A LEGHORN RECORD.
Not-many farmers realize how valuable a- harvest eggs may be. I know one who made a profit of almost exactly £1,000 in one- year, though at a date when eggs were dearer than they are to-day. But he is a rare exception. On most farms the poultry do not average, I should- say, fifty eggs a hen a year. At this date when eggs are plentiful, one farmer with over 400 birds is getting not more than seven or eight eggs a day. A neighbour of his who keeps sixty hens, very scientifically bred and fed, is getting forty eggs a day ; and in the last twelve months his hens averaged well over 200 eggs a bird. Such an average is, of course, enormous ; and the black Leghorns responsible should be famous. But there is no reason why any farmer should not grade up his hens to produce, say,-100 eggs a year ; and at that they should pay a handsome dividend. The purchase of a few cocks from egg-laying strains and the killing off of the older birds would be enough in themselves to convert farm poultry from a loss to a gain. That the quality of productivity is inherited via the cock is now as good as proved. The new egg-marking scheme should enrol the British consumer as a more conscious abettor of the British producer.
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