24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



have given you, — namely, comb texture, shank color, ear 

 lobe color and moult, using the figure 1 for the best score on 

 each point and the figure 5 for the poorest, — their scores ran 

 along around 4 or 5, with only one bird scoring as high as 7. 

 You see those were all excellent scores, and the egg records 

 show they were excellent birds. 



The egg records of the twelve medium birds were 136, 134, 

 133, 128, 127, 125, 122, 122, 120, 113, 111 and 110, and their 

 score on those four characteristics was 6, 11, 6, 13, 9, 10, 13, 

 8, 7, 8, 6 and 12. 



The egg records of the twelve low birds were 66, 59, 54, 52, 

 52, 50, 50, 41, 34, 2 and 0. Their scores were 14, 18, 14, 17, 

 14, 15, 10, 15, 16, 13 and 12. 



You see that high egg records and low scores, medium egg 

 records and medium scores, low egg records and high scores 

 go together pretty consistently. 



Now suppose a person agrees to go into his flocks at certain 

 times of the year and select these birds with regard to the 

 time they begin to lay and the time they cease to lay, as in- 

 dicative of their productive power, using those characteristics 

 that I have already pointed out to help him pick out the birds 

 to see whether they are laying or not. Now I want you to get 

 this thing clear, — that you do not have to observe these birds 

 the year round; but if you will only observe the pullets during 

 the fall months to see when they lay the first egg, and mark 

 them, you will never need to observe that pullet again. You 

 do not have to put the record down whether that pullet laid 

 any time during the season after you have once put a band on 

 her leg to know that she has laid in the fall. That is all you 

 want to know. That is not a difficult thing to do. A person 

 can do it by those characteristics that I have stated, with a 

 great deal of accuracy, or, by putting trap nests and trapping 

 them for that short length of time, can find out the age that 

 the pullets are when they lay their first egg; and then the fol- 

 lowing fall, when these birds cease to lay, put down on your 

 bird, with another leg band, the fact that they were laying or 

 were not laying at a certain time in those same months, in the 

 fall of the year. Now those months are September, October, 

 November and December; and we have now come to the real- 



