210 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. IQoS. 



the minor fluctuations in individual years must be neglected. 

 The statistical examination of the annual egg records therefore, 

 derives its justification from the necessity of determining what 

 the value to the practical poultry man is of the method of breed- 

 ing which has been followed in this experiment at the Station. 



CONCLUSIONS REACHED FROM THE ANNUAL RECORDS. 



The detailed study of the annual records, using adequate 

 mathematical methods of analysis leads to the following conclu- 

 sions : 



I. There is a large amount of variation among individual 

 birds in respect to annual egg production. The range of varia- 

 tion extends from zero to approximately 250 eggs in the records 

 of the Station. The amount of variation in regard to egg pro- 

 duction is substantially the same at the end of the selection 

 experiment as it was at the beginning. That is to say, after 9 

 years of selection with respect to egg production the birds breed 

 no truer to a definite type of egg production than they did at the 

 beginning. It will be recognized by every stock breeder that 

 this is an important fact 10 be taken into consideration in pass- 

 ing opinion on the value of the method of breeding poultry 

 which was tried in the experiment. 



II. The general trend of average annual egg production has 

 been slightly downward throughout the course of the experi- 



Birds completed Actual ave 



Year and pen. the year. Eggs laid. product 



1899-I9OO 70 9,545 I36 



I9OO-I9OI 85 12,192 I43 



I9OI-ICO2 48 7,468 155 



1902-1903 147 19,906 I35 



I9O3-I9O4 254 29,947 117 



1904-1C0.5 * 50 bird pens 283 37-943 J 34 



1905-1906 * 50 bird pens 178 24.827 140 



1 906- 1 907 * 50 bird pens 187 21,175 Ir 3 



36 

 44 

 58 

 42 

 90 

 07 



14 

 24 



* In these years the "floor space" experiments referred to below 

 (p. 212) were conducted. Birds were kept in flocks of 50, 100, and 150 

 birds each. The highest annual averages have been made in each year 

 by the 50 bird flocks. Consequently only these are included in this 

 table. To include the others would simply be to lower the averages 

 of these years below the figures given in the table. 



