facing the attendant and the light. It can be used under the droppings-boards, on a shelf, on an unlittered floor, or, by nailing a board on the bottom, projecting 8 inches in front, it may be hung on the wall. This hinged-front style is the one pre- ferred by Mr. M.K. Boyer, and it was largely due to his criticisms of the other styles that IT was led to make a most thorough test of this one that justifies me in reconunending it ax the best in most cases. Very nervous hens will not be as contented in them as they will in a box facing the wall and having a solid back, but careful handling will soon tame such birds sufficiently. The styles shown by figures 2, 5 and 6 are best adapted for use on a littered floor, facing the wall and about one foot from it. The litter will not interfere with the operation of the trap. The style shown in figure 2 is the most economical fo prepare as no hinges are needed, but it ix more difficult to handle the hen, and, if nervous, she is likely to get away from the attendant. The style shown by fig. 3 has the advantage that the rear door being hinged at the bottom drops down and deep litter in the pen will not interfere with its being opened. The style shown in fig. 6 is the best one of these three styles. It will not be much trouble to clear away what litter may pile up against the back and when the door is opencd the hen is not so likely to leap upward toward the light that, with the drop-down door, is first ad- mitted from the top when the door is being opened, Having described these severat styles and given my opinion of their comparative merits, that may or may not agree with others, LL recom- mend that, after reading the directious regarding the location of the nests in the pen, the style or styles of nests that are desired be selected and enough boxes be obtained fo fit up at Teast one pen completely. Prepare all of these boxes for the application of the attachments. Then make, or have made, enough altachinents to tit up allot the boxes, Thon hang and adjust’ the attachments, following the directions THE BEST STYLE OF NEST TO USE 29 explicitly. It will be well to have the hen-opening exactly 8 by 8 inches as the measurcments given for adjusting the trap-plate and pawl are based upon that exact size. «After the boxes are all finished and ready for work, place them in the pen and remove cyery other nest of. whatever kind or nature. This for best results. The Ideal is not ashamed to go into company, good or bad, but when it tackles a job of this kind it likes to handle it alone and then it knows that the work will be done right. Placing one trap nest in a pen of hens, expecting to learn much about the nest or the hens, ix about as reasonable as it would be to expect one man to carry a grand piano up a flight of stairs. The man might be able and willing to do his part but he could not, and would not try to do much more than that. If the reader, after he has tested a complete equipinent of 1deal nests long enough to understand them, and the relation that a single, soli- tary trap nest bears to a flock—ecven a very small flock— of hens, and considers that probably nine-tenths of the unsatisfactory trap nest tests that have been made have been apparently made on that basis, he can form his own opinion of some expert judgeinent and will perhaps say with Schiller: «Against ~tupidity the gods are powerless.” One trap nest is of no practical use to anyone woless he can rightfully use it us a model from which to make a complete equipment. “One trap nest is enough for tive hens” is true if only one hen is laying and the others let the nest alone, but if two hens are laying it is not enough, unlesss both are able to occupy it at once—as they are very likely to do with some traps. I do not know as anyone in particular is responsible for the very prevalent notion that one trap can be made a satisfactory test of its own merits and of the practicability of the trap nest systein. It seems to be due to the all too common tendency of people to jump at conclusions, to assume that they understand a thing before they can know anything about it, and to ignore completely all competent authority. Experience in the care of poultry justifies no man in assuming that he is competent to judge of the practicabilty of the individual system or -of the appliances used in connection with it until he has been qualified by adequate experience with the system and its accessories. The average daily ege yield and the length of time between the visits of the attendant are the only factors that determine the correct number of trap nests to place in the pen. The egg vield is the most important to be considered of these two. As many nests will be needed if they cost three dollars each as if they cost but three cents each. If the nests are so large that there cannot be found room for enough of them it will not lessen the need of more. ‘One box sufficient for each pen” in an 30 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK advertisement means that all the nests are made together, as a group of Ideal nests can be made if desired. It is, in my opinion, a bad plan and I advise against it. “The nests should be single and separate so that they can be moved readily, taken out of doors and cleaned if need be, and arranged in the pen as convenience and circumstances may qq THE BROWN EGG CHAPTER VII. THE BROWN EGG. The brown egg. Origin of the brown-egg fad. What the trap nest says. The size of the egg. The terms “litter” and “clutch” defined. ERHAPS I can do no better than to begin this subject by repro- © ¢€ ducing an article that L contributed to the Eastern Poultryman last year, THE ORIGIN OF THE BROWN EGG FAD. (Written for the Eastern Poultryman.) While the white shelled egg is still preferred in some sections the brown shelled egg is ultra-fashionable in New England and throughout the greater part of the country. Perfectly fresh eggs, laid by healthy hens that are fed the same kinds of food will taste precisely the same be their shells white or brown. The brown shelled eggs are laid by hens that secrete coloring matter or pigment in that portion of the oviduct where the shell is completed. Hens whose animal economy does not furnish this colored pigment lay white shelled egys. Let us examine a chocolate colored shell laid by a Plymouth Rock of a ‘brown egg strain.'’ We find that the color does not permeate the entile shell. The inner membrane that first encloses the egg before the shell is formed is white; the structure of the shell itself is white; the outer surface of the shell only is brown. It is merely a surface tint from the brush of the artist Nature serving to distinguish one family from another. Who can say that birds in their wild state are not guided and aided in the protection of their species by the color of their eggs? It is said that the color of the flower serves to point out to the bees the place where honey is to be found and the bee in turn carries the life- giving pollen to other flowers. The brown color of the egg shell being confined to the outer surface cannot effect the flavor of the egg; but there can be no doubt that many people have had, and do have the idea that brown shelled eggs are better than white shelled eggs. There is a reason for everything and there must be a reason for this. Brown shelled eggs formerly denoted that the hens that produced them were Asiatics or had Asiatic blood. The Asiatic breeds lay large eggs. Is it not true that years ago when the ‘‘brown egg fad’? began to be noticed that the brown shelled eggs in our city markets were generally larger than those having white shells? If so, the people would naturally prefer them. But there was another condition twenty-five or thirty years ago that it seeims reasonable to suppose might have had a tendency to bring the white egg into discredit and thus boom the brown egg. That was the OS THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK practice of pickling and liming eggs to preserve them; a practice that is still followed but not so extensively since the adyent of cold storage. A pickled or a limed egg is not a very delectable article of dict as every good housewife kuows. ‘Che brown shelled blood ( Asiatic) was not so common on our farms then as now. The yreater part of the eggs picked up by the country collectors for preserving were white shelled, hence the ill-tasting preserved egg was more commonly white than brown. The writer remembers an egg merchant who did a considerable business ‘preserving’ egys for the Boston market, and it was said that he experi- mented not a little to find a way to color the pickled eggs a brown that. would have a natural appearance, but without success. Is it not reasonable then to infer that the ‘‘brown egg fad’’ had a logical basis? Brown eggs were generally good eggs, white eggs were frequently of inferior flavor as preserved eggs always have been and probably always will be. Public opinion is not easily changed. A market that once demanded a brown egg for good reasons would continue to demand it after those reasons had disappeared unless some condition should arise to warrant a change. So while we know that there is no difference in the eating qualities of white and brown shelled eggs, and that as far as beauty goes the color or absence of color on the shell is a matter of individual opinion, we must give the market what it most desires, be it brown shelled or white shelled eggs, WHAT THE TRAP NEST SAYS. Trap-nest records have shown us that the ability of a hen (o assimilate a generous ration and convert it to her own maintenance anda regular and abundant supply of ege's at the sume time, does not, as a rule, in- clude the ability to secrete color pigment in sufficient quantity to color the eves equally as fast as produced. Tt has been my practice to make note of the color of each hen‘s vg from time to time. generally about once aimonth, by marking opposite the bird’ number on the tally sheet a single letter to denote the shade of color. Thus for a dark brown or chocolate, Luse (he letter D, a good brown ix inarked By well tinted T. lightly tinted L, white We To one who is studying the subject the information obtained in this way is well worth the trouble. By this method Phaye found that with the most recular and persistent layers there is a imarked and offen a rapid decrease in the color of the eve as laying progresses. A pullet that laid a dark brown ege when beginning in the fallor winter would be laying a tinted ege in the spring. On the record sheet would be found color marks ranging from D to 'T, B to 1, or Loto Woagainst the same bird's numbers. This las not been a peculiarity of an occasional individual but has been a general WHAT THE TRAP NEST SAYS ao characteristic of the steadiest layers in imy flocks for the several years that L have been observing the matter, While the general teudency is for the eges to grow lighter as frequent and regular laving progresses. still there are marked and peculiar va- riations in the color, as well as the size and shape of the same hen’s eee from time to time. This shows how unreliable was the old method of try- ing to distinguish each hen’s ege by its uppearance. It is true that some hens will produce eggs that are almost exactly alike fron day to day, such changes as take place being so gradual ax to be unnoticed unless a record is inade of them and comparisons nade that cover a long period. But others will lay eggs of different. sizes, shapex, and styles of color without rule or apparent reason. Thus we will find a bird that gives us a dark brown egg, then a spotted cee, then an egg quite light in color soon followed by an egy of the original dark brown. Some moderate and some very poor layers will give a fine brown egy all of the time. The most beautiful brown egg that we get ix from a very moderate layer. It varies but little in color, size or shape through- out the year. The exceptional hen has given a large number of well colored eggs. .\ professor in an Agricultural College wrote me that he thowght that their heavy layers held up the color-of their eggs as well as the rest. Had he Avown that they didit would have been more conyincing. Quite numerous reports from trap-nest users confirm my own obser- vations as noted above. What effect confinement and ration have on this matter I do not know, but I have long suspected that it had some bearing. I believe that the time will come when it will be possible to introduce elements into the food or drink of fowls that they can convert into color pigment for the surface of the xhell. That the color of the shell is influenced by conditions that have no apparent connection with the number of eggs previously produced or being produced L know. Birds of mine have deepened the color of the shell after being given inore freedom of range in grassed yards. The same has been true when carbonate of iron was being added to the mash to assist the molting process. That the range, or the grass. or the carbonate of iron had the ~light- est influence on the inatter Ido not know. The several conditions were coincident with some individual birds, but not with all or even the majority of them. The only food that I have ever found that had any influence in determining the quality of the shell formation without the shadow of a doubt, wax bone. Green- cut bone and granulated bone will improve the quality of egg shells in a bird in normal condition. Lhave read in some scientitie work that animal color pigment was 70 THE TRAV NEST TEXT BOOK largely fat. That ixall the pointer that [am able to give and that may be of no value. Careful chemical research may disclose the seeret, or it may be ended by a chance shot from some unskilled source as so many of our most ye. le discoveries have been. Certain it is that to color the shell brown would not necessarily fuaply that brown must be the color of our color-producer. The bird’s chemical laboratory ix a place where many mysterious compounds are made and no one has yet thoroughly explored it: although some appear to think that they haye. SIZE OF THE EGG. Axa general proposition the size of the bird detemnines the size of the ege. Specific examination will show, however. that there are a number of factors that influence the size of a bird's egg’. The pullet that does not begin laying until eight or ten months old, will, other things being favorable. lay a larger ege than she would have laid had she begun at four, five or six months of age. This, T believe, is not wholly due to the greater development of the reproductive organs. The ege grows in the body of the bird and its growth is dependent upon the supply of elements that are diverted to that use by the bird. These elements are all primarily the same as those that are used in building the bird’s own body. When our immature (in growth) pullet begins to lay she begins to use material for ege production that she needs for her own development and she continues to appropriate to her own use xome of the material needed by the eves. The result is an insufficiently nourished body and an insufficiently nourished ege. The growth of the bird is somewhat checked by laying and the growth of the egg is influenced by the growth of the bird. The immature size of the oviduct, it secs reasonable to suppose, also has its effect. The broody hen, as soon as she begins to store up material for use during her pre-supposed confinement also begins to reduce the size of her eee. As long as the incubating desire is present she will lay a smaller ege until laying ceases or the incubating desire is removed. Malassimilation of food also seems to have a remarkable effeet upon the size, shape and quality of hens’ eges at any part of a laying period. Thus we find individuals that will produce eggs that are abnormally- large or -sinall, or insufficiently or excessively provided with shell, or not shelled at all, with no apparent relation to the number of eggs pre- viously or subsequently laid or, indeed. the quantity or quality of the supplied ration. Overteeding, or feeding thatis not properly balanced is no doubt responsible im many cases, bul overfeeding. underfeeding and unbalanced feeding can fake place in dhe bird’s body as wellasin the feed trough. Students of incubation may ovimay nof find here a hint as to one EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS S LITTER AND secruren: 71 possible answer to the much mooted question: «Why do chicks die in the shell?” It is the writer's present belief that those who would secure long and profitable life in the poultry yard should consider the above propositions carefully. EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS “LITTER” AND “CLUECH.” A ditter of eggs” is a number that a hen, reverting to the incubating instincts of wild birds. will lay for the sole purpose of reproduction. aA normal litter will be no greater number than the hen is able to cover with her body. +A clutch of eggs” is a term that has evidently been adopted in the effort to account for a hen ceasing to lay after she has produced more eggs than the word +litter’ would explain, and for the reduced size of some hen’s ege’s at certain times when the incubating tendency may wholly or only partially develop. It has no definite number. The number of evex in a “litter” or »-elutch” is not predetermined in the physical structure of the bird, as so many assume, but depends upon her disposition-or temperament, the food that she receives. and the con- ditions to which she is exposed. A perfectly developed hen, with a bred-in-the-bone ambition for egg production could, if perfectly maintained, produce at least one egg for every day of her vigorous adult life, perhaps more. ITfnot then why not? Perfection can never be attained, either in structure or maintenance, but it is as worthy a goal for utility as for art. CHAPTER VIII. IS IT NECESSARY OR ADVISABLE TO FORCE EGG PRODUCTION ? Is it necessary or advisable to force egg production? Egg production during molt. The rooster and the trap nest. Egg-eating hens. HE point of view of a reader is not always anticipated by a ah writer, It is quite commonly understood, I helieve. that no hen will lav. except during the natural breeding season. unless forced to do so. If we concede the truth of such a proposition we must concede that any hen that lays a larger number of eggs in succession than she would be able to cover with her body, and hatch, (if fertile) has been forced to do -o by some means aside 72 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK from her own inclination; for the “litter of eggs’’ is nature’s num- ber, and, as far as we have yet been able to determine, is designed by nature to be incubated by the bird that produced them. What constitutes forced ege production? What is commonly under- stood by the term: ‘forcing for eggs?” There may be a difference in the minds of different people as to what forces really operate to produce alarge yield of eggs. There may be a great difference in the forces themselves, as brought to bear by different people, in different places and with different hens, that will and do promote great egg production. The writer endeavors to feed his hens well because they lay well and not with the idea of making them lay well. Is he wrong or right? The hen that is not provided with suitable food to repair those tissues of her body that have been used in the feeding for growth of the eggs within her is not properly supported in her efforts to add to our revenues. Are we forcing anything when we supply the right elements to repair used up tissues and energy? Drugs and condiments may stimulate the reproductive organs and cause the eggs to be passed down from the ovaries abnormally fast, but they will not teed the eggs. The growth of the egg begins in the bird’s body and ends with the completion of the egg, if it be not incubated, or the death of the germ or the resultant body if it is incubated. We are not forcing nature when we feed the ege within the parent body, any more than we are when we feed the chick after it is hatched and it has digested all that was left of the ege but the shell. Inherited and acquired tendencies will cause the eggs to become de- tached from the ovaries very rapidly with some birds. A pullet owned by the writer laid her first 20 eves in 21 days and she had not been forced for eggs or forced for growth but had roamed over free range at will. The more rapidly these eggs come down the inore pressing will be the demands made upon the bird’s body for suitable food elements to feed them and perfect their growth. Supplying the bird with suitable food elements to balance this drain is not forcing ege production, Should these elements be provided in excess of the egg supply. or be converted to other uses in the economy of the body unfavorable changes may take place in the physical condition of the bird; but if the reproductive, the digestive and the assimilative functions of the bird are working in full harmony we are feeding the bird and her eges: we are forcing neither. The harinful effects of a failure to understand this principle or a neglect ov inability to work if out correctly are well shown in the following clipping from The Divie Funcier. FORCING HENS FOR EGG PRODUCTION FORCING HENS FOR EGG PRODUCTION. Nothing we have read more nearly coincides with our own views and experience in forcing hens for great egg production than does the follow- ing clipped from Commercial Poultry and written by Mr. W. B. German. Read and study it, brother poultrymen. It has got to be quite a fad now to advertise