,transcriber's ,notes ,texts printed in italics has been transcribed between underscores1 underlined text between tildes4 ,small capitals have been replaced with ,,all ,,capitals4 ,more ,transcriber's ,notes may be found at the end of this text4 ,illustration3 ,,corning ,,strain ,,utility ,,cockerel ,four ,months and ,twenty ,days ,old ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,book ,,by ,,corning ,,himself ,,being ,,the ,,complete ,,and ,,authentic ,,story ,,of ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,from ,,its ,,inception ,,to ,,date ,,together ,,with ,,full ,,description ,,of ,,the ,,method ,,and ,,system ,,that ,,have ,,made ,,this ,,the ,,most ,,famous ,,poultry ,,farm ,,in ,,the ,,world ,,bound ,,brook1 ,,new ,,jersey ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,publishers #aiab ,,copyright1 #aiab1 ,,by ,,gardner ,,corning ,,contents ,,page ,,introductory #ac ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,building ,,of ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm #ba ,started with #fj ,buff ,rock ,eggs #bb ,more ,money in ,eggs #be ,adopted ,white ,leghorns #be ,first ,use of ,roosting ,closets #bg ,we ,count only ,livable ,chicks #cj ,percentage of ,cockerels ,low #ca ,the ,great ,flock ,system ,succeeds #cc ,foreigners ,visit the ,farm #cd ,investigated for ,germany #ce ,selection of ,cockerels #cf ,pullets ,lay in #abi ,days #cg ,keeping ,down ,labor ,bill #ci ,adopted ,hot ,water ,incubators #dj ,why ,great ,farms ,fail #da ,,chapter ,,ii ,,egg ,,farming ,,the ,,most ,,profitable ,,branch ,,of ,,poultry ,,keeping #dc ,developing the ,great ,layer #dc ,corning ,method in ,small ,flocks #dd ,on ,large ,farms #df ,,chapter ,,iii ,,what ,,is ,a ,,fresh ,,egg8 ,,an ,,egg ,,should ,,be ,,sanitary ,,as ,,well ,,as ,,fresh #dh ,manure ,drainage to ,drink #dh ,diseased ,meat to ,eat #di ,as the ,food1 so the ,egg #di ,a ,perfect ,egg a ,rarity #ej ,unlimited ,demand for ,quality ,eggs #ej ,,chapter ,,iv ,,preparation ,,of ,,eggs ,,for ,,market #ed ,,chapter ,v ,,selection ,,of ,,the ,,breed4--,,the ,,strain ,,is ,,of ,,utmost ,,importance #eh ,s4 ,c4 ,white ,leghorns ,outclass ,all #ei ,line ,breeding--,not ,inbreeding #fa ,how ,corning ,farm ,produces ,unrelated ,cockerels #fb ,,chapter ,,vi ,,advantages ,,of ,,large ,,flock ,,system--,,reduces ,,cost ,,of ,,housing ,,and ,,economizes ,,in ,,time ,,and ,,labor #fd ,draughts the ,stumbling ,block #fe #b1jjj ,birds to a ,house #ff ,,chapter ,,vii ,,what ,,is ,a ,,winter ,,layer8--,,the ,,properly ,,hatched ,,and ,,reared ,,pullet #fh ,must ,feed ,green ,food #fi ,,chapter ,,viii ,a ,,great ,,laying ,,strain--,,the ,,selection ,,of ,,breeders ,,to ,,produce ,,it #ga ,eighteen ,months ,old #ga ,trap ,nests a ,failure #gb ,type ,reproduces ,type #gc ,,chapter ,,ix ,,best ,,time ,,to ,,hatch #gf ,experiment in ,late ,hatching #gh ,,chapter ,x ,,succulent ,,green ,,food--,,satisfactory ,,egg ,,production ,,impossible ,,without ,,it #hj ,sprouted ,oats ,best #hb ,how ,they are ,grown on the ,farm #hb ,timothy and ,clover ,cut ,green #hd ,,chapter ,,xi ,,anthracite ,,coal ,,ashes--,a ,,substitute ,,for ,,many ,,more ,,expensive ,,necessities #hf ,better ,than ,charcoal #hg ,,chapter ,,xii ,,eggs ,,for ,,breeding ,,should ,,be ,,laid ,,by ,a ,,real ,,yearling ,,hen #hi #ij1jjj ,orders for #dj1jjj ,eggs #ij ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,policing ,,the ,,farm ,,with ,,bloodhounds1 ,,etc4 #ib ,shoot ,first--,investigate ,afterward #ib ,socrates1 the ,great ,bloodhound #ic ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,necessity ,,for ,,pure ,,water--,,an ,,egg ,,is ,,chemically #hj ,,water #if ,automatic ,fountains ,essential #if ,hot ,water in ,cold ,weather #ig ,hens ,drink ,more in ,afternoon #ig ,,chapter ,,xv ,,hard ,,coal ,,ashes1 ,,oyster ,,shell1 ,,and ,,grit #ii ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,beef ,,scrap ,,and ,,green ,,bone ,,substitutes ,,for ,,nature',s ,,animal ,,food #aja ,green ,cut ,bone ,nearest ,nature #aja ,,chapter ,,xvii ,a ,,time ,,for ,,everything--,,everything ,,on ,,time #ajc ,fixed ,feeding ,hours #ajc ,four ,collections of ,eggs ,daily #aje ,mash ,fed in ,afternoon #aje ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,incubation ,,on ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm #ajf ,hen ,reigns ,supreme #ajf ,livable ,chicks--,not ,numbers #ajg ,uniform ,temperature ,most ,important #ajh ,ventilation and ,moisture ,next #ajh ,hot ,water ,machines ,best #aaj ,corning ,incubator ,cellar ,unequaled #aaa ,eggs ,turned from ,third to ,eighteenth ,day #aab #ajc ,degrees ,maintained #aab ,cool ,but ,never ,cold #aac ,cover ,glass ,doors #aad ,all ,good ,chicks ,hatch in #bj ,days #aad ,set ,incubators ,toward ,evening #aae ,tested ,only on ,eighteenth ,day #aaf ,moisture #aag ,chicks ,handled ,only ,once #aag ,baby ,chick ,business ,cruel #aah ,,chapter ,,xix ,,rearing ,,chicks ,,in ,,brooder ,,house--,,the ,,following ,,two ,,years' ,,results ,,depend ,,upon ,,success ,,in ,,brooding #aba ,corn ,not ,proper ,chick ,food #abb ,follow ,nature's ,teaching #abb ,a ,balanced ,food #abc ,never ,build a ,double ,house #abf ,must ,drain ,chick ,runs #abg ,concrete ,floors ,mean ,dampness #abg ,corning ,heated ,brooder ,house #abh ,corning ,feeds ,dry ,food ,only #abi ,three ,feeds ,daily #abi ,green ,food ,third ,day #acj ,animal ,food ,tenth ,day #acj ,avoid ,moving ,chicks ,often #acb ,,chapter ,,xx ,,handling ,,birds ,,on ,,range--,,the ,,youngsters ,,must ,,be ,,kept ,,growing ,,all ,,the ,,time #acd ,a ,corning ,wrinkle #ace ,grain and ,mash ,once a ,day #acg ,plenty of ,shade #aci ,removed to ,laying ,house ,middle of ,september #adj ,,chapter ,,xxi ,,feeding ,,for ,,eggs--,,wholesome ,,nourishment--,,not ,,destructive ,,stimulants #adc ,easy ,assimilation #adc ,perfect ,health or ,no ,eggs #add ,abundant ,animal ,food #add ,the ,corning ,mash the ,secret #ade 8,egg ,foods0 ,kill ,layers #adf ,mustard ,increases ,egg ,laying #adg ,mustard ,increases ,fertility #adh #d1jjj ,layers ,fed ,mustard #adi ,mustard ,maintains ,health #aej ,keep ,appetite ,keen #aej ,,chapter ,,xxii ,,breeding ,,hens ,,during ,,moult--,,coming ,,breeders ,,must ,,be ,,kept ,,exercising ,,through ,,this ,,period #aec ,do ,not ,overfeed #aed ,,chapter ,,xxiii ,,feeding ,,the ,,breeding ,,cockerels #aef ,,chapter ,,xxiv ,,preparing ,,surplus ,,cockerels ,,for ,,market #aeg ,must ,have ,green ,food #aeh ,,chapter ,,xxv #f4da ,,per ,,hen ,,per ,,year #aei #f4da ,not ,extravagant ,claim #afj ,corning ,farm ,makes ,more ,than #f4da #afa ,,chapter ,,xxvi ,,the ,,buildings ,,on ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm #afc ,no4 #a1 ,brooder ,house1 ,incubator and ,sprouted ,oats ,cellars #afd ,building ,no4 #b1 ,work ,shop1 etc4 #afg ,building ,no4 #i1 ,horse ,stable #afi ,building ,no4 #aj1 ,wagon ,shed #agj ,building ,no4 #ab1 ,office ,building #agj ,,chapter ,,xxvii ,,construction ,,of ,,laying1 ,,breeding1 ,,and ,,breeding ,,cockerel ,,houses #aga ,nearly ,six ,feet from ,ground #agb ,double ,floors #agc ,canvas ,windows #agd ,double ,doors #agf ,draught-,proof ,roosting ,closets #agg ,,chapter ,,xxviii ,,the ,,colony ,,houses--,,there ,,are ,,forty-,,one ,,on ,,the ,,farm #ahj ,cotton ,duck ,windows #aha ,,chapter ,,xxix ,,materials ,,required ,,for ,,laying ,,houses #ahb ,bill of ,material for the ,construction of ,colony ,house #ahc ,,chapter ,,xxx ,,the ,,original ,,thirty ,,hens #ahd ,,chapter ,,xxxi ,,egg ,,records #ahf ,how ,corning ,farm is ,able to ,get ,great ,egg ,records #ahg ,highest ,percentage of ,fertility #ahh ,,chapter ,,xxxii ,,prevention ,,and ,,treatment ,,of ,,diseases #aij ,,chapter ,,xxxiii ,a ,,word ,,in ,,closing #aib ,nothing to ,hide #aic ,illustrations are ,photographs #aic ,the ,corning ,success #aic ,our ,advice to ,beginners #aid ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns ,only #aid ,it's 8,strain0 ,you ,want #aid ,utility1 ,not ,show ,birds #aie ,corning ,largest ,specialty ,farm in ,world #aie ,points ,that ,mean ,success #aif ,,buildings ,,on ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,and ,,many ,,handy ,,devices #aih ,,illustrations ,corning ,strain ,utility ,cockerel ,frontispiece ,,facing ,,page #a4 ,lay-,out of ,farm #af #b4 ,interior ,sterile ,laying ,house ,no4 #c1 in #aiaj #bb #c4 ,entrance to ,farm in #aiji #bd #d4 ,as ,you ,approach the ,farm1 #aiaa #bh #e4 ,office ,building #cj #f4 ,breeding ,cockerels1 ,fall of #aiji #cd #g4 ,interior ,laying ,house ,no4 #b1 in #aiaj #ch #h4 ,panoramic ,view of the ,farm #df #i4 ,thirty ,dozen ,corning ,sanitary ,fresh ,eggs ,ready to ,ship #ed #aj4 ,the ,strain that ,makes the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,famous #eh #aa4 ,three ,sterile ,laying ,houses ,containing #d1ejj ,pullets #fd #ab4 ,interior ,laying ,house ,no4 #a1 in #aiaj #fh #ac4 ,one of the ,breeding ,houses just after ,mating1 #aiaj #gb #ad4 ,sprouted ,oats ,cellar #gh #ae4 ,two-,weeks-,old ,chicks in ,brooder ,house ,runs #hd #af4 ,yearling ,hens in ,breeder ,house before ,mating #ij #ag4 8,socrates10 the ,great ,bloodhound ,which ,heads the ,corning ,kennels #ib #ah4 8,socrates ,,ii0 and 8,diogenes0 #id #ai4 ,buster1 ,america's ,greatest ,ratter #id #bj4 ,corning ,automatic ,drinking ,fountain #if #ba4 ,part of the ,old ,incubator ,cellar #ajd #bb4 ,brooder ,house1 ,showing ,chick ,runs #abj #bc4 ,old ,arrangement of ,brooder ,house #abd #bd4 ,chicks ,six ,weeks ,old #abh #be4 ,colony ,range ,feed and ,water ,wagon with 8,billy0 #acf #bf4 ,feeding on the ,colony ,range #adj #bg4 ,baskets of ,eggs #aej #bh4 ,breeding ,cockerels1 ,fall of #aiaa #aef #bi4 ,no4 #c ,laying ,house ,filled with #a1ejj ,pullets #aeh #cj4 ,the ,workshop on the ,corning ,egg ,farm #afb #ca4 ,the ,celebrated ,corning ,large-,flock ,laying ,house ,no4 #c #agj #cb4 ,laying ,house ,prepared to ,receive #a1ejj ,pullets from ,range #agb #cc4 ,one of the ,breeding ,houses in #aiaa #agd #cd4 ,the ,corning ,colony ,house #agh #ce4 ,breeding ,house in #aijg--,the ,original ,corning ,house #ahb #cf4 ,pullets in ,laying ,house ,no4 #b1 ,fall of #aiaa #ahd #cg4 ,diagrams and ,detailed ,plans of ,buildings1 etc4 #aii ,,introductory ,the ,method1 and the style of the buildings1 evolved and worked out on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 when put into book form proved so helpful to so vast a number of poultry keepers1 that the sale of this first literature1 which for a time was added to as the months went by1 reached the enormous total of over #adj1jjj copies in eighteen months4 ,the writings were the simple1 plain statements of facts1 and enabled others who followed them to reach a success which1 until this ,system was used1 may have been dreamed of1 but was never realized4 ,the literature from this ,farm has gone out over the entire civilized ,world1 and the visitors1 who arrive in ever increasing numbers from month to month1 come from every quarter of the ,globe4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm has been written of in periodicals of every nature1 and in almost every language the ,world over4 ,for the last twelve months the requests for further1 and more explicit1 detailed information relative to breeding and feeding for eggs1 the specialty from which ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm has never swerved1 have become a demand4 ,so that1 after mature deliberation1 it was decided to write the history of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 from its inception to date1 including the work of the last two years1 which has never before been fully published4 8,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,book by ,corning ,himself0 is to-day the only publication giving facts in regard to the ,farm and its unique ,method right up to date4 ,as the book is read it must be borne in mind that1 in breeding to produce a great layer1 at first very marked increases in the number of eggs during the first ten months of laying may be gained4 ,the general average number of eggs laid each year1 from official reports1 is less than #ajj per hen4 ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 when the average had reached #adc4be eggs1 the next jump1 in the following year1 was more than had been expected1 and the record of #ade4aa eggs for each hen for ten months1 though showing an increase apparently small1 in reality was a very great advance indeed4 ,from this time on1 the gain1 although representing a narrower margin of increase1 was in reality a much greater achievement4 ,the trotting horse may serve as an illustration4 ,when ,dexter trotted his famous mile he clipped off a number of seconds from the previous record1 and it seemed as if it would be a matter of considerable time before his mark would be lowered4 ,but within a comparatively short time a number of trotters turned off a mile in two-ten1 and from this figure1 within a short period1 a large company of famous horses had reached the two-five mark1 but every quarter of a second which reduced this mark meant greater achievement in breeding than was represented by the reduction of records from two-sixteen to two-five1 and we have not yet seen the horse which1 in single harness1 without a running mate1 can turn the mile track in two minutes flat4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm realizes that from this on improvement will be shown by fractional figures1 but these fractions will represent a greater progress than the figures which have gone before4 ,two years ago the unequaled results of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm had seemed unsurpassable1 but to-day we are able to look back from higher ground and see the road over which we have traveled to reach a point very considerably beyond the unequaled position of two years ago4 ,it is our hope and aim1 year by year1 to improve the present position4 ,the man who believes he has learned all there is to learn is a failure4 ,the successful man is the one who is sure there is an opportunity to advance considerably beyond the point he has already attained1 and ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm believes this to be true1 and has constantly worked with that idea before it4 ,with an experience back of them of nearly six years the ,builders of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm know that this ,book furnishes the necessary guide for success in poultry culture4 ,what has been1 and what is being1 done at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is not experimental work4 ,successful results follow the ,method and ,system employed as surely as day follows night4 ,it is no longer necessary for the novice to try out the various plans proposed to him by the literary poultryman1 whose methods are worked out on a mahogany desk1 with pen and ink1 or more often1 perhaps1 by dictation to a stenographer4 ,years of careful thought and study1 and the expenditure of much time and many thousands of dollars in developing the ,corning ,method have eliminated all necessity for experimental expenditure4 ,the building up of an ,egg ,farm is within the reach of any man who will follow the ,corning plan herein described faithfully and persistently4 ,the man or woman who determines to pursue some branch of the poultry industry must first decide what particular branch4 ,shall it be to raise poultry for market8 ,if so1 what8 ,squab ,broilers8 ,soft ,roasters8 ,or ,capons8 ,perhaps all of these4 ,some utility line is the best to start with4 ,fresh1 sanitary eggs are a necessity and command the highest price in the market1 daily1 for spot cash1 just as readily as stocks and bonds command a daily cash value in any financial market4 ,there can be no better proof of the truth of this than the success of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,illustration3 ,,pullet ,,range ,,colony ,,houses ,,each ,,house #f #aj ,,built ,,on ,,skids ,,movable ,in whatever line a beginner decides to start he needs to go straight down that line without deviation1 taking as his motto1 8,this one thing ,i do40 ,in the fullness of time1 having established a reputation for the quality of his eggs and birds1 the demand for his eggs for hatching purposes and for his birds as foundation stock for other people1 will naturally come to him1 and it is very profitable4 ,one certain fact should be settled in the understanding of every beginner1 to wit3 it is not possible to invest from five hundred to five thousand dollars in the ,poultry ,industry and double your money in the first year1 or even to earn #ej on the investment4 ,neither is it possible with #cjj4jj to build a ,laying ,house with a capacity for five hundred birds1 if the house is properly built for warmth and meets sanitary conditions4 ,housing for hens must be free from dampness4 ,concrete absorbs dampness1 therefore1 avoid it4 ,any person starting in the poultry industry for profit1 and1 intending to follow it for a livelihood should begin in a small way1 realizing that1 like any other business venture1 it must be built up and grow from year to year1 and that1 certainly for the first year1 no money can be drawn out for living expenses4 ,these statements are made clearly and emphatically because quite the contrary has been given out as a fact4 ,such reckless representations1 because untrue1 are misleading and injurious to both those engaged in the poultry industry and also to those who contemplate entering it1 and should be branded as false1 and the authors of such statements should be prohibited from using the ,united ,states ,mails4 ,we are not1 and make no pretense of being1 philanthropists4 ,we have written this ,book primarily with the expectation that it will make ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm and the ,corning ,method of ,poultry ,culture even more widely and impressively known to the ,world1 and so benefit us by increased demand for our stock1 eggs1 and all other goods we may have for sale4 ,secondly1 we know that the ,book will benefit others if they will follow the ,corning ,method and ,system herein laid down1 and so prove of mutual advantage to readers and authors as well4 ,the ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn is par excellence the ,egg ,machine1 provided always first class and the best strain of birds is procured1 and the ,corning ,strain1 without doubt or question1 is the very best strain of ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns yet developed anywhere in the ,world4 ,we know this new1 large1 complete and thoroughly up to date ,book will be the means of bringing us1 and our unequaled ,strain of ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns1 into favor with thousands of people who1 as yet1 do not know us1 just as the publishing of the small and older booklet put us into touch with other thousands who are now doing a prosperous business by the use of this same ,corning ,strain ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns1 and by following the ,corning ,method now more completely elaborated and explained in 8,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,book by ,corning ,himself40 ,,edward ,,and ,,gardner ,,corning4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 ,bound ,brook1 ,new ,jersey4 ,december1 #aiaa4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,book ,,chapter ,i ,the ,building of the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,having determined1 in #aije1 to engage in some business connected with the feathered tribe1 we decided to try out the squab proposition versus market poultry4 ,after searching over a period of many months1 in various parts of the country1 with the idea of finding a place where the existing buildings might be utilized for our needs1 we finally were obliged to abandon this idea and purchased1 early in the year #aijf1 twelve and a half acres of land1 now known as ,sunny ,slope ,farm4 ,this property lies about two miles west of ,bound ,brook1 ,new ,jersey1 which town is reached by the ,central ,railroad of ,new ,jersey1 the ,baltimore ,ohio1 the ,philadelphia ,reading and the ,lehigh ,valley ,railroads1 and the ,farm is most accessible1 as it is on the trolley line which connects ,bound ,brook and ,somerville4 ,in the early ,spring of #aijf we began our buildings1 erecting a house1 for raising squabs1 which would accommodate five hundred pairs of breeding birds1 a hen house of the scratching shed variety1 capable of accommodating some two hundred and fifty hens1 and a work-shop with living apartments for the resident man4 ,we also sunk a well one hundred and seventeen feet deep1 erecting over it a sixty foot wind-mill tower1 which carries an eighteen hundred gallon tank4 ,from this pipes were laid to convenient parts of the property4 ,three hundred pairs of ,homer pigeons were placed in the house built for that purpose1 and we went diligently to work to prove that this was the quick and easy way to wealth which the ingenious writers of squab literature proved so conclusively on paper4 ,on the chicken side of the experiment we seemed to lean 7possibly because of the fact that squabs take one into the slaughter house business7 towards one or more of the market breeds1 and1 to meet the needs of this part of the business1 we understood that any of the 8,rock0 family were best for the purpose4 ,started with #fj ,buff ,rock ,eggs ,we purchased an incubator with the capacity of sixty eggs1 being fearful of attempting the operation of a larger machine1 because1 like a great many novices1 we had the feeling that an incubator was a very dangerous thing1 and that anyone without a vast amount of experience should not attempt to handle it4 ,we placed in this diminutive machine sixty ,buff ,rock eggs1 and obtained a very fair hatch4 ,with daily contact our fear of the machine decreased1 and we exchanged it for one with a capacity of one hundred and twenty-five eggs1 and this1 in turn1 was exchanged for one holding two hundred and fifty eggs4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,sterile ,,laying ,,house ,,no4 #c ,,in #aiaj ,we obtained fairly large flocks of youngsters that season1 but1 as we had the usual hallucination that poultry culture was really a miracle1 and required neither work1 capital1 nor brains1 that all you had to do was to accept the profit and the chickens did it all themselves1 we did not get so very far4 ,the growth of the birds was so slow they did not reach a profitable weight until the broiler market had dropped the price to its lowest level4 ,the pullets which we carried through the winter never produced an egg1 for the simple reason that we had never studied the question out as to how the hen produces an egg4 ,in other words1 our lack of knowledge of the right methods was the reason for charging up a considerable loss instead of profit so far as the first season's work with hens went4 ,we very early discovered there must have been a considerable amount of fiction in the writings on the squab industry4 ,one reads that a pair of pigeons eats nothing like the amount of food which is required for one hen1 and that they never eat more than their exact wants require1 and that when they have young in the nest1 this amount is very slightly increased4 ,we found1 however1 that they ate in season and out of season4 ,in fact one recalls1 in this connection1 and with considerable amusement1 the song1 in the light opera 8,wang10 of the elephant who ate all day and the elephant who ate all night4 ,during our work with pigeons we tried out a number of different varieties3 ,homers1 ,dragoons1 ,runt ,dragoon crosses1 ,homer ,runt crosses1 ,maltese ,hens1 and the various crosses with ,runt ,dragoons2 also ,carneaux4 ,we were led to buy these fancy breeds through the stories of extreme prices paid for large squabs1 and we bred some heavy weights only to find1 from the commission man who made a specialty of these birds1 that it was impossible to pay the price which such birds were really worth1 as trade for this class was extremely limited4 ,very early in our experience we realized that the poultry side of our experiment was very much more to our liking and offered so much greater and more profitable outlook for our energies that we rang down the curtain on ,squab raising--and turned our attention exclusively to the ,hen4 ,while our minds were still running in the line of poultry for market purposes we tried out the ,black ,orpingtons1 the idea being that1 on account of their size1 they would make ideal roasting fowls4 ,we found1 however1 that they were a very much inbred variety1 and it was almost impossible to hatch the eggs4 ,out of one hundred eggs1 for which we paid twenty dollars1 eight chicks hatched1 and these were not of sufficient vitality to live4 ,illustration3 ,,entrance ,,to ,,the ,,farm ,,in #aiji ,more ,money in ,eggs ,during all this time1 however1 we were studying the poultry question1 and had arrived at the conclusion that there was more money in eggs1 properly produced and marketed1 than in any other branch4 ,one of the difficulties we met with in our investigations was the fact that so many different writers had such a variety of ideas on the same subject1 and practically no two of them agreed on any given part of poultry culture4 ,what seemed to us even more confusing was that1 in most cases1 the writer summed up his article by contradicting everything he had said in the previous chapters4 ,we were finally forced to the conclusion that the raising of poultry had not yet been reduced to a science1 but was almost entirely made up of guesses4 ,in our investigations1 however1 we found in the writings of the late ,prof4 ,gowell1 of ,maine1 an entirely different condition4 ,he was the first man1 so far as our observations went1 who worked on the principle that effect followed cause1 in poultry as in everything else4 ,we studied his bulletins with great interest1 and decided we would endeavor to prove that the same results gotten by him could be duplicated by others4 ,adopted ,white ,leghorns ,we had also been studying the condition of the egg market1 so far as ,new ,york and vicinity was concerned1 and had found that this market paid a premium for a white shelled egg4 ,this1 then1 was the determining factor in the selection of the breed of fowls1 and after gathering all the information we could regarding birds which laid white eggs1 we were satisfied1 taking everything into consideration1 that for an ,egg ,farm1 the ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn1 was the only fowl4 ,in the ,spring of #aijg we collected a breeding pen1 from different sources1 of thirty ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn yearling hens1 and three strong1 vigorous cockerels4 ,we purchased an incubator holding three hundred and ninety eggs1 and three out-door brooders1 and built a number of small ,colony ,houses to move the birds into as soon as they were large enough to be transferred from the brooders4 ,the hens chosen for the initial breeding pen of the ,farm were most carefully selected1 for even then we had in mind the result which we intended to reach1 as to the ultimate type of layer on the ,farm4 ,we placed the resulting eggs from this breeding pen in the incubator1 using a primitive turning machine to keep them in proper condition until the requisite number was acquired to fill the incubator4 ,our hatch was a very good one1 and we succeeded in raising a fair number of the youngsters hatched4 ,during the ,summer we erected what is now known on the ,farm as the ,no4 #a ,laying ,house4 ,this was built one hundred feet long1 by twelve feet wide1 and on the same twenty foot section construction which has proved to be so successful a plan for poultry houses4 ,the one mistake in this house was its width1 and that has now been remedied by widening it to the standard1 sixteen feet in width1 and sixty feet in length have been added to it4 ,the youngsters on range grew rapidly4 ,we marketed the cockerels at between eight and ten weeks of age1 and they weighed from one and a quarter pounds to a pound and three quarters4 ,these were sold 8on the hoof10 as we had decided for the future to do nothing in the slaughter house line1 and to this decision we have strictly adhered1 shipping alive also all culls and birds of any age showing imperfections1 the majority of our stock finding ready market for breeding purposes when we are ready to dispose of it4 ,as a correct record of the mortality of our hatching1 and the number of cockerels marketed1 had been kept1 we found that we should have in the ,colony ,houses about two hundred and twenty-five pullets to place in ,no4 #a ,house4 ,in catching up the birds we found that the number figured on was about right4 ,these two hundred and twenty-five birds went into the ,house1 ,october #cast4 ,they were already laying on the ,range4 ,first ,use of ,roosting ,closets ,it was a very interesting sight to us to watch these birds at work in the first house which had ever been successfully built without partitions1 in other words1 one large flock with the run of the entire house4 ,others had tried it1 and had failed4 ,they had had draughts1 and had found the house1 therefore1 very undesirable4 ,we conceived the idea of roosting closets1 with a partition extending some little distance beyond the dropping boards1 running from the ceiling to the floor1 thus breaking the house up so far as extended circulation of air went1 and at the same time giving the birds the benefit of the larger area4 ,it was also a matter of great interest to two novices to watch the egg output in this first house4 ,on the first day of ,november five eggs were gathered2 on the second1 seven2 the third saw a drop to four4 ,of course these pullets had been giving us more eggs than this on the ,range1 but a transfer from one place to another always means a set-back to a layer4 ,the middle of the month saw the hens producing above seventeen eggs a day4 ,december was started with an output of forty1 and from that the birds ran into larger numbers daily until the last of ,december1 when1 with the mercury registering well down around