Part IL] FOWLS FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 25 



ization of what I believe is the most important clue to the hen's 

 productive power, namely, the length of her laying period, de- 

 termined by the knowledge of the date she laid her first egg 

 and the date she laid her last egg in her first laying year. By 

 that knowledge you can predict not only what a hen has laid 

 during the year, with great accuracy, but you can predict what 

 she is likely to lay in the next two or three years, under ordi- 

 nary care. In other words, let me express it in this manner: 

 you have heard the statement made over and over, "Tell me 

 the company a man keeps and I will tell you who he is." "Tell 

 me what a nation eats, and I will tell you who they are." Now 

 we are going to paraphrase that and say, "Tell us the date 

 that a pullet laid her first egg as a pullet and the date she laid 

 her last egg in her pullet year, and we will tell you how many 

 eggs she has laid that year, and how many eggs she is likely to 

 lay if we keep her for several years." 



It would not be safe for us to depend entirely on early laying 

 as a guide in selecting our birds, because if we do so we include 

 a good many birds that may have laid prematurely dnd will 

 not be able to stand up under the heavy production for a 

 period of years, and therefore we need to know when they 

 cease to lay as well as when they commence to lay. 



We have kept figures on some of our Cornell birds as to when 

 they ceased laying, with the following results: of a group of 

 168 birds, 4 ceased to lay before July 1, and they laid 84 eggs; 

 17 ceased to lay by August 1, and they laid 96 eggs; 52 ceased 

 before September 1, and they laid 117 eggs; 39 ceased 

 before October 1, and laid 142 eggs; 39 ceased before Novem- 

 ber 1, and laid 166 eggs; 14 ceased before December 1, and laid 

 182 eggs; 3 ceased after December 1, and laid 189 eggs. Notice 

 how many more eggs are laid by those groups that continue 

 to lay late as compared to those that ceased early. 



If a person had marked his birds so that he knew by putting 

 a band on the left shank that these birds had all begun to lay 

 as pullets, and had laid their first egg before they were eight 

 months of age, he would have been able to keep the high- 

 producing birds and discard the low producers. If he also 

 knew, by marking his birds, those birds that laid some time 

 after the first of September, he would have a choice group of 



