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IMPROVING EGG PRODUCTION BY BREEDING. 225 



place these results, by showing that the inheritance of egg pro- 

 ducing ability is not a simple, uncomplicated transmission of 

 something from dam to daughter without change, make it 

 somewhat easier to bear the disappointments which attended 

 devotion to the gospel of the trap-nest, in its original inspira- 

 tional form. In the second place, they help us to make a more 

 just and adequate distribution of emphasis on the different 

 basic elements of a systematic plan for the improvement of 

 poultry in egg production. Finally, by furnishing a generalized 

 mode of interpretation of observed results, or in other words, 

 by giving a clearer and broader understanding of how egg pro- 

 duction is inherited, these results help us to interpret, and profit 

 in our own breeding operations by the experience of others. 



It would be very easily possible to make out a system of 

 matings, on the basis of the results of Bulletin 205, showing in 

 great detail how to proceed towards building up a laying strain. 

 Indeed, such specific plans have been worked out by a number 

 of my friends. I have refrained from doing this, however, 

 because it seems to me to be of doubtful practical utility. Lest 

 I should seem to be repudiating both my results and my friends, 

 let me hasten to give the reasons for this doubt. The reasons 

 are general in character and are found in the fact that such 

 schemes of mating are essentially mechanical, whereas both the 

 things to be bred in accordance with the scheme (the fowls), 

 and those who are to carry out the plans (the poultryman) are 

 essentially living. Perhaps in final analysis the basis of life 

 may be mechanistic, but certainly living things do not in prac- 

 tical every day life behave with that precision and definiteness 

 which we expect from a machine. Being a little acquainted 

 with the frailties of both poultry and poultrymen, I am not too 

 optimistic as to the outcome of trying to breed chickens by 

 formula. 



A Plan for the Practical Breeder. 



It seems to me that possibly it may be more helpful to draw 

 out from these results some general principles in breeding for 

 egg production, which every poultryman can apply. What 

 then are the basic elements in a well-directed effort towards the 

 improvement of poultry in egg production by breeding? I 

 should put them in this way. 