zero1 they were turning out one hundred eggs a day4 ,the increase in the egg output continued steadily1 and we found that ,march was the record month1 but the highest single day was in ,april1 when the pen produced one hundred and seventy eggs4 ,illustration3 ,,as ,,you ,,approach ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,from ,,the ,,public ,,highway1 ,,in #aiaa ,showing #bfd-;,foot ,brooder ,house1 ,breeding ,cockerel ,house and ,office ,we were well satisfied with the result of the ,winter's work with these pullets1 and1 although we did not have the knowledge that has since come to us in feeding for eggs1 the output was a most creditable one1 and we found a ready market at a good price4 ,early in the ,fall we had mapped out our plans for a very decided increase in plant for the coming season4 ,the excavation for the ,incubator ,cellar1 sixteen by fifty feet1 had been made1 and the ,brooder ,house above it was enclosed without difficulty before weather of any great severity overtook us4 ,we were blessed with a very late ,fall1 and mild weather continued1 with only occasional dips1 well into ,december1 #aijg4 ,we installed in the ,cellar ten incubators1 with a capacity of three hundred and ninety eggs each4 ,the ,brooder ,house1 with its arrangement for ,hovers and ,nursery pens1 was all completed1 and the month of ,march found us placing eggs in the machines4 ,in the ,fall of #aijg we had enlarged our ,breeding ,house1 so that we were able to place in it some two hundred and fifty breeders4 ,out of our original pen of thirty1 we had lost two4 ,from different sources we bought yearling hens1 and with our original twenty-eight1 made up the breeding pen4 ,of course1 as we had planned to endeavor to produce some three thousand pullets for the ,fall of #aijh1 we were obliged to very materially supplement the product of our own breeders1 with eggs from other sources1 and this we did1 buying eggs from different breeders1 in widely separated territories4 ,as the hatching season advanced we added one more incubator to our battery of ten1 and we placed in these incubators a total of eleven thousand eight hundred and four eggs1 of which two thousand and ninety-six showed dead germs and clear eggs on the fourteenth day test4 ,the resulting number of chicks placed in the ,brooder ,house was five thousand eight hundred and sixty-six for the entire season4 ,we found that the eggs purchased did not produce anything like the number of chicks1 that is1 strong1 livable chicks1 that did the eggs coming from our own breeding pen1 which proved to us that the method of feeding and caring for breeding stock1 pursued by others1 fell very far short of the results gotten by our own methods4 ,we ,count ,only ,livable ,chicks ,the lesson of incubation1 which it is so difficult to make people understand1 is not so much a question of how many chicks may be hatched from a given number of eggs as of how many strong1 livable chicks are brought out4 ,we very early in our hatching experience decided to count only those chicks1 which were strong1 and apparently capable of a steady growth and a sturdy maturity4 ,thus1 the count of the number of chicks produced1 does not really show the number which came out of the shells4 ,illustration3 ,,office ,,building ,we were extremely fortunate in handling the youngsters in the ,brooder ,house1 and our mortality was very low1 and when the youngsters were placed in the ,colony ,houses1 which had been built during the early ,spring months1 and placed out on the ,range in readiness for them1 they were a sturdy1 vigorous crowd4 ,percentage of ,cockerels ,low ,the number of cockerels was very low1 and these1 as rapidly as they developed1 were taken away from the pullets and placed in a fattening pen which had been provided1 and as our stock was still an 8unknown quantity0 in ,poultrydom1 we marketed the larger part of them at broiler size4 ,the pullets came on finely1 and the records show that a large number of them came into eggs when they were a few days over four months of age4 ,through the connivance of an employ we made a heavy loss in the way of theft1 and1 when the final round-up of the pullets came1 we found we had one thousand nine hundred and fifty-three4 ,during the ,summer1 we had built the ,no4 #b ,laying ,house1 sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet long1 and in this house the first fifteen hundred pullets were installed1 the balance going into ,no4 #a ,laying ,house4 ,a number of visitors had called at the ,farm during the ,summer of #aijh1 and we had listened to the different stories of the ease with which five thousand laying pullets were produced annually1 but at the end of this season we had much more respect for the number five thousand than we ever had before1 and realized very fully what it meant to produce that number of females each year4 ,with the placing of these fifteen hundred pullets in this ,house of one hundred and sixty feet in length by sixteen feet wide1 without being divided into separate pens1 each hen having the entire run of the ,house and no more 7that is1 she did not leave the house for a yard1 but stayed right in that space and did her work71 we accomplished what1 from the standpoint of all authorities on the subject of ,poultry1 was an impossible thing to do1 and have the hen produce anything4 ,and yet each hen had only two and one third square feet of floor space1 which included the dropping boards4 ,the secret of being able to work the hen successfully in such a limited space per bird is in the length of the house4 ,in reality1 every bird has one hundred and sixty feet by sixteen feet in which to exercise and roam4 ,the four hundred and fifty-three pullets which were placed in ,no4 #a ,laying ,house were given the entire run of this house1 of one hundred feet by twelve feet1 and yet the ,egg ,record for the ten months1 in which these birds never left either house1 is rather in favor of the house containing the fifteen hundred pullets4 ,the average number of eggs per pullet in these houses1 from ,december #ast1 #aijh1 to ,september #cjth1 #aiji1 was #adc4be4 ,many people who had seen the ,no4 #b ,house filled with the fifteen hundred pullets could hardly believe what they saw4 ,the ,great ,flock ,system ,succeeds ,the extreme health and great vigor of the birds was evident to anyone who looked in through the wire doors4 ,articles were written in numerous papers stating that the thing was impossible1 and that1 before many months1 absolute failure would result4 ,but in spite of all the prophecies the great flock system1 in the ,corning style ,house1 proved by its great success1 that a decided forward step had been made in economical management and housing of poultry4 ,we had gone ahead handling poultry in just the same way that any business would be handled1 plus the scientific study of the anatomy of the hen1 and what it was necessary to breed in order to accomplish a great success as a producer of large1 white1 uniform eggs1 with the ability added to that formula1 of turning them out in large quantities4 ,callers at the ,farm brought very forcibly home to us the fact1 then quite unappreciated by us1 that the methods employed1 and the results obtained1 were very remarkable from the standpoint of anything done in ,poultry ,culture up to that time4 ,it was pointed out that in almost every other case it was not known by the poultryman just where he stood at any time of the year1 let alone being able to tell where he stood every day of the year4 ,the success of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm really has that feature as its foundation stone4 ,before the close of the ten months of laying of the #aiec pullets we had received a number of overtures to put our methods and results into a book1 and1 after a time1 such a book was written4 ,the tremendous sale and success of that book is now a matter of history1 and the great number of people who were helped to better things in poultry1 and the still greater number of novices who were started on the road1 were enabled1 through this book1 to reach a success which1 as many of them testify1 would have been impossible without it4 ,in eighteen months over one hundred and forty thousand copies of this first book were sold4 ,hundreds of people came to the ,farm to find out for themselves whether or not the statements in the book were true1 and these people found everything1 down to the smallest detail1 just exactly as represented4 ,foreigners ,visit the ,farm ,the ,visitors' ,register1 which is kept at the ,farm1 shows callers from almost every nook and corner of the ,globe4 ,in ,scotland1 a short distance from ,glasgow1 there is now almost a perfect duplicate of ,sunny ,slope ,farm4 ,the owner1 who has twice crossed the ocean and come to the ,farm1 states that if you were blindfolded and taken from ,glasgow the three miles out to his property it would be quite impossible for you to tell whether you were in ,new ,jersey or ,scotland1 so absolutely alike are the buildings in every detail4 ,illustration3 ,,breeding ,,cockerels1 ,,fall ,,of #aiji ,in ,england1 a short distance from ,tunbridge1 the ,corning ,laying ,house is again found4 ,at this ,farm both ,white and ,black ,leghorns are carried1 and the owners write that they are meeting with great success in following the ,corning ,method4 ,investigated for ,germany ,germany sent a man who spent twelve months investigating the different methods of poultry raising and housing1 and he visited all the plants of any note whatever from the ,atlantic to the ,pacific1 including ,canada1 down to the ,gulf of ,mexico4 ,he did not make his mission known1 and it was only after his return to his native country that his identity was disclosed4 ,his report is of more than passing interest to ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 as it states that the ,method and ,system envolved on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm surpasses anything that has as yet come under his observation4 ,the investigator is not only conversant with what he saw in the line of poultry breeding during his twelve months' sojourn in ,america1 but he is thoroughly posted in regard to everything in ,europe4 ,the pullets were hardly placed in the ,nos4 #a and #b ,laying ,houses1 in the ,fall of #aijh1 before we began to plan for the ,spring of #aiji4 ,we had enlarged the ,breeding ,house again1 so that we now had housed some four hundred and seventy-five yearling and two year old hens4 ,these were made up from our breeding pen of the year before1 and as many of our two hundred and twenty-five pullets as qualified4 ,we bought a few other yearling hens from different sources1 and likewise the necessary complement of cockerels4 ,selection of ,cockerels ,we gave great care to the selection of the males heading the breeding pen1 every bird having perfect head points1 being strong and vigorous1 and as large as we could find him1 where we felt sure that no outside blood had been introduced4 ,the ,brooder ,house during the ,fall1 was materially added to1 giving us twenty ,hover ,pens1 three feet wide1 and twelve ,nursery ,pens1 each nearly five feet wide1 this giving us a ,brooder ,house #aah feet long by #af feet wide4 ,we again this year 7#aiji7 supplemented our own breeding pen with purchases of eggs from different sources4 ,pullets ,lay in #abi ,days ,our hatches this ,spring were very successful1 and the chicks which went up into the ,brooder ,house were strong and vigorous4 ,the mortality was low1 and when placed on ,range they grew rapidly4 ,the pullets came into eggs1 as they had in the two previous years1 within a few days after they passed the four months' mile-stone4 ,we had added some six ,colony ,houses to our range equipment4 ,the building originally designed for pigeons we planned to change over into a ,breeding ,house1 for1 in the ,fall of #aiji1 we would have a sufficient number of yearling hens to carry quite a breeding establishment4 ,this house was about completed in the month of ,may1 when it mysteriously took fire1 and was a complete loss4 ,fortunately the fire broke out at about ten o'clock in the morning1 and1 by the timely assistance of the boys of the ,wilson ,military ,academy1 under the able direction of the ,military ,officers of that ,academy1 we were able to confine it to this one building in spite of the fact that a high wind was blowing1 which carried the sparks directly on to the other buildings4 ,the water supply on the ,farm proved more than adequate to the necessities of the occasion1 and the loss was entirely covered by insurance4 ,as we desired to recognize the services of the young men1 and at the suggestion of the ,commanding ,officer1 medals were struck off commemorative of the fire and of the bravery displayed by these young men at this time1 and were presented to them4 ,an addition to the ,breeding ,house1 extending over the site of the burned building1 was immediately erected1 and the small building which had been used as a fattening pen for cockerels was rebuilt1 and became the breeding pen for the production of unrelated cockerels4 ,also during this season the ,no4 #c ,laying ,house was built1 this being an exact duplicate of the ,no4 #b ,house4 ,our selection of ,breeders for #aiaj was of course made from the birds which had completed their first ten months of pullet laying1 in the houses ,nos4 #a and #b4 ,the mortality during these months had been about #g per cent4 ,with our method of selection only #iej of these birds qualified to be used as yearling breeders1 and these were placed in the ,breeding ,house which had been prepared for them4 ,we had made a most careful selection of cockerels1 and these we had reared in two ,colony ,houses1 placed in a large yard1 where we were planning to eventually erect a ,cockerel ,house for the housing of cockerels specially selected for breeders4 ,the balance of the birds from ,nos4 #a and #b1 together with our breeders of #aiji1 were sold1 and we were able to face the hatching season of #aiaj with a very decided step forward towards the realization of the ideal yearling breeder1 which ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is working nearer to each season4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,laying ,,house ,,no4 #b ,,in #aiaj ,we placed in the ,laying ,houses ,nos4 #b and #c about #bgej pullets1 and our respect for the man who could successfully1 yearly1 produce and raise to maturity five thousand pullets1 increased materially4 ,keeping ,down ,labor ,bill ,the question of keeping down the labor bill on the ,farm has at all times been a matter of careful study1 and the machinery which is in use is of large capacity1 enabling us to turn out whatever may be required in a very short space of time1 and allowing the men to get at other work4 ,as an illustration2 the ,clover ,cutter on the ,farm has a capacity of #cjjj pounds an hour1 cut in one-fourth-inch lengths1 which enables us1 when we are cutting green food1 to turn out the amount required for the day1 fill the tubs1 and have it on the way to the ,laying ,houses1 in less than fifteen minutes4 ,the question of economy in time in handling the ,incubator ,cellar had been a problem1 which we finally solved by piping gas into the ,cellar and ,brooder ,house1 from the mains which are laid in the road passing the ,farm4 ,thus we did away with the danger of fire from sixteen incubator lamps 7for we now had in the cellar sixteen machines7 and the twenty ,hover lamps1 and the time and labor of cleaning and filling them4 ,we placed a governor on the gas main1 so that it was impossible to increase the pressure at any time of the day or night1 and the gas worked most satisfactorily in incubation and brooding4 ,the extensions on the ,farm planned for #aiaj were a ,cockerel ,house1 for the housing of breeding cockerels1 and the widening and lengthening of ,no4 #a ,laying ,house4 ,these alterations were made in ,no4 #a1 so that it was an exact counterpart of ,nos4 #b and #c4 ,we also planned1 as soon as the breeding season was over1 and the #aiaj breeding pen was shipped to the various buyers who had purchased these birds for ,august delivery 7and the entire pen was sold early in #aiaj71 to add another section to the ,breeder ,house1 and to build a few more ,colony ,houses4 ,then we built what we thought would be an adequate ,office to handle the business of the ,farm1 but which has since proved large enough for only one quarter of the present requirements4 ,we increased the size of the ,egg ,packing ,room1 and installed a freezer with a capacity of over two thousand pounds of green bone4 ,this practically covers the enlargements on the plant for #aiaj4 ,adopted ,hot ,water ,incubators ,for three years we had been investigating quietly the so-called ,mammoth ,incubators1 or in other words1 the ,coal ,heated1 ,hot ,water ,incubator1 and before the close of the hatching season of #aiaa we had decided to install two such machines in a cellar #adf feet long by #bb feet wide--this cellar to be built so as to allow us to extend the present ,brooder ,house to the same length and width as the cellar4 ,this cellar has since been constructed1 with a ,brooder ,house over it1 so that we now have capacity for the incubation of #ae1fjj eggs at one time4 ,the ,hot ,water ,system for heating the air supplying the ,hovers has also been installed1 and the ,brooder ,house now has a capacity of some #ab1jjj youngsters1 before it is necessary to move any of them to the ,range4 ,the ,breeder ,house has again been enlarged1 and1 with the addition1 a year hence1 of another ,breeding ,house1 which is planned to be #ahj feet long by #af feet wide1 and a larger house for the breeding of unrelated cockerels1 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm will have reached the limit planned for since the inception of the ,farm4 ,we shall then have a capacity of #dejj sterile pullets1 #cejj yearling hens for breeding purposes1 and housing for #abjj cockerels4 ,why ,great ,farms ,fail ,one reads of ,poultry ,farms carrying anywhere from twenty to forty thousand layers4 ,experience has taught us that the plant that gets beyond the size where those financially interested can supervise and know the condition of the ,farm from one end to another daily1 falls down of its own weight1 as it is impossible to find men1 unless financially interested1 who will look after the endless details1 which spell success or ruin on a large poultry plant4 ,the planning and designing of all buildings on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm was done by ourselves1 and all the construction has been done under our personal supervision4 ,in the first two years we did not contract even the labor1 employing simply 8handy men0 who worked with us under our instructions4 ,latterly1 with the large amount of routine and office work pressing upon us1 we found it to be wise economy to contract the labor1 ourselves supplying the material and supervising the work4 ,the buildings1 with the arrangement of all equipment1 are built in accordance with ideas thought and worked out by ourselves1 on lines which seemed to us common sense1 and economical in time and money for the handling of ,poultry4 ,until within the last two years we had never seen another poultry farm1 and those we have seen have only strengthened our conviction that no serious error has been made in laying out ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,plant4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,egg ,farming the ,most ,profitable ,branch of ,poultry ,keeping ,the profits are surer and larger4 ,the reason this is not more widely known is because1 in the past1 few people have been able to resist the temptation of attempting to cover a number of the different branches of poultry culture4 ,they have tried to get into the 8fancy10 and have dreamed of taking a blue ribbon at ,madison ,square ,garden1 or at some other large ,show4 ,then the broiler branch has engrossed their attention1 and from that they have gone on to soft roasters1 and the other phases of the slaughter house side of poultry for market purposes1 and they have endeavored to cover all the different branches from which money is made in poultry1 while entirely overlooking the fact that this is an age of specialization1 and that the person who would succeed in any business must make up his mind to follow one branch of it1 and bring that branch up to the highest efficiency4 ,developing the ,great ,layer ,from the start the ,builders of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 at ,bound ,brook1 ,n4 ,j41 realized these conditions1 and were never led into side issues but gave their entire thought and attention to the development of a great layer1 realizing that if this was to be accomplished everything except an egg must be considered a by-product1 and disposed of along the line of least resistance3 in short carrying out the ,scriptural injunction1 8,this one thing ,i do40 ,this one thought has been so successfully adhered to that the development of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm in five years has been remarkable in its production of the greatest laying type of hen yet produced1 the ,corning ,strain ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn1 placing the ,farm head and shoulders above any other ,egg ,farm anywhere in the ,country4 ,egg ,farming is profitable not only when carried on in a large way1 but1 to the suburban dweller1 a small number of hens in the back yard is a profitable investment1 and the system1 as worked out on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 succeeds with a few hens1 and enables the owner of a small plot of land to always have sanitary1 fresh eggs1 to reduce his grocery bills1 and materially increase the pleasure of suburban life4 ,corning ,method in ,small ,flocks ,two illustrations of the working out of the ,corning ,method in a small way would doubtless be of interest4 ,while it is true that the #af feet wide ,house is the most desirable from all standpoints1 the length of the house may be anything from #bj feet to #bjj feet1 as the house is of sectional construction1 #bj feet being a section4 ,in the back yard of a gentleman living in ,bound ,brook was kept a small pen of birds1 in all eighteen1 composed of hens and pullets4 ,these were a mixture of ,barred ,rocks and ,rhode ,island ,reds4 ,the pullets were of early hatch and should have come into eggs at least in the first week of ,october4 ,the hens completed the moult much earlier than is generally expected1 and still the owner was without eggs4 ,different methods1 and nostrums of guaranteed egg producing foods1 were tried1 but all without success4 ,after a call at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 he stated that in one week and three days the first eggs were found in the nests1 and the continuance of the ,corning ,method of feeding and working the hens produced eggs steadily through the ,winter months1 beginning with the middle of ,december1 and the birds continued to lay more than an average output until they went into the moult the following ,fall4 ,a gentleman1 who has a small place within a mile of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 some four years ago purchased hatching eggs from our ,breeding ,pen1 and the following ,fall he also bought a small pen of ,breeders4 ,he aims to produce and carry through the ,winter about one hundred pullets1 and for four years now1 by adhering strictly to the ,corning ,method1 and with the ,corning ,strain ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns1 he has met with a success almost phenomenal4 ,before he became conversant with the ,corning ,method 7and with the stock he was then carrying before beginning with the ,corning ,strain7 his success was represented by zero1 but to-day his balance sheets1 which he displays with great pride1 are extremely interesting reading4 ,this gives a very fair illustration of two small flocks of different size1 and of the results obtained4 ,on ,large ,farms ,turning now to the story of two egg farms which have been built within the last two years1 one in ,new ,jersey and the other in ,pennsylvania1 we find again most interesting and successful conditions4 ,the ,pennsylvania ,farm started its first season by the purchase from us of fifteen hundred hatching eggs4 ,the owner came to our ,farm and asked our assistance in planning his campaign of growth4 ,his hatch from the fifteen hundred eggs1 and he never had run an incubator before1 was some #ge per cent4 of all eggs set1 and1 by following the feeding methods prescribed1 his mortality was very low4 ,he placed in his ,laying ,house that ,fall some five hundred pullets1 and in ,july1 #aiaj1 he had sent us an order for three thousand eggs for the season of #aiaa4 ,as he told this story on a visit to ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 in the month of ,february1 #aiaa1 he had done the almost impossible1 simply by following the ,method laid down in the literature published by ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 and had made money from the second month that his pullets had begun to lay4 ,the quality of his eggs was such that he took over the trade of the largest hotel in a neighboring city1 so far as he was able to supply their wants4 ,illustration3 ,,panoramic ,,view ,,of ,,part ,,of ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm1 ,,photographed ,,in ,,october1 #aiaj4 ,the ,jersey ,egg ,farm referred to is owned and run by a gentleman of advanced years4 ,his first season's start was on a very small scale1 but he was most successful in bringing his pullets to the laying point1 and getting a remarkable output of eggs through the ,winter months4 ,in his district he was able to dispose of all his eggs to people who came to the door and paid the cash for them at prices ten to twenty cents per dozen above the market4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm received from him a very large order for hatching eggs for the season of #aiaa1 and this ,fall he had an elegant flock of pullets ready to house and turn out an ever increasing supply of eggs for the coming ,winter4 ,these four illustrations are a few of the many which ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is able to point to as the result of the use of its ,method4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,what is a ,fresh ,egg8--,an ,egg ,should be ,sanitary as ,well as ,fresh ,the answer one generally gets to this query is1 an egg so many hours old1 and1 as the average grocer prints the card1 8just laid40 8,fresh0 and 8new laid10 as applied to eggs1 mean nothing4 ,hens improperly fed lay eggs not only often unpalatable1 but that are carriers of disease4 ,the hen's productive organs are so constructed that bacteria which she may take into her crop with impure food are passed into the egg4 ,manure ,drainage to ,drink ,an egg being eighty per cent4 water1 consider the effect on eggs produced by the farmers' flocks1 where the water supply is mainly pools in the barn yard1 which receive the drainage from the manure piles1 and where the principal food supply is scratched out of manure heaps1 consisting of undigested grain that has already passed through another animal4 ,a hen must have a large proportion of animal food to lay well1 and to produce rich1 nutritious eggs4 ,diseased ,meat to ,eat ,consider what in many instances this animal food consists of1 carcasses of glandered horses1 tuberculous cows1 and putrid and maggoty meat4 ,if a dish of putrid beef were placed on the table before people they would shrink back in horror1 yet they will eat eggs which have been produced by hens which have been fed on these identical ingredients1 apparently entirely oblivious of the fact that the hen performs no miracle in the production of an egg1 but simply manufactures the egg from the materials1 whatever they may be1 which she gathers into her system4 ,as the ,food1 so the ,egg ,the ,chief of the ,bureau of ,chemistry1 ,u4 ,s4 ,department of ,agriculture1 says that while such conditions undoubtedly do exist it cannot be proven that such eggs are shipped from ,state to ,state1 and that1 therefore1 it does not come under the jurisdiction of the ,interstate ,commerce ,commission1 and cannot be controlled under the ,national ,pure ,food ,law4 ,what is needed1 then1 is to know that eggs are not only fresh1 but sanitary4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm layers are fed the best quality of grains and meals that can be procured4 ,the animal food is supplied by fresh1 green bone1 cut and prepared daily4 ,this bone comes from inspected cattle only1 and the ,farm is equipped with a large freezing plant for the purpose of carrying the bone in a perfectly fresh condition4 ,the hens are housed and cared for under absolutely sanitary conditions4 ,a ,perfect ,egg a ,rarity ,the growing interest in ,poultry ,culture is bringing the ,public to a realization of the fallacy of the old idea that 8any egg not rotten must be a good egg40 ,comparatively few people have ever eaten a perfect egg4 ,with the growth of real egg farms through the country1 the time is approaching when the words 8fresh0 or 8strictly fresh0 will no longer mean anything to the purchaser1 and the word 8sanitary0 will take their place1 and in some way the egg trade will be controlled1 and the grocer1 and butcher1 and peddlers of eggs1 will not be allowed to put cold storage eggs out as a sanitary article of food4 ,some of the ,new ,york papers are now beginning to agitate the question of ,sanitary ,eggs1 notably the ,new ,york ,commercial1 which is a leader in this educational line4 ,the day is coming when the person who is operating an egg farm that is known to produce the egg of real quality will have no difficulty in obtaining the price that such an article is really worth4 ,unlimited ,demand for ,quality ,eggs ,there is an unlimited demand for an egg which can be depended upon as to quality4 ,the difficulty that the seller meets with when going to a hotel or restaurant is the fact that the