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Recent Research in Egg Production. 



[Feb. 



RECENT RESEARCH IN EGG 

 PRODUCTION. 



J. Hammond, M.A., 

 School of Agriculture , Cambridge. 



The following account aims at giving, in a summarized 

 form, a description of some of the results obtained by research 

 work in egg production. Abroad, especially in America, a con- 

 siderable amount of work has been done and much more is 

 in progress. The results of this research work are often 

 applicable to animal production in this country, and the short 

 summary here given of some of the conclusions arrived at may 

 therefore be of interest to those concerned in production. 



Much of the research work which is alluded to below needs 

 confirmation, as some of the experiments have only been 

 carried out on a small scale, and many of the facts elucidated 

 in other countries require investigation here before it can be 

 definitely ascertained whether they hold good in our climate. 

 A large number, however, are of universal application, and 

 some of the discoveries mentioned below, such as the mode of 

 inheritance of high egg production, have already been taken 

 advantage of in this country. 



Inheritance of High Production. — Extensive investigations 

 have been made in the United States by Raymond Pearl (!) and 

 other workers on the production of eggs, and many useful 

 discoveries have been made. Probably the most important is 

 that the power of high production of eggs in the hen is inherited 

 mainly through the cock. Pullets that are bred from a cock 

 of high-producing strain mated with hens of a moderate-pro- 

 ducing strain will lay many more eggs than will pullets which 

 have been bred from a cock of moderate-producing strain mated 

 with hens of a high-producino- strain. Pearl's investigations 

 were made with the Plymouth Hock and Cornish Indian Game 

 breeds, and in view of their great importance it is desirable that 

 they should be repeated with the breeds and strains of fowls 

 kept in England. Indeed, it seems of the utmost importance, 

 if any advance is to be made in the average yield of eggs, that 

 the inheritance of fecundity in English breeds should be tested. 

 Goodale( 2 ) found that in the Rhode Island Red high egg pro- 

 duction was inherited, but not in the manner observed by 



(1) Jour. Exp. Zoology, 1912, p. 15& 



(2) Jour. Agr. Res., Vol. 12, 1918. No. 9. 



