84 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
favorably commented upon, under the supposition that without him 
there would be no eggs. 
To get some information as to this question of relative egg pro- 
duction, an experiment’ with four pens of pullets was made. Two 
similar lots of cross-bred pullets were used and two similar mixed 
lots of pure bred pullets. With two lots, one of each type, cockerels 
were kept and the other two were kept without any male bird. All 
the pullets used had been separated from males for some months 
befcre laying maturity was reached. A cockerel was put with each 
of the two lots of pullets two months before any began laying. 
Some pullets in each of the two pens in which no male was kept 
began laying about a month before any in the corresponding pens 
with cockerels began to lay. 
Most of the birds were of Asiatic blood and rather persistent sit- 
ters. The broody hens were not given any special discouragement, 
and there were about the same number on the average in the con- 
trasted pens. Of the cross-bred pullets the lot without a male laid 
better for the whole time that record was kept (about nine months) 
and also during the best part of the season. Of the other lots 
(Minorcas and Brahmas in each) the one without a male laid best 
during the first few months, but fell behind the other lot later on; 
so that the total production per laying hen was somewhat less, 
though the product per fowl was about alike for the contrasted lots. 
It was thought that this falling off might be partly due to the devel- 
opment of the feather-eating vice in the one closely confined lot and 
the treatment necessary to suppress it. 
On the average for the whole time nearly 11 per ct. more eggs 
were obtained from the two lots without males than from the other 
two lots. During the best part of the laying season, for a period 
of 112 days, from the pens in which cockerels were kept eggs 
were obtained at the rate of one pound for every 4.2 pounds of 
dry matter in the food, and from the contrasted pens at the rate of 
one pound of eggs for every 3.9 pounds of dry matter in the food. 
Records as to food and product for the greater part of a year 
showed the best average result from the hens kept without males, 
indicating, so far as the one trial could, that there was no advan- 
tage in egg production derived from keeping a male bird. Besides 
the expense of feeding the useless cockerels, fewer eggs per hen 
were obtained. 
™ Bul. 373-also: ing Rpt 13 2270-282 (eon): 