proprietor has been fooled many times4 ,as they have put it1 8people start well1 and for a time keep up the quantity1 and the quality is all right1 but when the stringent time of year comes they fall down as to quantity1 and a little later they have evidently been tempted to keep up the quantity by gathering eggs from other sources than their own1 and then we meet with the questionable pleasure of having a patron at our tables return to us an egg just ready to hatch40 ,when one seeks private trade for the output of his hennery it is possible to obtain extreme prices1 provided the buyers can be convinced of the absolutely high quality of what they are purchasing4 ,in ,new ,york1 last year1 for a few weeks1 a man1 gotten up as a veritable 8hay-seed0 farmer1 sold eggs from house to house through the streets running from #deth to #feth1 in large quantities4 ,they were all marked in red ink with the date on which they were said to be laid4 ,he did not last very long1 and his liberty was curtailed1 and for some time he graced one of the free institutions where iron bars obstruct the view of the surrounding country4 ,it developed that this enterprising crook was buying the culls from cold storage houses1 and1 in a basement on #dc;d ,street near the ,north ,river1 he had eight girls steadily at work marking the alleged dates when these eggs were laid4 ,the difficulty seems to be that when you reach the question of a 8fresh egg10 everyone1 almost1 becomes a fakir4 ,the grocers1 many of them1 buy case after case of storage eggs1 and1 when the retail price reaches sixty-five cents a dozen for so called 8fresh eggs10 they are supplying all buyers with the cold storage product1 in quantities practically unlimited4 ,their counters are always decorated with baskets of these 8just laid1 perfectly fresh eggs40 ,therefore1 it becomes necessary for the ,egg ,farmer to satisfy customers1 beyond peradventure1 as to his ability to himself supply the goods which he contracts to deliver1 and after once doing this his experience will be the same as that of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 not to be able to keep and properly look after enough hens to turn out half the eggs he could sell at profitable prices1 because the price he asks does not discourage customers who are willing to pay well for a really satisfactory article4 ,the following is the basis on which ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm makes all its contracts for table eggs4 ,,sunny ,,slope ,,farm 7,,the ,,great ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm7 ,,produces ,,eggs ,,for ,,the ,,table 8,,which ,,cannot ,,be ,,surpassed0 ,,white1 ,,they ,,are3 ,,sterile1 ,,sanitary1 ,,fresh1 ,,sterile4--,the hens producing ,eggs for the ,table are housed by themselves and their eggs do not contain the life germ1 giving a purity not otherwise obtained4 ,,sanitary1--because of the clean1 fresh air housing and best quality of pure food and water4 ,people are learning the necessity of investigating the source from which ,eggs come more carefully than milk or water1 as it is now known that ,eggs can be a greater carrier of disease than either milk or water4 ,,fresh1--because eggs laid one day are delivered the next4 ,,our ,,methods and feeding formulas give these eggs a delicious flavor1 peculiarly their own4 ,,every ,,egg sold by us is produced on ,sunny ,slope ,farm1 and is guaranteed as above stated4 ,,once ,,bought1 ,,always ,,sought ,,sunny ,,slope ,,farm ,,bound ,,brook ,,new ,,jersey4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,preparation of ,eggs for ,market ,if high prices are to be obtained for eggs they must not only be good1 but have a look of 8class10 to the would be purchaser4 ,they must be spotlessly clean1 and1 as far as possible1 each dozen should present a uniform appearance4 ,one is able to know each day the exact price of the class of eggs which he is selling1 for the ,egg ,market is like the ,stock or ,bond ,market1 and one who is in the ,egg business is dealing with a commodity which at all times is salable at a price4 ,at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm we receive daily the reports from the ,exchange1 as given in the ,new ,york ,commercial4 ,these are cut out and placed in a scrap book1 so that1 from year to year1 we are able to tell exactly what the conditions were on any given date1 and form a very close idea as to what can be expected in regard to prices4 ,and so we have an absolute basis of prices for contracts4 ,the nearest quotation to the egg which is produced by ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is what is termed 8,state ,pa4 and nearby ,hennery1 white1 fancy1 large40 ,this we take as a basis and arrange our prices from it daily1 adding the advance which the ,corning sanitary table egg brings4 ,illustration3 #cj ,,dozen ,,corning ,,sanitary ,,fresh ,,eggs ,,ready ,,to ,,ship ,it is quite impossible1 with the growth of the country and the demand for better things in all food products1 to over-do the production of ,sanitary ,eggs4 ,the following pages show the manner in which the quotations are placed in our ,scrap ,book4 ,illustration3 ,new ,york ,commercial ,illustration3 ,new ,york ,commercial ,,chapter ,v ,the ,selection of the ,breed--,the ,strain is of ,utmost ,importance ,to a man engaging in any branch of ,poultry ,culture the selection of the proper breed is of grave importance1 but to the man who is planning an ,egg ,farm it is without doubt of graver importance than where any other branch of the poultry business is to be carried on4 ,for many years different localities have believed that there was very decided merit in the different colored egg shells4 ,the ,culture of ,boston was certain that the dark shell contained an egg with a richer flavor1 while ,new ,york and vicinity would believe in nothing but the white shelled egg4 ,it is1 however1 noted with interest that the ,culture of ,boston has discovered that the color of the shell really has nothing to do with the flavor of the egg1 and to-day the rigid adherence to a premium paid for the dark shelled egg1 generally throughout the ,new ,england ,states1 is rapidly passing into history4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,strain ,,that ,,makes ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,famous ,as ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm was located within a few miles of ,new ,york ,city the breeds which laid the white shelled egg were the only ones worthy of consideration1 and1 in the study of the question1 it was found there was another important matter confronting the egg farmer1 as to the breed which he should keep1 whether a setter1 or a non-setter4 ,on an egg farm1 where hundreds of layers are to be kept1 if any of the ,asiatics1 or so called ,american ,breeds1 were kept1 they would be a source of considerable added expense1 first1 in the way of loss of eggs during their numerous broody periods2 second1 in the necessary buildings in which to carry the 8broody biddies0 until they have become sensible1 and are in a proper frame of mind to be returned to the ,laying ,house4 ,this might look on its face a small affair1 but success to ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm has come through watching every corner1 and while sparing no needed expenditure1 avoiding unnecessary and foolish outlay4 ,so1 to the man who would really meet with a large success1 all the breeds which lay the dark shelled egg1 because of their setting propensity1 must be eliminated4 ,all the members of the ,mediterranean family are layers of the white shelled egg1 and are what is termed 8non-setting40 ,s4 ,c4 ,white ,leghorns ,outclass ,all ,before deciding we looked the different members of this family over with considerable care1 and we found that the ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn is the fowl that out-classes all the others for the purpose of an egg farm4 ,it is a bird1 where properly bred1 of great hardiness and stamina4 ,it readily adapts itself to all conditions of climate1 and1 where the right 8strain0 is procured1 it is never a disappointer as to the number1 size1 and the class of eggs which it produces4 ,we1 therefore1 decided to adopt the ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn1 and we have outlined1 in a previous chapter1 how we went to work to build up the unequaled ,corning ,strain1 by the most careful selection1 and scientific mating4 ,prof4 ,gowell1 at the ,maine ,agricultural ,station1 carried on his breeding with ,barred ,plymouth ,rocks1 and it is interesting to note that his average for some eight years1 taking his star performers1 was #acd4bg eggs per hen for twelve months1 while at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm the flocks of fifteen hundred pullets averaged per hen1 for ten months laying1 #adc4be eggs in #aiji1 and #ade4aa eggs in #aiaj4 ,here was a difference of two months in time1 and yet the large flocks1 taken as a whole1 not weeding out a few star performers1 surpassed the twelve months' record of the ,barred ,plymouth ,rocks at the ,maine ,station by almost nine eggs in #aiji1 and ten eggs in #aiaj4 ,this significant fact made considerable impression on a number of breeders in the neighborhood of ,boston1 with the result that1 in the last two years1 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm has supplied a large number of hatching eggs and considerable breeding stock for farms in ,new ,england4 ,as one gentleman from ,boston pointed out1 even with the difference in price between the brown and the white egg1 he found that he could not really afford to continue with the breeds laying the brown egg1 for the ,leghorn1 in numbers1 more than made up for the slight difference in price between the two colors1 in the ,boston ,market4 ,and1 as he still further pointed out1 it took less food to supply the ,leghorn than it did any of the larger breeds1 and this1 of course1 was another source of economy4 ,it should be remembered that the 8,strain0 of any breed is most important4 ,one may purchase ,white ,leghorns where the inbreeding has been so great that they are not capable of laying eggs in large numbers1 and the percentage of fertility from the hatching standpoint in such birds will be a most uncertain quantity4 ,such chicks as may be hatched will be far from strong1 and the mortality will run into figures which will dishearten anyone4 ,line ,breeding--,not ,inbreeding ,in the building up of a great strain of birds it is necessary to 8line breed10 for1 if the old theory of introducing new blood to prevent inbreeding1 and the method of introducing the new blood1 was1 as is done in so many places even to-day1 by introducing males from other sources1 the entire system falls down4 ,nothing is accomplished and time is worse than wasted4 ,the possibility of handing down the virtues of mother to daughter1 and of father to son1 is eliminated4 ,if all the qualities of a given 8,strain0 are to be handed down line breeding must be adhered to in the strictest sense4 ,inbreeding1 however1 must be avoided1 or disaster will follow4 ,how ,corning ,farm ,produces ,unrelated ,cockerels ,the ,method of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is as follows3 a pen of carefully selected yearling hens is set aside in what is known as 8the pen for the production of unrelated cockerels40 ,a most carefully selected cockerel to every twelve hens is placed in the pen4 ,incubators are run with eggs from this pen only1 and the resulting chicks are marked before being placed in the ,brooder ,house4 ,the cockerels which appear with this marking are grown to maturity1 those coming up to our standard being selected to head the breeding pens for the following season4 ,the marked pullets are placed in the ,laying ,houses with the other pullets1 but are never selected for yearling breeders on our own ,farm4 ,in pens sold to others we always furnish unrelated cockerels4 ,having hatched a sufficient number of chicks to produce about four hundred cockerels1 no further eggs are set from this pen1 and1 at the end of the season1 all the birds comprising this pen are sold4 ,this ,method of line breeding hands down the laying quality which has been so developed1 and which is being increased from season to season in an unbroken line1 but inbreeding is absolutely avoided1 and the vigor of the stock is maintained4 ,perhaps1 in closing the chapter1 nothing could be more apt than a letter received from a ,breeder of ,crystal ,white ,orpingtons1 in the neighborhood of one of the large ,western ,cities4 ,the letter-head1 in large type1 states1 8,breeder of ,crystal ,white ,orpingtons1 the ,great ,winter ,layer40 ,the contents of the letter is as follows3 8,as ,i am now planning to go into the ,egg business1 and desire to follow your method as closely as possible1 and1 while in this locality there is not such a marked preference for the white egg over the brown1 still the ,white ,leghorn1 of a good strain1 doubtless outlays any other breed known1 and the shape of its egg is such that it is superior for table use1 to any laid by the dark shelled family4 ,it1 therefore1 is my purpose1 as rapidly as possible to work into a large flock of ,leghorns1 with ,corning stock as a basis40 ,it will be noted that the gentleman is a breeder of ,crystal ,white ,orpingtons1 and prints in large type on his letter-head1 8,the ,great ,winter ,layer10 but that when it comes down to 8brass tacks10 from the standpoint of the hen which will produce an egg for table use1 and the hen that will give you the requisite number to make the dollars1 the ,breeder of the ,crystal ,white ,orpingtons wants to put in the ,corning ,strain of ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,advantages of the ,large ,flock ,system--,reduces ,cost of ,housing and ,economizes in ,time and ,labor ,for many years the floor space per hen has been an interesting study to anyone reading poultry literature1 either in books or in magazine articles4 ,some fifteen years ago it was generally considered for a hen to do at all well she must have at least twenty square feet of floor space4 ,later1 the number of feet was divided by half1 and for some time ten square feet was considered to be the very least a hen could possibly do with4 ,then we come to the four square feet period1 and this created a great deal of controversy4 ,many writers declared that it was impossible for any hen1 no matter how housed1 to do well in such a restricted space4 ,at times1 some visionary writer pictured a flock in one house1 of what was then considered an enormous size4 ,one ,professor of poultry went so far as to state that he had successfully kept some three hundred hens in one flock1 and had obtained most satisfactory results4 ,this statement1 however1 was denied by others1 and the ,professor wrote an article in which he set forth that1 while he had done this1 he would never think of suggesting that the average poultry-keeper attempt it4 ,in his statement there were some truths that it is well to remember1 namely1 that the average poultry-keeper would not give the flock the care and supervision necessary to keep it in health4 ,in other words1 the poultry-keeper would not attend to the necessary cleanliness1 and disease would break out1 and1 in the average poultry house1 under such conditions1 this would mean the total annihilation of the flock4 ,illustration3 ,,three ,,sterile ,,laying ,,houses ,,containing #dejj ,,pullets1 ,,with ,a ,,floor ,,space ,,of #gfhj ,,square ,,feet ,draughts the ,stumbling ,block ,as economy of space and labor is one of the main factors in getting a commercial profit where poultry is operated with1 the large flock system appealed most strongly to ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,long houses1 under one roof1 without divisions1 had been attempted by others1 and the endeavor to discover the reason for the failures1 where this had been attempted1 was a very interesting study4 ,it was found that the main stumbling block in houses of this type was draughts4 ,to eliminate the draughts was the problem we then undertook to solve4 ,it was found that if the houses were built in sections of twenty feet1 and the partitions which divided the house into roosting closets were extended twelve inches beyond the dropping boards1 and were carried from the floor to the roof1 the air currents were broken up1 and the difficulty of draughts was overcome4 ,houses1 as we believed in constructing them1 were expensive1 unless it was possible to carry a very large number of layers successfully in them4 ,in studying the two hundred and twenty-five pullets as they worked contentedly in the ,no4 #a ,laying ,house1 which was but twelve feet wide1 we became convinced that it was perfectly possible in a house sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet in length to carry fifteen hundred layers4 ,this1 to be sure1 allowed the hen only a little over two square feet of floor space1 with the dropping boards included4 ,but1 as we figured it1 the hen also had the entire house for floor space1 and1 while it is true that fourteen hundred and ninety-nine sisters were her near neighbors1 they all enjoyed the same large space to roam in4 ,a house1 then1 of this size1 accommodating fifteen hundred layers1 was not an expensive house per bird1 and1 when you consider that the construction was such that the up-keep was practically nothing1 it became not only not an expensive house1 but really a very cheap one4 ,the success of the fifteen hundred layers in one house proved itself at once1 and we never have seen the slightest necessity for altering the plan of the ,laying ,house1 as we first laid it out4 #b1jjj ,birds to a ,house ,the large flock system works economies1 then1 in housing1 in the amount of labor necessary to care for the birds1 and in gathering the eggs4 ,and there is no doubt but that a house of considerably greater length1 with a flock ranging as high as two thousand birds1 could successfully be handled4 ,in fact1 on one farm which has been in existence over twenty-five years1 a ,corning ,method ,laying ,house of two hundred feet in length has been in operation now for twelve months1 and the owners write us that it is the most successful house on their entire farm1 and that as rapidly as possible they are rebuilding all their ,laying ,houses1 and making them of this type4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,what is the ,winter ,layer8--,the ,properly ,hatched and ,reared ,pullet ,many people have a very erroneous idea with regard to getting ,winter eggs4 ,they seem to think any hen should produce eggs in ,winter4 ,the hen generally moults in the early ,fall1 and ,nature has provided this time of rest for her4 ,the egg organs cease to produce1 for the hen finds she has all she can do to supply the necessary material for her new dress1 and this is a very serious drain on her system4 ,the natural time1 however1 for a pullet to begin to lay is when she reaches maturity1 and1 as the pullet hatched in the early ,spring1 properly cared for1 should come into eggs in the early ,fall1 the pullet1 then1 is the ,winter layer4 ,it must still be remembered that the domesticated fowl of to-day is a bird of evolution4 ,in its wild state a pullet did not begin to lay eggs in the ,fall1 and neither did she lay a large number of eggs at any time4 ,with the coming of ,spring1 and an abundance of succulent green food1 and large quantities of animal food in the shape of a great variety of worms and insects1 she laid and hatched her brood4 ,therefore1 to have successful ,winter layers1 it is necessary to produce as nearly as possible the ,spring-time conditions4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,laying ,,house ,,no4 #a ,,in #aiaj ,must ,feed ,green ,food ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 when the pullets are brought up from the ,range into the ,laying ,houses1 the majority of them have already been laying on the ,range1 and they are in fit condition to be brought strongly into eggs4 ,they are fed a large quantity of succulent green food1 in the form which1 perhaps1 is more delicious to the hen than any other1 that is1 ,sprouted ,oats4 ,the quantity of animal food in their mash is increased1 and1 with the vigorous digging for the grain in the deep litter1 the problem of ,winter eggs is solved1 and from day to day1 the number of eggs coming from the pullet houses1 increases very rapidly4 ,on the other hand1 the pullet which has completed its first ten months of laying is well advanced in the moult1 and is becoming a yearling hen4 ,those qualifying under the drastic examination for perfect type are selected for the next year's ,breeders1 and are removed to the ,breeding ,houses1 which have been thoroughly disinfected and put in the most sanitary condition to receive them4 ,those not reaching the ,corning ,standard are marketed1 as we sell culls only to the butcher4 ,the aim in handling the yearling hen is not to get eggs from her during the ,winter1 but to give her a long rest1 and to build her up1 and put her in the pink of condition for the coming breeding season1 and it is the aim at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm to have as few eggs produced as possible from the breeding pens until about the first of ,january1 when an increased amount of animal food is added to the daily ration for the purpose of bringing the hens into eggs1 and within a few days there is a very rapid increase in the number of eggs from these pens4 ,it must be remembered that the profit in ,winter eggs is made from pullets1 and to be successful in this line the ,laying ,houses must be well stocked with them4 ,yearling and two year old hens are the proper breeding females4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,method is one of continuous rotation1 as follows3 ,incubator to ,brooder ,house4 ,brooder ,house to ,range4 ,range to ,laying ,house4 ,those selected as coming up to the ,corning ,standard go to the ,breeder ,house4 ,at the end of the second year the ,breeders are all sold for foundation stock4 ,this gives an opportunity to the public to procure the very best ,breeders at a most reasonable price4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,a ,great ,laying ,strain--,the ,selection of ,breeders to ,produce ,it ,the first requisite is to breed from a mature animal1 from a real yearling hen4 ,the term 8yearling hen0 is a misnomer1 for1 when she is twelve months of age she has not as a rule developed into a true yearling hen4 ,the female has five months of growth1 ten months of laying1 and then she moults1 which process varies in duration from eight to ten weeks4 ,eighteen ,months ,old ,when she has completed the moult1 her entire anatomy has undergone a change1 and she is a mature animal1 about eighteen months of age1 a fit specimen to reproduce her kind1 and her off-spring will be strong and vigorous youngsters4 ,the great mortality one reads of among chicks can be traced more to breeding from immature females than to any other cause4 ,the general method of selecting breeders for a great many years has been by the use of 8trap nests40 ,surely the use of a mechanical device is a poor method to determine what hens are proper for breeding purposes1 and really the trap nest tells you nothing4 ,in every pen there are daily a number of eggs which are not laid in the nest at all4 ,to what particular hen does the attendant credit eggs found in hollows scooped out in corners under the dropping boards8 ,it is a peculiarity of 8,biddy0 that where she sees an egg she almost always decides it is a good and proper place for her to lay another4 ,thus1 on some days1 where trap nests are in use1 it may be necessary to make a great number of guesses as to which hen did not lay in the traps1 but on the floor4 ,trap ,nests a ,failure ,there is another reason why trap nests really tell you nothing4 ,take two females of a pen whose numbers are one and two4 ,for the first few weeks ,no4 #a surpasses her sister ,no4 #b in the production of eggs4 ,to this pen1 clover has been the green food fed1 and of this ingredient the farm has run short4 ,the shipment has been expected daily but did not arrive1 and1 because of that failure1 for four or five days no other green food was provided4 ,then cabbage was resorted to to take the place of the clover4 ,the pen having been without green food for a number of days was fairly greedy for it1 and good1 crisp cabbage suits the palate of many hens exactly1 and they are very apt to overdo the matter in eating it4 ,a great layer must be a large eater1 and so hen ,no4 #a gorged herself on the cabbage4 ,her digestive organs were upset1 and for a number of weeks she ceased laying1 while hen ,no4 #b continued to shell out a fair number of eggs4 ,the owner of these birds1 when it came time for the selection of the breeders1 expressed his great disappointment over hen ,no4 #a4 ,she had started so well1 and then had blown up entirely1 and so she is passed up1 and hen ,no4 #b is accepted as a breeder4 ,illustration3 ,,one ,,of ,,the ,,breeding ,,houses ,,just ,,after ,,mating #aiaj ,now1 if the anatomy of these two birds had been studied1 it would have been found at once that hen ,no4 #a was much better qualified to take a place in the breeding pen than hen ,no4 #b4 ,the mere fact that the trap nest record of any female shows a phenomenal number of eggs laid in ten or twelve months does not necessarily prove that she is a proper animal to breed from4 ,post-mortem examinations show in many cases that they are freaks1 and1 while they have laid a great number of eggs1 there was much to be desired in regard to the eggs1 as to their size1 shape1 and color4 ,as a matter of fact it would have been a great mistake to have bred from such an individual4 ,type ,reproduces ,type ,it must be remembered that type produces type1 and the only proper way to select birds for the breeding pen which will produce progeny capable of great egg production is to thoroughly understand their anatomy4 ,it is impossible to produce a great performer in any line unless the animal is of a build capable of the performance4 ,no one would expect to breed a two-minute trotter from a ,shetland ,pony4 ,the hen which is capable of becoming an ideal layer must have a deep keel1 a long body1 and1 as she faces out1 she must have an appearance of broadness1 and must be the shape of a wedge back to the point where the wings join the body4 ,the ,large ,flock ,system is carried on in the ,breeding ,pen on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 and it has been most successful4 ,it has been found that the small pen does not produce the high fertility continuously which the ,large ,flock ,system does4 ,during the season of #aiaj1 for long periods1 the fertility ran as high as #if1 and as early as the first of ,march it was above #ij4 ,in the season of #aiaa1 eggs incubated in the early part of ,february1 ran above #ia1 and during the season there were times when the fertility reached #ig4 ,the ,breeding ,pens are mated up two weeks before eggs are to be used for incubation1 and early hatched cockerels are used to head these ,breeding ,pens4 ,it has been found that the mating of cockerels with yearling hens produces a very decided predominance of pullets1 and the youngsters are strong and vigorous from the start4 ,the proportion of mating is one to twelve1 and the records of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm show that by this method of mating the number of cockerels produced1 through the years that the ,farm has been in operation1 has been as low as one-quarter1 and as high as one-third4 ,the males to head the pens are selected with the same care that the hens are4 ,they are all perfect birds1 of large size1 and conform as closely as possible to the standard requirements1 without interfering with the paramount aim of producing a ,great ,layer4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,what is the ,best ,time to ,hatch8 ,the question which is the title of this chapter is asked over and over again4 ,you see it propounded to the editor of almost every poultry paper in the country4 ,and it is a difficult one to answer1 because the various needs of different people are so diversified4 ,april and ,may are doubtless the natural hatching seasons for all varieties4 ,climatic conditions are then kinder1 the food which is necessary for the production of many eggs1 and eggs of the strong hatchable kind1 is supplied by ,nature in great abundance1 and the young chick coming into life in these months finds a great variety of natural food of the very best kind for growth awaiting it4 ,in ,spring eggs run strongly fertile1 and in every way ,nature seems to lend herself to successful hatching1 and the starting of the young chick properly on its journey4 ,the man1 however1 who is operating an egg farm1 and has made contracts for the delivery of a continuous supply of eggs to exacting customers1 cannot well afford to wait until these months to hatch in1 for it is necessary for him to have a large number of pullets reaching maturity and beginning to lay1 before his last year's pullets reach the moulting period and stop egg production4 ,to accomplish this it is necessary to have in his brooder house1 by not later than the first week of ,march1 a goodly number of yellow babies4 ,from that time on he must keep them coming1 so as to have a sufficient number a few weeks apart to take the place of the yearling hens going into the moult4 ,in this way he will succeed in keeping up a continuous flow of eggs4 ,it is true there is a danger in these early hatched pullets4 ,they may go into what is called the ,winter moult1 after laying well into the month of ,december1 but they will not all moult1 and before there is a marked shrinkage the later hatches will be laying strongly4 ,the moult which occurs with early hatched birds does not last as long as the moult coming in the regular season4 ,the birds soon return to the nest1 and the house rapidly jumps back to a very large output of eggs for the coming ,spring