Live-Stock Genetics 



29 



times been supposed to be, but that 

 they are capable, within eertain Hmits, 

 of actual change by selection/ 



The inheritance of egg production is 

 a svibject for study in New Jersey, 

 where an attempt is being made on an 

 adequate scale to breed a strain of fowls 

 that will vindicate the genetist's claim 

 that he can control this character. In 

 this connection the question of close 

 inbreeding is being studied. At present, 

 the experiment is being run on two lines, 

 one dealing with birds of high capacity 

 and the other with low producers. It 

 is by interbreeding these two lines that 

 light is sought on the problems of hered- 

 ity. General studies of inheritance 

 have also been undertaken by the cross- 

 ing of White Leghorns and Black 



of animal husl)andry, is just starting 

 an experiment to determine the relation 

 of ancestry to prepotency. It is hoped 

 that six years of experimental breeding 

 will throw some light on the very 

 important practical question of pre- 

 potency, about which at present the 

 average breeder has usually vague and 

 often incorrect ideas. The object of 

 the study will be to measure the relation 

 of cumulative effect of ancestry to 

 character transmission in color, weight 

 and size of bone; and to observe the 

 type of inheritance of (a) preorbital 

 brachy cephalic face, (b) number of 

 nipples, (c) fertility, (d) meat type as 

 related to sex. 



The department of zoology of the 

 Kansas station is working with more 



QUEEN UTANA AND HER PRODUCE 



In the first year of her test, she laid 195 eggs, in the second year 193, third year 13S, fourth 

 year 161, fifth year 128; total production in five years 816 eggs. The Utah st;ation believes 

 tests of egg production which extend only over a year or two are likely to furnish misleading 

 results, and is accordingly testing each hen as long as practicable. So far these tests have 

 failed to confirm the belief that the inheritance of the egg-laying character is Mendtlian 

 in nature. (Fig. 15.) 



technical subjects, one of which is the 

 breeding of grasshoppers to determine 

 the laws of inheritance in them. This 

 work, Robert K. Nabours writes, "shows 

 clearly the Mcndelian type of inher- 

 itance, and the essential result of these 

 experiments has been the extension of 

 this principle to a considerable number 

 of types" of a group of insects that is 

 very low in the evolutionary scale. An 

 attempt is now being made to find 

 whether there is some correlation be- 

 tween the hereditary behavior of these 



' On the other hand, several experimenters have shown that these results can be fully accounted 

 for on the hypothesis of multiple factors. If this explanation is accepted, it means that the 

 supposed unit character, which was modified by selection, is not an ultimate and indivisible 

 unit at all, but an aggregate of a number of smaller units, which usually hang together, but may 

 split up in certain crosses. 



Langshans, interesting facts about the 

 source of barred pattern and the inher- 

 itance of black pigment having already 

 come to light. 



Coat color in horses has been exten- 

 sively studied at the Kentucky station, 

 a report of results appearing recently in 

 the Journal of Heredity, under the 

 name of W. S. Anderson. The breeding 

 of dairy cows from a scientific point of 

 view is also under way. 



PREPOTENCY. 



The Kansas station, in its department 



