PRACTICAL LAYING CONTESTS 289 



During the 20-year period above noted, breeders and 

 fanciers and some few utility men took up space at inter- 

 vals, in the poultry and agricultural publications, urging 

 that "somebody" ought to arrange a series of public 

 contests for the stimulation of the poultry industry in 

 America. Since America got into touch with the Aus- 

 tralian competitive work, begun nearly a decade ago, 

 such items have become more numerous and more insist- 

 ent. One American poultry journalist, in especial, Mr. 

 Miller Purvis, was prominent in supporting this idea. 

 When, however, a great daily took up the work inter- 

 nationally in 191 1, giving out a Summer Prospectus fol- 

 lowing by a few weeks the published inception of a 

 national competition opened by the Missouri Experiment 

 Station, protests were voiced by two prominent poultry 

 writers. The editor of Farm Poultry refers to the first 

 competition under the heading, " The Latest Imported 

 Utility Fad," quotes a writer in an Australian paper as 

 saying that Australia's competitions, as at present con- 

 ducted, are " a waste of good material and a menace to the 

 industry," and avers that, in general, "a laying com- 

 petition is essentially amateurish and inconclusive." 

 Mr. Thomas F. Rigg, a clever journalist and a man 

 of unusual balance of mind and sanity of outlook, 

 said : " Our idea of nothing doing, of waste of time, 

 energy, and money, is a ' laying contest.' " At the same 

 time, some of the most progressive of state and county 

 Fair Associations were advertising one-week laying com- 

 petitions as a part of the attractions of the Fairs. 



All the rest of the poultry world which parades in 

 print, as far as I have seen its expression of opinion, 

 hailed the incipient American contests as solid proof of 



