276 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



WORK WITH POULTRY. 



During nearly the whole existence of the Maine Agricultural 

 Experiment Station it has carried on work with poultry along 

 one line or another. Two phases of the poultry work of this 

 Station have attracted wide attention, namely its experiments 

 in breeding for increased egg production, on the one hand, and 

 in poultry management on the other hand. In recent years an 

 increasing amount of attention has been paid to the former line 

 of work. This is warranted by the great practical importance 

 to agriculture of the subject of breeding for performance in 

 general. Not only will a working out of the fundamental 

 principles upon which successful breeding for egg production 

 depends be useful and valuable to the poultryman, but also to 

 the breeder of any kirfd of live stock who is seeking to improve 

 utility qualities. Poultry probably furnishes more favorable ma- 

 terial for working out the laws of inheritance and breeding than 

 any other of the domestic animals. 



Breeding for Egg Production. 



The work in breeding for increased egg production is now 

 drawing to a close. During the past year the essential features 

 of the mechanism by which egg production is inherited have been 

 finally worked out. These final results have been published dur- 

 ing the present year in Bulletin 205, thus completing an investi- 

 gation which has engaged the attention of the Station for over 

 14 years. 



The essential facts which have been brought out in this study 

 are the following: 



1. The record of egg production of a hen, taken by and of 

 itself alone, gives no definite, reliable indication from which the 

 probable egg production of her daughters may be pre^:licted. 

 Furthermore mass selection on the basis of the fecundity records 

 of females alone, even though long continued and stringent in 

 character, failed completely to produce any steady change in 

 type in the direction of selection. 



2. Egg production must be inherited, however, since (a) 

 there are widely distinct and permanent (under ordinary breed- 

 ing) differences in respect of degree of fecundity between dif- 

 ferent standard breeds of fowls commonly kept by poultrymen. 



