BREEDING POULTRY FOR EGG PRODUCTION, II7 



cussion in (i)* and (4) taken as from November i of the pullet 

 year to November i of the next year. That the records are 

 taken in this way in no wise interferes with the fact that these 

 birds were heavy layers. The further fact which entirely suf- 

 fices to justify the inclusion of these 11 birds with the 22 which 

 laid 200 or more eggs in the year from November i, flows from 

 the comparison of the daughters of the 11 with the daughters 

 of the 22 in respect to average egg production. Table I of 

 (i) shows that the mean winter production of all "registered" 

 pullets was 15.29. The mean winter production of the 67 

 daughters of the 11 mothers under discussion was 16.03, ^^^ 

 the mean winter production of the 125 daughters of the other 

 22 mothers was 14.87. So far, then, from the low average win- 

 ter production of all "registered" pullets in this experiment 

 taken together being due to the inclusion of these 11 mothers, 

 whose November i to November i record fell a little below 200 

 eggs, and their daughters, actually this group of progeny had a 

 higher winter production than the remainder of the "registered" 

 flock. 



These pullets were divided into flocks of 50 each and were 

 fed and handled in every way exactly alike. At the same time 

 that these 250 "registered" pullets (so-called because from 

 "registered" mothers), were put into the house there were also 

 put in 600 other Barred Plymouth Rock pullets. These other 

 pullets were of approximately the same age as the 250 "regis- 

 tered" pullets and difi^ered in their breeding only in respect to 

 their mothers. They came from hens that had laid less than 

 200 eggs during the pullet year and more than 160. "Regis- 

 tered" cockerels (from the "200-egg" line) were used as the 

 male parents for all the pullets both "registered" and "unregis- 

 tered." The 600 "unregistered" birds were divided into flocks 

 as follows : Two flocks of 50 birds each were kept in two pens 

 in house No. 2, exactly Ifke the pens in which the "registered" 

 birds were kept. The remaining 500 birds were divided into 

 four flocks — two of 100 birds each and two of 150 birds each 

 and housed in the four pens of house No. 3. These pens are 

 essentially like those of house No. 2, dififering chiefly in the 



* Figures in parenthesis refer to the papers in the list of literature at 

 the beginning, p. 113. 



