60 PRESENT STATUS OF POULTRY INVESTIGATION 



Moreover, while five stations were attacking brooding problems a year ago, 

 at the present time only one institution is apparently still consistently 

 inquiring into problems of this nature. 



The number of stations studying the diseases of poultry remains the 

 same as a year ago, that is, six. One station, however, has apparently 

 dropped out of this line of work, and one new one has entered the field. 

 Still one other station promises to enter upon this line of work in the autumn 

 The fact that each year the experiment stations are entering more fully into 

 the study of the cause and prevention of poultry diseases is surely encourag- 

 ing. 



The number of stations investigating the merits of certain housing sys- 

 tems has increased one over last year. The number is now eight. 



Although breeding work does not appear to have advanced ovtr last 

 year, it is interesting to observe how much more attention is being demoted 

 to the study of the egg, together with conditions affecting its fertility and 

 hatchability; also of conditions affecting the vigor of young chicks. All 

 of these problems are being attacked more strongly than ever from the 

 bacteriological, and physiological and chemical points of view. 



Other important and more fundamental lines of investigation which are 

 being taken up by only one or two stations are the physiology oj reproduction, 

 and the physiology of digestion in poultry. The practical results of these 

 investigations are not quick to appear, but their value is yet a basic one. 

 Outside of breeding work, which has for its object either meat production or 

 egg production, certain other studies in inheritance are being carried on with 

 poultry, one station is studying the behavior of weight in inheritance, and 

 one the possible method of fixing heterozygous characters in poultry. 



Most of the remaining subjects of poultry investigation can be grouped 

 under the head of "Methods and Technique," This group includes caponiz- 

 ing, preparing birds for market, methods of shipping and storing dressed 

 fowl, methods of handling and preserving eggs, effect of free range upon egg 

 production, factors influencing the size and weight of eggs, the effect of the 

 male in the flock, the analysis of eggs, the effect of feeding animal food upon 

 the hatching power of eggs, etc. Not more than one station, as a rule is 

 interested in any one of these problems. 



One point is brought out strongly as a result of observing the scheduled 

 lines of poultry investigations of the same institutions for two or three 

 successive years. This is the arbitrary way in which certain lines of 

 investigation are taken up and dropped. The value of the majority of the 

 lines of investigations with poultry depend to a great measure upon con- 

 tinuity of effort, and this is especially true of all breeding work. Probably 



