PEDIGREE BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION. 
Colony Houses in the Woods, Lakewood Farm. 
known great layers. A recent bulletin of that 
station says:— 
“In 1898 trap nests were devised and placed 
in all of the breeding pens. This was done so 
that the producing capacities of hens could be 
known, and selections for breeding could be 
made upon merit alone. 
“It is known that the laws of inheritance and 
transmission are as true with birds as with 
cattle, sheep and horses, and when we consider 
the wonderful advance in egg production that 
the hen has made during her domestication, 
there is ample reason for assuming that a higher 
average production than the present can be 
secured by breeding only to those birds that 
are themselves large producers. It has been 
found in our practice with the trap nest, that 
with the most careful selection we could make 
when estimating the capacities for egg yielding, 
by the types and forms of birds, that we were 
still including in our breeding pens hens that 
were small workers.” 
Of the results of that trap nest work the 
bulletin says:— 
“Of the four that laid over 200 eggs during 
the first 12 months after commencing, No. 4 
laid 201 eggs the first year, 140 the second and 
130 the third year, and she is now on her fourth 
year’s work. No. 14 laid 208 eggs the first year, 
141 the second year and 28 the third year. She 
molted in July, 1900, and met with an accident 
in August which came very near ending her exist¬ 
ence, but her great vitality enabled her to rally 
and she shed her feathers again, completely, 
and grew a second suit that season. She did not 
begin laying again until the following March 
when she laid 28 eggs by the close of May. At 
molting time in June she died. She was an 
upheaded, strong hen, and the first one to give 
us over 200 eggs in one year. No. 101 laid 201 
large brown eggs the first year; 30 the second 
year and 63 the third year. She is now on her 
fourth year’s work. No. 266 was a late hatched 
pullet and did not commence laying until 
February 12, 1899. In a year forward from 
that date she laid 206 eggs. In the first year, 
commencing November 1, 1899, she laid 191 
eggs, with 157 during the second, and 138 in 
her third year. When three and a half years 
old she died suddenly, having laid 119 eggs 
during the last 160 days she lived. 
“ With many poultry keepers and farmers the 
idea is prevalent that if a hen lay but few eggs 
the first year she is likely to do better the second 
year than though she laid well during the first 
year. The data so far secured does not show 
that hens that laid 120 eggs or less the first year 
yield satisfactorily the second year. Those 
that yielded in the vicinity of a hundred or less 
the first year yielded very light the second 
year. On the other hand many of those that 
yielded from 130 to 200 or over during the first 
year laid cpiite well the second year.” * * * 
“During the three years in which we have 
been selecting breeding stock by use of the trap 
nests we have found 30 hens that laid between 
200 and 251 eggs each in a year. Twenty-six 
of them are now in our breeding pens and con- 
35 
