.BREEDING POULTRY FOR EGG PRODUCTION. II 5 



all other considerations, there must be brought about a definite 

 and steady, if gradual, improvement or increase in the average 

 annual egg production per bird. 



Two distinct and separate experiments were carried out dur- 

 ing the period of the investigation prior to 1908. These may be 

 designated as follows : 



L Experiment in continued selection of fluctuating varia- 

 tions in fecundity. 



II. Experiment regarding the inheritance of fecundity. 



I. Experiment in continued selection of fluctuating varia- 

 tions in fecundity. In 1898 there was begun at the Maine 

 Agricultural Experiment Station an experiment to determine 

 whether egg production in the domestic fowl could be increased 

 by the continued selection of the highest egg producers as 

 breeders. This experiment was planned and started by Director 

 C. D. Woods and the late Professor G. M. Gowell.* An exact 

 record was made of the egg production of each hen during the 

 first year of her life; trap nests being used to furnish the indi- 

 vidual records. The plan of the experiment begun in 1898 

 was to make from a strain of Barred Plymouth Rock hens, 

 which had been "pure" bred, i. e., without introduction of 

 strange "blood," for a long time by Professor Gowell, a con- 

 tinuous close selection with reference to egg production. The 

 practice in breeding was to use as mothers of the stock bred 

 in any year only hens which laid between November i of 

 the year in which they were hatched and November i of the 

 following year, 150 or more eggs. After the first year, all 

 male birds used in the breeding were the sons of mothers whose 

 production in their first laying year was 200 eggs or more. 

 Since the normal average annual egg production of these birds 

 may be taken to have been about 125 eggs, it will be seen that 

 the selection practiced was fairly stringent. 



Close inbreeding was not designedly practiced. It was 

 always in theory possible to avoid this, since after the first four 



* The present writer had nothing whatever to do with the planning of 

 this experiment, nor with its conduct prior to December 1907. There- 

 fore, he cannot justly be held accountable, as he has been by some critics, 

 for real or supposed defects in the plan and earlier conduct of this 

 experiment. The responsibility for the statistical analysis of the results 

 is his, however. 



