The Corning Egg Farm Book, by Corning Himself

CHAPTER XVIII

INCUBATION ON THE CORNING EGG FARM 106

Hen Reigns Supreme 106 Livable Chicks--Not Numbers 107 Uniform Temperature Most Important 108 Ventilation and Moisture Next 108 Hot Water Machines Best 110 Corning Incubator Cellar Unequaled 111 Eggs Turned from Third to Eighteenth Day 112 103 Degrees Maintained 112 Cool But Never Cold 113 Cover Glass Doors 114 All Good Chicks Hatch in 20 Days 114 Set Incubators Toward Evening 115 Tested Only on Eighteenth Day 116 Moisture 117 Chicks Handled Only Once 117 Baby Chick Business Cruel 118

CHAPTER XIX. Rearing Chicks in Brooder House--the Following Two Years’ Results

REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE--THE FOLLOWING TWO YEARS’ RESULTS DEPEND UPON SUCCESS IN BROODING 121

Corn Not Proper Chick Food 122 Follow Nature’s Teaching 122 A Balanced Food 123 Never Build a Double House 126 Must Drain Chick Runs 127 Concrete Floors Mean Dampness 127 Corning Heated Brooder House 128 Corning Feeds Dry Food Only 129 Three Feeds Daily 129 Green Food Third Day 130 Animal Food Tenth Day 130 Avoid Moving Chicks Often 132

CHAPTER XX. Handling Birds on Range--the Youngsters Must Be Kept Growing All

HANDLING BIRDS ON RANGE--THE YOUNGSTERS MUST BE KEPT GROWING ALL THE TIME 134

A Corning Wrinkle 135 Grain and Mash Once a Day 137 Plenty of Shade 139 Removed to Laying House Middle of September 140

CHAPTER XXI. Feeding for Eggs--Wholesome Nourishment--Not Destructive

FEEDING FOR EGGS--WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT--NOT DESTRUCTIVE STIMULANTS 143

Easy Assimilation 143 Perfect Health or No Eggs 144 Abundant Animal Food 144 The Corning Mash the Secret 145 “Egg Foods” Kill Layers 146 Mustard Increases Egg Laying 147 Mustard Increases Fertility 148 4,000 Layers Fed Mustard 149 Mustard Maintains Health 150 Keep Appetite Keen 150

CHAPTER XXII. Breeding Hens During Moult--Coming Breeders Must Be Kept

BREEDING HENS DURING MOULT--COMING BREEDERS MUST BE KEPT EXERCISING THROUGH THIS PERIOD 153

Do Not Overfeed 154

CHAPTER XXIII

FEEDING THE BREEDING COCKERELS 156

CHAPTER XXIV

PREPARING SURPLUS COCKERELS FOR MARKET 157

Must Have Green Food 158

CHAPTER XXV

$6.41 PER HEN PER YEAR 159

$6.41 Not Extravagant Claim 160 Corning Farm Makes More Than $6.41 161

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BUILDINGS ON THE CORNING EGG FARM 163

No. 1, Brooder House, Incubator and Sprouted Oats Cellars 164 Building No. 2, Work Shop, etc. 167 Building No. 9, Horse Stable 169 Building No. 10, Wagon Shed 170 Building No. 12, Office Building 170

CHAPTER XXVII

CONSTRUCTION OF LAYING, BREEDING, AND BREEDING COCKEREL HOUSES 171

Nearly Six Feet from Ground 172 Double Floors 173 Canvas Windows 174 Double Doors 176 Draught-Proof Roosting Closets 177

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE COLONY HOUSES--THERE ARE FORTY-ONE ON THE FARM 180

Cotton Duck Windows 181

CHAPTER XXIX

MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR LAYING HOUSES 182

Bill of Material for the Construction of Colony House 183

CHAPTER XXX

THE ORIGINAL THIRTY HENS 184

CHAPTER XXXI

EGG RECORDS 186

How Corning Farm is Able to Get Great Egg Records 187 Highest Percentage of Fertility 188

CHAPTER XXXII

PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF DISEASES 190

CHAPTER XXXIII

A WORD IN CLOSING 192

Nothing to Hide 193 Illustrations are Photographs 193 The Corning Success 193 Our Advice to Beginners 194 Single Comb White Leghorns Only 194 It’s “Strain” You Want 194 Utility, Not Show Birds 195 Corning Largest Specialty Farm in World 195 Points That Mean Success 196

BUILDINGS ON THE CORNING EGG FARM AND MANY HANDY DEVICES 198

ILLUSTRATIONS

Corning Strain Utility Cockerel Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

