204 



I propose to set down a synopsis of what scientific men to- 

 day have discovered and believe to be a true law of breeding. 



If the practical breeder will listen to the teachings of scien- 

 tific breeders for more than forty years past, he will find a 

 great light let into his groping task of establishing a new 

 variety of plant or animal. This aid would apply to the poul- 

 try man as well as to all other breeders. 



I have read many works and papers on poultry and how to 

 breed them, but I have not yet seen therein any reference to 

 Mendel's Law of Breeding. This law is now generally re- 

 ceived by the most learned investigators to be established as 

 a fact. 



ABBOT ^[ENDEL. 



Abbot Mendel was an Augustinian Monk of Brunn in Aus- 

 tria who conducted extensive experiments with cultivating 

 peas in his monastery. He published the result of his experi- 

 ences in two modest papers about forty years ago, but his 

 work attracted little attention, probably because of the scien- 

 tific excitement over the discussion of the Darwinian Theory 

 of the Origin of Species through natural selection. In 1901 

 De Vries in Holland, Correns in Germany, Tschermak in Aus- 

 tria and Speelman in America, rediscovered the same princi- 

 ples of heredity independently, which are now known as "Men- 

 del's Law." Dr. Castle and others have conducted extensive 

 experiments with guinea pigs and white mice which have re- 

 sulted in a demonstration of the truth of the law. I quote on 

 this subject from a work by Metcalf on Organic Evolution, 

 page 44 : 



castle's experiment with mice. 



"Castle bred white mice an<l common gray mice together 

 and got the following results : The offspring developed from 

 the first cross were ail apparently normal gray mice- When, 

 however, a male and female from this first lot of young Avere 

 bred together very interesting results were obtained. Three- 

 fourths of the young of this second lot appeared to be normal' 

 gray mice, but one-fourth were found to be pure zvhite mice. 

 If two of these white mice were bred together they had white 

 offspring, and the same was true in breeding again from their 

 3^oung, generation after generation, showing that they were 

 of pure strain without admixture from the gray variet}^ though 

 the original parents in the first cross were one gray and one 

 white. 



"It is of great interest to note that, in spite of the crossing 

 of the two varieties, there appeared in the later generations 

 certain individuals which were of pure blood showing no trace 



