The Wisdom and Knowledge of Oscar Smart

3riverschick

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Oscar Smart was a highly regarded poultry Biologist near the beginning of the last Century. He was a Brit and considered one of the leading experts in that field in his time. In the U.S.A. his counterpart was Raymond Pearl. Both men disagreed with each other on several points in this field of study. Oscar Smart was especially interested in encouraging and breeding for better egg laying in domestic chickens. He would have been an even brighter star in the poultry world but his health was not good and he died young in 1917.
Oscar wrote for the journal , "Eggs and the intensive world; the official organ of the Intensive Poultry League.". His regular column "Scientific Jottings" was full of useful information for both novice and expert. Written in easy-to-understand prose.
It may take a few days , I am going to input links to his work in this thread. It's basically a bibliographic database of his works with hot links where folk can read it free on-line. I hope you enjoy reading his works as much as I have.
Best Regards,
Karen
 
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Oscar Smart was a highly regarded poultry Biologist near the beginning of the last Century. He was a Brit and considered one of the leading experts in that field in his time. In the U.S.A. his counterpart was Raymond Pearl.
Karen
Thanks, I would appreciate that very dearly, while I find myself agreeing more with Dr. Raymond Pearl on his work(The measurement of the intensity of inbreeding), I would appreciate if you could get Dr. Oscar Smart info to all of us.
 
Remember these writings are over 100 years old. Some breeding advice is timeless. Other advice is archaic, proven wrong, etc. It behooves the reader to sift thru this knowledge for quality info. There are multiple issues with Oscar Smart's column in each volume. He wrote both the "Breeder's Queries" and "Science Jottings" columns.

Best,

karen


Eggs and the intensive world; the official organ of the Intensive Poultry League. v.3 1913

Published 1913

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924070861939;view=1up;seq=2

· Catalog Record

· Full view

Item 4: Eggs and the intensive world; the official organ of the Intensive Poultry League. v.4 1914

Published 1914

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924070861947;view=1up;seq=7

Science Jottings Oscar Smart Page 33 ; Page 47 ; Page 67 ; Page 86 ; Page 110 ;Page 132

There are 52 Science Jotings artivle by Oscar Smart in this volume. One can find them by keyword searching the text in Hathi Trust using the keywords “ Science Jottings Oscar Smart”.



· Catalog Record

· Full view

Eggs and the intensive world; the official organ of the Intensive Poultry League. v.5 1915
Published 1915

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924070861954;view=1up;seq=7

· Catalog Record

· Full view

Item 3: Eggs and the intensive world; the official organ of the Intensive Poultry League. v.6 1916

Published 1916

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924070861954;view=1up;seq=7

· Catalog Record

· Full view

Eggs and the intensive world; the official organ of the Intensive Poultry League. v.7 1917
Published 1917

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924070862036;view=1up;seq=2
Science Jottings
SOME ESSENTIAL EXPERIMENTS.
By Oscar SMART. Page 467

Breeders Queries Oscar Smart Page 603.
Breeders Queries Page 651.

· Catalog Record

· Full view

And his fascinating book:
The inheritance of fecundity in fowls. By Oscar Smart.
by Smart, Oscar.
Published 1921
"WHAT IS FECUNDITY ?

Fecundity means to be fruitful — to bring forth young.
In studying the inheritance of high fecundity, it cannot be
too strongly insisted upon that we are dealing exclusively
with one of the processes of reproduction. It matters not
whether we incubate the egg or eat it, the fact remains that
it was laid in order to produce a chicken — and not to grace
our breakfast table. It follows that in studying the inherit-
ance of fecundity, we are studying the inheritance of the
reproductive power and, as we know, this power is of a
highly variable nature in different individuals even when
of the same parentage, and is subjected to a variety of
different influences. "
 
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I can eventually put all the article page numbers in here if ya'll want. But keyword searching the volumes themselves is probably easier. Oscar wrote for at least 2 other magazines. I will look them up as I can. It's late and time for sleep.
Karen
 
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More than welcome , Marvin. I especially liked the one article about how to start a strain or breed in a small flock. the one with the letters AB AC AD ABD, etc. I wish I had had that info several years ago when I made a breeding mistake. But you can see what I mean about gleaning the good from the obsolete.
BTW, Hubby Bob and I drove to Ohio today (about 4 hours one way) and picked up 18 hatching eggs from descendants of my original Light Sussex flock. i am so excited. They go into the incubator tomorrow eve. I sure hope I get several cockerels. This strain runs heavy to pullets.
Best,
Karen
P.S,
I wonder if this is really true? Lifted this excerpt from a 1919-1920 Poultry mag.
"An interesting experiment is being carried out at present to see how far it is
possible to determine, early in the period of incubation, the sex
of the embryo from the amount of carbon dioxide given off. The
proportion seems to be more than double in the case of cockerels,
but the method is not capable at present of being applied on a
commercial scale."
 
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https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt...rt=1;sz=10;page=root;num=48;size=100;orient=0
The Croad Langshan ("Beauty based upon utility") Embracing
... Hancock, Sardius, ed.
Published by Feathered World (1920?) 93 pages.
Excerpt from Page 48:
"Mr. Oscar Smart, in his "The Inheritance of Fecundity in
Fowls," gives eight points as characteristic of a superior layer,
insisting that the combination of these points, and not the possession
of some of them, is the important thing.
1. Fine comb, long snaky head, and narrow skull.
2. A very red and prominent eye: the more the eye " stands
out " from the head the better.
3. A long body, sloping very gradually towards the tail; the
tail itself being carried almost, but not quite, erect.
4. The breast-bone very short, and the abdomen (which
should be covered with the softest possible down) well
developed.
5. Legs rather above than below the average in length (but
not too long); very fine and extremely pale in colour.
The legs should be set wide apart.
6. Toe-nails extremely short.
7. Pelvis bones wide apart, not less than 2} inches.
8. Cartilage soft.
Mr. Tom Newman's ideas on what characteristics are found in
a good layer are taken from an article of his on " How to Select the

