264 MAINE AC.K! CULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 1908. 



individual chick. Leg bands consecutively numbered from one 

 to any number desired may be purchased for a very slight 

 advance over the price of blank leg bands. When one hatches 

 several thousand chickens the labor which would be involved 

 in numbering these bands individually by hand would be very 

 great. But the matter of the total amount of labor involved is 

 not the only one to be considered. There is also the time factor 

 which must be taken into account. This will be plain if it be 

 considered that one may have say 500 or 600 chickens hatching 

 on the same day. It would be practically impossible under 

 ordinary conditions to stamp a distinctive leg band for each 

 one of these individual chicks as they were hatching and keep 

 the book records of the pedigree straight at the same time. 

 These considerations make it necessary to use for chick leg 

 bands consecutively numbered bands which can be bought 

 already numbered and have merely to be put on and recorded 

 in the book at the time of hatching. 



Similar considerations apply to the leg bands of adult birds. 

 In the work of the Station a great deal of attention is being paid 

 to the subject of egg production and its improvement by breed- 

 ing. From 500 to 800 laying hens are tested in trap nests each 

 year. The keeping of these egg records with accuracy involves 

 careful attention as to method. A prime requisite both for 

 accuracy and economy (in the matter of labor) is that the leg 

 band numbers of these birds in the laying tests shall run consec- 

 utively, through the whole flock and in each separate pen. This 

 means of course that a bird's adult band number will not be 

 the same as its chick band number except by the rarest of acci- 

 dents. 



In connection with the matter of consecutive numbers it may 

 be said that in keeping the breeding and egg records in the work 

 here, an automatic numbering machine has been found to be 

 an extremely valuable mechanical aid. 



THE MATING SHEET. 



The fundamental starting point of the present system of 



records, as has been implied above (p. 262), is the use of what 



will be spoken of throughout as "mating numbers." The idea 



is this : When a particular hen and cockerel are put together 



