THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



May, 191 4 



Breeding for HeAvy E)ss Prodtiction. 



Paper hv Raymond Pearl, read before the American Poultry Asso- 

 ciation. 



(Continued from last Issue.) 



— How shall we apply our Know- 

 ledge — 



But what is the good of all this? 

 How is it going to help John 

 Smith to win the first prize in 

 an egg-laying competition ? It 

 must be said at the outstart that 

 much to my regret, ueither the 

 facts nor their IMendelian interpre- 

 tations, will furnish any neat little 

 K-ule-of-three whereby all John 

 Smiths can will all first prizes. 

 Successful poultry breeding will 

 continue in the luture, as it has in 

 the past, to demand a lot of intel- 

 ligence, thought, skill and ration- 

 ally directed effort. I hope and 

 believe, however, that the results 

 discussed above may be of some 

 help in efforts to improve egg pro- 

 duction by breeding. It is farth- 

 est from tny desire to claim too 

 much for them, but I do think 

 they help us a little in certain 

 general directions. 



In the first place these results 

 by showing that the inheritance of 

 egg producing abUity is nat a 

 simple, uncomplicated transmission 

 of something from dam to daugh- 

 ter without change, make it some- 

 what easier to bear the disappoint- 

 ments which attend devotion to th^ 

 gosi)el of the trap-nest, in its ori. 

 ginal inspirational form. In the 

 second place, they help us to make 

 a more just and adequate distribu- 

 tion of emphasis on the different 

 basic elements of a systematic 

 plan for the improvement of poul- 

 try in egg production. Finally, by 

 furnishing a generalized mode of 

 interpretation of observed results, 

 or in other words, by giving a 



clearer and broader understanding 

 of how egg production is inheriteu, 

 these results help us to interpret 

 and profit in our own breeding op- 

 erations by the experience of 

 others. 



It would be very easily possible 

 to make out a system of matings 

 on the basis of the results of Bul- 

 letin No. 205, showing in great 

 detail how to proceed toward* 

 building up a laying strain. In- 

 deed such specific plans have been 

 worked out by a number of my 

 iriends, I have refrained from do- 

 ing this, however, because it seems 

 to me to be of doubtful practical 

 utility. Lest I should seem to be 

 repudiating hoth my results and 

 my friends, let me hasten to give 

 my reasons for this doubt. The 

 reasons are general in character 

 and are found in the fact that such 

 schemes of mating are essentially 

 mechanical, whereas, both the 

 things to be bred in accordance 

 with the scheme (the fowls), and 

 those who are to carry out the 

 plan (the poultryman) are essen- 

 tially living. The basis of Hfe may 

 be mechanistic, but certainly liv- 

 ing things do not in practical, 

 every day life behave with that 

 precision and deiiniteness which we 

 expect from a machine. Being a 

 little acquainted with the frailties 

 of both poultry and poultrymen, I 

 am not too optimistic as to the 

 outcome of trying to breed chick- 

 ens by formula. 



It seems to me that possibly it 

 may be more helpful to try to 

 draw out from these results some 

 general principles in breeding for 

 egg production, which every poul- 

 tryman can apply. What, then, 



are the basic elements in a well 

 directed effort towards the im- 

 provement of poultry in egg pro- 

 duction by breeding ? I should 

 put them in this way — 



1. Selection of all breeding birds, 

 first on the basis of constitutional 

 vigor and vitality, making the 

 judgment of this so far objective 

 as possible. In particular the 

 scales should be called on to fur- 

 nish evidence, (a) There ought to 

 exist, for all standard breeds of 

 fowls, normal growth curves, from 

 which could be read ofE the stan- 

 dard weight wliich should be at- 

 tained l)y a sound, vigorous bird, 

 not specially fed for fattening, - at 

 each particular age, from hatching 

 to the adult condition. These 

 curves we shall sometime have, (bij 

 Let all deaths in shell and chick 

 mortality be charged against the 

 dam, and only those females used 

 as breeders a second time which 

 show a high record of performance 

 in respect to the vitality of their 

 chicks, whether in the egg or out 

 of it. This constitutes one of the 

 most valuable measures of consti- 

 tutional \igor and v-itahty which 

 we haN"e, if for no other reason 

 than to measure this breeding per- 

 formance, a portion of the breed- 

 ing females each year should be 

 pullets. In this way one can in 

 time build up an elite stock with 

 references to hatching quality of 

 eggs and \iability of chicks. (c) 

 Let no bird be used as a breeder 

 which is known ever to have been 

 ill in howe\-er slight a degree. In 

 order to know something about 

 this, why not put an extra legband 

 on e\'ery bird, chicks or adult, 

 when it shows the first sign of in- 

 disposition. This, then, becomes a 

 permanent brand, which marks 

 this in(li\'idual as one which failed, 

 to a greater or less degree, to 

 stand up under its environmental 

 measures of constitutional \4gor. 

 (d) Many of the loodily stigments 

 by which the pouitryman during 

 the last few years has been taught 

 to recognize constitutional vigor 

 or its absence, have, in my experi- 

 ence, little, if any, real significance. 



Longe\ ity is a real and valuable 

 o|l>jecti\'e test of \igor and vitality, 

 but it is of only limited jiractical 

 usefulness, because of the increas- 

 ing dilliculty with advancing age 

 of breeding successfully* on 'ffny 

 large scale from old birds of the 

 American and other heavy types. 



2. The use as breeders of such 

 females only as have shown them- 

 selves by trap.rnest records to be 

 high producers, since it is only 

 from such females that there can 

 be any hope of getting mal^ cap- 



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