268 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I908. 



INDICES. 



Besides the two kinds of record sheets already described — 

 the mating sheet and descriptive catalogue sheets— there is 

 necessary in the system of pedigree records here described only 

 one other type of record. It is necessary for the most con- 

 venient operation of the system (though not for its complete- 

 ness or accuracy) that there be prepared certain indices. The 

 underlying reason which makes these indices necessary is that 

 it is most simple and convenient to find any desired point in a 

 set of figures if those figures are arranged in consecutive order. 

 It is therefore desirable, or indeed necessary, that a person 

 approaching these pedigree records from any point — whether 

 chick, adult bird or mating — should find the numerical designa- 

 tions of the individuals in the class with which he starts 

 arranged in consecutive order, with proper cross references to 

 the other classes. To attain this result it is necessary to have 

 the following indices. 



1. The "mother-mating" index. On this index which occu- 

 pies a single foolscap sheet and is fastened to a board to facili- 

 tate handling in the incubator cellar, the band numbers of all 

 the hens in the breeding pens (potential "mother" hens) are 

 arranged in columns in consecutive order. In parallel columns 

 there is set down over against each hen's number the number of 

 the mating to which she is a party. This index is used when 

 the pedigreed chickens are leg banded after hatching. Each 

 egg from the breeding pens is marked when gathered with the 

 number of the hen which laid it. When the eggs from any 

 given hen are set in the incubator the tag on the end of the, 

 pedigree basket (cf., p. 258) is marked with the hen's (i. e., the 

 mother's) number. After hatching when a basket containing 

 chickens is taken from the incubator for the banding this 

 mother's number is looked out on the index at a glance, and the 

 corresponding mating number tells at once where to open the 

 book containing the mating sheets in order to enter the band 

 numbers of the chickens. With the aid of this index sheet 

 one person can enter chick records approximately as fast as 

 two persons can band the chickens. 



2. The "chick-adult-mating" index. In this index all chick 

 "band numbers are arranged in columns in consecutive order, on 



