The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-10-04
The Importance of the Egg Record

Nearly all who raise poultry raise them
for profit, and the pleasure derived from
their beauty may be regarded as sec
oDdary consideration. 1t is proper to
recognize standard of beauty in each
breed and encourage the nearest APP
proach to it, but usefulness should also
be recognized, and some method should
be adopted to stimulate the breeding of
our fowls up to the highest point Of profit,
The method of awarding premiums ac-
cording to performances has developed the
modern dairy COW, aud the world re-
nOWned American trotter. The same
method would doubtless develOpe the
egg-laying qualities of poultry. Theeggs
laid during a full year after the fowl be-
gan to lay should be cOnsidered, butnum-
her alone is not the only desideratum.
The sooner the puIlet begins to lay the
quicker the return. The greater the pro-
portion of the egg crop gathered in win
ter when eggs are high, the greater the
profit.
AS most pulIets, if we'll treated are lay
ing at eight months old, one year might
be added to that time, and the exhibitors
of poultry might keep present certi
fled record showing when their fowls were
Matched, when they commenced to lay,
and how many eggs they laid each month
until they were twenty months old.
j Judges OF poultry could estimate the
average value OF fresh eggs during each
month in preceding year, aud by those
prices reckon the value,.Uf the eggs laid
each month asshOWn by the record; those
monthly sums added together would
closely approximate the value OF eggs
laid by each hen during that time. Those
records which excelIed in value might be
credited as many as thirty points in the
scoring, ten might also be given for size
and ten for condition, making fifty points
out of the one hdudred for those useful
qualities, while all the other points usually
considered. which are for appearance only,
might make at their highest no more
than the other fifty. After such system
had been in use year, or mvre, male
fowl might be credited by his dams
record OF egg production. This would
involve the separation and cAIe ful watch
ing of individual fowls, and would Intro
duce the pedigree system into their breed
lug. But without d pedigree showing
performance, and the solt ction of the
most productive for breeding, we can
make but little progress by improving
our fowls as Egg producers.
Each and every variety of pure bred
fowls are recommended as good layers,
and most OF them as good winter layers,
but no reliable evidence is furnished to
prove the recommendation The advice
is to get good males of pure bred stock
to improve the feathered focks. The far
mer, needing the admOnitiOn, selects
from the variety most highly recon-
mended to him, and after one or two
crosses is pursuaded that another variety
is better, aud fort hwith procure of that
breed one ortwo cock rels which heagain
crosses ON his mixed flock for year or
two, when glowing accounts OF some other
breed induces him to make another
change, and yet Others, until his much
crossed flock OF fowls presents every cOn-
ceivabIe variety OF shape and color, and
he is Yet cropping in dat kness for light on
the egg question. Often he dots not
know " hict was his best cross, or whether