PROFITABLE EGG FARMING.
[To THE EDITOR Or TIM "SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—As an American whose profession is that of agricul- tural expert the writer was interested in reading a letter, from H. B. Buchanan, which appeared on page 752 in your issue of May 11th. Perhaps your readers may be interested to know that the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station at Orono, Maine, U.S.A., keep a flock of 1,000 fowls (of the American breeds, Plymouth Rock and White Wyandotte) in a scratching-shed type of house, 20ft. by 400ft., which is divided into pens, 20ft. by 20ft., and which hold 50 birds each. These pens are all provided with trap-nests, and for the past ten years the Experiment Station has been breeding from fowls whose records show a, production of over 200 eggs per annum. In fact the writer• is the proud possessor of the photograph of an Experiment Station Plymouth Rock fowl that laid 251 eggs in her first laying year, and has also other r•ecor•ds of fowls that have laid over 280 eggs in one year. In America it has been conclusively proved by the Maine Experiment Station that a flock of well-kept fowls, bred from egg-record ancestors, should not average under 200 eggs per annum. It may interest your correspondent to know that the same station uses only the " dr•y-feed method," and finds that it costs them about $1.40 per• annum to feed each bird; thus with eggs averaging two cents each in the market, and fat fowls fetching from 50 cents alive, the net profit on a well-conducted plant should be about $3.10 per hen, not an unsubstantial profit of $3,100 per year whore a thousand fowls are kept.—I am, Sir, &c., Albany, New York, U.S.A. EDWARD K. PARKINSON.
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