26 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



The best pen of White Leghorns finished the year with a record of 

 1,867 eggs. The records of the eight years since the inception of this 

 contest show White Leghorns to have been the winners in 1912, 1913 

 and 1914, White Wyandottes in 1915 and 1916, Barred Rocks in 1917 

 and 1919, and Professor James Dryden's "Oregons" in 1918. 



It is fair to state, and it should be understood thoroughly by the 

 beginner, that the specimens entered in egg contests are specially 

 bred for eggs, selected for the competition because they develop into 

 active, thrifty pullets, and these birds are then fed throughout the 

 test on a ration that supplies in abundant quantity and proper pro- 

 portions the complete food nutrients necessary to make complete eggs. 



Prepotent eggbred males to grade up the farm flock for egg pro- 

 duction. There is a growing demand among farmers for purebred 

 males that have "the lay" bred in them, to use in grading up their 

 farm flocks. These males are wanted for the purpose of gearing up 

 the egg-producing abilities of farm flocks, the same as Holstein bulls 

 are used to grade up the milk-giving capacity of farm cattle. The 

 whole tendency is toward higher average production of the animals 

 on the farms. Increased land values on which interest must be earned, 

 increased wages and scarcity of help to care for the livestock, in- 

 creased value of grain that is fed, increased selling prices for animal 

 products, all combine to make it increasingly plain to the farmer that 

 two efficient animals are more economical to own, care for and feed 

 than three inefficient ones. 



It is sound policy for the farmer to grade up his flock for egg 

 production by employing purebred males of high producing strains. 

 The practice of grading in cattle and hogs is becoming general and is 

 recognized by all livestock men as the cheapest and quickest way of 

 making improvement. 



Grading up the farm flock of chickens through the purchase and 

 introduction of Standardbred males will broaden the outlet for good 

 poultry. The time was when there had to be a White Wyandotte 

 fancy if there was to be trade in White Wyandottes, for breeders 

 could only sell their surplus stock and eggs to other breeders. The 

 same was true of Barred Rocks, Golden Polish and Silver Sebrights. 

 However, the tima has come to put the utility breeds to their greatest 

 usefulness by getting them out more and more into the hands of the 

 people who actually are producing the eggs and poultry for human 

 consumption. The opportunity is here for purebred poultry on the 

 farms to justify itself from an economic standpoint. There is no 

 basic reason for the existence and extension of purebred poultry in 

 preference to scrubs, unless purebred stock represents a more depend- 

 ably useful and more truly valuable type of fowl. 



In 1912 the Kansas Agricultural College asked the question: "Will 

 cockerels from high producing families of various practical breeds 

 improve farmers' flocks quickly and effectively?" Experiments were 

 begun with a view to getting a definite answer to the question. Ten 



