214 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1908. 



is an accumulation of definite knowledge of the fundamental 

 principles of the hereditary process. All breeding operations 

 must be based on the laws of inheritance in organisms. The 

 practical stock breeder is able to work out the applications of 

 these laws for himself. What he most needs is broader and 

 deeper knowledge of the laws themselves. This knowledge 

 must come from thorough-going, purely scientific investiga- 

 tions." 



THE EXPERIMENT A SUCCESS AS AN EXPERIMENT. 



It must not be concluded from what has been set forth above 

 that the experiment in breeding for egg production is to be 

 regarded as having failed. To draw such a conclusion is to mis- 

 understand completely the purpose with which the work was 

 begun. The purpose of the experiment was to find out whether 

 high egg productiveness could be bred into a strain of fowls by 

 the method of breeding practiced. The experiment has 

 answered this question in the negative. There could be but 

 one of two answers to the question. It is no more to be counted 

 as a failure of the experiment if the answer turns out to be "no" 

 than if it had turned out to be "yes." To have the question 

 answered so clearly and definitely is a great gain. It clears the 

 ground to start a new experiment to see whether another 

 method of breeding will make it possible to breed high egg pro- 

 duction into a strain. 



Furthermore it must not be concluded that the strain of 

 Barred Plymouth Rocks carried by the Station is at the present 

 time anything other than an excellent strain in respect to egg 

 production. In spite of the fact that there is no evidence of 

 any gain in respect to egg production during the course of the 

 breeding experiment the strain itself is without doubt an 

 unusually good one in respect to this character. When the 

 number of birds carried and the length of time over which 

 trap nest records exist are taken into consideration it is doubtful 

 if there is any where a strain of Barred Plymouth Rocks v/hich 

 surpasses the stock of the Station in record egg production. 

 The stock of the Experiment Station poultry plant is unusually 

 healthy and vigorous. None of the infectious diseases which 

 so commonly cause serious difficulty in the operation of large 

 commercial poultry plants has ever appeared in the Station's 



