HOUSES FOR BREEDERS. 



55 





cumstanoes should be well understood by all who rear 

 poultry. The matter is well illustrated by plant life. 

 In the vegetable kingdom, there are all 

 degrees of fertility. By this, we mean 

 that a plant may bear some seeds that 

 are plump, containing the germs of a 

 future generation of plants, and which, 

 if placed in the earth, will germinate 

 and produce their kind, while there are 

 other seeds on the same plant that are 

 somewhat shriveled and shrunken and 

 will not grow, although at first sight 

 they do not, to any great extent, seem 

 inferior to the plumpest and best speci- 

 mens, aside from their dried-up appear- 

 ance. At the further end of the series 

 there are mere hulls without any vestige 

 of meat or kernel to give promise of the 

 reproduction of the species. Between the 

 extremes of the empty hull and the 

 plumpest grain there is a series embracing 

 e"very gradation. It has been found by 

 experiment that even if the same con- 

 ditions of soil, warmth, and moisture are 

 present, some grains give healthy plants 

 which reach maturity, while others just 

 start to grow a little and then- die with- 

 out making their way to the surface of 

 the soil, where they might receive the 

 genial rays of the sun. 



There is something very much akin to 

 this in the hatching of eggs. There are 

 some that are perfectly and absolutely 

 barren ; there are others that are fertile 

 and capable of producing vigorous chick- 

 ens, and between these extremes there is every shade and 



./: 



FIG. 17. 