eggs or stock that comes from hens with a big egg record. Such advertisements are all right and not misleading when such record is produced through natural means— that is, not forced on highly stimulating feed beyond the natural capacity of the hens for egg production, which means a deterioration of, not only health and strength of the hen in question, but also of all subsequent stock emanating from that source. I will admit that it is possible by proper selection and mating to produce a strain of hens that will be great layers and while this fact should be worked upon by all breeders yet great care must be exercised or harm will be done by exhausting the vitality of the hen and that of her offspring. To show how it will effect youngstock where the parent stock is overworked I only need say that chicks hatched from eggs laid by hens that have been forced to lay in season and out, will be puny and weak and half of them will not live, and those that do will not reach that state of perfection that would warrant using them as breeders. We can see the magnitude of this mistake when we know that this lost vitality, or weakness, is handed down from one brood to an- other for several seasons. Indeed I doubt if it is ever wholly overcome, so long as a trace of the former blood remains. While it is possible to force a flock to great egg production at the present, yet if they are used as breeders while under this strain or even afterwards, the work of breed- ing up the flock will be lost and we will be heavy losers through lack of health and vigor in our future flocks. There is a limit to all things to go beyond which brings a reaction which is disastrous, and I would not think of getting eggs for setting from any breeder if I knew his hens had been fed for eggs through the winter, because eggs were bringing a good price. It is contrary to nature for a hen to lay ex- cept at certain seasons of the year, and while nature may be assisted and improved upon and great changes brought about through this assistance, yet there is a limit past which it is dangerous to go, without endangering our future success. Hens used for layers may safely be forced for a large egg production in a short period, but those used for breeders dare not be without a corresponding loss of vitality, reaching into future broods, thereby lowering chances for success. ac EGG PRODUCTION DURING MOLT. A portion of this article appeared in the Poultry Standard for Oct. 1902, contributed by the author of this book. The rest is protected by copyright. F.O. W. ‘The molting process is one that should receive more attention from poultry raisers than is usual. This is a critical period with all birds and 74 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK unless their environment is suficiently favorable they ave likely to perish trom exposure to the elements or become so weakened that they fall an easy prey to their natural enemies. We are accustomed to imagine that nature is always kind to her own and that wild beasts and birds always thrive and, as a rule, die only from old age unless destroyed by the hunter. The naturalist knows well that such is not the case. The mortality among wild birds and animals is very large. One naturalist went so far ax to claim that a natural death is unknown among them. We.can affirm, with no fear of competent contradiction. that the more carefully we imitate the normal conditions of nature the Jess valuable, to us, will become the lives of the domestic birds or beasts so surround- ed. The slnost universal worship of some medium of exchange (the almighty dolar with us) has produced an all-too-prevalent belief that whatever appears to be cheap is right and we distort both truth and reason in the attempt to convert Nature to our way of thinking. Let us admit, then, that under domestication the hen has a far better chance to live in good health and contentment than her wild antecedents could have had. Instead of taking it for granted that the molting hen must be a sick hen rather Jet us take the position that. with the care and food that we are abundantly able to provide, there is ne need for sickness or debility during the molting period of birds that have inher- ited a vigorous constitution. Hen teathers somewhat resemble certain plants inasmuch as they sprout and grow, are alive, for a season, then wither, die and fall, and are re- placed Dy another crop. Feathers grow very rapidly, fed by nutrient vessels, and make great demand upon the source of nutrition for sustenance. Corn will not make feathers. As well try to make nails from soap as to expect feath- ers from corn, As the bird needs energy. and. fat is necessary for nervous force, corm, or ifs equivalent, should form a part of the ration. Much of the trouble that offen accompanies molting is no doubt due to general neglect —a combination of unfavorable conditions— during that period. Carelessly fed: indifferently housed: tormented by vermin: breathing hot impure air by night and chilled by cold winds, or fall rains. by day: fed anything or everything except what she most needs. it is no wonder that general neglect has produced a general condition of despondency, sickness and unproductiveness among molting fowls. Tow easy it is to vequit ourselves from blame and charge ap the whole business to Nature. The molting hen vequires good eare and suitable food. She needs food rich in feather-forming elements. Meat, bone, clover, bran, oats. oyster shell and mineral grit. Linseed meal (a. p.) is a good addition to the mash. Green food in (he shape of vegetable tops. vewetables or EGG PRODUCTION DURING MOLT To apples are great aids to the digestion and proper assimilation of the other foods. The birds should not be compelled to expend too much energy in ex- ercise at this time. That molting hens are often fed the wrong kinds of food is shown by the overfat condition that so often accompanies and follows the molt. The different behavior of individual hens fed the same ration and kept in the same flock seems to show that molting. as well as ege production and other functious, is largely influenced by individual tendencies. Some individuals drop their feathers so rapidly that they become almost naked in a short time while others molt so gradually that only close in- speetion, or the brighter appearance of the new feathers. shows that molting is in progress. With one bird egg production ceases at, or near, the beginning of molt and is not resumed until the new feathers are fully grown: while others keep fully clothed and lay freely during the entire period. T have noted these differences in one flock of the same breed, same age and, of course, receiving the same ration. As an exainple of steady laving throughout the entire year] will take a Wyandotte hen of my own. T will give her ege-record by months to show how little effect certain conditions appeared to have upon subse- ~ quent laying. During the year 1901 this bird laid as follows: January, 10 eges: February, 9 eggs: (broody and broken up.) March, 20 e¢e April, 16 eggs; May. 11 eggs: (broody and broken.) June, 18 eges: (broody and broken.) July, 12 eggs: (breody and broken.) Aug. 13 eggs. (broody and broken.) Sept. 16 eggs: (broody and broken. molt- ing.) Oct. LL egys: (breody and broken. molting.) Nov. 19 eggs: Dee. 19 eves. Summary: Total No. eves Jaid. 183. Broody and broken 7 limes, Molting observed only twomonths. This isan exceptional hen. but the data given above L personally know to be correct. This record was made under conditions that must have been very unfavorable at times and that ix what emphasizes a performance that would be in no degree remarkable, T believe. under the best of conditions. On the coldest winter days warm water placed in the pail in the morning froze before noon. The droppings froze on the platforms. But little vegetable food was supplied as we did not have it. At this writing that hen ix on her 24th consecutive month of laving. Pretty close to a continuous per- formance for a bird that decane broody seyen times in one vear, IT have had many hens lay during the greater part of their moJt.and quite anumber that laid well entirely through it with no loss of vigor that I could determine. T neyer try to force laying at this time but endeavor to feed suitable food to assist the growth of feathers and maintain the bird in good health and fiesh without fattening. Even when not so carefully fed [ have found that individuals of a persistent laying habit are likely to lay well into. or entirely through 76 THE TRAP NESD TEXT BOOK the period. [f sufficient and suitable food is given [see no reason why harin should result. Such laying may effect fertility. With the single exception that mutual attraction between male and female appears in some eases to be weaker after laying has been in progress a Jong time 1 can ag vet find no reason why any well-nourished egg should not be- come fertilized no matter to what part of a laying period if belongs. If the egg has not been starved T see no reason why the fertilized germ should not thrive. THE ROOSTER AND THE TRAP NEST. Av inan, at one time a servant of the state of Rhode Island at their Agricultural College, found his rooster in a trap nest and said that there was no apparent reason why he went there. Neither could he under- stand how any trap nest could prevent ege-cating. As some other trap-nest novice may be more iuterested in the relation of cause to effect I will explain the rooster matter here and the ege-eat- ing question elsewhere. Male birds that go on the nest are known to observing poultry breeders as ‘“‘coaxers."’ Some male birds seem to possess an intuitive knowledge of the most favorable time for the female to mate with a view to reproduction. So we often tind them paying almost exclusive attention to those of their mates that are about to begin a period of laying, or have been laying but a short time. They carefully protect them from annoyance, sce that they get choice bits of food and frequently coax them to enter a nest by entering themselves and then calling their mates, An observing care-taker will perhaps find, as TP have, that when the male bird is found in an Ideal nest, a favorite that has not been laving for some time. or but recently began will be in evidence, The record sheet and an observing eye will tell the story. Her eges will almost surely be strongly fertilized. Tt would seem to be of good omen when the male is found on the nest. Ef there is any valiceobjection to this behay- ior it can be laid to the bird and not to the nest, The facts connected with is matter no doubt have an important hearing on fertility. especially when one mate heads a laree flock of females. The larger the flock the more hens there are likely to be that are not in a receptive condition. hence do not mate willingly. or at all. The natural mating time is at the beginning Sf a laying period and it is certainly recognized as such by some males and females. When the cees from bens in the midst. or near the end of a dong period of laying are well fertilized it simply shows that other conditions have overcome, or lessened the foree of natural tendencies. That this is a desirable end to be sought and attained is believed by many. Tis simply a problem to solve and some appear to be solving i. EGG EATING ITENS 1¢ EGG EATING HENS. An eve cater is a bird that has contracted the habit of breaking the sound shell of an egg with her beak and eating the contents. Jf not cloyed with shell she will eat the shell also unless some other hen gets ahead of her. Tt requires very close observation, sometimes, to detect an egg eater, The fact that we find a nest moist with egg. or see a bird with feet or beak smeared with eve does not prove that the egg- eating habit is present. Any fowl will eat a broken egg, and thin- shelled eyes are very easily broken in any nest or elsewhere. In open nests that contain nest-eges. or cges previously laid by other hens, a thin-shelled ege is very likely to be broken at the moment it drops from the bird. This ege will be eaten by the first bird that sinells it: prob- ably the one (hat laid it. The tinding of the nest, the eggs, or the beak of the bird smeared with eve might give rise to the assunption that the vice of eve enting had developed in the flock. A sound egg left in some convenient place ought fo show if there are any egg eaters present. Broken eves may induce the habit of eve eating. The absence of oyster shell or ofher supposed cgg-shell-makers may induce it. [ have noticed that when the shell-box had been empty for some time the birds would make frantic efforts to break a sound cee placed before them— Without success however, T have tried a number of times to teach my heus the art of breaking and eating eges in order to study the matter more closely. but without suceess, A broken ege thrown upon the ground would be devoured in an instant but a sound ege could be left around in safety. A number of years ago E had several hens that formed the genuine egg eating habit in trap-nest. of two compartinents. First they would pull the egg out of the nest and it would break or crack when it fell. After a while they learned the trick of breaking the eggs with their beaks. [ found that. in order to puncture the shell with the beak, the bird was obliged to get the egy at such a point of vantage that a sharp blow could be struck while the ege was xo situated that it could not rollaway. By having the birds lay in Ideal nests a foot square I found that the eve was at all times in such close proximity to the bird’s body that she was unable to deliver a direct blow that would puncture the shell. A hen cannot break a strong shell that is under her body by striking it with her beak. None of these birds were able to eat their eggs in a trap nest one foot square. They were able, and did eat them in the two compartment nest until T cut off the point of the upper mandi- ble. Then they were cured eutirely. By the time the beak grew out again the trick was forgotten, This operation las been frequently re- commended and [ believe it will work in every case, unless the beak is cut on the wrong bird; which is no doubt frequently done. 7s THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK The fact that no traces of eve or shell are ever found in the nests does not by any means prove that no eggs are broken and eaten. Some exe- caters will not only eat every particle of the cgg and shell bat also all nest naterial that is wet with the ege. Non-laying hens and iale birds are as likely to coutract this habit as are the lavers. Ideal trap nests keep the eges out of their reach. Open nests that ave so constructed or so situated that the nest is semi- dark will prevent the birds from seeing the eges plainly cnough to eat them. Jf the nests are too dark the birds are likely to lay elsewhere. When egg eating is suspected, eges should be placed where the hens can see them, and results noted. CHAPTER IX. NATURE’S SECRET REVEALED TO THE BREEDER. THE FOUNDATION PRINCIPLE OF THE , LAW OF LIKE BEGETTING LIKE. THE BREEDER’S LAW. © Nature’s secret revealed to the breeder. The foundation principle of the law that “like begets like.” The breeder’s law. Single vs. multiple mating. The fallacy of the so-called “law of sex.” The fallacy of the egg-type theory. In- dividual merit from the standpoint of the buyer. A prophecy. HE key that unlocks the door of success ix persistence. Genuine ae persistence is not acquired but inherited. We may subdue. ina greater or less degree, those qualities that antagonize persistence and we imay remove obstacles from the path of persistence, thus giving it a better chance, but we cannot create if cither in ourselves or in living organisms that we are seeking to control, ATL success in the improve- ment of vegetable or animal species is obtained by discovering individ- uals in which the desired features are persistently present and are persistently transmitted when we propagate the species, From this we deduct the law: Trost TRAITS OR QUALITIES TIERCE DEVELOP IN A SUPERIOR DEGREE UNDER SEEWINGLY UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS ARE THE ONES MO; IN THE PROGENY. The observing poultry breeder who keeps Gack of the offspring trom LIKELY TO ATPPAIN EQt vb OR GREATER DEVELOPMENT each individual pair cannot fail to be taipressed with the truth of the above proposition. NATURE'S SECRET REVEALED TO THE BREEDER a A bird may have a serious defect in comb or plumage and yet that defect may ueyver appear in the next or in any future generation. In such a case that defect is not persistent. [ft it does appear in every sub- sequent generation it is persistent. The sane is true of all qualities wood or bad, desired or undesired. The creation of improved strains of fancy fowl has resulted from. the working of this law of persistence. Whatever the distinguishing qual- ity or qualities may be that distinguish oue breeder's strain from another's, peculiar coloring or marking of feathers, style of comb, shape or carriage, or habits and traits. they ave known by their persistent presence in the individuals and in their progeny. Unless such distinguishing features are thus persistently present there is no strain, Th 1898 the writer raised a lot of Plymouth Rock pullets. Those that developed a persistent laying habit under very unfavorable conditions were marked. From year to year (he most persistent layers from. that lot were retained. TL have some of them now. One of those birds laid 177 brown eges in WOT, This hen las a very iperfect comb. This year she was mated oa finely marked cockerel that had a very ordi- nary comb. From those two birds t have cockerels with good five-point combs. TL never found the imperfect comb of this female reproduced in any of uy chicks, any year. [ft is not persistent. That hen has never been broody but once and then only in a slight degree, Her shape does not resemble a Leghorn, by the way. The persistent laying habit is easily recognized by the trap nest user. One writer who had evidently used trap nests, for he recommended thein highly, said that if we keep individual records at all we must keep them throughout the year in order to determine which were the good layers. This writer may have had persistent layers. but he himself lacked persistence for he was grievously in error in making such a statement. The persistent laying habit does not require a year for its discovery. The female that produces eggs freely under unfavorable conditions at any tine shows a persistent laying tendency. — There may be other persistent tendencies that willeventually dominate the ege producing tendency and they may be observable without the aid of trap nests. or they may not. Broodiness is one of these ; inherent constitutional weakness another. The female that lays steadily and freely throughout the natural breeding season under conditions that are favorable to the development of the incubating instinct discloses a per- sistent laying tendency that dominates broodiness. The bird that goes through its molt in fine condition keeping fully clothed and in good health and vigor all of the time while its mates, or other birds subject to the same conditions, are ragged and despondent shows a persistent tendency for vormal feather-reproduction, Tf such a bird Jays during this period she shows the persistent laving tendency also. RO THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK The bird that is raised on free range and comes to winter quarters in an overfat condition while its mates are in proper condition reveals a persistent tendency to fat production. The female in the laying pen that converts her food to fat while her mates are converting theirs to flesh or eggs reveals the persistent ten- dency to mal-assimilation of food, The breeder who early recognizes the truth and the dominating force of the law of persistence and maintains those persistent qualities that ave desirable and discards those persistent qualities that are not desir- able will if he himself is persistent meet with success whatever be his aim. The propagation of species ix governed and influenced by a multitude of factors some of which are clearly understood, some partially under- stood and others not understood. People of mature years know how often children ‘‘tuke back” to their grandparents; not only in appearance but in mental and physical traits. Sometimes they take back so far beyond the grandparents that nothing but family tradition or record can connect their characteristics with their ancestors. Some people do not believe in the influence of heredity. In the attempt to prove their theory they will cite cases where the law of heredity has apparently failed. One such attempt that [recently noted in a newspaper was amusing. A list of poets was given with the statement that the poetic gift had not been transmitted to the children. This was true. Quite a number of those given in the list were never married and several of those who were had no children. The children of others died young. With all such attempts to discredit one of the most powerful laws of nature the full tacts relating to both sides of the union are either suppressed or are not known. What. is true of the higher orders is also true with our domestic an- imals and birds. When traits that seem to be especially prominent, are not transmitted, it is because those traits were not as persistent as we supposed, or they have been overpowered by more persistent traits that we failed to note. Pedigree breeding is the only correct founda- tion for a strain of superior