Is the Inheritance of Egg Production an Insoluble Problem?

Abstract

Breeding for increased egg production in poultry has been successful in its aim, without however, establishing the laws of its inheritance. It is impossible to devise a set of instructions that could be followed by a poultryman of ordinary intelligence, and which would enable him to proceed step by step in the development of a race of high producers, with the same certainty that a set of instructions could be devised for the production of a race of birds with certain definite morphological characters, such as pea comb, barred plumage color, pigmented skin, silky, frizzled feathers, red earlobes, and grey iris. All that can be done with egg production is to tell a poultryman to use the progeny test, which is good as far as it goes, but does not go far enough. It is perfectly clear that number of eggs alone is not a sufficient basis for procedure. Just …