HISTORY OF ANCONAS 
15 
The Poultry Division of Iowa State 
College has nearly thirty poultry dem¬ 
onstration farms in half as many coun¬ 
ties, under direction of the County 
Farm Bureau Managers. The breeds 
consist of several flocks of Leghorns, 
Rocks, Reds, and Orpingtons, and one 
flock of Anconas. The December, 1920, 
report showed that 75% of the flocks 
made an egg yield of from 1.3% to 15%, 
and several flocks showed a loss in¬ 
stead of a gain. The Anconas showed 
an egg yield of 17%, and over a 100% 
profit. Pretty good argument for An¬ 
conas for farm flocks. 
In 1914 Prof. A. F. Rolf, in charge 
of Poultry Husbandry at A. & M. Col¬ 
lege, Stillwater, Oklahoma, reported 
that Ancona pullet No. 385, bred and 
owned by the Oklahoma Agricultural 
College, laid her first egg April 27, 
1914, at the age of 107 days. January 
18 of that year she was one of a lot 
of chicks placed in an express car, and 
in three weeks travelled nearly 10,000 
miles, viewed by over 50,000 people, 
in the Demonstration Train. Another 
Ancona pullet laid her first egg May 3, 
at 113 days old. None of the pullets 
of other breeds laid for weeks there¬ 
after. Mr. Rolf never knew of such 
early egg production. 
In the British Columbia, Canada, 
1918 Egg-Laying Contest, the winners 
over all others was a pen of Anconas. 
In the 1920 Egg-Laying Contest at 
the State Agricultural College, Morris- 
ville, New York, Anconas won over all 
other breeds. 
The report for 209 days of the 1920 
Midland Laying Competition, England. 
showed that in the light breeds an An¬ 
cona pullet led with 199 eggs; second, 
a Buff Leghorn, with 186 eggs; third, a 
Black Leghorn, with 152 eggs. 
The University of Arkansas College 
of Agriculture Fayetteville, Ark., con¬ 
ducts an Egg-Laying Contest. Official 
records of the six leading Contests in 
the United States show that egg pro¬ 
duction in the Arkansas Contest is 
above the average of the six contests. 
The official record of S. R. Strout, As¬ 
sistant Professor of Poultry Hus¬ 
bandry, in charge of the Arkansas Con¬ 
test, shows that a pen of ten Anconas 
beat seven pens of seventy other birds 
during the first four months of the 
Seventh Arkansas State Egg-Laying 
Contest. The four months ended at 
the time the issue of The Ancona 
World went to press, from which this 
item was taken. 
In the 1921 Canadian Government 
Egg-Laying Contest for Ontario, N. H. 
Gampp’s Anconas won first prize over 
all other Canadian Contest Pens of a 
score of breeds, for profit over cost of 
feed,— averaging $5.89 profit per hen. 
This pen of Anconas led all other pens 
in the Contest for the year, until the 
last week they lost out by eight eggs. 
Ancona Eggs (2) Compared uuth Leghorn 
Eggs (1) and Orpington Eggs (3) 
