EXPERIMENTING FOR HIGH SPEED HENS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1548, 18 September 1912, Page 7

EXPERIMENTING FOR HIGH SPEED HENS.

The provisional committee of the International Association of Poultry Instructors and Investigators beean its meetings in London on July 18. The object of the association is to focus experimental ■ work now going on in many countries to discover the be>t breeds of fowls for com; mcreial purposes. Xo fewer than twentyseven countries were represented on the provisional committee, awl the first president is an Englishman. Mr. Ldwurd Brow.n, the poultry expert. It is hoped (says (lie "Dailv Mail ) thai the. London meetings may direct British attention more closely to poultry tannine At present then. 1» nu average oi only about one fowl per acre of culhyiuoil land in England, and (he average laycapacity of British fowls is seventytwo eggs per hen per anmmi. If experiinoiit can evolve i> biped of fowls with double this laying capacity, or lit prrs per bird-and this npprars by no means imlikely-lhe- profits of the poultry keeper will bo nearly doubled. Research work in England has hitherto been somewhat neglected, but it is hoped '«hortlv to found a national poultry institute and grants from the Development Commissioners should encourage its work. Duo of the most notable poultry investigators attending the meetings was Br Unvmond Pearl, cluef biologist of the. Maine experimental station in the, United Stales He is trving to determine what bens' of special 'e-g-laying capacity can transmit (hat power to their oft spring. Hitherto this question of hereditary solection has baffled experts, Another ex-periinent-first announced in tho Daily Mai i"_ w l l icb is being earned on at lainbridge University mid is attracting: much attention, is directed to finding the best ~vio obtain brown-shelled ww from nnn-?itting hens Tip to now t "»«"'"- Mmtion of »ood qualities has been reSo™ as impossible. Eiwlishmen, for soino strange reason, prefer n brownenelled «■". and .1 breed of a cross between Hie black Minorca and the white Orpington is found to produce the hnst results in meoling I his taste. , . Mnnv Australian experts have given a er'ent ileal of oUcntioii to commercial eg" Production, and hens have been produced iTte Commonwealth which lay as many as 210 pk< in a year, winch may be reRflrded as an ideiil maximum. v