CHAPTER XIV 
EGG-LAYING COMPETITIONS 
‘ , y HAT is the value of laying competitions ? The ques- 
tion is often asked, and it may be answered in many 
ways. 
These trials have a definite value in this respect, that all the 
birds are kept under identical conditions, and the public can, 
therefore, be guided in their choice of profitable breeds by the 
results given in the report. Those who contemplate buying stock 
birds during the summer months, to be in readiness for autumn 
and winter egg-production, can with advantage study the com- 
parative scores and values of different breeds represented in the 
trials. 
The great object of laying competitions is to improve the egg- 
producing qualities of the domestic poultry in this country. The 
stimulating effects of competitions to breeders of laying strains are 
as great as the large shows are to breeders of fancy poultry or to 
the cattle, sheep, or horse breeder in their own particular spheres. 
Or another simile may be taken by comparing the means adopted 
for improving the thoroughbred horse, where the animals are 
judged by actual trials of speed and stamina on the race-course 
and not by their appearance in the show ring. 
So in laying competitions only birds which show merit by actual 
egg-laying results are awarded certificates of merit, says the 
President of the Harper Adams Agricultural College. 
An increased output of eggs is as important to the poultry- 
keeper as the increased yield of milk is to a dairy-farmer, and as 
the latter is prepared to purchase at a higher price a heavy milking 
cow, so it is to a poultry-keeper an advantage to obtain an im- 
proved strain of egg-producing birds which has been officially 
proved to be of a high standard. 
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