iS6 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



Felch's 



Breeding 



Chart. 



the union of own brothers and sisters should be 

 worst of all. Experience proves this to be the 

 case ; and two generations of such mating 

 in succession will generally work conspicuous 

 evil. The union of parent and offspring is 

 much less injurious, the offspring having only 

 half the blood of one parent ; but this, too, 

 must be kept within limits. Other relation- 

 ships may be carried far, provided only that 

 variety be found between the blood of the 

 two individuals mated ; and by bearing this 

 principle in mind a 

 strain may be suc- 

 cessfully established 

 from two individuals 

 alone, and carried on 

 for years without a 

 cross. 



Mr. I. K. Felch, 

 the veteran judge 

 and breeder of 

 America, many years 

 ago published in a 

 little book of his, called 

 Poultry Culture, a 

 kindof chart 

 showing at 

 a glance the 

 main prin- 

 ciple on 

 which this should be 

 done. We have 

 evidence that this 

 chart has actually 

 been of practical 

 benefit to severalwell- 

 known breeders in 

 England, even as then 

 published ; but in 

 some subsequent cor- 

 respondence Mr. 

 Felch very kindly 

 sent us an improved 

 form of it, which we 

 here reproduce, with 

 a little further modi- 

 fication to make its meaning more clear. We 

 suppose the strain to originate in two indi- 

 viduals only, though in the case of fowls, of 

 course, several hens or pullets might be used 

 as one of the units. In that case, however, 

 all should be of the same breeding.* The 

 two original units must, of course, be perfectly 



* It need hardly be pointed out that in this case the scheme 

 may be carried out with less in-breeding at the first stages, as a 

 cockerel might be bred back to an aunt instead of to the mother. 

 But unless the hens or pullets are full sisters, the result will not 

 be the same or have the same certainty. Hence the utility 

 of the recording nest-boxes mentioned farther on. 



F'g- 79- — -^I''. Fetch's Breeding Chart, 



vigorous and healthy, and either unrelated or 

 only distantly related in blood. They should 

 always be from different yards, for it is found 

 that even change of ground has some effect in 

 producing that "different blood" which has so 

 much to do with avoiding constitutional disease. 

 Taking our two original units, then, Mr. Felch's 

 chart shows how they may be bred so as to 

 maintain health and vigour. 



In reading this chart, every dotted line 

 means a female — i.e. a hen or pullet, and every 

 unbroken line a male. 

 Wherever two such 

 lines meet at a point 

 the circle at that point 

 denotes the produce 

 of the mating, bearing 

 a number distinguish- 

 ing it as a group or 

 product ; while the 

 fraction outside the 

 circle denotes the 

 mixture or proportion 

 in that product of the 

 blood of the two 

 original units from 

 which is bred the 

 strain. The first year, 

 for instance, the 

 original pair produce 

 group 2, whose blood 

 is half- and - half of 

 each. The second 

 year the original fe- 

 male, or one of them, 

 is bred to a cockerel 

 from group 2, and 

 the original male to 

 a pullet from group 

 2. Thus are produced 

 groups 3 and 4, each 

 of which possesses 

 three-fourths of the 

 blood of the unit on 

 its own side of the 

 diagram. Here begins 

 the real work of the breeder, since these mates 

 now taken from group 2 must be most care- 

 fully seUctcd to type, according to that " course 

 of selection " which we have already discussed. 

 From the very first all depends upon this, 

 and, of course, the two original units have 

 been chosen with equal care, so far as money 

 and opportunity allowed. The third year a 

 cockerel from group 3 is mated with the 

 original hen to produce group 5, and pullets 

 from group 4 to the original male to produce 

 group 7, all of which possess seven-eighths of 



