224 MAINE' AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9I4. 



8. Mediocre or poor laying ability may be inherited by the 

 daughters from either sire or dam, or both. 



Now, all of these eight points are merely statements of fact. 

 They are the results which any intelligent person who examined 

 our extensive trap-nest and pedigree records would be bound 

 to reach. They depend in no way upon any "theory" of inher- 

 itance. I can assure those to whom Mendelism is as the pro- 

 verbial red rag to the bull that nothing which has been said 

 so far is even to the slightest degree tainted with this dread- 

 ful ( ?) doctrine. 



Suggested Mendelian Interpretation of Facts. 



An isolated fact does not alone contribute to the body of 

 organized knowledge known as science. Its relation to other 

 facts must first be understood. Now, the facts regarding egg 

 production which have been set forth above, do, as a matter of 

 fact, accord in a remarkably clear manner with a Mendelian 

 interpretation of the inheritance of fecundity in the fowl. Such 

 an interpretation has been worked out in detail in Bulletin 205. 

 Through this interpretation this isolated group of facts is 

 brought into relation with a much wider range of facts about 

 inheritance in poultry and other animals. In this way we are 

 better able to understand (in light of present knowledge) the 

 meaning of our facts, and, on this basis, make plans for inves- 

 tigations which shall take us again a little farther into the realm 

 of the unknown, beyond the boundaries of our present knowl- 

 edge. 



But what is the good of all this? How is it going to help 

 John Smith to win the first prize in an egg laying competition? 

 It must be said at the outstart that, much to my regret, neither 

 the facts nor their Mendelian interpretation, will furnish any 

 neat little rule-of-three whereby all John Smiths can win all 

 first prizes. Successful poultry breeding will continue in the 

 future, as it has in the past, to demand a lot of intelligence, 

 thought, skill and rationally directed effort. I hope and believe, 

 however, that the results discussed above may be of some help 

 in efforts to improve egg production by breeding. It is farthest 

 from my desire to claim too much for them, but I do think 

 thev help us a little in certain general directions. In the first 