months4 ,thus the great increase in numbers helps to offset the decrease in price1 and to equalize the bank account4 ,it must be remembered1 however1 that ,leghorns hatched up to the #beth of ,june make good ,winter layers provided they are properly cared for1 and given the food and attention which produces a great growth1 and under such conditions one will find no difficulty in getting them into laying eggs readily by the time they are five months of age4 ,an ,interesting ,experiment in ,late ,hatching ,in the season of #aiaj ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm made a very interesting experiment1 in a large way1 so far as late hatching goes4 ,we incubated two large batches of eggs1 the first being set so that the chicks hatched from the #ahth to the #bfth of ,july2 the second batch completed incubation ,august #aeth4 ,the resulting pullets from these two hatches were some fifty odd over twelve hundred4 ,we carried them on ,range until ,december #ast1 and then placed them in a ,laying ,house by themselves4 ,they had not begun to lay on ,range so far as we were able to discover1 although many of the pullets had the appearance of eggs4 ,almost from the start1 after they were placed in the ,colony ,houses1 we fed them1 in addition to the regular ,range ration1 a good supply of ,sprouted ,oats each day4 ,this was done for the reason that of course the succulent green food had passed away1 and we consider it of vital importance that growing birds be given the opportunity to gather a large supply of succulent green food4 ,the records show that within three days after the pullets were placed in the ,laying ,house we began to gather from one to three eggs a day4 ,before ,december was over the house was producing #aj2 ,january saw #ce output of eggs1 and before ,february was very far advanced we were doing better than #fj4 ,there was a time in ,march when the ,house was yielding a #ge output4 ,illustration3 ,,sprouted ,,oats ,,cellar ,these birds laid strongly all ,summer1 and we were interested in noting when they would start to moult4 ,we had seen the statement made a number of times that late hatched pullets were very late moulters4 ,in our experience1 however1 this did not prove to be true1 for this pen of birds moulted at just about the same time1 and in the same proportion1 as the earlier hatches did4 ,we had frequently seen it stated that birds hatched in the very last week of ,august1 or the first week in ,september1 would produce eggs at the same time that the ,june hatched pullets would begin to produce them4 ,our experience with ,june hatches1 and we have had four years of it1 disproves this statement absolutely4 ,we find that the ,june hatched pullet1 properly cared for1 comes in quite as rapidly as those hatched in ,april and ,may4 ,we do not wish to go on record as advocates of ,july and ,august hatching1 but we simply wish to show what could be accomplished if a ,breeder met with some misfortune1 and was compelled to hatch late or not at all4 ,,chapter ,x ,succulent ,green ,food--,satisfactory ,egg ,production ,impossible ,without ,it ,a goodly supply of green food is necessary to all birds1 the growing chicken as well as the yearling hen1 for it is a great aid to digestion1 helping to properly assimilate all foods as they are taken into the crop1 and passed through the great grinding mill of a chicken4 ,there is no possible hope of a full egg supply from any ,laying ,house where a large quantity of green food is not fed daily4 ,it may be fed in many forms4 ,clover or ,alfalfa 7and we are now speaking first of the ,winter supply of green food7 may be procured in a dry state1 and by properly scalding it with hot water it may be made to almost live again1 so far as its freshness and delightful odor go4 ,in many cases the preparation of ,clover or ,alfalfa spoils it4 ,the water should be quite at the boiling point1 and it should be poured over1 preferably it should be put on with a sprinkling can4 ,the method at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is to place whichever we are using of the ,clover family in pails1 a given number for each ,laying ,house1 and as they stand in rows the hot water is applied with a sprinkling can4 ,the contents are not allowed to steep1 but as soon as the second wetting of the long row of pails is reached they are placed on the delivery wagon and at once taken to their destination4 ,when the contents are emptied from the pails they will be steaming hot1 too hot for the birds to take at first1 and you will find them standing in a ring around the ,clover1 and from time to time testing the heat4 ,as soon as it is cool enough they will devour it with great avidity4 ,where ,alfalfa is fed some flocks give considerable difficulty at first as they do not seem to relish it1 but after a short time they seem to acquire the taste1 and become very fond of it4 ,it contains a higher amount of protein than the ordinary ,clover which can be bought in the market1 but in purchasing ,alfalfa products one should be careful not to buy a large quantity of dirt1 but get what is known as 8short cut10 and have it carefully sifted4 ,by many people cabbages are considered a most excellent green food for ,winter use1 but if they are chopped up and fed to the layers considerable caution should be used in the feeding4 ,they are very apt to upset the digestive organs of the birds1 and that means a very decided decrease in the number of eggs4 ,this is equally true of ,mangle beets and other roots which in many cases are used4 ,sprouted ,oats ,best ,at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm we are strong believers in ,sprouted ,oats as a green food1 and we now maintain a cement ,cellar1 with good drainage1 which is used for nothing else4 ,the method of sprouting oats is really very simple1 and does not require the arduous labor which one would imagine from numerous articles written on the subject4 ,how ,they ,are ,grown on the ,farm ,we have frames three by six feet in size1 built of ordinary boards1 but not matched material4 ,the sides are about four inches high4 ,these frames are laid on the floor of the ,cellar1 and each frame is filled with forty-eight quarts of oats spread evenly over the bottom4 ,we have a large sprinkler attached to the hose1 and the oats are thoroughly wet as they lie in the trays1 and this wetting is repeated every morning4 ,in a temperature from fifty to sixty degrees we find that the oats have started to sprout about the third day1 and from this on the growth is very fast4 ,parts of the oats in the frame will swell two or three inches in places1 above the surrounding mass of oats1 and we make it a practice to place the sprinkler directly on top of this swelling1 and it is found by so doing that the frame in a short time will present a very even growth4 ,if the ,sprouted ,oats are fed when the green tops are from one and a half to two inches in length the chemical quality of the oat is not lost1 and we really get a double ration when it is fed4 ,if allowed to go beyond this length1 they are then just an ordinary green food4 ,in many instances we have noticed writers advocating soaking the oats overnight1 and then1 for the next few days1 to periodically stir them4 ,and in other cases writers advise1 when they are placed in the frames to turn the oats over4 ,this is a serious mistake1 for anyone can readily see that the tender shoots1 which grow most rapidly after the third day1 would be broken off1 and where this occurs the oats will rot4 ,oats1 of course1 can be sprouted in sheds1 or even out-of-doors1 if they are covered up so that the sun will not dry them out too rapidly4 ,a frame should be made in such a manner that the water sprayed over the oats will slowly drain away4 ,there are a number of different contrivances now being placed on the market for sprouting oats1 and we have no doubt that1 on small plants1 some of them would prove quite satisfactory4 ,where it is desired to sprout oats in a small way1 in the ,cellar of one's house1 a rack can be built with run-ways for the trays to slide on1 with a space of two inches between the trays4 ,by thoroughly sprinkling the top tray the water will run down through from one tray to another1 and1 as the growth progresses1 the more advanced ones can be moved up from the bottom of the rack1 as they require less water than those in a less advanced stage4 ,the oats sprout more quickly if grown and sprinkled in a fairly dark place1 and it must be remembered that too warm a temperature will rot the mass after the growth has reached its fourth or fifth day4 ,timothy and ,clover ,cut ,green ,as one enters ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 on the left of the drive1 there is about an acre of ,timothy and ,clover4 ,this acre has been very heavily fertilized and brought up to a high state of cultivation4 ,the ,timothy and ,clover grow so rapidly1 and the growth comes in such abundance almost before the snow is off the ground1 that cutting it as we do1 so many rows each morning1 it is impossible to cross the entire plot before that which was first cut has almost grown beyond the succulent point4 ,to make a change for the hens we cut this in the early ,spring1 and pass it through the ,clover ,cutter1 reducing it to quarter inch lengths1 but we find that after the first few days of feeding the hens show a decided preference for ,sprouted ,oats1 and now we make it a rule to feed the ,timothy and ,clover one day and the ,sprouted ,oats the next4 ,this works very well1 and the 8,biddies0 seem to enjoy the different rations on alternate days4 ,illustration3 ,,two ,,weeks ,,old ,,chicks ,,in ,,brooder ,,house ,,runs ,the ,colony ,range is so cared for and fertilized that the growing pullet1 for the ,spring and ,summer months1 finds an unlimited supply of succulent green food at her door4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,anthracite ,coal ,ashes--,a ,substitute for ,many ,more ,expensive ,necessities ,the feather of a bird is composed almost entirely of phosphorous1 and phosphorous is a great aid to the bird in digesting food4 ,in fact1 there are manufactured 8grits0 offered on the market1 which base their efficiency on the amount of phosphorous they carry4 ,anthracite1 or hard1 coal ashes1 carry a considerable quantity of phosphorous1 and this is the reason chickens in all stages of their existence are so fond of them4 ,our attention was first called to this fact by observing the large number of pullets on the ,colony ,range1 where some loads of ashes had been used the previous season in mixing with the fertilizer for the growing of potatoes4 ,it was noticed that these small heaps of ashes were very soon consumed1 and when they were replenished the pullets were never absent from the piles4 ,the experiment was then made of placing a small heap at the extreme end of the chick runs from the ,brooder ,house1 and to our surprise we found one was unable to see the ashes because of the moving mass of yellow which covered them4 ,it was necessary to replenish these heaps almost daily4 ,as ashes are perfectly sanitary we decided to cover the entire chick run with them1 which we did1 and every few days1 through the brooding season1 a fresh coating is necessary1 as the youngsters consume so much of the surface constantly4 ,better ,than ,charcoal ,next1 we sifted ashes and filled the hoppers in the ,laying ,houses with them4 ,the layers ate them in the same way in which they consumed wheat4 ,for an experiment we stopped feeding charcoal entirely1 and found that the ashes supplied everything that the charcoal did1 with none of the dangers1 for there seems to be no doubt that where hens consume large quantities of charcoal they are very susceptible to colds4 ,large heaps of ,anthracite ashes are now kept within a short distance of every ,colony ,house on the ,range1 and the use of these ashes has very materially reduced the quantity of ,grit and ,shell consumed1 thus representing a considerable economy4 ,until the use of ,anthracite ashes came in on the ,range we placed ,grit in receptacles near each ,colony ,house1 and the amount consumed was really remarkable4 ,as soon as the ashes were placed there the ,grit was deserted1 and there practically was no consumption of it at all1 and after a few weeks we ceased to supply it and have not done so now for years4 ,since the use of the sifted ashes in the ,laying ,houses a soft shelled egg is almost a curiosity on the ,farm4 ,in the ,brooder ,house runs1 beside supplying the phosphorus to the youngsters for their digestion1 and the making of their feathers1 it does away with the fear of contamination of soil1 of which so much is now written1 and it presents a surface which dries almost before the rain storm is over1 and there is no possibility of the youngsters being let out into a muddy run4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,eggs for ,breeding ,should be ,laid by a ,real ,yearling ,hen ,having heard many stories told by ,breeders who were sellers of eggs for hatching1 and also the tales by purchasers1 we were somewhat loath to embark in this branch of the ,egg ,trade4 ,the ,breeders told stories of letters which would 8raise your hair0 from people who had purchased from them and met with poor success1 and of course1 from their point of view1 the only person at fault was the man who sold the eggs4 ,for the season of #aiaj our breeding pen had reached a size which allowed us1 for the first time1 to offer eggs to the public1 and we decided to try it out4 ,to everyone we stated that we would not guarantee fertility1 but1 as they were getting eggs from exactly the same pens which were supplying our own incubators1 we were able1 at all times1 to tell what the customer was receiving4 ,but we went further1 and agreed that anyone claiming a low fertility1 if he would send us the eggs which he claimed to be clear1 and prepay the expressage1 we would1 if his claim was substantiated1 send him another lot of eggs and pay the expressage both ways4 #ij1jjj ,orders for #dj1jjj ,eggs ,during the season of #aiaj we sold something over #dj1jjj eggs and returned money for about #ej1jjj beyond our ability to supply4 ,the result was that many people who were disappointed booked orders at very early dates in #aiaj for hatching eggs for the season of #aiaa4 ,our experience was quite the reverse from the stories we had been told4 ,of course1 in doing a large business1 it is not possible to satisfy everyone1 and then1 unfortunately1 there are some people who are extremely fond of attempting to get something for nothing1 and you receive statements regarding orders which have been filled1 which when investigated1 prove to be somewhat different from what you were at first led to believe4 ,the fertility of our eggs was such that it was almost impossible for anyone to make a complaint1 and the hatching season of #aiaj1 both at the ,farm and for our customers1 was a most successful one4 ,for the season of #aiaa we were able to increase our breeding facilities considerably over #aiaj1 but we were even more unable to meet the demands upon us for hatching eggs1 than in the previous season4 ,the results of this year were quite as satisfactory as for the previous1 and for the season of #aiab the ,farm will be in a position to fill more orders than ever before1 as we have been able to make a still greater increase on the breeding side4 ,illustration3 ,,yearling ,,hens ,,in ,,breeder ,,house ,,before ,,mating ,,ready ,,for #aiab ,orders for hatching eggs are booked by such a system that people receive them when we agree to deliver the goods1 and the illustration herewith plainly shows the plan4 44444444 ,,sunny ,,slope ,,farm ,no4 ,,the ,,great ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,breeders ,,of ,,the ,,strain ,,of ,s4 ,c4 ,,white ,,leghorns ,,which ,,cannot ,,be ,,surpassed ,,bound ,,brook1 ,n4 ,j4 #aia ,received of44444444444444444444444444444444444444 44 4444444444444444444444444444444444444444 4444,dollars ,,for4444444,s4 ,c4 ,w4 ,,leghorn ,,eggs ,,for ,,hatching4 ,,these ,,eggs ,,are ,,to ,,be ,,shipped ,,by ,,express ,,on ,,or ,,about ,,the 444444444444444444 ,,day ,,of44444444444444444444 #aia44 ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,by44444444444444444444 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,policing the ,farm--,with ,bloodhounds1 ,searchlights and ,rifles ,in the ,fall of each year1 from almost every part of the ,country1 come reports of what seems to be organized thieving in the poultry line4 ,both large and small farms are generally sufferers4 ,for a number of years people in the vicinity of the ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm have met with losses1 and in the year #aiaj an organized gang was unearthed1 which had a camp on the adjacent hills1 and made nightly raids1 then shipped the birds by crossing the ,watchung ,mountains and reaching railroad communication on the other side1 sending their stolen feathered plunder into the ,new ,york ,market4 ,shoot ,first--,investigate ,afterwards ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm takes a great many precautions in regard to efficient policing1 and has earned a reputation for straight shooting1 not with a gun carrying bird shot1 but with rifles4 ,it is thoroughly understood for miles around that we shoot first and investigate afterwards4 ,the farm carries some of the finest ,blood ,hounds in the ,country1 all trained man-trailers1 and it is thoroughly understood that if the rifle fails to stop a thief1 and it becomes desirable to see him1 the hounds will take up the trail the next day1 and no matter where he may have gone there will be no difficulty in reaching him4 ,should he take train the dogs will tell the fact1 and then it will be only necessary to try each station until the one is reached where he left the train4 ,should he leave by means of a horse1 when he either gets into the wagon1 or mounts the horse1 the hound will take the scent1 and carry it until he again takes to the ground4 ,illustration3 8,,socrates10 ,,the ,,great ,,bloodhound ,,which ,,heads ,,the ,,corning ,,kennels ,socrates1 the ,great ,bloodhound ,the head of the kennel1 8,socrates10 ,no4 #abgcbj1 7his registered name is 8,ottawa's ,major07 is a direct descendant from ,rosemary and ,delhi1 the two great dogs of ,mr4 ,burgh1 of ,england1 who for years has been the leading breeder of man-trailing ,blood ,hounds4 ,altogether the ,farm to-day is carrying seventeen dogs4 ,fifteen of them are pure and grade ,blood ,hounds2 two are ,fox ,terriers4 ,the ,fox ,terriers are kept for a breed of thieves other than the two-legged kind1 and rats have no place on which to rest the soles of their feet4 ,the dogs1 every night1 are distributed at different points of the ,farm1 and one of the great qualities of the ,blood ,hound is its marvelous nose1 which works just as well in the dark as in the light1 and as watch dogs1 because of this peculiarity1 they are most efficient1 giving notice of anyone approaching the ,farm long before he could possibly be detected by a dog of another breed4 ,when they give tongue there is no doubt in the mind of anyone but that he is approaching a very dangerous zone4 ,on the ,foreman's ,apartments there is a ,tower which connects with his room1 the windows of which command a view of every part of the ,farm4 ,in this ,tower there is a searchlight1 and at any time of the night1 if the dogs give warning of a possible disturber1 any part of the ,farm can be instantly flooded with light4 ,back of the search light is the high power rifle4 ,throughout the ,range there is a trolley system which is used1 the overhead wire being so divided that each dog has a run of one hundred feet1 and the leash attached to the sliding pulley gives him twenty feet on either side of the wire4 ,this makes a complete circuit of the ,colony ,range1 so that it is impossible for anyone to cross in among the ,colony ,houses without being reached by one of the dogs4 ,we have been breeding some grade hounds1 which make a rather more ferocious animal than the pure breed1 so far as natural disposition goes4 ,the nose quality1 however1 is all retained1 thus enabling these grades to become perfect trailers4 ,illustration3 ,,socrates ,,ii ,,and ,,diogenes ,sons of the ,great ,socrates ,illustration3 ,,buster1 ,,america',s ,,greatest ,,ratter ,it is well on any egg farm to establish a reputation for being in a position to always place a marauder behind the bars1 and nothing so insures protection as the knowledge that on the ,farm there are carried dogs which are capable of trailing a trespasser wherever he may go4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,the ,necessity for ,pure ,water--,an ,egg is ,chemically #hj ,water ,eighty per cent4 of an egg is water4 ,if a sanitary egg is to be produced it is most essential that pure water should be accessible to the hens at all times1 and not only should the water be pure1 but the drinking fountains must be of such a nature that they can readily be kept in a pure state1 and that the cups1 into which the water flows from the main fountain1 cannot be fouled by the birds4 ,automatic ,fountains ,essential ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm the supply of water is placed before the birds in automatic fountains1 which work on air pressure1 and contain five gallons each4 ,the water feeds down through a pipe into the cups1 the feeding pipe shutting off by the turning of a small cock1 thus permitting the removal of the cup1 so that it can be thoroughly cleansed each day at the time of filling the fountain1 by the use of a small brush1 or swab4 ,once a week a quarter of a teaspoonful of ,potassium ,permanganate is put into each fountain1 just enough to give the water a slight coloring4 ,it is a mistake to have the color so deep that it verges on the purple4 ,this purifies the fountain and acts as a preventive of colds4 ,illustration3 ,,corning ,,automatic ,,drinking ,,fountain ,it is a very good practice also to occasionally put a few drops of ,kerosene oil into the bottom of the cup and then allow the water to run in4 ,the ,kerosene will run over the entire surface of the cup and then rise to the top of the water4 ,as the birds dip their bills to drink a small amount of the ,kerosene is taken up on the bill1 and1 when the head is thrown back to swallow it runs into the nostrils4 ,the drinking fountains are occasionally thoroughly cleansed with a strong solution of ,washing ,soda4 ,this1 of course1 is carefully washed out of the fountains before they are filled up and placed in the ,laying ,houses4 ,hot ,water in ,cold ,weather ,in the ,breeding and ,laying ,houses during the cold months1 hot water is placed in the fountains4 ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm a large boiler1 with a hot water attachment1 is maintained for this purpose1 and water is taken to the ,laying ,houses at as close to boiling point as it is possible to get it there4 ,hens ,drink ,more in ,afternoon ,at first the watering was done early in the morning1 but now the watering hour has been changed to the first hour of the afternoon4 ,the reason for this is because1 by sitting in the ,laying ,houses and watching the birds1 it was discovered that from one o'clock to roosting time more water is consumed than at any other hours of the day4 ,at first it was thought that ,biddy1 on leaving her roost1 immediately sought the drinking fountain1 but we find the first act1 generally speaking1 is to endeavor to fill the crop with grain1 and she vigorously starts to work in the litter4 ,by placing the hot water in the fountains during the hour after noon1 we find that with the closing of the house for the night1 the water retains its temperature to a remarkable degree1 and it is not at all chilling to the birds in the morning of ordinary cold weather4 ,if the night has been an extremely cold one we make it a practice of going through the ,houses with boiling water1 emptying out what may be in the cups1 and refilling them from the hot water can1 thus giving any bird which may desire a large quantity1 warm water to drink at this time in the morning4 ,the supply of water for all the stock on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm comes from the deep well1 already described in the chapter on 8,building the ,farm40 ,,chapter ,,xv ,hard ,coal ,ashes1 ,oyster ,shell1 and ,grit ,as stated in the chapter on 8,anthracite ,coal ,ashes10 ashes have entirely taken the place of charcoal on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,they are fed in hoppers with the ,grit and ,oyster ,shell4 ,these hoppers are divided into three compartments1 and are automatic in feeding down the ingredients1 in small quantities at a time1 for ,biddy's use4 ,it is very essential to supply the hen with the proper grinding material for operation in her mill1 for1 from the crop1 what she takes into her system in the way of grain1 etc41 is passed into the gizzard1 where she places a certain amount of hard1 sharp stones1 to use as mill stones1 and this great muscular organ then puts the food into the proper condition for her to assimilate it4 ,the ,grit placed in the hoppers is hard and sharp4 ,ordinary pebbles are of no use to ,biddy in preparing her food for digestion4 ,there are a great many different grits on the market sold through ,poultry ,supply ,houses1 and by the manufacturers themselves4 ,where it is possible to procure ,grit having the essentials as already described1 and carrying a good percentage of lime1 it adds very materially to the desirability of the ,grit4 ,oyster ,shell occupies the third compartment of the hoppers1 this supplying the hen with the lime necessary for her own system and for the shell of the egg4 ,it should be seen to that the ,oyster ,shell is free from dust1 and rather coarse as to its size4 ,this represents an economy because there is so little waste by the fowls when the ,shell is fed to them in this condition4 ,the lack of lime in the system of the hen is one of the reasons for soft shelled eggs1 and the lack of lime in the ingredients fed to a young chick means soft bones1 which shows most decidedly in leg weaknesses4 ,where the hen is supplied with the full quantity of the ingredients which give her lime1 she turns out eggs which you might term 8well shelled0 and this adds materially to the appearance of the egg1 and1 consequently1 helps to give it a better grading4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,beef ,scrap and ,green ,bone ,substitutes for ,nature's ,animal ,food ,undoubtedly the ideal animal food for the hen1 if it were possible to procure it in sufficient quantities the year round1 would be angle worms1 grasshoppers1 and other members of the insect family1 which the early ,spring supplies in such liberal quantities4 ,it must be remembered that in these different worms and insects there is a large amount of phosphorous1 which adds very greatly to the ability of the hen to successfully digest the large quantity of food which is necessary1 if she is to produce a large quantity of eggs4 ,green ,cut ,bone ,nearest ,nature ,the thing1 perhaps1 nearest in an artificial way to ,nature's animal food1 is green cut bone1 and it is certainly relished by the hens1 and a great assistance in producing ,winter eggs4 ,the exercise of great care1 however1 in the selection of bone is very necessary1 for1 if salt bone1 or tainted bone1 is cut up and fed to the fowls1 it will prove most detrimental1 and in many instances will mean the loss of the hen4 ,for those who do not find it possible to set up the necessary bone-cutting machinery there are numerous brands of 8,beef ,scrap0 on the market4 ,this is made from green bone and meat which is then cooked1 ground and pressed1 so as to preserve it fresh and sweet4 ,this also is a most successful way to supply the hens with the necessary amount of animal food4 ,it is readily mixed into the mash1 just as the green cut bone is1 and1 where the proper mechanical mixer is used1 it is possible to thoroughly coat the entire meal mixture with the oily condition coming from the beef scrap1 and until one has seen beef scrap mixed into the mash by such a mixer he has no idea how successful the operation is in preparing a high grade mash4 ,the beef scrap and also the fresh cut bone carry a high percentage of phosphorus1 and in fact have about all the ingredients found in animal food secured by the hen while running on ,range4 ,there are now appearing numerous advertisements of a prepared fish1 to take the place of other animal foods1 but ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is unable to give any opinion as to the efficiency of this preparation4 ,it has been the rule at the ,farm1 when we have thoroughly tested and found satisfactory any article of food1 not to experiment with the various substitutes which at all times are so widely advertised4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,a ,time for ,everything--,everything on ,time ,in any business1 or occupation1 that one attempts to carry on successfully there must be system4 ,nature teaches system1 and the hen1 as a part of ,nature1 is a very regular performer4 ,she does everything on time1 and at a given time1 and if her routine is broken in upon she is a very much upset individual4 ,the owner who rudely disturbs her routine suffers in the loss of eggs4 ,the schedule of work among the fowls on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is without variation each day4 ,in ,summer the houses are always open and need no attention in the morning1 but in ,winter the drops are raised in ordinarily cold weather1 as soon as it is light enough to enable the hens to work in the litter for grain4 ,on very cold mornings the raising of the drops is deferred until the ,sun is up1 and when this is done the drinking cups in the fountains are filled with hot water4 ,fixed ,feeding ,hours ,as close to eight o'clock as possible green food is fed to all the hens1 and1 if the ground is in a reasonably dry condition1 the green food for the cockerels is scattered outside