42 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPLRIMLNT STATION. I903. 



the hens of the State shall be increased to the extent of one dozen 

 per bird, the value and importance of this work will be many 

 fold its cost. While we are not breeding for fancy or show 

 purposes, the birds are kept within the limits of the requirements 

 of the breeds, so far as markings are concerned. No matter 

 how great the number of eggs yielded, if they are not of good 

 size, shape and color, the bird is rejected as a breeder. 



It is yet too early to report what the results of this work are 

 to be. Sufficient time has not elapsed since beginning the tests, 

 to increase tgg production, or establish claims of increased pro- 

 ductiveness. 



During the four years in which we have been selecting breed- 

 ing stock by use of the trap nests, we have given full year tests 

 to over a thousand hens and have found among them 35 that 

 have yielded from 200 to 251 eggs each in a year. Several have 

 each yielded only from 36 to 60 eggs, and three have never laid 

 at all, to the best of our knowledge. 



A study of the monthly record sheets shows not only great 

 differences in the capacities of hens, but marked variations in 

 the regularity of their work ; some commencing early in Novem- 

 ber and continuing to lay heavily and regularly, month after 

 month, while others varied much, laying well one month and 

 poorly or not at all the next. We are not able to account for 

 these vagaries, as the birds in each breed were bred alike and 

 selected for their uniformity. All pens were of the same size 

 and shape and contained the same number of birds. Their feed- 

 ing and treatment were alike throughout. 



With the most careful selections we could make, when esti- 

 mating the capacities for egg yielding by the types and forms of 

 birds, we found we were still including in our breeding pens 

 hens that were small workers. Many of the light layers gave 

 evidence of much vitality, and in many instances there were no 

 marked differences in form or action, by which we were able to 

 account for the small amount of work performed by them. 



Every hen that has laid large numbers of eggs through the 

 first, or the first and second, or more years, has shown much 

 vigor and constitution. Some individuals have laid heavily for 

 a few months and then drooped and died, seemingly because they 

 could not stand the demands made upon them by heavy work. 



