66 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



Agricultural Experiment Station, at which Dr. Raymond Pearl did his 

 notable breeding work, writes: 



The test always comes in the number of eggs that the pullet offspring produces. 

 These records can be obtained only from trapnesting and recording accurately the 

 records of the individual fowl. Hence, if the producing qualities of birds in a flock 

 are known for a few years it is possible, with reasonable accuracy and correct 

 analysis of the data, to obtain a knowledge of which birds carry the hereditary factors 

 for egg production. There are, as you say, nine possible classes of males carrying 

 the factor for high egg production or its allelomorph. These classes will not, of 

 course, be in equal numbers. Only one of the classes will carry no factor for egg 

 production, and only one of the classes will carry both factors for egg production, 

 homogenous in the individual. All possible stages in between are, of course, possible. 



This condition respecting the Gametic construction of the germ 

 cells, justifies the practical breeder in looking for some easily deter- 

 mined, somatic test, such as body capacity and pelvic bone formation. 

 Experience would seem to justify such a course. F. S. Tarbill, an ex- 

 perienced breeder and judge writes: 



In a general way I have found the male to influence the egg-laying qualities 

 of his pullets in quite a marked degree. In my own flock, you may remember the 

 hen which was third at Peoria a year ago last winter. She was the mother of the 

 first cock at the same show. Well, this hen was a remarkable layer. I trapped her 

 for two months and she laid fifty-seven eggs during that period, and also kept right 

 on all summer and fall. I mated her to her own cockerel, which, while a good 

 exhibition bird, was of small capacity (one and one-half fingers) and quite heavy 

 and crooked in bone. The pullets from this mating were comparatively poor layers ; 

 although I did not trap them, I know that the flock average that year was poor as 

 compared to the hen. Last season I mated these same pullets to a male that was 

 extra large in capacity (four fingers) and with a thin, straight pelvic bone. My 

 next-door neighbor has fourteen pullets from this mating. They are not selected, 

 but just as they came, and they have laid as follows since the first of the year: 

 January, 198 eggs; February, 250; March, 287, and up to the 13th of this month 

 (April), 124. This is a flock average of about sixty percent a quite perceptible 

 increase over my pullets last year; but as figures are ladking for the one season, 'this 

 may be of no. value to you. 



On this interesting subject, C. R. Baker, specialty breeder of Buff 

 Plymouth Rocks, who has been a leading winner at the Chicago and 

 New York shows, and who is a strong advocate of the body formation 

 test, writes as follows: 



I have had several cases, two very distinct ones, where the males practically 

 ruined the egg-laying efficiency of their pullets, the pullets' dams being good as 

 layers themselves. Also, we have had decided improvements in pullets over their 

 dams as layers when sired by a high-testing male. However, I cannot state definitely 

 that either male or female outweighs the other in influencing the pullets' laying 

 efficiency, when it comes to taking sex alone into consideration. I want them 

 both good, and an exceedingly poor one of either sex is discarded, for it surely 

 will pull down its mate, as we have demonstrated. The greater the prepotency and 

 vitality of either specimen, as you are aware, combined with its egg-laying efficiency, 

 the greater will be the degree to which its chicks will follow its tendencies. 



Body shape for meat production. When meat property is the 

 desideratum, the body capacity should measure about four fingers from 

 pelvis to end of keel, and the pelvic bones should be heavy with gristle 

 and fat. Such a hen will lay on fat easily, and if she is to be kept in 

 good breeding condition she should be fed sparingly and exercise <n- 



