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Show WIDELY POPULAR HEN FOR LAYING Single Comb White Leghorn ef Mediterranean Class is Most Favored. NOT DESIRABLE MEAT FOWLS Epecially in Back Yards and on Farms Where Waste Material Is Available Avail-able Purchase of Expensive Grain Not Required. If you want to raise chickens for eggs only, if you want to make your hennery strictly an egg factory with meat production only an afterthought, you must select an egg breed. You have 20 chances, according to a new table. They are the breeds best suited for poultry farms where the production produc-tion of eggs is the main purpose. The Leghorn breed, and in particular the Single 'Comb White Leghorn variety, is the most popular and widely kept The egg breeds are smaller than the general-purpose types of chickens such as the Plymouth Rock. For that reason rea-son they do not make particularly desirable de-sirable meat fowls and are not so well favored by the poultry packers as are the larger general-purpose breeds. Surplus cockerels, however' sold as broilers when they weigh from three-quarters three-quarters to a pound and a half, find a ready market. The bulletin mentioned describes the different breeds and varieties of layers lay-ers in the two classes arJd illustrates them. However, the purpose of the bulletin is to give only general descriptions de-scriptions of appearance and character. charac-ter. For a description sufficiently detailed de-tailed ta enable one to breed exhibition exhibi-tion specimens it will be necessary, the specialists say, .to refer to the "American Standard of Perfection," a book published by the American Poul- 1 NATION STILL NEEDS GREAT POULTRY INCREASES 5 Poultry production should be increased greatly, according to the 9 j department of agriculture's 1918 agricultural production program, espe- 3 cially in back yards and on farms where waste material is available and v the purchase of expensive grains and other material is not required. jj s Increased poultry production may be obtained most economically, j g according to the federal experts, by early hatching, by confining mother fi hens at least ten days after the chicks are hatched, by reducing losses r v on account of rats, weasels, and thieves, and cold, damp conditions, by g thorough sanitation, by discouraging the marketing of early-hatched r pullets as broilers, by eliminating non-producing hens and keeping good g i layers through at least two laying seasons, and iby the poultryman rais- 5, j ing his own feed as far as possible. j publication from the United States d-partment d-partment of agriculture describing the breeds of chickens belonging to the egg class, Farmers' Bulletin 898, "Standard Varieties of Chickens: II. The Mediterranean and Continental Classes." That is, there are 20 members of the two groups of chickens which poultry poul-try -experts classify as the egg breeds. The Mediterranean class includes the Leghorns nine varieties ; the Minor-eas Minor-eas :five varieties ; the Spanish one variety; the Ancona two varieties, ond the Blue Andalusian. In the Continental Con-tinental .class is, the one breed Cam-pine Cam-pine with two varieties. All of these breeds lay white-shelled eggs. They are called egg breeds because fowls of these types are especially good lay-era lay-era but are not so well suited to the try association and the guide by which all the poultry shows in the United States are judged. Where Egg Breeds Are Kept Eggs, of course, are produced wherever wher-ever chicken are kept, and by far the greater, part of the egg crop comes from the general farm, yet large so-called so-called egg farms have been developed with the main purpose of producing eggs for market. The largest of these egg farms and the greater number of them are located near markets which pay a premium for white eggs ; and for this reason, together with the fact that eggs are primal ily desired, the breeds kept are those known as the egg breeds, such as Leghorn, Cam-pine, Cam-pine, Minorca and Ancona. |