merit in any direction. No man can tell by looking at a pair what the offspring will be. Standard points, proliticacy, health, vigor, and the power to transmit them are all governed by the principles herein outlined, and the truth of the maxim that «like begets like.’ will depend in a great measure upon our knowledge of each individual breeder, its ancestry and its previous offspring, if any. SINGLE Vs. MULTIPLE MATING RI SINGLE vs. MULTIPLE MATING. To treat of this subject briefly is no small task. To (reat of if ex- haustively is utterly beyond the capability of the writer. Single mating iis the mating of a single pair—one male with one female. When -the ‘Creator in his infinite wisdom selected a type of life that was to domi- mate aH other types He arranged for their propagation and permanence ‘by mating a single pair. Who they were. where or when they existed iis not material to this discussion, Aecording to tradition like did not ‘beget like in a complete degree. One son wax a degenerate. The iprinciple of the single mating, followed through all the ages. has brought aman to his present high state. Races that have violated this rule have ‘invariably degenerated. This is the fundamental law governing the im- provement of species in so faras if is governed by the laws of repro- duction. Keconomic condition must always modify all laws. human or divine, and in nature we often tind multiple mating supplanting at least for 2 tine, the single mating, numbers being apparently of more conse- quence than individual merit. It will not be necessary that the Thoughtful Reader should have attained the eminence of a Darwin. or the dignity of a breeder of fowls even, to follow me along this line. Nature’s processes are outlined in a free library that is. fo a greater or less extent, available by the inost humble of us. Nature bas arranged for the greatest possible measure of success in the reproduction of large numbers froin a single pair in the organisms of the male and the female and by providing the instinct of mutual attraction, This principle of mutual attraction is of the utmost importauce. The maximum of fertility and vigorous offspring can only be attained where each mating is the result of a mutual attraction or agreement he- tween inale and temale. This is the only unavoidable barrier to high fertility with multiple inatings,—one male with numbers of females. The larger the number of females the more there will be that do not mate willingly or will not be served by the male. When nature secks to reproduce a specific type ; off- spring that will be exact counterparts of the parents in appearance and in tendencies: she not only calls mutual attraction to bear to insure success in numbers. but she applies the principle of consanguinity,—the blood re- lation. Mutual attraction and consanguinity are, then, the keys that unlock the treasure house of nature's mysteries to all who wish to study the underlying principles of cause and effect as they relate to the prop- agation of, and the iinprovement of any species of animal lite, The improvement of a family of hens is impossible unless sesre sre practices in breeding. The novice who inbreeds simply to avoid buying new blood will iuvaris ably cause degeneration in his flock and will utterly ruin it in time, Phe x? YHE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK person who allows the eost to regulate his judgment will never do the best thing. The right way is the only way to achieve the most perfect results. The breeder of birds or animals who is wining for improvement aske lmiself first: what is the right way?" What it will cost to fol- low the correct course is a secondary consideration, and should not be considered when we are seeking the vight thing te do. When this first principle becomes fixed in the mind, then the cost becomes an important tactor, If we cannot see our way clear to do what appears to be the best thing we should take the next best or the nearest approach to it that seems practicable. The highest possible success in the improvement of a family of fowls would attend the efforts of the intelligent aud wise breeder who would practice single matings with single pairs, housed and maintained sepa- rately. This would usually cost too much. The nearest approach to this plan that is economically practicable is the one to pursue. THE FALLACY OF THE SO CALLED LAW OF SEX. “Upon what meat doth this our Ceesar feed that he hath grown so great?” Briefly stated the so-called Jaw of sex consists of a claim that, if a certain method of procedure be followed. we can produce males or females at will, either in reproducing ourselves or our animals and birds. The author, or authors, of the so-called law have never known of a cause where the scheme worked; hence they are able to produce nothing but apparent coincidences to support the assumption. This has been a common expedient with the dreamer through all the ages. There are two reasons why we cannot accept this so-called law of sex? First: its basis is wholly untenable. Second: even if the claimed conditions determined the matter, it would be impossible for us to supply and maintain the conditions, Man is a wonderful creature, and, under the guidance of and aided by a Iligher Power, has wrought remarkable changes in the animal and vegetable worlds. This gives finite man an exceedingly good opinion of himself. The late Mr. Ingersoll had noted this so much that he was led to pen that famous line: Man has created Good in his own image. Those of us who sincerely believe in an Lufinite Being will, | believe. see that. should man be able to control sex at will, he could overturn the estabhshed order of things to such an extent as to completely extin- guish a family or arace. Nature will never reveal to us any law. that would enable us to accomplish such a thing. What a grat the Chinese would have with such a law lying around loose in their houses with their notions regarding sex. Were there such a hey they would claim it, as they claim priovity in everything. While the primary influences that control the sex principle in the em- bryo are not understood, if las been quite clearly shown that, up to a THE PALLACY OF THE EGG TYPE TIKORY 83 certain stage of development. the mile and female organs are both pres- ent and both equally developed. © What destroys this balanee and causes one sex to dominate is not vet known, but we have excellent reasons for believing that the sex has not been predetermined up to the time that this change takes place. Sometimes the determining factor seeins to be absent and the hermaphrodite results, We have no reason to believe that there is any sex whatever present in the vitalized germ contained in a new laid egg. When the egg has been incubated long enough for the embryo to reach the right stage of development the matter of sex is determined, Liman ix ever going to control the matter, that is the time for him to operate. THE FALLACY OF THE “EGG TYPE” THEORY. It is so difficult for us to understand what we cannot see that we are coustantly seeking for some visible sign by which we can determine, (usually without effort on our part) whatever we wish to know about every object animate or inanimate that attracts our attention. Any characteristic, or any combination of characteristics. visible to the eye or not. that always accompanies a specific performance, a spe- cific trait, or a specitic quality, aud is abeags absent when such per- Tormuaee, trait or qeadity is absent, coustitutes a reliable type by which those who are competent are able to predetermine, accurately. what performance, trait or quality will be present or absent in the ob- ject under exiimination. What a task, then, has the investigator who seeks for the -ege type.” as it is usually understood, set before him. He has to discover a large number of birds that are prolific and a large number that, when main- tained under cqually favorable conditions. are not prolific. These birds must be taken from many breeds and different families within each breed. The product. of each speciinen examined must be meas- ured with a sufficient degree of accuracy so that no mistakes in that regard are possible. Hearsay evidence that is uwsupported by an indi- vidual egg record must. therefore. be rigidly excluded from the start. The experimenter should not allow himself to be encouraged by an alleged ‘dairy-type” of cow. While there is a fair analogy between egg production and milk production when we are considering the com- position of the two products and the importance of individual neasure- ment, there isas vet no apparent analogy beyond that. The quantity and the richness of the ilk that the dairy cow gives up at each milking is the standard of measure in the dairy herd. In the poultry yard we expect but one egy at atime and the quantity of nutriment contained within that egg has not as vet been connected with this question. If, therefore, we look for a capacious abdomen in the --egy type” hen RL TUE TRAY NESE TEXT BOOK merely beeause the great milker has a large udder, we are off the track at the outset. We desire to know, not how much egg our prolitie hen will lay in one day, but how many days will there be in which she will give us one egg. The size of the egg, though important, is secondary at this time. A simple mathematical calculation will enable us to get an ap- proximate idea of the number of egys, that lave become sutticiently ad- yanced in growth to be affected by the length of the oviduct, that could be present at one time. Tam neither affirming or denying that a large eye vield is only possible with a bird having a large and prominent ab- domen or “eye basket." TD can say. however, that I count my eggs after they get into iny basket and the size of the hen’s basket has had no apparent relation to the number of eges that she would contribute to mine. «A contributor to Commercial Poultry aftirined that the typical shape of the Leghorn would be found to be typical of the prolific hen. He based his claim upon what he said was true with his Plymouth Rocks. A several years use of trap nests had shown him that lis most pro- lific layers resembled the Leghorn in shape. If the “egg type’” or the prolific type can be determined upon such slight evidence as that. then we may expect a great nany different egg types and a larger individual supremacy among Leghorns than has yet been disclosed. All living birds are of the egg type whether they are Leghorns, Os- triches or English Sparrows. The prolific type of the domestic fow] can be determined by suitably maintaining the bird and counting her eggs. That this type will carry with it distinguishing marks that can be scen with the eye or felt by the hand remains to be determined. At present we know of no prolitic type except such as is shown by the ege producing tendeney of habit of the individual. That prolific layers will usually have bodies longer than wide 1 be- lieve. That uuprolific layers will also present the same characteristic Lalso believe. “The prolific shape” has very graciously adapted itself so as to include avery large proportion of the hen family. That mnodifying this shape excessively in order to obtain a distinguishing feature for some funey breed or strain would be likely to interfere with perfect development of the vital organs and thus ruin the egg producing qualities of the strain or breed seems reasonable. Nature abhors a imonstrosity as well as a vacuum. , INDIVIDUAL MERIT FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A BUYER. [tis obvious lo every buyer that individual excellence should deter- nine the yalue of a bird, INDIVIDOCAL WERTT FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A BEYER 84 A) world-famous poultryman and editor once told a correspondent that +-a bird is worth all that vou can get for it.’ It would be pretty hard to make a novice, whose judgment of quality is practically value- less, believe that statement if he were buying a bird. Tt might seem al right if he were selling one. There often exists a double barrier between buyers and sellers that cannot be leveled. We have the ignorance and the cupidity of many buyers and the cupidity and the ignorance of some sellers as a perma- nent bar to satisfactory transactions. The determining of the equable cash value of a bird depends upon the individual merit of each party to the transfer as well ax that of the specimen sold. In looking at this question from the view point of a buyer possessing average intelligence and fairmindedness we have to consider facts as they really are, or as they appear to us. It is not the duty of the poultry press or of the writer to encourage the idea that every novice is legitimately ‘‘a soft mark” for the adver- tiser, while it should be the duty of every friend of the business to combat the all-too-prevalent notion that nearly all advertisers consider him so. The American Poultry Association and the Specialty Clubs in for- mulhuting standards for the different breeds have presumably done so for the guidance of the breeder. The buyer who demands their impos- sible ideal for a rummage-sale price of 81.99 is demanding too much, but he is entitled to a dollar’s worth of value for every dollar that he invests in a bird. It is doubtful if the good reputation of a breeder has any honest cash value to the average beginner, but the blood that gave the breeder his reputation may. There is little doubt that this value is sometimes in- flated. It is my candid belief that some breeders of established reputa- tion send too few birds to market. A case in mind is one where $20.00 was the price paid for a bird (at once returned) that in the opinion of the fairly well informed buyer was worth seven cents per pound. Utility has tor years been a catchword that has truly covered a mul- titude of sins, or has attempted to cover them. If a farmer or a market poultry raiser chooses to utterly disregard the general standard require- ments—the distinguishing characteristics—of a breed in his efforts to maintain or improve utility qualities he has a perfect right to do so. If such a person can make sales to parties who come to his place and see his stock he has a perfect right to do so. But when he places his ad. ina poultry paper he is offering his stock, “sight unseen,” to those who are more or less educated along Standard Jines and expect pure-blood stock possessing characteristics, visible to the eye, that prove the gen- 86 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK ¢ uineness of their breeding. He has a right to expect this and he should get it. A nunber of years ago the writer sent tive dollars to a breeder, then doing a large business in = Utility Barred Plyinouth Rocks” and another breed, for a cockerel. [received a bird that by a considerable stretch of the imagination might be called a Barred Plymouth Rock, but his like had probably never before been scen in this locality. A local sage. whose standards were and are much lower than those of the average buyer, said:‘If that ix one of ———’s 85.00 birds L should like to see one of his $2.00 ones.’’and his tone left nothing to be surmised. This bird did not suit the ignorant novice then. and the slight knowledge ob- tained since does not, in the retrospect, #dd to his value. The bird was returned and I received my five dollars. but was out the express charge. a coop and several weeks time. A letter from the seller. in which he acknowledged his error and stated that he usually sent such birds to market when six weeks old but will now sell hin for $2.00 to some farmer to improve his flock.” did not help me much. I still pity the farmer who may have improved his flock with such a bird. T use this illustration simply to bring out my point and not to air a evievance. T gota satisfactory bird from one of the best known strains of Standard-bred Rocks in the world for that money and think on the whole the cireuinstance was fortunate. There is no apparent excuse for sueh a condition of things. There can be no doubt that in the hands of a great many fanciers the utility qualities of their birds have deteriorated, been completely ignored in fact, but it has not been so with all. Tt is not necessary for the ultra-utility breeder to compete for prizes at the shows or to sacrifice a great deal to fancy points. but he should not ignore the Standard if he is to advertise pure-bred poultry. Pure-bred Rocks, for example, do not have rose combs or feathered shanks. All of the breeds have certain distinguishing features that are supposed to denote purity and the utility breeder should not ignore them if he is to advertise pure-bred stock. There is no egg type’ that can be determined by external appearance. The monstrosities in shape and comb that are sometimes bred on an ege- type theory— which, even as a theory, seems to differ with about every theorisi—are but caricatures of worthy breeds. When a farmer or market-poultry raiser has read his poultry paper sufficiently to become convinced that pure-bred hens are better in every way than scrubs, and sends, offen with doubt and misgiving, his eood money to an advertiser who claims a pure-blood strain. bred for eves—perhaps named for the munber of eges that one exceptional hen happened to lay ina year—he should receive pure blood for his money wnd nota conglomeration of dunghill and several breeds that has been INDIVIDUAL MERIT FROM TILE STANDPOINT OF \ BEYER x7 named for the one that, in the breeder's eve it most resembles. Utility is a good slogan for every breeder who has the interest of the domestic hen at heart, and it ix of happy omen that honest, intelligent breeders all over our Jand are working along «business and heauty” lines, improving their flocks in both utility and Standard points. Many assume that the farnier cares nothing for fine feathers because he sometimes talks that way in self defence: but when he once decides to send away for a «full-blooded rooster’ he often wants all the fine feathers and wilded beaks and shanks. bay eyes and five point comb that would go with a very expensive bird. We do not all care to breed for the show room or to take the trouble to prepare birds to show, even if we haye those that we think are worthy, A low rating on a score card is no disgrace, but a low nest-record, if the fault of the bird. should be. Individual merit should show in ex- ternal appearance, in the nest and in the progeny. Upon this merit, which should be in some degree discernable by a reasonably intelligent buyer, the cash value of the bird should be based. INDIVIDUAL MERIT. Straight Talk by a Fancier on the Evils of Selling Poor Birds With Pedigrees at High Prices. BY A. P. WINSLOW, IN THE POULTRY KEEPER. In breeding poultry, asin many other things, individual merit is lost sight of, and inferior birds are used in the breeding pens, and sold on the strength of the breeding. Blood will tell in poultry as in everything else, but breeding should not be looked upon as the only object in view. Line breeding is all right and if carefully followed will surely produce more uniform birds, but even in line-bred stock the greater the value placed upon individual merit the greater will be the success. Tam a firm believer in good breeding, but I also believe in individual merit. A few years ago Maine horse breeders were after pedigrees. Any old thing that had a pedigree was bred and no attention was paid to the individual merits of the horse. The result was that many people had good hard cash tied up in horses that were bred for speed, but did not have such qualities as go to make up asalable horse, and such horses were cheap with no market for them and Maine breeders did not breed many horses for a few years. Now the breeders are breeding for individual merit and, while good breedingjis desired, a horse that possesses individual- ity is selling for good prices. In poultry the saine principle holds good. In buying stock the buyers can not hold a veil of winnings over a bird that has no merits of its own, but is simply backed up by the breeding back of it. A buyer pays $20 for a bird and when the bird arrives he finds he has paid $18 for breeding and f2 for the merits of the bird. He writes the seller and gets a reply saying that the bird is closely related to a line of winners! Ss THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK I think it is the duty of breeders of poultry to place themselves face to face with the buyer, so to speak, and looking at it from this point of view think what that bird is worth. Remember, he has no other birds bred in the same lines as this one, he does not know how this bird is bred or how many prizes its ancestors have won, but he is buying this bird to get new blood, to i:aprove his stock, and he looks at the individual merits of the bird and has a perfect right to expect his money’s worth, not in breeding alone, but in that individual bird. With good individuality the chances are that the bird was well bred and will breed well. Good speciinens are not in many cases a case of chance, but are the result of careful and systematic breeding. Poor birds will come from any mating, I care not how good, but good birds from a poor mating are seldom met with. We should not close our eyes to the defects in our birds simply because they have good breeding back of them. But rather should we keep our eyes open for defects in our birds and by good breeding and hy using birds with individuality as well, remedy those defects and thus make like produce like, but we want that like to be a bird with individuality. It has been said, ‘‘A man’s as good as he makes himself, but no man’s any good because his grandfather was.’’ The above is as true in poultry as in men. A PROPHECY. To my mind the time will come when the effort of breeders who are trying to raise the standard of egg production, will be to produce. by breeding and general maintenance, a hen that will lay. as nearly as may be, an egg a day every day in the year. I regard the figures 365, as a standard of cge production, as being analogous to the fanciers standard of 100. Impossible to attain, but. as a standard of a perfect eve vield, one to be aimed at. I believe that. when the laws of breeding ax they will be found to ap- ply to improvement in ege production are as clearly understood, and ax intelligently acted upon as those which apply to standard points are now understood and worked out by the most successful fanciers. the production of a 347-ege hen will represent no greater progress than is now shown by a5 point specimen in the show room. 347 eges per year bears practically the same relation to our standard of 365 that 95 bears to 100, I think that any expert poultry feeder who can obtain an average of over Tod eges per hen with a flock of 100 or 200 hens will be surprised at the work of some of the individuals if he keeps track of them. It nay very reasonably be claimed that there may be a erent deal of dit- ference between the skill and care required to so maintain a hen that she will lay close cnough (oan cow aday to score 347 ege-points and that required to raise and prepare for the show room a 9s point speci- men. We cannot. any of us, do more Chan guess at that. A PROPHECY RY This is not a question for either the novice or the veterai to vet ys- terical over.— the one in a burst of enthusiasm. the other in a fit. of condemnation. Neither the one nor the other knows all about it. Obstacles can be conjured up, and vividly portrayed as being insur- mountable. Success, or partial suceess. jx not attained by creatine imaginary obstacles, It ix well enough to enquire the way if we find those who know the way, but we can cross no bridges until we come to them. The success that has been attained by men who were blindfolded by false theories and handicapped by unsuitable methods should encourage those who care to glimpse into the future to take a decidedly optimistic view of the future possibilities of the domestic len as an ege producer. The alarmn- ist Will perhaps have a fit of indigestion followed by a nightmare when he meets with this theory and predict the ullimate ruination of the egg business. + Hens will lay so many eges that prices will drop below par and there will be no money init.” Tf he does he will take more stock in the theory than does the author. There will never be 300-ege hens enough fo seriously affect quotations in our market reports. The poultryman, or the prospective poultryman who may chance to peruse these day dreams should not think that L recommend him to spend any valuable time in idle speculation thereon, Farfrom it. The man who is obliged to get immediate profits from his business, what- ever it may be, should hold all speculative theories at a respecttul dis- tance. Do not let dreaming intertere with vour business, but remember that all human progress has resulted from dreams. Inch by inch, step by step. we advance toward some future goal. Some drop out. some fall, but the others move on, The busy poultryvinan has little time for experimenting. He works mainly along lines that he feels sure of, and leaves experiment and. the initial steps toward progress to others. He can learn by reading. what he will rarely learn in practice. What improvement he makes will be vradual and more or less sure according to his light. 1 will caution the enthusiastic novice to be very careful iow he ac- cepts the claims of those who feed his credulity with big figures. At the present time hens that can and do lay 200 eyes in less than twelve months are very common, reckoned as occasional individuals. Floeks that have, fc ae will avernge 200 eggs per hen under ordinary to fair conditions of feeding and care are not common. The 200-ege strain is probably just as common as YO-point strains or prize-winning strains. A eenuine 200-ege strain would be characterized by its ten- déney to produce as large a proportion of 200-cge hens as a prize-win- ning strain would of high-scoring specimens. A strain is supposed to take its name from some family characteristic. Contemporary adyer- 0 THE TRAY NEST TENT LOOK tising to the contrary notwithstanding, breeders of prize winners get plenty of culls and breeders of 200-ege hens sometimes get more poor layers than they want. Flocks can be found that have averaged over 200 eges for each hen per year. Where can we find the flock that will average cnough points to win first prize at the Boston show reckoning the «better birds that were lett at home?” That word ¢sstrain™ is a poor one to bet money on at the present stage of the game. There are honest strains. lots of them, but contemporary advertising shows that the term can be applied to almost anything by people who do not even know the real meaning of the word. The 300-ege en is not a creature of some modern pipe-dream. Tn 1876 [T. K. Feleh sold a Light Brahma hen to Jeremiah B. P. Ladd. The third day after she was purchased she began to lay and produced 31S eges 11.333 consecutive days. when she stopped. The next year she laid 133 eves in less than six months when she was sold. Through the kindness of Mr. Felch Iam able to give the following affidavit of the record of this remarkable hen. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. This is to certify that the Light Brahina hen, known as ‘‘Rebecca No. 3935,'’ which I bought of I. K. Felch January st, 1876 commenced to lay on the third day of said January and laid three hundred and eighteen eggs in three hundred and thirty-three consecutive days, when she stopped. She began to lay again on the first day of February and up to July 28th, when I sold her, she had laid one hundred and thirty-three eggs. She never wanted to sit while I owned her. This statement is made from actual record and is true in every particular. { seal i (Signed) JEREMIAH B. P. Lapp. This is to certify that I am cognizant of the facts in relation to the lav- ing qualities of the hen ‘‘Rebecca No. 3935’’ as above, haying handled her a part of the time covered in the above certificate of her owner, and Ihave personal knowledge that the foregoing statement is a true and correct account of the eggs laid by the aforesaid hen. f oa (Signed) H.C. Frean. lL Hssex S. S. DECEMBER 30, 1878, Personally appeared the above named, Jeremiah B. P. Ladd and Henry C. Fegan, whom I know to be reliable and entitled to credit, and made oath to the truth of the above statements by them made, this day, before me, (Signed) Garpnir P. LAbp, Justice of the Peace. THE UNRELIABILIRY OF RECKONING AVERAGES 91 HAE TER Ax THE UNRELIABILITY OF THE COMMON METHOD OF RECKONING AVERAGES ILLUSTRATED. Foods and feeding. Early maturity. Meat or eggs, which? The Exceptional hen. Treatment of sick hens. Practice vs. theory. Tf IS customary to divide the total number of eves received in a given ] time from a flock of hens pro rata among the total uumber of females in the flock; the resulting average being taken as an approxi- inate total nunber of each bird's work during that time. If the average is 18 eggs per hen in one month the hen that laid 2% is underestimated and the hen that laid none. or but few, is given credit that belongs to the others. A well-known breeder once wrote me that when a flock averayed 17 eges each per inonth he knew that there were not many poor layers in it and he was sate in breeding from them. Here is an ege record of one of ay pens for amonth., This flock had been culled onee. All of these birds were discarded when the breeding pens were made up. Nutmber of birds 34. Number of eggs laid 544. Average per bird 16. 15 of these birds laid only 179 eggs, an aver- age of 12 each. The other 19 laid the balance, or an average of 19 plus each, 7 of these laid 157 eggs, an average of 22 plus each. While there were some fair layers in this flock they were not used for Inreedersx be- cause Lhad some that I believed to be better. It will be seen that although the average for the flock is not bad. nearly half of them were very ordinary layers when we take into consideration the fact that they were pullets, ten months old and were not broody during the month. There were 9 two-year-olds in this flock. cight of which were among the good layers. Elsewhere in this book is an account of one of ny pens of old hens, (23 birds) that averaged 124 plus last year. Yet two of them laid 177 eges each, one 162 and one 15]. 19 laid over 100 exes. + laid Jess than 100, the lowest giving but 71 eges. This war a select flock retained after repeated cullings for several years. With apparent reason it has been claimed that even if there are poor layers in the breeding pen we set but few eggs from them, as they Jay but few. Opposed to this is the clearly proven fact that some individ- uals will do the best part of their year’s laying in the xpring. and often they give us the very finest looking eggs; the ones most likely to be selected for hatching. While a poor yearly layer may not give us 25 or 30 eggs per month in the breeding season. yet she may give us from 10 to 15: enough to produce quite a number of chicks. A good layer is te? THE CRAP NEST TERE BOOK the one that has a persistent ege-producing tendency or habit that tends to dominate and control all other tendencies that are opposed to prolif- icacy. This persistency may disclose itself in the spring season or at any other time, but the eges must be counted and, together with other data, made a subject of record, One poultryman of considerable experience refused to have any deal- ings with me because T marked a hen as having laid 26 eggs in one month. He said in his letter, +-No chicken will lay 26 eggs in one month.” Tf that man didn’t need a little trap-nest enlightemment no man ever did. Thus it is that a careful man underestimates his best layers when averaging ege@ yields in the usual way. while others appear to have a method similar to that of an applicant for the chair of astronomy in a college: asked how he would measure the distance from the earth to the sun, he is said to have replied. --T would guess half the distance and multiply by two.” FOODS AND FEEDING. “One man's meat is another man’s poison.”' Lhave very little to say here about foods and feeding. The feeding of hens is no doubt just as important a matter to the hens as the feeding of other live stock and ourselves is to the stock and to us. More seems to be Known about this subject than any other that is connected with poultry keeping, if we are to judge by the quantity of what we read and hear. One can get about all of it ina full year’s numbers of any good poultry paper af 25 cents to $1.00 per year. Tecan then judge for him- self how much is actually settled regarding the feeding of towls. Tt seems to be generally agreed that hens should be fed. and that if they are expected to lay well they should be fed well. We work to get money to buy food to support us while we work to eet more money to buy more food ete., but asthe hen knows nothing of money, it she works at all it must be for the food itself. As an idle hen is a charity patient it is best to make her work for a part of her food. This seems to be quite generally recoenized, My friend with a feeding hobby declares that this whole matter of egg production is one of feeding and care. He has not vet explained why it is that some of our hens, or some of his own for that matter. may lay but 75 or LOO eges while others lay close do 200 or more with precisely the same food and care and nothing in their appearance to account for it. The man who can tella good layer the moment he sets his eves on her points out one of our birds as being just the thing and we find that she ix not laying at all and never laid well. He selects another as being way below par and the records show her to be one of the best in the bunch. He picks up pullet in the fall and says that she is too fat to lay and FOORS AND PREDING 93 the trap-nest shows her to be the only pullet in the lot that is laying. The feeding cuthusiast tells us that too much whole grain will get our layers too fat and that to fatten old hens for market we must feed corn meal mash as they will not fatten on whole grain. We are told that oats is the great ege food. then again it is wheat, then corn; then it is mash in the morning, or at uoon, or at night, that will do the trick. Then we get a dose of compound fractions and chem- ical vatios that would force an eve a day froma crow. if we are to credit the whole of all the stories, : LT have mixed balanced rations according to my humble ability to in- terpret the Most approved methods of modern science and have also tried the ultra-practical rations of the man who does not believe in any- thing but ancient science. have found nothing worse thea the first— except the second—and my hens manufactured eves and deposited them in the proper place in spite of either. To have a decided partiality for genuine science. perhaps because [ kuow so little about it. When | get a chance to investigate the subject of foods and feeding [ propose to throughly test the Midland Poultry Foods, or something in that line, for. if this matter is one-half as complicated as it is claimed to be. it ts dis- tinctly the work fur specialists who will honorably take our good money and give us real value in return. We do not get it in the practical’ ration, usually. Tf. as L more than seven-eighths suspect. the complica- tion lies in the different tendencies of the distinct and separate birds that compose our flocks that, for convenience and economy. we are obliged to feed all together, then this problem of feeding is one that each poultry keeper will have to solve tor himself with such help as he can get from experts, and others. If most condition powders and such were placed on the market accom- panied by reasonable claims and sold at a price that would justify their use I might take nore stock in them than I do now. T have no doubt that they are useful at times. but [can afford to get along without them. It is no wonder that some who attempt to force eges from a hen at an expense of two or three cents each, object to any further expelse or trouble in recording thein. Dr. Weston’s preparation appeils to me because it is reasonable in price and, as faras egg production goes, claims only this; ++It assists them to lay all the eggs that nature calls for.” That is all that any preparation can do as far asa number of dollars worth of experiment and a good deal of trap-nest evidence has yet shown me. They generally give the best results when served for about two or three weeks before the hens would begin to lay anyway. The best of them are useful when their use ix indicated by some condition in the flock that experience only can determine. The beginner should carefully guard against recklessly dosing the flock merely because he does not Know what else to do. 4 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK EARLY MATURITY. It seems reasonable that the craze for carly sexual maturity, combined with the practice of over-stimulating the reproductive organs of. the erowing chicks, should be largely responsible for the degeneracy that so often shows itself in families of fowls just when the breeder should be reaping his reward for years of hard work. [ read a short time ago in a leading poultry journal that a prolific laying habit was the result of forcing the pullet to start laying as early as possible and they would get in the habit of it and keep right on. There may be rare cases where a precocious pullet will make a good layer: there may be rare cases where a precocious cockerel will attain good size and make'a good breeder for tavo or three years, but in nine cases out of ten the reverse will be the case. The sexual life that starts early, fails carly. with the human family, beasts or birds. The pullet that starts laying abnormally early will, as arule, lay a few eggs and then stop. Jf she does not lay again for a lony period, and the conditions are fayorable for growth, she muy make a good layer; otherwise not, in the majority of cases. While it is true that early-laying pullets inay Jay 200 or more eggs their first year, under very favorable conditions, they will rarely lay profitably the sec- ond year, and they will rarely if ever inake good breeders. [have had Plymouth Rock pullets lay at tive months of age. but many of those that did not begin until seven or eight monthsold proved to be the better layers. Hens that laid well in their third and fourth laying years ma- tured normally as pullets and have made my best breeders. Itis inv present belief that no breeder will ever succeed in producing a prolific strain of long lived birds by breeding from either males or females that develop sexual maturity at an age abnormally early for the strain, I do not discountenance the practice of driving pwllets to the limit of their capacity for market eggs and then marketing the birds as soon as their profitable laying ability is exhausted. That is a business propo- sition purely; but such birds are unfit for the breeding pen. and any flock will run itself out if such birds are persistently bred from. The advice that we sometimes read to mark the ewrliest-laying pullets and the earliest crowing cockerels for future use as breeders iay have sprung from good intentions, or it may be an echo from personally in- terested sources, The earliest laving pullet and the carlest crowing cock may be all right in some flocks. -+Harliest simply means that their sexual de- velopment is in advance of the others, Again, the advice may work well where chicks of different ages are all reared together and the owner cannot distinguish one hatch from another, The chicks will naturally tend fo develop in the general VARLY MATURITY thy order of their age. and, generally considered. laying would begin in about the sane order. There are, of course. quite numerous exceptions to this rule. Pullets and cockerels that are well developed by spring. aud possess the other desired qualities. should be good breeders. but it is a common custom to use for hatching egg» from the general lot. and a large nuin- ber of these cges are likely to come from fimmiature pallets, This tendency can be discounted to a considerable extent by using only eges that ave of good size. as good development and coustitutional vigor are essential to cither permanence or iluprovement of species the general ideas that are ab- sorbed by the average beginner tend ina directly opposite direction to successful breeding. 