12 
HISTORY OF ANCONAS 
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Anconas in Laying (Contests 
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Official Egg-Laying Contests are of 
recent origin, and are increasing in 
number and efficiency. Many County, 
State and National associations, col¬ 
leges and experiment stations are now- 
conducting these contests, and much 
valuable information is being made 
available about feeds, housing, care, 
culling, etc., etc. 
These contests are open to all breeds 
and breeders, and have taken the place 
of private contests and records in the 
confidence of the public. If a breeder 
wants to advertise remarkable per¬ 
formances of his birds now-a-days, an 
official record is given credence, 
while private records and extravagant 
claims not substantiated by official 
records are of little significance. 
It’s up to Ancona breeders to supply 
pens of Anconas to these official Lay¬ 
ing Contests, so that the breed may 
be sufficiently represented, along with 
other breeds, to make the tests and 
comparisons fair and equal. Up to 
1923, when this book was published. 
Anconas have only been occasionally 
entered in the official contests, and 
were outnumbered sometimes ten to 
one by other breeds. Under such con¬ 
ditions Anconas have been to a great 
disadvantage, as there have been so 
many more chances for the several 
pens of other breeds to win over a 
single pen, or a very few pens of An¬ 
conas when compared to several times 
as many pens of each contesting breed. 
Nevertheless, with this severe handi¬ 
cap, Anconas have in a great many 
official contests, of national and inter¬ 
national import, won highest honors, 
and give very tangible evidence that 
when the number of pens of Anconas 
equal the number of pens of other 
breeds, (he honors won by Anconas 
will startle the poultry world, and 
prove to everyone that the claims of 
Ancona breeders are unquestionably 
true,—that Anconas lay more eggs, 
larger eggs, and on less feed, than any 
other known breed of fowls. 
During the many years that The An¬ 
cona World magazine has been pub¬ 
lished, scarcely an issue but contains 
a report of Anconas winning over all 
other breeds in one or more of the 
scores of official egg-laying contests 
being conducted in the United States, 
Canada, England, Australia, South 
Africa, Belgium and other lands. These 
Ancona victories have been more fre¬ 
quent of late because Ancona entries 
in the contests have been increasing- 
in number. 
The following extracts are taken 
from different issues of The Ancona. 
World: 
Here are the figures from the official 
Report of the Canadian Egg-Laying 
Contest at Ottowa, Ontario, for 1921, 
of the five hundred hens in the Con¬ 
test: 
Breed 
Aver. Prod. 
Mortality 
Anconao 
164.7 
--- 10% 
Leghorns 
155.3 . 
-- 2l%: 
Orpingtons 
_ 110.3 
--- 35%. 
R. I. Reds 
_ 120.6 _ . 
— 15% 
Plymouth Rocks 
-- 146.1 
— 21% 
Wyndottesi __ 
132.9 
-- 16% 
