THE BREEDING OF CHICKENS 147 



devclopiiient of a nice of liit^^li i)ro(luc('rs \\'ith the same cer- 

 tainty that a set of instructions could he (le^'ise(l for com- 

 paratively simple characters as com!) type, feather color, 

 silky plumage, etc. It is i)ossihle, however, through the 

 culling out of the poorer i)rochicers in tlie flock so that 

 only the thrifty, better laying hens are saved, and the mating 

 with them of pedigreed cockerels with at least four generations 

 of high ])roducing female ancestors on hoth the sires and dams 

 sides back of them, to improve a, Hock of ])oor i)roducers or 

 to maintain a. flock of good ])roducers. Siglit should ne\'er 

 be lost of the fact that the male is at least half of any breeding 

 flock so far as the olfs])ring is concerned, and there is exidence 

 that he is more than half with regard to high egg production 

 in at least stime of the breeds. 



Average Production.— Taking their data from 150 commercial 

 flocks which included about 12(j, 110(1 head, mostly Legliorns, 

 about a third of which were hens and two thirds ])ullcts, 

 Ap]i, Waller and Lcwis^ found that the average annual 

 production per bird was 110 eggs. This rei)resents ai)i)roxi- 

 matcly a .30 per cent ])roduction for the year distributed by 

 months as shown in Table XMI. This in all ])robal>ility 

 exceeds the a\"erage ])roduction of general farm flocks by at 

 least three dozen eggs. 



Taule XVII, The Average Pek ( 'ent of Peiifect Prodcction Shown 

 During the Different Months of the Year by One Hundred and 

 FiFTi- Commercial Flocks in New Jersey. (Data of App, Waller 

 AND Lewis.) 



;\veraf^(? nurnlxT of egtis per 

 Productujn, liird rali'ulateil from App, 



Month per cent \\"allfr and Lewis' data. 



November . ll.S .'5.. 54 



December . .. 1.5.4 4.77 



January . . 2.3 ^> 7 .'2'2 



February , . - 'Si 9.. 52 



March 45.0 1:5.95 



April . , , . . 52.0 15 (iO 



May .,,,.. 50.0 15.50 



June .... 41. S 12.54 



.July 34.7 10.75 



August , .... 24. 1 747 



September . , . 19. I 5 73 



October ..,.,, 11.1 3 44 



110.03 



' New Jersey Bulletin, No. 329. 



