Convention, July, 1914, described his use of the color of 

 the legs in selecting high egg-producers. Moreover, the 

 Maine Experiment Station, in a circular 5 which has come 

 to our notice since the data in the present paper were ob- 

 tained, advocates a similar use of the leg color in selecting 

 hens for breeding. 



The requirements of the 1 'standard of perfection," 

 which controls judging in the show room, as well as the 

 common practice of poultry breeders, are opposed to a 

 belief in any connection between laying and leg color. 

 Woods, 6 under the title, "Has Leg Color Value Indi- 

 cating Layers?", discusses the subject and concludes: 



Personally we believe that, as a practical guide in the selection of 

 heavy layers or birds from which to breed heavy layers, the leg color, of 

 itself, has no real value. 



He further supports this conclusion by quotations from 

 answers received from several prominent breeders to 

 whom he had addressed a questionnaire on the subject. 



So far as the writers are aware, no published data are 

 available which show in how far the leg color may lie of 

 any value in selecting the laying hen, and such suggestions 

 as have been made in this connection have confined them- 

 selves to a consideration of the legs alone. The results 

 tabulated in the present paper show conclusively, it is 

 believed, that a close connection does in fact exist between 

 the yellow pigmentation in a hen and her previous egg- 

 laying activity. They indicate further that the color of 

 the beak is at least as distinctive as that of the legs here- 

 tofore alone considered in this connection, and that, in the 

 Leghorns, the color of the ear-lobes is perhaps a better 

 criterion of laying activity than either legs or beak and is 

 more readily recorded. 



The hens investigated were in the egg-laying contest 

 located at Storrs, Conn. Pullets enter the contest Novem- 

 ber 1 and remain for one year. They are housed in pens 

 of 10 birds each, are fed the same ration and so far as 



» Circular 499, Maine Agric. Exper. Station. This is listed as an abstract 

 of Bulletin 232. 



