THE FUN OF SEEING THINGS 



385 



Nature Experimenting "A Life-saver." 



In the very busiest of the l)usiness 

 section of Philadelphia is the numi- 

 mouth department store of Gimbel 

 Brothers. The general manager of 

 that store is Mr. A. A. Christian who 

 was a country raised boy and, like 

 many another country boy, has by his 

 enthusiasm, concentration, resource- 

 fulness and ability to do sustained hard 

 W'Ork achieved the big position of gen- 

 eral manager of this very i)opular store. 

 Gimbel Brothers are known every- 

 where. They not only have a big store 

 in Philadelphia but a mammoth es- 

 tablishment on Broadwav in New York 

 City. 



It is always of interest to note how 

 an efficient, hard working business man 

 of the city finds recreation, literally re- 

 creation, in enthusiastically developing 

 attention to some country occupation. 

 When Mr. Christian as a little boy was 

 playing around the chickens on the 

 old farm, undoubtedly he and members 

 of his family would have been greatly 

 surprised if some one had told him that 

 the interest developed from that boy- 

 hood association would ultimately pro- 

 duce the finest and best laying hen in 

 the world. But such is the actual sit- 

 uation. We take pleasure in present- 

 ing herewith a photograph of this re- 

 markable hen which laid three hun- 

 dred and fourteen eggs in one year. 

 In response to an inquiry, Mr. Chris- 

 tian has sent us the following letter. 



LADY EGLANTlNE^S RECORD AND METHOD. 



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

 To the Editor : 



"Lady Eglantine," a pure bred single 

 comb white Leghorn, laid three hun- 

 dred and fourteen eggs from Novem- 

 ber 1st, 1914, to October 31st, IQ15, in 

 the International Egg Laying Competi- 

 tion organized by the "Philadelphia 

 North American" and held on the 

 grounds of the Delaware Agricultural 

 Experimental Station (Delaware Col- 

 lege), Newark, Delaware, the record 

 being official and attested by Dean 

 Harry Hayward of the experiment 

 Station. 



This is the world's record, two hun- 

 dred and eighty-eight egg record hav- 

 ing been reached both in this country 

 and in England, but not officially ex- 

 ceeded. Professor Laurie of Adelaide, 

 South Australia, is justified in believ- 



ing that Australian hens have laid as 

 many as three hundred eggs, but there 

 they average the work of pens and do 

 not tra])nest individuals. 



The Eglantine catalogue of 1916 has 

 Lady Eglantine's story and Dr. Hay- 

 ward O. K'd the matter before I printed 

 it. 



We are straight breeders of single 

 comb white Leghorns and no other 



THE FAMOUS "LADY EGLANTLNE." 



breed. While my farms are in Mary- 

 land — eighty-eight miles from Phila- 

 delphia — they are my hobby and life- 

 saver, only practical work on sound 

 scientific lines being ])ermitted. My 

 son-in-law. Temple Smith, is a gradu- 

 ate of Maryland Agricultural College, 

 and my poultryman is a hard student. 

 I was a country raised boy. 



I make every mating at my desk here 

 or O. K. matings submitted, all the 

 work based on written records. 



We follow Mendelic system of breed- 

 ing simplified to the laymen's under- 

 standing, and I enclose a blue print 

 showing one of our pedigree mating 

 pens for this year. 



This pen, one of ten whose work will 

 be analyzed by a foremost ^lendelic 

 scholar, is carrying out one Mendelic 

 principle of using higEest pedigree 

 male with about third-line available 

 females, for we have scores of females 

 of higher egg records. Other pens 

 carry along other phases, all based on 

 consistent scientific work for the bet- 

 terment of the breed. 



