The average for hens of one breed for the whole five years is more enlightening.  For the three most popular Australian breeds, these grand averages are: 

Average      Av.  Wt.  Eggs. 
No.  Hens    Egg Yield    Oz.  Per Doz.

S.C.W.  Leghorns ... 564 175.5 26.4

Black Orpingtons ... 522 166.6 26.1

Silver Wyandottes ... 474 161.1 24.9

These figures are undoubtedly the most trustworthy breed comparisons that have ever been obtained.  When we go into the other breeds, however, with smaller numbers entered, the results show chance variation and become untrustworthy, for illustration:  R.C.  Brown Leghorns, with 42 birds entered, have an average of 176.4.  This does not signify that the R.C.  Browns are better than the S.S.  Whites, for if the Whites were divided by chance into a dozen lots of similar size, some would undoubtedly have surpassed the R.C.  Browns.  As further proof, take the case of the R.C.W.  Leghorns with 36 birds entered and an egg yield of 166.9.  Both breeds are probably a little poorer layers than S.C.  Whites, but luck was with the R.C.  Browns and against the R.C.  Whites.  For a discussion of this principle of the worth of averages from different sized flocks see Chapter XV.

All Leghorns in the tests with 846 birds entered, averaged 170.3 eggs each.  All of the general purpose breeds (Rocks, Wyandottes, Reds and Orpingtons), with 1416 birds entered, averaged 160.2.  The comparison between the Leghorns and the general purpose fowls as classes is undoubtedly a fair one.  A study of the relations between the leading breeds in these groups and the general average of these groups is worth while.  It bears out the writer’s statement that the best fowls of a group or breed are to be found in the popular variety of that breed.  The Australian poultryman, wanting utility only, would do wise to choose out of the three great Australian breeds here mentioned.  The S.C.W.  Leghorn is the only one of the three breeds to which the advice would apply in America.  Barred Rocks and perhaps White Wyandottes, would here represent the other types.

There is one more point in the Australian records worthy of especial mention.  The winning pen in 1906 were Black Langshans and, what seems still more remarkable, were daughters of birds purchased from the original home of Langshans in North China.  Other pens of Langshans in the test failed to make remarkable records, but this pen of Chinese stock, with a record of 246 5-6* eggs per hen for the first year and 414 1-2* eggs per hen for two years, is the world’s record layers beyond all quibble.  This record is held by a breed and a region in which we would not expect to find great layers.

This holding of the record by a breed hitherto not considered a laying type, would be comparable to a tenderfoot bagging the pots in an Arizona gambling den.  If the latter incident should occur and be heralded in the papers it would be no proof that it would pay another Eastern youth to rush out to Arizona.  It is probable that the man who, on the strength of this single record, stocks an egg farm with imported Chinese Langshans, will fare as the second tenderfoot.