50 MAINE AGRICUIvTURAIv EXPERIMENT STATION. I909. 



was not kept. All male birds used, however, were so-called 

 "registered" cockerels. They were cockerels in whose ancestry 

 the females for at least seven generations had been birds laying 

 200 or more eggs in the pullet year. These "registered" pullets 

 were then to be housed and fed exactly in the same manner as 

 were the "unregistered" * pullets. The experiment as planned 

 was begun by Professor Gowell and carried on by him until the 

 time of his resignation from the Station in December, 1907. 

 The continuation of the experiment was turned over to the 

 department of biology along with the other poultry work. It 

 is the purpose of this bulletin to report the results of this 

 experiment. 



The specific questions which this experiment was instituted 

 to answer may be briefly stated as follows : 



1. Will the daughters of high laying hens ("200-egg" birds) 

 on the average produce more eggs in a given time unit than will 

 birds of less closely selected ancestry? 



2. What data do the performance records of such selected 

 birds afford regarding the inheritance of egg producing ability 

 in the domestic fowl? 



PLAN OF THE EXPERIMENT. 



On the first of November, 1907, there were put into House 

 No. 2 of the Station's plant, 250 pullets. Each of these was 

 the daughter of a hen that had laid approximately 200 eggs in 

 her pullet year. These 250 pullets were divided into flocks of 

 50 each and were fed and handle'd in every way exactly in 

 accordance with the usual methods of the Station (cf. Bulletin 

 No. 144). They were an even lot of birds and had the strong, 

 vigorous appearance which has characterized the Station's 

 Barred Plymouth Rock stock. They were to the eye slightly 

 small for Barred Plymouth Rocks, and also gave the general 

 impression of being slightly smaller than the "unregistered" 

 pullets of the same age in the other houses. The smaller size 

 of the "registered" pullets had been noted for some years in 

 the breeding work of the Station. 



At the same time that these 250 "registered" pullets (so-called 

 because from "registered" mothers) were put into the house 



* That is, birds of similar breeding except that their mothers laid from 

 150 to 200 eggs each in their pullet years instead of over 200 eggs. 



