1914 . 
©7 
THE WORLD’S CHAMPION HEN. 
Poultry-work in Oregon. 
[We have made several references to a hen at the 
Oregon Experiment Station with a record of 303 eggs 
in one year. Now we can show at Fig 24 a good 
picture of the hen, with comments by Prof. James 
Dry den. We understand that this hen is what you 
may call line-bred cross of White Leghorn and White 
I*. Rock.] 
We have a number of egg records, both in¬ 
dividual records and yard averages, 
that are very encouraging. Hen 
C543 laid 201 eggs in 12 months of 
laying. lien C521, Fig. 24, a flock 
mate, finished with a record of 303 
eggs, both of them, I believe, being 
world records. There may be better 
hens, but there are no authentic 
records telling us what they are that 
I know of. These two high records 
show something of the great possi¬ 
bilities of the hen. but the most en¬ 
couraging thing is that there are other 
records to back them up. These two 
hens were bred from 200-egg hens and 
their sires are from 200-egg hens, and 
that is the most noteworthy thing 
about their performance. In the con¬ 
test at Storrs, Conn., out of some 500 
hens selected by different breeders in 
different sections of the United States, 
Canada and England, one laid 282 eggs 
and it is interesting to learn that the 
record hens at Storrs, as well as at 
Missouri, were produced by one man 
in England, who has been trap-nest¬ 
ing his flock and selecting his breeding 
stock on the basis of his trap-nesting 
records. I am not informed that any 
other pens entered in those competi¬ 
tions were from trap-nested layers or 
had individual pedigrees showing high 
laying ancestry. Taken in connection 
with our Station records here, this is 
strong evidence of the utility of the 
trap-nest. 
All the high record hens we have 
here have been developed at the Sta¬ 
tion from an original stock purchased 
from poultry breeders in different 
parts of this State six years ago, and in 
a flock of 40 this year we secured the 
two world champions; five of the 40 
averaged 280 eggs each; five sisters, 
including C521, averaged better than 
247 eggs each, and 20 of the 40 went 
over 200 eggs; the average for the 
whole flock being about 210. Every 
one of them was from a hen that laid 
over 200 eggs and from a sire from a 
200-egg hen. It has been common re¬ 
port heretofore that all great records 
were made by hens that came from 
average layers. The results of the 
nine years’ very noteworthy work of 
Prof. Gowell at the Maine Station, 
showed that their heavy layers did 
not have an ancestry of heavy layers. 
While we have had heavy layers from 
average or medium layers, our high 
records are all from high record hens. 
We have no high records from poor 
producers. When our records are all 
tabulated and published I think they 
will offer much encouragement to the 
poultry breeder. 
I believe the value of the trap-nest, 
or in other words the importance of 
individual selection in poultry breed¬ 
ing, has not been emphasized enough 
or appreciated at its real value. When 
it is considered with what rapidity a 
flock of hens is reproduced, the pos¬ 
sibilities that open up in the way of 
rapid increase in poultry production 
are surely great. The trap-nest will, I 
believe, do as much for the world in 
the way of increasing food production 
as the Babcock test has done. Both 
emphasize the value of the individual 
and minimize the importance of breed. 
Bather it is a question of breeding 
than of breed. Where would the dairy 
industry have been, or any other live¬ 
stock industry, if breeding had been based on the 
average of the herd rather than on the individual? 
Another thing that must be considered if we are 
to make rapid progress in breeding for eggs, is the 
futility of breeding for a great many points that 
have no connection or correlation with egg-laying 
qualities. We all believe in beautiful fowls, that is. 
THK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
we like to see beautiful chickens, but we can have 
beauty without insisting on points that are not 
necessary from a standpoint of beauty nor desira¬ 
ble from the standpoint of utility. We" can't expect 
to make progress in breeding for eggs if we are 
to follow a standard in our breeding that insists 
on 20 or 50 points of no value except in the show. 
If we do it will mean that it will take 100 or 1,000 
A FAITHFUL HIRED MAN. 
