108 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



apprehension, that, if their fowls are the offspring of pure- 

 blood fowls, they must of necessity be pure, especially if the 

 parent stock have taken some noted premiums. Premium 

 birds do not always produce the best chickens ; and no lot 

 of fowls will prduce a progeny of a dozen or more, all of 

 which will be true to form and color. There is a constant 

 tendency to variation. The proportion of pure chicks may 

 be large or small according as the parents were judiciously 

 mated, or possessed of good constitutions, or to the number 

 of degrees removed from imperfect stock, or from some cross 

 introduced. And here let us say that crosses — sometimes 

 made for the purpose of introducing some improvement in 

 size, shape, or constitutional vigor, possessed by the breed 

 introduced, and then all the other peculiarities of the foreign 

 blood — are bred out again ; but it takes several generations to 

 do this. A breeder, then, to be in any way successful, even 

 if he only breeds for his own use, and to exhibit his poultry, 

 — -should have a " standard of excellence," that he may under- 

 stand the distinctive points of his breed, and know what to 

 breed to. Then he has something of a guide in the selection 

 of his breeding-stock ; but still he needs to exercise thought, 

 sagacity, judgment. 



The cock has the most influence upon the " fancy points ; " 

 while the hen has the most upon the useful qualities. Any 

 feature or peculiarity of constitution may be developed, im- 

 proved, perpetuated, by selecting, year after year, those fowls 

 which have the desired points in the largest degree. In each 

 succeeding generation there will be some fowls possessed of 

 the desired qualities in a greater degree than their parents. 

 If either sex is inferior or defective in any point, it should be 

 compensated for in the other sex. Very good fowls may 

 be produced from ordinary stock in this way. Care should 

 be taken not to make a specialty of any one point to the 

 nesjlect of all others, nor, indeed, of any others that are of 

 importance. Many evidently seek only to produce a good- 

 looking fowl, or, in the large breeds, extra size, having, of 

 course, some of the general characteristics of the breed they 

 claim it to be, while it may have defects which utterly dis- 

 qualify it to be reckoned as a pure-blood fowl. We think the 

 combs and legs are the most liable to be disregarded. 



At this exhibition there were numbers of fowls of other- 



