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molting, as compared to the hens that molt earliest. Therefore, if 

 we note the molt and the ones that begin to lay first after they have 

 molted, you have a double method of selecting high producers. The 

 months of October, November and December is the time of the year 

 to select the hens for breeders. Do not select them in the spring of 

 the year, when they are all laying. In New York State, as elsewhere, 

 practically no effort at selection for egg production is made by any 

 one, not even in the spring time. This is all wrong. We can make 

 these three kinds of selection and coupling with that strong con- 

 stitutional vigor, we can increase the number of eggs that the hens 

 lay, if there is anything whatever in the law of inheritance, that 

 ''like produces like," in the matter of prolificacy as in the matter of 

 shape or color of eggs. In discussing the question of breeding for 

 prolificacy, I realize that I am treading on very dangerous ground, 

 because it is claimed by some of the best authorities that the laying 

 quality of a flock of hens is no indication whatever as to what the 

 laying quality of the offspring is likely to be. With all due respect to 

 these opinions, I am willing to go on record in saying that a person 

 will show mighty good judgment to breed from his best hens rather 

 than to breed from his poorest ones, or from those below the average. 

 I will take my chances on breeding from the hens above the average 

 in production, believing that if it is possible for one individual to 

 transmit to its offspring such qualities as disposition, color of feather, 

 size, shape, action, color of egg, and all sorts of other characteristics 

 and qualities, the same should be true in the case of the egg-laying 

 character, i. e., the ovarian development, or the tendency to develop 

 ova. I believe that one of the places where we have failed or missed 

 in our conclusions, perhaps on the matter of not getting marked re- 

 sults in breeding to increase egg production has been from this fact 

 that we know too much from the first or second generation. Improve- 

 ments of any kind in the breeding of animals comes very slowly and 

 only by painstaking selection, generation after generation. Another 

 reason may be that when we are breeding for increased production 

 we are asking the best layers to also produce strong offspring at 

 the close of a season of high production, and, therefore, there is a 

 counter law at work, undermining the hen's vitality and her nerve 

 strength brought about by tremendous production to make a record. 

 If a hen is pushed for two hundred eggs a year and then is used for 

 breeding without opportunity to rest, it is reasonable to expect that 

 her offspring will be likely to suffer. But when we have bred our 

 business hen for reasonably high production and have built her big, 

 strong and hearty at the same time, and have done this thing ration- 

 ally, I have perfect faith in believing that we will be making gain by 

 selection, and that we are going to see, step by step, higher and higher 

 production and better and better quality of eggs produced and 

 stronger fowls. 