their pen1 and the entire flock is driven out of the ,house1 where they are soon busy consuming the green food and whatever grain may have been left on the ground from their outdoor feeding of the previous day4 ,for a number of years it was the method at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 between the hours of nine and ten o'clock1 to make a gathering of eggs4 ,this has now been abandoned for the reason that so many birds were disturbed on the nests during such an early visit to the ,house for gathering1 and the first gathering now on the ,farm is made at eleven-thirty4 ,in the study of feeding1 extending over a term of years1 it has been found that a considerable economy in time can be made1 with exactly as advantageous results from the layers1 by the following routine4 ,fresh water is placed in all the laying and breeding pens at one o'clock1 ,p4,m41 and it is boiling water during the ,winter months4 ,directly following the watering the mash is placed in the troughs1 and the grain ration is scattered through the litter1 both in ,summer and ,winter4 ,it has been found that the hens work just as hard1 and continue to do so1 as they did when the mash and grain fed were given at hours which practically followed the ,sun1 that is1 earlier in ,winter1 and later in ,summer4 ,in past years1 the oats were fed to the flocks as a separate ration1 at eleven-thirty o'clock4 ,this we have discontinued4 ,the grain ration is made up of cracked corn1 wheat and oats1 in varying proportions according to the season of the year4 ,illustration3 ,,part ,,of ,,the ,,old ,,incubator ,,cellar ,the ,new ,building with the #ae1fjj ,egg ,machines was not ,sufficiently ,completed for ,interior ,photograph ,four ,collections of ,eggs ,daily ,at three o'clock another collection of eggs is made1 and at five o'clock eggs are again collected1 and at this last collection all the corners of the litter under the dropping boards are carefully searched for eggs laid by the wayward ,biddy1 who prefers her own scooped out corner to a good nest4 ,the ,houses are closed for the night1 according to the condition of the weather1 and at this time still another collection of eggs is made4 ,at seven-thirty the ,houses are again visited1 and all birds not roosting as they should be are removed from the nest boxes or windows and placed upon the perches4 ,mash ,fed in ,afternoon ,during the ,summer months1 when the birds are on ,range1 they are fed their mash and grain ration between the hours of two and three in the afternoon4 ,throughout the year nothing whatever is allowed to interfere with the ,schedule1 and1 if one would succeed with poultry a rigid adherence to regularity is most necessary4 ,,chapter ,,xviii ,incubation on the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,we find1 in studying ,artificial ,incubation1 it has been in vogue1 one might almost say1 for centuries4 ,the ,chinese practiced artificial incubation by the use of hot sand and ovens1 for it must be remembered that the ,pekin ,duck1 which comes from ,china1 is a non-setter4 ,therefore1 ages ago1 the ,chinese were driven to the necessity of artificial incubation in order to maintain their large flocks of ducks4 ,in studying the art one cannot help wondering that the progress in its development has been so slow1 and the advance1 year by year1 has been almost nothing4 ,hen ,reigns ,supreme ,the ,owners of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm were somewhat taken aback one day by the statement of a young man that he must evolve a theory of incubation for himself1 and carefully carry it out4 ,in incubation one does not want theory1 but the knowledge which comes from long practice and the most scientific study of the art4 ,after all these years1 the hen1 as a hatcher1 reigns supreme4 ,there is nothing which approximates her ability to turn out strong1 vigorous chicks1 and yet it is unfortunately necessary to abandon the hen when large numbers of chicks are to be produced4 ,so ,man has struggled in his vain efforts to reach something which will1 at least in a measure1 become a competitor of the hen4 ,livable ,chicks--,not ,numbers ,in #aiaa1 the readers of advertisements in the ,poultry ,magazines were confronted with the statement that a certain incubator was the only competitor the hen had4 ,but1 it is sad to state1 there must have been some mistake1 for this incubator could not live up to the claim in the advertisement1 nor1 so far as it is known1 is there any incubator which approximates that claim4 ,some marvelous hatches are written of1 but the question is not one of marvelous hatches1 so far as it means the number of chicks which manage to come through the strenuous act of exclusion1 but the real question of incubation is as to the number of strong chicks1 capable of living and growing into an animal which will become a money maker for the man who hatched and raised it4 ,many people stand in great awe of an incubator1 no matter what its make1 and have the feeling that to hatch a fair number of chicks in a machine is almost a miracle4 ,the fact is1 however1 if the purchaser of any incubator will realize that the manufacturer knows more about the proper way to run it than ,tom ,jones1 or ,bill ,smith1 who may be neighbors1 and will follow the instructions as given by the manufacturer1 with good fertile eggs1 it will be almost a miracle if he does not get at least a fair hatch4 ,there are so many different makes of machines it is quite impossible to write a chapter on incubation which will cover the needs of all phases of it4 ,the above advice1 however1 if followed1 will certainly be more apt to bring about successful hatches than anything else that can be done4 ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm the problem of incubation has been most carefully studied from the inception of the ,farm4 ,uniform ,temperature ,most ,important ,a thermostat and regulator which will absolutely insure an even temperature in the egg chamber1 and a thermostat so sensitive1 with an adjustment of the regulator to such a nicety1 that it will insure the maintaining of an equal temperature in the egg chamber even if there is a variation of atmosphere in the ,cellar of from #aj to #bj degrees1 is perhaps1 the first great essential in incubation4 ,ventilation and ,moisture ,next ,ventilation and the retention of moisture undoubtedly come next4 ,the growing embryo must be fed a large quantity of oxygen1 and there must be a sufficient amount of moisture to prevent a too rapid drying out of the egg1 under the temperature which1 if a chick is to result1 must be maintained4 ,so far as moisture goes1 it is not a question of moisture at the time of hatching4 ,if the proper amount of moisture has been always present during the period of incubation there will be no difficulty at the time of exclusion4 ,where a large amount of incubation is going on1 and the ordinary style of lamp heated machine is being used1 oxygen is of necessity constantly absorbed from the atmosphere1 by the fire4 ,while it is quite possible1 nay1 even probable1 that any of the mammoth machines of the day are far from what might be desired1 still1 they do solve the difficulty of a great number of individual fires sucking the vital oxygen4 ,of the mammoth machines now on the market there are two which produce better chicks than any of the others1 so far as we can see4 ,there are features in the one which we finally decided upon1 which1 from our point of view1 made it more desirable than the other4 ,we feel1 however1 that in the construction of these machines there is much to be desired1 and we suggest to any would-be purchasers to make most thorough and complete stipulations with any company from whom they purchase1 as to the workmanship and finish of the machine1 and also the proper fitting of one part to another1 especially the proper working of doors and egg trays through all the different periods of incubation4 ,all trays should be absolutely interchangeable1 and there should be a sufficient amount of play in the runs1 so that1 with the swelling of the wood from the moisture1 there would never be a possibility of their binding4 ,while the doors should shut air-tight1 their dove-tailed joints should so fit as to allow their coming away without a particle of stick1 or jar1 to the machine4 ,hot ,water ,machines ,best ,when it had been fully determined by ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm to put in ,hot ,water ,heated ,incubators1 the capacity desired being about sixteen thousand eggs1 it was concluded to divide this capacity between two machines4 ,it was also decided to build an entirely new ,incubator ,cellar1 and the dimensions were #adf feet long by #bb feet wide1 #g feet from the concrete floor to the bottom of the floor joists1 these latter being #ab inches in width1 making a full height to the floor of the ,brooder ,house overhead1 #h feet4 ,the floor joists on the under side of the floor of the ,brooder ,house are planed and painted white4 ,the ,cellar is constructed of concrete blocks1 made rock faced1 and showing in the interior of the ,cellar4 ,the two incubators are also painted white enamel4 ,so as to eliminate any question of the consumption of oxygen by fire in the ,cellar the heaters are placed with a concrete block partition between them and the incubators1 the hot water pipes passing through this concrete wall1 and connecting with the incubators4 ,in this separate part of the ,cellar1 where the heaters for the incubators stand1 are also the two heaters for the ,brooding ,system1 upstairs1 and also the large auxiliary heater which cares for the hot-water system which allows the ,brooder ,house to be carried at an even temperature1 day and night4 ,in the heater part of the ,cellar there are three large windows1 and an entrance is made into this ,cellar through a vestibule which is ten by nine feet4 ,the doors leading into this are large1 double1 glass doors1 and from the landing just inside there is a staircase leading to the ,brooder ,house1 above4 ,entrance is made into the ,heater ,cellar through another pair of glass doors1 five feet wide4 ,the ,incubator ,cellar itself is reached directly in the center by a four foot door1 also of glass4 ,the two side alleys between the incubators and the outer walls1 are also reached from the ,heater ,cellar by narrow1 glass doors4 ,corning ,incubator ,cellar ,unequaled ,it is believed this ,cellar1 with its plan of equipment1 is unequaled1 anywhere1 as to the convenience of its general arrangement4 ,ample light and ventilation are supplied in the ,incubation ,cellar proper1 by twelve windows on the north and east sides1 the south wall being blank1 as the chick runs from the ,brooder ,house go out on that side4 ,it is impossible1 owing to the necessity of the narrow alleys between the incubators and the walls1 to use the ,v-shaped window drops1 which have been so successful on the ,farm for the prevention of draughts4 ,the windows work on sash-weights1 both top and bottom4 ,a ,spring ,roller ,shade device1 covered with sheer muslin1 with a screw eye on the window sill1 is so placed that the cord may be passed through it1 holding the shade rigid4 ,thus1 when the prevailing wind creates a draught1 the window may be opened to any desired width1 and the draught prevented by the shade4 ,in operating the incubators they are run empty for a sufficient number of hours to adjust the regulator1 and to know they will maintain a temperature of #ajc degrees exactly4 ,eggs ,turned from ,third to ,eighteenth ,day ,after eggs are placed in the incubators the process of turning does not begin until the third day1 after which they are turned regularly twice a day until the completion of the #ahth day1 when they are left undisturbed4 #ajc ,degrees ,maintained ,the temperature at which the incubators are carried for the first week is a matter of wide difference of opinion4 ,in many cases #ajb degrees is the maximum temperature for the first seven days1 after which #ajc is maintained as closely as possible during the remaining period of incubation4 ,in operating the incubators on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm it has been found 7and this is particularly true of early hatches7 that1 if the eggs are not brought up to #ajc degrees for the first week1 a retarded hatch is the result4 ,a hatch which drags over its time usually means a lot of weaklings4 ,it is our practice1 therefore1 to bring the eggs up to #ajc degrees as soon as possible after setting them1 and to continue this temperature as nearly as possible4 ,cool ,but ,never ,cold ,cooling the eggs is of course practiced on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,for the first week1 five or six minutes will usually be found a sufficient time1 but as the embryo grows the length of time should be increased4 ,it is quite impossible to give any exact length of period for cooling1 and it must be determined by the feel of the egg to the hand4 ,they should never reach a point where they can be termed perfectly cold1 but should feel slightly warm as the palm of the hand is laid upon them4 ,in cooling1 the egg tray should be placed on top of an incubator or table so that the bottom is completely protected1 otherwise the eggs will cool too rapidly4 ,in other words they should lie as they do in the nest of the hen4 ,according to atmospheric conditions1 cooling1 during the latter part of incubation1 will sometimes reach from forty to sixty minutes4 ,it is a practice with us to give the eggs a very long period of cooling on the #ahth day1 before they are placed in the incubator for the last time4 ,after closing the incubator on the #ahth day it is not opened again until the chicks are removed on the #bb;d day4 ,to open the door and reach in to assist some chick out of difficulty means allowing the moisture to escape1 and1 while the one individual which was seen to be in trouble might be rescued1 by the lack of moisture in the egg chamber1 many others would be held fast in the shell4 ,cover ,glass ,doors ,when the chicks begin to hatch we make it a practice to throw a cloth over the glass door1 so as to prevent the youngsters crowding toward the light1 and piling up on top of each other1 either in the egg trays or in the nurseries below4 ,all ,good ,chicks ,hatch in #bj ,days ,many people have an erroneous idea in regard to the time required for hatching4 ,if the temperature has been carried at a correct point during the entire period the eggs will begin to pip on the afternoon of the #aith day1 and the morning of the #bjth day should find the youngsters coming out of the shells like ,pop ,corn over a hot fire if the eggs have been of proper strength1 but on the morning of the #bast day the hatch should be completed4 ,generally speaking1 chicks which hatch later than the #bast day are weak1 and while they may come along for a time1 when placed in the ,brooder ,house they generally snuff out1 and add to the list of mortalities4 ,set ,incubators ,toward ,evening ,it is our belief that there is a best time in the twenty-four hours in which to set an incubator4 ,as a rule1 it requires about eight hours after the eggs have been placed in the machine for it to come up to temperature4 ,therefore1 if the eggs go into the chamber late in the afternoon1 and anything goes wrong with the regulator1 the eggs cannot have been in a detrimental temperature for any great length of time before the operator is making his first morning round4 ,we observe the temperature in the egg chamber three times a day as a rule1 the first thing in the morning before the eggs are turned2 at noon1 or a sufficient number of hours after turning and cooling the eggs1 allowing a sufficient time to elapse for coming up to temperature2 and again late in the afternoon1 before the final turning for the day4 ,at these hours of observation any slight alteration of regulator1 to meet changes noted in the temperature1 is1 of course made4 ,the ,hot ,water1 ,coal-,heated1 ,incubator is a great step in advance1 and these machines are now built in sizes from twelve hundred eggs up4 ,with the old style lamp machine1 people who were running a small plant did not need an ,incubator ,cellar1 but the ,insurance ,companies would not allow the placing of an incubator in the cellar of a house without a special permit1 and in many cases would not issue such a permit at all4 ,the hot water machine will1 of course1 go into any cellar without vitiating the insurance1 and1 what is more1 the machine itself is insurable1 just as is any hot water plant in a house4 ,tested ,only on ,eighteenth ,day ,until this season1 on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 we had made it a rule to test the eggs on the #adth day4 ,many operators believe in testing the eggs from the #eth to the #gth day1 again on the #adth1 with the final test on the #ahth day4 ,in operating one of the old style machines1 with the large trays1 it was expedient to remove the clear eggs and those with dead germs to facilitate the turning of the eggs in the trays1 but all this arduous labor is done away with in the hot water machine4 ,the trays hold seventy-five eggs1 and are so constructed that one tray fits on top of another1 and then the trays are simply reversed and the turning is accomplished4 ,this makes it necessary to have a full tray to prevent the eggs rolling and breaking when they are turned in the manner described4 ,testing the eggs is1 therefore1 deferred until the #ahth day4 ,when one sees the tremendous saving of time which the coal-heated1 hot water machine accomplishes for the operator1 it produces a feeling bordering on mirth in the man who has labored with the old style machine and big tray1 when thousands of eggs were turned by hand twice a day4 ,ten thousand eggs in one of the modern machines are handled with less effort and in less time than three thousand could possibly be cared for in one of the other styles of incubator4 ,moisture ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm moisture is provided in the ,cellar by thoroughly wetting the floor with a hose twice a day1 the floor sloping gently to a drain in one corner4 ,large earthen-ware vessels1 of about three inches in depth and eighteen inches in diameter1 are stood at different points throughout the ,cellar1 and are constantly kept filled with fresh water4 ,this is done1 not so much for the purpose of increasing the humidity of the air1 as it is to take up the impurities4 ,as an illustration1 if you stand vessels filled with water in a freshly painted room1 the odor of paint is almost entirely absorbed by the water4 ,as even a temperature as possible is carried in the ,cellar1 and at all times there is a constant flow of fresh air1 but it is so controlled that it does not produce a draught4 ,it should be remembered that while a moist cellar is desirable1 unless it is well ventilated1 it is utterly unfit for the purpose of incubation4 ,chicks ,handled ,only ,once ,the chicks1 at the end of the #bb;d day1 are counted out of the incubator into large baskets lined with ,canton ,flannel1 and in these they are carried upstairs to the ,brooder ,house4 ,the last act of the chicken1 before pipping the shell1 is to absorb into its system the yolk of the egg1 which supplies it with a sufficient amount of nourishment to last at least forty-eight hours4 ,this supply of nourishment is what really makes possible the tremendous business carried on in 8baby chicks40 ,but1 as ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm views it1 the ,society for ,prevention of ,cruelty to ,animals should step in and stop this business4 ,after exclusion is accomplished the chick is thoroughly exhausted1 and for a number of hours1 if left to its own devices1 it lies in a deep sleep4 ,baby ,chick ,business ,cruel ,consider then the torture that this small animal is put through when it is taken out of the warm egg chamber1 or nursery1 as soon as it is dry enough1 packed like a sardine in a box1 and then hustled to an express office1 placed on a train1 and1 by the swaying of the train1 kept in constant motion4 ,the sellers of day old chicks in many cases guarantee the arrival of the small 8puff ball0 alive4 ,unless the distance is extreme this is not such a difficult feat4 ,they are alive on arrival1 and perhaps continue to live in apparently fair strength for some days1 but somewhere between the #gth and #ajth days the mortality usually runs into such numbers that the purchaser finds the remaining number of youngsters has cost him about a dollar apiece4 ,as the season advances many more of them drop off1 one by one1 from causes which1 to the unsophisticated1 are unknown4 ,a short time ago a gentleman who has been engaged in the ,baby ,chick business for a number of years was making a call at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 and expressed his regret at having placed an order with a breeder of ,white ,rocks for eggs at too late a date to insure their delivery before the first day of ,may4 ,the breeder1 however1 had offered him some day old chicks4 ,our amusement was considerable when he remarked that he would not accept a day old chick as a gift if he was expected to pay the expressage4 ,the man who expects to procure strong1 healthy youngsters would much better place his money in eggs for hatching1 from reliable breeders1 than to make himself a party to the suffering of these helpless mites4 ,if the humane side of the argument does not appeal to him1 certainly the money expended will4 ,correct records1 on cards designed by us for the purpose1 are kept on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 showing the results from the incubators4 ,these are filed1 giving the ,farm a record which1 as the years go by1 becomes invaluable1 when planning for a year's work in incubation4 ----------------- ----------------- ,,incubator ,,no4 ,,hover ,,no4 ----------------- ----------------- ,set ,p4 ,m4 #aia #aia ----------------- ----------------- ,eggs ,chicks ,clear ----------------- ,dead on #aia ---- ---- ----------------- ,hatchable ,moved to ----------------- ,colony ,house ,no4 ,chicks ----------------- ----------------- ,turn ,p4 ,m4 ----------------- #adth day ----------------- #ahth day ----------------- #bast day ----------------- ----------------- ,illustration3 ,,brooder ,,house ,,showing ,,chick ,,runs ,extension of ,building ,nearing ,completion ,,chapter ,,xix ,rearing ,chicks in ,brooder ,house--,the ,following ,two ,years' ,results ,depend ,upon ,success in ,brooding ,the ,brooder ,house is built over the ,sprouted ,oats ,cellar and the ,incubator ,cellar4 ,its total length is #bfd feet4 #aah feet of this is #af feet wide1 and the balance is #bb feet wide4 ,incubation might be termed a mechanical operation1 and1 as outlined in the previous chapter1 a very fair hatch is usually obtained4 ,but after all is said and done artificial rearing of young chicks is the most difficult problem which a poultryman has to solve4 ,chicks running with a hen will stand climatic conditions1 and in fact thrive under conditions1 which1 if they were being handled in a ,brooder ,house1 would mean a tremendous mortality4 ,the hen will feed her brood on substances which would mean the annihilation of ones' entire flock of youngsters1 should one attempt it1 and1 perhaps1 the most curious feature of the feeding part is the fact that one may give the brood1 running with the hen1 food ,nature never intended a small chick to eat1 and many of the brood will thrive on it1 and the mortality will1 in most cases1 be confined to the weak ones4 ,corn ,not ,proper ,chick ,food ,in past decades1 wet corn meal seemed to be about the standard ration which the chicks were fed on by the farmer's wife1 and in fact this practice has not yet entirely gone out4 ,naturally1 it brought about a large mortality which everyone deplored but could not understand4 ,corn in any form was never intended for a chick to eat1 but when you place it before them in the form of meal1 and this made into a sloppy mass1 the wonder is1 not at the largeness of the mortality1 but rather that any of them live at all4 ,but the advance in ,poultry ,culture has brought about feeding of whole grains1 to a large extent4 ,for years the proper feeding of chicks1 even on farms with modern brooding equipment1 has been a stumbling block1 causing serious loss1 and1 in many instances1 failure1 to those attempting to raise chickens either in large or small numbers4 ,follow ,nature's ,teaching ,in ,poultry ,culture1 in order to succeed it is essential to study ,nature1 to find out how the hen in a wild state cares for her brood1 and then bring the artificial conditions as near to ,nature as possible4 ,in almost every chick food put on the market the main ingredient1 namely corn1 was never intended for a young chick to eat4 ,consider for a moment1 and you will realize that the hen in a wild state could not possibly feed corn to her young4 ,for the sake of argument1 however1 suppose that corn did ripen at a time when it would be possible for the hen to procure it for her brood1 the size of the kernel is so great that the small chick could not possibly swallow it4 ,thus ,nature plainly points out that corn1 for young chicks1 is not the proper food4 ,a ,balanced ,food ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm the question of chick food that could properly be called 8chick food0 has been a study for years1 the problem being to procure a balanced ration containing1 as closely as possible1 the ingredients intended by ,nature for a young chick to eat and thrive on4 ,many experiments were made with different mixtures1 both with chicks running with natural mothers and with those being reared in the ,brooder ,house1 and it was found that in all cases where corn was fed in the mixture the results were bad4 ,the youngsters running with the hen did not show the large mortality which those did in the ,brooder ,house1 but even the broods running with the hen did not do nearly so well where the corn was fed1 as did those not having this ingredient in their food4 ,the great mortality in young chicks is produced by the upsetting of their digestive organs4 ,corn is very heating1 and as soon as the chick's blood is over-heated its digestive organs fail to work properly1 and what is now known as 8,white ,diarrha0 almost invariably develops4 ,it is claimed by some authorities that this difficulty comes from a germ which is in the egg before incubation4 ,this may be the case1 but it is certainly true that wrong feeding will bring this germ into active life1 and snuff out the existence of the chick4 ,another phase1 which has been a special study on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm in the brooding of chicks1 is an abundant supply of fresh air1 not only in the room itself1 but also to have the oxygen fed to the chicks properly when they are under the hovers4 ,the use of gas for heating the hovers was found a decided improvement over the lamp1 so far as the freshness of the air went1 but1 for procuring the purest hot air1 to flow up into the hovers1 we are now installing a system of hot water pipes4 ,illustration3 ,,old ,,arrangement ,,of ,,brooder ,,house ,new ,house not ,completed in ,time for ,photographing ,in a dwelling house1 properly constructed1 the entire heating apparatus is a hot air furnace1 with a cold air box connected with outdoors constantly bringing in a fresh supply of pure air to be heated4 ,if it were possible this would be the ideal way of supplying the heat to the hover1 but of course in a long ,brooder ,house it is impossible to do this4 ,the nearest approach to this system of heating is a trunk line of hot water pipes1 extending beneath the hover floor1 with the pipes enclosed in a long box1 standing some two inches from the floor1 and with orifices of proper size to allow the fresh air to circulate around the pipes1 and then1 through the radiating devices1 to flow out underneath the hover1 and thus to be diffused over the backs of the chicks4 ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm this box is constructed of galvanized iron1 and covered on the top and sides with asbestos board1 with an air space between the asbestos board and the hover floor4 ,through this floor comes a thimble which connects with the radiator above4 ,the top of this radiator is a spiral screw1 which works like a piano stool reversed1 and with a tripod device which carries the thread but allows the hover itself to be removed without changing its position on the screw4 ,as the chicks grow the hover can be slowly raised away from them1 until it is finally removed entirely1 and the chicks learn to do without it for a considerable time before they are moved to the ,colony ,range4 ,the thimble is most thoroughly insulated with asbestos1 so that there is no possibility of the much dreaded heat on the hover floor1 which1 when it does exist1 tends to dry up the chicks' legs4 ,from the hover floor there is an inclined runway down to the main floor of the ,brooder ,house1 which is covered with a fine litter1 preferably short cut wheat straw1 to a depth of about two inches4 ,the inclined runway is hinged to the hover floor and works with a cord passing through a pulley on the ceiling1 enabling the operator to raise it and retain the chicks directly around the hover4 ,the trough surrounding the trunk line of hot water pipes is closed by a partition corresponding to the width of the hover run1 which prevents the heat from flowing by the radiator in each section1 and in this way equalizing the heat in every hover4 ,never ,build a ,double ,house ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is much opposed to what is known as the ,double ,brooder ,house1 which is advocated by many builders of ,brooder ,house equipments1 and1 in which1 in the majority of cases1 the use of concrete floors is also practiced4 ,the advantages in the supposed economy of this construction are more than off-set by the disadvantages4 ,the proper place for the windows of the ,brooder ,house is on the south front1 and likewise the south side