Blakeslee: Fancy Points vs. Utility 



177 



SHOW POINTS OPPOSE PRODUCTION 



A pair of White Wyandottes in the Storrs contest. At date of photographing (Dec. 23 j, the 

 hen at the left (No. 137) had laid no eggs, while the one at the right (No. 132) had laid 

 34 and was the best layer in the pen. The function of a hen is to lay eggs, and to pro- 

 duce egg-layers should be the object of the breeder. The standards should, therefore, 

 be set up with this object in mind. Yet the poor layer here shown was scored higher 

 than the good layer, 923^ points as compared with 893^, the good layer being cut, among 

 other reasons, because her beak was faded. The score cards are shown in the following 

 figure. The left-hand bird, which when photographed had yellow beak and yellow legs, 

 had produced only 13 eggs up to February 23, while the bird that shows pale beak and 

 legs had a record of 81 during the same period. (Fig. 12.) 



fiuence the practice of breeding plants 

 and animals for utility. The danger is 

 that they tend to substitute a fictitious 

 standard for real value and thereby 

 distract the aim of the breeder. In 

 some cases, however, the standards may 

 be in direct opposition to utihty. It 

 seems not inappropriate to discuss as 

 an example, a fancy point directly 

 opposed to utility that has come to the 

 writer's attention in connection with 

 an investigation undertaken with D. E. 

 Warner. A preliminary report on the 

 work is presented in Science, Mar. 

 19. It has been found that the yellow 

 pigment in the ear-lobes, the beak and 

 the legs of Leghorn pullets disappears 

 when they begin to lay and returns 

 again when they cease laying. The 

 ear-lobe is apparently most quickly 

 responsive, the beak next and the legs 

 are the last to be affected by a change 

 in the laying activity. Figure 11 is a 

 photograph of two Leghorns which 

 showed a difference in color in the parts 



mentioned. The good layer had 15 per 

 cent, yellow in her ear-lobes while the 

 poor layer showed 35 per cent, yellow 

 in the same parts. The color of the 

 ear-lobes has been measured by means 

 of a color top, and a high negative 

 correlation established between laying 

 activity and the amount of yellow 

 pigment present. The tables for this 

 are published elsewhere. 



The beaks and legs have been roughly 

 graded as pale, mediimi and yellow. 

 In Table I is shown the percentage of 

 the birds in the different color groups 

 actually found laying on the last of 

 October. If a bird was laying on the 

 day of record she is credited with a zero, 

 if on the day before the record was taken, 

 she is credited with one "day since 

 laying." The yellower the ear-lobes, 

 the beak and the legs, the longer on the 

 average since the last egg was laid. 

 The Wyandottes arc a type of fowl that 

 do not show color changes in their car- 

 lobes, which remain permanently red. 



