BREEDING AND INCUBATION. 119 



weight, the age at which laying commenced, and the 

 yield of eggs during the first year, at the expiration of 

 which banish all but the best hens. The second year 

 set the eggs of the reserved extra fowls, and keep the 

 chickens produced by each pair separate from all others. 



At the age of five or six months, cull out the most prom- 

 ising pullets and cockerels, and pair them for testing 

 and recording pedigree and prolificness as before. By 

 mating the produce of the original birds from A and B 

 with the produce of those from and D, finally the 

 four stocks will become blended in one. Proceed in this 

 manner a number of years, and when in the course of 

 time a very extra prolific and vigorous hen has been 

 found, which reached full size and commenced laying 

 early, and whose ancestry have excelled in the same 

 respects for -several generations, as shown by the book, 

 then from her eggs cocks are raised from which to breed 

 to replenish the main stock of layers at the itinerant 

 stations. These cocks are put in the larger breeding 

 yards, each with a flock of ten hens, and no accounts 

 are kept of the prolificness of individuals among their 

 descendants. 



After new stock is introduced to the experimental 

 yards, as must be done yearly, care is taken for a series 

 of years to avoid breeding akin, and as purchases will be 

 made from fanciers who, to fix the conventional points, 

 have most likely bred close and impaired strength, cross- 

 ing will immediately give a decided increase of vigor. 

 Towards the last, however, when sufficient stamina has 

 been gained, and the stations are to be stocked, close 

 breeding is resorted to, even the mating of brother with 

 sisters, which is the closest kind of inbreeding. This is 

 to increase the yield of eggs, the philosophy of the mat- 

 ter being as follows : Just as a fruit tree girdled or 

 severely root pruned will give a profuse yield and then 

 die, and as various domestic animals will for a short 