Break, Page 49:
The Croad Langshan Mainly from the Utility Side 49
Best Layers without the Trap-nest," published in the S.P.B.A.
Annual Register of 1919.
"Our first thought must be stamina. . . .
"All coarse-looking and undersized birds should be rejected.
"The good layer is generally of medium size. The eye is
bold and prominent. The comb is fine in texture, of medium
size; avoid a " beefy" comb. The neck short and rather thin.
Beak short, legs short, toe-nails short, breast bone short—the
shorter the better.
"In a poor layer you will not get the width of two fingers
between the pelvic bones and the breast bone.
"In a really first-class layer you will get the width of four
fingers between the pelvic bones and the breast bone.
"A good layer is wide across the cushion and between the
legs. The pelvic bones should be straight, thin and well apart.
The back should be long and wide across the wings, the tail
carried high and the bird tight in feather.
"Most good layers are late moulters and big feeders."
(Some other remarks are added which apply only to yellow-
skinned breeds.)
In the same volume Mr. Joe Edmondson describes the
*' Standard Hen" as having a 9 in. length of back, a 5 in. width of
back, and a 4 in. length of breast-bone, or a proportionate measure-
ment. He goes on to describe the type he favours:
"A long and broad back, wide cushion, the legs well set
apart and not too long, short breast-bone with a good distance
between the breast-bone and pelvic bones, the pelvic bones
should be straight and thin, and very pliable, sharp, bright eye,
the head not too narrow, nor too small, neither must it be coarse,
a strong, short beak, the comb of fine texture and not too large,
the tail carried fairly high, the texture of the bones must be
fine and the size of bird medium—4 lbs. for light breeds and
5 lbs. for the heavier breeds."
On first reading the foregoing the reader will most likely be
struck with the differences from our Standard, but when they are
studied closely, and allowance is made for the fact that they describe
the "laying" type, and for differences due to what we may call
special breed characteristics, there remains little that is not found
in the Croad Langshan Standard, or, for that matter, in the Langshan
Standard of 1877." end quote.
 
Modern poultry keeping. v.4 July-Dec. 1921.
Page 404, November 9th, 1921
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924081082251;view=1up;seq=390
| Genetics of Egg Production. |
|[ By Major C. C. HVRST, J.P. ~_
Major Hurst has kindly sent the following replies
to letters relating to his article which recently
appeared in these columns. (Editor) :—
Live and Leam—Thanks for kind remarks.—It is
not possible to obtain 100 per cent. Double Early
(E E) Double Fast (W W) stock from the mating
of Early (E) Fast (W) pullets with a late (e)
Slow (w) cockerel. It is however possible
to obtain 100 per cent. Single Early (Ee) Single
Fast (W w) stock from that test mating which
would prove the dams to be Double Early (E E)
Double Fast (W W) for if they were not a proportion
of Early Slows (E w) Late Fasts (e W) and Late
Slews (e w) would arise from such a mating. From the
practical point of view it is important to note care-
fully that the pullets incidentally raised in this Test
mating, i.e., Single Early (E e) Single Fast (W w),
will be useful for winter layers, bub useless for the
breeding pens.
For several reasons it is impossible to compare the
L2, LI and Zero categories of the late Mr. Oscar
Smart (1917) either with the L2, LI and Zero
categories of Dr. Pearl (1912) or the E.W. categories of
the writer (1921).
For Smart's categories are somatic, i.e.. based on
external appearances, while both Pearl's and mine are
genetic, i.e.. based on internal breeding factors.
Smart's L2 pullets may be of six possible genetic constitutions, viz.:—
E.E.WW.— Ee WW—ee WW—EE Wvv-R W>
—ee Ww—and, each of the six kinds of L2 pullets
breeds differently.
Smart's LI pullets may be of nine possible genetic constitutions, viz.:—
EE WW—Ee WW—ee WW—EE Ww.—Ee Ww-
ee Ww—-EE ww—Ee.ww—ee ww. each of tie nine
kinds of LI pullets breeds differently (The first -is
of these will, however, be rather rare).
Smart's Zero pullets may be of three possible genetic
constitutions, viz.:—
ee WW,—ee Ww,—ee ww—and each of the three
kinds of Zero pullets give a different breeding
result.

Other cogent and critical points could be presented
, but it is obvious no useful purpose can be served
by comparing the somatic categories of Smart with
the genetic categories of Pearl and the writer.

( above color and bold are mine, Karen)

Wimbedey, pp. 291. Thanks for kind appreciation
of my work. (1) Double Early means that the bird is carrying two doses or a " double dose" of Each Factor (E,) having in fact received one (E) faster
from its sire and one (E) factor from its dam,
making (EE) or Double Early, i.e., a true breeding
Early, because all its germ cells carry the Early (E
factor. Single Early means that the bird is carrying
only one dose or a " single dose " of the early factor
(E) having received this either from its sire or from
its dam, but not from both, the other parent having contributed the alternative Late factor (e) making
it (Ee) or Single Early, i.e., an Early bird that do*.
not breed true to Earliness because, only one-half
of its germ cells carry the Early (E) factor, the other half carrying the Late (e) factor.
For " Double Fast" and " Single Fast" " substitute (W) for (E) above and the same explanation applies.
(2) "End of laying year is the day before" the
anniversary of the first egg laid, or 365 days from
first egg inclusive.
This is important, because if date of cessation of
laying during autumn moult be taken, the influence
of the autumn production factor (M) and its
important alternative (m) could not be determined."
 
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