THE jHAWAIIAN 



rOR£8T£R I AGRICULTURIST 



Vol. IV JULY, 1907 No. 7 



MENDEL'S LAW OF BREEDING. 



An Address Before the Hawaiian Poultry Association by 

 Philip L. Weaver. 



For many years breeders of horses, poultry and pet stock, 

 florists and expert gardeners have been working with a con- 

 scious basis of the laws of inheritance. Like begets like is a 

 general rule on which they have worked out their standard 

 bred stock. ]\Iany experts have more or less clear ideas of 

 the basis of their success, but often they, had no power to 

 generalize from their expert experience to crystalize their 

 experiences into a rule or law of breeding. They are the so- 

 called '"practical" men who sniff at theory, not knowing that 

 consciously or unconsciously every dealer with the laws of^ 

 nature must act on a theory before he can produce results 

 otherv/ise than by pure accident. 



Especially is this true with illiterate breeders of horses and 

 poultry. Years of experience has taught them how to arrive 

 at results in certain cases, but they can not or will not give out 

 any general rule on Avhich the inexperienced can act with any 

 understanding. I am impressed with the amount of literature 

 published nowadays on the raising of domestic fowls, and out 

 of that literature how little is based on clear thinking applied 

 to the experience of the writer and clearly expressed. 



BREEDING FROM A SPORT. 



We know that the White Plymouth Rock was developed by 

 a lonq* line of breeding from a "sport" of the Barred Plymouth 

 Rock fowl, itself an artificial variety produced by crosses of 

 several existing varieties. We know that by careful breeding 

 the barred color was bred out of the strain until now White 

 Plymouth Rock fowls breed true. When asked how this is 

 done, too often the answer is not definite- The chicken men 

 say "By careful breeding." But, what is careful breeding? 

 Is there some mystery that the uninitiated are not supposed to 

 know? Or is it that the expert himself does not know how 

 to formulate rules of breedincr for others to follow. 



