BULLETIN No. 165. 



POULTRY NOTES— 1908. 



Raymond Pearl and Frank M. Surface. 



The purpose of this bulletin is to present a brief report of 

 the progress of the work of the Station with poultry during the 

 year 1908. In this year a number of changes were made in the 

 material equipment of the poultry plant, and in methods. It is 

 desirable that a record of these changes be made, as well as the 

 results of certain specific experiments carried on during the 

 year. In this account there will be no discussion of topics 

 which are to appear in other Station bulletins. 



Technical Studies On Poultry Already Published. 



A considerable portion of the more technical scientific work 

 of the department of biology of the Station, which has in charge 

 the work with poultry, is published in current biological jour- 

 nals, not readily accessible to the agricultural public. During 

 the past year two papers of this sort directly relating to poultry 

 have been published. One of these papers t is the first install- 

 ment of the results of an investigation which is being made into 

 the special physiology of egg production. The laying of an egg 

 is a very complicated physiological process of which only the 

 most general features are known. The attempt is being made 

 to determine the exact part in the process played by the ovary 

 and each portion of the oviduct or egg tube. In the paper under 

 discussion it is shown that a hen may lay a perfectly normal egg 

 after the removal of a considerable portion of that part of the 

 oviduct which secretes the white of the egg. 



The second paper * referred to deals with a related question 

 regarding the physiology of the oviduct or egg tube. In this 



t Resection and End-to-End Anastomosis of the Oviduct in the Hen, 

 without Loss of Function. Amer. Journ. of Physiology. Vol. 22. pp. 

 357-361. 



* Studies on the Physiology of Reproduction in the Domestic Fowl. 

 I. Regulation in the Morphogcnctic Activity of the Oviduct. Journ. 

 Exper. Zool. 



