THE POVLTRY AXD EGG INDUSTRY IN EUROPE 
13 
EGG-LAYING CONTESTS 
Egg-laying contests are carried on under Government auspices in 
the British Isles, France, Denmark, and Austria (fig. 7). England 
has egg-laving contests for ducks which have attracted wide atten- 
tion, because of the large individual egg production obtained. 
Ducks producing 300 eggs a year are fairly common. The combi- 
nation of egg-laying contests and breeding centers for production 
of high-producing stock seems to be the most practical and least 
costhv way of improving the production of the breeds. Centers for 
the breeding of strains of fowl of large productivity are most exten- 
sive in Denmark. They are operated by private individuals under 
Government supervision. All hens in these establishments are trap 
nested and carefully mated. The eggs for hatching and stock for 
4 ■■ - 
Fig. 
-Scene of egg-laying contest at Wettelschopf, Vienna, Austria 
breeding purposes are sold at reasonable prices, as determined by the 
Government. Each breeding center has but one variety of poultry, 
those most generally kept being Brown Leghorns, White Leghorns, 
and Barred Plymouth Rocks. The number of breeding birds kept 
at each center varies from 200 to 400. 
COMMERCIAL HANDLING AND MARKETING OF POULTRY 
There are practically no large poultry and egg farms in Europe 
nor any centers where eggs are produced in such large quantities as 
in some points on the eastern and western coasts of the United States. 
Only a small number of poultry is kept by the farmer: and. because 
it is hugely kept in the villages, the method of gathering eggs from 
the farm varies somewhat from that existing in the middle western 
and southern portions of the United State's. In those sections of 