of the building is the proper place for the chick runs4 ,the roof should be a shed roof sloping to the north1 thus carrying all the water to the back and allowing none of it to drip down into the runs4 ,the north side of the ,brooder ,house should be absolutely tight1 for1 from this quarter1 comes the great majority of cold storms1 and the tight wall means an economy in fuel4 ,and every item of expense must be carefully watched on a poultry farm4 ,in these different respects let us look at the double house4 ,first1 it must run north and south2 second1 it must have windows on the east and west1 and the chick runs must go the same way2 third1 it must be built with a peaked roof1 the drippings from storms thus falling directly into the yards4 ,must ,drain ,chick ,runs ,in the ,corning plan of ,brooder ,house the yards are sloped toward the south1 and1 as there is no possibility of dripping from the roof1 in a few moments after a hard storm the slope and the sun combined put the yards at once into a usable condition1 so that the youngsters can be let out4 ,all day long in this style ,brooder ,house the yellow babies enjoy the sunshine4 ,in the double constructed ,brooder ,house the yards are bathed on the east side with sunshine for a short time1 and the west side receives the ,sun for a few hours before sunset4 ,concrete ,floors ,mean ,dampness ,an added menace in this double style of construction is the concrete floor generally used4 ,it is almost impossible1 with the greatest care and forethought1 to produce a piece of concrete which does not constantly take up and give off moisture1 and one thing to be absolutely avoided in poultry houses1 little or big1 is dampness4 ,the dollars saved in the construction of double houses are usually dollars which would have been made ten times over by the expenditure necessary to build a proper house4 ,the chick yards on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm are sloping1 and are twenty feet long1 and correspond in width with the hover runs inside the house1 which vary from three to four feet in width4 ,the diameter of the hover varies with the size of the run1 from #bf to #cj inches4 ,the sloping runs of the ,brooder yards are covered with ,anthracite ,coal ashes1 which have been found to entirely eliminate the much talked of danger of contamination of soil1 the surface being constantly renewed as the ashes are consumed by the chicks4 ,each hover is numbered1 and directly back1 on the north wall of the ,brooder ,house1 is a corresponding number1 and a nail1 on which is hung the record card4 ,when the chicks are carried up in baskets from the ,incubator ,cellar1 they are carefully examined1 all weaklings being excluded1 and counted into the hover compartments4 ,careful selection and the 8survival of the fittest0 begin at this point with the stock on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,before speaking of the number of chicks carried in the hover compartments1 it must be understood that running along the north wall of the ,brooder ,house is a coil of hot water pipes1 capable of maintaining a temperature of #he degrees1 three feet from the floor1 and in zero weather4 ,corning ,heated ,brooder ,house ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm believes absolutely in ,brooder ,houses heated beyond what is supplied by the hovers1 and this is the reason it is possible to carry such a large number of youngsters in each hover compartment4 ,in large hatches1 when we have been crowded for room1 two hundred chicks have frequently been carried in one compartment of four feet in width4 ,illustration3 ,,chicks ,,six ,,weeks ,,old ,,in ,,brooder ,,house ,,runs ,corning ,feeds ,dry ,food ,only ,when the chicks are first placed in the hover compartment the inclined plane is drawn up and they find two drinking cups ready--the style that feeds itself into a small cup1 into which it is not possible for the youngsters to get4 ,they also find waiting for them their first meal of ,corning ,chick ,food4 ,for the first twenty-four hours the inclined plane remains up1 and the hovers are visited every two hours4 ,if the amount of ,chick ,food has been well cleaned up1 another feeding is evenly distributed over the boards4 ,it must be understood that litter is never placed on the hover floor1 though it is kept two inches deep on the floor of the pen4 ,three ,feeds ,daily ,the following morning the inclined plane is let down1 about five handfuls of ,corning ,chick ,food to every hundred chicks is thrown into the litter1 and a little is scattered just at the top of the inclined plane to entice the youngsters down4 ,no more food is given until the noon hour1 when1 into the litter is thrown two handfuls to every hundred chicks1 and again a small quantity is placed at the top4 ,no more feeding is done until four o'clock when five handfuls of ,corning ,chick ,food are again thrown into the litter4 ,for the first two or three nights1 or more if necessary1 the chicks are quietly driven up to the hover1 and the inclined plane pulled up after them1 it being let down the first thing in the morning4 ,fresh water is supplied in the drinking cups each day1 morning1 noon1 and night1 and1 with the night filling1 a brush on the plan of those made for the cleansing of milk bottles1 is used to give the cups a proper cleaning4 ,on the back of the record cards1 hung behind each hover1 the mortality is kept4 ,the hovers are raised every morning to learn the exact condition of the entire brood after the night4 ,green ,food ,third ,day ,on the third day green food is added to the ration1 in the form of the tops of ,sprouted ,oats4 ,never feed the rooty mass to the youngsters for it is almost sure to upset them4 ,the smallest chick has no difficulty breaking up and getting away with ,oat ,sprouts from one and a half to two inches long1 and there is nothing they like so well4 ,animal ,food ,tenth ,day ,the regular ration is continued with judgment1 for in feeding it is to be remembered that judgment must be exercised at all times4 ,after the tenth day animal food is added to the ration1 commencing with a small handful of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,mash1 thrown on top of the litter4 ,where beef scraps are used to supply the animal food they may be fed alone1 and this was done at first on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 but for the last three years we have fed the green bone in the mash mixture4 ,it1 however1 must be fed with great care1 and the bone used for this purpose must be most carefully selected1 and must be absolutely fresh4 ,it must be remembered that even one or two ham bones1 or corned beef bones mixed in the ration would mean the loss of a great many chicks4 ,shank bones and briskets1 when obtainable1 are ideal for this purpose1 and during the ,brooding season these are selected out and kept for what is termed the 8baby's mash40 ,with the introduction on the tenth day of the ,mash1 the noon-day feeding of ,corning ,chick ,food is discontinued4 ,by the time the youngsters are four weeks old the hovers have been removed entirely1 and one finds that the little fellows will lie very contentedly1 spread out on the floor1 so long as the temperature in the ,brooder ,house is kept up to #he three feet above the floor1 as before indicated4 ,avoid ,moving ,chicks ,often ,the removal of the chicks from the hover runs into the nurseries1 as formerly practiced on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 has been entirely discontinued4 ,a chick in many respects resembles a flower2 every time it is moved or transplanted it receives a certain setback4 ,for this reason the great ,brooder ,house has all been turned into hover runs1 and the chicks make one move from the ,brooder ,house to the ,colony ,house4 ,a moving generally represents not only a slight setback1 but some mortality through accident and the change itself4 ,the small chick doors into the outside runs are opened1 if the weather is propitious1 about the fifth or sixth day in the early part of the hatching season1 and on the third or fourth day later on4 ,the chicks are never driven into the yard1 any more than they are driven down the inclined plane1 but it is always our method to allow the youngsters to seek a new field for themselves1 and slowly4 ,when they go out into the yard they are watched1 and if there is any inclination to huddle up against the warm side of the building they are driven back into the ,brooder ,house4 ,another great advantage of the heated ,brooder ,house 7and we speak of this as entirely separate from the heat under the hovers7 is that it allows the chick to seek different degrees of temperature4 ,there is one temperature under the hover2 another temperature outside of the hover1 on the hover floor2 still another degree on the main floor of the ,brooder ,house2 and1 then1 there is the outdoor temperature4 ,when the chicks are first placed under the hovers1 during the first day1 we carry the temperature at #ie degrees1 and then slowly decrease this by raising the hover4 ,where an adjustable hover is not used this may be accomplished by turning down the lamp4 ,,chapter ,,xx ,handling ,birds on ,range--,the ,youngsters ,must ,be ,kept ,growing ,all the ,time ,the birds leave the ,brooder ,house for their permanent ,summer home on the ,colony ,range1 so far as the pullets in the flock go1 at eight to nine weeks of age4 ,the ,colony ,houses are prepared for the new tenants by being thoroughly sprayed with a solution of ,kerosene and ,carbolic ,acid1 in a proportion of one to five--one ,carbolic and five ,kerosene4 ,before spraying1 the canvas drops to the windows are let down1 and after spraying the ,house is left twenty-four hours in a perfectly closed condition1 before the drops are raised4 ,the floor is then covered with straw litter to the depth of four inches2 the five gallon drinking fountain is filled and placed on its stand close to the door2 the feed box receives its quantity of mash1 and the grain is scattered over the litter4 ,we practice the filling of from six to eight ,colony ,houses at a time1 and with this coming season of #aiab we shall increase that number to ten4 ,the ,colony ,houses are raised about eight inches from the ground1 by blocks1 and1 as it is not advisable for the small birds to get under the ,house for the first few days1 we have sets of boards which fit around the ,house to prevent their making the mistake of huddling under the ,house at night1 instead of going up into it4 ,a ,corning ,wrinkle ,another preparation1 on the outside of the ,house1 is the digging of a ditch1 in the shape of a crescent1 about two feet back of the ,house1 the ditch tapering out to nothing at the two ends1 the dirt being thrown to the side away from the ,colony ,house4 ,all houses face due south4 ,the heavy storms of the ,summer come rushing up1 as a general thing1 from the west and northwest1 and this ditch1 together with the mound of earth back of it1 prevents the rush of wind and rain getting under the ,colony ,house1 protecting the large number of chicks1 that1 on occasion of sudden storm1 collect there for shelter4 ,it has been found that this materially reduces the mortality resulting from these heavy ,summer showers1 accompanied by a strong wind4 ,the ditch also keeps dampness entirely away from the ground under the ,colony ,houses1 which is also a very great advantage4 ,all being now ready at the ,colony ,houses1 a large wire cage 7the one now in use being eight feet long and two and a half feet wide1 and eight inches high1 with sliding doors at each end1 and two soft leather handles to carry it by7 is placed at the door opening into the chick runs from the ,brooder ,house1 and the youngsters are quietly driven into the cage4 ,when a sufficient number to carry safely has been driven in1 the cage is carried out1 placed on the wagon and driven to the ,range4 ,the birds at this time are from eight to nine weeks old1 we having found it is better to have a sufficient amount of brooder room to carry them to this age before placing on ,range1 as they are then much better feathered1 and are less affected by changes of atmosphere4 ,when the cages reach the ,colony ,house the sliding door is placed directly in front of the small chick door1 and both slides pulled up1 and the chicks gently coaxed1 by patting the box on the top and sides1 to leave it for the ,colony ,house4 ,we place in each of these ,colony ,houses from two hundred and fifty to three hundred birds of this age4 ,as the cockerels develop they are separated1 and those which are perfect in formation1 and as to toes1 five pointed combs1 etc41 and give promise of growing into proper ,breeders1 are placed in the ,cockerel ,house1 and given the ,range of the large enclosure surrounding this ,house4 ,until well along in the ,summer1 when the youngsters are first placed in the ,colony ,house1 we make it a practice to hang1 directly in the center of the ,house and within about three feet of the floor1 a large barn lantern1 and with the window drops closed this produces a very considerable amount of heat1 and helps materially to give a feeling of comfort and contentment to the birds in their new quarters4 ,illustration3 ,,colony ,,range ,,feed ,,and ,,water ,,wagon ,,with 8,,billy0 ,,in ,,the ,,shafts ,the afternoon following the day in which chicks are put into the ,colony ,houses 7which means that they have been confined for about twenty-four hours71 they are let out1 but not until four o'clock1 and they find their grain ration scattered close to the door of the ,house4 ,in fact1 it is not scattered until the small chick doors are opened for them to come out1 and then it is thrown on the runs1 and through the doors1 as well as on the ground directly in front4 ,the grain lying in the runways acts in a double way2 it entices them out1 and as they see it on the ground they eat very little on the runs1 but later1 after they have cleaned up all on the ground1 that lying on the chick runs attracts them on back into the ,house at night4 ,the reason for letting the birds out so late in the day for their first outing is that a chicken1 late in the day1 will never go any great distance from where it has been confined1 but works around close to the quarters in which it has spent the previous hours1 and naturally returns there for shelter as the ,sun goes down4 ,the following morning the chick doors are opened and the birds allowed to roam at will4 ,grain and ,mash ,once a ,day ,from this on the regular routine of ,range feeding is followed4 ,the ,range ,feed ,wagon is low geared and broad tired4 ,on the rear of the wagon there is a large1 square tank1 carrying some two hundred gallons of water4 ,the faucet for drawing the water is placed on the bottom and center of the rear1 the tank being placed on the wagon with a slight incline1 and is of inch size so as to facilitate the rapid filling of the drinking fountains1 which are placed directly underneath it4 ,the front part of the wagon carries the tubs of mash and the grain ration4 ,as the ,colony ,houses are laid out symmetrically the broad tires of the wagon soon wear smooth roads in front of them1 and heavy loads are readily pulled over the ,range streets4 ,the ,houses are placed from side to side about eighty feet apart4 ,from the front of the ,houses on one street to the rear of the ,house on the next street is about one hundred feet4 ,the question of shelter on the ,range was quite a problem at first1 and to meet it in a measure we set out shelters1 which were constructed by stretching roofing over frames about twelve feet square1 and set up some two and a half feet on stakes driven into the ground4 ,it had been planned to carry the ,colony ,range in ,timothy and ,clover1 but we lost the catch1 and as the ground had been very heavily fertilized with the litter from the ,laying ,houses1 a very rank and luxuriant growth of all kinds of ,flora sprang up1 and we found that what seemed to us a piece of very hard luck in losing the catch1 was really a blessing in disguise1 for this rank growth of ,flora1 even in its first year1 was of sufficient height to give very considerable shelter to the large flocks on the ,range1 and with the ,colony ,houses just off the ground1 the improvised shelters were practically abandoned by the birds1 and so they have been removed4 ,plenty of ,shade ,with the yearly scattering of the increased amount of litter as the ,farm enlarged1 the growth on the ,range is becoming more and more luxuriant1 and now the entire ,range has a succession of changing ,flora from month to month1 and with some varieties1 almost from week to week4 ,there is a considerable growth of ,timothy and ,clover1 and many other varieties of the grass family1 which produce a varied diet of succulent food1 and of course the constant change in ,flora also supplies a varied diet of seeds which the birds harvest for themselves4 ,any oats and wheat which have been missed in the litter from the ,laying ,houses sprout here1 and the birds also harvest this crop for themselves4 ,the condition of the ,range under this method of handling1 as we view it1 is absolutely ideal for the growing youngsters4 ,fresh water is supplied daily to the ,houses1 and the grain ration consists of two-thirds wheat1 and one-third cracked corn4 ,the amount of grain fed to each ,colony ,house depends upon the cleaning up of it by the tenants of this particular ,house4 ,the mash box is filled daily with what is now known as the ,corning ,range ,mash1 which consists of wheat middlings1 bran1 ground oats1 corn meal1 and a sufficient amount of green bone1 when mechanically mixed in a machine which has been designed by the ,farm for this purpose1 to give the mash a slight feeling of moisture1 which is derived entirely from the juices of the bone4 ,there is not so great a proportion of animal food in this ,range ,mash as in the mash for the layers1 and it should be noticed that there is in it no gluten or oil meal4 ,the early hatches particularly are not forced along quite so rapidly1 and are less liable to go into a ,winter moult than if they get these ingredients1 and should they moult it comes at a later date and does not extend over so long a period4 ,on such a range it is not necessary to have so great a proportion of animal food in the mash1 because the floral growth harbors myriads of worms and insects1 which supply a large part of the animal food needed4 ,removed to ,laying ,house ,middle of ,september ,it is now our plan to allow the early hatched pullets to remain on the ,range until the first or second week in ,september1 according to the weather and the way they are laying4 ,the time has now arrived for taking up the first fifteen hundred pullets4 ,illustration3 ,,feeding ,,on ,,the ,,colony ,,range ,the ,laying ,house has been previously prepared for their reception1 by removing all the old litter1 the nest boxes having been scraped and brushed out1 and the ,house then thoroughly swept1 and all the corners cleaned out with a scraper1 after which1 with all the doors and drops closed1 it is subjected to a most thorough spraying with ,kerosene and ,crude ,carbolic1 in the same proportions given in the earlier part of this chapter4 ,this spraying covers every part of the ,house1 and is done with a force pump1 so that the solution is forced into every nook and cranny4 ,the ,house is then bedded down with about eight inches of fresh straw1 the nest boxes made ready with excelsior1 and the mash for that day placed in the two mash boxes in each section1 under the dropping boards4 ,the grain is scattered in the litter1 this being all done before the birds are brought to the house1 so as to obviate the necessity of disturbing them more than is absolutely necessary for the first twenty-four hours in their new quarters4 ,the birds having been left shut up in the ,colony ,houses1 a wire hook is used to catch them1 and a man who is accustomed to using it1 standing at the door1 reaches in and easily catches one pullet after another by the leg1 gently pulls her to the door and hands her out to the man in waiting1 who drops her quietly into a large box1 on the ,farm ,wagon1 with an opening1 provided with a slide at the top4 ,these boxes are carried right into the ,laying ,house1 when the entire front slides out1 thus releasing the birds all at once1 and any chance of struggling through a small opening and injuring themselves1 is done away with4 ,the method used in accustoming the birds in the ,colony ,houses to get on without artificial heat is as follows3 for the first three or four nights1 depending on the coolness of the weather1 all canvas drops are down1 and a large1 lighted1 stable lantern is hung in the ,house4 ,for the next few nights after the lantern is removed the drops are left closed4 ,then one drop is propped out an inch or two1 and from night to night the opening is increased1 until the drop is left up altogether4 ,after that1 for a few nights1 one drop is left up and the other closed4 ,next1 the second drop is slowly worked up in the manner described1 until it reaches the height of the hook4 ,after this they are never lowered again so long as the birds remain on the ,range4 ,,chapter ,,xxi ,feeding for ,eggs--,wholesome ,nourishment--,not ,destructive ,stimulants ,unless a hen is properly fed she may have been purchased from the greatest strain of layers that it is possible to imagine1 and still you may have an empty nest so far as eggs go4 ,the food which the hen takes into her system goes first to supply her bodily wants1 the surplus she turns into eggs1 and if properly bred she will turn that surplus into profit very rapidly4 ,easy ,assimilation ,she must be fed1 then1 so as to have what is generally termed a 8balanced ration10 which really means a ration supplying all her different wants4 ,she must be fed so as to be able to assimilate her food with ease4 ,she might be fed a ration which she could easily digest1 but the ration might not so assimilate and combine as to be an egg maker4 ,the greatest factor in assimilation is proper green food1 and the hen should have this in a crisp1 succulent state1 and plenty of it4 ,the egg being to such a large extent formed of water1 unless she is supplied with all the drinking water she will take1 your labor will go for naught1 and the hen will not be able to lay eggs4 ,her grain ration must be of the best1 and it should be fed in such a way that she is forced to work for it4 ,perfect ,health or ,no ,eggs ,if ,biddy is to lay1 she must be kept in perfect health1 and without exercise that is impossible4 ,she must live in a house without draughts but in which the air is always fresh by means of perfect ventilation1 and she must have sunshine4 ,her quarters must be kept clean and sweet1 and a good supply of coarse oyster shell1 sharp grit1 or sifted1 hard coal ashes1 should be always accessible in quantities4 ,abundant ,animal ,food ,she must have an abundance of animal food1 either in form of green cut bone1 or beef scraps1 and this should be mixed as we feed it in ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,mash1 which is a mixture of different meals in which the animal food is thoroughly distributed4 ,of grain1 to one hundred hens1 eight quarts of a mixture of wheat1 corn and oats1 should be given2 in ,summer1 about two-thirds wheat and one-third cracked corn1 reducing the wheat to a third and increasing the corn to about two-thirds in cold weather1 adding to this mixture at all times two quarts of oats4 ,that is to say1 six quarts of wheat and corn and two quarts of oats4 ,the ,corning ,mash the ,secret ,the amount of ,mash fed in the troughs varies in accordance with the way the birds clean it up4 ,the point aimed at being to feed in each ,house the quantity that the birds will about clean up1 by roosting time4 ,the intention is that their first food in the morning shall be obtained by their vigorous scratching in the litter4 ,all the grain is fed at one time1 in the afternoon1 and is not forked into the litter1 as the birds have worked all day up to this time1 it is desired that they fill up rather easily from feeding time till dark4 ,as they move and scratch they bury the surplus grain most effectively in the litter1 thus saving considerable labor1 which is expended on many poultry farms1 by using the pitch fork to place the grain deep in the straw4 ,when the pullets are first put into the ,laying ,house1 about ten pounds of ,mash is placed in each trough1 this being estimated as sufficient for each one hundred birds4 ,if it is not cleaned up1 the amount1 the next day1 is decreased1 but if entirely consumed the quantity is increased4 ,over and over again it is stated in articles that large quantities of animal food and rich meals in the mash are very stimulating and wear the hen out4 ,this is a great mistake4 ,when the hen is being supplied with the proper ingredients for a large egg production she is not being stimulated1 but rather helped and sustained in the natural way4 8,egg ,foods0 ,kill ,layers ,on the market1 to-day1 is found an ever increasing number of preparations advertised as 8egg foods02 8foods0 warranted to produce eggs without fail and in record breaking quantities4 ,an analysis of almost any of these concoctions discloses the fact that ,capsicum1 or in other words red pepper1 is the basis of the preparation1 or at least it is the ingredient in the mixture which is counted upon to produce the advertised results1 namely1 the certain and great output of eggs4 ,if fed in sufficient quantities to actually stimulate the egg organs of the hen it must in a short time kill her1 but if it should not have this effect1 it certainly does put her in such a condition that she is worthless as a layer4 ,it must be constantly borne in mind that the production of eggs is not a question of stimulation1 but is the putting of the hen into a perfect condition of health1 keeping her in that condition1 and supplying her with foods which are egg making substances1 and which nourish her completely1 and allow a surplus to be turned into eggs4 ,on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 this plan has always been the line along which we have worked1 supplying the hen with the natural ingredients from which1 in a healthy state1 she is able to produce the greatest number of large1 sanitary eggs4 ,mustard ,increases ,egg ,laying ,for the last three years experiments have been carried on with mustard4 ,it had been accidently noticed that table scraps1 containing some of the leavings of a salad where mustard had been used1 and which had been thrown out to a few barn-yard hens1 were greedily devoured4 ,it was further observed that1 after a few days1 the egg production increased4 ,following this interesting discovery1 quite an exhaustive test was carried on with eighteen hens1 running over a period of twelve months4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm followed this experiment with considerable interest4 ,six of the hens were fed an ordinary ration2 six of them were given ,red ,pepper1 and the other half dozen were fed mustard mixed in their food4 ,at the end of the test all the hens were killed and carefully examined4 ,the organs of the six hens which were fed an ordinary ration were found to be in fair shape1 and those fed red pepper had enlarged livers4 ,the six hens which were fed the mustard were found to be in perfect organic condition1 and they had been in good healthy shape all through the entire twelve months4 ,they had produced a considerable percentage of eggs beyond either of the other two pens4 ,as a matter of fact the hens fed on the pepper laid fewer eggs than those fed the ordinary ration4 ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,book ,,see ,,page #adg ,,on ,,mustard4 ,by an error in printing1 the paragraph giving the proportions of mustard was omitted3 ,if highly concentrated mustard is used1 one teaspoonful for every six hens4 ,if mustard bran is used1 three teaspoonfuls for every six hens4 ,now1 the mustard used in this experiment was highly concentrated table mustard1 and while the cost1 where only six hens were being fed with it1 amounted to very little1 on a large plant like ,the ,corning ,farm1 the question of cost becomes a serious item4 ,whether to feed concentrated mustard or a mustard bran was found to be worthy of careful consideration1 because it was impossible to get nearly as perfect a mixture in the ,mash1 with a small quantity of highly concentrated mustard1 as with a mustard not so strong but running three times the amount in bulk4 ,as an illustration of the advisability of introducing the mustard in form of bran we might say that1 by using a small quantity of one certain meal carrying a very high percentage of protein1 it would be possible to introduce into the ,mash the amount of protein desired1 but by using a number of meals1 each carrying a small percentage of protein1 a much better ,mash results1 and every bird is able to get its due and necessary proportion of the ingredients4 ,mustard ,increases ,fertility ,the three pens before mentioned1 after being fed as described through the ,winter months1 were mated in the month of ,march1 and it was found that the fertility of the eggs of the mustard fed pen far exceeded that of either of the other pens1 and that the resulting chicks were much stronger1 developed better1 and were altogether more desirable than the chicks produced where the birds had been fed merely the ordinary ration1 and where the attempt had been made to stimulate the egg production by the use of red pepper4 ,the exact action of mustard1 in the animal or human being1 is a somewhat disputed point1 but the ,medical ,fraternity seems to agree that it increases the secretion of gastric juices1 and very decidedly promotes good digestion4 ,a great layer must be a large eater1 but she cannot be a large eater unless she is kept in perfect health1 and has the necessary appetite which only comes when in a strong1 robust1 vigorous condition4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm has fed mustard in a way that it