Year Hens in Flock Per Hen Egg Yield 1900 20 8. sq. ft. 136.36 1901 20 8. sq. ft. 143.44 1902 20 8. sq. ft. 155.58 1903 20 8. sq. ft. 135.42 1904 50 4.4 sq. ft. 117.90 1905 50 4.4 sq. ft. 134.07 1906 50 4.4 sq. ft. 140.14 1907 50 4.4 sq. ft. 113.24

Certainly this oversight is a serious one, and one especially remarkable considering the fact that the comparison of different size flocks formed a prominent part of the Maine Station work during the last three years of the breeding test.  The results of the work at the Maine Station on testing flock size, conducted without relation to the breeding work, gave the following results: 

No. of Hens     Sq. ft. per Hen    Egg Yield
150                  3.2            111.68
100                  4.8            123.21
50                  4.8            129.69

No comparisons of 50 and 20 bird flocks in the same year are available, but by extending the comparisons of the 50, 100 and 150 flocks into the 20 flock size, we can get some idea of the error that has been here introduced.  The result of the Australian egg laying contest in which the flocks were composed of six hens, shows a yield of about one and one-half times as heavy as the Maine records, which certainly seems to substantiate the ideas here brought out.

It is a well established fact in poultry circles that many men who succeed with a few hundred hens, fail when the number is increased to as many thousands.  When the breeding experiments under discussion were started, Professor Gowell had under his supervision about three hundred hens.  When the work was closed the experiment station plant had been increased to four or five times its capacity, and Professor Gowell had a large private poultry plant of his own in addition.

It is interesting to note in this connection that the last four years of the records are explained by Professor Gowell as being low, due to various “accidents” (?) It is unreasonable to suppose the true explanation of these “accidents” would be found in connection with the increased responsibility and size of the plant.

The breeding stock sent out by Professor Gowell has given general satisfaction, and was found by Professor Graham of the Ontario Station, as well as by a number of private individuals, to be of superior laying quality to that of the average Barred Rock.

Clearly there is only one way to prove whether Professor Gowell’s work has been a wasted effort, and that is for flocks of his strain to be tested at other experiment stations against birds of miscellaneous origin.

That much has been lost to the poultrymen of the country by the recent upheaval at the Maine Station, I believe to be the case, but that does not mean that the men now in charge will not in the future be of great value to the poultry interests.  They are, however, in the class of pure scientists rather than applied scientists, but if let alone they will dig out something sooner or later which they or others can apply to the benefit of the industry.