196 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



intensified by line breeding just as surely as the 

 points he is seeking to breed, unless he rigorously 

 discards specimens which manifest them. It is 

 by such signs that he knows when " fresh blood " 

 really may be needed. If health or size is 

 failing, or if some fault persists in appearing, so 

 that he cannot find mates altogether free from 

 it, then he may need a fresh introduction. Here, 

 again, the first produce will probably disappoint 

 him, and it is the second season of his cross, 

 after " breeding back " that produce to his old 

 strain, which gives him the real result of his 

 work. We need only add that in the earlier 

 stages especially, whether of a new strain or 

 after any fresh cross, the more severe he is in 

 rejecting all but such as come up to a yery high 

 standard, the quicker will be his progress, and 

 the higher percentage of really prize-winning 

 stock will he get in the end. 



Every year, of course, the more experienced 

 breeder devotes most painstaking consideration 

 to the mating of his birds for next season. 

 Weeks, or even months, before actual 

 Careiu pairing he begins to think about 



Yearly " what he shall do." He thought- 



Matings. fully scans his best chickens, as 



their good points or their deficiencies 

 become manifest to him ; and if certain pre- 

 dominant fallings are too apparent, he tries to 

 trace out the bird or the mating to which they 

 are due. This tracing back of faults, if possible, 

 is all-important, for everything of the sort has 

 some definite reason. He may think that he 

 must have a cross, or he may decide that his 

 own stock provides all that is wanted : but all is 

 conditional until the Palace, or Birmingham, or 

 other show which to him sums up the results 

 and record of the year. He may have been 

 rather disappointed with his own stock, to find 

 at the show that some falling back is general, 

 and that his best birds are as good as any 

 others. Or he may have anticipated victory, to 

 find some one else has so much better that, if 

 he can afford it, he determines to buy at any 

 price. Or his champion bird which he depended 

 upon may be " claimed " at a big price, and his 

 plans so far upset. When all his actual mate- 

 rial is selected, be it at home or from outside, 

 no pains are spared in the final mating-up. 

 Sometimes a point previously overlooked will 

 suddenly strike the eye, and take a given bird 

 out of a breeding pen at once, perhaps to go into 

 some other. Of course one grand rule is that 

 no fault should be present in both of a pair. 



What adult birds have done already is also 

 to be considered ; and with a view to that, it is 

 not a bad plan, when a pen has not seemed to 

 " hit " well, to change the mating and hatch 



a few thus bred late in the season, when the 

 main breeding is over ; these chickens will be 

 no use, but serve to show what the effect ot 



the different mating has been, and if 

 Experimental good this can be repeated the next 

 Changes season. Except for such a serious 



of Mating. object as this, however, and at a time 



when the first ardour of the birds is 

 exhausted, birds once mated up should not be 

 disturbed, nor capricious changes made. Such 

 may entail disaster. Even fowls often form 

 strong attachments in their way, and a cock 

 separated from his mates and put to others may 

 not infrequently turn sulky and thrash his new 

 wives, instead of paying them proper attention. 

 If this occurs as the result of emergency, it may 

 sometimes be remedied by smearing a little oil 

 of aniseed over the plumage of the rejected or 

 obnoxious hens ; but the wise breeder will, 

 unless actually obliged, leave his birds in peace. 

 Even removals often upset fertility and vigour a 

 great deal ; and of the folly of e.xhibiting brood 

 stock when once put up we have already 

 spoken. 



This leads to the important question of the 

 duration of the cock's influence over hens with 

 whom he has been mated. Many experiments 

 and observations upon this head 

 Duration have shown that there is no 



of the absolute or definite rule. The 



Male Influence, most general one appears to be 

 that if one male is directly re- 

 placed by another, about the fourth or fifth egg 

 afterwards usually shows the change of parent- 

 age. We have many records to that effect, both 

 from English and American sources. We have 

 also records of about half a dozen cases in which 

 the cock was simply removed, and after from 

 four to eight days the eggs became clear ; these 

 being chiefly of the larger breeds. The latter 

 fact may possibly be significant, for we have 

 also records of cases in which the male's influ- 

 ence lasted much longer, these being chiefly 

 amongst the smaller and lighter breeds. Game 

 breeders found, as a rule, that after a cock's 

 removal all eggs were fertile to the end of the 

 " batch," and even a Cochin is reported as laying 

 sixteen eggs after separation, of which fourteen 

 were fertile. Of many such records another 

 which has reached us is that of a Leghorn 

 cockerel, which was taken away for roup on 

 March 29, 1899. As eggs had only been laid 

 for a few days then, his stock was much desired ; 

 all laid after were saved, but none could be set 

 for a fortnight, incubators not being used. The 

 earlier ones hatched freely, though so stale ; 

 later, fertility gradually fell off amongst them, 

 until of the last lot set, which were laid a month 