7 have a Plymouth Rock hen that when about tive months old laid 20 eges in 21 days. Considerable boasting of her per- formance drew out the fact that many people considered it as indicating an exceptionally valuable pullet. which | very much doubted. She would have gone to market that fall had To onot desired to observe her through lite. Eyes for hatching should be from birds that at the time of inating give individual evidence of merit combined with a history that justities their use. Early laying is by no means governed by heredity alone. The time and nature of housing. the feeding and care. will hasten or retard Jay- ing according as they ave favorable or unfavorable to egg production. Jinprovement in fowls is governed by uatural Jaws that are not in- fluenced by the price of eges in October and November. Money values ave often governed by natural laws. but Nature has no regard for money. The means connnonly advocated for vetting egex when most people are not getting them are progressive attempts to force Nature to work for our selfish interests. Those people who meet with a measure of success in this effort are justly proud of their skill. Their methods. once radical and revolutionary departures from established customs, have become -conservative’’ merely through lapse of time and fa- miliaritv. They areas radical as ever to many a farmer. When au effort is made to progress still further by taking out what ix unnatural and unbusiness-like in their method and substituting therefor factors that are fully in accord with Nature and business wisdoin we find those who object. They believe in progress up to the point where they have stopped. but we must go no further. A Marche or April-hatched pwlet may normally come into full laying in the fall and queet our requirements in eggs when prices are high without detriment to her breeding qualities. Much, of course. depends upon the way she ix handled. July-. August-. and September-hatched 96 THE TRAV NEST TEXT BOOK pullets are very likely to lay during the fall of their secoud year. wher the early-hatched pullets of the previous year are ordinarily uot laying. It will be impossible for a market poultryman to get the best results in egg production or meat production and at the same tine be able to select his breeding females and quate them for best results unless he combines an expert knowledge of his own birds with «a knowledge of the best rules that are followed by the leading breeders of Standard fowls and the most successful market poultrymen., People who possess any of these requirements in a superior degree probably form ao very stall part of our poultry-breeding population, In descriptions of the exceptional poultry plants there appears much that leaves room for speculation, Professional writers usually knuow does a severitl-thousand- what looks best in print. The fact that X dollar business ina year does not carry with it anything that requires us to believe that he practices all that the advertising agent preaches for hin or all that he preaches himself. It does not necessarily detract from. its value if he does not. A nan’s business is his own private property and we not only have no right to pry into it. but he is not bound to disclose anything that le prefers to hold back: unless public necessity demands it. Those who have even a slight trace of Sherlock Hohnes’ venius for deduction can derive some little pleasure from a comparison of some of the facts which a practical use of trap nests will bring out with some of the fanciful romances that we occasionally read, Any of us who own or hire a bit of land can hate and rear chickens and keep hens. We can by reading the best poultry literature and carefully studying our birds gradually Jearm the best way to care for them. Both our flock and our reading require careful and rigorous culling, and we have a clear vight of way for independent study and judgment. The poultry industry is till in ifs formative period, Men have become estublished, but precedents are comparatively few upon Which to establish methods. Some of the ereatest successes depend wp- ou artificial conditious for their success. Three or four good poultry papers are sometimes more valuable. than one — Occasionally some point of agreement between different writers will be found and can be noted in the memory. or it may do to hang our hat on, temporarily. One of these points is likely to be this matter of carly maturity. for it was threshed out long ago. With no move light than 1 now possess: it ! wanted to get the best obtainable advice for growing young stock for the best. results in future exe production T would look to the veteran fancier rather (han (he average market poultry win, The greatest layers ever known have been bred by tunciers, and | want to advise my iili€y brother. or sister. that. while bad practice is EARLY MATURITY 7 no doubt running riot in the fancy the same is true in utility circles. The expert fancier poxsessex the best knowledge of the laws of breeding. The show rooiw has attracted all sorts of superficial breeders, but util- ity would many times do well to get hold of some of the rules of good practice observed by fanciers. Unfortunately a blue ribbon does not carry with it a guarantee of pro- lificacy. At the present stage of the art it seems hardly reasonable to suppose that any considerable number of fanciers would discard birds possessing superior Standard qualities merely because they exhibited tendencies opposed to great egy production. | It is far easier to scoff at the “theory,” deny the tendency, ¢laiin proliticacy. and make a run for the ribbons with their financial attractions. Yet. forall this, stock from the yards and eggs of fanciers who win in “hot company” have proved to be grand layers. So have some mongrels. It is a condition all around that causes both deep reflection and much loose talk, but it is unavoidable. Self-interest prostitutes truth and retards progress; vet truth cannot be found, and progress is impossible without self-interest. This matter of early laving often appears in a wrong light to the or- dinary poultry raiser. He may have 100 pullets. Zhey begin to lay in September. They lay an average of three eges each in October. The average gradually increases through November. December and Jan- uary. In February they lay quite well, in March and April still better. The point of error isin the word they. The size of the flock and egg vield are -always associated in) the owner's mind. Very likely all of the eges laid in September were laid by three or four pullets. perhaps by one. Eight or ten, or perhaps less, may be laying in October, but it is possible that none of them are the same that laid in September. In November a new lot may come along and the previous layers stop. New ones may begin faster than the earlier layers stop thus increasing the general egg supply until February or March, when those that had begun early and stopped. have begun again. Their eges added to those of the pullets that did not bevin laying until January, February or March make up a fair total. The poultry keeper imagines that the earliest lay- ers have kept laying all the time, excepting those that may have become broody, and that the average each month represented fairly well the work of cach bird. Such is probably uever the case in an ordinary flock. Pullets often lay regularly and freely froin the very first ege. If a pen of 12 pullets gave 20 eges in September it ix perfectly possible that one pullet laid them all. [got 26 eges one September from a lot of pullets and 20 came from one pullet and six from another. In late summer and fall when the hens ave in molt the situation is reversed. One by oue the hens stop laying entirely. but certain ones keep right on; they are persistent. A few eggs per week from the oS THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK molting flock does not prove that most of the birds are laying an occa- sional eve. One or more hens are very probably laying all of the eggs. L have had something like 80 eges in October “from 21 hens,” but four hens laid them all. One laid 23, 17 did not lay an ege. It is this principle that makes references to flocks of hens us Juying a certain number of eggs sometimes appear unsiutisfactory to one who has been accustomed to treat as laying hens only those individuals that ac- tually do lay. and to credit a bird with being a «yvood layer” only when that bird has proven her worth in the nest. Practical necessities require that we keep our hens in flocks and treat each flock ax a unit in a great meaxure, but they do not require that we sink individual performance out of sight altogether. The product of the hen is low in value. individually considered. So. also, is a single grain of wheat, but the expert goex into the wheat field and carefully fertilizes one kind of wheat with another and afterward collects, grain by grain, the seed that will later produce a new and better strain of wheat that may later enrich the very farmer who sneered at his work on the ground that it was not ‘practical. MEAT OR EGGS! WHICH? That poultry breeding. as a business, is vet far behind the breeding of cattle and horses is well shown by the general practice of attempting to unite, in one breed, or in a single ‘strain’ or family of one breed about all of the qualities that all hens, separately considered, are known to possess. Thus, in attempting the impossible. the breeder can never attain the highest development of any one quality. If we desire to hatch and rear chickens with our own heus we must to be sure of the best results, breed hens that possess the incubating in- xtinct in a high degree and are well adapted. by size and disposition, to mother the chicks. Such females as these can never give the best results in) egg pro- duction. For great ege production we want females that are not much inclined to broodiness. While broodiness can be controlled to a considerable degree. when suitable means are cmployed, it is an obstacle to prolificacy in proportion to the strength of the tendeney. It certainly is not determined by methods of feeding or composition of feeds to the extent that many suppose. The tendency to convert the food elements into flesh or eyes is also. in a very marked degree, an individual trait. It is not clear how either of these tendencies en ever become a family characteristic until the breeder separates the one tendeney from the other, for we cannot get the maximum of profit in eves and meat in one and the same bird, no matter how we fecd, MEAT OR EGGS! W1InCH 2 99 The tendency to make eves on almost any ration is so strong with some females that it becomes a serious problem how to so teed as to Inaintain them in good condition. With others it is impossible to feed well without causing them to put on flesh instead of laying profitably. Tt seeins Chat this principle has long been recognized by cattle breeders. It is claimed that the dairy cow that is a heayymilker cannot be so fed as to take on a good quantity of flesh profitably, for she will convert the food to milk. Tf she is fattened. each pound of added flesh costs more than it will bring in the market. It is also said that the most expert feeders of beef cattle employ a va- tion rich in protein that, if fed to dairy cows in sufficient quantity would enable them to yield their capacity of inilk. Expert poultry fatteners claim that they often find tuature hens that will persist in converting their food fo eges in spite of efforts to fatten them. A crude attempt of the writers to fatten his first flock of mon- grels came to naught from this cause. The hens were old enough to market and were shat up ina pen, whole corn left before then and soft food fed heavily. In Gwo weeks. or thereabout. so many of them were laying that but few were sold. It is offen a difficult matter to put good flesh (free fat is objectionable) on itn adult fowl fast enough to be profitable unless there is a tendency to make flesh rather than eges. Tt it is done it will usually cost more than it will bring. Full feeding of a suitable ration would tend to pro- duce the best of flesh on those birds of a natural flesh forming tendeney and enable the others to produce eges according to their capacity. When broodiness or molting has stopped eve production there is usually an increased tendency to fatten. naturally due to the condition. All this does not iinply that individual tendencies alone control meat or eee production, bat that the best results in quality and profit; would be obtained by recognizing that these two qualities are ina great meas- ure distinct and that exceptional gains are not likely’ to be made and retained by attempting to unite them in one strain. Because our birds get heavy when deprived of exercise, or when fed heavily when not Inving, if docs not prove that the inerease in weight has not cost more than it will bring in the market. Neither will ex- amination of the birds on the roost tell the story. aA good layer may be fat and a poor layer thin, or the reverse may be true, but the known laying habit of the bird and observations of her condition will give a vood idea of her tendencies and value. That this principle is not more generally understood is no doubt due to the practice of treating the flock as a unit for one thing, and because of the great differences of opinion. aid af duterests, as to what shall constitute a prolific laver or a profitable market fowl. Any attempt at a standard is likely to be xo much too low for some 100 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK and so much too high for others that it would be, mainly useful to em- phasize its own necessity. The 300-ege hen is the ideal. the 200-egg hen is in the middle, the 100-egg hen appears at the other end under the title of ‘a prolific layer,” «a grand layer,” +:a good layer,” or a “poor layer,” according to the point of view or the personal interests of her owner. Not every +¢good layer’ will lay market eggs enough in one year to pay the reasonable cost of her maintenance, and not every adult female can be fattened at a cost that will permit a profit. This discussion need not involve a comparison of breeds. Under the present haphazard methods of distribution of blood there can be little uniformity in breeds other than in general Standard requirements. Some of the greatest egg records, for instance, have been attained from breeds claiming superiority in meat qualities. uA great many poor layers normally develop in those breeds claiming superior merit as layers. Those personal interests that provoke and maintain comparisons of breeds also prevent the production of uniform tendencies in the breeds. THE EXCEPTIONAL HEN. The exceptional hen has, from time to time, come in for a good deal of notice. When a single individual develops any quality in a remark- able degree it is worthy of note. It would however be folly to judge of all hens by the behavior of one. It would be unwise or untruthful to claim that results that might be obtained by giving one hen, or afew hens, special care represent what could be expected from a larger num- ber maintained in such a way as to pay a market profit. If we should be able to get an average egg vield of 250 eggs each trom five exception- al pullets, given special care and attention. that would not warrant us in claiming that we had a 250-egg strain unless those results were clearly due to a fixed family trait that vould be traced back along a line of ancestors and could, by correct methods, be transmitted to future ecnerations, The writer owns some exceptional hens, but they have invariably re- ceived the same care in every respect as their mates. No individual birds have ever received special and separate treatment in order to encourage their exceptional traits. My pens are all adapted for from 30 to 60 laying females each and, before culling, they often have contained approximately that number. Exceptional individuals have developed under the same conditions that surrounded their mates and they have always and continually been maintained under (he same conditions as the others, Different treat- ment of different flocks has sometimes been adopted, not with the idea of causing one flock to excel another, but because TP have often found that. different flocks require different treatment, TREATMENT OF SICK HENS 101 Any birds of mine mentioned here or elsewhere have been subject: to the conditions mentioned above. The Hasty Thinker who regards the exceptional owner-of-the-excep- tional-hen who carefully nurses that one hen with a view of making capital out of her performance, as being representative of all owners-of- exceptional-hens is uncharitable. Various long-distance shots have been aimed at those who record their 200-egg hens, by those who lack personal experience in the matter. Some imagine that the 200-ege pullet must be early-hatched and receive the best of care. This is not necessarily so. June isa good month to hatch chickens if they can have plenty of shade. T have a flock of exceptional layers that were hatched in June and were not taken out of the brooders until November. They were in the way the whole summer. I had no suitable place to put them in and no time to care for them. Some of these pullets began to lay in December and nearly all were laying by February. The pen contained 40 birds during the winter and is practically the same size as one that I recently saw limited to 10 birds in a leading poultry paper. One of these pullets laid 202 eggs in a little over nine months, another 150 eggs in six months. I do not like to boast of egg records, but this illustrates my point. Good care and proper maintenance are necessary for the best results, and I am the last person to underestimate their im- portance, but, as a champion of the Persistent Layer I wish to show that she can and will lay a large number of eggs under unfavorable conditions. Favorable conditions would enable her to do much better. The frequent references to my hens in this book are made solely for illustration. These hens are far inferior inevery way to many others, I believe. They are not in competition, only with each other. TREATMENT OF SICK HENS. The best family doctor for the poultry yard I have found to be the hatchet. A sharp hatchet is a quick, sure and safe remedy for the most serious complaints to which fowls are heir. Divide the bird into two parts; the head and the rest. Burn the body, or bury it too deep for resurrection. This treatment for sick hens hax long been recognized by practical poultry keepers as being the cheapest and the best; hence I can recom- mend it with the greatest assurance. Slight colds can be easily treated by giving four drops of Johnson’s Anodyne Liniment in a teaspoonful of sweet oil to the bird that has the cold. Let the dose pass down the bird’s throat slowly, or it may choke. Repeat until the symptoms disappear. If they do not disappear I de- strov the bird on the principle that a stitch in time saves several. 102 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK Books have been written and much space used in the poultry press to show us how to cure the many diseases of poultry. Those who desire to fix up a sick bird to sell to some novice sto improve his flock” can get all the pointers he requires by asking for them. 1 do not believe that a bird that has once been seriously sick will ever again be of honest yalue to anyone. Not only our own interests, but the interests of the public demand that sick birds be destroyed, Their individual value is too small to justify the expenditure of much time ormouey in doctoring them with any honorable end in view. Trap- nest evidence that would prove that a female that had heen cured (?) of disease afterward wave a good ege record would be something new under the sun. Probably no one would knowingly buy a breeding male that had a history of sickness behind him. The fact that poultry diseases haye been studied and treatments ex- ploited, indicates conditions in an industry that provides the public with a large shave of its food that should be, in some greater degree than at present, under control of law. The study of poultry diseases is essential in order to learn the cause and best means for prevention, but we are told that a bird that has once had the -roup™ should never be used in the breeding pen and then we are given “a sure cure for the roup.” Perhaps that is one of the things that we should not know. “The eveat American hatchet” is the best and the cheapest cure for “ between two stores in one sinall town. and the quality cut no figure. The elowing reports and the figures in millions that have their proper place in our poultry- and farm-journal sometimes show the great poss/- bilities of the poultry business: --- rarely the probabilities. Should this chapter be read by any one who is suffering from a se- vere attack of powltry-hysteria T would caution him to go slow. There are immense opportunities for losing money in the poultry business. It is one of the most simple things in the business to hatch and raise chickens. What are you going fo do with them after you get them? The common ambition to keep 500 or L000 hens is one form of mild in- “sanity. The ambition to learn where to obtain, and how to breed and maintain ax good hens as possible ix a worthy one. LOS THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK The ambition to produce ax many eggs as possible at the least expense is also worthy. There are flocks of 50 that are now producing more ege's daily than other flocks of 200. The man who can breed and main- tain a flock of 12 hens that will pay a good profit (assuming that all the food was purchased) is warranted in practicing with 50 the next year. Some who make a profit on flocks of 1000 or more save enough by buying their feed by the carload at a favorable time to account for much of their profits. That requires capital. If they bought their food as the small breeder buys his. some of them would make little or no profit. But for every paying flock of L000 [ believe that flocks one half, or less, as large that are paying a larger net sum could be found. There is perhaps no business that can be studied so closely and at so little expense prior to the time of actually embarking in it. With poultry a person can begin with a siuall capital and pay for his experience from his other source of income. He should not, and need not attempt to vet a large profit, or indeed any profit from his experimental flock. Thousands of people rush headlong into this business. invest all the money that they can get hold of in fancy stock snd all kinds of appliances and learn a little when it is too Jate. They all fail in their aims, and have no opportunity to learn much about lens. The beginning should be small, always. Growth should be gradual and depend upon accurate knowledge of what can reasonably be expect- ed. Asa veneral proposition the less aman knows about his hens and the results obtained from them the smaller will be the amount that he will acknowledge to be the cost of maintenance. iA man could devote his whole life in the attempt to find out how many hens there are inthe country, their average yield and cost, and le would get no reliable totals. The people who own the hens could not give information that they do not possess and, unfortunately, (hose who kuow are not whways worthy of credit. The census taker asks the farmer how many hens he has and the aver- ave farmer gives a euessed-at number or purposely underestimates through fear of Increased taxation,—even when told that his hens will not be taxed, There can be uo doulit that there is money in the poultry business and that the general and specific instruction given im the best poultry papers and books contains the general principles that contribute to SUCCESS, The business presents erent opportunities to those who have a ca- pacity for hard and long continued effort, and are willing to begin sinall and study faithfully, and postpone the necessity for protits until sufficient knowledge and skill are obtained to make profits reasonably certain. There is, apparently, a great and ever increasing demand for good stock, Lt requires considerable experience and knowledge to he able THE QUESTION OF PROFITS 109 to tell what ix good stock.” Stock