L57 
were 1 1 n ii shown at the winter show of the Rhode Island Poultry Association. In 
L895 this work was made even more extensive and a greater variation in cross con- 
ducted. A aumber of birds were kept and fed onder uniform conditions, and again 
another exhibit of dressed young geese was made at the Rhode [aland poultry show. 
In 1896 the chief work of the poultry division of the station was given to the breed- 
ing of pure and cross-bred geese, numbering in all 21 birds. Records were kept of 
the egg-laying qualities of African, Embden, Brown China, White China, and Tou- 
louse geeae. The records of growth were kept on 221 goslings that were reared to 
maturity, weights being obtained at 5, 8, and lo weeks of age, and representatives of 
the various crosses photographed. 
The 1897 report of this station contains a contribution of 205 pages, which is devoted 
to the geese-breeding experiments. It contains numerous handsome half-tone illus- 
trations of pure and cross-bred geese, and gives considerable of a practical nature as 
well as much detail concerning the breeding experiments of both L896and 1897. 
In 1897 there were 21 pens of various types of geese. Early in January each _ 
was weighed. Records of egg production were then kept during the year from not 
only the pure bred, but also cross breds, and the weights of eggs of each pen recorded, 
including largest, smallest, and average. Records of this sort in fact were continued 
for two years. A special investigation of interest included a study of the effect of 
incubation on goose eggs, these being weighed during incubation, and a record 
of weight of the hatched goslings also being included. A record was also made 
showing the relative fertility of eggs produced by the different matings of geese in 
1897. The general growth of the goslings from each cross was again recorded this 
year, though the experiment was not of so long a duration. Some of the birds were 
killed and sent to commission merchants, once in August and again in September, 
and estimates were placed on their quality by these judges. Thirteen dressed goslings 
exhibited at the Rhode Island poultry show were afterwards sent to Brown Univer- 
sity, where Professor Bumpus dissected them, and made a study of and a report upon 
the percentage of drawn to dressed weight, weight of solid meat, skin and fat, bones, 
offal, and feathers, blood, etc. 
Besides the general study of the pure and cross-bred geese as a matter of develop- 
ment and productivity, two subjects in a somewhat different field also received atten- 
tion, viz, the influence of one white parent on cross-breeding geese, and the influence 
of Toulouse blood in the production of goslings with yellow bills. 
This work of the Rhode Island Station represents methodical and systematic effort 
and is a valuable contribution to the literature of breeding. The various records, 
notes, and illustrations will serve for valuable use no doubt .at this station as well as 
by others interested in the study of breeding. While these investigations had mainly 
a practical aim on the part of those conducting them, they contain evidence that some 
day will perhaps be used in still other phases of a study of breeding. 
The methods of investigation which I have referred to up to this point relate first, 
to the records of men engaged in practical stock growing, having special breeding 
problems in mind, and second, to a limited extent, to the work of the scientific inves- 
tigator of the principles of breeding. 
There is also another class of investigators, rather limited in number, who in com- 
paratively recent years have taken up evolutionary and biological study on the basis 
of statistical consideration, or by quantitative method, wherein mathematics are 
introduced to assist in reducing error to the smallest degree. It is assumed that there 
is no such thing ad chance either in life or death, and that all things in nature occur 
with more or less regularity. If a copper be flipped in the air a thousand times. 
while we do not know how' it will turn at an individual throw, we do know that 
experiment lias shown that it will turn face up about 500 times and tail up about the 
same. We may go further and take the dice example given by Pearson. Twelve 
dice were thrown together 28,306 times, and on each occasion the number of dice 
having 5 or6pips on their upper faces was recorded. The most frequent occurrence — 
6,100 odd times — is 4 fives and sixes in the throw of 12 dice. This occurrence, which 
happens not necer-sarily a majority of times, but more frequently than any other, is 
termed the "mode." If different sets of counts are made, these will group into 
various classes, and the proportion of individuals falling into a class gives what is 
known as the "frequency" of the class. The "mode" in this case is the 4 dice in 
the 12 thrown with 5 or 6 pips. 
Studying the throwing by diagram, it is shown that there is a system of frequency 
which in a measure; forms a polygon, and which conveys a notion of law and regu- 
larity in chance distributions. This same thing is shown to apply to drawing counters 
or cards and to tossing coins. If the records of numbers op measurements are taken 
«The Chances of Death, etc., 1897, p. 11. 
