BREEDING POULTRY FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 



137 



different breeders of this variety. These birds will be designated 

 in what follows as "foreign" cockerels. Their sources are indi- 

 cated in the following list. 



Cockerel No. 



Source. 



56 



57 

 58 

 60 

 61 

 65 

 68 

 70 



Mr. C. H. Welles, Stratford, Conn. 

 Pine Top Poultry Farm, Hartwood, N. Y. 

 Gardner & Dunning, Auburn, N. Y. 

 L. J. Bundy & Son, Silver Springs, N. Y. 

 Mr. Geo. E. Mann, Dover, Mass. 

 Mr. Wesley B. Barton, Dalton, Mass. 

 Mr. Geo. W. Hillson, Amenia, N. Y. 

 Mr. M. L. Chapman, Mount View, Farmington, 

 Conn. 



All of these males, it may be said, were first-class, vigorous 

 birds. 



The breeding in 1908 was done in a house known as No. i 

 which has since been destroyed. It was not adapted for use as 

 a breeding house, and the results obtained as to fertility and 

 hatching of eggs were as a consequence poor.* In this house 

 there were 14 pens each accommodating one male and ten 

 females. In addition there were 5 larger pens, each holding one 

 male and 14 females. Four of the small pens were used for 

 cross-breeding work and had no part in the present experiment. 

 In addition to the hens in house No. i, two breeding pens were 

 mated up in house No. 2 which is of the curtain front, fresh air 

 type, which experience has shown to be much better suited, both 

 to breeding work and to egg production. In each of these two 

 pens one male and 15 females were placed. 



The arrangement of the pens relative to the hereditary con- 

 stitution of the birds is shown in the following scheme. 



It will thus be seen that in No. i house, pens headed by for-' 

 eign cockerels and by Station cockerels alternated, whereas both 

 pens in No. 2 house were headed by Station males. P'or each of 

 the first 7 foreign cockerels there was a Station cockerel work- 

 ing under the same environmental conditions. During the 

 course of the breeding season it was necessary to withdraw a 

 number of the females from each pen and substitute others in 

 their place. 



In selecting the females to be bred to these various cockerels 

 it was attempted to make as even a distribution between foreign 



Cf. Pear], R., and Surface, F. M., loc. cit. p. icg. 



