2/8 AGRICULTURE OF MAIXE. 



There is a slacking up in the rate of increase in February, which 

 probably represents the point of the ending of the first, or 

 winter, cycle of egg production. This February slacking up 

 amounts in many cases to an actual decrease in productiveness 

 as compared with the point attained in January, (d) The 

 mean production reaches a maximum in ]March. (e~i While 

 the mean production for April is practically the same as that 

 for March, there is a steady decline after April on to the end 

 of the laying year in October, (f) There is a tendency toward 

 a slightly larger drop in mean production in ]\Tay. This is the 

 period of natural broodiness. 



The present data indicate that only a trifle more than a 

 quarter of the total eggs produced are laid in the winter third 

 of the year (November i to ]March i). In the first two-thirds 

 of the laying year approximately three-fourths of the total eggs 

 are produced. The month of maximum productivity varied in 

 the experiments furnishing the present data with the methods 

 of housing. In a closed, warmed house the montli of maximum 

 production was April ; in a curtain- front house it was March. 

 The greatest relative variability in egg production is at the 

 beginning of the laying year (month of November). The 

 month of lowest variability, both absolute and relative, is 

 April. 



The laying year may be divided into four natural periods 

 or cycles with reference to egg production. The first of these 

 periods (roughly November i to March i) is the winter period, 

 wherein egg production is essentially a non-natural (i. e., forced 

 or stimulated) process. The second or spring period (March i 

 to June i) is the natural laying period of the domestic fowl 

 in its normal reproductive cycle. The third (roughly June i 

 to September i) and fourth (roughly September i to October 

 31) periods are not sharply separated from one another. The 

 summer egg production represents in part a natural continuance 

 of the normal breeding season (rearing of a second brood by 

 wild GaUtis) and in part a stimulated process. This period is 

 terminated by the molt, which is the characteristic feature of 

 the fourth period. 



There is no evidence that the continued selection for higher 

 egg production practiced during the eight years covered by the 

 experiment produced any increase whatever in the mean egg 



