No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICUI-TUKE. 267 



Good, jnire bred slock will pay a big profit over the mongrel, pro- 

 vided the pure bred stock are selected and bred for constitutional 

 vigor more than for fancy points. At the West Virginia Experi 

 ment Station during fonr winter months a pen of good mongrels 

 laid 364 eggs and a similar number of strong vigorous White Leg- 

 horns laid 1,029 eggs, both pens getting the same care and feed. 

 Some instances are on record where the mongrels have outlaid the 

 pure breds. This can easily be the case when the mongrels have 

 plenty of vitality and the pure breds are the weakly kind often 

 found in the small yards of the fancier. 



The advertising of breed to lay, trapnested fowls has deceived 

 many. There is not one particle of evidence as far as I have been 

 able to lind to show that the egg laying capacity of the race can be 

 increased by breeding from the heaviest layers as indicated by the 

 trapnest. In fact the evidence as far as I can learn is on the re- 

 verse side. In my own experience I would rather have hens raised 

 from stock of moderate producers than from the heaviest producers. 

 I get more vitality in this way. Nature seems to put limitations 

 on some of these things. That there may be a degree of protection 

 to the vigor of the race, we often see excessive fecundity accompanied 

 b}' partial sterility. 



In fact I am inclined to think that the limit has been reached in 

 the number of eggs the hen can be made to produce as far as breed- 

 ing has to do with the matter. The records show that hens, under 

 favorable conditions laid as many eggs one hundred years ago as 

 now. On this point see Experiment Station Record, page 279, 

 Sept., 1909. The most careful breeding by skillful scientists has 

 failed to increase the average production of the race. It is one 

 thing to call out the poor layers, and quite another thing to raise 

 the average of the race by selective breeding. 



On this point I quote Dr. Pearl, of the Maine Experiment Station: 

 •'The data so far obtained do not indicate that egg producing ability 

 is sensibly or directly increased between mother and daughter. The 

 mean egg production of the daughters of the 200 egg hens, is with 

 a single exception smaller than the egg production of the birds not 

 daughters of the 200 egg hens. 



"The results of these investigations agree with those of other 

 workers with plants and animals and shoAv that the chief if not the 

 entire function of selection in breeding is to' isolate pure strains 

 from a mixed population. It is found by actual experience impos- 

 sible to bring about b}' selection, improvement beyond a point al 

 ready existing in the pure isolated strain at the beginning." 



If careful scientific men are not able to accomplish results with 

 the trapnest, what may we say of the many amateur poultry men 

 that are advertising wonderful lajdng strains selected by the trap; 

 nest: Just a bait to catch suckers. Don't be a sucker. Hark to 

 the advice of Dr. Pearl at the close of his Bulletin No. 166, "In- 

 heritance of Fecundity," as follows: "Until this basic question is 

 definitely answered schemes and rules which involve anything further 

 than attention to health, vigor and constitution in the breeding stock 

 lack foundation in ascertained facts." Then we may solve the prob- 

 lem best by culling out the weaklings, breeding from the strong and 

 vigorous, and making the environment congenial. 



