262 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1908. 



makes a neat joint. Actual experience has shown that chicks 

 can be banded much more rapidly with the bands bent in this 

 way than if they are bent only at one end. The apparatus for 

 bending can be very easily constructed by any mechanic. 



A System of • Keeping Pedigree Records. 



There are probably as many systems of keeping pedigree 

 records as there are breeders who are interested in such records. 

 Each -breeder's particular interests or needs lead to the adapta- 

 tion of records to meet these needs. There is reason to believe, 

 however, that not a few breeders keep their pedigree records in 

 so unsystematic a manner that, on the one hand, a great deal of 

 time and labor is lost in tracing pedigrees and in entering new, 

 and, on the other hand, there is great likelihood of error 

 occurring in the records themselves because of the unwieldy 

 character of the method according to which they are kept. All 

 will agree that the thing to be desired in such a system of 

 records is that any given pedigree or step in a pedigree may 

 be looked out or entered with the least possible expenditure 

 of time and labor and the greatest possible accuracy. The 

 system of record keeping in use in the breeding work here is 

 thought to realize this ideal very well. It has been tested under 

 conditions calculated to put any record system under the sever- 

 est kind of strain and has stood the test satisfactorily. Its 

 simplicity is its great recommendation. 



It should be said that for suggestions regarding the keeping 

 of pedigree records some of which are embodied in the system 

 to be described the authors are indebted to Dr. Leon J. Cole, 

 Instructor in Zoology at Yale University, formerly Chief of the 

 Division of Animal Breeding and Pathology in the Rhode 

 Island Experiment Station. In particular Dr. Cole brought to 

 our attention the usefulness of the "mating number" idea 

 (cf., p. 264) which is the fundamental starting point in the 

 system of record keeping here described. For the sake of his- 

 torical accuracy it should be stated that this idea of using 

 "mating numbers" is essentially that proposed some years ago 

 by Galton * for keeping human pedigree records. 



* Galton, F. Pedigrees. Nature, Vol. 67, pp. 586-5S7, 1903. 