is not good, better, or best, uerely because we own it, or becauxe it appears to be good to our unskilled judgment. One peculiar feature of this peculiar business is that experience can sometimes sell a bird for several dollars that is worth about cight cents per pound while inexperience is often obliged to send to market really valuable breeding cockerels; and he often fails to market. those early enough. It is one thing to produce. another thing to sell at a profit. The ef- fect of competition, while healthful in the main, is to block our attempts to sell our goods at a profit. The shoemaker will agitate the question of shorter days and higher wages and then try his best to beat down the price when he buys a pair of shoes, It is the same with all products. Complex and unreasonable human natures make all problems of profit in business complex and difficult of solution. The demand for poultry and eges is, however, greater than the sup- ply; hence there is plenty of room and reward for industry, intelligence and capital in the business. There is an iminense difference between the methods of different suc- cesstul poultry keepers. T have in mind two cases that illustrate the point. A— keeps from 1000 to 1500 hens (mongrels) and one farm hand cares for them. They are fed cheap feed and every thing about the plant is cheap, vet a profit has been made for many years. A— is an exceptional man. What measure of success lie obtains is not due to his choice of stock and methods of maintaining it but in spite of them. ‘His own personal aptitude for making moucy is responsible for his profits. Being a modest man he thinks, of course, that they are due to his «‘prac- tical” methods. B— keeps 200 or 300 pure-blood birds in nice houses, uses the best of every thing in feeds and appliances, sells breeding stock and eggs for hatching, and makes a good profit. [Ie could not succeed by A—'s methods and A— could not succeed by his: vet each will tacitly con- demn the other's system and recommend his own, The whole matter of success lies in the men themselves and not in their peculiar methods or pet theories. Sometimes a successful man in explaining the +secret’? of his success will wander into romance and tell a pleasing story that ix largely made up of the things that le has often dreamed of doing, but rarely has done. Successful men have their dreams, but they do not let the dreams in- terfere with present duties. When we arbitrarily dictate to (he poultry-beginner, tell him that he must do this and must not do that, there is danger of giving him advice 110 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK that will do more harm than good: for the personal equation, which is the vreatest factor of all, is unknown to us and may not be at all adapt- ed to our favorite systen and theories. Most of us have theories. To us they are facts. to others they are delusions. If | believed that ten per cent. of those who appear to be successful with poultry were as successful as they believe, or are willing that others should believe, Tinight look at this a little differently. Thave obtained a profit from hens when profit was the last thing thought of. but there would have been no profit had T adopted the pop- ular theories with whieh | am very familiar. A hen will eat a pound of food in from two to tive days according to the hen and her productiveness. Tlow much does our feed cost per pound? How does it figure out for the vear? How many eges must she lay at market prices to pay for the food. interest on investment, and our time? Any answer fo the latter question must be modified by local conditions, but it will probably figure out about double the product of the average hen. There are three general ways of converting what is generally a losing proposition into an occasionally profitable one, First: keeping the amount invested in stock and equipment. and the cost of maintenance down to the lowest possible figure and marketing what product there is as favorably as is consistent with the general plan of the business. The welfare of the stock or the interests of the con- sumer, *ssentiment,” do not enter into such a proposition to a sufficient extent to occasion any outlay of money. A man with the faculty for making money without spending money often succeeds by thix method. Such aman will sometimes provide his mongrel hens with a rotting pile of stable manure, renewed frequently. in which they revel in filth and sing contentedly. Tle boasts of his mongrel flock, their ege yield. and the low cost of maintenance = Much of the grain that the hens get is first passed through the other stock, so costs nothing.(?) He is welcome to his mongrel hen and her stinking flesh and eves. T want none of them. During cighteon years of city life 1 often found it difficult, at times, to get anything clse in the line of poultry and eges. Second: investing in a fairly good equipment, fairly good stock, and taking fairly good care of the stock; endeavoring to produce goods of a little better quality than the average. For such goods 2 bright person ean get a little better price. in time. than the average. [le will have to work to get it. People want the best, but they are not particularly anxious to pay more for it. Sometimes they will call at the door for fresh eges and complain because we charge sis much as they do at the store.” Third: investing every obtainable dollar in such a way as to make it varnimoney. The more dollars the more money. ++Phem as has, gits.” The cost of buildings, equipment. stock, feed. and labor is not. con- sidered only fo the extent that everything shall count toward obtaining desired results, The aim is to produce the very best quality of salable woods, in the greatest possible quantity for the size of the plant and the money expended. Phe welfare of the stock and all who are concerned in its maintenance is considered to be important as aimenns to an end: as are also the inferests of consumers who want good quality. and will pay for il. THE QUESTION OF PROFITS Lil exceptionally good stock, well fed and well cared for, will produce a profitable vield of eges. and a quality of meat and eves that are fit for haman consumption: which much of the stuff in every market is not. Every poultry paper or magazine that seeks to instruct its subscribers in the art of properly breeding and maintaining poultry ix a public benefactor, and showld be universally recognized as such. Different methods of keeping hens represent different individual qual- ities in poultry keepers: for the man is always father to the method. Get anv method and ainan that fits it together and financial success will follow. The misfits will fail every time. As different men fit different methods so do different hens. Phe trap nest points out those hens that fit the man and his methods, Some people buy, at a big price. poultry appliances that cause much actual loss, and others that are of no practical use to thems vet other people may find those same appliances both useful and profitable, To wildly endorse, without good reason, every new idea, or to as wildly condemn it are essentially the same thing as far as the novice is concerned, One is as likely to mislead him as the other, I believe in’ cleanliness. comfort, convenience, and all improved inethods and appliances in so faras any individual can make then of profitable or pleasurable use. ATP such. when they are worthy. should be generaily recommended without regard to the amount of space that their promoters are able to buy in the advertising columns. I ain looking for poultry food of good quality, yet the Cheimist-Writer who examines such foods and writes about them in a poultry paper can- not mention a good one by name --for it would be improper.” What folly! One would think that the man or firm who sells goods was a criminal who must be confined to the advertising columus for life and only allowed in sight of the public when he pays for the privelege. Then he can vob them cd libstean if he likes. We should not expect editors to discriminate between different arti- cles that are worthy but when a contributor finds that one firm's meat scraps are good he should be free to say so for the benetit of the one reader in a thousand that may want to know. Let some spiteful individual find fault with some specific article that is not advertised ‘over jts head” and he will be accorded a hearing in some mediums, benefiting no one and perhaps injuring many, The more diplomatic his language the more easily it will pass, and the more harm it will do. When a iman produces a strain of fowls. an individual bird, a food, a condition powder 2a louse destroyer. an appliance, or conceives an idex. that is superior or useful he ix ina position to benefit. his fellows and we should, ou general principles. credit him with honest aims until we find otherwise. It is quite rare that criticism does not diminish in proportion a» the size of the ad.. or the amount of personal favor that the advertiser en- joys, increases This is Aliviink universally recognized among our people to such an extent that honest: endorsements “and yaluable and instructive “write ups” are condemned at sight by a large proportion of readers. The average subscriber to a poultry journal may bea child in poultry raising but he ix nota child in other respects, One journal proniises ts all ‘that we ought to know? What is it that we ought not to know? Why should we not Know it? 112 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK There ix nothing known about poultry or the poultry business that should not be av ailable for every one who wants it and is willing to pay for it; he to be the sole judge. If he is not willing to pay for ‘it he is not entitled to it. These opinions are not from the advertiser's stand- point, for, as an advertiser the writer hax in most cases been treated courteously and generously. Lan writing from the standpoint of « reader who wants to know and is obliged to grope in the dark for many things. Not only beginners. but experienced poultry keepers all over our land are maintaining hens that are not, and never will be profitable in their hands, Many of them waste money and time in the effort fo push the average production of the flock up to a protitable point, overworking the good layers and uxelessly urging the poor layers to do what thew are incapa- ble of doing. Again and again we are told -cull out the poor layers.” “deep only the profitable lens.” The query, «‘How can [ distinguish the profitable hens?” ix met with eyuivocal and vague references to seactive hens: «those with red combs;’? «those that sing and hustle and cackle;” «those with long, deep bodies ;? and a Jot more qualities that are possessed by the major- itv of hens any way, whatever their laying ability may be. They al- Ways avoid the direct claim that all healthy, active hens are profitable layers, for we can prove otherwise; yet that is all that is left when their generalities are boiled down. Where in any history of human or animal ynprovement can we find any proven precedents upon which to base the almost universal theory that great egg production in fowls is mainly a matter of feeding and care? We find the flock of heavy lavers fed by a man who claims that his system is the main cause of the results. What are we to do with the other man who follows a system that is radically different. vet gets as good or better results than the former? With all thix we are more or less at seu. The inan who never got half eges enough, if sold at mar- ket prices, to pay for his feed may stoutly maintain that his hens are prolific layers. There is a tremendous lack of figures. of carefully Kept accounts showing results in this business. One man’s guess is about as good as another’s, take all guesses as they run. If we breed or buy hens that lay well under our system of feeding, it is because they have the inherent ability to lay well: bred into them somewhere, sometime, by someone. If this is not so, if it is alla matter of feed, then the poultryman with his 1000. 2000 or more mongrels is the shrewd poultryman: for in many localities his mixed lots of eggs, all sizes, shapes and colors. han- dled as he handles then, pay him as well as would a more even lot ob- tained by other methods that would not fit him or his conditions. Some men claim to make money by buying cheap pullets in January or February, feeding them for eges until they begin to +shed"* in August or September and then selling them for as much or more than they cost. These men never batch a chiek and Keep no stock during fall and early winter. Another wiy is Co buy cheap stock, leave food before them all ot the lime, market those who wet fator sick and sell the eges that are sure to be laid by the others, if the food supply contains anything to make THE QUESTION OF PROFITS 1138 them from. If we are to discount progressive methods we can take up some of these primitive ways of making poultry pay that are practiced all over the country, but are not reported in the papers. All systems of handling hens are good for those who are adapted to the system, if not for the consuming public. Some men make a good living buying eges and poultry as low as possible froin those who do not produce enough to ship away, sorting them and selling at the best obtainable price. The producer keeps the hens and pays for the feed, the middleman takes whatever profit there is, in many cases. If poultry raising as a general proposition pays, where (loes the great demand for+>Red Albumen” and the other more popular nostrums to “Make hens Jay’ come from’? Certainly not from those who know their hens and get v market profit from them. To me the condition appears to be one of generally unprofitable main- tenance of stock incapable of profitable production, by people who are indifferent or believe in false theories regarding the hen and her product. The advertising page and the circular take advantage of the condition us it is and work the poultry raiser for all he is worth. The best poultry papers and magazines appear to be endeavoring, to the extent of their light, to improve this condition and teach the truth. They should never be denied a favorable mailing rate, for, with all their conflicting theories and chaotic mixture of interests they are helping us to an understanding of poultry and the poultry business and materially assisting the general public, the consumer, to get poultry and eggs that are fit for human food. A consideration of the poultry press is intimately associated with the question of profit and progress with poultry. The individual poultry journal reflects the personalitv—the character and widerstanding—of its promoters and its editorial staff. The poultry press as a whole shows clearly to the earnest student the state of the industry. Some of these periodicals appear to be founded upon a base of ignorance. personal pre- judice and greed, and unprincipled demagogism. If the writer’s view of the average reader is anywhere near correct such papers cannot long endure. The paper that in the slightest degree appears to cater to the natural dishonesty and selfishness of wh * ta mistakenly believe to bea luge proportion of its readers must in time disgust even that class. Whatever our own business practices and theories may be we all respect straightforward honesty even though it be opposed to our own selfish interests. Thoughtful readers of high class periodicals such as The Scientific American, The Outlook. Success, The Youth's Companion, and the like will, if interested in poultry (and thonsands of them are) welcome to their homes those poultry journals that combine with a broad understand- ing of the industry an honest desire to uplift it “with charity for alland malice toward none.” The combative attitude of ignorance and selfishness toward science. invention, investigation, or an endeavor to improve in any direction, cannot receive even the tacit sympathy of a journal without such sympathy being clearly reflected in its columns, by omission as well as comunission. It is a mistake to assume that the poultry raisers in our rural com- munities, villages and city suburbs are mainly ignorant people. If we 114 THK TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK are to assume that. we must at the sume time grant that poultry raising presents no better industrial opportunities for the individual than the digging of ditches or the cutting of wood. ; ‘Any literature, indusirial or otherwise, that lias any valid excuse for existing, other than the meve getting of money, should present things as they are without regard to what the ignorant or selfish reader imagines or desires them to be. Not only are the low-grade poultry papers misleading and harmful to what few ‘‘actual paid in advance sabscribers’’ they may have, but they are of little use to the honest advertiser of worthy goods. Either a trial with «-keyved” ads. or a careful study of their colummes for a year or two will prove this to be xo. The contributor whose knowledge of the equities of life is inadequate to dominate his or her crude notions of business or hens often finds space available in some papers that evidently have little use for a waste basket. The journal that works harder to eet advertisers than subscribers is of no particular use to either advertisers or subscribers. The only mediums that can ussist us to get knowledge, pleasure or profit from anything are those that furnish a quality of reading matter that is worth reading, even if they have to pay tor it, and have a list of patrons that read what they have paid to vet. The comparisons of breeds which we meet are often productive of much perplexity and misunderstanding. A— has tried a few hens of several breeds and has decided what shall be ++the best breed.” 13———— examines a few hens on his own account and gives expert evidence that he has found ‘the best breed.’’ (‘_——-. is hunting for «+the best breed** among several millions of hens, no two of which are alike, and as lone as he believes that the excessive- ly limited observations of A———— or B —---— would shed the slightest vay of light upon the matter he is likely to keep on hunting to the end of the chapter. AIL poultry-qualities are not included in the requirements of the Standard of Perfection or discernible by the skilled eye of the judge. The practice of conflicting systems of breeding pure-blood fowls by people with all kinds of ideas and standards of merit, and the distribu- vei -¢ cos blood all over the land indiscriminately. producing mixture upon mixture without guide or reason, should show anyone that there ean be no uniformity of utility qualities in any breed, considered broad- ly as a breed. Anan’s chances of establishing a family of exceptional layers ought to be just as good. if not better, with the Asiaties or Americans as with the Mediterrancans. if he goes about it in the right way. It is probable that there is more Mediterranean blood in the country than any other pure-blood. which would of itself be sufticient to account for any popular theory of supremacy in laying qualities that may obtain, even if no logical reason for the theory existed. Some breeds possess qualities as breeds that adapt them to conditions that would not be as favorable fo other breeds. The sane appears to be true of fumilies ov “strains” within breeds. The glowing Gributes to this, that, or the other breed of fowls that we commonly encounter are excessively general in character. They are splendid davers.” Plow tnueh of a dayer must a hen, be to be n eexplendid’™ dayer? Thirty-six cgesx per spring-fime-hatching-season, SOMETHING ABOUT PATENTS 115 at two dollars per setting, or fifteen dozen per annum at an average of tweny-tive cents per dozen? The words »+splendid.” +:vood,”" great,’ “fine,” --better,’ “best” etc. are capable of many specitic meanings according to our point of view. The student should not be misled by the glittering optimism of the poultry journals and show rooms, It is all right enough as a vent for self-interested enthusiasin, but disappears in vapor under close examination. ‘The compounding of sscientitie’ rations, the devising of new and improved poultry houses and fixtures. the natural beauty of pure-bred fowls, the cheerful rivalry and the incentives to effort produced by the poultry shows, and a natural love tor animals. all contribute to awaken and maintain an interest in poultry. When the interest is sufficiently supported by hard work, money and ability, progress is sure to be made whatever the ain— even to the extent of protit—but the success is due to an intelligent working interest in good stock. It is not neces- sarily due to the particular ration employed or the expensive or unnecessary equipment or methods. It is perfectly possible to get a good eve vield while paving more for the eges than they are worth. This fact is recognized by those who sincerely believe that trap nests cannot be profitably used by the aver- age poultry raiser. | believe that they understand the average poultry raiser better than they do the practical trap nest, its proper use and possibilities. [have saved time and money enough many times over by avoiding unnecessary but commonly-employed and -recommened methods and expenditures to offset the keeping of my individual records. The attention of the nests has not yet appeared to me a very arduons undertaking and I shall be unable to reckon that factor at all untill learn of some reason why T should. A few drones sent to market, that would be retained were it not for the nests, pays for