FRED B. MAGILL, proprietor of the Piqua Egg Farm, is conducting an enterprise which he has developed from a small beginning to one of very large proportions and now owns the largest poultry plant in Miami County. He was born at Avondale, near Cincinnati.

After graduating from Deveaux College, New York, in 1896, Mr. Magill returned to Cincinnati and became identified with a scientific body for which he traveled for some time, collecting specimens of insects and of large game. In 1890 he went west, living for some time at Omaha and later on a ranch, and for a year and a half lived in a house-boat. This he launched at Des Moines, Iowa, and in it traversed the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers and went as far south as Arkansas, making a great collection of insects, birds and Indian relics. He is a born naturalist and the years he has spent in scientific work have been delightful ones to him and have added very largely to the general knowledge of the country on these subjects. His travels have led him all over the United States, and there are few important scientific bodies in which his name is not held in high esteem. He has a remarkable collection and permits students to visit it, imparting information which is never found in text books. In 1901 Mr. Magill came to Piqua, buying five acres of land at that time, on which he started his poultry business. He breeds the White Wyandotte birds, having a building for the same which is 500 feet long, and here raises from 2,000 to 3,000 broods a year. Mr. Magill is a member of the Episcopal Church and was confirmed by Bishop Cox, of the Western Diocese of New York.