46 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



her grandson. By this last mating, the offspring were 15-16 of her 

 blood. I sold a few settings of this mating, one to a gentleman in 

 Sacramento. He wrote me afterwards that he won first cock, first 

 hen and first pen at the Poultry Show, with seven of her offspring; 

 but, he added, "the great recommendation to your fowls is their 

 wonderful vigor and healthfulness. All my other fowls have had 

 roup and chicken-pox; in fact, I have lost more than half, and 

 while yours were brought up with them, they seem absolutely im- 

 mune to all sickness." 



Another setting of eggs I sold to a party south of town. I 

 heard later than one of the hens hatched from that setting laid 105 

 eggs in 110 consecutive days. By careful in-breeding it is possible 

 to intensify the good qualities of great egg-laying and great vigor. 

 A hen to be a great layer must have vigor. 



To illustrate what is meant by line-breeding, I would take a 

 good pair or trio of the best birds procurable; raise the young, 

 carefully feeding for strength and vigor. The vigor of a flock is 

 sustained not by introducing new blood, but by selecting breeding 

 birds for vigor. Vigorous birds beget vigorous offspring; weak 

 birds weak offspring, whether kin or not. The second year I would 

 mate the father with two of his best daughters and the best son 

 back to the mother hen, and use these two families as two different 

 strains for new blood, each year selecting the best from either 

 family. By the best, I do not mean only the handsomest ; I mean 

 among the cockerels the most vigorous, active and up-to-standard 

 birds, and among the pullets the best layers as well as the earliest 

 maturing, largest and handsomest. Let it be understood that to 

 breed from birds because they are related without making selections 

 of points desired, is as wrong as to refuse to mate related fowls. 

 By breeding from only vigorous stock, and observing the rule not 

 to mate fowls having the same bad defects, mating together only 

 fowls which in individual merit and in pedigree (whether akin or 

 no kin) are what they should be for the purpose of the mating, 

 you may be sure of avoiding mistakes. 



"I am afraid of in-breeding," said a lady to me recently. "The 

 book says change cockerels with your neighbor." I do not know 

 from what book she was quoting, but I went to see her fowls. She 

 had really fine standard bred fowls to commence with, but she had 

 ruined the flock by trading cockerels. A friend of mine intending 

 to purchase them asked me to look at them, but I could not recom- 

 mend them, as I knew the offspring would not be desirable. 



Many persons wishing to purchase fowls from me (when I was 

 in the business) would say, "Can you sell me two or four hens and 

 a cockerel not related?" I replied that I could and would if they 

 wished, as I had fifteen separate pens and marked all my young 

 fowls, but if they asked me to mate for best results, I would give 

 them hens from my best layers, mated to a cockerel that was partly 

 related to them, for I knew then the offspring would be of as 

 good quality as the parents. To know this takes some years of 

 "close observation and close selection," which is the rule for line- 

 breeding. 



