Thirty-seven layer performance tests have been conducted at North Carolina StateUniversity during the past 53 years. Originally established as the NorthCarolina Random Sample Layer Test (NCRSLT), all of the test flocks have beenhatched and housed at the Poultry Unit of the North Carolina Department ofAgriculture and Consumer Service's Piedmont Research Station at Salisbury, NorthCarolina. In 1988, the NCRSLT name was changed to the North Carolina LayerPerformance and Management Test (NCLP&MT) reflecting changes in thetesting procedures to include the evaluation of management practices used bycommercial egg producers. Strain testing and evaluating the relative eggproduction of commercially available egg production stocks began in 1911, andthe number of such Random Sample Tests in North America peaked at 23 inapproximately 1968. The mission for the NCRSLT to provide an unbiased evaluationof the overall performance of strains, evolved to include the effects of varioushousing and husbandry practices on the performance of the genetic stocks enteredinto the test. Test results have been distributed to the industry throughout theUSA as well as to producers in 22 other countries throughout the world. Inaddition, the internet site for the NCLP&MT http://poultry.ces.ncsu.edu/layer-performance/ allows thedistribution of the results to many other interested university and governmentofficials. This review of the first 37 North Carolina layer tests showscontinuing improvements in egg production, reduction in body weight and feedconsumption, increases in egg weight and feed conversion, improvements inliveability, and an improvement in egg quality from the commercially availablewhite and brown egg strains. These changes have continued throughout the 50+year history of the tests, and the changes observed have been brought aboutprimarily by poultry breeding companies applying quantitative genetics for theimprovement of the layer stocks used worldwide.