EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 231 



ri:port of poultry section. 



Director, R. S. Shaw, 



Bast Lansing, Michigan. 

 Dear Sir : 



I herewith snbmit a brief report of the work of the Section of Ponltry 

 Husbandly for the year ending eTnne 30th, 1922. 



The inadequacy of tlie liousing facilities for pedigree breeding work 

 greatly hampers our efforts in securing accurate and extensi\'e data on tlie 

 important p'roblems of "Inheritance of Higher Fecundity and the Mode of 

 Transmission." 



A great diversity of opinion is found on this subject among the dif- 

 ferent poultry authorities. 



Our experiments which of neceissity are limited and require a further 

 pursuit of the subject, leads ns to make the following deductions : 



(1) A mendeliau interpretation cannot be applied to the Inheritance 

 of Higher Fecundity because this character is neither "d'Ominant" or 

 "recessive". The mating of all high or low production will produce 

 neither all high or all low. 



(2) High fecundity is not a sex limited character, but may be trans- 

 mitted directly to the offspring from either Sire or Dam. 



(3) Early maturity is correlated with high fecundity and is usually 

 influenced to a greater degree by the Sire than by the Dam. Extreme 

 precociousness is not, however, a safe criterion of individual laying- 

 ability. 



Pullet No. 2687 established a new record for early maturity by laying 

 at the age of three months and twelve days. Valuable information will 

 undoubtedly be available, after a further study of this particular pullet 

 and her pen sisters. 



(4) High egg production is always associated with constitutional vigor 

 and does not appear to be a unit character. Individual breeding qualities 

 differ, as is shown by the progeny test. 



Experiments are being conducted jointly with tlie Bacteriology Sec- 

 tion on Bacillary White Diarrhea. This disease causes enormous losses 

 among young chicks each year and steps are being taken in Michigan to 

 produce and maintain stock free of this infection. 



I. To determine whether males may becomes infected and in turn in- 

 fect females: 



(a) Avenue of infection of males. 



(b) Localization of infection in males. 



(cj Mode of dissemination of Bact. pullorum by males. 



II. To determine influence of feeding and environment on the resist- 

 ance of healthy and infected birds. 



III. To determine illation between hens showing diseased ovaries to 

 those reaicting to tlie agglutination test for white diarrhea. 



IV. (a) The intradermal test as a means of detecting infected birds, 

 (b) Comparison between intradermal and agglutination tests. 



