122 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
healthy bird with a 200 egg-record than to attempt to produce a 
race of egg-layers from a weakly hen that had laid 250 eggs in a 
year. Numbers are important, but they are not everything. 
SCIENCE OF BREEDING 
The science of breeding is now fairly well understood, but it 
should be emphasised that the male bird is by far the more im- 
portant of the two ; it is, in fact, more than two-thirds of the pen. 
Any farmer with good ordinary hens will improve his egg-yield 
enormously by employing a male bird that comes from a deep 
laying strain. It is better to give a guinea for a high-class 
cockerel and to mate it with ordinary hens than to buy half-a- 
dozen expensive pullets and mate them with an ordinary 
cockerel. 
The first prize in the Harper Adams Competition went to Miss 
Bell, of Ightham, Kent, whose six Leghorns laid 1802 eggs in ten 
months. The lowest Leghorn record for the ten months was 887, 
so that while there is a vast difference between the first and last 
pens, the latter figure is probably on a paying basis. The Leghorn 
is much the safest bird for the amateur. 
In the Wyandotte section, Mr Edward Cam, of Houghton, 
Preston, was awarded first prize with a score of 1272 for six 
birds for ten months. The lowest pen score of the Wyandotte 
was 827. 
Perhaps the most surprising feature of the whole competition 
was the fine showing of a pen of Barred Rocks that were immature 
during the first months and yet scored 1157 for the full period. 
They beat all other breeds in Section 3, including Buff Orpingtons 
and Rhode Island Reds. The best Buff Orpington pen pro- 
duced 1124, and the most successful Rhode Islanders scored 
1093. 
The following table gives a summary of results for the ten 
months, and shows a comparison of pen and bird averages, of the 
average over the whole flock, and also contrasts the results of the 
heavy and light breeds :— 
