Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 266, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1918 — LEGHORNS PRODUCE EGGS AT LESS COST. [ARTICLE]

LEGHORNS PRODUCE EGGS AT LESS COST.

‘LZVZZV*™' Purpose ureeaa snown oy cent Feeding Test. •*. Leghorns r j>, produce eggs cheaper than hens of the genera! purpose ,breeds Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds and Orpingtons. This fact, which confirms the belief and experience of commercial poultry farmers, was one of the results' obtained in a rather (sxtehsive feeding test recently reported by poultry men of the United States Department, of Agriculture. Because they lay as many or more eggs, ekt only about 55 pounds of feed per head as compared with 70 to 85 pounds, eaten by the general-purpose breeds, and because their egg yield very materially exceeds „ that of general-purpose breeds during their second and third laying years. Leghorns, thß specialists say, undoubtedly are more profitable to keep for the production of' eggs only. In this test the food cost of a dozen eggs for one of the Leghorn pens was 7.34 cents in 1913 while the averagecost of all the pens of the generalpurpose' breeds was 10.6 cents. In 1914 the feed cost of a dozen eggs for the same pen of Leghorns was 8.7 cents as against an average cost of 15.1 cents for the second laying year of the general-purpose pens. During their third laying year the cost of a dozen eggs was 8.8 cents compared to 18.6 cents for the general-purpose fowls. The total value of egg&per hen over feed cost in the Leghorn pen for three years was $6.84 against 14.30 for the general-purposß hens. The highest egg production obtained in any of the feeding experiments was by a pen of Leghorns which laid 167.6 • eggs per hen, at a feed cost of 6.7 cents a dozen. The Leghorns produce smaller eggs than the general-purpose breeds. The average weight of the eggs of a. pen of Leghorns during the first laying year was 1.42 pounds per dozen as against ,1.53 to 1.58 pounds for the other pens. However, Leghorns layajag eggs weighing 1.50 pounds per twzen or even more, the specialists say, have been selected and bred*" by many poultrymen. An-examination of 600 eggs .from 3 Leghorn pens showed thf»t 31 per cent weighed more than two ounces apiece, or 1.50 pounds to the dozen. .igißm Mi \ per dozen of the eggs r the Leghorns wacfrbih '’Se eggs, jMecially '‘with stock confined to tM;y*rds, is more often secured wiJfpSthornsjSaihn with the or a# of the heavier breeds.