28 THE AMERICAN BREEBS OF POULTRY 



sight of the two-purpose type in our American breeds. It is yet to 

 be demonstrated that the very best meat and egg qualities can be 

 developed in the same individual, and until it shall have been proved 

 that the one temperament does not strive against the other, and that 

 the 280-egg hen not only produces Standardweight pullets but gets 

 cockerels that at the proper age will dress off as large, well meated 

 capons, it is inadvisable to put emphasis on one quality alone, to the 

 exclusion of the other, in so far as the breed as a whole is concerned. 



Effect of heavy laying on breeding power. Poultry breeders as a 

 class have been criticized for not establishing production records as 

 have the breeders of dairy cattle. The hen usually is associated with 

 the dairy cow, both being producers. However, in arguing the 

 validity of his position in not going in for high records in all his 

 breeding females, the practical poultry fancier may point out a differ- 

 ence between the hen and the cow. 



The cow bears her young alive, while the hen lays an egg from 

 which the young is hatched outside her body. The egg contains some 

 sustenance in the form of yolk, which is absorbed into the intestines 

 just before the chick is hatched and serves as the young's first food; 

 but the egg also contains all the material necessary to make the 

 chick — its blood, muscles, cartilage that later will harden into bone, 

 scales on its shanks, down on its body, etc. When you breed to 

 increase milk production you breed to increase the sustenance that 

 the mother is to supply to her young; when you breed to increase 

 egg production you breed to increase the vital process of reproduction. 

 It seems true that a hen may lay in excess of her own strength, in 

 which case she is unable to impart to her pullets that vitality which 

 is necessary if they are to equal the egg record of their dam. It is 

 on this ground that some practical breeders maintain that what may 

 be termed a high normal layer is the surer breeder. 



There is a diversity of opinion on this matter, and data on experi- 

 mental l)reeding at the federal and state experiment stations are not 

 yet sufficient to influence the majority of fanciers. Thomas E. Quisen- 

 berry, founder of the American School of Poultry Husbandry, and 

 for a time in charge of the work at the Missouri Poultry Experiment 

 Station, writes: 



We had at the station one hen which laid 286 eggs, and we incubated every one 

 of them and were able to hatch only one chick, and that was a pullet. This pullet 

 since that time has not laid enough eggs to half way pay her feed bill. I believe 

 laying will in most cases affect the vitality of a hen to such an extent that the 

 chicks are liable to be weak, but this is not always the case. I have found a good 

 many hens that were able to lay between 250 and 300 eggs, and the greater percent- 

 age were fertile and many of them hatched strong, healthy chicks. My contention 

 i§ that when a breeder finds such a hen he should keep her and endeavor to build up 

 a strain or family of such producers. 



Harry R. Lewis, professor of poultry husbandry, New Jersey 

 Agricultural College, handles the subject in a conclusive way and 



