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traps. Only one duck can obtain admission to each pen or nest, and as the birds are plainly marked with distinctive rings very little handling is necessary.

Several other public laying trials were being conducted in 1921 in various parts of the United Kingdom: at Burnley, Lancashire, by the Northern Poultry Society ; at Newport, Salop, by the Harper Adams Agricultural College; at Wye, Kent, by the South Eastern Agricultural College; at Birmingham by the Midland Fur and

at too high a cost in other directions and that high resistance to disease, low chicken mortality, and reasonably sized eggs are also matters of considerable importance.

The type of bird bred by the- breeder of pedigree layers has drifted further and further away from the standard set up by the specialist exhibition clubs. So much is this so, that in the case of several breeds, particularly White Leghorns and White Wyan-

The gross production and general averages, etc years. The Championship Section was instituted in

TABLE 3

, of the National Utility Poultry Society's twelve-month competitions during eight 1918-19, and each pen consisted of 10 pullets instead of 5 as in the ordinary section.

Total No. of Pullets Entered

Per Cent White Wyan- dottes

Per Cent White Leg- horns

Total Eggs laid

Per Cent

Grades of Eggs

Total Average per Pullet

Per Cent Pullets laying over under

Best Pens Aver- age per Bird

Worst Pens Aver- age per Bird

Food cost per bird

s. d.

1st

2nd

200

140

1912-13

I9I3-I4 1915-16 1916-17 1917-18 1918-19 1919-20
 * I9I4-I5

600 300 300 600 354 575 720 1,440

33 48 30 29

3<> 32 31

30

18 IS 38 29 3 41 48 30

9I,"5 56,184 50,562 98,898 52,438 84.477 112,162

231,777

76-4 90-2 87-4

65-5 58-8

75-4 84-4

78-6

23-5 9-7 12-5 31-5 41-2 24-6 13-6

21-2

'5'-9 187-2 168-5 164-0 148-1 142-2 155-7 163-3

15 43 '9 24 8-4

IQ-I

40 17

21 26 42

2S-62

231 223

212 252 249 233 204 207

87

102 124

78^ 8 9

63 Si

72 1

7 ii 7 oj 8 loj II 6

Not Reported

Ten months only. Championship Section

1918-19 1919-20

IOO

1 20

3

33-3'?

'/

58-3

18,209 22.320

87-1

7.V3

H-9

26-7

182-0

188-8

28-0

47-5

I4-0 H-I

203 215

171 184

Feather Federation ; at Trowbridge by the Wiltshire County Council ; and in Ireland at Cork by the Irish Department of Agriculture. In the case of the trials at Newport, Wye and Trowbridge, financial assistance to the work is given by the Ministry of Agriculture.

As a brief indication of the results obtained at a few of the laying competitions the accompanying tables are instructive. (Tables 3 and 4 have been compiled by Mr. H. E. Ivatts, late Hon. Sec. of the National Laying Trials.)

Up to the 1916-17 competition awards were granted upon the basis of the market value of the eggs laid with a varying discount penalty up to 20% upon eggs weighing less than 2 ounces. Subse- quent to 1916-17 the competitive value of a hen's production was determined in accordance with the following rule: . " For the purpose of the test the eggs laid by each hen will be assessed and recorded according to their weight as first or second grade eggs. First grade eggs shall be those weighing two ounces or more. Second grade eggs during the first ten weeks shall be those weighing less than 2 ounces but not less than if ounces, and for the subsequent period of the test not less than I J- ounces. Second grade eggs shall be accepted as of equal value to first grade eggs, but not more than 100 egs shall be credited to the score of any hen in Sec- tions I to 5, and in the case of Section 6 (Championship) 200 eggs."

The 1915-16 trials held by the Utility Society have a special Interest, as 42 of the competitors 1 pens were retained for a second year in order to ascertain the yield of these birds for their second year. Table 4 shows the results obtained.

