PRESENT STATUS OF POULTRY INVESTIGATION 



At the outset, although this classification has certain disadvantages, we 

 may separate the whole field into, first, that of pure experimental work; 

 secondly, that of pure research; and between these two there is a sort of 

 investigation which may be either experimental, or research, depending 

 upon the point of view and the ultimate aims of the investigator. It 

 should not be inferred from this distinction that, as is so often said, one 

 is necessarily a higher type of investigation than the other. In all cases the 

 pursuit of true research problems must involve much work which is of the 

 experimental order. Indeed, the majority of so-called "research problems" 

 must have their basis in the results of a greater or small number of single 

 experiments. Whether or not such experimentation can be built up into 

 a piece of research depends largely upon what the aims of the investigation 

 as a whole, may be; and to what degree the results of the single experiments 

 are used as the means for reaching these ends, and for advancing toward 

 the solution of still deeper problems. To state an example: To ascertain, 

 by means of feeding broiler chicks several different nitrogenous feeding 

 stuffs, what combination produces the quickest growth, or the highest egg- 

 production is experimentation. But to ascertain what the reasons for such 

 differences may be, for instance whether they are due to mineral con- 

 stituents, to the difference in fats, or to the peculiar proteids, this consti- 

 tutes research. 



It is difficult to say at the present time in which category most of the 

 investigational work, to be mentioned in this report, belongs. For the 

 sake of convenience the fields have been first divided, as already stated, 

 into the purely experimental and into the true research work. Into the 

 former class has been placed work in incubation, brooding, housing, feeding, 

 much of the work in breeding, and investigations regarding methods and 

 technique in poultry husbandry. 



In the latter group may be placed the study of definite problems in 

 regard to inheritance, nutrition, poultry diseases, and other problems deal- 

 ing with subjects of a physiological nature, such as those of egg fertility, 

 the vitality of stock, the physiology of reproduction and digestion. 



It must be borne in mind, however, that those distinctions are by no 

 means rigid; and that the work in feeding, for instance, while appearing 

 to be only of the experimental order, may in certain cases, be the basis of 

 other work which is more closely allied to true research; and that similarly 

 work on poultry diseases, while it should represent true research, is fre- 

 quently nothing more than purely experimental. 



As a result of reviewing the answers to the questions which your Com- 

 mittee has sent to the various experiment stations, it is often impossible to 



