3V)4 EXPERIMENT STATION RKC'ORD. 



Poultry experiments in 1902, (i. M. Gowkli. (Maine ,Sta. Bui. f/.i, pji. 69-92, 

 fi'jx. 12). — Tlie selected l)ree(liiig tests at the station for egg pr<j<luctioii have been 

 continued ( K. S. R., 13, p. 982). During the 4 years covered by the work more than 

 1,000 liens ha\'e ])een tested for over 1 year each. Among them .'55 were found with 

 an egg record of 200 to 251 per year. Several have produced only 36 to 60 i)er year, 

 and some others have never laid at all. 



As regards the records of pullets in 1901-2, it was found that 55 Barred Plymouth 

 Rocks laid 7,972 eggs during the year, 7 of the individual egg records being from 201 

 to 240. Forty White Wyandotte pullets in 10 months laid 4,607 eggs. Their aver- 

 age egg record, making allowance for some birds stolen, was 118, and none of these 

 pullets reached the 200 mark. Three of the Plymouth Rock pullets and 6 of the 

 White Wyandottes died during the year. The tests will be continued, using the best 

 stock. 



The author notes that many poultrymen believe that if a hen lays only a few eggs 

 the first year, the egg yield will on this account be better during the second year. 

 The data secured does not show that hens producing 120 eggs or less the first year 

 were characterized l)y a satisfactory egg production the second year. Those which 

 had produced in the neighborhood of 100 eggs the first year produced only a very 

 few the second. 



The effect of varying amounts of floor space and other conditions of housing on 

 egg production was also studied. Ninety Barred Plymouth Rocks, kept in one-half 

 of a poultry house and occupying a space 12 by 38 ft., averaged 103 eggs per hen in 

 11 months. Sixty similar birds, kept in the other half of the house, averaged 109 

 eggs in the same period. "Where the larger number of birds were together they 

 did not appear to suffer from confinement during winter, as only one bird was lost 

 from November 1 to May 1." 



" It is doubtful if there are other lines of investigation where results are likely to 

 be of greater value to jiractical poultrymen than the study of sizes of fiocks and floor 

 spaces for birds. If floor space can be as economically used by leaving it in one large 

 room as by dividing it into several small ones, even though Uie number of surface 

 feet remains the same per bird, the labor of feeding, cleaning, and egg collecting will 

 be less in the undivided house. Again, the larger room offers greater field for the 

 range of each bird, even though it be more densely populated per surface foot than 

 does the smaller one." 



The poultry house in which these lots were kept was closed at night with frames 

 covered with oiled cotton. It was quite cold at night, and the hens did not lay much 

 until March. 



In a second test the poultry house was smallei-, but was so constructed that it 

 offered much better protection from cold. Fifty birds occupying a floor space of 250 

 ft. averaged 144.4 eggs each in 10 months. They began to lay in November. The 

 curtained-front house with closet roosting room is inexpensive to construct and is 

 regarded as satisfactory, although it is imperative that the roost room be as near air- 

 tight as practical)le when the curtain is down, so that the hens may be warm at night. 



During the year a large number of incubator tests were carried out with eggs whose 

 source was definitely known. The data accumulated showed plainly a great varia- 

 bility in the fertility of the total egg yield of different hens, some producing eggs 

 that were all highly fertile and others eggs that were completely infertile. Further- 

 more, the eggs of some individuals varied greatly in this respect at different times. The 

 observed facts did not indicate that a heavy egg yield was a hindrance to fertility, if 

 the hens were allowed to rest before they began to lay again. ''Although in a gen- 

 eral way we may regard infertility as likely to result after hens have been laying 

 long and heavily, it is l)y no means true that it is always so." 



Farm poultry, with, the results of some experiments in fattening- chicKens, 

 W. R. Graham {Oiddrlo Agr. Col. and Exjd. Farm Bui. 127, pp. 40, figs. 27). — A gen- 

 eral discussion of feeding, care, management, marketing of poultry, and related topics, 



