POULTRY EXPERIMENTS. 99 



On April 30 the 29 birds had laid 3,317 eggs. Their individ- 

 ual records were as follows, viz. 95, 93, 91, 133, 115, 58, 102, 

 149, 130, 100, 76, 95, 114, loi, no, 127, 149, 68, 107, 134, 126, 

 I35> I35> 136, 125, 130, 164, 86, 133. The average number to 

 each bird was practically 115. We have no special market for 

 our eggs as we need to use them in large numbers in experi- 

 mental work when occasions require. At the prices which we 

 received from the commission house in Boston for eggs sent 

 there from September to April the 3,317 above mentioned would 

 have returned $87.57, ^^^ average of $3.01 per bird for the eight 

 months' work. 



The above is not cited as phenomenal work, but it is better 

 than our birds average when all of them are accounted for. 

 These 29 were not the only promising pullets we had, but they 

 were all there were in that division. What returns they will 

 make during the four months that remain from April to the close 

 of August can not be learned until the year's work ends, which 

 with them will be August 31. 



While the egg yields of this group of birds were very satis- 

 factory, the money returns from them were particularly so, for 

 the reason that they did their work during that part of the year 

 when prices were highest. 



We are making our selections of breeding stock by aid of the 

 reliable data secured by the use of trap tests. It is only investi- 

 gators and occasional poultrymen who can afford the equipment 

 and expense of operating trap nests. Every poultryman can, 

 however, by closely observing his young stock during autumn, 

 select the pullets that are commencing or preparing to lay and 

 secure a pen of birds for the next season's breeding, that have 

 the function of egg production so strongly developed in them 

 that they give evidence of it by the early exercise of that func- 

 tion. Of course not all prospective layers prove satisfactory; 

 some are not able to stand the demands of heavy work and so 

 lay irregularly or fall out altogether. In this group of 29 birds, 

 four proved to be low producers and should be rejected as 

 breeders. Four others yielded from 90 to 100, but as the work 

 was done during the time when the products were valuable they 

 are worth breeding from. Six others yielded from 100 to 114 

 during the same period and they are still more valuable. Fif- 



