58 Maine: agricuIvTurai, experiment station. 1909. 



devoted to a discussion of some of these further factors which 

 enter into the problem. The aim so far has been to set forth 

 in as clear and unequivocal manner as possible, the definite fact 

 that in the Station's experience thus far the daughter of a "200- 

 egg" hen is, on the average, an exceptionally poor winter layer, 

 instead of an exceptionally good one. 



THE PERIOD COVERED BY THE RECORDS. 



The first question which naturally suggests itself in connec- 

 tion with the data which have been presented in the Table I is 

 as to whether it is not conceivable that different results might 

 have been obtained had the experiment been continued for a 

 longer time so that the daughters could have made egg records 

 covering a longer period of their lives. In other words, it 

 might conceivably be maintained that if the daughters' records 

 for the whole pullet year had been compared with the mothers' 

 records for the same period of their lives there would not have 

 been so great a discrepancy between the averages of the two 

 groups. It was necessary, on account of making changes in 

 the buildings of the poultry plant to stop the trap nest records 

 on June 30, 1908. There are then lacking records of four 

 months (July, August, September and October) egg production 

 of the daughters' pullet year. These are the four least impor- 

 tant months of all, however, from the standpoint of the practical 

 study of egg production.* We can get light on the significance 

 of the contention that different results might have been obtained 

 in this experiment had the daughters' records covered the whole 

 year in two wa3^s. 



(i) The average egg production of the mothers from 

 November i to June i of their pullet year was in round num- 

 bers 114.9 eggs per bird. Since the average total production 

 of the mothers for the whole year was 201.8 eggs per bird it, 

 of course, follows that their average production from June i 

 to November i was 86.9 eggs per bird. Now the daughters' 

 egg production from November i to June i in their pullet year 

 was, as has been seen, 61.9 eggs per bird. If it be assumed 

 that after June i the daughters would have laid on the average 

 just as well during the remainder of the year as did the group 



* See the discussion on this point in Me. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bulletin No. 

 165. 



