154 Farm Poultry 



tions, the importance of the male is all the more 

 marked. 



If the females are of mixed or no particular 

 breeding, their influence is likely to be far less 

 than that of the male. So it may be safely said 

 that the influence of a strong, vigorous, pure-bred 

 male, introduced into a flock of females of mixed 

 breeding, will be at least equal to that of all 

 the females in a transmission of parental char- 

 acteristics. The progeny from a well-bred male 

 and females of mixed breeding are generally 

 quite uniform in form and color. Many a farm- 

 er's boy has been delighted with the* sudden 

 improvement of a flock of fowls by the intro- 

 duction of a pure-bred male. In fact, many of 

 them have found that the progeny of this breed- 

 ing have proved to be the most desirable fowls 

 for the farm. Some of them, to their sorrow, 

 have tried to maintain the fine appearance and 

 highly useful qualities of these fowls by selecting 

 breeding stock from the general flock. Conse- 

 quently, the next generation was less satisfactory 

 and the third and fourth were disappointing. 

 This condition has been most noticeable when 

 the pure-bred male and the more or less indiffer- 

 ent females have represented quite marked dif- 

 ferences in type. Instead of selecting a male 

 from the general flock, another pure-bred male 

 of the same breed as the first should have been 



