184 



L. 



Pure breds pay better than scrubs. 



the eggs will grade firsts. By this method of selection for a few 

 years, the eggs on my grandfather's farm grew rounder and rounder 

 by virtue of the fact that chickens were hatched out of round eggs 

 for several years, that kind being used very largely for hatching, 

 believing as we did at that time, that rounder eggs would produce 

 pullets. 



It is well to select eggs for hatching according to their quality. 

 It is better also to use hens than to use pullets because a hen lays a 

 larger egg than a pullet does, and presumably she will not lay as 



many eggs in the fall and winter as 

 the pullet, and hence should be in 

 better condition for producing eggs 

 for hatching. 



A point without which we could 

 not hope to make much progress in 

 breeding for quality of eggs is to 

 breed from pure breds. It would be 

 a long and almost hopeless task to 

 ever change the quality of eggs by 

 breeding from mongrels. It would be 

 a discouraging task also to try to do 

 it by grading or crossing. The place 

 to begin in improving the quality of eggs is to have pure bred stock 

 and thereby get at one bold stroke the benefit of somebody's selec- 

 tion for uniformity in breeding, and thus secure the power to trans- 

 mit their quality. 



With these simple methods we can vastly increase the net value 

 of the income of our poultry without very materially adding to its 

 cost. In other words, it costs no more to feed, house or rear hens 

 that lay eggs uniform in color and shape, and only a little more to 

 produce eggs larger in size. It will cost a great deal more in the 

 energy, and the vitality of the hen, as well as in the feed to very ma- 

 terially increase the number of eggs that she will lay. 



There are one or two things that can be done in breeding to in- 

 crease egg production. There are a number of selections of our fowls 

 that we can make by physical examination that will lead us to a 

 pretty correct judgment as to the hens that are the best producers 

 and thus enable us to breed from them. The first selection is to pick 

 out from among the pullets that are hatched at the same time and 

 fed alike and of the same variety; those that lay first in the fall of 

 the year. It is generally found, although not always true, that the 

 pullets that lay first are the ones that in the long run are more likely 

 to prove the most prolific. "We have been accumulating considerable 

 data on this point at the college, and find generally that the state- 

 ment is true. Any person who can recognize a laying hen by her ac- 

 tions, comb and color, or by her eating capacity, etc., will be able to 

 recognize the pullets that are early producers. Mark them. Then 

 next season, in the fall of the year, when these pullets molt, observe 

 the ones that molt last. Our records show that by these characters 

 we can quite accurately select the hens that have produced the most 

 eggs. This year we had several hens molting in December and they 

 were among the best producers in the flock. 



We also found on studying the trap-nest records that these 

 same hens that molt latest are most likely to begin to lay first after 



