BREEDING POULTRY FOR EGG PRODUCTION. II9 



as it does to prove in another case that it is not effective. The 

 situation here is precisely as broad as it is long. 



Practically, from the standpoint of the plain poultryman, 

 whose interest in poultry keeping is confined to some part of the 

 span of an ordinary lifetime, these results at the Maine Station 

 give little encouragement to the idea of wholesale trapnesting 

 with the expectation of thereby increasing the egg production of 

 the flock. That the trap nest has a place in poultry husbandry 

 is certain. It is equally certain, however, that trapnesting 

 for the purpose of improving egg production by the selection 

 of the best layers has not that degree of practical usefulness 

 and importance which it was popularly supposed to have some 

 ten years ago when the work of the Maine Station in breeding 

 for egg production was being so extensively exploited by the 

 agricultural press and by institute workers all over the country. 

 It seems now to be quite generally agreed that about the only 

 profitable function of the trap nest in practical or commercial 

 (as distinguished from experimental) poultry keeping is in con- 

 nection with special needs or problems, as for example, in the 

 work o'f the fancier, who desires to keep individual pedigrees 

 of his stock. There does not exist any critical evidence that 

 the selection of the highest laying birds on the basis of the trap 

 nest record as breeders will insure or guarantee any definite, 

 permanent improvement in average flock productio'n. 



Since as a matter of fact, as the work at this Station shows, 

 this method of selecting breeders has very little, i-f any, real 

 relation to the average production of subsequent flocks, it is 

 obvious that, as a mere matter of chance, temporary improve- 

 ment in production might be expected to follow this plan of 

 breeding in about 50 percent of all flocks on which it was tried, 

 and a temporary decline in production in the other 50 percent. 

 This appears to be the actual state of the case. Some practical 

 poultrymen who have tried trapnest selection of the best layers 

 as breeders have obtained improved average egg yields for a 

 time at least. They attribute the improvement to the selectio'n, 

 though without any critical evidence, of course, and are en- 

 thusiastic believers in the gospel of the trap nest. Other equally 

 competent poultrymen have failed to get any such improvement 

 and have discarded the trap nests, though sometimes, it must 

 be confessed, clinging firmly to the theory of breeding which 