The stimulus given by laying trials to the breeding of highly fecund strains of poultry has been enormous. Not only has the spirit of competition set up by the trials urged breeders to devote much time and thought and energy to their breeding operations, but the fact that a win in a .public competition is of great value as an ad- vertisement led to the keenest efforts being made by competitors to obtain a high position in the prize list. It is perhaps not too much to Bay that success in the trials has been in several cases the foundation of many present-day successful stock poultry farms. Ordinary poultry-keepers wishing to buy birds either as a beginning or to improve existing stock apply to a large extent to successful com- petitors in the laying trials, and a considerable foreign demand at highly remunerative prices is not infrequently the direct result of success in the trials. This is certainly a mark of progress in the egg- producing industry as a whole, in the same way that the increasing demand for pedigree milking stock by the dairy farmer is an indica- tion of progress in the dairying industry. A word of caution, however, may not be misplaced. There may be a danger in focussing attention too strongly on the development possibly the abnormal develop- ment of one function, or producing weaknesses in the bird in other directions. There is a certain risk of sterility, high mortality in rear- ing chickens and general lack of constitution in the adult stock. The really skilled breeder will know how to avoid these dangers, but nature is inclined to be severe on attempts to develop abnormal capacity in any one direction. Our knowledge of the laws of heredity is still very incomplete in spite of the considerable amount of empiric knowledge possessed by some of our present-day breeders. No doubt Mendel's discoveries and the investigations made by Bateson, Punnett, Pearl and others may give material assistance to the elucidation of the many problems involved in the inheritance of fecundity, but in the meantime stock breeders and commercial egg farmers would do well to remember that high individual egg yield may possibly be obtained

TABLE 4

Two- Year Egg-Laying Competition at Harper Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Salop, 1915-17. Each pen held 6 birds.

No.

1st Year

2nd Year

2 Years' Total

Score Value

Eggs

Avg.

Eggs

Avg.

Eggs

Avg.

Section i. White Leghorns

l

,353

225

829

138

2,182

363

18 10 7J

2

,265

2IO

720

120

,985

330

16 i 7 i

3

-125

I8 7

745

124

,870

3"

15 17 2j

4

,196

199

686

114

,882

313

15 12 IOJ

5

,092

182

811

135

,93

37

15 12 7i

6

,261

2IO

619

103

,880

313

15 7 2j

7

,225

204

655

IO9

,880

313

IS 3 7l

8

,118

186

665

no

,783

296

14 6 74

9

,003

167

688

114

,691

281

14 o i

10

948

158

679

"3

,627

271

12 19

ii

,091

181

53

84

-594

265

12 17 7%

12

,087

181

452

75

-539

256

ii 18 ij

13

,449

241

837

139

2,286

380

19 2 44

14

,086

181

658

109

i,744

290

14 6 n|

Section 2. White Wyandotles

IS

,068

178

933

155

2,001

333

i7 9 8J

16

,177

196

755

125

i,93 2

321

17 o 7J

17

968

K.I

823

137

I-79I

298

15 3 6J

18

,071

178

707

117

1,778

295

H 19 5

19

,042

173

706

H7

1,748

290

14 IO 2j

20

997

1 66

722

1 20

i,7i9

286

H 4 7J

21

938

156

706

"7

1,644

273

H 3 o

22

95

ISO

719

119

1,624

269

13 8 9 5

23

949

158

549

91

1,498

249

12 10 5}

24

,513

252

809

134

2,322

386

19 10 9

25

,169

194

846

141

2,015

335

17 8 8]

26

,109

184

841

140

1,95

324

17 3 Hi

27

,210

201

798

133

2,008

334

17 2 si

28

,168

194

604

IOO

1,772

294

15 ii 10

29

,093

182

733

122

1,826

34

.15 I0 4

Section 3. Buff Plymouth Rocks Rhode Island Reds, White Orpingtons, Buff Orpingtons

Barred Plymouth Rocks

30

899

149

896

149

1,795

298

i5 9 6*

31

777

129

811

135

1,588

264

13 ii 9i

32

1,000

1 66

534

8 9

1,534

255

13 i 7i

33

1,084

1 80

465

77

1-549

257

13 o o|

34

1,029

171

559

93

1,588

264

12 13 4

35

751

125

574

95

1,325

220

10 19 3i

36

977

162

285

47

1,262

209

10 14 6}

37

773

129

372

62

I.I45

191

9 9 o|

38

732

122

388

66

1,120

188

8 18 i|

39

471

78

455

75

926

153

7 5 i*

Section 4. Light and Red Sussex

40

915

152

752

125

1,667

277

13 19 8|

41

988

I6 4

631

105

1,619

269

13 I2 5l

42

892

148

623

103

i,5i5

251

13 i Si