has never been fed before2 the egg production has increased very materially2 the percentage of fertility has run considerably higher2 the germs have been strong1 large1 hatchable germs1 and the resulting chicks1 have come into existence with a jump and1 where they have been properly handled1 have rapidly grown into sturdy youngsters4 #d1jjj ,layers ,fed ,mustard ,we started to feed our breeding pens with mustard in the ,mash just at the time we desired them to come into eggs1 and they responded at once4 ,that is to say1 after the ,mash containing mustard had been fed to them for about a week1 the egg output increased daily1 and not only did it increase1 but the high marks which were reached were steadily maintained4 ,four thousand layers have been fed mustard in their ,mash daily1 and after months of this feeding the flocks have never been in better health1 and the egg production has never been equaled even on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,the ,mustard ,bran is about twenty-five per cent4 of the cost of table mustard4 ,mustard ,maintains ,health ,the experiment with mustard1 with the eighteen hens1 was carried on over a term of twelve months4 ,we do not believe1 however1 that it is wise to feed mustard to the layers and breeders after ,june #aeth1 unless the early months of ,summer should prove to be exceptionally cool4 ,the mustard nourishes very strongly and puts an immense amount of red corpuscles into the blood1 so that if continued into warm weather the hen is not in best condition to stand extreme ,summer heat4 ,it is not necessary to gradually decrease the mustard1 but it may be simply cut right out of the ,mash without any detrimental effect4 ,keep ,appetite ,keen ,the great thing1 then1 to be remembered1 when one is feeding for eggs is constant watchfulness of the flock1 to so feed that the appetite is always keen1 but yet the necessities of the bird fully satisfied2 to be most watchful as to the exercise the bird is forced to take for its grain ration1 and to keep the litter deep4 ,right in this connection we may say1 a deep litter does not necessarily mean one that is so broken up and packed together that the grain cannot readily sift through it4 ,the litter straw should be constantly added to so as to offer a surface that the grain will readily sift through4 ,illustration ,for the past years1 in feeding the layers1 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,mash was prepared on ,sundays and fed exactly as on any other day of the week4 ,with the increase of the work on the ,farm it has been a study to lighten ,sunday labor as much as possible4 ,on investigating the litter around the ,mash ,boxes there will always be found a certain amount of ,mash that has been scratched out of the troughs1 and to a certain extent neglected4 ,the experiment was therefore made of omitting the ,mash on ,sunday1 and at once ,biddy became extremely energetic in her efforts to extract from the litter every particle of ,mash which she had wasted through the week4 ,it is quite possible that by continuing the ,mash ration on ,sunday a trifle higher egg average might be maintained throughout the week4 ,when the cost of feeding is figured in1 however1 it is found that there is a real saving in discontinuing the ,mash for one day4 ,the plan has now been in operation for over eight months1 and there is no reason1 so far as can be seen1 why the old method of preparing the ,mash seven days in the week should be returned to4 ,the economy lies in the fact that ,biddy cleans up what might otherwise be a considerable waste1 and in this way supplies herself with a fair mash ration for the one day4 ,of course the green food and the grain ration are fed exactly as on any other day4 ,the original experiments in mustard feeding1 referred to in this chapter1 were conducted by ,messrs4 ,ralph ,r4 ,allen1 ,editor of ,monthly ,hints on ,poultry1 and ,mr4 ,a4 ,j4 ,odam1 at ,llangammarch ,wells ,poultry ,farm1 ,great ,britain4 ,,chapter ,,xxii ,breeding ,hens ,during ,moult--,coming ,breeders ,must be ,kept ,exercising ,through ,this ,period ,the hens which are to be breeders and the producers of the hatching eggs for the coming ,spring are selected as early in the ,fall as possible4 ,the quarters into which they are to be moved would have been most carefully cleansed1 and then disinfected with ,kerosene and ,crude ,carbolic4 ,after this1 fresh1 clean litter would be put in1 and for these yearling hens we make it a practice to place eight inches of straw on the floor1 for they have well learned the lesson of digging in the litter and very rapidly knock the straw to pieces4 ,the tendency of a hen during the moult is to be inactive4 ,in many cases she feels far from comfortable4 ,the growing of her new dress is a process which drains her system of an immense amount of vitality1 still she must be made to take a certain amount of exercise1 and therefore the litter must be constantly looked after1 and kept in a condition which will compel her to work persistently for her grain ration4 ,do ,not ,overfeed ,the ,mash ,boxes are most carefully watched1 and the moment there is the slightest inclination not to clean the ,mash up thoroughly1 the quantity is cut down4 ,it would be somewhat easier if all the hens would moult simultaneously1 but this they do not do1 and so the needs of the different individuals during the moulting period have to be looked after4 ,with the ,leghorn1 the combs shrink1 and almost go down to nothing in many cases4 ,it is quite impossible1 in looking over a large number of yearling hens at this time in their lives1 to believe that the great1 red comb will ever return1 and it is a curious fact that1 in the majority of cases1 the yearling hen's comb is never as large as it was in her pullet year4 ,as the combs begin to redden and their size increase1 the flock becomes more active1 and it is necessary to add to the amount of ,mash1 and1 if it had been found expedient to reduce the grain ration1 this also must be brought back to the full eight quarts to one hundred hens4 ,from day to day the ,mash consumption increases rapidly1 and the nests begin to receive a good deal of attention1 and very shortly the output from the breeding pens becomes a very decided item in the gathering of eggs4 ,by the second week in ,january1 the pen having been handled in the best possible way1 the egg output has reached a point where it will be safe to mate the pen1 and in two weeks after this the eggs should be running strongly fertile4 ,,chapter ,,xxiii ,feeding the ,breeding ,cockerels ,these birds are fed green food about eight o'clock in the morning4 ,in good weather it is fed in their large range yard1 where the attendant scatters it in small bunches over a wide area4 ,at #aa3cj is fed to every hundred birds1 six quarts of corn1 wheat and oats1 two-thirds corn1 the wheat and oats making up the other third4 ,this is also distributed widely over the yard4 ,in this way the cockerels are kept busy hunting for food1 and they are less likely to get into broils with each other for entertainment4 ,at #a3cj o'clock they are allowed to return to their ,house1 having been shut out during the morning hours4 ,the ,mash is fed daily at #a3cj1 and a sufficient amount is placed in their troughs for them to thoroughly clean up by roosting time4 ,sufficient grain is fed in the litter in the ,house to make the quantity for the day's rations about eight quarts for one hundred birds4 ,illustration3 ,,breeding ,,cockerels ,,fall ,,of #aiaa ,,chapter ,,xxiv ,preparing ,surplus ,cockerels for ,market ,the growing cockerels1 fed in the same way as the pullets up to six or eight weeks of age1 will be1 in the majority of cases1 in prime condition to have the finishing touches applied to round them out into the best possible weight at the age for market4 ,we1 of course1 do not go into the various liquid foods which are fed with a pump1 but simply the most inexpensive and rapid way of putting the birds in a condition to return the most money in the shortest possible time4 ,corn1 in its different forms1 is1 perhaps1 the most fattening food which can be fed1 and for the cockerels intended for market1 the grain ration consists of nothing but corn1 and as much of it as they will clean up4 ,if it is possible to give the time to it1 the mash1 fed three times a day1 will produce the finest quality flesh4 ,a mash made from corn meal1 ground oats1 gluten meal1 middlings and bran1 in equal parts1 with beef scrap1 or green cut bone1 equal to the total of the meals1 and moistened so that the birds can choke it down in large quantities1 will produce the result better1 perhaps1 than anything else4 ,must ,have ,green ,food ,green food1 however1 should be given the bird at the most convenient hour in between the other feedings4 ,if to save time in feeding was an object1 a very good schedule is to feed corn first thing in the morning1 green food at about ten o'clock1 and1 between two and three1 the exact quantity of mash as described4 ,if mash alone is fed1 it is best to feed each time only what the birds will clean up in from thirty to forty minutes1 the troughs in which it is placed then being removed4 ,illustration3 ,,no4 #c ,,laying ,,house ,,filled ,,with #aejj ,,pullets ,,two ,,weeks ,,from ,,the ,,range ,,chapter ,,xxv #f4da ,per ,hen ,per ,year ,corning ,method and ,strain ,enabling ,others to ,better #f4da ,the figures at the head of this chapter have become famous1 and1 perhaps1 in the way of small things1 represent as great a bone of contention as has been squabbled over for many a year4 ,and yet there really was nothing so extraordinary in the profit4 ,it represented a large amount of careful work and study1 a keen business administration1 a careful looking after of all the little details1 the preserving of all by-products and selling them at a figure which was actually under their true value1 as was proven in later years by better prices obtained4 ,for instance1 the fertilizer made on the ,farm has been so handled that its returns to the owners are much greater than when these figures were given to the public4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm was very much criticised in numerous statements made in the different papers throughout the country as to the authenticity of these figures1 and1 to put it in clear ,anglo-,saxon1 many writers indulged quite freely in the word so much used by one of the distinguished ,presidents of the ,united ,states1 and threw the lie indiscriminately at everything and everybody connected with ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,after a time the humor of the situation dawned upon those who were being so adversely criticized4 ,the fact is1 the critics were people who wanted to gauge everything in the ,world by their own little yard stick4 ,they did not themselves know how to make #f4da per hen per year1 and1 therefore1 they reasoned it out that the man did not exist who could4 ,one fact entirely overlooked by these profound writers on poultry subjects was that two dollars of this profit was made by the sale of the hen at the end of ten months of laying4 ,in the last few years there have appeared in the advertising columns of numerous publications1 claims by a man selling a book in which he asserts he made #abj4jj per hen1 in twelve months1 in a back-yard4 ,another individual blossomed forth with a statement of ten dollars and fifty odd cents profit per hen per year1 but these statements did not excite widespread criticism4 ,they were statements of men who were doing a back-yard business1 with from ten to twenty hens1 and were1 therefore1 simply looked upon as ridiculous and not entitled to serious consideration4 #f4da ,not ,extravagant ,claim ,but ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm 8#f4da per hen1 per year0 was not an extravagant claim1 and the figures showing just exactly how it had been accomplished were plainly set forth4 ,it was not done with twenty hens in a back-yard1 but on a large1 commercial scale1 and an extensive business was in active operation4 ,the methods were so entirely new1 and the results so unprecedented1 that poultry writers and lecturers hastily declared them fantastic1 without the careful investigation to which they were entitled1 and proceeded to wholesale condemnation of the figures1 the methods1 and everything else connected with the ,farm4 ,however1 later1 the majority of our critics have visited ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 and have seen what we have1 what we are doing1 and satisfied themselves thoroughly that every statement made was well within the facts4 ,it will be noticed that the profit of #f4da was figured with the cockerels selling at the live weight price of broilers1 and when no hatching eggs were sold4 ,corning ,farm ,making ,more ,than #f4da ,at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 to-day1 the hen is making considerably more than #f4da per year4 ,a large number of cockerels1 which formerly brought merely the live weight broiler price1 are now being reared and disposed of for breeders4 ,hatching eggs are sold in large quantities1 but1 it must be remembered1 before one can reach this point1 his ,strain of birds must be brought to a high point of perfection1 he must establish his reputation1 and his customers must find his claims are substantiated4 ,as an illustration1 purchasers of hatching eggs from ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 in the season of #aiaj1 came back with orders for the season of #aiaa increased by the multiple of ten1 and these same customers are already booking large orders in ,september and ,october1 #aiaa1 for the hatching season of #aiab4 ,this chapter is written to emphasize our statement that anyone possessed of the ordinary qualifications to succeed with poultry1 can1 by following ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,method1 surely build up a large and profitable business4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,work ,,shop ,,on ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,chapter ,,xxvi ,the ,buildings on the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,the ,buildings on the ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 at the close of the year #aiaa1 were as follows3 ,no4 #a--;,brooder ,house1 with ,incubator and ,sprouted ,oats ,cellars underneath4 ,no4 #b--,work ,shop1 ,grain ,bins1 ,egg ,packing ,room1 ,refrigerator ,room1 and ,quarters for the ,resident ,foreman1 all under one roof4 ,no4 #c--;,breeding ,house4 ,no4 #d--,laying ,house ,no4 #a4 ,no4 #e--,laying ,house ,no4 #b4 ,no4 #f--,laying ,house ,no4 #c4 ,no4 #g--,line ,breeding ,house4 ,no4 #h--;,breeding ,cockerel ,house4 ,no4 #i--;,horse ,stable4 ,no4 #aj--,wagon ,shed4 ,no4 #aa--da ,colony ,houses ,scattered over the ,range4 ,no4 #ab--,office ,building4 ,to give an idea of the magnitude of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 there are under roof #ah1dee square feet of floor space4 ,no4 #a4 ,brooder ,house1 ,incubator and ,sprouted ,oats ,cellars ,this building is #bfd feet in length1 and consists really of two buildings4 ,when this structure was first erected it was sixteen feet wide and fifty feet in length4 ,the ,incubator ,cellar is entirely of concrete construction1 with a ,brooder ,house one story in height above it4 ,the floor joists were all beam filled1 making the building rat proof4 ,the second year it became necessary to enlarge the ,brooder ,house1 and an extension was built1 sixty-eight feet in length1 and set up on cedar posts1 with concrete filled in on top of the sills between the floor joists1 making this part of the building also rat-proof4 ,after using this ,brooder ,house and ,incubator ,cellar for three seasons a still further enlargement became an absolute necessity4 ,sixteen feet has been1 and still is1 the standard width of ,laying ,houses on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,it has been found1 however1 with the ,brooder ,house1 an additional width is desirable in order to give the chicks more roomy runs when confined by bad weather to the ,house alone4 ,mainly for this reason1 the #aiaa addition to the ,brooder ,house has been made twenty-two feet in width4 ,this new building is #adf feet in length4 ,it is joined on to the old building in such a way that the alley-way merely widens at the point of connection1 thus making one continuous ,house4 ,the interior arrangement of a four foot alley-way1 the entire length of the building1 along the north wall1 greatly facilitates the feeding1 watering1 and general care of the chicks1 without disturbing them by passing through the pens4 ,the raised hover floor starts at the south side of this alley-way1 and is raised about a foot so as to allow the passing underneath of the hot water trunk line1 with its perfect insulation4 ,attached to this hover floor1 by hinges1 is an inclined runway1 which is raised or lowered by a cord running through pulley wheels and fastened by cleats to the north wall4 ,the division wires between the pens are of inch mesh1 four feet high1 brought down to a ten inch board which is securely fastened to the floor4 ,the ventilation is acquired by the use of ,v-shaped window drops1 placed just under the plate1 full detailed drawing of which is given in the back of this ,book4 ,the bottom of the windows1 on the south front of the building1 are three feet above the floors1 and these windows are forty-four inches in length and thirty-six inches in width4 ,they are hung at the top1 and are opened and closed by the same sort of device used in churches for the 8,cathedral0 window4 ,the holes in the fastening irons are about two inches apart1 allowing the window to be firmly held open to any degree desired4 ,there is a slide board at the back of the hover1 which is easily raised1 materially assisting in the quick and perfect cleansing of the hover floor4 ,hanging above this1 and using the slide board as a sill1 is a gate which extends to the height of the wire division1 and swings out1 giving the attendant ready access to the hover1 drinking cups1 etc4 ,the whole ,brooder ,house is heated by hot water coils1 extending along the entire length of the north wall of the building4 ,these are of two inch pipe1 and in the sixteen feet part of the building there are six1 while in the twenty-two foot extension there are eight pipes4 ,as stated1 the ,brooder ,house is built over the ,incubator and ,sprouted ,oats ,cellars4 ,the ,sprouted ,oats ,cellar is entirely of concrete1 and the floor slopes to one point1 where drains carry off the water1 allowing the frames to slowly drain themselves1 and preventing the oats from rotting from an over supply of moisture4 ,access is given to the ,incubator ,cellar by a vestibule in which are located broad stairways1 enabling one to go from the ,cellar to the ,brooder ,house without going outdoors4 ,the heater room occupies the first #cj feet of this ,cellar1 and is divided from the incubator room proper by an eight inch concrete wall4 ,in this heater room is the large hot water boiler which heats the ,brooder ,house1 above4 ,there are also two automatic heaters1 controlling the trunk line pipes for the heating of the air passing up under the hovers in the ,brooder ,house4 ,the incubator heaters also stand in this room1 the pipes passing through the division wall1 connecting with the incubators on the other side4 ,the floor is smooth surface concrete1 there being a gentle slope in the heater room all to one corner1 where a drain carries off the water used in flushing the floor4 ,this same arrangement exists also in the ,incubator ,cellar proper1 allowing the hose to be used in flooding the floor twice a day to give the proper amount of moisture for incubation4 ,the concrete blocks used in the construction of this ,cellar are what is known as rock faced1 and the face is on the inside1 pointed up in black4 ,the floor joists overhead are dressed lumber1 and are painted in the following manner3 the priming coat is almost pure oil with just enough lead to give it a whitish tinge2 the next coat is dead white1 flat finish1 and the third is white enamel of the best stock obtainable4 ,the incubators are finished in the same way1 allowing the whole ,cellar to be literally scrubbed with a brush4 ,this ,cellar has no duplicate1 anywhere4 ,building ,no4 #b1 ,work ,shop1 etc4 ,the ,work ,shop proper is twenty by thirty feet1 on a concrete foundation1 with a cement floor4 ,the height from the floor to the rafters is ten feet in the clear4 ,in this room stands a ten horse power ,gasolene ,engine1 and a large ,mixer1 the second ,mixer designed by ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 which produces a mix in less time1 and with less power1 than any other machine to-day on the market4 ,with the necessary meals and green cut bone1 in seven minutes the juices from the bone are so uniformly distributed throughout the entire mass that it is almost impossible to believe that no water has been added4 ,the weight of a mix will average about five hundred pounds4 ,in experiments with beef scrap in ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm ,mash1 in ten minutes' time the meals are completely coated with oils which come from good beef scrap when properly mixed4 ,this ,mixer is now being made by ,wilson ,bros41 ,easton1 ,pa41 in different sizes1 from hand to horse power1 to meet the needs of large and small plants4 ,the ,bone ,cutter is also made by ,wilson ,bros41 and1 in our opinion1 is the best ,bone ,cutter on the market1 and we have tried all the different designs4 ,wilson ,bros4 manufacture these cutters in all sizes1 from hand power up to the large one which they first built for ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 and we have graduated in size1 during the past years from a hand power to the ,large ,cutter now in use4 ,there is also a large ,clover ,cutter1 which will cut in various lengths from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half4 ,the necessary pulleys and hangers for this machine are placed in the rafters above4 ,built into the rear and sides of this room are the various grain bins1 compactly arranged to reduce the labor of handling to a minimum4 ,in the ,work ,shop is also a bench1 with vices1 etc41 and cupboards1 built into the walls1 where complete kits of tools for carpentry1 plumbing1 hot water fitting1 etc41 are kept1 in order that the mechanical work1 so far as repairs and keeping up the efficiency of the plant go1 is done without calling in outside labor4 ,back of the ,shop1 and connecting with it1 is the ,egg ,packing ,room1 with its necessary arrangement of shelves1 tables1 etc41 for the work carried on there4 ,to the rear of the ,egg ,packing ,room1 but having no connection with it whatever1 is the room in which the large ,freezer stands1 for the preservation of green bone4 ,the concrete floor in this room is sloped to a drain so that it may be thoroughly cleansed every day after the bone is taken out or put into the ,freezer4 ,the ,freezer itself has a capacity of #bejj lbs4 of bone1 but the room1 under ordinary conditions of weather1 maintains such a temperature that there is no difficulty in carrying bone in barrels1 standing around the room1 which increases our storing capacity to more than double the quantity4 ,on the second floor of the ,work ,shop is a complete and modern apartment in which the working foreman lives4 ,building ,no4 #i1 ,horse ,stable ,this is constructed on the general plan of all the buildings on the ,farm1 with capacity for four horses1 and with necessary room for hay1 etc41 in the loft above4 ,a large shed is built at the rear of the stable1 in which bins are constructed for the carrying of grit and shell1 and also for the storage of packing crates for eggs4 ,building ,no4 #aj1 ,wagon ,shed ,this is conveniently placed to the stable1 and is twenty by forty feet1 with four sets of double doors1 allowing the placing of vehicles without interfering with those already inside4 ,building ,no4 #ab1 ,office ,building ,conveniently arranged in three rooms covering a floor space of nine hundred and twenty-five square feet1 hot water heated1 and with electric lights4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,celebrated ,,corning ,,large ,,flock ,,laying ,,house ,,no4 #c ,,carrying #aejj ,,pullets ,,chapter ,,xxvii ,construction of ,laying1 ,breeding1 and ,breeding ,cockerel ,houses ,the ,breeding and ,laying ,houses1 on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 are all built in the manner described in the remainder of this chapter1 and are each #afj feet long4 ,the ,breeding ,cockerel ,house is #fj feet in length4 ,these ,houses are all fifteen feet1 nine inches1 in width1 the drawing in of them being three inches for the purpose of making the roof rafters1 which are sixteen feet in length1 readily reach out to the end of the plates1 on the slant which they carry4 ,the height of the buildings from the ground1 over all1 is twelve feet1 two inches at the back and fourteen feet1 two inches in front4 ,the interior of these buildings is divided into #bj foot sections1 by partitions extending out from the north wall of the buildings1 seven feet1 and forming the roosting closets4 ,these partitions run from the floor clear to the ceiling1 breaking the draughts1 which but for them1 would make the long ,laying ,houses utterly impracticable4 ,the north wall of the ,laying ,house is five feet high in the clear1 the south wall being seven feet4 ,this makes a sufficient height for walking through the building without stooping1 and1 as the bottom of the windows is carried up three feet from the floor1 the window itself going up to the plate under the roof1 the ,sun reaches every part of the ,house of practically sixteen feet wide4 ,nearly ,six ,feet from ,ground ,the buildings are all set on posts1 three feet in the ground and five feet above4 ,the floor joists are ten inches in width and two inches thick1 and1 instead of the usual sill1 two by ten planks are spiked at both ends of these floor joists resting on the posts which support the building4 ,this construction is much simpler than the ordinary sills1 and is also less expensive4 ,the posts are eight feet apart and well braced4 ,they are cross tied at the corners1 and about every fifty feet throughout the building2 they are also braced at the ends4 ,the floor joists are placed three feet apart1 and the uprights are made of two by four joists1 placed three feet apart4 ,at the corners of the ,house the upright supports are doubled1 making the corner posts equivalent to four by four4 ,the construction of these buildings without any projections over the top of the roof has two advantages4 ,first1 there is a saving in the quantity of lumber used and in labor expended2 second1 all the joints of the roof and walls are made tighter1 and the lapping of the roofing over the edges of the building and cementing it make all joints absolutely air and water tight4 ,illustration3 ,,laying ,,house ,,prepared ,,to ,,receive #aejj ,,pullets ,,from ,,range ,double ,floors ,the floors are all built double4 ,the under floor may be of any kind of rough boards1 and carefully covered over with one ply roofing of any good quality1 the laps1 as elsewhere in the building1 being carefully cemented and nailed down with large1 flat headed1 galvanized nails made for the purpose4 ,the upper floor should be of a cheap quality of tongued and grooved boards1 well driven up and securely nailed4 ,preferably this upper flooring is laid crosswise of the building4 ,the outside of these buildings is covered with any cheap1 rough boards obtainable4 ,these should be securely nailed over the studding of the building1 and then covered with a good grade of two ply roofing paper4 ,on the sides and ends of the building the roofing should be put on upright1 but on the roof it is better to lay it lengthwise of the building and lapped1 on the plan of laying shingles1 the joints all being securely cemented and nailed down1 and then the joints and nails painted over with cement1 to make sure against any possible leaks4 ,the inside walls of the building are lined with one ply roofing1 with the joints carefully nailed and cemented1 and then both walls and ceiling are covered with matched flooring4 ,this gives four inches of dead air space to all the walls of the building1 making them cooler in ,summer and warmer in ,winter than any other known construction4 ,owing to the roof rafters being ten inches in width1 the dead air space under the roof is of course ten inches4 ,the three outsides of the building1 north1 east and west1 are covered with roofing down to the ground1 there being1 of course1 no inner lining below the floor under the ,house4 ,to the south the ,house is entirely open from the floor to the ground4 ,each ,house1 raised five feet from the ground and open to the south1 gets the sunlight underneath clear to the back of the building1 which eliminates all dampness1 and1 being so open prevents rats and other vermin making any attempt to get into the ,house4 ,the window openings are nine feet long by three and a half feet in width4 ,as the studding is three feet apart this permits the making of the openings without cutting the studding1 and so weakening any of the supports under the roof4 ,these openings are spaced off so that their total length comes as near as may be to one-half the length of the south front of the ,house4 ,canvas ,windows ,ventilators1 one foot in width and occupying the space between the window openings1 have recently been constructed in these ,houses1 which permit the closing of all canvas windows tight at night1 when the weather is very cold1 letting the air come in through these ventilators1 at the top1 without bringing any draughts down upon the birds4 ,detailed plans of these ventilators will be found at the end of this ,book4 ,illustration3 ,,one ,,of ,,the ,,breeding ,,houses ,,in #aiaa ,the frames of the curtained windows are made of one by four inch boards1 with two center supports dividing the window frame into three foot sections4 ,these