1. Lay-Out of Farm 16

2. Interior Sterile Laying House No. 3, in 1910 22

3. Entrance to Farm in 1909 24

4. As You Approach the Farm, 1911 28

5. Office Building 30

6. Breeding Cockerels, Fall of 1909 34

7. Interior Laying House No. 2, in 1910 38

8. Panoramic View of the Farm 46

9. Thirty Dozen Corning Sanitary Fresh Eggs Ready to Ship 54

10. The Strain that Makes the Corning Egg Farm Famous 58

11. Three Sterile Laying Houses Containing 4,500 Pullets 64

12. Interior Laying House No. 1, in 1910 68

13. One of the Breeding Houses just after Mating, 1910 72

14. Sprouted Oats Cellar 78

15. Two-Weeks-Old Chicks in Brooder House Runs 84

16. Yearling Hens in Breeder House before Mating 90

17. “Socrates,” the Great Bloodhound Which Heads the Corning Kennels 92

18. “Socrates II” and “Diogenes” 94

19. Buster, America’s Greatest Ratter 94

20. Corning Automatic Drinking Fountain 96

21. Part of the Old Incubator Cellar 104

22. Brooder House, Showing Chick Runs 120

23. Old Arrangement of Brooder House 124

24. Chicks Six Weeks Old 128

25. Colony Range Feed and Water Wagon with “Billy” 136

26. Feeding on the Colony Range 140

27. Baskets of Eggs 150

28. Breeding Cockerels, Fall of 1911 156

29. No. 3 Laying House Filled with 1,500 Pullets 158

30. The Workshop on the Corning Egg Farm 162

31. The Celebrated Corning Large-Flock Laying House No. 3 170

32. Laying House Prepared to Receive 1,500 Pullets from Range 172

33. One of the Breeding Houses in 1911 174

34. The Corning Colony House 178

35. Breeding House in 1907--The Original Corning House 182

36. Pullets in Laying House No. 2, Fall of 1911 184

37. Diagrams and Detailed Plans of Buildings, etc. 199

INTRODUCTORY

The Method, and the style of the buildings, evolved and worked out on The Corning Egg Farm, when put into book form proved so helpful to so vast a number of poultry keepers, that the sale of this first literature, which for a time was added to as the months went by, reached the enormous total of over 140,000 copies in eighteen months.

The writings were the simple, plain statements of facts, and enabled others who followed them to reach a success which, until this System was used, may have been dreamed of, but was never realized.

The literature from this Farm has gone out over the entire civilized World, and the visitors, who arrive in ever increasing numbers from month to month, come from every quarter of the Globe.

The Corning Egg Farm has been written of in periodicals of every nature, and in almost every language the World over. For the last twelve months the requests for further, and more explicit, detailed information relative to breeding and feeding for eggs, the specialty from which The Corning Egg Farm has never swerved, have become a demand. So that, after mature deliberation, it was decided to write the history of The Corning Egg Farm, from its inception to date, including the work of the last two years, which has never before been fully published.

“The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corning Himself” is to-day the only publication giving facts in regard to the Farm and its unique Method right up to date.

As the book is read it must be borne in mind that, in breeding to produce a great layer, at first very marked increases in the number of eggs during the first ten months of laying may be gained. The general average number of eggs laid each year, from official reports, is less than 100 per hen. On The Corning Egg Farm, when the average had reached 143.25 eggs, the next jump, in the following year, was more than had been expected, and the record of 145.11 eggs for each hen for ten months, though showing an increase apparently small, in reality was a very great advance indeed.

From this time on, the gain, although representing a narrower margin of increase, was in reality a much greater achievement. The trotting horse may serve as an illustration. When Dexter trotted his famous mile he clipped off a number of seconds from the previous record, and it seemed as if it would be a matter of considerable time before his mark would be lowered. But within a comparatively short time a number of trotters turned off a mile in two-ten, and from this figure, within a short period, a large company of famous horses had reached the two-five mark, but every quarter of a second which reduced this mark meant greater achievement in breeding than was represented by the reduction of records from two-sixteen to two-five, and we have not yet seen the horse which, in single harness, without a running mate, can turn the mile track in two minutes flat.

The Corning Egg Farm realizes that from this on improvement will be shown by fractional figures, but these fractions will represent a greater progress than the figures which have gone before.

Two years ago the unequaled results of The Corning Egg Farm had seemed unsurpassable, but to-day we are able to look back from higher ground and see the road over which we have traveled to reach a point very considerably beyond the unequaled position of two years ago.

It is our hope and aim, year by year, to improve the present position. The man who believes he has learned all there is to learn is a failure. The successful man is the one who is sure there is an opportunity to advance considerably beyond the point he has already attained, and The Corning Egg Farm believes this to be true, and has constantly worked with that idea before it.

With an experience back of them of nearly six years the Builders of The Corning Egg Farm know that this Book furnishes the necessary guide for success in poultry culture. What has been, and what is being, done at The Corning Egg Farm is not experimental work. Successful results follow the Method and System employed as surely as day follows night. It is no longer necessary for the novice to try out the various plans proposed to him by the literary poultryman, whose methods are worked out on a mahogany desk, with pen and ink, or more often, perhaps, by dictation to a stenographer.

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