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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



My own experience, and that of many other breeders, tends to show 

 that the birds hatched from high pedigree hens are not such prolific 

 layers as those hatched from healthy hens of an indifferent laying strain 

 mated to high pedigree cockerels. 



For three or four seasons 1 bred from two-year-old white Leghorn hens 

 of a gold-medal laying strain mated to a cockerel of equally-good descent. 



adequate profit on the money spent. The pullets were less prolific than 

 their parents, and inclined to be delicate and more or less undersized, 

 while the percentage of fertile eggs was lessened. 



Then by a lucky chance one season I had not enough eggs from a pen 

 of Rhode Island Reds to fill up an incubator, and I made up the defi- 

 ciency from a pen of good-sized healthy Leghorn hens of no particular 

 laying strain mated to a pedigree cockerel. Practically every egg from 

 this pen was fertile, the chickens proved strong, and the results seemed 



This,' of course, led to my systematic mating of healthy, well-grown 

 birds of indifferent laying strain to high pedigree cockerels, with very 

 successful results. The fertility of the eggs was extremely satisfactory, 

 the chickens turned out strong and healthy, and the pullets on arriving 

 at maturity were highly prolific layers, each pullet averaging 200 eggs 

 and over during the first twelve months, as against about 130 from the 

 pullets of the high pedigree hens, many of whom also died off. In the 

 second year the birds .lid equally well, the number of eggs being main- 

 tained and all being of a good size. 



conclusions, and that a great deal also depends on the condition and en- 

 vironment of the birds— prolificacy being always greatly improved by 

 the birds having a free range, I am myself firmly convinced that such 

 mating makes for the production of best layers. All my experiments 

 were, of course, carried out under the same conditions in each case, the 

 birds being kept in runs of 20 yards by 10, on well-drained, sandy soil, 



that adopted in the recent laying competitions. 



It is evident that Mr. Steane's experience was exactly 

 parallel to the results of the present writer's investiga- 

 tions reported in earlier papers. High producing females 

 did not transmit that quality directly to their daughters. 

 The character is sex-linked. 



The only point of difference is that noted in the second 