frames are covered with medium weight cotton duck1 from which the dust must be brushed at regular intervals to permit the air to circulate through them freely4 ,outside of the ,office1 ,brooder ,house1 ,work ,shop1 ,stable and the ,resident ,quarters1 no glass is used in any of the buildings1 with the exception of one small pane in the door of each ,laying ,house1 through which a view of the interior may be had4 ,a hood1 extending out eight inches1 is built over the windows and ventilators1 the whole length of the buildings4 ,this prevents the rain from southerly storms beating into the ,houses4 ,the windows are hung on hinges1 and open inward from the top1 and are fastened to the ceiling with wooden buttons4 ,the front of all of the window openings1 on the outside1 is covered with one inch mesh wire netting1 to prevent the birds from flying out1 and also to prevent sparrows and other birds from flying in to consume the grain provided for the fowls4 ,double ,doors ,there are double doors at both ends of each ,house1 swinging inward1 the opening being six feet in width4 ,these doors are made of two thicknesses of matched boards1 one side being vertical1 and the other diagonal1 with a lining of roofing paper between4 ,these are kept closed only in cold and stormy weather4 ,a board1 twelve inches wide1 is fastened to the floor a little over three feet back from the door opening4 ,this board runs across the width of the ,house for six feet1 and at that point a board of the same width1 three feet long1 is fastened to it and carried down to the end wall of the ,house4 ,this makes a clear space in which the doors can be swung open without being blocked by the litter1 which the hens would otherwise be sure to bank up against the doors4 ,a vestibule of wire netting1 on sectional frames1 is fastened to the ceiling and baseboard1 with wire hooks and eyes4 ,see details shown in drawing1 at the back of the ,book4 ,the second pair of doors1 which open outward1 are covered with inch mesh wire down to within three feet of the floor1 and are used during the ,summer months and in mild weather in ,winter4 ,a small glass window1 about eight by ten1 is placed in one of the solid doors at a convenient height4 ,this enables one to observe the conditions in the ,laying ,houses without being obliged to open the door4 ,at the west end of all the ,laying ,houses there is a flight of stairs with a platform at the top1 five feet square and with a hand rail around it1 giving easy access to the ,house through the end from which the least number of violent storms comes4 ,the east ends of the ,laying ,houses do not have steps and platforms4 ,the dropping boards are placed three feet above the floor in all the ,houses1 except in the ,cockerel ,house1 where they are thirty inches from the floor1 as we found the growing cockerels needed additional space overhead to prevent injury to their combs4 ,this leaves abundance of room in the ,laying ,houses for the birds to work in the litter1 and is also of sufficient height to allow a man to get under the dropping boards to search for the eggs which the hens often deposit in the litter4 ,this height also gives the ,sun an opportunity to reach every nook and corner of the ,house at some time during the day4 ,draught-,proof ,roosting ,closets ,the partitions dividing the twenty foot sections of the roosting closets1 as previously explained1 are seven feet in width1 extending out one foot beyond the dropping boards1 which are six feet wide1 and thus giving absolute protection to the hen1 sitting on the roost1 from any draughts which may be blowing through the ,house4 ,two sets of roosts are placed in each roosting closet1 each consisting of five perches1 of two by two spruce1 nine feet1 ten inches long1 rounded at the top and nailed to a cross piece of the same material4 ,the first perch stands nine inches from the back wall2 the others are thirteen inches from center to center4 ,birds larger than the ,leghorns require more space between perches than here specified4 ,the two sets of roosts are placed side by side1 and are fastened at the back with a bolt1 as shown in the plans4 ,when the dropping boards are being cleaned1 the roosts are raised up and fastened to hooks suspended in the ceiling4 ,they are supported in front by a piece of joist one foot high securely nailed to the cross pieces of the roosts4 ,there are openings under the dropping boards in all the ,houses for the egress and ingress of the fowls1 with a runway leading to the ground underneath4 ,these openings are securely boxed and are covered at top and bottom to prevent any draughts4 ,the detail of these openings is shown in the plans at the back of the ,book4 ,the nests are all made of boxes bought from grocers and other dealers in the neighborhood1 and are much cheaper and better than any nests laid out and built by mechanics4 ,they are put up in three tiers1 and fill up the spaces between the windows1 as shown in the detailed drawing4 ,the boxes are cut down to twelve by fourteen inches1 which makes the best sized nest4 ,in the floor of each ,laying ,house there are three hatchways dividing the length of the building into four equal parts4 ,these hatchways are for convenience in removing the litter1 and greatly facilitate the operation and reduce the necessary amount of labor1 because a wagon can be backed directly underneath4 ,if the wagon should be too high1 shovel out a runway for the wheels4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,corning ,,colony ,,house ,these hatchways are made of two thicknesses of boards with roofing between and are rabbited and securely fastened4 ,the nesting material used is fine excelsior4 ,this is better than straw or shavings as it does not offer a convenient home for lice1 and1 if the nests be thoroughly disinfected with ,crude ,carbolic and ,kerosene1 there is no danger of having any4 ,,chapter ,,xxviii ,the ,colony ,houses--,there are ,forty-one on the ,farm ,these ,houses have a floor space #f #aj feet1 are six feet high in front and five feet in the rear1 with a shed roof4 ,the frame work is built on three skids4 ,the outside skids are made of #c #d timbers1 rounded at the ends to facilitate the ready sliding of the ,houses when it becomes desirable to move them1 and #ab feet in length1 making a projection of a foot at either end beyond the sides of the ,house4 ,two by four studding is used for the center skid4 ,the three skids are securely fastened together by four pieces of #b #d studding4 ,to this frame is nailed the floor1 of inch1 matched boards4 ,the upright studs are made of #b #c's4 ,in the first ,colony ,houses we built1 #b #d's were used1 but it was found there was an economy in using #b #c's1 and1 as they answer every purpose1 the frame being absolutely stiff1 they were substituted for the #b #d's1 and they have been used ever since4 ,the frame work is covered by a cheap grade of matched flooring1 the boards running perpendicularly4 ,the roof is covered with cheap1 twelve inch1 rough boards1 and over this is laid two ply roofing1 this being carried over the front1 back and sides three inches1 well cemented and securely nailed down1 then all the joints are again cemented1 covering the nails thoroughly4 ,cotton ,duck ,windows ,the door1 for the use of the attendant1 is in the front of the ,house1 being two feet wide and the full height of the inside of the building4 ,on either side of the door1 hanging by hinges from the plates1 are two windows #de #bg inches4 ,these are covered with a medium weight cotton duck1 and open outward4 ,a device which carries a long hook readily allows them to be fastened so as to practically form an awning1 which materially assists in maintaining a cool condition inside the ,house during the ,summer4 ,two doors for the use of the birds are placed on each side of the main door1 and are fitted with slides4 ,on the inside of the window openings one inch wire mesh is securely nailed1 preventing the birds from flying out1 and also keeping night prowlers from going in4 ,over the outside of the window frames also inch wire mesh is nailed4 ,the main reason for this wiring of the outside is to prevent the birds1 as they develop and fly up on top of the ,colony ,house1 from breaking through the canvas4 ,from the detailed drawings which will be found at the end of the ,book1 and the photograph of the ,colony ,house1 a very clear idea is given of its construction4 ,,chapter ,,xxix ,materials ,required for ,laying ,house ,bill of material for the construction of #fj feet1 being three sections of the ,corning ,laying ,house4 #ad ,posts1 #h long1 #d top diameter4 ,cross ,braces at ends1 and ,corner ,braces--#e pieces1 #b #f #af4 ,floor ,joists and ,roof ,rafters1 #db pieces--#b #aj #af4 ,under ,floor1 #ajjj cheap1 wide boards4 ,upper ,floor1 #abjj #d flooring4 ,inside ,ceiling1 #bejj #d flooring4 ,outside ,covering and ,roof1 cheap wide boards1 #bdjj4 ,uprights1 #ch pieces1 #b #d #ab4 ,plates1 #aj pieces1 #b #d #ab4 ,dropping ,boards1 #dej #d flooring4 ,dropping ,boards supports1 #c pieces1 #b #d #bj1 and #c pieces1 #b #d #ab4 ,lath1 #ejj lineal feet #a #b4 ,partitions1 #ajj #d flooring4 ,hoods1 #fj lineal feet1 pine1 #a #h4 ,sills1 #c pieces pine1 #a #aj #aj4 ,window ,frames1 pine1 #a #d2 #b pieces1 #aj and #a piece #ab long4 ,one roll of roofing contains #ajh square feet4 ,for ,lining between floors #aj rolls ,lining between walls1 sides and ends #i rolls -- ,all of one ply #ai rolls ,all outside covering1 two ply #be rolls ,ventilators to be the length between the windows1 with width of opening #ab inches4 ,see detailed drawing at end of ,book4 ,illustration3 ,,breeding ,,house ,,in #aijg--,,the ,,original ,,corning ,,house ,bill of ,material for the ,construction of ,colony ,house ,skids1 #b pieces1 #c #d #ab1 and #a piece1 #b #d #aj4 ,braces1 #b pieces1 #b #d #aj4 ,uprights1 #e pieces1 #b #c #ab4 ,nailing ,pieces1 #b pieces1 #b #c #aj4 ,rafters1 #b pieces1 #b #c #ad4 ,plates1 #b pieces1 #b #c #aj4 ,roof1 #fj of #ab inch cheap boards1 #aj feet long4 ,floors and ,walls1 #cjj feet #d flooring4 ,window ,frames1 #b pieces pine1 #a #d #h4 #ge of #b ply roofing4 ,it is impossible to give prices of lumber1 as there is a great variation according to locality4 ,the above list will enable anyone to work out the full bill of lumber required1 and the builder or lumber dealer will be able to give the prices in a very few moments4 ,the cost of labor on the ,laying ,houses is from #a4ej to #a4ge per running foot4 ,this would include every item of labor in the construction of these ,houses down to the smallest detail4 ,,chapter ,,xxx ,the ,original ,thirty ,hens ,the egg production of the ,original ,thirty ,hens on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is an interesting story1 but1 of course1 it must be remembered that this record is of one hundred and fifty-three days1 the banner days of the year for eggs from yearling hens4 ,the ,biddies arrived in different lots1 the last days of ,february1 our record beginning with ,march first1 and ending with ,july #cast4 ,during that period they laid #bdff eggs1 and at the end of the third month we lost two of them4 ,the cause of death we were unable to tell1 for1 at that time our experience was not of sufficient duration to have made even a close guess4 ,the average for the birds1 it will be noted1 was eighty-five eggs per hen4 ,had we been better posted as to feeding methods1 doubtless the hens would have been capable of producing eggs in numbers considerably greater than the figures show4 ,illustration3 ,,pullets ,,in ,,laying ,,house ,,no4 #b1 ,,fall ,,of #aiaa ,the record1 however1 for real yearling hens 7and these were real yearling hens1 because when they started to lay with us they were fully eighteen months of age71 was very far from a poor one1 and the novice who succeeds in caring for his breeding stock in such a way that he does not fall short of this average1 may consider that he has done very well4 ,,chapter ,,xxxi ,egg ,records ,february #ast1 #aijh to ,june #cjth1 #aiaa4 ,average ,production ,average ,dates ,number of ,eggs ,price of ,hens per doz4 ,feb4 #a1 #aijh to ,jan4 #ca1 #aiji #b1jdj #cch1igf 4#ejff ,feb4 #a1 #aiji to ,june #cj1 #aiaj #b1haa #gji1hcf 4#dgabe ,july #a1 #aiaj to ,june #cj1 #aiaa #d1gbc #fab1jjj 4#dfah ,,average ,,for ,,first ,,ten ,,months ,,of ,,pullet ,,laying ,,in ,,flocks ,,of ,,fifteen ,,hundred4 #aiji #adc4be #aiaj #ade4aa #aiaa #adf4bc ,on examination of this ,egg ,record it will be noticed that in the average number of eggs laid by the pullets1 in flocks of fifteen hundred1 there have been three gains1 and in analyzing these averages it must be remembered that these are results obtained1 not by the handling of a few pullets most carefully selected to produce a record1 but of thousands1 and the advance of three eggs in the average is therefore a remarkable gain4 ,how ,corning ,farm ,is ,able ,to ,get ,great ,egg ,records ,the salient reasons which make possible such egg records as ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is able to show are3 #ast1--,careful selection of breeders by the ,corning ,method1 which is the only proper ,method and has already been described4 #bnd1--,pullets raised on free range1 feeding to them a strengthening and upbuilding ration1 which constantly supplies new tissues1 and is1 therefore1 a nutritious and not a forcing food4 #crd1--,housing them in ,the ,corning ,laying ,house1 which to-day stands unequaled1 where they are practically outdoors yet protected from extremes of heat and cold1 for if hens are to lay to their capacity they must be kept always in a perfectly comfortable condition4 #dth1--,the succulent1 green food1 which is so necessary to their welfare if they are to lay strongly1 and which must be given to them in large quantities4 ,hens on the ordinary free range1 in the general run of seasons1 after ,july #ast41 cannot find succulent green food in sufficient quantities to enable them to keep up even a fair average of eggs4 ,receipts of eggs at all large market centers1 begin to fall off at about this date1 and prices correspondingly increase4 ,highest ,percentage of ,fertility ,every observer1 viewing the stock of ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 is at once convinced that the scientific ,method here employed produces better birds than any other4 ,the steady increase1 from year to year1 in the hatchability of the eggs towards full fertility2 the strong1 livable chicks1 their rapid growth to maturity2 and the voluntary testimony given by our customers whose ever increasing orders come back to us1 year after year1 all conclusively establish the fact that hens bred and raised by ,the ,corning ,method are unequaled anywhere4 ,for the last two years hatching eggs have been shipped from the ,atlantic to the ,pacific1 and from the ,northern part of ,canada to the ,gulf of ,mexico1 and even across the ,atlantic to far away ,scotland4 ,from this widely extended territory comes the unsolicited testimony that ,the ,corning ,strain of ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns is unequaled4 ,at the present time the amount of labor carried on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is one working foreman and three laborers4 ,the latter are #a4ej a day men1 and1 with this force all the work of the farm is accomplished4 ,the ,houses are thoroughly cleaned1 as to the dropping boards1 drinking fountain stands1 tops of nests1 and the inside of nests where required1 every day in the week and three hundred and sixty-five days in the year4 ,when the ,colony ,houses are in use they are cleaned and rebedded every two or three weeks1 as required1 during the first part of the ,spring4 ,after the first part of the season is over1 say from ,july #ast41 they are not cleaned as often for the reason that there is very little dampness1 and so long as the ,houses remain dry1 the cleaning is not required4 ,the cost of feed in the last two years has gone up materially1 and it now requires an outlay of about eighteen cents to raise a ,leghorn cockerel to broiler size4 ,the cost of raising a pullet to the laying point is forty-two and a half cents1 which includes cost of incubation4 ,the pullet1 through her first ten months of laying1 costs #a4ae4 ,it is somewhat difficult to give a fixed figure as to the cost of caring for the coming breeder through the time of moult1 during the months when she is producing eggs for hatching1 and up to the time when she is shipped1 in ,august1 eleven months in all4 ,different seasons and different flocks of birds vary in the amount of food necessary during these months4 ,our records show1 however1 that the output of eggs through the moulting season from the birds which we are carrying for hatching eggs has always been enough to show a profit over the feeding cost4 ,it would be safe to figure that the outlay will be between one dollar and forty and one dollar and fifty cents4 ,these amounts1 as given1 represent the cost of feeding and the cost of labor4 ,,chapter ,,xxxii ,prevention and ,treatment of ,diseases ,diseases in poultry generally come from neglecting sanitary conditions4 ,a damp house1 filthy drinking fountains1 musty and sour foods1 or a general condition of filth1 bring diseases1 whether the birds are kept in large or small flocks4 ,an ailing bird should at once be removed and isolated1 and1 unless it shows immediate signs of recovery1 the best remedy1 and the safest1 is the hatchet4 ,the constant and systematic spraying of the roosting closets1 the drinking trough platforms1 underneath the dropping boards1 and in the corners between the sections1 with ,kerosene ,oil and ,crude ,carbolic 7and it must be remembered that the solution used for spraying is one-half gallon of ,crude ,carbolic to five gallons of ,kerosene ,oil1 when the birds are in the ,house71 will eliminate all danger of contagion1 provided the ,houses1 in all other respects1 are kept in a proper and cleanly condition4 ,when the pullets are first put into the ,house1 in the ,fall of the year1 it is wise to watch with great care that individuals in the flock do not develop the 8snuffles10 which mean increasing trouble of a more serious nature if allowed to go without attention4 ,the washing of the drinking cups of the fountains with ,kerosene ,oil1 and ,potassium ,permanganate in the water once a week1 will1 in most cases1 keep the flock immune from trouble4 ,spraying is one of the best cures for colds1 as it not only restores the affected bird to health1 but clears up the danger of infection which1 otherwise1 might result in spreading disease among the whole flock4 ,we have never had a 8run0 of any disease at ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm4 ,gapes and ,white ,diarrha--the most dreaded of all young chick diseases--are unknown on the ,farm4 ,this is attributed to the strong vitality and vigorous condition maintained by fresh air housing1 cleanliness1 sanitary regulation1 and by giving sweet1 wholesome food and plenty of pure1 fresh water4 ,,chapter ,,xxxiii ,a ,word in ,closing ,our business is running ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm and not writing books1 so that in telling our ,story we may have lacked some of the polish of the experienced author1 but every word that we have written is true1 and we shall be very glad to welcome any of our readers at the ,farm1 and let them see for themselves just what we have4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm actually does enjoy the supreme position among the egg farms of the ,world that we claim for it1 and that the great authorities1 after thorough1 personal examination1 have frankly admitted4 ,and we have been far more open in telling you everything that has been done on the ,farm than1 for instance1 owners of large manufacturing plants would be4 ,methods and problems in the successful and profitable production of eggs for table and hatching purposes have been worked out on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm1 and we are quite willing others should have the benefit of our very expensively acquired experience4 ,nothing to ,hide ,we have nothing to hide2 nothing to keep to ourselves4 ,we started in a very modest way1 and believe that is the preferable way to successfully build up a paying poultry farm4 ,those who have an abundance of capital might be tempted to work out too many self-evolved theories and to begin on too elaborate and extravagant a basis1 whereas1 in our opinion1 it is wiser to follow precedent1 known successes1 and start in a smaller way and expand4 ,illustrations are ,photographs ,the illustrations in this ,book are all from photographs1 and the camera cannot be persuaded to exaggerate or to show buildings where there are none4 ,the diagrams are drawn of sufficient size1 and such measurements given1 that our plant in its entirety1 or any part of it1 can be readily reproduced by anyone who cares to do so4 ,the ,corning ,success ,the success we have made on the ,farm gives us a certain feeling of satisfaction that we are entitled to enjoy1 and yet we have accomplished nothing that cannot be done by any person who will give as much thought1 time and attention to the work as we have4 ,our ,advice to ,beginners ,our advice to the beginner is that he carefully study the ,corning ,method as set forth in this ,book 7and we want to impress upon you again the fact that the ,corning ,method is just as adaptable to the town lot as to the large tract1 and in this particular it surpasses other systems which have had considerable publicity71 and then start1 either with a breeding pen1 or with an incubator and hatching eggs purchased from a ,breeder whose eggs can be depended upon1 and in this connection ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns ,only we want to say that for the production of eggs there is only one breed of fowls--,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns--and that1 in considering the purchase of a breeding pen1 or eggs for hatching1 experience will show that it is the height of folly to begrudge the additional price you must pay in order to get the right kind of ,stock4 ,whether you buy ,corning ,strain or not1 let us again emphasize the fact that no matter how famous the ,breeder1 or how high his prices1 if he has not a ,strain that has proved itself a good ,strain1 you do not want it at any price4 ,it is ,it's 8,strain0 ,you ,want ,strain that counts1 because it includes every good quality for the purpose1 and the market for the right ,strain for breeding and hatching is a very large and profitable one4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm cannot produce enough birds and eggs to fill its orders1 and probably never will1 because we do not believe in increasing the size of the ,farm beyond our ability to be personally in constant touch with every detail connected with it4 ,utility1 ,not ,show ,birds ,we want to write just a word or two as to the difference between a ,strain for the production of eggs and of ,show ,birds4 ,it must be remembered that a great laying ,strain cannot be1 at the same time1 a ,show ,bird1 at least not under the present requirements of the ,association1 because a great egg layer must have size1 and must be bred to produce size1 and not inbred to secure fancy ,show points1 which produce a bird without constitution1 and eggs from birds of the show class are small1 the fertility runs low1 and1 in many instances1 their hatchability is so poor as to be hardly worth speaking of4 ,corning ,largest ,specialty ,farm in ,world ,the ,corning ,strain ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn is an egg machine1 a large bird1 of vigorous constitution1 and typical ,leghorn shape4 ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm is the largest poultry farm in the ,world devoted entirely and exclusively to one single purpose--the developing and breeding of the great egg machine1 ,corning ,strain ,single ,comb ,white ,leghorn4 ,points ,that ,mean ,success ,just to repeat in regular order the points a ,breeder must observe if he is to make a permanent success3 ,suitable location for houses and runs4 ,properly planned1 arranged and constructed houses4 ,right breeding stock4 ,hatching eggs from a farm that has 8made good40 ,care in incubating and brooding4 ,proper handling of the pullets and cockerels4 ,careful selection of breeders4 ,regularity in feeding and attending4 ,properly balanced ration4 ,clean1 sanitary quarters1 fresh water1 and pure air1 all the time4 ,constant adherence to one ,strain1 and that the best ,strain4 ,be jealous of your reputation1 because it is on your reputation that you build up a demand for breeding stock and eggs for hatching4 ,care1 and courtesy1 and regularity in serving customers4 ,you will know after reading this ,book that on the ,farm we have little idle time on our hands1 and yet we are always willing to advise and help those who are really seriously seeking information1 and who are willing to accept what we may be able to give them1 in addition to the contents of this ,book1 and in our regular way of furnishing it4 ,,the ,,authors4 ,,buildings ,,on ,,the ,,corning ,,egg ,,farm ,,and ,,many ,,handy ,,devices ,these plans and drawings are of sufficient size to show quite clearly the construction of every building on the ,farm4 ,those who care to do so are entirely welcome to duplicate the entire ,plant1 or any part of it4 ,as the dimensions are also given1 it is a simple matter to reduce the size of the buildings to suit a flock of any number1 because1 as we have made clear in the ,book1 the ,corning ,method and ,buildings are equally suitable for the largest flock1 or the few hens and a rooster kept by the average family4 ,we do not want to be thought egotistical1 but believe we have the most complete and economically arranged lay-out in the country1 but if any reader thinks he can point out improvements we shall be very glad to hear of them1 and to discuss those that are worth while in some future edition of the ,book4 ,of course it is easier to build from an architect's plans1 and we can furnish working size blue-prints of the principal buildings4 ,illustration3 ,,exterior ,,of ,,the ,,corning ,,brooder ,,house ,total length1 #bfd feet4 ,the older part1 #aah feet long1 is #af feet in breadth2 the new addition of #adf feet is #bb feet wide4 ,illustration3 ,,floor ,,plan ,,of ,,brooder ,,house ,equipped with ,hovers1 giving capacity for #ab1jjj ,chicks at one time4 ,illustration3 ,,cross ,,section ,,of ,,hover ,,floor ,showing hot water pipes underneath1 and hinged runway1 with drawing of entrance gate from alley to ,hover pen4 ,illustration3 ,,brooder ,,house ,,windows ,,and ,,ventilators ,showing details of construction4 ,illustration3 ,,cross ,,section ,,of ,,brooder ,,house ,,and ,,incubator ,,cellar ,illustration3 ,,detail ,,of ,,beam ,,filling ,where building is over #af feet in width1 floor beams are #b x #ab4 ,illustration3 ,,floor ,,plan ,,of ,,incubator ,,cellar #adf feet by #bb feet1 with a capacity for #ae1fjj eggs at a setting1 and space to double the number4 ,illustration3 ,,sprouted ,,oats ,,cellar ,with capacity for sprouting #ajj bushels of oats at a time4 ,illustration3 ,,vestibuled ,,entrance ,,to ,,incubator ,,cellar ,also giving access by inside stairway to ,brooder ,house4 ,illustration3 ,,west ,,end ,,of ,,brooder ,,house ,opening into ,sprouted ,oats ,cellar1 and by stairway up to ,brooder ,house4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,corning ,,laying ,,house ,which is built in #bj foot sections1 and can be extended to any desired length4 ,those on ,the ,corning ,egg ,farm are #afj feet by #af feet4 ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,arrangement ,,of ,,laying ,,house ,showing the draught-proof roosting closets1 and arrangement of nests1 drinking fountains1 etc4 ,illustration3 ,,cross ,,section ,,of ,,laying ,,house ,showing method of raising perches while cleaning dropping board4 ,illustration3 ,,details ,,of ,,mash ,,box ,illustration3 ,,construction ,,of ,,laying ,,house ,,runway ,opening being placed at back of dropping boards4 ,see ,cross ,section of ,house on opposite page4 ,illustration3 ,,doors ,,of ,,laying ,,house ,showing outside half wire door and solid interior door with observation window4 ,illustration3 ,,detail ,,of ,,sill ,,construction ,,of ,,laying ,,house ,illustration3 ,,corning ,,ventilator ,showing full details of construction4 ,used in ,laying ,house4 ,illustration3 ,,grit1 ,,shell ,,and ,,ash ,,hopper ,illustration3 ,,corning ,,colony ,,house ,the ,cotton ,duck ,windows when hooked up forming awnings4 ,illustration3 ,,side ,,elevation ,illustration3 ,,detail ,,of ,,window ,,frame ,illustration3 ,,floor ,,of ,,colony ,,house ,showing skids1 and brace construction4 ,also ,storm ,trench4 ,illustration3 ,,plan ,,for ,,utilizing ,,colony ,,house ,,as ,a ,,brooder ,illustration3 ,,details ,,of ,,laying ,,house ,,window1 ,showing ,handy ,button ,fastener4 ,illustration3 ,,box ,,for ,,moving ,,pullets ,,from ,,range ,,to ,,laying ,,house4 ,illustration3 ,,box ,,for ,,carrying ,,youngsters ,,from ,,brooder ,,house ,,to ,,colony ,,house4 ,illustration3 ,,catching ,,hook ,,press ,,of ,,the ,,vail-,,ballou ,,co4 ,,binghamton1 ,n4 ,y4 ,transcriber's ,notes ,inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained4 ,depending on the hard- and software used to read this text and on their settings1 not all elements may display as intended4 ,page #aid3 in the source document1 the section headers 78,single ,comb ,white ,leghorns ,only0 and 8,it's 8,strain0 ,you ,want07 are printed in the middle of the text paragraph4 ,changes made3 ,illustrations and tables have been moved out of text paragraphs4 ,some minor obvious typographical errors and missing punctuation have been corrected silently4 ,dimensions have been standardised to m n4 ,page #i1 ,table of ,contents3 the entry 8,buildings on the ,corning ,egg ,farm and ,many ,handy ,devices0 has been added4 ,page #aj-ac3 illustration numbers were added4 ,page #adg3 the addenda slip has been inserted at the end of the page4