530 



Winter Egg Production. 



[dec, 



evidence which has been gathered from the experience of prac- 

 tical poultry-keepers and from the laying competitions, points to 

 the conclusion that for winter laying the small non-sitting breeds 

 are excelled by the heavy sitting varieties. The non-sitters will 

 lay a greater number of eggs in the course of the year, but the 

 ? general purpose " or sitting breeds are better winter layers. 

 Amongst the most popular of these breeds may be mentioned 

 the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, Orpington, Faverolle, and 

 Langshan, and when kept under favourable conditions, fowls of 

 any one of these breeds can be depended upon for a regular 

 supply of winter eggs. 



Strain. — The strain of a fowl is of as great importance as the 

 breed, and although this fact is well known to fanciers, who take 

 the greatest pains in building up strains for exhibition purposes, 

 it is unfortunate that practical poultry-keepers in these islands 

 have devoted so little attention to the question of building up 

 strains of specially good layers. The amount of useful work 

 which might be done in this direction, is proved by what has 

 been achieved by the great American egg farmers, who in a 

 very few years have built up strains of hens to lay 200 and 

 even 250 eggs per annum. Experiments which have been 

 made by Prof. G. M. Gowell, of the Maine Experiment 

 Station, with the object of increasing the egg production of hens 

 by breeding from selected layers, show that the average egg 

 yield of hens can be materially increased in four or five years. 

 His experiments, which are still being continued, consist in 

 keeping individual records by the use of " trap-nests " of the 

 laying capabilities of large flocks of hens, selecting the best of 

 these every year and mating them for breeding with cockerels 

 which have been raised in the previous year from pedigree 

 layers. Referring to these experiments, Prof. Gowell says : 

 " The plans on which we are working are based on everyday 

 common-sense. We are simply rejecting the drones, and breed- 

 ing producers together to secure producers. It is known that 

 the laws of inheritance and transmission are as true with birds 

 as with cattle, sheep, and horses, and when we consider the 

 wonderful changes that have been made in the form, feather, 

 and egg production of hens since their domestication com- 

 menced, there is ample room for assuming that a higher average 



