58o 



Laying Competitions. 



[OCT., 



successful competitors have obtained a valuable advertisement 

 for their stock is undoubtedly true, but it should be borne in 

 mind that the conditions under which these contests take place 

 are highly artificial. To keep hens for egg-production in lots 

 of four and six would involve heavy expenditure for equip- 

 ment and labour in management, which would be unprofitable 

 upon an ordinary farm. A preferable test would be for twenty 

 or twenty-five hens in each flock. Finally, we have yet to 

 learn what is the permanent effect upon the progeny bred 

 from the heavy layers in these competitions- 



Generally speaking, interest is mainly centred upon the per- 

 formances of the prize-winners, whose records are heralded 

 as of supreme importance. By so doing the true value may 

 be disregarded. Prizes are essential to secure competitors, 

 who are stimulated to enter for the chance of winning these 

 trophies, and for the monetary results which follow from their 

 success. I venture to suggest that the real meaning of laying 

 competitions is not to be found in the results obtained from 

 the prize-winners, but rather in the average production of all 

 the competing birds. It has long been known that in nearly 

 all races of carefully selected hens a few will lay in excess, in 

 some cases largely so, of the racial or strain average, and 

 that probably as many will be correspondingly below. Profit 

 will depend upon the mean in relation to the cost, and 

 it is the raising of that mean which is desired. If we know 

 which are the better layers, and by using them as breeding 

 stock are able to improve the average, that is a real gain. 

 Otherwise the benefit" is not maintained, and it may be non- 

 existent. Experience goes to prove that an animal excessive 

 in any direction as compared with its breed average produces 

 progeny which revert to that average, and frequently fall 

 below it. It is, therefore, the mean upon which attention 

 must be concentrated. 



In spite of the abnormal conditions under which these con- 

 tests are held, we may appreciate their value by careful 

 examination of the total results. Selected pullets from many 

 breeders are brought together, are kept under identical condi- 

 tions, and are fed and managed in the same manner from the 

 time they are received. 



For this purpose I have selected the Utility Poultry Club's 



