Farm Labor On Maine Poultry Farms PDF Download

Excerpt from Poultry Investigations at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station For many years poultry work has been carried on at the University of Maine. It was not, however, until 1897 that the Maine Experiment Station decided to begin a series of poultry investigations on a somewhat extended scale. Since 1904 this work has been carried on in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. The details of the results will be published, when completed, in a bulletin of this Bureau. Although the principal object of the present bulletin is to state the methods of poultry management practiced at the Maine Experiment Station, it may not be amiss, because of the great interest which has developed in the matter, to report here a brief summary of the results thus far obtained in the experiments in breeding for egg production. In 1897 the Maine Station erected a poultry house 150 feet by 16 feet, a brooder house 60 feet by 14 feet, and a half dozen small movable brooder houses. The plant was constructed for the purpose of investigation, and many experiments, chiefly feeding, were under way in the winter of 1897-98. Early in the spring of 1898 this poultry plant was entirely destroyed by fire, but the larger part of the stock was saved. Of course the experiments thus interrupted did not give definite results, but the records of the pens and careful observation of the birds showed marked differences in the egg production, which led to a change in the plan and scope of the investigations. These birds were from stock that had been bred at the experiment station for many years. Breeding For Increased Egg Production. When the poultry plant was rebuilt in 1898 it was decided to give up for the present definite feeding experiments and to confine the work of the station for several years to the problem: Can egg production be increased by breeding and selection? This work, which was begun in 1898, has been continued without interruption. In breeding poultry such wonderful changes have been made in form and feather that it seems to have been demonstrated that at least in these particulars the laws of inheritance and transmission are as true with poultry as with cattle, sheep, and horses. Many attempts have been made to improve egg production by breeding. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.