Selection of Cockerels We gave great care to the selection of the males heading the breeding pen, every bird having perfect head points, being strong and vigorous, and as large as we could find him, where we felt sure that no outside blood had been introduced. The Brooder House during the Fall, was materially added to, giving us twenty Hover Pens, three feet wide, and twelve Nursery Pens, each nearly five feet wide, this giving us a Brooder House 118 feet long by 16 feet wide. We again this year (1909) supplemented our own breeding pen with purchases of eggs from different sources. Pullets Lay in 129 Days Our hatches this Spring were very successful, and the chicks which went up into the Brooder House were strong and vigorous. The mortality was low, and when placed on Range they grew rapidly. The pullets came into eggs, as they had in the two previous years, within a few days after they passed the four months’ mile-stone. We had added some six Colony Houses to our range equipment. The building originally designed for pigeons we planned to change over into a Breeding House, for, in the Fall of 1909, we would have a sufficient number of yearling hens to carry quite a breeding establishment. This house was about completed in the month of May, when it mysteriously took fire, and was a complete loss. Fortunately the fire broke out at about ten o’clock in the morning, and, by the timely assistance of the boys of the Wilson Military Academy, under the able direction of the Military Officers of that Academy, we were able to confine it to this one building in spite of the fact that a high wind was blowing, which carried the sparks directly on to the other buildings. The water supply on the Farm proved more than adequate to the necessities of the occasion, and the loss was entirely covered by insurance. As we desired to recognize the services of the young men, and at the suggestion of the Commanding Officer, medals were struck off commemorative of the fire and of the bravery displayed by these young men at this time, and were presented to them. An addition to the Breeding House, extending over the site of the burned building, was immediately erected, and the small building which had been used as a fattening pen for cockerels was rebuilt, and became the breeding pen for the production of unrelated cockerels. Also during this season the No. 3 Laying House was built, this being an exact duplicate of the No. 2 House.