52 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



lence that she felt safe in buying back a cockerel raised from them, 

 resembling in every way the sire sold, for the pen had been care- 

 fully line-bred and mated for best results; she used this bird with 

 her finest hens and sold eggs from them, and every chick of this 

 cockerel's get had white feathers enough to disqualify it. After 

 this cockerel moulted, the beautiful red of his plumage was sprink- 

 led all through with patches of white feathers. Close inquiry di- 

 vulged the fact that the breeder had allowed his Reds and Whites 

 to run together until a few weeks before mating time, trusting to 

 this short period of time to remove the bad effects of commingling. 

 Now, scientific men maintain that the danger of contamination of 

 the female is far greater than is generally believed. Some even 

 assert that a pullet's first mating influences her whole progeny, no 

 matter how carefully she may be mated thereafter, and that the 

 taint of foreign blood can never be eliminated from her offspring. 

 There is much of truth in this theory, for the blood of the mother 

 partakes of the blood of the sire through the blood of the unborn 

 germ, whether egg or foetus, circulating through her. We can 

 never be too careful to keep our hens and pullets safely yarded, 

 and we should beware of strange males as of the plague itself. 



The accompanying chart for the toe-marking of the chicks ex- 

 plains itself. There are sixteen different markings possible. A 

 small punch called a chick-marker will be found indispensable. 

 The toe marking must be done while the chicks are a day or two 

 old, as later on the web will bleed and the others may learn to peck 

 at the blood and get into cannibal habits. A book must be kept 

 for this one purpose, to keep a record of each chick's pedigree by not- 

 ing its particular toe-mark, as soon as the hatch is taken off. Then 

 when mating time comes it is a simple matter to select our breed- 

 ers and mate them according to rule. 



TV /^ 



^ /1Y 



P/IS /1* 



k /^ ^ 



><l^ /^ 



/!* /i^ 



