1921.] 



Egg-Laying Trials. 



795 



tests. Moreover, the tests are in themselves a perpetual adver- 

 tisement and reminder of the benefits that accrue from strain, 

 in contradistinction to breed. To this end the Press, both daily 

 and technical, has lent its aid ungrudgingly, and in its monthly 

 and annual reports has insistently emphasised the differences 

 that may exist in the egg yield of birds of the same breed or 

 variety, fed and kept in the same way and under equal 

 conditions. 



In other words, the value of strain is being inculcated con- 

 tinually in such a way that poultry keepers can hardly remain 

 for long in ignorance of the fact that for egg-production it is a 

 matter of the first importance to secure birds of good strain or 

 proved family fitness. Further, it is by the same means that 

 poultry keepers are enabled to get into touch with breeders of 

 strains of proved prolificness. The published records of egg- 

 laying performance make it possible for the public to compare 

 results, and to familiarise themselves with the names of breeders 

 whose birds are consistent in maintaining a relatively high level 

 of prolificness. 



Without the holding of the tests and the publicity given to 

 the results, the public would have no independent check upon 

 the claims of breeders who offer pullets and cockerels, day-old 

 chicks, or sittings of eggs for sale. It is to the egg -laving trials 

 that the public must look for authoritative proof of the reliability 

 of egg-laying strains, and the published records of their tests 

 serve to safeguard the buyers of eggs or birds to a large degree 

 against the unscrupulous advertiser. 



Position of Specialist Breeders. — This brings us to a brief 

 consideration of the position of the specialist breeders — those 

 whose work it is to produce and maintain the strains of highly 

 prolific layers. Theirs is a very special and peculiar branch of 

 the industry, the creation and continuance of which depends to 

 a considerable extent upon the holding of egg-laying trials. The 

 tests are to them at once an incentive and an advertisement. 

 Without published records they would have less inducement 

 to keep their stock up to the required level, and without the 

 authoritative character of that publicity their financial rewards 

 might be insufficient to recompense them for their skill and 

 labour. 



Egg-laying tests are to the specialist breeders of the egg-laying 

 strains, what the fanciers' poultry shows are to the breeders of 

 standard bred stock; they keep their stock up to the mark and 

 bring them customers. This is. of course, the more directly 



