Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1918 — POULTRY KEEPER MUST SAVE FEED [ARTICLE]

POULTRY KEEPER MUST SAVE FEED

Economy and Efficiency Are Keynotes of Profitable Production of Chickens. CULL FLOCK WHILE GROWING Skillful Use of Stock Supplemented j by Efficient Management Means / More Meat and Eggs—Table of Standard Weights. in wartime economy and efficiency are the keynotes of poultry production. The poultry keeper must save feed and at the same time increase poultry production. It is not the high cost of feed alone, since America entered the war, that has led to more careful attention to the routine work of keeping poultry and to greater production and skill in feeding. The saving of money has been an Incentive, but above and beyond that every poultry keeper realizes that getting better production from less feed is doing double duty in conservation and production. X

The first result of the wartime conditions was to emphasize afresh and more effectively than ever the benefits of graded selection of breeding stock and severe culling of the young stock while growing. When this is practiced together with good poultry management the feed bill is reduced but the production of eggs is maintained and even increased in some cases. '

Table 1-Llst of Well-Known Breeds Grouped According to General Type, With Standard Weights. Weights in Pounds. Breed. Cock.Cockerel.Hen. Pullet. Egg Type. Leghorn 5)4 4)4 4 3)4 Ancona 5)4 4)4 4)4 8)4 Andalusian, 6 ,5 5 4 Minorca (other than 8. C. Black) 8 6% 6% 5)4 Minorca.S.C.,BL. » Hi Hi Hi Dual Purpose Type. Dominique 7 8 5 4 R. I. Red 8)4 Hi Hi 8 Wyandot tes 8% 7% Hi Hi Sussex 9 7)4 .7 « Buckeye 9 8 7 6 Plymouth Rock.. 9)4 8 7)4 6 Orpington 10 8)4 8 7 Meat Type. Dorking, White.. 7% 6)4 6 5 Dorking. 8. C.. 8 7 6)4 5)4 Cornish 10 8 7)4 6 Langshan 9)4 8 7)4 6)4 Cochin .11 9 8)4 7 Brahma, Lt. 12 10 9)4 8 If the producers of eggs and poultry for the table are doing their utmost to Increase production of meat and eggs, the shortest and surest way is through general use of the most productive types, that is, by the use on the part of every poultry keeper of the most productive types of his stock. It is not meant that there should be a wholesale replacement of ordinary stock by stock or strains celebrated for extreme high production. In some cases this may be done to advantage, but with the majority of poultry keepers immediate gain in production must be made by good use of such stock as they have. Get Understanding of Type. The first step toward the increase of poultry products—whether meat or eggs—through the use of the types best suited to production, is to get a correct understanding of type. Three distinct types are recognized—the egg type, the meat type and the dual purpose or general purpose type, which Is commonly considered as an intermediate of the other two, though in reality it is the primary type of which the others me modifications. Small Size and great activity are

commonly supposed to be the characteristics of egg type. Large size and an indolent temperament are supposed to be characteristics of the meat type, and medium size without either marked energy or great indolence are supposed to be the characteristics of the mediocre dual-purpose type. While this, in a general way, is true, there are exceptions, as can be noted in the accompanying tables. These tables show that egg production and meat production are not entirely a simple matter of size, weight and temperament. Table No. 1 is a list of well known standard breeds grouped ac cording to their general type. Tabic No. 2 is a list of the same breeds arranged in the order of their weight, beginning with the smallest. There is a wide range of individual differences among the standard breeds, some strains of a particular breed being better suited for egg production than meat, and vice versa. Good physical development, vitality, constitutional vigor, a good digestive system, docility and ruggedness and stability of function in the reproductive organs are the distinguishing characters and traits of dependable good layers.

The existence of all these, however, is not enough to Insure good laying. There must, of course, be reasonably good management, even if the keeper has not special skill. But if with these qualities which make for continual laying there exists a tendency to put on fat Whenever laying is interrupted, only unremitting skillful management to keep a ben in good laying condition will make her a first-class egg producer. 4 The egg type or laying type of hen, in any breed, Is the hen that with the qualities that make for good egg production has no quality which is an obstacle .to continual laying. The meat type is not the converse of the egg type, even though the hen that is not a good layer is fit only for meat. ’ Meat Type Grows Rapidly. The meat type, in all kinds of poultry, is the type that grows rapidly and at maturity carries abundant flesh, especially vpherq the preferred parts of the meat are produced. The most desirable meat type is rather fine in bone, with the frame well knit but not too compact. Under any kind of good management a hen of this type that is in normal condition will be a good layer. She may not lay any better than a hen not quite so well fleshed, but she ought to lay just as well, and when the time comes to make meat of her she makes more and better meat; and as a breeder she naturally tends to reproduce offspring that will make more and better meat.

Table 2—List of Breeds in Table 1 Arranged According to Standard Weight, Egg Type Breeds in Ordinary ‘ Print, Dual Purpose Breeds in Capitals, Meat Type Breeds in Heavy Type. Weights in Pounds. Breed. Cock.Cockerel.Hen.Pullet. Leghorn 5)4 4)4 4 3)4 Ancona .. 5)4 4)4 4)4 3)4 Andalusian ../... 6 5 5 4 DOMINIQUE ... 7 6 5 Dorking, S. C.. 8 7 6)4 5)4 •Minorca , 8 6)4 6)4 6)4 R. I. RED 8)4 7)4 6)4 5 WYANDOTTE .8)4 7)4 6)4 5)4 BUCKEYE 9 8 6)4 Hi SUSSEX .... 9 7)4 7 6 Minorca.S.C..BL. 9 7)4 7)4 6)4 PLM’TH ROCK. 9)4 8 7)4 6 I.nngahan 9)4 8 7)4 6)4 Cer»l»hD4 W. .10 8 7)4 6 ORPINGTON ...10 8)4 8 7 Cochin 11 9 8)4 7 Brahma, Lt.... 12 10 9)4 8 •Other than 8. C. Black. Such hens are in reality of the dualpurpose type, no matter what their size or breed. They are equally valuable 'Tor eggs and meat That is the kind of stock that will contribute most to the big increase in poultry that is wanted. It is the dual-purpose type of every breed —a type that exists in every breed, and (ran, easily be made the prevalent type without detriment to any breed, and to the benefit of every breed—that has suffered from neglect -