SPECIAL REPORT FOR YEAR. I3 



mal side the work is largely with poultry and cattle, while on 

 the plant side corn, oats and beans have been the crops chiefly 

 studied. 



WORK WITH POULTRY. 



During nearly the whole existence of the Maine Agricultural 

 Experiment Station it has carried on work with poultry along 

 one Hne or another. Two phases of the poultry work of t'A:, 

 Station have attracted wide attention, namely its experiments 

 in breeding for increased egg production, on the one hand, and 

 in poultry management on the other hand. In recent years an 

 increasing amount of attention has been paid to the former 

 line of work. This is warranted by the great practical impor- 

 tance to agriculture of the subject of breeding for performance 

 in general. Not only is a working out of the fundamental 

 principles upon which successful breeding for egg production 

 depends proving useful and valuable to the poultryman, but 

 also to the breeder of any kind of live stock who is seeking to 

 improve utility qualities. Poultry probably furnishes more fa- 

 vorable material for working out the laws of inheritance and 

 breeding than any other of the domestic animals. 



Another line of work has to do with the physiology of egg 

 production. In this connection a study has been published 

 during the past year of the mode of formation of the white of 

 the egg. 



How the White of the Egg Is Made. 



The oviduct or egg tube of a laying hen is divided into five 

 main parts, readily distinguishable by gross observation. Be- 

 ginning at the anterior end of the organ these parts, in order, 

 are: (a) the infundibulum, or funnel, (b) the albumen se- 

 creting portion, (c) the isthmus, (d) the uterus or "shell gland" 

 and (e) the vagina. 



Each of these parts is generally supposed to play a particular 

 and exclusive role in the formation of the protective and nutri- 

 tive envelopes which surround the yolk in the complete egg as 

 laid. Thus the funnel grasps the ovule at the time of ovula- 

 tion; the glands of the albumen region secrete the different 

 sorts of albumen or "white" (thick and thin) found in the 

 egg; the shell membranes are secreted in the isthmus; and fi~ 