A Fine Record in Fruit Culture. 
John Hill was born in Charles Co., Maryland, 
in 1839. He served through the Civil War in the 
Eighth Maryland Regiment. At the close of the 
war, in 1865, he came North in a carload of colored 
people brought North by Albert Barnes. He worked 
on the farms of Western New York. 
He worked for Mr. Barnes several 
years, finally moving to Knowlesville, 
N. Y., where he engaged with Otis 
Lewis, and afterwards with Harry 
Frost, in the same neighborhood. 
From here he engaged with Mr. 
T. Backer, Medina, N. Y., and after¬ 
wards with .T. E. Allis, Medina. N. Y., 
where he has been 27 years—48 years 
with five men, a pretty good record. 
Mr. Allis says he is one of the best men 
he ever had, and has set out more 
fruit trees than any one man in West¬ 
ern New York. Although Mr. Hill is 
now 74 years old he is still on the job 
and does his work well. A model farm¬ 
er and - faithful emplo v °. The picture 
was taken under a Hubbardston apple 
tree set by Mr. Hill 24 years ago on 
the Allis farm. n. e. eaton. 
WORLD’S CHAMPION HEN. 303 EGGS IN ONE YEAR. Fig. 24. 
JOHN HILL, THE FAITHFUL HIRED MAN. Fig. 25. 
years to accomplish in egg production what might 
be accomplished in 10 or 20 years. A profitable 
poultry industry must be built upon a system of 
breeding that encourages rather than retards the 
one essential thing, the improvement of productive 
qualities. This is the one improvement of most vital 
importance to commercial poultry raising. 
CITY BOY AND AGRICULTURE. 
I have been rather interested to read 
how serious a menace the city-bred boy 
is to the efficiency of the agricultural 
college, as voiced by many writers in 
the agricultural press. I cannot un¬ 
derstand why th.e agricultural college 
should be expected to turn out a fin¬ 
ished product any more than the medi¬ 
cal college or the engineering school. 
Everyone seems to recognize that a 
graduate of a medical college must 
spend two years or more as an attend¬ 
ant in a hospital before he can begin to 
practice. No one expects a newly grad¬ 
uated engineer to have any practical 
experience 
I was brought up in Boston. When 
I entered college I had absolutely no 
idea of farming or farm practice. It 
was costing me about five hundred 
dollars per year while at college, to 
say nothing of the time. Was not my 
time at college too valuable to spend in 
learning to milk or pitch hay, or drive 
a team? The faculty had all it could 
do to find time to give me the theoreti¬ 
cal side of farm practice. I had no 
trouble in learning to milk outside of 
school and drew $30 per month while 
doing it. I am now studying in the 
school of practical experience. I was 
graduated from college in 1913, and 
although I do not feel competent to 
manage a six-hundred-acre farm at 
the present time, I am learning fast, 
and I can't see where I would be bet¬ 
ter off in 1915 if I had laboratory work 
in milking cows or cultivating while at 
college. I am sure I could not have 
had as thorough a foundation in agri¬ 
culture if I had devoted some of my 
time at college to getting experience. 
As a city-bred boy, I recognize my 
limitations, and I have set about ac¬ 
quiring practical experience in the only 
place where practical experience can 
be acquired, out on the farms, not in 
the agricultural colleges. Most city 
boys who adopt the profession of agri¬ 
culture recognize, as I do, their limita¬ 
tions, and set about overcoming them. 
The city boys will figure in the future 
development of agriculture. They 
have no local prejudices, or family 
tradition practices to overcome. They 
have as broad a sympathy for farm 
practices as the hundreds of farm-bred 
boys who graduate from agricultural 
colleges, but stay away from the old 
farm. isaac coleman. 
N.-Y.—We are very glad to have this point of 
We would like to ask Mr. Coleman if he would 
R. 
view. 
not now be better off if he had taken his experience at 
practical farming before he went to college? No one 
has questioned the city boy’s right to an agricultural 
education. The only point of the argument is to show 
that actual farm practice is as necessary as class work. 
