Selection for Eg-g Production. 
67 
The cross between a Spanish cock and Light Brahma hens produces a fine large-framed bird, a fair layer 
of good-sized eggs, and possessing moderate table qualifications. The half-bred Spanish-Brahma hens or 
pullets, bred to an Orpington cock, will still further increase the laying powers of the pullets so bred, and the 
edible qualities will again be slightly improved. If the Spanish-Brahma-Orpington pullets are again crossed 
with a Minorca, Andalusian, or Leghorn cock, the laying powers will be strongly encouraged, but the table 
qualities of the birds so bred will be moderate. 
The Leghorn and Andalusian, whether pure or crossed, are extremely hardy, precocious, and very 
prolific in the number of eggs they will lay, and where egg production and eggs alone are the desideratum, 
there are none to equal them. Surroundings and circumstances, even if disadvantageous, have no deterrent 
effect if they are well fed, and it will be found that they are veritable laying machines ; but, on the grounds 
of it being necessary each year to replace a certain number of the laying hens with young pullets, and as the 
cockerels produced are next to worthless for market, though, at the same time, not to be despised for home 
consumption, there is a strong and sound objection to those breeds pure where a fair market price is 
expected to be realised for surplus stock. A certain amount of loss is occasioned each year by this failing, 
which is not compensated for by the number of eggs laid. 
In selecting the breeding stock to produce layers, all these matters must be weighed over thoroughly, 
and the experience gained by many competent authorities points towards the Minorca-Langshan or 
Minorca-Orpington crosses as combining the best of laying capabilities with good size and fair realisable 
table requisites. The Andalusian-Langshan or Andalusian-Orpington crosses also run the former 
closely, and the Leghorn-Plymouth Rock or Leghorn-Wyandotte crosses are good and reliable ones. If the 
half-bred pullets from the Leghorn-Plymouth Rock or Leghorn-Wyandotte are crossed with the Orpington, 
the laying powers will be slightly increased, and the table qualities improved ; and if either the 
Leghorn-Plymouth Rock-Orpington or Leghorn-Wyandotte-Orpington pullets are again crossed with the 
Minorca, the laying capabilities will be still further increased, though the table qualities will show no 
improvement. If the same cross-bred pullets are matched with a Houdan cock, the laying powers will be 
encouraged, and the table qualities strongly augmented. It is possible with the commonest of laying hens, 
by using a cross with the Spanish, Minorca, Leghorn, or Andalusian cocks, and by choosing, for hatching, the 
eggs from the best layers thus produced, to perpetuate a strain of laying fowls whose powers of egg production 
would be little inferior to any one of the pure-bred laying varieties, besides steadily increasing size and 
stamina throughout the whole flock. This can be followed out for an indefinite time, using a pure-bred cock 
of one or other of the varieties each year with good and excellent results ; but it will, at the same time, if 
opportunity offers, pay at once to cross pure-bred birds of the one variety, or, on the other hand, judiciously 
intermingling the laying strains of poultry with those which possess some marketable value for the table, the 
NEXT returns on birds so bred being invariably higher than those that are bred for egg production alone. 
Though, again, after a series of top crossings with various breeds, the stock will necessarily present a mongrel 
appearance, unless the rrosses used are selected with a definite object. 
If this is all thrown aside as being too complicated to carry out to a successful issue, the Leghorn, 
Minorca, or Andalusian, kept pure, will fill the egg basket, if no more. 
In order to secure a regular supply of eggs, it is advantageous to keep pullets and young hens only, as 
they lay a far greater number of eggs the first and second seasons than they do subsequently. This can be 
easily arranged by breeding each year a third of the total number of laying stock kept on the farm, drafting 
out those hens which are finishing their third year, as after that age their days of profitable egg 
PRODUCTION HAVE PASSED, and they must be disposed of if profit in the management of the farm is desired. 
Moreover, it will be necessary, if ultimate success is wished for, that the Poultry Farmer should breed his 
OWN LAYING STOCK. He wiU then be aware of where a leakage is likely to occur, much more so than if he 
bought up the Laying hens or pullets at the beginning, and obtained supplies from outside sources when 
renewals were required. The accommodation required for some half-dozen breeding-pens would not be 
large, and the advantages derivable from breeding the whole of the stock on the spot will be incalculable. 
