PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 
The Incubator Cellar, Lakewood Farm. 
day following. Sometimes the male bird de¬ 
veloped the trick of catching himself in the nest, 
for no apparent reason but his own enjoyment. 
Although it is possible by the use of trap 
nests to determine the number of eggs laid by 
the individual hens, the impracticability of 
their use on a large scale is evident since the 
expense of attending them overbalances, in a 
business sense, the results obtained. In all the 
tests here reported it was found necessary to 
look at the nests during the busy laying season 
at least five times per day, and if a hen had 
laid each time it took considerable more than 
“ one minute a day ” claimed by more than one 
of the inventors, to release the hen and credit 
the egg to her account. 
In looking after twenty pens of about five 
hens each it took on the average of fifteen 
minutes each time, or one and one-fourth 
hours per day. A person keeping about five 
hundred fowls would therefore use about six 
hours a day determining how many eggs each 
hen was laying. This time could often be used 
to better advantage in giving the hens better 
care and in looking after other details. 
We fail to see how any of the devices could 
prevent egg-eating, as was claimed for some of 
them. In all the nests the hen had access to 
the egg after it was laid, and in one or two in¬ 
stances a hen was known to eat the egg. 
To sum up, let us say, except in the cases 
mentioned in the beginning of this report, we 
fail to see that trap nests are of the practical 
value that the several inventors claim for them, 
to say nothing of the prices asked for their 
ideas or the finished article. What will please 
one is likely to prove unsatisfactory to another. 
The poultryman wishing to use trap nests will 
do well to consult with persons already using 
them, and .construct his own to suit his purpose; 
for any one with ingenuity can construct a 
trap nest as good and better than many we 
have seen .—Annual Report , Rhode Island Ag- 
ricultural Experiment Station , 1901. 
Lay Two Hundred Eggs. 
Can we produce hens that will lay two hun¬ 
dred eggs per annum? Without a doubt. How? 
By scientific breeding, as for a good butter 
cow or a great milker; as for a good trotting or 
high jumping horse. Experiments have been 
made to increase the number of rows of corn 
on the cob with success. The same method is 
applicable to poultry breeding. We will start 
with a hen that lays one hundred and twenty 
eggs. Some of her chicks will lay one hundred 
and fifty per year. From these we will pick 
out layers, and so on until two hundred or 
better are the result. At the same time it is 
just as essential to breed our males from pro¬ 
lific layers as it is the females. In fact it is 
more so. If we look after the breeding of the 
females only, we will introduce on the male 
side blood which is lacking in proficiency, and 
thus check every attempt in progress. It is 
just as essential that the male should be from 
a hen which laid one hundred and seventy-five 
eggs and from a male that was bred from a hen 
that laid one hundred and fifty eggs as it is 
that the hen was from one that laid one hun- 
41 