the nests. If they are kept instead of being sold it is no fault of the nests. When the user becomes skillful in recognizing the persistent-laying habit and the different individual tendencies of his birds, and abandons whatever previous theories he may have had that blind his eyes to plain facts he will be able to cull wisely and often, retaining the cream of his flock while marketing the others. No man can dispute the logic of getting rid of every bird that cannot be profitably retained, just as soon as its unprofitableness ix determined or its self-limited profitableness has ceased, and retaining every bird as long as it is profitable to do so, be it six mouths or five years. Trap-nest experien e will enable the poultry keeper to do just that and help to solve the question of profits. CHAPTER XII. SOMETHING ABOUT PATENTS. The golden rule of invention: Find out what has been done, keep track of what is being done, learn what needs to be done, and then do 7¢. \ HE United States has advanced materially beyond all other countries becatse it has welcomed invention, encouraged and protected inventors by the best patent system on earth, and hailed as a 116 THE (RAP NEST TEXT BOOK public boon every new and betier way of doing an old thing. : Perhaps | can best describe to the reader what our patent system ix designed to be by first explaining what an inventor is. Any person is an inventor who devises a new thing or tinds anew use for an old thing. Tt this new thing or the new use for an old thing is uxeful—of utility and value to others—they ought to have the use of it, and derive the benefits to be obtained froin ifs use. Here is where the patent system comes in, The Government employs trained experts to determine if inventions subinitied to them are new and useful. These experts being human beings like the rest of us are not infallible, but they know quite a good deal ubout their business. What they don’t know your lawyer, or iny Jawyer, or someone else’s lawyer tells them1,—sometimes, when it becomes uecessary, It is not for vou or I to tell them their business or question their decisions unless we have a personal interest in the matter and know more about it than they do—quite possible. When the patent office experts have searched all of the records and find that what the inventor claims to be original with him has never before been described, cither in this or any other country, and there is no evidence of its being known to the public for more than two years prior to the application, and it appears to be of public utility, they grant that the invention is the property of the man who invented it and, being his property, he shall have exclusive control of it for a term of seventeen years. After that it becomes the property of the public; for itis presmmed that the inventor, or someone who has purchased his patent rights las succeeded in getting it into use and has obtained his reward, In this way our. patent system accomplishes two things. It grants the right of the inventor to own and control his own property so that by selling it in whole or in part, or by letting it out for rent in whole or in part he can stand some chance of vetting paid for his labor and also be able to make his invention of use to others. The inventor or his assigns are obliged to advertise the invention, or the goods that are made with the invention, or the benefits that the people can obtain from the invention, in order to get his pay. That lets the people know about the new thing and they can purchase that which is designed to be of use to thei. Some people do not like the patent system for the reason that they ave selfish and do not believe in justice, Justice does not ask us what we want, but seeks to give all of us what belongs to us, and protect us in its posession. Justice is well represented as being blindfolded. Phat is why she sometimes fails to connect with the right owner. It is a popular delusion that we can rightfully make a patented device for our use Without asking anyone or paying anything for it. Shyster lawyers sometimes foster such a notion in the hope that they may gela chance to defend the infringer in a suit at law. THe gets his pay, win or loose. No one ean legally mrike ov use any kind of a pat- ented invention except by means provided and controlled by law and the owner of the patent. The patent system, directly and indirectly, has done move to promote our progress in every direction than all other causes combined, ; Agriculture has been benefited wonderfully as a result of our patent Jaws. Dishonest schemers have made popular ignorance and popular SOMETITING ABOUT PATENTS 17 greed and selfishness a means of perpetrating fraud under he euise of patents. Inventors who have been granted patents for inventions are quite frequently as ignorant of patent law as are the people. If we question a man who has become rich out of some patent he may swell up and tell us that he knows all about patents when he knows very little about them. He may have become rich by owning a patent or by stealing one. Soine look with distavor upon patent ownership because they think that were it not for that they could reccive the benefits from the patent without paying tor them. We have a good chance right here in this book to examine that idea. A few years ago there did not exist on the face of the earth such a thing as the trap nest described herein. It isa case of a ‘“‘new thing under the sun,” unless proven, in the courts provided for the purpose, to be an old one. Now how would the reader have ever heard of it if I had not spent my good money to advertise it? Wry should I do that if not to make something so that I can advertise it some more, and make it of use to a lot more people? Sometimes people say, «- Well, I will make it a little different that will be all right.” Now that has no bearing whatever. We cannot tell by looking at a patented thing what the inventor’s rights in it are based upon. : Another thing that is not commonly understood is the matter of im- provements on patented things. A change in the appearance, the form or the working of a thing does not constitute improvement unless the change creates greater efficiency or utility in some direction favorable to the public. It must be in fact an improvement that expert opinion will recognize as such. An im- provement even if a patent is obtained for it does not grant the right to use any previously patented feature of the device. For this reason it is the rule to either sel] such an improvement to the owner of the patented device or purchase from him the right to use his part of the improved thing. He can grant such use or not, as he likes. Those who would dabble in invention with a view to the obtaining of a patent or avoid- ing infringement upon the rights of others should consult a regular patent lawyer of good repute. That reminds me of a story. It is said that an old lawyer by the name of John Strange was about to die. He was consulted in regard to his epitaph. He requested that the stone be incribed ‘Here lies an honest lawyer.’ Asked if that was all he replied «‘That is enough.” ‘««Why! your name must be added,” his wife said. +*No™ he replied, “when they read that they will say: ‘Here lies an honest lawyer, that is Strange!’ ? Now I don't know if the point is in the ‘honest lawyer” or in the idea that a lawyer could lie in death as well as in life. The reader can judge. The Patent Office publishes a (razette that illustrates all patents and gives the claims upon which the rights of the inventor are based. This Gazette is published for the benefit of the public and shows them what thev cuiot make or use except by consent of the owner. The inter- pretation of patent claims is work for which patent lawyers and experts only are qualified. The description of the patent and its illustrations describe the invention so clearly that, at the expiration of the time limit of the patent, those who are skilled in the art to which it applies 118 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOk can make it. When a picture of a patented device is published with the statement that it is patented intentionally omitted we are justified in concluding that contributory infringement is intended. Innocent people might infringe the patent not knowing that it belonged to another. There is no reason for the air of mystery that the people themselves have hedged about the subject of patents, except the reason that so many prefer to guess about things than make a little effort to get the tacts. Every citizen should be interested in our patent system. It not only confers great benefits upon all of us. but any person has a chance to benefit himself and the people by devising some new and useful thing and getting it patented. SOME AMERICANS HAVE NOT DISCOVERED IT YET. Scientific American says that some three years ago the Japanese govern- ment sent to this country a certain Mr. Takahashi to study our patent system. Mr. Takahashi pays a glowing tribute to the American system. “We saw the United States not much more than one hundred years old,”’ he said, ‘‘and we asked, ‘what is it that makes the United States such a great nation?’ We investigated, and found it was patents, and so we will have patents.’’ CONCLUSION. Let all the considerate people have their way and see how they will come out. Carlyle. “When a man is always striving just to please others he lacks the moral courage to do right.” It is a difficult natter to draw this text book to a close, there is so much that remains to be said in the interest of the persistent layer and her owner. It was not without due consideration that [ have introduced exam- ples of good results that many people will find it impossible to believe if they chance to read them. Poultry keepers of the old school haye persisted in the declaration that hens would lay well without the ex- cessively careful methods of feeding and care that are generally advocated in our poultry literature. Many of them absolutely refuse to read such literature, because they find so much that they know is not true; this added to what they imagine is not true causes them to discredit: the whole thing. It has suited my purpose to look into the matter somewhat with a view to finding out at least a part of the exact truth. The facts are, as nearly as IT can vet determine, that the persistent layer will lay a great many eges wader apparently unfavorable conditions. She is likely to be found almost anywhere. It does not appear to be a question of breed, The skeptical farmer probably does not always possess such good hens, or get as many eves. or as amuch profit. as he sometimes tries to make us believe. He is offen a cheerful guesser, and is skilled in the art of verbal self-defense. The poultry writers whom he discredits with good reason cexageerate the value of their favorite breeds, foods. and practices, in connection with good laying and profits from good layers, The truth seems to lie between these two extremes. The flock that contains a cousiderable number of vigorous, healthy hens that possess a strong ege-producing tendency is likely to lay profitably. from a market- CONCLUSION 119 cy standpoint, under conditions that to many people would seem to be very unfavorable. The flock of common-place layers —hens whose eye producing ten- dencies are no stronger than other tendencies that interrupt or interfere with egg production may be coaxed to lay—by careful housing, feeding and care —~well cnough to pay a good profit when a considerable part of the eggs are sold for hatching, and stock is sold for breeding. When the flock of exceptionally strong Jayers can be given exception- ally good care there may be an exceptionally large egg yield. The profits would, as in all other cases, depend upon the factors outlined under the heading «The Question of Profits’* in this book. Such books as *Pocitry Crarr,” “Winrer Eoaas axp How to Get THem.”’ “ALL Anoutr Brorers,” and some others, treat of tech- nical work with poultry from the standpoint of practical workers. These books do not contain all that there is to know about poultry maintenance or breeding; for the reason that no one individual or combination of individuals have yet learned all that there is to know about poultry. The authorship of the books that I have mentioned is an absolute guarantee that they contain valuable and practical information. Our poultry papers and magazines periodically bring to the reader both old and new facts, old and new theories, current poultry news and gossip, and a general syinposium of the good, bad and indifferent methods and ideas of a Jarge number of writers, and an occasional mimic. Some of these writers are similar to the politicians whom Thomas B. Reed described in the mot: ‘“Every time they open their mouths they subtract from the sm of human knowledge.’’ We are, of course, all aware of the truth contained in the statement ot Bulwer: ‘He that fancies himself very.enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own.” The poultry keeper who is searching for truth will be sorely perplexed by the mixture of conflicting testimony that will confront him which- ever way he turns. He should not be deceived by the personality of the writer or speaker. Some of the most harmful and serious errors being promulgated to-day are fostered by people who have some handle or other to their name, or a skill in the use of language and the further- ance of their own personal interests that gives them the appearance of wisdom and sincerity. Some of the strongest poultry-facts are presented in our periodicals by people of hwuble station whose work is rude but helpful. / On the other hand those people, high or low, who are ignorant of the moral ethics of business and life, or for personal reasons choose to ignore them, are continually fostering wrong ideas in the minds of the people. The person who needs or wants anything about which he has no special knowledge is between the devil who wants his money and the deep sea of going without what he needs or wants. He should be will- ing to buy what he wants. He should not expect his favorite paper or magazine to furnish it at the expense of those who are, or nay be, able to supply him through a regular commercial transaction. ‘Lhe journal already vives the subscriber much more than he, or it, pays for... What he desires generally exists and can be easily obtained at a price that in- tormed people know to be a just price,—but where? : He docs not know, and those who do know generally will not, and 120 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK very often feel that they should not tell him. If they do tell him, their sincerity and disinterestedness may be doubted. Germany has a law that forbids an advertiser lying or appearing to lie in his advertising. The exact trath may be barred unless it be self- evident, ‘The best in the world,” even if true, as it quite frequently must be, will not pass the censor. Some enterprising American Manufacturers are said to have been un- able to circulate their expensive and convincing literature in Germany for thatreason. We have no such law here. This is afree country. | have before me the literature advertising two brooders. One I know to be a good one, the other has not a single feature that would recom- mend it to any person who knew any thing about brooders. It is an expensive, worthless contraption, from my point of view, yet its claims, advertising and illustrations are the most pleasing of the two—to in- experience. There is a great difference in the character of the testimonials, how- ever. Most people are sufficiently doubtful. Too much xo as a rule. In talking with people about commercial products in general T find a com- mon tendency to doubt about everythiug that is true and useful—and costs something. The love of money appears to be the root of much ignorance as well as evil. On the other hand many will swallow the most absurd proposition, bait, hook, line and bob, and gleefully pay the price. The fact that such a large part of our population is of this class accounts for the very condition of things that I sin describing. They apparently have no use for honest business men or methods. In all comparisons of appliances, breeds, foods or whatnot, the poultry keeper is up against this condition and he should know it at the start. The only thing for him to do is to think, reason, and learn as much as possible from the disinterested opinions of others, if he can find such. The man who has his own bigotry. prejudices, or past opinions to sus- tain is not a disinterested adviser. There are a vrent many honest men selling goods. There are a thousand dishonest men among buyers to one among sellers. Twenty-five years of intimate observation of a mail-order business that dealt with people in various parts of the world has given me some idea of human nature. The poultry keeper who advertises stock or eggs has got to beware of the crafty buver. A large per cent. of the dissatistied customers of mail-order business qien are those who tried to cheat the seller and failed. We run more risk when sending goods to strangers in advance of payment than we do when paying for goods before we get them, yet many very good people don’t sec to realize it. The idea that the poultry business is a short and easy road to wealth is not quite as common as it used to be, yet the old pipe dreams are sometimes resurrected and the vietim’s money distributed areund,. Colone] Seller's arewuinent that there must be ssmillions init.” becanse every one has sore eyes and would buy a bottle of his eye wash at BLO per. is not valid in the poultry business. Every one docs not want faney poultry or faney eges, and all of those who do will not buy ours, even if a fortune spent inadvertising happens to attract their attention. Some people assume that the majority of poultry keepers are simple- CONCLUSION 121 minded people who could not understand the truth even if it came to them through the mail. The majority of poultry keepers who are looking for instruction are bright, intelligent people and have wit enough and education enough ‘o understand anything that seriously interests (hem, if it be presented fairly without cireumlocution and evasion. There is nothing any more mysterious about a hen and her performance than there is about any other members of the animal kingdom and their functions. The air of mystery has heen maintained because it paid, and because the hen has not been generally studied as an individual. * * * * * We cannot keep poultry or cngage in any business or pursuit in- telligently unless we start right. Our thinking and our work must be founded upon the bed rock of fart, not the shifting sands of superstition, popular misinformation and commercial humbuy. Any degree of merit in our fowls begins with the ege. Just as worthless a chick (to us) can emanate from a fifty-rent egg as from a one-cent egy. Yet it pays to get high priced eges when we know just what we want, and have reason to believe that our chances for getting some of it are contained in those particular eggs. Jf the mysterious principle that determines future excelleuce in any direction is not present in the vitalized germ of the ege that is to produce the chick no method of feeding or care ever devised. will cause the resultant life to be of genuine value. No matter how good the breeding may be it will all come to naught unless the chick is enabled to grow and develop sufficiently well to prove its breeding. At this point we tind one of the greatest bugaboos of the whole Dusi- ness. Being bred right the chick must be hatched right and provided with suitable food and care. All of these factors combined determine the extent of future excellence: no single one can be credited with all of the success and not always with failure. Yet how common it is to select a single elenent upon which to bestow the whole credit or blame, as the case may come out. Usually that which we purchased is con- demned when results are bad, and that which we ourselves provide is held blaineless. To mv way of looking al things many muchwecommicnded methods of . poultry maintenance have evolved froin a general attempt to get good results from ill-begotten, or poorly-hatched or -grown stock. Too many hens give grand results in egg production under conditions that many suppose to be wholly bad, for this point to be ignored. While it is apparently true that egg production is often controlled by agencies that are not yet fully understood, it also seems to be true that a hen with a bred-in-the-bone ege producing tendency will give a more profit- wble egg yield under ordinary conditions of maintenance than the ordinary layer can possibly do under the most approved scientific methods. What are we to say of the pullets hatched in June and not removed from their out-door brooders until November: crowded, always in the way, forty of them wintered in a shed 11x12 and roosting room 11x6, some of them laying over 200 eges each before they were eighteen months old?) We know that this is a bad and a risky way to raise chickens, but we also know that these chicks were well hatched from eves laid by healthy, vigorous hens with a known, individual, persistent- laying habit, at a time favorable for strong prepotent fertility. That is Ieee THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK the greater half of the battle. These hens were no better than diundreds of thousands of hens; not nearly as good as many, probably. Why should they be? All the good layers ‘that use trap nests and prove their