208 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1908. 



EFFECT OF THE BREEDING EXPERIMENT UPON PRACTICE. 



Leaving this matter for the moment it may be pointed out 

 that whatever the detailed results of the experiment in breeding 

 fowls for increased egg production, there can be no doubt that 

 the experiment itself has served as a decided stimulus to the 

 better breeding of poultry in this country. A great number of 

 •poultrymen at the present time are using trap nests and selecting 

 birds for breeding with reference to their performance in egg 

 production. In the advertising columns of every poultry jour- 

 nal will be found advertisements of strains of all of the standard 

 breeds "bred to lay." At the time when the work of this Sta- 

 tion in this direction was begun it would have been extremely 

 difficult, if not impossible to find any poultryman who was mak- 

 ing any systematic attempt to increase the egg production of 

 his flock by breeding. Whatever the results of the Station's 

 experiment, and whether or not methods of breeding based on 

 ; ts supposed results have a sound foundation, it is a great gain 

 to have brought about a wide spread recognition of the impor- 

 •tance of improving the methods of breeding poultry for egg pro- 

 duction. 



Another respect in which the breeding work of the Station 

 has been of great value lies in the fact that in the course of the 

 experiment a remarkable collection of data regarding egg pro- 

 duction has been accumulated. Since 1898 trap nest records of 

 substantially all the birds kept in the Station's poultry plant 

 have been made. It is probable that nowhere else does there 

 exist a set of records of egg production covering a period of 9 

 years and including several thousand birds. Quite regardless 

 of the outcome of the breeding experiment itself these records 

 collected in the prosecution of the experiment have a definite, 

 permanent and considerable value. 



STUDY OF THE EGG RECORDS. 

 Up until the summer of 1907 no particular attempt had been 

 made to analyze these records of egg production and to see what 

 light they threw on the laws governing the process itself. In 

 July, 1907, the department of biology of the Station was organ- 

 ized and commenced its work. One of the first tasks under- 

 taken in this department was the analysis of the egg record 



