286 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



ference for Leghorus that would ordinarily weigh only 2| to 3^ 

 pounds apiece, due purely to a question of inheritance — they appar- 

 ently inherited their vitality from the parents. They were better 

 layers. The records showed that these pullets of high vitality, like 

 their mothers, laid eleven and a fraction more eggs each year in the 

 case of the mothers and between twelve and thirteen eggs per hen 

 more in the case of the pullets than those of low vitality. 



Knowing the audience that is before me, teachers who must know 

 the truth, I know you will excuse me for discussing a question that, 

 in some audiences, might be considered inappropriate or indelicate, 

 I do not know of any way to impress the truth except by telling it. 

 One of the most important problems that we, as poultrymen, have 

 confronting us is the problem of getting fertility and hatching power 

 in the eggs, particularly layers, in early spring. We all recog- 

 nize the fact that there is a big difference in this respect between in- 

 dividuals. I think, as a rule, farmers are likely to pick out the best 

 males as regards vitality if they make any selection at all unless they 

 get blinded by the color as some do; they usually pick the biggest 

 and most active ones. I think that as a general rule is a good 

 rule. It is well that we have other matters under consideration 

 at the same time. In order to know what the difference is 

 between the active mating powers of the birds of high, medium and 

 low vitality, we conducted some experiments this last Spring. We 

 are continuing these experiments at the present time at the college. 

 Birds of high, medium and low vitality are marked Mn'th different 

 colored paints and then some person stays in the pen from morning 

 until night, making accurate observations of the mating qualities of 

 these birds with the same large flock of fowls in each instance. 



Here (Fig. 8 A) is a picture of five males that were picked for their 

 high vitality. Here (Fig. 8 B) are five picked for their medium vitality 

 and here (Fig. 8 C) are five for their low vitality. These males had 

 all been used in some sort of breeding experiments at the college and 

 up to the time the observations were made they had all been running 

 together at the close of the breeding season last Spring in one large 

 flock out in a place that we had built especially for their accommoda- 

 tion in the summer. One of our students, with the aid of one of our 

 instructors, went into that large flock of males and picked out these 

 individuals because of vitality, their size, their activity, their evident 

 gallantry, ther sprightliness and those general characters that I have 

 already described in the first slides shown in the lecture. They 

 picked those marked low because they lacked in vitality qualities. 

 They may have been just as large or they may have been larger in 

 size, but they did not .show those other characters that were necessary 

 to get the right quality of vigor, and these marked medium were just 

 about half way between the best and the poorest. 



You will notice that this picture (Fig. 8 A) appears to be blurred. 

 Though we took several picture.s — we found it impossible to get one of 

 that bunch of five without finding some or all of them scrapping. This 

 picture shows tliat one fellow is spoiling for a fight, and this one is 

 getting ready tn declare war on that one and the other is not neu- 

 tral by any means. Like the five nations of Europe, now at war, 

 they are all at it, every last one of them. Among the low vitality 

 you don't notice any evidence of scrapping. They are all looking 