worth to their owner are called “exceptional hens.” It is far more reasonable to infer that those owners who know which are their best layers and breed from them are exceptional poultry keepers. ‘Good methods of maintenance should follow vood breeding, but they can never, only to a a limited degree, offset bad breeding. We will never vet good results from hens that are inherently unable to give good pemtilin. Suitable methods of feeding and care enuble our hens to respond to their own individual egg- -producing inclinations; they do not wahe them lay. The feeding and housing of poultry, or their general maintenance, can never by any “possibility appear in the same light to large numbers ot breeders. No one xct rule in these matters would work the same with different flocks. It is, therefore, impossible that any one method of feeding and care, however good it may be, can ever obtain-a sufficiently general adoption to greatly ‘benefit the ‘industr vy. (rood breeding proves itself under many widely differing svsteins of maintenance; but rational systems of maintenance rarely, if ever, prove anything but the breeding. Certain methods of breeding practiced along the same general lines— not specifically the same,—bv inany breeders having practically the same aims have established the general Standard qualities of our leading breeds and improved them to a degree that probably was not dreamed of two generations avo. There is no cyidence that such a course has ever been pursued with the utility qualities kept to the front. Observation hax been the only means generally employed for selection, and observation is powerless to discover and keep track of the best layers, except with a few fowls viven a great deal of attention. Large ummnbers of birds are of great advantage to any breeder who has room and time for them, as they give him a large field for selection. This is so true that expert selection for the show room often wins the ribbons away from the expert breeding that actually produces superior average merit. This principle is as true with utility as with fancy points. There ix no available evidence that proves that the average pure-blood hen lays any better than the average mongrel under similar conditions, Our not wanting this to be true will not change the present facts in the matter. A comparison of pure- and mongrel-blood sufficient to dis- prove this would also require proof that the specimens tested fairly represented the average of each class. Uniformity ef performance can never be obtained and maintained with impure blood; if it has vet been reached with pure blood the cases are probably rare. It can only be determined by the individual record. It would seem from the general view that there is plenty of room for improvement in the utility qualities of any of our popular breeds with- out permanently sacrificing any rational Standard qualities, Those who will start with the best Standard blood that they can get, cull closely, with utility always to the fore, ruthlessly discarding heavy laying on high scoring specimens when they are unsuitable for the breeding pen, pever inbreeding closer than is consistent with constitu- tional vigor, aud never introducing new blood unless it is known to be in harmony with the end in eicr,—those who will pursue such a course CONCLUSION 123 with the lively, intelligent interest and persistence that has characterized the work of thousands of fanciers who aimed at the blue ribbons will (lo what few have vet done and should achieve what has seldom been achieved. When improvement is once started along lines that become yenerally recognized as correct it expands and grows with ever increas- ing’ rapidity throush the distribution of improved blood throughout the land. There are many fanciers and many farmers who actually do not know what. a good egg yield is; and, furthermore, many of them do not care. Of all poultry breeders the fancier should possess the highest standard of egg production. for the established Standard-bred bird presents the surest and the shortest route to prolificacy. Early in the game To beeame convinced that the practice of keeping hens in small flocks. devoting more time and money in caring for them than they were possibly worth, in order to force or coax them to the limit of their capacity for egg production solely to get 200-ege hens to to use in the breeding pen, wax a great mistake. It is theoretically and practically wrong. If a bird is able to lay 200 eves in one vear that should suffice without. using force to compel her or coddling to coax her to prove it to the limit of her vitality. It is often far more wise tu hold her back. When the experts rose up and declared that we could not tell if the hen was able until she did it they unwittingly exposed the utter fallacy of the observation theory upon which the whole matter has rested from time immemorial. Large flocks of cheap hens have laid profitably within range of my observation for many years. Similar flocks no doubt exist all over the land. Their owners neither read, nor contribute to the poultry press. These are not the exceptional flocks. The flocks that we read about are the ones that are exceptional. for the reason that written-up flocks, good or bad. are a small part of the whole number of flocks that exist. The 200-ceg hen as an individual can be no new thing. She has been here all the time. She wears the patchw ork coat of the mongrel and the fine raiment of the prize-winner. Fine clothes do not make thet man nor fine feathers the hen. yet both contribute to an appearance of merit. The discovery of the 200-cee hen is whut is new to an ever increasing number of poultry keepers. Like political capital they are being pro- duced unknowinely all of the time by already established factors. The reason that the average production with well-cared-for flocks i> commonly xo low is that so many poor layers and ordinary layers are re- tained in service. Suppose we have several pens of fowls of twelve females each. ie pen averages 150 eggs per hen in nine months. If we have individual records of all of the females in all the pens. and select from the records of the whole lot the twelve heaviest layers. and quote an average of 225 eges each we would be criticised because the twelve birds were not all in one pen. But what sense would there be in such a criticism? One hen or any number of hens are entitled to credit for what they do individually. If they do good work handicapped by unworthy assoc lates and unfavorable conditions their value is emphasized and they should [24 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK be more entitled to credit. We are obliged to treat a flock as 4 unit in many respects. but the flock is nota unit. It isa number of in- dividuals differing from cach other in specific merit. No man denies that one flock of hens will average a great many more ces than another flock of equal size and maintained equally as well. This of itself, with no other evidence, shows that the same differences in performance may exist between individuals in the same flock. What this reasoning suggests the individual record proves, thus es- tablishing the fuet beyond question. * % * * * One condition that makes it so difficult for the poultry student to get exact information is due to a peculiarity of the American people. We are great experimenters. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is an original genius—in his own mind. We read, study, think and experiment superficially ; or deliberately copy froin someone else, thinking that the country is so large it will never be found out. This is a big country geographically, but electricity and steam bring us pretty close together after all. Our markets are glutted with incomplete inventions and compounds: our patent office shelves are groaning under a load of experimental folly; our people make experiments and draw conclusions therefrom when the nature of the experiment precludes any possibility of its prov- ing anything but its own weakness. Some of our writers in all kinds of literature are continually discover- ing something new to them, but obsolete to the informed, and burst out with a lot of old misinformation dressed in new garments. The history of the trap-nest idea is replete with illustrations of this practice. The advertising and press notices of the pioncer promoter of a record nest stimulated imitation, investigation, theft, and honest invention, just the same as do all successes, or apparent successes. The crudest nest trap is a wonderful thing to the enthusiastic poultry keeper who tries it for the first time, and a very unpracticable thing to experience. So those first crude traps and their later imitations, now obsolete as far as practical (rap-nest work is concerned, are still pro- ducing misinformation regarding the trap-nest idea that varies in character according to the point of view of the observer. One prominent writer wrote a very wise criticism of trap nests in general. We had never had the opportunity to sce or use a practical (rap-nest equipment, and he had never seen any one who had. Thus itis that premature wisdom makes itself utterly absurd at times. People are likely to endorse or condemn what does not exist if they mimic all they read or hear. CONCLUSION 125 A few letters or conversations reporting smoke have cansed some people to imagine that the world was on fire and they lave sought to quell the conflagration with printer’s ink. Those who desire to post themselves regarding the actual trap-nest. situation will have to spend more time and money in research than most of the critics have yet shown evidence of having done. One of our very best and most practical poultry editors’ has had an especially favorable opportunity to judge of the working of some unpractical trap-nest equipments and methods, and his very moderate and con- servative opinions regarding the general adoption of the trap-nest idea are well justified from his point of view. Those who have the legitimate interests of any industry at heart should consider that the prospect of commercial success is generally the in- centive that leads to improvement in any direction. The more successful the undertaking becomes, financially considered, the more wide spread will be the benefits, and the more rapid will be the progress jnade. The attitude of the industrial press toward inventions, the patent system, and the interests of honorable commercial effort—pre-ent or possible— in general, gives u vood forecast of the probabilities of success for any proposed improvement. Commercial failure never proves lack of merit, even when it clearly accompanies it. ‘Lhe right thing must be advanced at the right time in the right way in order to be successful. New things do not flash upon the world in a full burst of success at once. They are opposed by all sorts of conditions, most of which are wholly out of the view or possible Knowledge of any but those most in- timately interested. In estimating the ielation of the individual system to time and money we should study each element of the svstem separately and understandingly. Tf an insufficient number of nests are installed the necessity for very frequent attention is an indication that more nests should be put in. If the nests are so designed that it takes considerable time to remove a hen and prepare the trap for another it shows a specific defect that should not be charged to the fundamental trap-nest idea. If the system of keeping the records is cluinsy and takes too much time a more simple and practical plan should be sought. If at first we are slow in handling the hens aud the nests and recording the data we should consider that practice will enable us to work much faster in time. If by keeping individual records and basing our practice upon the information so obtained we increase our ege supply and diminish the number of unprofitable hens we should consider that the time and money commonly spent in hatching, rearing, housing, feeding and 126 THE TRAV NEST TEXT BOOK caring for unprofitable hens las been saved to the credit of our trap nests and records. Tf we will carefully note the condition of our henx as we handle them during the day when taken from the nests, we should consider that we are thus saved the necessity of looking them over at night after they have gone to roost: a time-consuming operation that is universally practised by careful poultrymen under the ordinary system, The question ix not how much time will it take to care for a certain number of hens under this system, but how ean we best apply our time su as to get the best results. Hf 200 hens will lay 30,000 cges in one year it hardly xeems reasonable that we can save time and money by housing, feeding and caring for 300 hens in order to get the same number of eges. We should consider that it is very difficult to get any reliable basis for judgment by comparing the methods aud results obtained by different operators. The man rather than the method inay be the determining factor. No man can justly compare the individual system with the common system of breeding and maintaining poultry until he become -familiar with both systems. A practical trap-nest system given thorough and adequate trial is essential in order to obtain evidence of the comparative merits of the new and the old. The trap nest does not provide in easy way to keep hens for profit. Neither does anything else. There is no easy way. Successful poultry keeping under any system requires hard work and wu careful attention to details. Trap nests are not essential to success. They contribute to success by making available information that can be obtained in no other way with large flocks, and not without more time- consuming labor with simall flocks than would be necessary with them. I shall be glad to hear from any reader at any time in the interest of the persistent layer and her owner. If a reply is desired a self-addressed and stamped envelope should be inclosed unless the matter directly concerns the Ideal Nest or specialties. T have no incans of Knowing how many practical nests exist. but I do know that a very few that are good are, or have been, to some extent commercially available. Tt is hoped that this text book will be found useful with any, should they be preferred to the Ideal. Tue exp. “Genius is two per cent. inspiration and ninety-cight per cent. perspiration.” Thomas AA. Edison. THE OPTIMIST, SPRING 127 THE OPTIMIST, SPRING. A young ian returned home froma voyage about February 1, and began to brace up his father’s flock of hens. They had been neglected all winter and had not laid an cee. The son cleaned up the pen, put in scratching material, fed vegetable-, ineat and mash, and along toward the lust of the month the hens were laying well. Boasting of Aés success with -‘the old inan’s hens’? to an old poultry keeper he was met with the cheerful statement: «Yes! good care is all right. but if T had hens that wouldn't lay now, anyway, I would cut their blained heads off.” Blessed spring-time. How it aids us to cherish our little conceits, shows how indispensible our favorite methods are, proves the worth of certain rations and substantiates the claims of the condition powder or ‘egg food,” and allows us at last to truthfully claim that our hens are “good layers.” With happy memories of spring kept fresh in our minds, how easy it is to ignore the other nine months in the year. All hail to the Optimist, Spring. 128 TAHLE OF CUNTINTS TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING AND USING THE IDEAL TRAP NEST The Ideal Trap Nest Ventilation To Make the Attachment To put on the Attachment To Operate CHAPTER II. First Experiences Number of Nests Required The Location of the Nests in the Poultry House The Best Location Eggs Laid Outside the Nests CHAPTER III. The Best Style of Nest to Use One or Two Compartments; Which? The Care of the Nests Collecting Eggs Record Keeping Using the Nests Open Brief Pointers CHAPTER IV. Trap Nests vs. Observation Culling for profit CHAPTER V. Controlling the Brooding Habit Breaking Broody Hens Is Broodiness Opposed to Profitable Egg Production? Can a Hen Lay Two Eggs in one Day? ‘ CHAPTER VI. Fertility How Soon after Mating watt Fertility become Hetablished, aud How Long will Fertility Continue after Mating has Ceased? The Question Answered Causes of Failure with Incubators CHAPTER VIL. The Brown Egg. Origin of the Brown Egg Fad What the Trap Nest Says Size of the Egg . Explanation of the Terins “Litter” anal “Clutch” PAGE 12-40 I2 . 14 «14 15 Ly 18 19 21 22 24 28 30 31 32 35 38 » 32 At 44 » 53 55 57 » 59 . 62 . 65 66 . 67 68 . 70 - 7I TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII. Is it Advisable or Necessary to Force Egg Production Forcing Hens for Egg Production Egg Production during Molt The ‘‘Rooster’”’ and the Trap Nest Egg-eating Hens ’ CHAPTER IX. Nature’s Secret Revealed to the Breeder Single vs. Multiple Mating The Fallacy of the So-called Law of ‘Sexe: The Fallacy of the ‘‘Egg-type’’ theory Individual Merit from the Standpoint of a Buyer A Prophecy CHAPTER X. The Unreliability of the Common Method of Reckoning Averages Illustrated Foods and Feeding Early Maturity Meat or Eggs, Which? The Exceptional Hen Treatment of Sick Hens Practice vs. Theory CHAPTER XI. The Question of Profits CHAPTER XII. Something about Patents Conclusion 129 . 71 + 73 73 . 76 / 77 78 . or , 82 83 . 84 88 gl 92 94 100 IOI 102 105, 115 118 - THE IDEAL SPECIALTIES. THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK, By mail, postpaid, 75c. THE PLANS AND PERMIT FOR MAKING AND USING THE IDEAL TRAP NESTS AND ATTACHMENTS, Patented in the United States and Canada. BY MAIL POSTPAID, . . . . : $2.00 THE IDEAL TRAP ATTACHMENTS, (for those who prefer to buy them Ready-Made.) Can be applied to any suitable box, One Attachment for a model, with each set of plans, free by mail. One extra Attachment by mail, postpaid, i * 3 50c. Extra Attachments by express, charges paid by receiver, each, 25c, Twenty-five Attachments by express, 3 : : $ 6.00 Fifty, eh SE - $44.00 One Hundred es “e ss ‘ 2 5 $20.00 These Attachinents sold only to those who purchase the plans. They are useless without then, THE IDEAL “SPECIAL” A model trap nest. A specially con- structed nest box, handsome in design and perfectly ventilated, combining in one nest all the most desirable features of trap nest construction. This model trap nest is not necessary in order to fit up from the PLANS, but is especially designed for those who want the best nest box for a raodel and are willing to pay for it. It costs a little more than some others, and is many times better. Made to order only. Sent by express, (cheaper than freight for small packages), charges paid by receiver. It does not weigh much, : ; é 3 Price, $2.00 WITH THE PLANS AND PERMIT, when ordered at the “same time, : . é . i ‘ : $3.00 THE IDEAL SPECIALTIES (CONTIN CAD). The Ideal Monthly Egg Record Blanks Sample for 2¢ stamp. Anyone can make them for themselves, but some prefer to buy them. Each sheet contains space for a complete month’s individual egg record for twenty-five birds and remarks concerning their condition, feed, etc. Handsomely ruled and printed on good paper. PRICES GIVEN ON APPLICATION. State number required. Twelve sheets are sufficient for twenty-five birds one year. ; Ideal Aluminum Leg Bands, Sample for 2 cent Stamp. These bands are obtained from the manu- facturerin the blank and are especially stamped for the trap nest user with numbers large enough to be seen with the naked eye. Auy number or letters desired. All leg bands are claimed to ‘‘stay on,” and so they will, - until they come off. A lost leg band often means a lost egg record with the trap-nest user. After losing a great many bands of many different kinds,-over go out of 100 in two years, with one of the most popular bands on the market,-the Ideal Aluminum was thoroughly tested and adopted. It is the best band for the trap-nest user. It will stay on until purposely removed. The bird cannot get it off. These bands are light, handsome, (look like silver) easy to put on, easy to take off and easy to read. Prices upon application. ‘State Breed, num- ber for males and number for females. The more are ordered the cheaper they come. All About Broilers gy micuaev. woven = Second Edition Revised. Mr. Boyer has the reputation of being one of the leading au- thorities on these subjects. He believes that broiler raising in combination with other branches of Poultry farming is a profitable business, but as.an exclusive business it is risky. This book ex- plains why. ‘All About Broilers’ is written to show the novice just what todo and what not todo. The preface states that no theories are used, but every line is the record of experience. This book tells how to run incubators and brooders, how to fatten stock, how to feed laying stock, gives poultry house plans, etc. Itis a valuable book at the low price of 25 cents. ‘All About Broilers and Market Poultry Generally’ will be sent free with every order for Ideal Specialties to the amount of $3.00 or over, if this offer is mentioned when ordering. No mention, no book: Address all orders and correspondence to. F. 0. WELLCOME, varsoutiy maine: THE “Beauty and Business” & & SYSTEM OF »* # PEDIGREE RECORDS THE MOST COMPLETE, COMPACT AND CONVENIENT SYSTEM EVER DEVISED. AN INVALUABLE AID TO _ SCIENTIFIC BREEDING, WHETHER FANCY OR UTILITY. COMPLETE.--Toe marks, date hatched, sire, dam, weight at 3, 4, 5 and 6 months, leg band, date of first egg, fullegg record, how mated or disposed of, etc.