Show EGGS ond and CHICKENS im 2 n rf R MIK f x 4 5 r th AM 16 I 1 nj N j kt ZV t P e 41 A a 0 modern poultry farm in america prepared hv by national society washington WaR hington D C ser service v lee experts of the department POULTRY of agriculture after careful experiments and studies have concluded that there is no truth in the old contention that thai the breeding of poultry strains for high egg production is impairing the ity of eggs for untold centuries the lien hen has been a companion of man in the on ward mareb march of civilization in america where poultry husband ry has attained its greatest develop ment the lien has become one of our leading national assets growing in the past fifty years from a neglected side line ou the average farm to a position where she is considered by tile the farmer as a very contributor to his yearly income the lien hen might be termed a sal favorite in that a greater number of persons are interested and actually concerned with poultry than with any other form of live stock last year there were more than chickens in the united suites the yearly value of the products of the american hen has at times passed the billion dollar mark the great bulk bulb of poultry and eggs produced in the united states cot comes from the corn belt states ot of the upper tipper mississippi valley in fact nearly one half of our poultry population or ap proximately chickens is found in what are known as the north central states no longer a hobby for many years a consider considerable able proportion of our poultry population was kept in back lots of city and suburban communities by persons primarily en to in some remunerative occula tion poultry was raised largely tot tor pleasure and as a hobby an and incident tally to insure a goodly supply of fresh eggs and meat for the family table surveys made a few years ago in eastern urban and suburban areas showed an average of one bird to every two people such flocks average ing from 10 to 25 fowls were usually well cared for and consisted of birds of elgh quality the postwar period has witnessed the gradual flis appear rince of many of these bacalot poultry men tills this change in h abets among a great mass of our population has fortunately been accompanied acied by the development of large commercial poultry farms and specialized henn eries which have found popular favor not only on the north american continent but in many old world countries commercial poultry farms are espe bially successful near large centers of population where the demand is for a strictly fresh new laid egg and fresh killed poultry hundreds of such en terp ilses are being successfully oper abed in tile the atlantic and pacific li cinc coast states the eastern sections produce e especially for the new york trade and the pacific coast eliast sections fler meet ing the deni demands ands of the lie larger coast cities their eggs to the at lantic alantic seaboard where they find a ready market nl at attractive prices industry Is systemized revolutionary chan chai chaides ies es liae hae been go ing on in tile the poultry industry for ten len years less and less attention is be ing given to tile the purely faney fancy and to the breeding of exhibition fowls and mure and more stress is be being 1 n laid on their economic value in ill the I 1 i filp tian of human the farm nan are beginning to to a apply sound principles plea in tile lie man agri agen nent lent of their hocks flocks and are organ ilin i ing co to move their graded eggs quickly to the large con burning centers the little white leghorn liens hens ot the Pet petaluma aluma district in central cat cal nave become world famous top he c cause ause of th the intensive conditions under they are arc kept hundreds ot of thou sands bands being massed in one small val ley tile entire community depends up tip on commercial egg farming for a livell hood it was not so many years ago that thai the american lien ruled su supreme in the ol of and nd brooder faithfully sitting out the 21 dreary lays flays on tile nest cautiously leading her tender brood of huffy youngsters through the early stages of their development the lion lien is too valuable today as an egg machine to allow her to waste weeks and months in hatching eggs agga and brooding chicks due to its greater efficiency the modern incubator has gradually replaced the hen the rapid increase in poultry and the growing demand for baby chicks have hare called for the development of incubators cuba tors of much lucli greater capacity than formerly credit for making possible our great commercial poultry industry should go in large measure to the lie modern mammoth incubator equipped with automatic ventilation and temperature con arol with laborsaving labor saving devices to eliminate hand turning all ami hand cooling cool in with eggs stacked deck upon deck or tier upon tier efficiently heated healed with coal kerosene or electricity 11 ballel with the development of the mammoth mammoth incubator there has been evolved the colony brooder heated by coal or kerosene with a capacity of from to LOW 1000 chicks under each stove one operator can effectively manage from 12 to 15 uch such brooding units and can successfully carry through the brooding period from 10 to ahio chicks ks the real romance of modern poultry husbandry has been the unprecedented I 1 growth in the production and sill shipment P of ready made baby chicks hatched in niami mammoth noth incubators on breeding farms or at commercial hatcheries the chicks provide the most knost economical and convenient method of securing ones foundation stock of enlarging ones flock and of providing future generations of layers shipping baby chicks formerly hatching eggs were the medium whereby one poultry mati purchased stock from another but some soine 25 years ago from the dittli village of stockton N J in the Ie delaware laware river valley the first baby chicks were shipped for a number of years one had been supplying ell chacka lc ks in small quantities to his neighbors the success which they imd had with tills this method of acquiring poultry stuck stock soon spread and little by little orders came air e for chicks from more distant points until finally tini illy it became impossible to make deliveries in person over the increasing distances from which they were dern demanded hernanded so it cattle came about that this demand was met by putting 0 the chicks into cotton lined wooden wootie n boxes with holes in the top for tor for anti lation twenty five chicks were placed in ill a package and shipped by express to their destination the experiment proved to be a success from this small beginning the industry gradually grew until today there are in the united states slates several thousand h hatcheries at cheries equipped to to produce baby chicks for shipment and having a CaPa capacity eltY of approximately L 00 eggs at one silting at the end of the twenty first day since the eggs were placed in tile incubator cu bator tile the newly hatched ell chick aricks are e reldy ready to be graded pucker and at I 1 of shipped they ore laken from froin the ma ina chines chilles and moved to to specially con convenient I 1 tallies in the packing room e each left chick being handled separately to see thai it Is a no nominal rinal healthy individual they are packed ceil for shipment in specially constructed construct eI haby baby chick boxes of from froin 25 2 to clucks chicks capacity the poultry departments of our many state agricultural colleges nave been responsible during tile the past ter ler of a century for the development of many scientific facts and practices the practical applications of which have made possible commercial pout try iry keeping the ability which tile the poultry iuan now possesses to cull his birds on a basis of external character to eliminate the producers non from time to tinie time as they appear in the nock hock is an example |