POULTRY EXPEIRIMENTS. lOI 



the writer for 25 years from the best Barred Rock stock which 

 was procurable at the time of starting. 



Every one of our birds is pure blooded in the same sense that 

 all registered cattle, horses, sheep and swine are pure, and every 

 one of our hens is numbered with duplicate bands, and individual 

 book accounts are kept with each, whether she produces much 

 or little. The same is true of all males so far as purity of blood 

 is concerned. 



In our work the term "registered" is used solely with reference 

 to performance, which in work with Jersey or Holstein cattle 

 would mean registered in the "advanced registries" of those 

 breeds. We have registered no female unless she had laid 200 

 or more eggs during the first 12 months forward from the day 

 on which she laid her first egg. We have registered none of 

 her daughters unless they themselves had laid at least 200 eggs 

 per year. 



We register all of the sons of registered hens, and desig- 

 nate them as registered males. They are no better bred than 

 their own sisters which we reject from registry when they do 

 not prove to be heavy performers. Were there some practicable 

 means by which we could determine the ability of the male to 

 transmit to his offspring the high egg producing function of his 

 dam, we would apply the same rigid rule of selection to him 

 that we do to his sisters. 



There was no reason why we should select 200 as the number 

 of eggs necessary to entitle a bird to advanced registration. It 

 is a high record — much higher probably than large flocks will 

 ever be made to average, in our time. Perhaps we might have 

 taken 190 or 210 with equal propriety, — -just as horse men might 

 have selected some other time than 2.30 by which to determine 

 a standard horse. 



The unregistered cockerels and pullets are as well bred on 

 their fathers' side as the registered ones are, but, while the reg- 

 istered ones have dams that produced 200 eggs or over, the 

 mothers of the unregistered ones laid from 150 to 199 eggs in 

 their first laying year. It is among these unregistered pullets 

 that we have found the most of the 200 egg producers who are 

 each year added to the foundation breeding stock. 



