176 



The Journal of Heredity 



GOOD AND BAD EGG-PRODUCERS 



A pair of White Leghorns in the egg-laying competition at Storrs, Conn. The hen at the 

 left (No. 722) is the best laj^er among the 400 White Leghorns competing. Up to February 

 23, she had laid 70 eggs. The hen at the right (No. 723) is from the same pen, but laid 

 only nine eggs during the same period. The good layer has pale beak, pale legs and white 

 ear-lobes, while the poor layer shows yellow in these parts. The Standard of Perfec- 

 tion demands yellow in beak and legs, and the poor layer was scored the higher by the pro- 

 fessional poultry judge. But there is reason to believe that an absence of yellow in these 

 parts denotes high egg-capacity and its presence low fecundity; if this is the case, then 

 the Standard and the judges are working directly against high production which, after 

 all, is the purpose of a fowl. Photograph made February 22, 1915. (Fig. 11.) 



Connecticut Experiment Station, poor 

 scoring strains of corn have been found 

 to out-yield better scoring strains in 

 comparative test cultures. 



In dairy cattle, the size and character 

 of the milk veins are apparently con- 

 sidered strongly indicative of the quan- 

 tity of milk an individual cow can 

 produce. In Jerseys, four points are 

 allowed f(jr milk veins in the score 

 card; in Ayrshires, five; in Guernseys, 

 eight; andin Holsteins, ten. There is no 

 evidence that the \^aluc of the milk 

 veins as an index of the flow of milk 

 differs in the breeds mentioned in any 

 direct relation to the actual number of 

 points allowed in the various score 

 cards. 



POULTRY STANDARDS. 



In jjoultry probably less attemjjt is 

 made to use characters in the score card 

 indicative of yield than in most other 

 economic breeds of animals or of plants, 

 and the standards may be so fictitious 

 that they are even directly opposed to 

 the natural development of the animal. 

 As an instance of the latter condition 

 may be mentioned the Imrring in 



Plymouth Rocks. Dark and light 

 strains exist in this breed, but in a 

 gi\'en strain the males are naturally 

 lighter than the females. Barring is a 

 sex-linked character, and this lighter 

 color of the male is probably due to his 

 ha\'ing the factors that lighten up the 

 plumage present in a duplex condition. 

 At any rate, the lighter color of the 

 barred male is as natural a condition 

 in the breed mentioned as is the jjresence 

 of a beard in the male of the human 

 species. In order to win ])nzes for 

 exhibition pens, however, ]joultr\-men 

 have resorted to so-called double-mat- 

 ing, breeding males from dark strains 

 and females from light strains, since 

 judges give preference to pens in which 

 the males and females are matched in 

 shading. The practice is as logical as 

 to require a man and his wife to match 

 in the amount of hair on the face. In 

 the himian species, however, we are 

 assured that we shall be judged for our 

 good deeds and need stand in no fear 

 of fancy points in the score card at the 

 last day of judgment. 



Most fancy points probably are in- 

 difTerent so far as thev directlv in- 



